Everything Is Awful Forever

It's the mid 1850s and one thing is on everyone's lips (and perhaps their freshly laundered handkerchiefs): tuberculosis. Deadly, incurable, and oh so incredibly fashionable. 

Join Jess and Philippa as they look at what was then called "the white plague", "consumption", or even "graveyard cough" and how the Victorians cultivated its sickly pallor in order to give themselves a moral, intellectual - and above all trendy - glow.

Support the show

In these difficult times, we're all learning new lessons about hygiene and what not to put in our mouths (lookin' at you, Greg). Join Jess and Philippa as they look back on the 20s of yester-century and the finger-lickin' awfulness of the Radium Girls.

Support the show

The countryside is underrated. Lush fields, picturesque cows, spring in bloom, and middle class sex (maybe?) cults. Join Jess and Philippa in the Abode of Love as they discuss the Agapemonites, led by Henry Prince, and their involvement in the lives of the Nottidge family. Cults, abductions, madhouses, and scandal: it's all topsy turvey in the Abode of Love.

Support the show

 How do you piss off a pirate? Take away the ‘P’! We'd apologise for the the terribly pirate humour and non-stop "aaaarghs", but we don't think we'll ever be sorry. 

Join Jess and Philippa as they teach their parrots to swear, adjust their eyepatches, and learn about the pirate code (it's more of a guideline, really). 

Support the show

It's our final episode on Bedlam and we're all out of episode titles. Join us this week as Bedlam is dragged kicking and screaming to its new home in St. George's Fields and the 19th century. 

Support the show

A family vacation, cruising on out in the blue of the Bahamas...just what could possibly go wrong? This week, let Jess and Philippa stoke your thalassophobia as we dive into a story about death on the ocean and surprising escapes.

Support the show

Royal assassination attempts, criminal lunacy and...Quakers? When we last looked at Bedlam, it was wobbling uneasily on its shaky masonry. But who's going to be the one to push it over the edge? This week, Jess and Philippa take a look at the dual waves of prison and asylum reform that would soon sweep Bedlam out of its chains and into the modern age.

Support the show

This week, join two rum runnin' baby vamps as we speak easy about 1920s prohibition and the G-man's attempts to give America the screaming meemies. It's not all banana oil, so let's get boiled as an owl and jive to the toils of the roaring 20s.

Support the show

This week, Jess and Philippa continue their journey into Bedlam. Join us as we sneak between its tightly locked doors, through the shaky, crumbling structure of the building, eavesdrop on its medical triumvirate, and chat with one of its inmates about a fiendish invention.

Support the show

Content warning for brief mention of sexual assault in the episode.

As we look away from the awful world of current events, it's a good time to remind ourselves that things could always be more...interesting. Join Jess and Philippa this week as we talk about rulers who thought that they might be blamed for the weather, held court martials (and executions) for rats, or just tied their guests to water wheels to watch them drown.

Support the show