By Amy Barnet
The podcast currently has 25 episodes available.
The Northwest plains have weather that is not for the faint of heart. Even this past year a prolonged arctic outbreak struck the area and the Farmer’s Almanac predicted a snow train coming down from Canada.
The Children’s Blizzard is also known as the Schoolhouse Blizzard or the Schoolchildren’s Blizzard.
In the 1940s, a group of seniors organized the Greater Nebraska Blizzard Club to collect and organize survivors’ stories to try and record the sense of sheer terror of that day.
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Learn about what different cultures do when their children’s teeth fall out; and the origins of the tooth fairy, a fairly modern character—certainly younger than Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.
After our episode on Vikings, we were intrigued by the fact that they made necklaces out of their childrens’ lost teeth and wore them for protection when they traveled—and pillaged.
And we wondered, what was going on in other parts of the world? Did other people do anything to commemorate this notable part of growing up?
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By the middle ages, brewing and selling ale provided women a way to work and achieve "good profits, social power, and some measure of independence from men"—especially compared to other trades, which did not. Yet after the Black Plague, societal changes led to men dominating in the field of brewing—which still continues today.
But some think women were forced out of brewing because men began to accuse female brewers of being witches and using their cauldrons to brew up magic potions instead of ale.
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The 6888th was a self-contained unit.
The Army wasn’t yet integrated for men, let alone women—and segregated by both race and gender, the members of the Six Triple Eight not only made history, they quickly achieved what seemed insurmountable, and in doing so, improved the morale of U.S. troops.
Out of the 855 members of the battalion, three perished overseas and were laid to rest in France.
The Six Triple Eight holds the distinction of being the largest group of Black servicewomen to serve overseas during WWII, yet only recently have these women begun to receive their long-overdue recognition.
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“Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” was nationally broadcast from 1968 to 1976, and again from 1979 to 2001; although the show existed in different iterations prior. During the thirty minute program children were encouraged to be their true selves, use their imaginations, and show kindness to their neighbors.
However, the show broke plenty of ground in childrens’ television programming. Within the first week the show was alluding to the Vietnam war; and the character, Officer Clemons, was one of the first regular roles for a Black person on television. At a time when there was uproar about desegregating swimming pools, Mr. Rogers and Officer Clemons washed off their feet together in a shared pool— a subtle, but important statement. Over the years, grief, divorce, racism, and death were all handled on the show.
Margaret McFarland had a significant influence on how content was presented onair; in fact, she reviewed the scripts until her death, suggesting improvements on the material.
“She will make just one suggestion, and it raises the whole level,” Rogers told The Pittsburgh Press. “She was an enormous influence on me.”
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If you Google “worst jobs” you’re going to see things like crime scene clean up and sewer diver, but compared to medieval bell ringer? At least sewer divers can be hosed down. Bell ringers had to be hosed off – like, every surface.
In honor of April Fool's Day, we are taking part in "Operation Switcheroo 2021*."
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Vampires lurk throughout popular culture, appearing on television in “True Blood” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” as well as Twilight books, and even the character “The Count” on Sesame Street.
But long before Buffy was protecting humankind, a public hysteria gripped several New England states in the late 19th century. Roughly two hundred years after the Salem witch trials, locals were on high alert as they believed vampires were in their midst.
In fact, roughly 80 of these disturbed vampire graves are documented, but it is believed there are hundreds more. What caused people to come to the conclusion that their dead relatives were returning to suck the life out of them? Let’s find out.
Guest podcast hightlight: "Thoughts from a Page"
Special Guest: Cindy Burnett.
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Tea came to Ireland in the early 1800s and was immediately classified as a luxury product, having arrived from far away India on a clipper ship. Right from the beginning, upper class, wealthy people began holding tea parties, and once it became—pardon the pun—steeped into the culture, the other classes did as well.
Some people say that tea is Ireland’s other “national drink” (after stout) and with the average person downing 1,300 cups annually, it is an important part of the culture.
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Perhaps no other Montmartre venue has inspired as much interest as the Moulin Rouge, the most luxurious and exuberant nightclub in Paris when it opened, featuring: a dance hall, cabaret, risque sideshows, clowns, fortune-tellers,and cancan dancers. The garden, marked by an oversized plaster elephant turned-opium-den, trained monkeys, donkey rides, and, of course, the moulin rouge, or “red windmill.”
The Moulin Rouge created space where anything was possible: women and men together drinking and socializing openly, lovers meeting and carrying on, and revelers letting loose, concealed by masks at parades and costume balls.
The notorious cabaret is a symbol of fun and fancy, ever since La Belle Époque, when it first opened in the heart of the City of Love.
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Most European cities have channeled their waters into paved canals, wiping out much of the history along the way—but not London, which is one of the only places where you can safely do something like mudlarking.
The variety of artifacts found can be significant finds, but they also, often, represent items museums don’t often have much of, the cheaply-made, everyday objects such as children’s toys like a medieval toy horse and knight, a Roman hair pin, or Venetian glass chevron beads.
The Thames is one of the largest archaeological sites in the world, and pretty much the entire history of Britain can be told from items found there.
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The podcast currently has 25 episodes available.