Stuff You Missed in History Class

Free Frank McWorter

15 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Free Frank McWorter was the first black man in the U.S. to design a town and establish a multi-racial community. He did this despite having been born ...

Ignatius Sancho

13 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ignatius Sancho was the first black Briton known to vote in a parliamentary election – that happened in 1774. He became something of a celebrity in ...

SYMHC Classics: Phillis Wheatley

11 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This episode travels back to a 2018 episode. Perceptions and interpretations of Phillis Wheatley's life and work have shifted since the 18th century. ...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Bonsai and Flexner

10 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy talk about the soothing nature of bonsai as well as the places in popular culture it pops up. They also unpack the complex nature of t...

Abraham Flexner and the Flexner Report

08 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Flexner Report in the early 20th century is often credited with changing the medical field and shaping what medical education looks like today. Bu...

A Brief History of Bonsai

06 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Bonsai’s origins go all the way back to ancient China, long before Japan became infatuated with the art form. Over time, the western world also beca...

SYMHC Classics: Robert Smalls - From Contraband to Congress

04 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The second of our 2016 episodes on Robert Smalls. After his daring and impressive escape from slavery, Smalls was considered to be contraband, which w...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Q&A and the Myth of Irish Slaves

03 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy share stories about touring, and the long period of time Tracy has been planning to work on the falsehood of Irish slavery. Learn mor...

Why No One Talks About 'The Irish Slaves'

01 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This whole idea of Irish slaves distorts some things that really did happen. So today we’re going to talk about that history, and how it’s being t...

SYMHC: Q & A

29 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Since the podcast isn't going on tour this year due to the pandemic, we thought it would be fun to have an episode that's something we normally do as ...

SYMHC Classics: The Incredible Escape of Robert Smalls

27 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This 2016 episode covers Robert Smalls, who was born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina in 1839. He escaped from enslavement during the U.S. Civ...

Behind the Scenes Minis: H.L. Hunley and Gospel Blues

26 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly talk about Tracy's chat with Dr. Rachel Lance, and the legacy of Thomas Dorsey. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.ihea...

Thomas Dorsey and the Birth of Gospel Blues

24 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For a long time, Dorsey lived a sort of double life creatively. When he combined the two forms of existing music he played, he created something new, ...

Interview: Dr. Rachel Lance and the H.L. Hunley

22 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy talks with biomedical engineer Dr. Rachel Lance about the cause of the H.L. Hunley disaster and the book that Dr. Lance wrote about the disaster...

SYMHC Classics: The Sinking of the H.L. Hunley

20 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This 2017 episode covers the story of the H.L. Hunley, which really begins with the Union blockade of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Learn mor...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Atlanta History Center and James Baldwin

19 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy discuss the nuances of what becomes historically significant in our troubled times, and then the continued relevance of James Baldwin'...

James Baldwin

17 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

James Baldwin was a brilliant essayist, one of the chroniclers of the Civil Rights Movement, and a powerful voice against racism. Learn more about yo...

Interviews: Atlanta History Center and Covid-19

15 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Holly chats with Sheffield Hale and Michael Rose of the Atlanta History Center about pandemic from the point of view of a living history institution, ...

SYMHC Classics: Harlem Hellfighters

13 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This 2015 episode covers a black U.S. Army WWI unit that became one of the most decorated of the war. When these soldiers returned home, they were gre...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Public Universal Friend and Wat Tyler

12 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly talk about the unique identity of the Public Universal Friend, as well as whether Wat Tyler's story inspired modern storytellers. Lea...

Wat Tyler and the Uprising of 1381

10 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There were many transitional events between the the Black Death and the Renaissance; it wasn't a case of a one leading right to the other. One of thos...

Public Universal Friend

08 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Public Universal Friend described themself as a genderless spirit sent by God to inhabit the resurrected body of a woman named Jemima Wilkinson. ...

SYMHC Classics: Ida B. Wells-Barnett

06 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This 2018 episode connects to a lot of others in our archive. Ida B. Wells-Barnett fought against lynching for decades, at a time when it wasn't commo...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Cannery Row & Tumanbay

05 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy talk about the evolution of Monterey's Cannery Row and the history behind the fictional podcast Tumanbay. Their discussion then turns ...

Interview: Tumanbay's John Scott Dryden

03 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

First, a brief discussion of current events. Then, in a conversation recorded in mid-May, Holly speaks with the creator of the historical fiction podc...

