The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer (also the Poverty Year and Eighteen Hundred and Froze To Death) [1] because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4–0.7 °C (0.72–1.3 °F). [2] Summer temperatures in Europe were the coldest on record between the years of 1766–2000. [3] This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . [4] Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the ...
Sep 23, 2020•37 min
Uri Geller ( /ˈʊri ˈɡɛlər/ ; [1] Hebrew : אורי גלר; born 20 December 1946) is an Israeli-British [2] illusionist, magician, television personality, and self-proclaimed psychic . He is known for his trademark television performances of spoon bending and other illusions. Geller uses conjuring tricks to simulate the effects of psychokinesis and telepathy . [3] [4] Geller's career as an entertainer has spanned more than four decades, with television shows and appearances in many countries. In 2015,...
Sep 16, 2020•33 min
Margaret Howe Lovatt (born Margaret C. Howe, in 1942) is a volunteer naturalist from Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands . In the 1960s, she took part in a NASA -funded research project in which she attempted to teach a dolphin named Peter to understand and mimic human speech. As a child, she was inspired by a book called Miss Kelly , a story about a cat that communicated with humans. This inspired her to research teaching animals to speak human language....
Sep 09, 2020•38 min
This episode contains is a list of cryptids, which are animals presumed by followers of the cryptozoology pseudoscientific subculture to exist on the basis of anecdotal or other evidence considered insufficient by mainstream science . While biologists regularly identify new species following established scientific methodology , cryptozoologists focus on entities mentioned in the folklore record and rumour. Entities that may be considered cryptids by cryptozoologists include Bigfoot , Yeti , the ...
Sep 02, 2020•34 min
The Amityville Horror is a book by American author Jay Anson , published in September 1977. It is also the basis of a series of films released from 1979 onward. The book is claimed to be based on the paranormal experiences of the Lutz family, but has led to controversy and lawsuits over its truthfulness. --- Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more...
Aug 26, 2020•36 min
Prison breaks are a thing where you're in prison and you don't want to be there anymore so you leave. But not when you're allowed to. Sorry... there was no Wikipedia article to copy and paste from and I panicked. --- Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more details....
Aug 19, 2020•34 min
The Burr–Hamilton duel was a duel fought at Weehawken, New Jersey , between Vice President Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton , the former Secretary of the Treasury. It occurred early in the morning of July 11, 1804 [1] and was the culmination of a long and bitter rivalry between the two men. Burr shot Hamilton, while Hamilton's shot broke a tree branch above and behind Burr's head. Hamilton was carried to the home of William Bayard Jr. where he died the next day. --- Our theme song was written a...
Aug 12, 2020•35 min
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. [1] The term refers to U.S. senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) and has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting from the late 1940s through the 1950s. [2] It was characterized by heightened political repression and a campaign spreading fear of communist influence on American institutions and of espionage by Soviet agents. [2] After the mid...
Aug 05, 2020•32 min
The Ku Klux Klan ( /ˌkuː klʌks ˈklæn, ˌkjuː-/ ), [a] commonly called the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist hate group whose primary targets are African Americans , as well as Jews , immigrants , leftists , homosexuals , and, until recently, Catholics . [9] The Klan has existed in three distinct eras at different points in time during the history of the United States. Each has advocated extremist reactionary positions such as white nationalism , anti-immigration and – especially i...
Jul 29, 2020•37 min
Fyre Festival was a fraudulent luxury music festival founded by Billy McFarland , CEO of Fyre Media Inc, and rapper Ja Rule . It was created with the intent of promoting the company's Fyre app for booking music talent. The festival was scheduled to take place on April 28–30 and May 5–7, 2017, on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma . Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to ch...
Jul 22, 2020•51 min
The Hitler Diaries ( German : Hitler-Tagebücher ) were a series of sixty volumes of journals purportedly written by Adolf Hitler , but forged by Konrad Kujau between 1981 and 1983. The diaries were purchased in 1983 for 9.3 million Deutsche Marks (£2.33 million or $3.7 million) by the West German news magazine Stern , which sold serialisation rights to several news organisations. One of the publications involved was The Sunday Times , who asked their independent director, the historian Hugh Trev...
Jul 15, 2020•38 min
Anton Szandor LaVey [3] (born Howard Stanton Levey; April 11, 1930 – October 29, 1997) was an American author, musician, and occultist . [4] He was the founder of the Church of Satan and the religion of LaVeyan Satanism . He authored several books, including The Satanic Bible , The Satanic Rituals , The Satanic Witch , The Devil's Notebook , and Satan Speaks! In addition, he released three albums, including The Satanic Mass , Satan Takes a Holiday , and Strange Music . He played a minor on-scree...
Jul 08, 2020•46 min
Youree Dell Harris (August 12, 1962 – July 26, 2016) was an American television personality best known as Miss Cleo, a spokeswoman for a psychic pay-per-call service called Psychic Readers Network from 1997 to 2003. [1] [2] Harris used various aliases, including Cleomili Harris and Youree Perris. [3] Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more details...
