The Missing Chapter Podcast

Today we welcome former guests on the show - Justice Parker and Joe DiVisconti - to kick off a new format on the Missing Chapter. Same show, new episode, different format and we call it The Department Meeting. Educators unite! We talk everything education-related in an informal, yet reflective setting in hopes that we target anyone who has a link to education! Enjoy! Go to ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

If you’re new to the Missing Chapter, welcome! If you’re a continued fan of the Missing Chapter, welcome back! And if you’re a student listening in to the Missing Chapter, welcome to the topic of social studies that you most likely hate the most - geography. For whatever reason, especially within the past few years, students in almost all of our classes have been very vocal about this topic - they...

It’s just the nature of the season right now...  Once one kid gets sick, all of the kids in the neighborhood seem to get it too, right?  And that was the same thing that was happening in the trenches of WWI.  If one soldier became ill, it spread like wildfire. But did you know that from the awful circumstances of WWI came one of the most popular playground games of all time? How did that happen? A...

For today’s episode of the Missing Chapter, we’re going to make you question yourself, the function of your brain, and maybe even question history altogether.   But don’t you dare doubt your coffee cravings, those are certainly real, and there’s no doubt today’s episode is going to be a good one…well, if I remember correctly that is. It's the Top 5 Mandela Effects and if you don't know what that i...

It has become arguably the most iconic image of freedom and independence not only in the United States, but the world over. A gift from a valued ally after a tumultuous period in world history. A beacon, that for decades, has welcomed immigrants to our nation’s shore, as well as inspired those already here, to uphold the values and principles our country was founded on.  But soon after the French...

As we close what many consider the holiday season, one thing is certain - the indulgence of holiday eating is officially closed.  We all know what that’s about - gorging ourselves with the foods that we may not always enjoy throughout the year, so we feel justified in taking seconds, thirds, fourths, oh and the leftovers!  But there’s one food, that unless an international history podcast highligh...

Merry Christmas everyone, and welcome to the Missing Chapter Podcast Christmas Special!   Today we are so excited to have a very special guest, Mike Cunningham, on today’s episode.  Mike is the hilarious and brilliant writer of the recently released movie called, The Christmas Letter, filmed mostly locally in Utica, NY and we are so excited to talk about the unknowns of the movie-making world as w...

If you’re anything like us, the miracle of flight is something that has always dazzled us.  We still see the awe in watching planes take off and land, and being on a plane continues to thrill no matter how mainstream and normal commercial flights have become.  There’s something so fascinating about it that it’s hard to describe.  What’s truly unbelievable is how far we’ve come in such a short amou...

The day that will live in infamy.  Those harrowing words might be one of the first things that come to mind when mentioning December 7, 1941.It’s been studied, watched, reviewed, and discussed countless times, evoking the same frightful emotion every time.  But our goal here on the MCP is to look deeper into history’s well-known events and reveal the unknown, and that’s exactly what we’re going to...

Native Americans aren’t often associated with New York City and its dense, vertical, iron landscape. With so many indigenous nations pushed to America’s frontier in the 19th century, they usually appear in popular culture as populates of the rural West, occupying wide open spaces brimming with tipis, buffalo and pow wows. Yet the Mohawk Nation has deep roots in metropolitan New York City—where, be...

No risk no reward, right?  We’ve all heard it.  But have we heard of the focus of today’s episode?  Norilsk, Russia?  Yeah, me either.  It’s one of the unknown areas of history, and is still one of the unknown areas of the world.  A location so remote, so cold, and so polluted, that the environment itself is not only changed, but our perception of what color the skies, precipitation, and water sho...

Did you know that George Washington had wooden teeth? Wait, that’s not true is it? I thought that was a myth.  Well, as teachers, we should probably debunk some of these historic myths, while at the same time, letting everyone know what unbelievable stories are actually… truth. Let’s do it on today’s episode. A Missing Chapter Podcast all about truths versus myths… fact versus fiction. So, did Was...

