A Popular History of Unpopular Things

Join Kelli as she goes over what happened to the USS Scorpion, a skipjack-class nuclear-powered attack submarine that disappeared in May of 1967. It was found five months later, 2 miles down on the Atlantic seabed, broken into pieces. It's entire crew of 99 men sank with it.

Was it an attack? Did it implode? What caused her to sink?

Though tons of theories have been crafted, because we don't *actually* know what happened, we'll use our favorite philosophical tool (Occam's Razor) to determine which of the many theories is the most likely.

Sources to Read:

• Stephen Johnson, Silent Steel: The Mysterious Death of the Nuclear Attack Sub USS Scorpion. John Wiley & Sons: Hoboken, NJ. 2006.
• US Navy FOIA Reading Room, specifically the Scorpion Case Files https://www.secnav.navy.mil/foia/readingroom/SitePages/Home.aspx?RootFolder=%2Ffoia%2Freadingroom%2FCaseFiles%2FScorpion%20Submarine&FolderCTID=0x012000CD3AEB341204C14DB4C7B99C57E99B26&View=%7B988EEA5C%2DDFDB%2D4A5D%2D8414%2DB7A63DACECE2%7D

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Join Kelli for another weird episode where she looks at the Great Moon Hoax of 1835.

For six days straight in 1835, the New York Sun (not the same publication as the one that exists today) published a fantastical story about life on the moon. The scientific series of articles talked about witnessing lumbering bipedal moon-bison, crystal spires, temples, men with wings, and more. It was captivating... and although it was complete fiction, many believed it to be fact.

In today's episode we go over the story, how it was received, and how this whole affair fits into the historical context of penny press newspapers in the early- to mid-nineteenth century.

Sources:

• Text of the original newspaper articles
• The Moon Hoax, 1859. https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/moonhoax00lock
• Stephanie Hall, “Belief, Legend, and the Great Moon Hoax,” Library of Congress, 2014. https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/08/the-great-moon-hoax/
•  ““The Great Moon Hoax” is published in the “New York Sun”” History Channel. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-25/the-great-moon-hoax
• Sarah Zielinski, “The Great Moon Hoax Was Simply a Sign of Its Time.” Smithsonian, 2015. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/great-moon-hoax-was-simply-sign-its-time-180955761/
• Sierra Laddusaw, “Life on the Moon in Two Acts.” University of Michigan. https://clements.umich.edu/publication/the-heavens/life-on-the-moon/

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Join Kelli as she finally starts tackling the impact of westward expansion on indigenous populations in the United States. In this episode, we focus on the Navajo, or Diné, who were forcibly removed from their homeland starting in the winter of 1863.

Get ready for a nice, long historical context! :) 

Sources:

Books

• Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West by Hampton Sides
• Diné: A History of the Navajos by Peter Iverson feat. photographs by Monty Roessel
• Navajo Stories of the Long Walk Period, publ. By Navajo Community College Press

Articles

• Hwéeldi - The Long Walk - https://Dinélanduse.org/hweeldi/

Documentaries/Videos

• The Long Walk: Tears of the Navajo (2009) on PBS
• Sisnaajini: A Navajo Story - Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve on YouTube

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Join Kelli as she talks about a serial killer out of Kansas in the post-civil war era. Taking advantage of westward expansion and a tense climate, the Bender family - Ma, Pa, John, and Kate - were responsible for the murders of at least 11 people... including an 18-month-old baby girl.

Today we explore their dark, dingy, bug-infested cabin to find out what happened to these weary travelers on the Great Osage Trail, looking for a homestead plot and a better life, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sources:

• Slavevoyages.org
• Hell's Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier by Susan Jonasus

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Join Kelli as she goes over a very stinky situation that happened in 1184 in Erfurt, part of the Holy Roman Empire and home base of King (and later Emperor) Henry VI.

As Henry gathered some squabbling nobles to deal with a petty land dispute, the building they were in collapsed under the weight of 60+ people. And two stories below, in the basement of the building, was a cesspit full of... well, you know.

It was a putrid predicament, a malodorous mess, a nauseating nightmare. Get ready for another gross episode with lots of tangents and, somehow, yet another reference to the Protestant Reformation.

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Join Kelli in this shorter history on the mysterious Voynich Manuscript, an early Renaissance-era book written in a made up language (dubbed Voynichese) with strange diagrams that seem... out of this world.

I love a good *history mystery* :)

Sources

• Dave Roos, “Why the Voynich Manuscript May Be the World’s Most Mysterious Book” History.com. https://www.history.com/articles/voynich-manuscript-mystery
• Cipher Manuscript, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/2002046
• “Emperor Rudolf II: Prague's Patron of Arts and Science.” Czech Center Museum of Houston. https://www.czechcenter.org/blog/2021/7/1/7q9enwx9t33fqnij3qqswfpo8p07a7
• The Voynich Manuscript. Edited by Raymond Clemens. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, in assoc. With Yale University Press. 2016.

