Barely Historical

The year is 1692. Massachusetts is cold, paranoid, and running on bad carbs. Two girls start convulsing, the town loses its collective mind, and suddenly everyone’s a witch — or about to be.

This is the chaotic half you’re allowed to hear. We cover the gossip, the bad science, and the first sparks of hysteria that made Salem the messiest small town in history.

In this episode: • The girls, the fits, and the fungus theory • The witch court that made ghosts into witnesses • The hangings that changed everything

To hear the rest — including the aftermath, the real legacy, and “Guess That Sin: Puritan Edition” — head to our Patreon for the full, unhinged version.

🎧 Patreon: patreon.com/barelyhistorical

📩 Contact: [email protected]

Let’s ruin the past.

Welcome to Barely Historical, the podcast where accuracy is debatable, but enthusiasm is eternal.

This week, JoLynne and Amanda take you back to 1692 Massachusetts, where the air smelled like goat, the beer was safer than water, and paranoia was the hottest trend in town. From moldy bread and mass hysteria to “piss cakes” and paper money that melted in the rain, we’re unpacking how a bunch of Puritans turned neighborhood drama into the most infamous witch hunt in history.

Featuring:

🧙‍♀️ “Fact or Folklore” (colonial gaslighting edition)

🐐 “A Day in the Life” of unwashed Puritans

💸 America’s first inflation problem

💀 And one very innocent Good Boy

Join us as we ruin 1692, one goat joke at a time.

Join our Patreon

Welcome to Barely Historical, the funny history podcast where two lifelong friends pick a year, dive in, and instantly regret it. In this first episode, meet Amanda and JoLynne, best friends for 25 years, failed Russian princesses, and self-appointed historians of chaos. They share how the podcast started, what’s coming next, and why the past was just as unhinged as the present. Expect pop culture, scandal, and stories from 1692 to 1997 that prove history has always been messy and hilarious.

Join our Patreon

Meet Amanda and Jolynne, lifelong friends, failed Russian princesses, and self-appointed historians of chaos. Barely Historical is the funny history podcast where they pick a year, dive in, and instantly regret it. In this trailer, they share what inspired the show and what’s coming next, from the Salem Witch Trials to 90s pop culture fever. Every episode mixes comedy, storytelling, and just enough research to make you dangerous at trivia. If you like history, gossip, and dark humor, this is your new favorite comedy history podcast.

1963 looks polished in the photos. Pastel dresses, church picnics, men in suits who definitely smell like cigarettes and bad coffee. Underneath, it is a year of civil rights marches, Cold War nerves, televised grief, and housewives being told a vacuum is the ultimate romantic gesture.

In this episode of Barely Historical, Jo and Amanda walk through 1963 like a yearbook you are not sure you actually want to sign. We cover the March on Washington, JFK’s assassination and the national gut punch that followed, the space race energy at NASA, zip codes, lava lamps, tab soda, and why teens were about to turn music into a full personality. Along the way we drag vintage magazine ads, side eye “for the woman who has everything” appliances, and peek at the pressure building behind those picture perfect suburban lives.

You will get: civil rights, Cold War tension, pop culture, politics, and a NASA engineer vs radio DJ “day in the life” that makes it painfully clear who is saving the world and who is just spinning vinyl and vibes. At the end we tease our Patreon deep dive on “Mother’s Little Helper” and why 50s and 60s housewives were not just “tired,” they were medicated.

If you like your history accurate, opinionated, and slightly disrespectful to bad design and worse men, you are in the right place.
Follow us wherever you ruin history.

Instagram: @barelyhistoricalpodcast

TikTok: @barelyhistoricalpodcast

Patreon: patreon.com/barelyhistorical

Contact: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Credits Hosts: JoLynne and Amanda

Produced by Barely Historical

Theme music: Licensed track