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Modern Thanksgiving, Part One: A Culture War
Today Thanksgiving is considered a largely innocuous holiday, centered on food and family. In the US, people across the country get together on the s…
4 years, 8 months ago
How Haunted Houses Became A Thing
Haunted houses are a big deal in the United States -- like Spirit stores, they seem to spring up every October -- but whence did they originate? When…
4 years, 8 months ago
New England versus Vampires, Part Two: Desperation and Desecration
In part two of this two-part series, Ben is joined once again with guest host Alex Williams to explore the harrowing tale of the New England Vampire …
4 years, 8 months ago
New England versus Vampires, Part One: The Brutal, Terrifying Life of Early Colonists
While historians continue to explore the details of the infamous Salem witch trials, another, earlier panic swept through New England -- something mo…
4 years, 8 months ago
Ada Lovelace, Part Two: The Analytical Engine
After marrying and having three children, Ada dove back into the world of poetical science, continuing her correspondence with Charles Babbage as he …
4 years, 8 months ago
Ada Lovelace, Part One: How Lord Byron’s Daughter Became a Tech Visionary
Today Ada Lovelace is hailed as one of the most important figures in the early history of computing -- but, during her childhood, her mother was worr…
4 years, 8 months ago
The King of Scotland Got Real Weird with Language Experiments
Scottish King James IV was, by all accounts, a learned man. As a polyglot, he was especially interested in the origin of language -- so much so, in f…
4 years, 8 months ago
The Rum Riot of Portland, Maine
On June 2nd, 1855, the good people of Portland Maine had reached a breaking point. The Mayor, an infamous hardline teetotaler, had just been caught a…
4 years, 8 months ago
The Love of Candy Almost Drove a Cactus Extinct
You might not associate cacti with candy -- on the surface, they seem to have very little in common, mainly because candy is sold in stores around th…
4 years, 8 months ago
The Australian Prison Break of 1876, Part 2
In the second part of this two-part series, the guys return to the astonishing story of the Catalpa, exploring how the men prepared for and committed…
4 years, 9 months ago