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Join Kelli as she goes over the story of a feral boy found in the woods outside of Hamelin, Germany. He was brought to King George I's court in England and named Peter, and he entertained curious onlookers for months. He had strange mannerisms and was an oddity, until he fell out of favor and "retired" to a farm, where he lived peacefully until his 70s.

But what was really going on with Peter? Was he really feral as people thought? Did he clamber around on all fours like a beast? Or was he just tragically misunderstood in a time before medical science could diagnosis him with an intellectual disability?

Sources:

• Daniel Dafoe, “Mere Nature Delineated: or, A body without a soul. Being observations upon the young forester lately brought to town from Germany. With suitable applications. Also, a brief dissertation upon the usefulness and necessity of fools, whether political or natural.” 1726. https://archive.org/details/merenaturedeline00defo/page/n12/mode/1up
• Jonathan Swift, “It Cannot Rain But It Pours, Or, London Strewed With Rarities.” 1726. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Works_of_the_Rev._Jonathan_Swift/Volume_17/It_Cannot_Rain_But_It_Pours
• Michael Newton, Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children. 2002. https://www.amazon.com/Savage-Girls-Wild-Boys-Children/dp/0312423357
• “Peter 'the Wild Boy' from Hanover: The Boy on the Staircase” Historic Royal Palaces. https://www.hrp.org.uk/blog/peter-the-wild-boy-from-hanover/
• “Peter the Wild Boy” History Today. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/peter-wild-boy
• “The Tragic Origins of Peter the Wild Boy” Ripley’s. https://www.ripleys.com/stories/peter-the-wild-boy
• Lucy Worsley, “Peter The Wild Boy” Public Domain Review, 2011. https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/peter-the-wild-boy/

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Join Kelli as she goes over a strange event from the 17th century Dutch Republic - the time a political leader was killed, strung up, dismembered, and then cannibalized. 

As always, we set up the history surrounding this event to get a good understanding of the Rampjaar - the disaster year - and why the Dutch people took out their frustrations on Johan de Witt. And we also look into the alleged cannibalism that took place. What does it all mean? What is the bigger picture? What in the world was happening in 1672?!

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Join Kelli as she goes over the popular legend of Boudica, the short-lived queen of the Iceni peoples in Iron Age Britain.

Much of what we know about Boudica comes from heavily-biased Roman sources, written decades or over a century after the events they describe. So how much of her story is fact, and how much is fiction?

And was Boudica even a real person?

Let's dive into the available written and archaeological sources and analyze why the Romans might have written about her the way they did to try to understand Boudica's role in history.

Sources

• Andrew Roberts, “Cartimandua, Queen of the Brigantes” English Heritage. https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/women-in-history/cartimandua/
• Dr. David Musgrove, “The Romans Were Blamed For Massacring These Iron Age Warriors. But Did They Actually Murder Themselves?” History Extra, 2025. https://www.historyextra.com/period/iron-age/the-romans-were-blamed-for-massacring-these-iron-age-warriors-but-did-they-actually-murder-themselves/
• Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars. Book 5. Translated by W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn. https://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.5.5.html 
• Martin Smith, Miles Russell, and Paul Cheetham, “Fraught With High Tragedy: A Contextual And Chronological Reconsideration Of The Maidencastle Iron Age ‘War Cemetery’ (England)”, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 2025. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ojoa.12324?domain=p2p_domain&token=UJWNRVZC4WDFI35RBKYM
• Natasha Sheldon, “The Evidence for the Historical Boudica” 2022. https://historyandarchaeologyonline.com/the-evidence-for-the-historical-boudica%EF%BF%BC%EF%BF%BC/
• Richard Hingley and Christina Unwin, Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen. 2006. https://www.amazon.com/Boudica-Iron-Age-Warrior-Queen/dp/1852855169
• “The Revolt of Boudica according to Cassius Dio” University of Warwick. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/warwickclassicsnetwork/romancoventry/resources/boudica/sources/cassiusdio/
• “The Revolt of Boudica according to Tacitus” University of Warwick. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/warwickclassicsnetwork/romancoventry/resources/boudica/sources/tacitus/
• Vanessa Collingridge, Boudica: The Life of Britain’s Legendary Warrior Queen. Kindle Edition, 2019. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RQX45PR/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

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Join Kelli as she talks about Rome's first ever Black Banquet, hosted by Emperor Domitian in 89 CE. 

Today's episode covers some Roman history including the creation of the Colosseum, the Flavian Dynasty, Cynicism and Stoicism, Memento Mori, and Domitian's spooky banquet - so scary, his guests fled in terror, fearing for their lives!

Happy early Halloween, APHOUT fans <3

Referenced Sources:

• C. Suetonius Tranquillus, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, first composed in 121 CE. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Titus*.html
• Cassius Dio, Roman History. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/67*.html
• https://dailystoic.com/stoicism-cynicism/

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Support the show

Intro and Outro music credit: Nedric | Yello Kake

Follow me on Instagram for episode updates! @beardhistory

If you want to support the show, donate to the cause at Buy Me a Coffee