Boudica or Boudicca ( /ˈbuːdɪkə/ , Latinised as Boadicea or Boudicea /boʊdɪˈsiːə/ , and known in Welsh as Buddug [ˈbɨ̞ðɨ̞ɡ] ) [1] [2] was a queen of the British Celtic Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61, and died shortly after its failure. She is sometimes considered a British folk hero. 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...
Nov 08, 2017•40 min
The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its satellite states ) and powers in the Western Bloc (the United States , its NATO allies and others). Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine (a U.S. foreign policy pledging to aid nations threatened by Soviet expansionism) was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed . Th...
Nov 01, 2017•41 min
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarrare Tarrare (c. 1772 – 1798), sometimes spelled Tarare, was a French showman and soldier, noted for his unusual eating habits. Able to eat vast amounts of meat, he was constantly hungry; his parents could not provide for him, and he was turned out of the family home as a teenager. He traveled France in the company of a band of thieves and prostitutes, before becoming the warm-up act to a traveling charlatan; he would swallow corks, stones, live animals and a who...
Oct 25, 2017•38 min
John Romulus Brinkley (later John Richard Brinkley; July 8, 1885 – May 26, 1942) was an American who fraudulently claimed to be a medical doctor (he had no legitimate medical education and bought his medical degree from a " diploma mill ") who became known as the "goat-gland doctor" after he achieved national fame, international notoriety and great wealth through the xenotransplantation of goat testicles into humans. Although initially Brinkley promoted this procedure as a means of curing male i...
Oct 18, 2017•39 min
Elizabeth Cochran Seaman [1] (May 5, 1864 [2] – January 27, 1922), better known by her pen name Nellie Bly, was an American journalist who was widely known for her record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days, in emulation of Jules Verne 's fictional character Phileas Fogg , and an exposé in which she worked undercover to report on a mental institution from within. [3] She was a pioneer in her field, and launched a new kind of investigative journalism. [4] Bly was also a writer, industrialis...
Oct 11, 2017•33 min
The cobra effect occurs when an attempted solution to a problem makes the problem worse, [1] [2] as a type of unintended consequence . The term is used to illustrate the causes of incorrect stimulation in economy and politics. [2] --- 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....
Oct 04, 2017•33 min
The Oak Island mystery refers to various stories of buried treasure and unexplained objects on Oak Island , Nova Scotia , Canada. --- 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....
Sep 27, 2017•49 min
Marie Skłodowska Curie ( /ˈkjʊri, kjʊˈriː/ ; [2] French: [kyʁi] ; Polish: [kʲiˈri] ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska; [ˈmarja salɔˈmɛa skwɔˈdɔfska] ) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity . She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize , the first person and only woman to win twice , the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences, and was part of the Curie family legacy of five Nobe...
Sep 20, 2017•51 min
The PS General Slocum was a passenger steamboat built in Brooklyn , New York , in 1891. During her service history, she was involved in a number of mishaps, including multiple groundings and collisions. On June 15, 1904, the General Slocum caught fire and sank in the East River of New York City. [1] At the time of the accident, she was on a chartered run carrying members of St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church ( German Americans from Little Germany, Manhattan ) to a church picnic. An estimated...
Sep 13, 2017•43 min
The Lost Cause of the Confederacy, or simply Lost Cause, is a literary and intellectual movement [1] that describes the Confederate cause as a heroic one against great odds despite its defeat. The beliefs endorse the virtues of the antebellum South , viewing the American Civil War as an honorable struggle for the Southern way of life, [2] while minimizing or denying the central role of slavery . While it was not taught in the North, aspects of it did win acceptance there and helped the process o...
Sep 06, 2017•33 min
Tycho Brahe ( /ˌtaɪkoʊ ˈbrɑːhi, ˈbrɑː, ˈbrɑːə/ , born Tyge Ottesen Brahe (Danish: [ˈtyːə ˈʌdəsn̩ ˈbʁɑː] [n 1] ); 14 December 1546 – 24 October 1601) was a Danish nobleman known for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical and planetary observations. He was born in the then Danish peninsula of Scania . Well known in his lifetime as an astronomer , astrologer and alchemist , he has been described as "the first competent mind in modern astronomy to feel ardently the passion for exact empirical f...
