Stuff You Missed in History Class

SYMHC Classics: Public Universal Friend

29 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2020 episode covers the Public Universal Friend, who described themself as a genderless spirit sent by God to inhabit the resurrected body of a w...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Morocco!

28 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly talk about their recent podcast trip to Morocco with listeners, arranged by Defined Destinations.  See omnystudio.com/listener fo...

Charles Sumner, Revisited (part 2)

26 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The second installment of our episode on Charles Sumner picks up in the wake of his controversial antiwar speech. He next argued a school integration ...

Charles Sumner, Revisited (part 1)

24 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The first installment of the deeper examination of Charles Sumner's life begins with his early years, including his close relationships with Henry Wad...

SYMHC Classics: Thomas Cook

22 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2019 episode covers Thomas Cook, a pioneer of the idea of a travel agency to manage tourist holidays. But Cook was initially motivated by his sup...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Balloons and Cat Trees

21 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly talk about the proclivity for destruction that was part of the balloon craze. They also discuss cat trees and how hard it is to find o...

Inventions for Pets

19 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Cat litter, it could be argued, kicked off the pet products industry. After its invention in the 1940s, other inventors started to come up with produc...

Balloon Riots

17 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ballooning became a huge fad starting in the late 18th century, and there was a surprising amount of rioting associated with it. Fervor, excitement, a...

SYMHC Classics: Georgia Gold Rush

15 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2018 episode covers the period in the late 1820s when north Georgia became the site of a gold rush that predated the California gold rush by two ...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Mary and Marjorie

14 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy shares the surprising benefit of not having access to a lot of specifics regarding the work of Mary Golda Ross. Holly talks about Marjorie Merri...

Marjorie Merriweather Post

12 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Marjorie Merriweather Post is most often mentioned today as the person who built Mar-a-Lago. But she was a unique figure as a woman who helmed a huge ...

Mary Golda Ross

10 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Mary Golda Ross was the first Indigenous woman in the U.S. known to have become an engineer. Her impact on the field of aerospace engineering is hard ...

SYMHC Classics: Alexandre Dumas Pere

08 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2019 episode covers Alexandre Dumas, who wrote hundreds and hundreds of works, including “The Three Musketeers,” “The Count of ...

Behind the Scenes Minis: French Fear and Frozen Food

07 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy discusses the challenge of parsing all the nuance of the French Revolution. Holly talks about how little Clarence Birdseye shared of his interio...

Clarence Birdseye and the Rise of Frozen Foods

05 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Before Clarence Birdseye, frozen food was perceived as being low-quality and kind of gross. But after spending time in extremely cold climates, Birdse...

The Great Fear of 1789

03 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Great Fear was a panic during the French Revolution that spread through rural areas. It all started with a conspiracy theory. Research: Davies, A...

SYMHC Classics: Thomas-Alexandre Dumas

01 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2019 episode is about general Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, who sounds like a character out of one of his son’s books. His life was a series of d...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Villas and Tirades

31 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Holly talks about the unsubstantiated stories associated with the Villa de Vecchi in northern Italy. Tracy talks about getting angry about a passage s...

Hammersmith Ghost Murder

29 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In late 1803, accounts of ghost sightings began to circulate in Hammersmith, England. This led to a tragic event, and a legal case that revealed some ...

Villa de Vecchi

27 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s topic is an abandoned mansion, but it was once a gorgeous and luxurious home designed for a prominent citizen of northern Italy. It&rsqu...

SYMHC Classics: Aleister Crowley

25 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2021 episode covers Aleister Crowley, a truly prolific and deliberately transgressive occultist whose practices included sex and drug use. He inf...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Ghosts and Their Towns

24 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy talk about ghost experiences in their lives. Tracy thanks all the listeners who suggested ghost towns for this week's episode.See omny...

Six Impossible Episodes: U.S. Ghost Towns

22 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We've had a lot of listener requests related to ghost towns, so this Halloween season, we've got six places in the U.S. that could be labeled as such....

Drury Lane Ghosts

20 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This episode features several ghosts all associated with one place. And that place is a specific building with its own interesting history – the...

SYMHC Classics: Three Hellhounds

18 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2020 episode covers three of the many supernatural canines and hellhounds in our collective storytelling. Two are similar and from England, and o...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Bias 3DS

17 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Holly asks follow-up questions about a paper Tracy mentioned in the episodes this week. Tracy talks about the use of the Nintendo 3DS as a Louvre guid...

