The Reference Desk

In this week's episode of The Reference Desk, Katie is bewitched by the Arctic survival story of Ada Blackjack.  Ada was a young, single mother living in Nome, Alaska when she was approached about joining an expedition to uninhabited Wrangel Island. The Inupiat woman was told she would live among other Inuit families as they assisted a crew of four explorers who were colonizing the remote isl...

Hello, friends! This is Katie. Thank you so much for joining us here on The Reference Desk. Hailee and I started working on this podcast over a year ago as a way to connect during what we thought was going to be the end of a pandemic. It’s seriously been so amazing having this time with my best friend, and all of you each week. For my special re-release, I selected an episode from the first half o...

We are at just over 11K plays which is just astonishing, thank you all so much for your support! It seems like we also have some new listeners, so we thought it would be fun to go through our back catalog of episodes and each pick a favorite that the other host has done. Hailee chose an episode this week that she thinks is different than almost any of the other episodes. She found it fascinating a...

This week, Hailee is bewitched by the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Amelia Earhart was more than just a pilot: she was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic (though she wasn’t the pilot of that flight), pioneered woman’s aviation, worked as a nurse’s aid, writer, teacher, and social worker, was the first woman awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by Congress among so much more. Her disap...

In this episode of The Reference Desk, Katie gives up a Duggar family update in the form of an in-depth journey through Josh Duggar's recent CSAM trial.  Josh Duggar has a long history of horrific behavior, from admitting to sexual abuse as a teen, to cheating on his wife, Anna, to admitting to a pornography addiction. But through it all, he has remained Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar's gol...

In this episode of The Reference Desk, Katie is bewitched by the strange medical inventions and treatments of John Harvey Kellogg at his Battle Creek Sanitarium.  John Harvey Kellogg was a Seventh Day Adventist darling who gained directorship over their medical facility in mid-Michigan just a year after becoming a doctor. What followed was Kellogg becoming the face of modern medicine, beloved by A...

This week, Hailee talks about the Hicks Clinic, a small, community clinic in McCaysville, GA where a doctor sold over 200 babies and performed illegal abortions, sometimes against the will of the mother, in the 50s and 60s.  Links : A History Not Yet Laid to Rest - The Atlantic How Many Babies Did Thomas Hicks Put Up for Adoption? - heavy. 'Hicks Baby' Adoptee Sold by Georgia Doctor 50 Y...

In this episode of The Reference Desk, Katie is bewitched with the story of Manhattan grifter-extraordinaire Anna Delvey (Anna Sorokin) For several years, the New York City upper crust embraced a charming young German heiress named Anna Delvey. Delvey was a chic, bold entrepreneur who was pursuing funding for her brainchild the Anna Delvey Foundation when Vanity Fair photo editor Rachel DeLoache W...

This week, Hailee is bewitched by the New England Vampire Panic. During the later part of the 18th and 19th centuries, large amounts of people were dying from what they called consumption, what we know of today as Tuberculosis. In New England, they had a different idea about what was causing their friends and loved ones to waste away in front of their eyes: vampires. Though they never used the exa...

In this episode of The Reference Desk, Katie is bewitched with the true story of the "first Thanksgiving." American schools have long taught about the history of Thanksgiving with cringe-worthy pageants and re-enactments of happy pilgrims and Indians gathered around a table. In reality, the shared meal we've dubbed the "first Thanksgiving" was a pure coincidence of Wampano...

This week, Hailee is bewitched with something she stumbled upon during a recent trip to Florida: Houses of Refuge and the United States Life Saving Services. According to Martin County Historical Society, the Houses of Refuge were designated as havens for shipwrecked sailors and travelers along the sparsely populated Atlantic coastline of Florida. Run by the United States Lifesaving Service, the H...

In this episode of The Reference Desk, Katie is bewitched by the saloon-smashing, hatchet-wielding, temperance leader Carry A. Nation.  In the fight for prohibition, no one waged war like Carry Nation. After a hard childhood that ended in a brief marriage to an alcoholic, Carry became involved in the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Finding no success in the usual campaigns of letter-writi...