Aug 30, 2017•46 min
Eugenics ( /juːˈdʒɛnɪks/ ; from Greek εὐγενής eugenes "well-born" from εὖ eu , "good, well" and γένος genos , "race, stock, kin") [2] [3] is a set of beliefs and practices that aims at improving the genetic quality of a group of individuals. [4] [5] The exact definition of eugenics has been a matter of debate since the term was coined. --- 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 su...
Aug 23, 2017•47 min
The Cadaver Synod (also called the Cadaver Trial; Latin : Synodus Horrenda ) is the name commonly given to the posthumous ecclesiastical trial of Pope Formosus , held in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome during January 897. [1] The trial was conducted by Pope Stephen VI (sometimes called Stephen VII ), who was the successor to Formosus' successor, Pope Boniface VI . Stephen accused Formosus of perjury and of having acceded to the papacy illegally. At the end of the trial, Formosus was pro...
Aug 16, 2017•45 min
The Battle of Agincourt ( /ˈæʒɪnkʊr/ ; in French, Azincourt French pronunciation: [azɛ̃kuʁ] ) was a major English victory in the Hundred Years' War . [a] The battle took place on Friday, 25 October 1415 ( Saint Crispin's Day ) in the County of Saint-Pol , Artois , some 40 km south of Calais (now Azincourt in northern France ). [5] [b] Henry V 's victory at Agincourt, against a numerically superior French army, crippled France and started a new period in the war during which Henry V married the...
Aug 09, 2017•47 min
The Great Molasses Flood, also known as the Boston Molasses Disaster or the Great Boston Molasses Flood, occurred on January 15, 1919 in the North End neighborhood of Boston , Massachusetts . A large molasses storage tank burst and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event entered local folklore and for decades afterwards residents claimed that on hot summer days the area still smelled of molasses. Skit music: "Dangerou...
Aug 02, 2017•35 min
New Coke was the unofficial name for the reformulation of Coca-Cola introduced in April 1985 by The Coca-Cola Company to replace the original formula of its flagship soft drink , Coca-Cola (also called Coke). New Coke originally had no separate name of its own but was simply known as "the new taste of Coca-Cola" until 1992, when it was officially renamed Coke II. Coca-Cola's market share had been steadily losing ground to diet soft drinks and non-cola beverages for many years. Meanwhile, consume...
Jul 26, 2017•46 min
The Donner Party, or Donner-Reed Party, was a group of American pioneers led by George Donner and James F. Reed who set out for California in a wagon train in May 1846. They were delayed by a series of mishaps and mistakes, and spent the winter of 1846–47 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada . Some of the pioneers resorted to cannibalism to survive. 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 . B...
Jul 19, 2017•58 min
Chung Ling Soo was the stage name of the American magician William Ellsworth Robinson (April 2, 1861 – March 24, 1918), who is mostly remembered today for his death after a bullet catch trick went wrong.
Jul 12, 2017•50 min
Ghost hunting is a fringe pseudoscience wherein its adherents visit and investigate locations that are reported to be haunted by ghosts . Typically, a ghost hunting team will attempt to collect evidence that they see as supportive of paranormal activity. Ghost hunters often use a variety of electronic devices: the EMF meter ; digital thermometer ; handheld and static digital video cameras , such as thermographic (or infrared ) and night vision ; digital audio recorder ; and computer. Traditional...
Jul 05, 2017•50 min
John Harvey Kellogg, M.D. (February 26, 1852 – December 14, 1943) was an American medical doctor in Battle Creek, Michigan , who ran a sanitarium using holistic methods, with a particular focus on nutrition , enemas , and exercise . Kellogg was an advocate of vegetarianism for health and is best known for the invention of the breakfast cereal known as corn flakes with his brother, Will Keith Kellogg . [1] Skit music: Galway Kevin MacLeod ( incompetech.com ) Licensed under Creative Commons: By At...