Cannery Row

01 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Monterey's Cannery Row is a busy center of tourism, but the area's history starts with indigenous people. Its association with fishing came from immig...

SYMHC Classics: Orphan Trains

30 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This 2014 episode covers the 250,000 children in the U.S. taken to new families by train from 1854 and 1929, about. Except ... they weren't called "or...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Home Ec and Practice Babies

29 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly talk about their experiences with home economics in school, and discuss theories about childcare as it relates to practice baby progra...

The Practice Babies

27 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Practice babies were live human babies, cared for by college seniors who were temporarily living in home ec practice houses. The babies mostly came fr...

The Bureau of Home Economics

25 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For a time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture had a whole bureau of home economics, which was run by and for women, and was a huge part of the respon...

SYMHC Classics: Phineas Gage

23 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A 2013 episode about Phineas Gage, who experienced a catastrophic brain injury and survived - though altered - for more than 11 years. Over time, he b...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Fritz Duquesne

22 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy ponder the psychology of a lifetime of deception, and discuss the complex nature of the Boers' position in their conflict with Great B...

The Spying Life of Fritz Duquesne, Part 2

20 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

After Duquesne made it to the U.S., he started a whole new life for himself, and worked for the rest of his life as a journalist, saboteur and spy. Bu...

The Spying Life of Fritz Duquesne, Part 1

18 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Duquesne changed his life story to suit his needs, worked under an estimated 40 aliases, and lived a life that directly involves a LOT of significant ...

SYMHC Classics: The Dark Legacy of Sea Monkeys

16 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Dipping back to a 2015 episode. Despite all the fun cartoons on the packaging featuring tiny humanoid sea creatures having wacky fun and wearing cloth...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Bees and Grover Cleveland

15 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly talk about the charm of bees, and the strangely intriguing nature of Grover Cleveland's tumor surgery. Learn more about your ad-choi...

Grover Cleveland’s Medical Secret

13 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 1893, President Grover Cleveland noticed a rough spot on the roof of his mouth. This turned into a medical situation and led to a daring surgery th...

A Brief History of Beekeeping

11 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Beekeeping as you might think of it today, with square hives and and a beekeeper in a white suit with a big veiled hat, is a relatively recent inventi...

SYMHC Classics: John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry

09 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This 2016 episode covers John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, which set out to create an armed revolution of emancipated slaves. Instead, it ...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Asoka and Catherine

08 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly talk about Asoka and connections to pop culture, and the revelations of Catherine the Great's devotion to the arts. Learn more about ...

Catherine the Great, Librettist

06 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Catherine the Great is famous for many things. But one of her lesser-known areas of interest was opera. And she loved it as both audience and creator....

Aśoka the Righteous

04 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Aśoka ruled the Mauryan Empire on the Indian subcontinent in the third century BCE. He was a real person – and is also a legendary figure within Bu...

SYMHC Classics: The Kentucky Derby's First 50 Years

02 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This 2017 episode covered the beginnings of the Kentucky Derby. Since its inception, the Derby has become the nation's most famous and prestigious hor...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Emergency Medicine

01 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy talk about their relationships with emergency medicine and 9-1-1, as well as their appreciation for medical professionals. Learn mor...

Significant Moments in U.S. Emergency Medicine, Pt. 2

29 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this second part of our coverage of emergency care in the U.S., we’ll talk about an important white paper that was a turning point for emergency ...

Significant Moments in U.S. Emergency Medicine, Pt. 1

27 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this first episode of a two-parter, we’ll be covering early emergency response services, a little bit of CPR history, and advent of the emergency...

SYMHC Classics: Dazzle Camouflage

25 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Flashback to 2014! British Royal Navy lieutenant and artist Norman Wilkinson is usually credited with the idea of disruptive camouflage. But, another ...

Host Faves: Building Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, Pt. 2

24 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The second 2013 episode in the story of the Haunted Mansion going from concept to fully-realized theme park attraction covers the reboot the team went...

Host Faves: Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, Pt. 1

24 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This hist fave is from 2013. One of the most iconic Disney park attractions -- the Haunted Mansion -- had a development process that was anything but ...

Host Faves: The Green Children of Woolpit

24 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 2017 we talked about two children, green in color, who appeared in Suffolk, England in the 12th century,. The green children were written about in ...

Host Faves: A Brief History of the Pietà

24 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This 2016 episode delves into Michelangelo's sculpture of Mary holding the deceased body of Christ. It's the most famous depiction of that moment in a...

