No tragedy is complete without some good old Act-of-God type destruction, and this week, the guys are serving up a tragedy of Biblical proportions, complete with a plague and “wrathful God”-level retaliation. Try not to squirm too much as you learn about the record-breaking Locust Swarm of 1874, which basically ate the flyover states, carrying off, as one farmer put […]
It’s our 50th episode, and we’re pulling out all the stops! This episode has everything: demonology, witchcraft, voodoo, murder, rape, blasphemy, suicide, assassination, insanity, sex perversion, homosexuality, prostitution, satanic rituals, gambling, barbarism, cannibalism, sadism, desecration, demon summoning, necromancy, and divination, all accessible with the roll of one 20-sided die! That’s right, this week the guys are summoning the Satan Panic […]
Arizona of the 1880s was hardscrabble enough without the Devil terrorizing the countryside on horseback. But that’s just what the citizens of post-Civil War Arizona Territory thought was happening when they were visited by the fabled Red Ghost of Arizona. This week, the guys learn the true identity of the Ghost (spoiler: it was Old Man Withers the whole time!), […]
It’s wonderful when the bully loses! This week the guys are k-k-kicking open the door on two memorable times from the 1950s when KKK Grand Dragon James “Catfish” Cole was publicly humiliated by the intended targets of his racist harassment. Feel free to engage in plenty of schadenfreude this week, as we revel in the power of organized resistance!
A petty man wants to build a wall. So, what else is new? This week, the guys explore the history of Spite Fences, with a particular focus on the most famous one. Erected by Charles Crocker on San Francisco’s Nob Hill in the late 1800s, this 40-foot-tall monstrosity was built for the express purpose of ruining his neighbor’s (Nicholas Yung) […]
Mary had two little hands, little hands, little hands, Mary had two little hands, with skin all rife with poo. And everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went, Everywhere that Mary went, she’d surely sicken you! That’s right! This week, the guys are on the trail of Typhoid Mary, the infamous carrier of typhoid fever before medical science […]
Empires, amirite? There’s nothing like an international pissing contest to stoke the fires of patriotism. There’s also nothing new about world powers finding it impossible to back down, even when the cause of conflict is completely stupid. This week, the guys jump whole hog back to the time that the US and Britain came to the brink of war over the […]
Oh, the tangled web we weave…when we con millions of people out of their money, promising heavenly rewards to them while quietly enriching ourselves and avoiding taxes. Isn’t that how the saying goes? This week, the guys explore the glorious tragedy that was Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, two of the most successful (and corrupt) televangelists of all time. Have […]
What would history be without a healthy dose of misogyny? Thanks to men, we will never know! Fortunately, some women have been such badasses that their stories cut through the static and inspire us even today. This week, the guys highlight one such heroine, the incomparable Nellie Bly–a journalist, activist, traveller and business magnate who shattered the glass ceiling in […]
If there is one thing history has taught us, it’s that you should never piss off the Germans. Mein Gott! They can hold a grudge! This week, the guys cross the ocean with the New Germany movement of the 19th Century, an ill-fated attempt by a few displaced German royals to create a German Reich inside of the Republic of […]