This week, we step away from doom, gloom and reminders of the fact that we are currently under an authoritarian administration thaat does not value human life and only serves to protect the billionaire class to talk about a magical event that happens every February in the tiny city of  Montpelier, Vermont.  It seems that, since 2002 when people in Montpelier on Valentine's day morning, they find their town covered in hearts, celebrating love, community and kindness.  More than one person has served the role of the Phantom, like the Dread Pirate Roberts, it's a title that gets passed on from time to time.  We cover the history of the tiny capital of Montpelier, the history of the Valentine Phantom and how even during a blizzard and the height of the pandemic, the Montpelier Valentine Phantom (or Bandit) was able to cover the town in hearts.  So join us for this feel good episode of the Family Plot Podcast!

(PS - The 'Secret Santa' from Independence Missouri was Larry Stewart, a Lees Summit Businessman who passed away in 2007)

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Such an episode.  One of three episodes for Black History Month this Month, we cover the amazing life of Frederick Douglass, born a slave, he managed to sneak an education which propelled him to Freedom and so much more.  He learned letters and managed to improve his education by challenging white school children and allowing them to correct him, watching men in lumberyards and shipyards mark words on boxes and objects until he could copy their strokes perfectly.  We discuss hiss first attempt to escape which got him arrested and his second which earned him Freedom.  We discuss his life as a writer, an abolitionist, a public speaker and as a consciense for the country following the Civil War (which was a war about slavery not state's rights...don't be fooled by a racist narrative).  We mention how he had the best hair of that era and his lifelong career as a speaker and statesman even touching on earlier mentions on our podcast (episode 232 and 242) and so much more in this, our first Black History Month epiosde of 2026 on the Family Plot Podcast.  Also, this week's sponsor quote is a quote from Douglass' 'Fourth of July to a Former Slave' as read by the inimitible James Earl Jones.  Credit where credit is due.  

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Man this week is a powerful episode.  Arthur talks dating, mental health, and art and we share our reasons for supporting the families of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and why we support #AbolishIce and #FreeMinnesota.  Then we dig into the story of teenager Grace Darling and how she, with a little help from her father, rowed out in a tiny rowboat (specifically a coble) to help 8 people who had survived a shipwreck in the Farne Islands!  She was made into a hero by the London press but she never saw the point, after all she had only done what she did to help people who needed helping.  And once again, our episode ties into the modern day as Alex Pretti lost his life just trying to help someone, a risk that Grace ran as well.  Check out the episode in this 19th century heroism and 21st century heroism have a lot in common episode of the Family Plot Podcast!  Plus the return of Edward October as the guide on our Elevator of History!

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2026 has been an interesting year for us and so far, all the episodes, we've done have had a real world echo to something happening in our world right now.  This was unplanned and this week continues that trend as we discuss the Pruitt-Igoe Housing Project.  An attempt in Saint Louis to create a new type of housing for the urban poor was met with removal of any communal or public space, to maximize efficiency, segregation, patrols to keep 'able bodied men' from getting free rent by living with their families, and no funding for maintenance which instead of lifting up the urban poor, just pointed them at a life of crime in this episode where we discuss the history of this Saint Louis housing project, what the idea or originally was versus what it becoame and then how instead of spending billions for corporate welfare, we could instead spend those same billions actually helping people and stimulating the economy.  We get more than a little political and more than tired of the status quo in this episode of the Family Plot Podcast!  #AbolishIce

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Wow do we have an episode for you!  First we are joined by Courtney from Book of the Dead Podcast who is an amazing podcaster with an amazing show!  We also take a moment to comment on the murder of Renee Good and while we don't do a deep dive because it is political, we do make it clear that a) it was, in fact, a murder and b) we make it clear that it wasn't right and we are here for those listeners who may be lost, hurt or confused in these dark times.  Then we dig into the Yuba County 5, a California cold case that ranks right up there with the Dyatlov Pass Incident for being unsolvable  Maybe higher because a slab avalance seems the likely solution to that mystery...but there is no easy answer to the Yuba County 5.  Why would five men drive miles out of their way into the Plumas County forest?  Why would they get out of a car that had half a tank of gas, was mechanically sound, and not stuck.  Why would they hike 19 miles to a forest service trailer where at least three men died along the way?  Why was a fifth man discovered dead in a forest service trailer with several weeks growth of beard?  Why did he die from exposure and malnutrition when the trailer had both food and heat?  Why did he have another man's shoes with him what happened to the one man who was never found and who's gold watch was also found in the trailer?  We ask all these questions but there aren't really any answers in this mysterious, historical, true crime deep dive into a cold case from all the way back in 1978.  