Jun 28, 2017•36 min
The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) was an attempt to investigate the psychological effects of perceived power, focusing on the struggle between prisoners and prison guards . It was conducted at Stanford University on August 14–20, 1971, by a research group led by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo using college students. [1] It was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research [2] as an investigation into the causes of difficulties between guards and prisoners in the United States Navy and Uni...
Jun 21, 2017•45 min
John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972), better known as J. Edgar Hoover, was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States. He was appointed as the sixth director of the Bureau of Investigation — the FBI's predecessor — in 1924 and was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972 at the age of 77. Hoover has been credited with building the FBI into a larger crime-fighting agency than it was at its i...
Jun 14, 2017•40 min
Centralia is a borough and near- ghost town in Columbia County , Pennsylvania , United States . Its population has dwindled from more than 1,000 residents in 1980 to only 10 in 2010 [5] —a result of the coal mine fire which has been burning beneath the borough since 1962. Centralia, which is part of the Bloomsburg–Berwick metropolitan area , is the least-populated municipality in Pennsylvania. It is completely surrounded by Conyngham Township . --- To support the show, check us out on Patreon ....
Jun 07, 2017•43 min
Watergate was a major political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s, following a break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972 and President Richard Nixon 's administration 's attempted cover-up of its involvement. When the conspiracy was discovered and investigated by the U.S. Congress , the Nixon administration's resistance to its probes led to a constitutional crisis ....
May 31, 2017•41 min
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American soldier and statesman who served as the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837 and was the founder of the Democratic Party . Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson served in Congress and gained fame as a general in the United States Army . As president, Jackson sought to advance the rights of the "common man" against a "corrupt aristocracy" and to preserve the Union. He became a practicing lawyer in Tenness...
May 24, 2017•39 min
The Goiânia accident was a radioactive contamination accident that occurred on September 13, 1987, at Goiânia , in the Brazilian state of Goiás , after an old radiotherapy source was stolen from an abandoned hospital site in the city. It was subsequently handled by many people, resulting in four deaths. About 112,000 people were examined for radioactive contamination and 249 were found to have significant levels of radioactive material in or on their bodies. [1] [2] In the cleanup operation, top...
May 17, 2017•40 min
Only four episodes in and we've worked "ass" in to the title twice. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria , heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg , occurred on 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo when they were shot dead by Gavrilo Princip . Princip was one of a group of six assassins (five Serbs and one Bosniak ) coordinated by Danilo Ilić , a Bosnian Serb and a member of the Black Hand secret society. The political objective of the a...
May 17, 2017•35 min
Kim Jong-un born 8 January 1984 or 5 July 1984) [3] is the Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and supreme leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly referred to as North Korea . Kim is the second child of Kim Jong-il (1941–2011) and his consort Ko Yong-hui . [6] Little is known for certain about Kim Jong-un. Before taking power, he had barely been seen in public, and many of the activities of both Kim and his government remain shrouded in secrecy. [7] Even de...
May 17, 2017•42 min
A near-death experience (NDE) is a personal experience associated with death or impending death . Such experiences may encompass a variety of sensations including detachment from the body, feelings of levitation, total serenity, security, warmth, the experience of absolute dissolution, and the presence of a light. [1] Neuroscience research suggests that an NDE is a subjective phenomenon resulting from "disturbed bodily multisensory integration" that occurs during life-threatening events. [2] NDE...
May 17, 2017•41 min
The Chernobyl disaster, also referred to as the Chernobyl accident, was a catastrophic nuclear accident . It occurred on 26 April 1986 in the No.4 light water graphite moderated reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat , in what was then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union (USSR). During a late night safety test which simulated power-failure and in which safety systems were deliberately turned off, a combination of inherent reactor design flaws , ...
May 17, 2017•37 min