Unearthed! in Autumn 2025, Part 2

15 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Part 2 of this installment of Unearthed! features animals, swords, art, shoes, shipwrecks, and the miscellany category of potpourri. Research: Abrams...

Unearthed! in Autumn 2025, Part 1

13 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Part one of this quarter's installment of Unearthed! features things related to books and letters, and edibles and potables, and as we usually do, we ...

SYMHC Classics: Paul Robeson

11 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Paul Robeson’s stances on political and civil rights issues and his communist affiliations catalyzed protests that were fueled with an undercurr...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Complicated Werewolf

10 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Holly discusses the complicated nature of the Loudun possessions. Tracy talks about the ways that entertainment media can cause fear.See omnystudio.co...

Peter Stumpp, Werewolf of Bedburg

08 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Stubbe or Peter Stumpp, also known as the Werewolf of Bedburg, was part of a case in Germany where the concepts of witchcraft and lycanthropy we...

Loudun Possessions

06 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 17th century France a group of nuns described some unsettling visitations at their convent, which developed into a story of possession, political i...

SYMHC Classics: Bell Witch

04 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2016 episode covers a haunting story from the early 1800s. Many narratives have blossomed from the Bell Witch story, but when you really try to l...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Ticks and Spiders

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy shares a story about getting poor directions from GPS. Holly talks about her theory regarding William Outlaw's confession, and both hosts discus...

Alice Kyteler and the Kilkenny Witch Trials

01 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Alice Kyteler's witchcraft trial shocked 14th century Ireland. Today, the charges against her are seen largely as nonsense, and more about personal ve...

Three More Eponymous Diseases: Arthropod Bites

29 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

These diseases - West Nile Virus, Lyme disease, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever - are named for the places where outbreaks happened. But they're also...

SYMHC Classics: S.S. Arctic

27 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2014 episode covers the collision of the S.S. Arctic with another ship in a fog in 1854. The resulting panic led to the deaths of most of the pas...

Behind the Scenes Minis: The Grisly Shipwreck

26 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Holly talks about the many survivor accounts of the Medusa shipwreck, which were questioned regarding bias and intent. There's also a follow-up on wha...

Géricault and the Raft of the Medusa (Part 2)

24 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the aftermath of the shipwreck, France was scandalized by what had happened as the details emerged. And artist Théodore Géricault bec...

Medusa Shipwreck (Part 1)

22 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The first episode of this two-parter covers the French mission to Senegal that the frigate Medusa led in 1816. Soon, the mission fell disastrously apa...

SYMHC Classics: Chesapeake Bay Oyster Wars

20 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2013 episode covers the years after the Industrial Revolution and the Civil War when the oyster supply became so scarce that people turned to oys...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Math and Falsehoods

19 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Holly shares a story about Augustin Fresnel's early career. Tracy discusses an article criticizing the Smithsonian and points out its incorrect conten...

Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton

17 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton is known as one of the earliest Mexican-American authors published in English, and her life story is tied closely to the M...

Augustin Jean Fresnel

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Augustin Fresnel didn’t live a long life, but he contributed significantly to the understanding of light and to the safety of coastlines. Neithe...

SYMHC Classics: Max von Pettenkofer

13 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2020 episode talks about how Pettenkofer's ideas about cholera's spread weren’t exactly right, but they still had really beneficial impacts...

Behind the Scenes Minis: All Things Clean

12 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy talks about her background writing copy for sanitation and cleaning products. She and Holly also discuss how the implementation of the Wells' re...

William Firth Wells and Mildred Weeks Wells

10 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Husband-and-wife team William Firth Wells and Mildred Weeks Wells conducted research that had the potential to make a big difference in the safety of ...

A History of Soap

08 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

All over the world, for all of human history – and probably going back to our earliest hominid ancestors – people have found ways to try t...

SYMHC Classics: John Dalton

06 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2021 episode covers John Dalton, famous for his work in atomic theory. But he wrote one of the first thorough descriptions of what he called &ldq...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Jane and the Clicker

05 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Holly talks about nebulous passages in the writing of Jane Croly and her brother. Tracy and Holly talk about watching TV as children. See omnystu...

