The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

This week we've got all the hot Peacemaker spoilers you've been craving! Assuming you don't mean the John Cena show but the 1844 naval tragedy that helped reshape America. (Can you spoil something that happened 178 years ago?) Okay, yes, we're being a bit clickbaity this week. But maybe it'll work! Transcript, sources, links and more at: https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/peacemaker/ Key sources f...

Who deserves the credit for inventing peanut butter? A Michigan physician and moral scold? A Missouri snack food maker and flim-flam artist? A Canadian chemist? The indigenous people of South America? Transcript, sources, links and more at https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/crunchy-or-wrong/ Key sources for this episode include Jon Krampner's Creamy and Crunchy: An Informal History of Peanut Butte...

It is the embodiment of all evil, capable of killing with a thought? Is it the brain box of the cosmos, capable of unlocking the secrets of the universe? Either way, it's the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull of Doom! Transcript, sources, links and more at: https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/lost-legacy/ Key sources for this episode include, well, Jane MacLaren Walsh and Brett Toppings's The Man Who I...

A baffling tale about ancient astronauts, religious fanatics, fake clones, a gullible press, and sex robots from outer space. Transcript, sources, links and mroe at: https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/whatever-happened-to-baby-eve/ Key sources for this episode include Susan Jean Palmer's Aliens Adored: Raël's UFO Religion ; James R. Lewis's Legitimating New Religions ; several articles from Nova R...

In 1912 it was the greatest anthropological find of all time, the earliest known link between man and ape. Then, forty years later, it was revealed to be an audacious hoax. This week, the strange story of Piltdown Man. Script, full sources, links and more at: https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/dawsons-creek/ Key sources for this episode include Miles Russell's Piltdown Man: The Secret Life of Char...

Did you know that Connecticut and Pennsylvania went to war multiple times over the area that's now scranton? Learn all about the Yankee-Pennamite Wars in our latest episode! Key sources for this episode include Isaac Chapman's A Sketch of the History of Wyoming ; Sydney George Fisher's The Making of Pennsylvania ; John B. Frantz and William Pencak's Beyond Philadelphia: The American Revolution in...

On Pohnpei, upon a stone altar, within the spaces... the legendary and factual stories of the mysterious fortress of Nan Madol. Key sources for this episode include David Hanlon's Upon a Stone Altar: A History of the Island of Pohnpei to 1890 ; Bill Ballenger's Lost City of Stone ; The Book of Luelen by Luelen Bernart; and the critical edition of James Francis O'Connell's A Residence of Eleven Yea...

Errata for The Hot House; French Leave; The Icelander; "I'm the Naughty Boy"; What-Is-It?; Moron or Madman?; Suffer Little Children; and more. Script at https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/errata-2/ Discord: https://discord.gg/Mbap3UQyCB Instagram: https://instagram.com/orderjackalope Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/orderjackalope Tumblr: https://orderjackalope.tumblr.com Twitter: https://twitt...

Would you believe there were Vikings in Washington, DC? Or West Virginia? Or Oklahoma? Or Arizona? Or Hawaii? How about all of the above and none of the above? Key sources for this episode include the works of Gloria Farley, Barry Fell, and Scott Wolter along with some truly excellent research done by debunkers over the years, especially the excellent blog articles by Henrik Williams of Uppsala Un...

In which the vikings of Minnesota challenge the patriots of New England for the right to claim Vikings beat Columbus to the New World. Key sources for this week's episode include the works of Hjalmar R. Holand; Kenneth Feder's ARCHAEOLOGICAL ODDITIES; Erik Wahlgren's THE KENSINGTON STONE: A MYSTERY SOLVED; and more recent scholarship from Alice Beck Kehoe, Eric A. Powell, and Karri L. Springer. Sc...

For years, archaeologists have searched in vain for the location of Leif Eriksson's Vinland. They should have just asked the good people of New England, who kept finding it everywhere they looked. Key sources for this episode include the writings of Carl Christian Rafn, Eben Norton Horsford, William Brownell Goodwin, and Frederick Julius Pohl. And also Edmund Berke Delabarre's RECENT HISTORY OF DI...

It was supposed to be a celebration of sixty years of baseball... and instead, well, Philadelphia fans did what Philadelphia fans do best. Key sources for this episode include contemporary newspaper reports from the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News , and Bruce Kuklik's To Everything A Season: Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia, 1909-1976 . Script, full sources, links and more a...

H.H. Goddard's groundbreaking studies of the feeble-minded helped justify eugenics policies across the world... which is a tragedy because they were junk science and lies. Here's the whole sordid story. Key sources for this episode include David Smith's Minds Made Feeble: The Myth and Legacy of the Kallikaks ; Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man ; Thomas C. Leonard's Illiberal Reformers: Rac...

Burnu Acquanetta, "the Venezuelan Volcano," was an exotic beauty who took Hollywood by storm in the summer of 1942... but who was she really? And does it really matter? Key sources for this episode include Gregory William Mank's WOMEN IN HORROR FILMS: 1940s; contemporary newspaper and magazine reporting; and several articles written by Robert L. Pela for the PHOENIX NEW TIMES. Script, full sources...

On August 6th, 1930 Judge Joseph Force Crater walked out of a New York City restaurant and was never seen again. In this episode #7 lays down the facts and explores several theories about what really happened that night. Key sources for this episode include Stella Crater's  The Empty Robe , Sarah Pruitt's Vanished! American's Most Mysterious Kindappings, Castaways, and the Forever Lost , and Richa...

In July 1916, the New Jersey coast was rocked by the deadliest string of shark attacks in US history. This episode, #13 recounts the whole bloody story, from Beach Haven to Spring Lake to Matawan -- and beyond. Key sources for this episode include Richard G. Fernicola's "Twelve Days of Terror" and contemporary newspaper accounts. Script, full sources, links and more at: https://order-of-the-jackal...

In 1855 the town of Perry, New York was terrorized by a "sea serpent" in nearby Silver Lake. It was a hoax... but whose hoax was it? https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/his-royal-snakeship/

On July 2, 1903 Washington Senators outfielder Ed Delahanty walked out of the team's hotel in Detroit and disappeared. We now know what happened to him, but no one knows why... https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/triple-jumper/

Time to dress up, because #7 is inviting you to a dinner party where all the foods are famous. Or at least have famous namesakes. Transcript, sources and more at: https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/you-are-who-you-eat/

Okay, so I know we said last time that we weren't going to do this again, but you know what? We lied. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/oahspepals-god-goo/ (This is the last one, we swear.)

Because you've been good, here's a podcast where two non-believers read through the Oahspe and try not to be jerks about it. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/oahspepals/ (Apologies to Apocrypals for nicking their format -- it's purely out of love, we swear.)

In 1880, God dictated a new Bible to John Ballou Newbrough, and then told him to move to New Mexico and open up the strangest orphanage the world has ever seen. It did not end well. Transcript, links and more at: https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/suffer-little-children/ Key Sources: Fogarty, Robert S. All Things New: American Communes and Utopian Movements, 1860-1914.  Chicago: University of Chic...

From millionaire's mansion to sleazy hotel to Frank Gehry architectural abomination, the sordid history of the Sunset Strip's own Garden of Allah. Script, sources, links and more at https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/the-garden-of-oblivion/

We thought our last episode on Trofim Denisovich Lysenko may have been too focused on the what and when rather than the how and why, so here's a bonus episode that might help clear things up. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/duped-by-mendelist-morganists/

Trofim D. Lysenko (1898-1976) set back the study of biology in the Soviet Union for two generations -- but the lesson you should learn from his story is not the one you think. Transcript, sources and more at https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/moron-or-madman/