History Episodes

At the end of our series exploring the Titanic tragedy, we "dive" into the immediate aftermath of the sinking - including legal inquiries and lawsuits - the search for the wreck on the bottom of the ocean, and the remaining theories and mysteries still surrounding the Titanic to this day. Take a seat at the US Senate hearings on the disaster, which ended in changes to maritime regulations and one thoroughly mocked senator; on the deep-sea vehicle Argo, developed by Dr. Robert Ballard to try a...

We've made it to April 14th, 1912, and the RMS Titanic is midway through its maiden voyage from England to New York. All is calm, all is normal. Until - "Iceberg, right ahead!" But the warning would come too late. The Titanic would scrape across an iceberg far from its destination in America, and within 3 hours, she would be at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. By dawn the morning of April 15th, over 1,500 souls on the Titanic would perish in the frigid sea, with the ship being lost foreve...

In 1907, English businessman J Bruce Ismay sat down with his partners at the shipping company White Star Line to dream up the newest three ships in the White Star Line's fleet, destined to be bigger, more luxurious, and possibly even faster than anything White Star Line or any of their competitors had managed to build to that time. By 1912, two of the ships had been constructed: the Olympic, and the bigger, heavier Titanic. The latter especially would draw fascination from the world over, with t...

Listener beware: beheadings and heart-rippings abound in this week's tour through the history of human sacrifice! Ritual murder to please the gods or stave off disaster may stretch back as far as human civilization. Every civilization that sacrificed people put its own special spin on the ball, from babies left on mountain tops to warriors chosen by ritual combat and bled to death. This ep, Sean takes the reins as we visit the horrifying custom in all its grisly - and surprisingly varied - fo...

Can you imagine a hunger so deep it can never be filled, no matter how you try or what you eat? Cravings wracking your whole existence, pushing you past the limits of biology, decency and morality? That was the constant condition of Tarrare, the hungriest man who ever lived. This week, Sean tells the fascinating, morbid and entirely disgusting story of the eighteenth century French peasant, street performer, polyphage and unlikely spy who really would do anything for a meal...and we mean anyt...

Could America's most famous house also be its most haunted? That's what many think of the White House, the United States' office, residence, and seat of the Presidency. Inhabited by the most powerful men in the world since 1800, the White House boasts centuries of history, some of the biggest names of all time...and a whole cadre of ghosts. On Carrie's after-hours tour of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, we'll meet: The two First Ladies that held séances in the White House...and may have opened ...

What would your last words be, if you knew you were about to die? Would you go out with a joke, a last "I love you"...or an expression of regret? This week, Sean takes us on a tour of his favorite last words throughout the ages, from Pythagoras to Groucho Marx. Assassins, revolutionaries, kings and criminals - everyone has to reach the finish line sometime, and some do with such grace, dignity and courage that their words bring comfort and inspiration down through the ages. Others... don't...

We're all familiar with the trappings of Halloween that we know and love today: trick or treating, jack o' lantern carving, costume parades, witches and skeletons and ghosts and black cats...but why are those Halloween traditions? Why do we go from house to house asking for candy? Why do we dress up as ghouls and celebrities? Why do we believe the veil between our world and the afterlife is thinnest on the evening of October 31st? This week, Carrie takes us way back to the Ancient Celts to th...

We're checking out some witch trials this Halloween season, just like we did last year - only this time, we're investigating the story of the Connecticut Witch Trials, the first and longest span of witch trials in New England and America. From the 1640s all the way to the 1690s, 11 people were executed and 34 were arrested on charges of witchcraft and "familiarity with the devil". But how did this particular hysteria start? What finally brought it to an end? And why is it so forgotten compare...

It's the thrilling conclusion to our monthlong Jack The Ripper series! Last week, Carrie presented some of the likeliest and best-known suspects put forth for the Ripper crimes, from Mary Kelly's jilted ex-lover to a parade of shabby, misogynist psychotics. This week, Sean makes the case for some of the more... colorful theories, from "Jill the Ripper" to a vast royal conspiracy to...H.H. Holmes? Hundreds of people have been implicated in the Ripper murders over the past 130-plus years, an...

In this third episode of our Jack the Ripper series, we move past the events of the case and review selected main suspects to see if any can fit into the role of Saucy Jack. We discuss multiple serial poisoners, doctors and quacks, famous authors and artists and even an ex-lover of one of the victims. Are any of these men the possible real Jack the Ripper?? Next week, Sean will be diving in to take us through the conspiracy theories related to the Ripper case, and the possibility of it bei...

