Anachronismo!

Ho ho ho it’s a live show! Join us at the Democracy Center as we talk the history of the Barbershop Pole, which we guarantee involves a lot less singing than you think! Then, we dive into the Great Seattle Fire, a comedy of mishaps that burned down way more than it possibly should have.

It’s Black History Month so today we’re talking about two black men who made their mark on history. First, we talk about Le Chevalier de Saint Georges aka Joseph Bologne, a french composer, duelist and war hero. Born the son of a slave and a nobleman, Joseph quickly made a name for himself in Parisian … Continue reading "Ep 41 – Chevalier de Saint Georges, Stephen Bishop Cave Explorer"

We talk the Glass Delusion and about an expedition that the US almost backed to the CENTER OF THE EARTH today. The Glass Delusion was a mental illness from the 1400s-1800s where the sufferer believed themselves to be made out of glass, liable to shatter at the slightest touch. King Charles III was the firstt … Continue reading "Ep 40 – Glass Delusion, Hollow Earth Expedition"

This episode we talk about John Murray Spear, an abolitionist, pacifist, prison reformer and also the preacher who tried to build a robot jesus. What do you mean, burying the lede? The dude lived an excellent life for justice and deserves to be remembered as more than a man who created a giant automaton out … Continue reading "Ep 39 – New Motive Power, Annie Londonderry"

There’s a content warning on this episode – both of the stories this week go to some very dark places. This week we talk about the mutiny of the company ship Batavia. This Dutch East India Corporation trading boat underwent a mutiny, a shipwreck, a lord of the flies situation and a daring seige all … Continue reading "Ep 38 – Batavia Mutiny, Queen Ranavalona"

The gang is back together! We start with the story of John Batman, co-founder of Melbourne, capturer of cannibals, and genocidal asshole. This dude may share a name with the iconic superhero, but the stuff he did was in no way heroic (except capturing a known cannibal, we’ll give him props for that). An important … Continue reading "Ep 37 – John Batman, Painless Parker"

This episode features guest host David Fouhy subbing in for Noel. We dive into Saturnalia: a Roman festival of rebirth that if you squint at it looks an awful lot like xmas, if xmas was way cooler and involved making servants into princes for a week. There were gifts of wax, feasting, dancing and the … Continue reading "Ep 36- Saturnalia, Gregor MacGregor’s Poyais Scheme"

We go LIVE at the Cambridge YWCA. You know how nowadays we joke about there being a fashion police? Well back in the 1920s, there wasn’t so much a fashion police as there was a riot over wearing the wrong hat for the season. And it wasn’t a small one either, literally thousands of people … Continue reading "Ep 35 LIVE Straw Hat Riots, Fastest Surgeon Ever"

On our first episode as part of the Make Fun Network, we’re joined by Marc Campasano, a very funny man and actual historian! He tells us all about the insanity around American voting from before voting was anonymous. People used to expect you to not only announce our vote, but to take whatever ballot a … Continue reading "ep 34 – Australian Ballot, 1st Barbary War, Fanachronismo"

Join us and guest host Bibek as we learn about some of our most recent history yet with the stories of Steve Bradbury and Margaret Knight. First, Bibek regales us with the tale of how the phrase “do a Bradbury” came to be. It involves Australian speed-skating, terrible collisions and at least one frozen sausage … Continue reading "Ep 33- Doing a Bradbury, Margaret Knight"