Stuff You Missed in History Class

Francisco de Miranda, Part 1

24 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Francisco de Miranda participated in the struggle for independence in the United States, the French revolution and the emancipation of Latin America. ...

SYMHC Classics: Tupac Amaru Rebellion

22 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2016 episode covers the Tupac Amaru rebellion, a conflict between Spain and its colonies in South America which took place from 1780 to 1783.See ...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Leviathan and Athenian

21 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly talk about hard-to-spell words and good intentions without knowledge to go with them. Then Holly discusses some of Solon's laws before...

Solon of Athens

19 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Solon is one of the seven sages of Athens, and he's credited with laying the groundwork for Athenian democracy. But most of what we know about him com...

Missouri Leviathan

17 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Missouri Leviathan was an enormous skeleton made of fossilized bones that were excavated and assembled by Albert C. Koch. Was it a hoax, or just b...

SYMHC Classic: The Bone Wars

15 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2012 episode from previous hosts Sarah and Deblina explores the rivalry between paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. Th...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Medical Scans and Nobel Prizes

14 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy share experiences with MRIs and hospital stays, and also talk about the various disagreements and biases in play in the medical commun...

Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Part 2

12 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Once Dr. Ray Damadian had the idea to create a machine that used nuclear magnetic resonance to capture diagnostic data by scanning a human body, he st...

Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Part 1

10 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Who invented the MRI? Well, that's actually tricky to say, and it is a topic that still opens debate. In this first part, we'll talk about the various...

SYMHC Classics: Radioiodine Therapy

08 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2019 episode examines thyroid disease through history, and the physics lecture heard by Saul Hertz in the 1930s that changed the treatment of hyp...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Salty Popcorn

07 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy discuss ways that they like to make popcorn, and historical recipes that used popcorn. They also talk about the incorrect assumption t...

Iodized Salt

05 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

People started adding iodine to salt because in some parts of the world serious, chronic iodine deficiency was incredibly widespread, which was causin...

Popcorn

03 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A lot of the stories that are told about popcorn in history – particularly in North America – are incorrect. Popcorn has been around for a very lo...

SYMHC Classics: Jules Cotard and Cotard Syndrome

01 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2017 episode covers the work of Jules Cotard, the first psychiatrist to write about the cluster of symptoms that would come to be called Walking ...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Strikes, Immigration and Weeds

31 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly talk about the Disney animators' strike of 1941, Angel Island, and Tyrus Wong's Christmas cards. They also discuss the merits of dande...

Gertrude Jekyll's Artistic Gardens

29 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Gertrude Jekyll was born into a 19th-century English family of means, but her life took an unconventional path for a woman in her circumstances, and s...

The Art of Tyrus Wong

27 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the course of an extraordinarily long career, Tyrus Wong worked across a range of media in a whole collection of industries – animation, live-a...

SYMHC Classics: San Francisco 1906 - The Great Quake and Fires

25 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2019 episode covers the earthquake of April 18, 1906 that changed San Francisco forever. The earthquake and a series of fires devastated much of ...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Ships and Fences

24 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly talk about the eerie similarities of the stories of the Andrea Doria and the Empress of Ireland. They also talk about Jacob Haish's po...

Joseph F. Glidden and the Contentious Invention of Barbed Wire

21 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Joseph Glidden is known as the father of barbed wire, but who actually invented it was a matter of disagreement. As a consequence, Glidden's invention...

The SS Andrea Doria Rescue

20 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The SS Andrea Doria was a luxury cruise liner that sank after colliding with another ship in 1956. Most of the people who were on the Andrea Doria liv...

SYMHC Classics: The Vanishing of Sister Aimee

18 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2014 episode covers Aimee Semple McPherson, an extraordinary figure in the early 20th-century religious landscape. As an evangelist, she rose to ...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Sophia Stories

17 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy talk about how to pronounce Sophia, and speculate about why Jex-Blake didn't pursue an education at New England Female Medical College...

Sophia Jex-Blake and the Edinburgh Seven (Part 2)

15 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After studying with Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell in New York, Sophia Jex-Blake moved back to England when her father died. But her determination to get a m...

Sophia Jex-Blake’s Early Education (Part One)

13 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sophia Jex-Blake was a young English woman who initially pursued a career in teaching before she fell in love with medicine while visiting the U.S. Pa...