In the second episode of our Jack the Ripper series, we continue and finish the story of the initial 1888 killing spree with the final 3 of the "Canonical Five" victims: Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly. Stride and Eddowes would, shockingly, be murdered the same night in September 1888...and the Ripper would seem to end his spree with the shocking, horrific murder of Mary Kelly in her own home in November. We also discuss the infamous "Jack the Ripper" letters, which r...

IT'S THE BIG 100! That's right, we've hit 100 episodes and 2 years of the show...so, in celebration, we're heading back to 1888 London to investigate one of the biggest true crime cases of all time: the grisly murder spree of Jack the Ripper. In the Whitechapel district of London, England in the fall of 1888, a series of 5 gory murders shocked the lower and upper classes alike. The victims were sex workers, and all had been...well..."ripped", with several missing organs and being posed almost...

Father of the Pod Paul Ferrante returns to the show this week to talk blood - the bloody history of the Tower of London, of course! First built up way back in 1066 after William the Conqueror's invasion of England, the Tower of London has risen from being known as just another British castle to being regarded as the country's greatest symbol of monarchical cruelty, thanks to its conversion into a prison for commoners and, also, some of the most famous people sentenced to death in history. ...

Since the days of antiquity, the human race has been searching for cures for what ails us. From disease to mental illness to sexual dysfunction and more, we've always tried to find the solutions to the things that plague our health. And, sometimes, those solutions end up being even worse - and could very well even kill us. This week, we explore stories of quack doctors and snake oil salesman in history, including a Founding Father of America, the creator of Kellogg's Corn Flakes, the inven...

Even among all the creative execution methods mankind has dreamed up over the years, the Guillotine stands out, raising nightmares of show trials and cutting (ahem) an imposing silhouette. Originally created as a more “humane” capital punishment, the head-chopping machine soon became synonymous with the bloodthirsty excesses of the French Revolution. This week, Sean takes us through the history of “Madame la Guillotine” - from its British ancestors to its horribly iconic role in 1790s France ...

Inspired by the new hit show "Our Flag Means Death", we're covering the most famous pirate in history: Blackbeard! At the dawn of the 18th century, the Caribbean was ruled by roving bands of seaborne criminals who robbed and murdered with impunity. The British colony of the Bahamas even lost an entire island to pirate occupation as Nassau became home base for all of the most famous criminals ever to sail the seas. Of all of these pirates, none had a more fearsome reputation - and none is b...

Union Cemetery sits at a crossroads, almost 400 years old, with headstones scattered across its area spanning centuries of New England history. From the first settlers from the New Fairfield Company to the most recent citizens of Easton, Connecticut, Union Cemetery is home to the final resting places of hundreds of locals...and several spirits. Why has Union Cemetery and its surroundings been the site of not one, not two, but at least three brutal murders/body disposals? Who is the real "White Lady", Union's most famous ghost who has become one of the most often-seen spirits in state history? And what made Ed & Lorraine Warren, basis of the Conjuring films and locals to Union themselves, call it the most haunted cemetery in America? Follow us on a haunted cemetery stroll through decades of history, madness, and bloody, bloody murder.

We're singin' more sea shanties on the finale to our 2-part series on ghost ships! This week Sean rounds things out with two twentieth-century tales of ships turning up abandoned at sea, their crew and passengers vanished without a trace. First,...

In this first of two nautical episodes, Sean introduces us to three of history’s eeriest ghost ships. First, the Flying Dutchman sets the stage (and sails) for all ghost ships to come. Then, the passengers and crew of the Mary Celeste vanished on...

"A long, long time ago, I can still remember..." February 3rd, 1959. Three of the brightest stars in the rock 'n roll galaxy - Buddy Holly, the bespectacled frontman of the Crickets; Ritchie Valens, the first crossover Latino artist in rock; and JP...

In October 1849, now-legendary horror and suspense writer Edgar Allan Poe was found in a tavern in Baltimore, delirious, with clothes that didn't appear to be his and no concrete answer for where he'd been since he left Richmond, Virginia almost a...

We're back from the sick bay and rounding out the holiday season with some Yule-tide cheer this week! Sean takes us through the folklore and traditions that inspired our modern-day American Santa Claus, from pagan ritual sacrifices to jolly old St....

The weather outside is frightful...but not as frightful as the weather on Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world and highest point on Earth! In honor of the chilly season we're taking a dangerous journey to explore the most horrific...