Host Faves: Edward Gorey

24 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We talked about Gorey in 2017. Based just on his art, you might imagine Edward Gorey as a dour Englishman, with the peak of his career sometime in the...

Host Faves: Christine de Pizan and the Book of the City of Ladies

24 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This 2018 episode is about Christine de Pizan who wrote verse, military manuals, and treatises on war, peace and the just governance of a nation. She...

Host Faves: Levi Strauss

24 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This 2018 episode tells Levi's story, which is historically interesting because it touches on a lot of important moments in U.S. history. His business...

Host Faves: Annette Kellerman

24 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This 2017 episode covers the Australian Kellerman, who gets a lot of the credit for developing the women's one-piece bathing suit. But she was also a ...

Host Faves: The Klondike Big Inch Land Promotion

24 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This summer 2014 rerun features one ad company's wacky plan to actually dole out land deeds as part of a cereal promotion. How did they manage it? And...

Host Faves: The Ladies of Llangollen

24 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Another 2017 fave! In the late 18th century, Sarah Ponsonby and Lady Eleanor Butler, also known as the Ladies of Llangollen, abandoned their life in t...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Unearthed! Spring 2020

24 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly discuss their favorite parts of this week's Unearthed! episodes, as well as the way that our current situation causes the unearthing o...

Unearthed! in Spring 2020, Part 2

22 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In part two of Unearthed! in spring 2020, we're talking about edibles and potables, shipwrecks, books and letters, and other cool stuff. Learn more a...

Unearthed! in Spring 2020, Part 1

20 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode, we have some stuff that was reported during the last couple of weeks of 2019, which missed the cut for the year-end Unearthed! e...

SYMHC Classics: Maximilian, Mexico's Habsburg Prince

18 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This 2011 episode from previous hosts Deblina and Sarah covers the time when Mexico was ruled by a Habsburg prince: Ferdinand Maximilian. While Maximi...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Carlota and Larrey

17 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy discuss Carlota of Mexico and how that topic was chosen, as well as the many connections between subjects of history. Then, talk turns...

Dominique-Jean Larrey and His Flying Ambulance

15 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

While serving as a surgeon with Napoleon’s army in the 1790s, Larrey developed a system for getting wounded soldiers off the battlefield and into tr...

Charlotte of Belgium/Carlota of Mexico

13 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Charlotte and her husband Maximillian became the rulers of Mexico through a plan concocted by France's Napoleon III. But the strain of conflict there...

SYMHC Classics: Butter v. Margarine

11 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This 2016 episode delves into how industries and governments had a really weird preoccupation with protecting people from margarine way before it was ...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Annie and Rinderpest

10 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy talk about Annie Londonderry's cavalier relationship with the truth and the challenges of travel with the wrong clothes and bike. Then...

The End of Rinderpest

08 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The declaration that rinderpest had been eradicated was less than 10 years, but rinderpest’s history goes back much farther than that. And the proce...

Annie Londonderry’s Dubious Bike Trip Around the World

06 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Annie Londonderry gained fame for being the first woman cyclist to circumnavigate the globe. Sort of. In the 1890s, she DID circle the globe, but ther...

SYMHC Classics: Ignaz Semmelweis

04 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We're jumping back just a couple of years to an episode on Ignaz Semmelweis made a connection between hand hygiene and the prevention of childbed feve...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Strange Times and Ida Lewis

03 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy talk about selecting subjects for the show while living in strange times, and venture into talk about Emily Dickinson. Learn more ab...

Ida Lewis, Lighthouse Keeper

01 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ida Lewis lived most of her life fairly isolated on a tiny island off the coast Rhode Island. But it was a life she deeply loved. In her words, “I c...

Covid-19: Living Through Historically Significant Times

30 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly discuss what it feels like, as people who study history, to live through an event that you know will be historically significant. To a...

SYMHC Classics: The Flu Epidemic of 1918

28 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This 2014 episode coverts he 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, which killed somewhere between 20 million and 50 million people. Nobody cured it, or really su...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Pettenkofer and Poison

27 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy discuss the advance casualness of recording entirely from home, as well as Max von Pettenkofer's psyche, and the fairly recent rise of...

Poison Control: A History

25 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How did the U.S. get to the point of having this one resource, specifically for poisoning, that’s so reliable and available that it gets printed on ...

Max von Pettenkofer’s Anticontagionism

23 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Pettenkofer's ideas about how cholera spread weren’t exactly right, but they still had really beneficial impacts on the way we live. Learn more abo...

