While there might be some debate about what is indeed the world's oldest profession, what might be the world's oldest medical profession is that of the midwife.  Women have most likely been helping other women give birth since before moder...

This week we discuss the invention of the graham cracker... the tasty snack that is used for making smores, pie crusts, and other fun snacks.  However, its history is not what you might expect.  The original graham cracker was invente...

This week we look at one of the most ubiquitous things in modern dieting... calorie counting.  When did we first start paying attention to the caloric content of food and worrying about how much energy we were taking in vs. burning off?&nb...

Hello all!  This week we discuss humanitarian and urban missionary Margaret Prior and her founding of the American Female Moral Reform Society, a progressive group originally created to help the plight of poor women stuck in sex work in pr...

Ever wondered why a worthless item being sold as a miracle cure is referred to as Snake Oil?  Like just about everything else in Modern America is dates back to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.  Clark Stanley sold snake oil to reliev...

This week's topic, coinciding with St. Patrick's Day, is Grace O'Malley.  O'Malley controlled a large portion of County Mayo in the late 1500s and was known as a pirate queen.  She famously met on equal terms with Queen Elizabeth I, a...

If you are like me, you mainly know Horace Greeley for the expression "Go West Young Man" and are generally aware that he was a newspaper editor.  You might be aware that he was a congressman and crossed paths with just about every famous ...

This week we take a look at the top five archeology stories in the news, ranging from Greek sculpture finds in Athens, to an ancient woodhenge in Denmark, to kids tripping over ancient idols in Isreal, there's plenty up in the archeological wor...

The Shroud of Turin is a mysterious cloth kept in the city of Turin/Torino, Italy that is purported to be the burial shroud of Jesus.  The shroud contains an image of a man baring the marks of crucifixion as if he had burned an image into ...

In the 8th Century an exorcism was performed on a 16 year old girl.  The girl began to speak in Latin, which she did not know, claiming to be a demon named Wiggo.  The demon claimed to have been roaming the countryside doing terrible ...

On the 13th of July, 1955, Ruth Ellis became the last person to be executed in the United Kingdom.  Her story is a tragic one, beginning with childhood abuse and ending with the public shooting of her lover outside a London Pub possibly at...

The Nazca lines have become famous over the years for their mysterious origins and purpose.  Residing in the high desert in Southern Peru, the lines were created by removing the top layer of desert rocks, exposing the different colored cla...

If you were to think of the quintessential family feud that first thought for most Americans is the Hatfields and McCoys.  Two families whose fame is solely based on hating each other.  While their feud is famous, the actual details o...

Today's episode is dedicated to a gem that is probably more famous for the rumors and often false history surrounding it then its own beauty... The Hope Diamond.  The Hope Diamond is now known to have been cut from a gem owned by the Royal...

This week's topic is the Lore of Thor.  Legends and religions involving Thor come from ancient Northern European roots and have spread around the world, most notably in recent years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Ever wonder how a r...

The English countryside is often associated with many things, rivers, lakes, moors, hedgehogs, but not large predators. The largest official remaining predator in the UK is the badger.  While you might not want to back one into a corner, t...

When you think about it, the human reaction to tickling is quite odd.  Why do we laugh when someone grazes your feet with a feather or digs their fingers into your unsuspecting ribs?  While a little tickling can be fun, it has been us...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!  This Christmas Eve we are coming to you with a podcast full of the history of several Christmas traditions.  If you've ever wondered why we have Christmas Tree ornaments, why the colors of...

Were you aware that the Nutcracker Ballet was not much of a hit when first performed in 1892 in St. Petersburg, Russia?  While the music was well received, the ballet itself was not an instant fan favorite.  It didn't grow to high pop...

On June 18th, 1875 a warehouse full of thousands of casks of whiskey caught fire in the Liberties area of Dublin causing a river of flaming whiskey to pour down the streets, often up to six inches deep.  While the fire did a great deal of ...

Today's podcast is about a divorce case in New York that took place 100 years ago. Kip Rhinelander, the heir to a prominent New York Family, secretly married Alice Jones, a working class girl.  While this would normally draw the ire of his...

This week we discuss the holiday season's most famous bright spot: Christmas Lights.  Decorating trees, houses, shopping malls, and making up vast displays; Christmas lights are a staple of the holiday season.  When did electric light...

This week's podcast in on Cesare Lombroso, an Italian anthropologist and criminologist that had the unfortunate assertation that criminality was inherited and could be directly identified through physical traits.  While we now know that so...

While the Candyman movies involve a mysterious paranormal murderer that can be summoned thought the bathroom mirror stalking the projects of Chicago, they are based on a true story.  Today's podcast discusses the bizarre details surroundin...

This week's episode tells the story of Elmer McCurdy, a not too successful bandit of the old west who was eventually killed in Oklahoma in 1911.  However, McCurdy's story didn't end then.  After being embalmed, no one wanted to pay fo...