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The Backstory: Prostitution and murder in the old west
Belle Cora went from minister’s daughter, to prostitute, to San Francisco’s richest madam, to wife of a man hung for the murder of someone who insult…
2 years ago
The Backstory: The Grandmother of Juneteenth
An angry mob vandalizes a new home and then burns it to the ground. A young family barely escapes. Now 85 years later, after a lifetime of public ser…
2 years ago
The Backstory: Alarms: Mooing, peeing, and knocker-uppers
We all have to regularly be somewhere on time. But what did people do before cell phone alarms or even alarm clocks? Animals, body cues, and knocker-…
2 years ago
The Backstory: A hero emerges from a 19th century insane asylum
Did you know that as recently as the Victorian era, somebody could have you committed to an insane asylum just because you disobeyed a husband, were …
2 years ago
The Backstory: Eliza Hamilton: Cheating husband, family deaths, and triumph
Hamilton the musical tells us the story of Alexander Hamilton, a brilliant guy who had a fiery temperament and a cheating heart. Imagine being his wi…
2 years ago
The Backstory: The mysterious death of Edgar Allan Poe
Politics is a nasty business. But it always has been. And it may have played a role in the death of a literary genius. You know the Edgar Allan Poe s…
2 years ago
The Backstory: The history of jokes
We all love to laugh, no matter when, where, or how we’ve lived. Amazingly, there are a handful of topics that have given us the giggles for at least…
2 years ago
The Backstory: James Brown: Drugs, toilets, and guns
James Brown, the godfather of soul, had some anger issues. In fact, he went to prison after threatening agents at an insurance seminar with a gun bec…
2 years ago
The Backstory: Bloody politics
Think politics today are the most angry and violent they’ve ever been? What about the days when senators and congressmen came to work armed with guns…
2 years, 1 month ago
The Backstory: Radiant heat & working toilets 2,000 years ago
We think the world just keeps evolving. But what happens when a civilization like Rome collapses and all that technology disappears?
See omnystudio.c…
2 years, 1 month ago