SYMHC Classics: Tagore, Erstwhile Knight

21 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this 2010 episode, previous hosts Sarah and Deblina trace the life of Tagore through his childhood to knighthood and beyond. Learn more about your...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Shortest War and Lady Baseball

20 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy talk about aspects of Zanzibari culture that Holly had not considered prior to this week's episode, and Tracy's rewatch of "A League o...

Offbeat History: The Crash at Crush and Other Train Wreck Spectacles

19 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In fall 2017, we talked about a strange cultural phenomenon. For a brief window from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, people in the United States we...

Offbeat History: Marchesa Luisa Casati

19 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 2017 we covered the offbeat life of Marchesa Luisa Casati. While many have admired heiress Casati over the years for her life led entirely based on...

Offbeat History: Lisztomania

19 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 2015, we talked about Franz Liszt, who was a pianist, a composer and a conductor, and basically the first rock star who drove fans into fits of swo...

Offbeat History: The Great Moon Hoax of 1835, Part 2

19 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The second part of this offbeat revisit! As the New York Sun's series of astonishing moon discoveries concluded, most people recognized that it was a ...

Offbeat History: The Great Moon Hoax of 1835, Part 1

19 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This offbeat 2015 episode covers a series of 1835 news articles about some utterly mind-blowing discoveries made by Sir John Herschel about the lunar ...

Offbeat History: Hennig Brand and the Discovery of Phosphorus

19 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It's a 2019 show about urine! Spoiler alert: Hennig Brand discovered phosphorous by boiling pee. But he was trying to do something else: He thought th...

Offbeat History: A Culinary History of Spam

19 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Back in 2014, we tackled SPAM's story. This famous Hormel Foods product was invented in the 1930s to make use of a surplus of shoulder meat from pigs....

Offbeat History: The Mystery of the Devil’s Footprints

19 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In October 2017, we talked about mysterious prints that looked like hoof marks appeared all over the English seaside county of Devon in February 1855....

Offbeat History: The American Hippo Ranch Plan, Part 2

19 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We continue out offbeat 2015 story. Once the effort to import hippos to the U.S. got the backing of a politician, two men with intertwined histories, ...

Offbeat History: The American Hippo Ranch Plan, Part 1

19 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

An offbeat episode from 2015: In 1910, the U.S. a meat shortage, and a water hyacinth overgrowth problem. The obvious solution to the dilemma: Import ...

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

18 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was founded in 1943, and it went on for years after WWII. These women were athletes, some of whom ...

Anglo-Zanzibar War

16 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Zanzibar is a relatively tiny place, but its place in history is significant, largely because of its geographical position. Its value as a trading por...

SYMHC Classics: Why did a riot start over Shakespeare?

14 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This 2011 episode from previous hosts Sarah and Deblina covers an often-requested topic. Shakespeare is typically associated with cultural sophisticat...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Insulin

13 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly discuss diabetes, insulin, and the moral complexities that are often part of scientific research. Learn more about your ad-choices a...

The Discovery of Insulin, Part 2

11 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Last time we talked about how diabetes has been described through history, including treatment before the development of insulin. Today, we’re telli...

A History of Diabetes, Pre Insulin, Part 1

09 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

To lead into discussing the discovery of insulin, today we have a history of diabetes and its treatment in the centuries before insulin was developed,...

SYMHC Classics: A Brief History of Peanut Butter

07 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This 2015 episode delves into how peanut butter got its name in the 18th century, but it's been around in some form for hundreds and hundreds of years...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Morandi and Kemmler

06 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly discuss the ways in which the sexes were perceived during the time of Anna Morandi Manzolini and the aspects of Kemmler's story that m...

The Electrocution of William Kemmler

04 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

After committing a brutal murder, William Kemmler was the first man to be put to death in the electric chair, at a time when a great deal of conflict ...

The Wax Anatomy of Anna Morandi Manzolini

02 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 18th-century Bologna, one of the most skilled and renowned anatomists and wax model makers was a woman named Anna Morandi Manzolini. Working first ...

SYMHC Classics: The Boston Massacre

29 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Today we revisit a 2013 episode about the Boston Massacre. That sounds like the slaughter of many innocents, but the reality is smaller and not nearly...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Leicester and Dr. Calinda Lee

28 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy discuss the relationship between the Hemingway brothers and the challenges of claiming one's own island. Holly also shares her experie...