Welcome back to the Missing Chapter Podcast and Happy almost Veterans day to all of our vets! As we begin the holiday weekend and honor those that have served, past and present, I think it’s also honorable to know the history of the holiday and how we got here.  So that’s what we’re here for.  Grab your coffees, salute your vets and lets pay homage to all of our service members around the world, p...

Well, listeners, we started this series of seeing double a few weeks ago with the discussion about Joseph Stalin - did he or did he not have a body double?  Check out S5E4 to find out our response.  But today, we have another rendition of this series and today’s question is whether or not Saddam Hussein had known body doubles.  Oh, there’s a hint…I said body doubles, plural, didn’t I?  Here we go,...

Lizzie Borden took an ax And gave her mother forty whacks, And when she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one. Well, Missing Chapter fans, it’s that time of year again! The leaves are falling and the pumpkins are lit. For the past 4 years, Phil and I have been bringing you history’s forgotten stories and when the calendar turns to October… those stories turn to the dark & the my...

I’m sure most of you, especially this time of year, love a good haunted story - something scary, mysterious, murderous, ghastly, ghostly - like the very popular ghost tours around the country right now - like the  nighttime ghost tours of Gettysburg or Salem.  This time of year, especially, many people flock to Salem especially to visit the town that is known for the Salem Tomato Trials - wait, wa...

More than thirty-nine years ago, Nintendo debuted a video game that knocked out its competitors, much like a green turtle shell wiping out a string of Goombas. For every groundbreaking movie, television show, or video game, there are  dozens of concepts that fall by the waste side and are lost in the proverbial black hole that is history. But every so often a game or idea develops that is legendar...

“And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!”   A quote. A book. A man… forever tied to the holiday season and the veritable meaning of the Christmas spirit.   Charles Dickens became a pioneer for reform during his lifetime and du...

As the holiday season approaches, I can see the parents and grandparents beginning to plan their menus or maybe even venture out into the unknown and practice some concoctions before the big debut come Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas.  And it seems like each season has its own distinct edible feature.  As you know, the Missing Chapter is split down the middle, 1 in favor of candy corn, 1 cer...

If you’re a listener of the Missing Chapter, you’re probably aware that Phil Horender and I are huge action movie fans.  I mean, how can you beat Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, The Rock, The Fugitive, the Terminator - just to name a few of our many favorites.  The best action movies in my opinion, though, are the ones where the actors or actresses do their own stunts.  Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, Jackie C...

Ok parents, this one’s for you.  Dads specifically, not because moms don’t experience what I’m about to say, but because moms, generally speaking, have a little more patience in reserves than dads do.  The scenario goes like this - a package is delivered and the dad sees a massive square box, with directions that are either in a foreign language or type 4 font with pictures that look like they cam...

When we tell people we’re from NY, everyone thinks of the skyscrapers of NYC, but in reality, there’s a lot more to the state of NY than just the Big Apple.  In fact, many everyday items that we take for granted have inventors from our upstate and central NY area.  So let's take a look at the Top 5 Upstate NY inventions as we talk about our community and surrounding areas.  Grab your coffees,...

What does an insulted German aristocrat, pulp comics, Prince Valiant, Blue Beetle, Captain America, Stan Lee and,  World War II all have in common? All of them are the different panels in the life of Jack Kirby. Known as the "King of Comics," Jack Kirby's groundbreaking artistry and innovative storytelling transformed the comic book industry, leaving a legacy that's still felt to...

Phil and I are accustomed to having students from around the world transfer into our school all the time. They constantly tell us - English is the most difficult language to learn. You have certain rules to the English language, rules that don’t apply in certain instances, and then… words that are simply made up by mistake. That brings us to today’s episode - commonly used words and their rare, of...

Saturday mornings for a kid growing up in the 80s, there was nothing like it. Wake up early, pour yourself a bowl of your favorite cereal and settle in for a few hours of… cartoons. Classic cartoons, the ones that the genre was established on and that would eventually lead to what we have today with Pixar and Illumination.   But what cartoons were fictional and which were actually based on real-li...