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Our latest episode goes hog wild as we talk about the heroic Ida B. Wells.  From taking care of her brothers and sisters at the age of 16 after her parents and brother died of yellow fever to teaching in black schools to writing for local papers and taking on lynchings in the South.  And this wasn't even forty years after the Brooks Sumner Affair where South Virginia's Senator Preston Brooks attacked Massachussets Senator Charles Sumner hitting him over the head many times after he gave a powerful Anti-Slavery speech.  And this was a black woman born into slavery who told the truth about lynchings in a way the South was not ready to hear.  A lynch mob would tear her newspaper asunder, force the papers owner to sign a retraction at gunpoint while she happened to be in New York...and in New York she stayed continuing to write the truth about lynchings in the South, even going to England where she spoke publicly about the issue, embarassing the US abroad.  Even when she campaigned for women's suffrage, she refused to march in the back, jumping in the middle of the parade as it happened walking with white female suffragists.  Largely forgotten by history, she was quoted by US. President Joe Biden when he signed the US first anti-lynching law in 2022.  So come with us down the trail of history and lets learn about this firebrand in our first informational episode of 2026!

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Our annual year-in-review show where we cover things past, things present and things future.  We discuss the year as a whole, what we've learned and how we managed to cope as well as discovering the fact that we are all about Found Family and we enjoy our listeners who reach out to ask if they can join us for dinner!  A feel good end of year wrap up with thanks to a lot of good people.

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A bit shorter episode this week, the perfect size for that jaunt over the river and through the woods to see grandma...or to run to the store and fight Tobey Macguire for that last dented can of jellied cranberry sauce.  This week we ask the question is Santa a cryptid?  We tell a brief tale of his origin, mention that Saint Nicholas is somehow both the patron saint of children and sex workers and every year on december 25th goes on the world's largest buisiness trip.  We discuss supposed real sightings of the big man (Does he drive a pristine red Mustang with Alaska plates that read 'BIGGUY'?  We don't know but someone claims he does.    Plus a few humorous, very not real, cryptid style reports of Santa as told by various fake people in this ho-ho-holiday episode of the Family Plot Podcast!

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We are joined this episode by Kansas City Comedian Dale Hilton to discuss the London Beer Flood of 1814 and the Gorbals Hot Whiskey Disaster of 1906.  We do cover these two strangely historical events and also discuss Beer and how it lead to both the formation of society as well as the invention of refrigeration because people wanted to keep their beer cold.  We also discuss 'Generic' Beer, trashcan punch parties, a store similar to Wal-mart and Target named Venture's , Purple Passion (available in cans and two liter-bottles) and so much more in this end of year but we're still learning in the festive episode filled with friendship and suspicious liquid cheer!

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A shorter episode this week but that makes it the perfect length to listen to on your way to Holiday Shopping.  This week we go uplifting as we dig into the life of Beatrice 'Tillie' Shilling.  The child of a master butcher and one of thre girls born and raised in the South of England, she spent her pocket money on tools and penknives, deconstructed devices to see how they fit together and worked and played with Meccano sets, early construction toys allowing children to build working models of cars and cranes.  She would even win a competition for building from these kits.  By the age of 14, she bought her first motorcycle originally to beat her sisters in bike races.  But she tuned, tinkered and replaced every single part remaking the machine and soon was speeding around on it everywhere.  She began to study practical electronics and work in the field as young as 15, even going on to become an Engineer (in the 1930's when women just didn't do such things).  We cover the life of this amazing woman and how she saved both the Spitfire and the Hurricane, earned an OBE and hit the ton at Brooklands as a motorcycle racer in this uplifting, girl powerm yes it's in Surrey but there's no fringe on top episode of the Family Plot Podcast!

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