An Incomplete History

So, this week we start an extended series about the history of medicine. We start in Ancient Egypt and move around the Mediterranean finally ending up in Colonial America. Along the way we discuss the idea of bodily humors, the principal of extractive therapy, as well as the naissance of scientific approaches to medicine. We also discuss the critical and often unwilling role marginalized people played in the creation of medical knowledge.

In this week's episode we look back on the events of September 11, 2001, and ask how we grapple with memory and recounting historical events. This is a unique episode because Geoff was there! he provides his own narrative of the day's events and readily admits his own recollections are incomplete.

On June 28, 1969, what would normally have been a rather routine police bust of an unlicensed bar on New York City's west side, sparked a series a riots and protests that birthed the modern Gay Pride movement. Who was there, who started the riot, who did the police target and many other details surrounding the night of the 28th as well as the subsequent nights of rioting has been a point of contention within the LGBT community ever since. Join us this week as we discuss the origins of Pride Month and the complicated beginnings of the LGBT rights movement.

This week we delve into a topic we've been promising to cover for some time, the Second Great Awakening. This was the religious movement in the United States that spawned the Mormons and Adventists as well as the evangelical factions of more mainline churches. It truly was a time when American Christianity came into its own. As always, though, we'll complicate things a bit and talk about the First Great Awakening and other religious movements before the founding of the United States.

This week we wrap up a very brief introductory history of Mormonism in America. We continue the story from the previous episode with the church's reaction to the murder of Joseph Smith. We trace the rise of Brigham Young and the infamous Utah War. We end with the twentieth century church and its transition from fringe group to conservative religion.

Join us for the first in a two-part series about a uniquely American religion, the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints, or Mormonism. In this episode we discuss the origins of the religion and the competing threads of official church history, non-official folklore, personal accounts, and governmental records and interactions to construct a more complete picture of how this religion developed.

We continue our exploration of the history of cults in America this week with a discussion of two infamous groups from the 1990s: The Branch Davidians and Heaven's Gate. Both cults ended in the deaths of their charismatic leaders, but the trajectories were quite different. If you're interested in the militia movement, UFOs, Nike sneakers, Star Trek, the Book of Revelations, the FBI, or how to get cheap real estate in Southern California you should join us this week!

This week we continue the discussion we started last time about utopian experiments and cults by covering two of the most fascinating and disturbing figures of the twentieth century, Jim Jones and Charles Manson. What made these two men turn to violence and how did their lives and the people they convinced to do unspeakable things reveal deep fissures and anxieties in post-war America. Join us this week to find out.

So, this week we start a little series about cults in American history, but this first episode took a slight detour into a more general discussion of utopian communities in America, particularly in the nineteenth century. We discuss Oneida, Harmony, and New Harmony, among others. We also trace the way religion and the Second Great Awakening shaped utopian ideas including the concept of moral perfectionism.

To celebrate spring and the return of America's pastime, we're delving into the history of baseball this week. From its origins as a children's game in England to a powerful tool of imperialism, baseball has it all.