TV Remotes

03 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The initial time period where a TV remote control was developed was pretty short. And it shows how two different people perceive their work, and how t...

Jane Cunningham Croly, aka Jennie June

01 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Cunningham Croly, who wrote under the pen name Jennie June, was a journalist who advocated for equality for women. She is most well known for fou...

SYMHC Classics: Rabies

30 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2022 episode discusses how modern rabies prophylaxis is almost 100% effective at preventing human death from the bite of a rabid animal. How did ...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Graffiti Animals

29 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Holly talks about the arguments she found online about whether graffiti is art. Tracy talks about how the Dickin Medal impacted veterinary medicine.&n...

Six Impossible Episodes: The Dickin Medal

27 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Maria Dickin wanted to raise the status of animals in society and bring more awareness to the work they were doing during World War II. The Dickin Med...

The Slow Invention of Spray Paint

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The possible contenders for the title of inventor of spray paint were actually working across decades. And really, all those people contributed pieces...

SYMHC Classics: Eunice Newton Foote

23 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2021 episode covers Eunice Newton Foote, who became the first person to make a connection between the Earth’s temperature and the concentra...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Estevan and Fury

22 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy discusses the concept of race as it has and hasn't existed in European history. Both Tracy and Holly share their frustration and fury about the ...

Buck v. Bell

20 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Buck v. Bell is the 1927 SCOTUS decision that upheld the constitutionality of laws allowing involuntary sterilization of people deemed to be “un...

Estevanico, aka Mustapha al-Azemmour

18 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Estevanico was a translator and guide, and was probably the first person of any race from outside the Americas to enter what’s now Arizona and N...

SYMHC Classics: Prison Breaks

16 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2022 episode covers six highly ingenious and low-violence prison breaks from history. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Behind the Scenes Minis: Learned Women and Sharkey

15 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy shares a funny confusion about Unitarians and the University of Utrecht she kept having during research. Holly talks about how often escape stor...

William J. Sharkey’s Not-so-great Escape

13 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

William J. Sharkey was a pickpocket, a con man, a politician, and a murderer, though whether or not that murder was an accident became the question at...

Anna Maria van Schurman, Star of Utrecht

11 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Polymath Anna Maria van Schurman was a very well-educated woman in the 17th century, making her exceptional. She’s described as the most learned...

SYMHC Classics: Sappho

09 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2019 episode covers Sappho, often described as the greatest female poet of ancient Greece. Her reputation as a poet has persisted for more than 2...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Fitz Hugh and Sleepytime

08 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Holly talks about gaining compassion for Fitz Hugh Ludlow through reading his work. Tracy discusses her training in massage school. See omnystudi...

Paracelsus and the Doctrine of Signatures

06 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

16th-century Swiss physician Paracelsus was frustrated with established medical practice and academia and he was sometimes on the lam because of his b...

Fitz Hugh Ludlow

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Fitz Hugh Ludlow’s fame as a writer was directly tied to his drug use initially. In his final years, his advocacy for treatment of the illness o...

SYMHC Classics: James Baldwin

02 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2020 episode covers James Baldwin, who was a brilliant essayist, one of the chroniclers of the Civil Rights Movement, and a powerful voice agains...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Opera and Joyous Research

01 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Holly talks about an opera based on the life of Eadweard Muybridge. Tracy and Holly talk about how they learned about periods as kids.See omnystudio.c...

Beatrice Kenner and Midred Smith: Sister Inventors

30 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Beatrice Kenner’s inventions were focused largely on making life easier and less annoying for herself and the people around her, including perio...

Eadweard Muybridge

28 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The invention Eadweard Muybridge is known for is his zoopraxiscope, an early movie technology. But he also innovated in photography, had some other in...

SYMHC Classics: Mary Winston Jackson

26 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2019 episode covers Mary Winston Jackson, best known as the first black woman to become an engineer at NASA. But she also worked to clear the way...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Good News, Bad News

25 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy talks about current events and how they relate to the show and education. She and Holly also talk about the people who work in national parks an...

Unearthed! in July 2025, Part 2

23 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This edition of Unearthed! continues, this time covering the mixed items we call potpourri, shipwrecks, edibles and potables, books and letters, and e...