Jul 01, 2020•37 min
The French invasion of Russia, known in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812 ( Russian : Отечественная война 1812 года, romanized : Otechestvennaya voyna 1812 goda ) and in France as the Russian campaign ( French : Campagne de Russie ), began on 24 June 1812 when Napoleon 's Grande Armée crossed the Neman River in an attempt to engage and defeat the Russian Army . [15] Napoleon hoped to compel the Emperor of All Russia , Alexander I , to cease trading with British merchants through proxies in an ...
Jun 24, 2020•40 min
Hedy Lamarr ( /ˈheɪdi/ ), born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler (November 9, 1914 [a] – January 19, 2000), was an Austrian-American actress, inventor, and film producer. She was part of 30 films in an acting career spanning 28 years, and co-invented an early version of frequency-hopping spread spectrum . [1] [2]...
Jun 17, 2020•36 min
Franz Anton Mesmer ( /ˈmɛzmər/ ; [1] German: [ˈmɛsmɐ] ; 23 May 1734 – 5 March 1815) was a German doctor with an interest in astronomy . He theorised the existence of a natural energy transference occurring between all animated and inanimate objects; this he called " animal magnetism ", sometimes later referred to as mesmerism . (In modern times New Age spiritualists have revived a similar idea.[ citation needed ]) Mesmer's theory attracted a wide following between about 1780 and 1850, and contin...
Jun 10, 2020•29 min
Steven Frederic Seagal ( /sɪˈɡɑːl/ ; born April 10, 1952) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter, martial artist, and musician who holds American, Serbian, and Russian citizenship. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more details....
Jun 03, 2020•47 min
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin ( /ræˈspjuːtɪn/ ; [1] Russian: Григорий Ефимович Распутин [ɡrʲɪˈɡorʲɪj jɪˈfʲiməvʲɪtɕ rɐˈsputʲɪn] ; 21 January [ O.S. 9 January] 1869 – 30 December [ O.S. 17 December] 1916) was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Emperor Nicholas II , the last monarch of Russia, and gained considerable influence in late imperial Russia . Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode b...
May 27, 2020•33 min
A spite house is a building constructed or substantially modified to irritate neighbors or any party with land stakes . Because long-term occupation is not the primary purpose of these houses, they frequently sport strange and impractical structures. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more details....
May 20, 2020•33 min
A lottery is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Lotteries are outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments; the most common regulation is prohibition of sale to minors, and vendors must be licensed to sell lottery tickets. Though lotteries were common in the United States and some other countries during the 19th cen...
May 13, 2020•40 min
This week's episode contains a series of short, uplifting stories to help get you through your state's stay at home orders. Or worse, your state's lack of them. --- Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more details.
May 06, 2020•52 min
The Bay of Pigs invasion ( Spanish : invasión de bahía de Cochinos ; sometimes called invasión de playa Girón or batalla de Girón , after the Playa Girón ) was a failed landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro 's Cuban Revolution . Covertly financed and directed by the U.S. government , the operation took place at the height of the Cold War and its failure led to major shifts in international relations between Cuba, the United States , ...
Apr 29, 2020•39 min
Sport includes all forms of competitive physical activity or games which, [1] through casual or organized participation, at least in part aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants, and in some cases, entertainment for spectators. [2] Sports can bring positive results to one's physical health. Hundreds of sports exist, from those between single contestants, through to those with hundreds of simultaneous participants, either in teams or c...
Apr 22, 2020•51 min
The Spanish flu, also known as the 1918 flu pandemic, was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic . Lasting from January 1918 to December 1920, it infected 500 million people – about a quarter of the world's population at the time. The death toll is estimated to have been anywhere from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. [2]...
Apr 15, 2020•33 min
Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist , political activist , trade unionist , one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States . [1] Through his presidential candidacies as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States. Our theme song was written an...
Apr 08, 2020•40 min
The Etruscan civilization ( /ɪˈtrʌskən/ ) was a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany , western Umbria , northern Lazio , [1] [2] with offshoots also to the north in the Po Valley , in the current Emilia-Romagna , south-eastern Lombardy and southern Veneto , and to the south, in some areas of Campania . [3] --- Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here...
Apr 01, 2020•29 min
he Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope but it is one of the largest and most versatile, well known both as a vital research tool and as a public relations boon for astronomy. The Hubble telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble and is one of NASA's Great Observatories , along with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory , the Chandra X-ray Ob...
Mar 25, 2020•37 min
The men's marathon at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis took place on August 30 of that year, over a distance of 24.85 miles (39.99 km). [2] Thirty-two athletes representing four nations competed, but only 14 managed to finish the race, [3] which proved to be a bizarre affair due to poor organization and officiating. [4]...
Mar 18, 2020•37 min
Pornhub is a pornographic video sharing and pornography website. [6] [7] It was launched in Montreal , in 2007. [8] Pornhub also has offices and servers in San Francisco , Houston , New Orleans and London . -- Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more details....
Mar 11, 2020•57 min
The Panama Canal ( Spanish : Canal de Panamá ) is an artificial 82 km (51 mi) waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean . The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit for maritime trade. Canal locks are at each end to lift ships up to Gatun Lake , an artificial lake created to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal, 26 m (85 ft) above sea level , and then lower the ships at the other end. The original locks are 32.5 m (110 ft)...
Mar 04, 2020•38 min