SYMHC Classics: A Culinary History of Spam

11 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2014 episode covers the invention of the canned meat known as Spam. The Hormel Foods product was invented in the 1930s to make use of a surplus o...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Mixed Bag of Bananas

10 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy discuss George Heye using his senior thesis to drink beer and how his collection was almost purchased by Ross Perot. They also discuss...

Maria Y. Orosa & the Food of the Philippines

08 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Maria Ylagan Orosa was born in the Philippines, and she spent her life working to eliminate food insecurity there. She revived the use of locally avai...

George Gustav Heye

06 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

George Gustav Heye’s work in curating a collection of Native American artifacts has enabled many people to learn about indigenous cultures. But his ...

SYMHC Classics: Horace Wells and the Gas War

04 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2012 episode from prior hosts Sarah and Deblina covers dentist Horace Wells. At an exhibition in 1844 he became certain that nitrous oxide could ...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Bad Poetry

03 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly discuss Sir Humphry Davy's less than spectacular poems, Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," and the end of Davy's career and life. See omn...

Sir Humphry Davy and the Miner’s Lamp (Part 2)

01 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Davy's career after his work in nitrous oxide included the invention of a miner's lamp designed to make mining safer. This invention came with a bit o...

Sir Humphry Davy and Nitrous Oxide (Part 1)

29 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Chemist Sir Humphry Davy is known for his work with nitrous oxide, or laughing gas. That early part of his career is the focus of part one of this two...

SYMHC Classics: S.S. Sultana

27 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2014 episode covers the Sultana, which sank the day after John Wilkes Booth was captured and killed for the murder of Abraham Lincoln So the mari...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Extreme Wealth and Wild Research

26 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy discuss Ward McAllister as the ultimate historical mean girl. They also talk about how people were reacting to the Blitz when it was h...

Dr. Rachel Lance and 'Chamber Divers'

24 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Holly talks with previous podcast guest Dr. Rachel Lance about her new book "Chamber Divers," which details the WWII research that advanced underwater...

Bradley Martin Ball

22 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Bradley Martin Ball is sometimes referred to as the last big moment of the Gilded Age. It was a very ostentatious event that sparked a lot of deba...

SYMHC Classics: Croesus

20 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2020 episode shares the story of the ridiculously wealthy Croesus, which was likely fictionalized in a number of ways. It has become sort of a ca...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Piggy Banks and Ruby Slippers

19 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy shares frustration over a historical find being described as a piggy bank. She and Holly then discuss the Van Gogh Pokémon and whether they wou...

Unearthed! in Spring 2024, Part 2

17 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The spring 2024 edition of Unearthed! concludes with books and letters, fashion and cosmetics, medicine, shipwrecks, and the assorted finds that are c...

Unearthed! in Spring 2024, Part 1

15 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Time for all the things literally or figuratively unearthed in the first quarter of 2024. Part one includes updates, burial sites, walls, edibles and ...

SYMHC Classics: Croquet History

13 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2020 episode looks at croquet's murky origins. Because of its relative ease of play and low barrier of entry, it went through a surge in populari...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Eclipse Games

12 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly talk about how much Tracy loves eclipses. They also discuss their favorite TV jingles for the game of Life. See omnystudio.com/liste...

Milton Bradley and the Game That Started It All

10 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Milton Bradley shaped not only the way people in the U.S. and around the globe play, but also how many kids in the U.S. were educated in their younges...

Thales and the Battle of the Eclipse

08 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On May 28, in the year 585 BCE, there was a total solar eclipse during a battle between the kingdoms of Media and Lydia. This eclipse had been predict...

SYMHC Classics: Sylvia of Hollywood

06 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2019 episode covers Sylvia of Hollywood, famous in the 1920s and 1930s for shaping up starlets, cementing the idea that Hollywood's beauties were...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Vinnie's Wild Life

05 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Holly reads Vinnie Ream's account of when she met Franz Liszt. Then discussion turns to Ream's friendships, her shopping habits, and why she lived in ...

Vinnie Ream, Part 2

03 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Part two of our episode on Vinnie Ream covers the completion of her first major work, and the rest of her life, which was just as controversial as her...

Vinnie Ream, Part 1

01 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Vinnie Ream became the first woman to be given an art commission by the U.S. Government when she was still a teenager. Part one covers the controversy...