Unearthed! in July 2025, Part 1

21 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This installment of Unearthed! starts with lots of updates! And then some art-related unearthings, and a few things at the end that fall under th...

SYMHC Classics: Lady Jane Grey

19 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2017 episode covers a very short time between Edward VI and Mary I when Lady Jane was, at least nominally, Queen of England and Ireland. Whether ...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Sewing Basket

18 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy discuss the challenge of enlarging sewing patterns from small diagrams. They also talk about one of Butterick's most popular patterns ...

Paper Sewing Patterns, Part 2

16 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ellen Curtis Demorest and Ebeneezer Butterick are the two names most often invoked as the start of multi-sized patterns printed for home sewists. Once...

Paper Sewing Patterns, Part 1

14 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Commercially available sewing patterns have been a cornerstone of home stitching for a century. But well before they existed, there were people trying...

SYMHC Class: Poison Control

12 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2020 episode examines how the U.S. got to the point of having one resource, specifically for poisoning, that’s so reliable and available th...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Pens and Dog Radios

11 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly talk about their favorite pens, and Tracy describes a unique radio she had as a child.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informat...

Edwin Howard Armstrong

09 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Edwin Howard Armstrong isn’t exactly a well-known inventor, but his work in radio literally changed communications around the globe. But his mos...

The Humble Ballpoint Pen

07 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Before the ballpoint pen, people used their hands, reeds, bamboo, brushes, quills, and eventually nibs to write or draw. But how did things evolve fro...

SYMHC Classics: Lettuce, Slavery, and the Bibb Legacy

05 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

 This 2022 episode starts with the story of John Bibb, credited with cultivating Bibb lettuce. But his family’s legacy, good and bad, is al...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Murder and War

04 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Holly discusses the inscription on the Beachamps' headstone and the court of public opinion. Tracy shares information about Wilfred Owen's brother Har...

Wilfred Owen, War Poet

02 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Wilfred Owen is considered one of the most important English-language poets of World War I. His work  also part of a shift in how many British po...

Beauchamp-Sharpe Tragedy of 1825

30 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Beauchamp-Sharpe tragedy of 1825, sometimes called the Kentucky tragedy, involves a politician, a young lawyer, and the lawyer’s wife. It un...

SYMHC Classics: Sylvia Rivera

28 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2014 episode covers transgender activist Sylvia Rivera. She became famous, in part, for participating in the Stonewall riots, and she spent her l...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Messy Bulwer-Lyttons

27 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Rosina Bulwer-Lytton week generates discussion of her relationship with Edward, including many people who sided with him over the years despite allega...

Rosina Bulwer-Lytton’s Blighted Life (Part 2)

25 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Once Rosina Bulwer-Lytton and her husband Edward separated, his life seemed to become more and more successful while she struggled with finances. The ...

Rosina Bulwer-Lytton’s Blighted Life (Part 1)

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After a difficult childhood, Rosina Bulwer-Lytton landed in a marriage that quickly turned chaotic and stressful, and then became abusive. Part one co...

SYMHC Classics: Theodosia Burr Alston

21 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2017 episode covers Theodosia Burr Alston, Aaron Burr's incredibly smart and well educated daughter. She vanished without a trace as an adult, an...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Hearts and Arts

20 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly share experiences of having their hearts monitored using EKG technology. They also talk about whether or not Albert Bierstadt had any ...

Albert Bierstadt

18 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Albert Bierstadt’s story runs counter to the romanticized idea of a passionate starving artist. He was strategic in his career, selecting imager...

Electrocardiograms

16 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The first electrocardiograph was invented in 1895. That device looked a lot different from today’s machines, and there are some other contenders...

SYMHC Classics: Wat Tyler’s Rebellion

14 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This 2020 episode covers one of the transitional events between the Black Death and the Renaissance. Wat Tyler’s Rebellion was also known as the...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Pope Riot

13 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy talk about Tracy growing up in a mostly Protestant community with little exposure to Catholicism. They also talk about the Gorsuch fam...

Christiana Incident of 1851

11 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Christiana Incident offers a snapshot of the U.S. when the country was sorting into states where slavery was upheld and states that had abolished ...

Pope Leo XIII

09 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Pope Leo XIII sought to find a way forward for the Catholic church at a time when the world was rapidly changing and the church was often at odds with...