In our last mini spookysode, Hailee tells us about the origins and celebrations of Halloween! How we celebrate Halloween is pretty different than how it was originally celebrated over 2000 years ago, but there are still some traces of the ancient festivals that inspired the holiday. Soul Cake Recipe Creepy vintage Halloween costumes Support the show

In this week's mini spookysode, Katie is bewitched by the soap-maker of Correggio.  When fortune-teller Leonarda Cianciulli set up shop in the tiny Italian town of Correggio, luck for the local women seemed to change. Leonarda helped them find new jobs, new loves, and new adventures. But their families never heard from then again, save a couple of letters telling them they'd left town fo...

This week, Hailee is bewitched with the legend of the Bell Witch. The Bell Witch is a menacing spirit that haunted the Bell family in Addams, Tennessee for years. Beginning with unexplained noises and sightings of strange creatures, the haunting soon escalated to physical torments and is said to be one of the only cases in which a spirit has caused the death of a person. Support the show

This week, Katie is bewitched with what happens to your body after you die.  From the time you take your last breath to the time your placed in the ground or an urn, the process and care your human form receives is something of a mystery. Mortuary science is a secretive field, and few people know what goes on behind the scenes in a funeral home. The air of mystery surrounding the very natural end...

We are back! Join us as we chat about what we have been doing, what we have been reading and what we have been watching during our short break. Plus, find out what we will be up to next and when to look forward to new episodes of The Reference Desk!  Support the show

This week Katie and Hailee continue to be bewitched by the Titanic.  In the second half of this two-part series, we go minute-by-minute through the timeline of the sinking and bemoan all the mistakes that led to the massive loss of life. We also discuss the aftermath of the tragedy, including its influence on pop culture and the completely bizarre salvage plans that were cooked up through the deca...

This week Hailee and Katie are bewitched by the Titanic. Is it just us, or does EVERY kid go through a Titanic phase? An adolescent infatuation spurred on by Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio leaving handprints on a steamy car window has morphed into an adult obsession with the story and impact of the Titanic. In our first ever collaborative episode (and part one of our season 1 finale), we explo...

In this two-part episode, Hailee is bewitched with the Amityville Horror. Since the 1970s, the beautiful dutch colonial house on 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, NY has been full of tragedy and speculation. Starting with the brutal slaying of the DeFeo family in 1974 to the shocking tales of demonic activity in the home afterward to the numerous books, movies, and TV shows made in the aftermath, th...

In this two part episode, Hailee is bewitched with the Amityville Horror.  Since the 1970s, the beautiful dutch colonial house on 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, NY has been full of tragedy and speculation. Starting with the brutal slaying of the DeFeo family in 1974 to the shocking tales of demonic activity in the home afterwards to the numerous books, movies and TV shows made in the aftermath, t...

In this week’s episode, Katie continues to be bewitched by the Duggar family. Part two of our expose on one of the world’s most famous mega-families will reveal the Duggars’ long list of scandals. From transphobic tweets that result in members being removed from filming, to infidelity, corporal punishment, and misuse of charity funds, we look at the moments that shook the foundation of the Duggar...

In this episode of The Reference Desk, Katie is bewitched by the Duggar Family.  To their adoring fans, the Duggar family is a close-knit, super-sized Christian family intent on raising their brood under a stringent set of beliefs and rules. But when we dig below the surface, we find so much more. From their affiliation with Bill Gothard’s predatory Institute of Basic Life Principles, to their dee...

In this episode, Hailee is bewitched with the legends and lore behind cursed films. What is a curse? Some of the earliest curses are found in Egyptian Execration texts, which were tablets listing the enemies of the pharaoh. Essentially, a curse is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. Throughout history, pe...

In this episode of The Reference Desk, Katie is bewitched by the myths and legends of Walt Disney World. Known around the globe as “the happiest place on Earth,” Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida is a vacation destination like no other. This sprawling property is home to four unique theme parks, a host of themed accommodations, hundreds of restaurants, and a world of carefully-curated experi...