SYMHC Classics: Pig War

30 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2014 episode covers the story of how in 1859, the United States and Great Britain nearly went to war over an American settler shooting a Canadian...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Wrong Photo and the Rules

29 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy ponder why the wrong photo has become used so frequently in mentions of Margaret E. Knight. Tracy shares the reasons she almost didn't...

Henry Martyn Robert’s Rules of Order

27 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Henry Martyn Robert was connected to multiple historical events, but his most lasting legacy is the set of guidelines he created that offered a standa...

The Inventive Mind of Margaret E. Knight

25 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Margaret E. Knight was an ingenious woman. She started tinkering with things when she was still just a tiny child, and the first invention that really...

SYMHC Classics: James G. Fair

23 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2019 episode covers James G. Fair, known as the Silver King. But though Fair often appears on lists of the richest men in U.S. history, his image...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Divorce, Marriage, and Manners

22 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy talk about there not being a national divorce law in the U.S. and how to pronounce Nevada. Tracy talks about the ways social rules are...

Six Impossible Episodes: Etiquette Manuals

20 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Books on etiquette don’t necessarily reflect rules everyone is actually following – they’re more like what the author thinks the ideal standard ...

Divorce Ranches

18 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Divorce ranches sprung up in the 1930s when Nevada relaxed its divorce laws. This unique and controversial style of resort was incredibly popular for ...

SYMHC Classics: Ambroise Paré

16 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2021 episode covers sixteenth-century barber surgeon Ambroise Paré, who has been called everything from “the gentle surgeon” to “the fathe...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Arsenic and Arm Prosthetics

15 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Holly talks about the various theories about events in Charles Francis Hall's life. Tracy discusses some of the troubling sources she came across whil...

Götz of the Iron Hand

13 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 16th century Gottfried von Berlichingen was known as Götz of the Iron Hand because after an injury and amputation, he wore a prosthesis ...

Charles Francis Hall and His Mysterious Arctic Death

11 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Charles Francis Hall was inspired by expeditions like Sir John Franklin’s push to find the Northwest Passage, but he repeated the pattern of doom wh...

SYMHC Classics: Stephens Island Wren

09 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2017 episode covers the extinction of one New Zealand bird species that's often attributed to a single cat. While feline predation played a signi...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Fish Sandwich

08 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy discuss how neither of them like Sloppy Joes, and a cocktail recipe Holly found during research. Tracy shares how very much she adores...

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer and the Coelacanth

06 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The coelacanth was believed to have gone extinct about 66 million years ago, until one was spotted in South Africa in 1938. Naturalist and museum cura...

Eponymous Foods – Sandwiches Edition

04 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sloppy Joe, Hot Brown, and the Reuben are all well-known sandwiches, and they are all named after people. Though the specific person is argued in two ...

SYMHC Classics: The End of Rinderpest

02 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2020 episode examines how, though rinderpest was declared eradicated fairly recently, rinderpest's history goes way back. Eradicating the disease...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Source Chasing and Measles Shots

01 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy mentions tracking down sources for quotes about Rebecca Crumpler during research. She and Holly also discuss measles vaccine protocols. See omn...

Measles: Historical Highlights

28 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Though measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. decades ago, outbreaks do still happen here, and in other places it’s much more common. Before va...

'Doctress' Rebecca Crumpler

26 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Rebecca Crumpler was the first Black woman in the United States to earn a medical degree. She also wrote one of the first, if not the first, medical t...

SYMHC Classics: Three Astonishing Belles

24 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2017 episode features three unique women, all of whom are notable. They each have a surprising aspect to their stories, and they each have the na...

Behind the Scenes Minis: George and Mad Jack

23 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy shares why the story of George Washington Williams makes her so sad. Holly then offers some additional information about John Mytton that wasn't...

John ‘Mad Jack’ Mytton

21 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

John Mytton is often called an eccentric, but that doesn’t really capture his whole story. Despite his wild behavior, he's something of a local hero...

George Washington Williams

19 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

George Washington Williams was one of the first people to publicly describe the atrocities being carried out in the Congo Free State under King Leopol...

SYMHC Classics: Mary Breckinridge

17 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2018 episode covers Mary Breckinridge, who advanced the medical field and found new ways to treat underserved communities. But there are problema...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Natalie Can't Be Contained

16 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy explains why Natalie Clifford Barney needed two episodes. She also shares some of the stories from Barney's stories that didn't make it into eit...

Natalie Clifford Barney, Part 2

14 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Part two of Natalie Clifford Barney week covers her life as a wealthy adult. She moved to France permanently, and established the salon which ran for ...

Natalie Clifford Barney, Part 1

12 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Natalie Clifford Barney was an incredibly privileged woman who hobnobbed with many notable intellectual and artistic figures in history. Part one cove...

SYMHC Classics: Lola Montez

10 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2021 episode covers Lola Montez, a figure whose life is hard to pin down. That's not because of a lack of documentation, but because that documen...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Mademoiselle and the Tunneler

09 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy discuss the unfortunate and gruesome event that allegedly happened at Anne-Marie-Louse's funeral. Harrison Dyar's compulsion and cruel...

Harrison G. Dyar, Jr., Entomologist and Tunneler

07 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Harrison G. Dyar, Jr. is known today largely as a hobby tunneler. But he was also an influential entomologist, and his personal life was much more con...

Anne-Marie-Louise d’Orléans

05 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Anne-Marie-Louise d’Orleans has been described by historians as having been one of the richest heiresses in history, as an insurgent, as unaccomplis...

SYMHC Classics: Dr. Vera Peters

03 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2015 episode examines how Dr. Peters helped revolutionize the treatment of both breast cancer and Hodgkin's lymphoma. But, at the time, her work ...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Anthony's Secrets and Mammograms

02 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy discuss van Dyck's personal life and historical photography. They also discuss mammogram science and try to reassure listeners about t...

A History of Mammography

31 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The history of mammography begins with the discovery of X-rays in 1895. But it took a very long time for breast imaging to advance, in part because it...

Anthony van Dyck

29 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Anthony van Dyck was a commercially successful painter in Antwerp and Italy, but he may have had the most influence in England when he served as court...

SYMHC Classics: Orphan Tsunami

27 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2013 episode covers a tsunami that struck the coast of Japan in January 1700, . It took a while -- a long while -- to figure out where the cataly...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Succession and the Roeblings

26 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Holly talks about her infatuation with the show "Succession," and why Tracy might not like it. Tracy talks about a unique bridge designed by John Roeb...

Emily Warren Roebling and the Brooklyn Bridge

24 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Emily Warren Roebling played a crucial role in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge after her husband became disabled. It’s a story of an enginee...

Stakhanovite Movement

22 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1935, miner Alexei Stakhanov became a hero of labor in the Soviet Union, and the Stakhanovite movement began. But what was touted as an organic st...

SYMHC Classics: Hypatia

20 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2013 episode covers Hypatia, one of the earliest female mathematicians and astronomers. Though she wasn't the very first, she was among the great...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Shakespearean Floorboards

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy explains why there aren't any repatriations or exhumations in this week's edition of Unearthed! There's also discussion of all the ways a sandal...

Unearthed! in Fall/Winter 2023, Part 2

17 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

  Finishing out discussion of things literally and figuratively dug up in the last months of 2023, we're covering shipwrecks, art, animals, and the m...

Unearthed! in Fall/Winter 2023, Part 1

15 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We're closing out the last three months of 2023 by talking about things literally and figuratively dug up during that time, kicking it off with lots o...

SYMHC Classics: Benjamin Banneker

13 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2013 episode covers Benjamin Banneker, a man of color in Colonial America who became an accomplished scholar despite having almost no formal scho...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Wow, Phones

12 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy talk about how actuarial science informs other fields, the book "The Player," and insurance mentions in Terry Pratchett's writing. Se...

The Birth of Actuarial Science and Life Insurance, Pt. 2

10 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As life insurance and assurance became more common, companies that offered coverage ran into in problems in the 18th and 19th century. Part 2 also cov...

The Birth of Actuarial Science and Life Insurance, Pt. 1

08 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Actuarial science is all about calculating risk – risk of injury, illness, death, risk of market shifts and financial outcomes. Part one covers the ...

SYMHC Classics: Alfred Wegener

06 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This 2019 episode covers the career Alfred Wegener had outside of his ideas around what we now understand as plate tectonics, which had both detractor...

Behind the Scenes Minis: Planning for Pigeons

05 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Holly and Tracy talk about the new year and the ways they use calendars. Tracy mentions the birds that often receive ire from humans.See omnystudio.co...

The Great English Sparrow War

03 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the 19th century, a heated dispute arose over the house sparrow and its introduction into North America. Elliot Coues and Thomas Mayo Brewer held o...