Family Plot

There is so much going on in this episode, I almost don't know where to begin.  In his corner, Arthur discusses his new school year, art and Undertales.  Then we settle in to learn about Matilda Joslyn Gage.  Raised in a home that was a stop for the Underground Railroad, she learned lessons early about equality and doing the right thing and translated those messages into a voice for the right of women to vote, to invent, to live on their own terms and not just women.  She beilieved in the sovereignty of indiginous people and the abolishment of slavery.  We need a little of her spirit even now.  We also talk about how she affected Frank L. Baum her son-in-law and how she became the pattern for Glinda the Good Witch in the Wizard of Oz.  All this and sooooo much more in our latest episode of the Family Plot Podcast!!

We also reference:  Clara Barton from Episode 260
The Salem Witch Trials from Episode 80 and 81.
And Sharon Kinne from Episode 251.

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Man what an episode!! In Arthur's Corner, he discusses his online school and the tragedy of needing a new kitten.  Then we dig into the murders in Keddie California.  We study the history of the area, what made it popular and what made it begin to fail.  We talk about it's engineering marvel, the Keddie Wye.  We also look into Glenna 'Sue' Sharp's past, what led to her moving from Massachussetts to California with her five children.  We talk about how she moved to Keddie and her murder, the murder of her oldest son and his best friend as well as the kidnapping and murder of her youngest daughter.  Then we get into the shoddy investigation, the suspects and so much more in this still unsolved but boy I may have a few ideas about who did it episode of the Family Plot Podcast!

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We talk about so much in this episode.  Arthur takes us to his corner to discuss his new school and a new OC he's literally creating while he talks.  Plus we talk Gavin Newsom's hilarious tweets, and the Garfield commercial about fat cats.  Then we settle in to discuss this week's topic, the US Ghost Army.  Officially they were the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops trained in what was then called Camp Pines but these days is called Fort Hood.  We discuss their triumphs and a few of their failures, we discuss their legacy, their place in pop culture and how finally the unit was honored in 2022.  We also discuss how their tactics and deceptions have been updated for the modern world and Arthur's strong dislike and distrust of AI in this, wait, how did that become a thing episode of the Family Plot Podcast!

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This episode is so chock full of content, you might accidentally learn something in the first ten minutes.  In Arthur's Corner, among other things, he talks about a recent visit to Children's Mercy Hospital and Dean brings up Josh Gates as Arthur talks his 'hear me out's.  We discuss Horrifying History and the fact they posted a snippet of one of Laura's stories,and we talk Octoberpod and of course we discuss the Cash-Landrum UFO Incident.  Often called one of the 'Big 3' UFO experiences (along with Roswell and Rendlesham) we discuss what they saw and the way it affected them all long afterwards in this out-of-this-world episode of the Family Plot Podcast!

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Well this was as fun an episode to do as (we hope) it is for you to listen to.  In Arthur's Corner he talks Dandy's World, getting over illness and his return to school as well as his recent popularity as a young transman on Threads.  The rest of the Laura suggested show we discuss Clara Barton, her life as a young, possibly neurodivergent woman, how she grew up with only one close friend and the love of her family leading to her first career as a school teacher and someone who created the public school system in Bordentown New Jersey.  The people of Bordentown were so impressed, they made a brand new school building and gave the job of principal to a man from out of state whom they paid double her salary.  She left and joined the US Patent Office in Washington DC which led to her becoming a battlefield nurse during the Civil War and founding the American Red Cross.  After leaving the Red Cross, the founded the National First Aid Association of America and continued public speaking almost right up to her death at 90 years old.  She was a woman with no give, no quit who always pivoted towards purpose, so check out this amazing woman in this, the latest episode of the Family Plot Podcast!

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There is so much going on in this episode, we almost needed a playbook.  First, we visit Arthur's Corner to find out he's feeling sick and he recently lost his kitten.  After that we dig in the Death of Ricky C. McCormick, a man one psychiatrist diagnosed with having "a brick wall in his mind",  We cover his mother, his potential father (we have no real idea who that might be) his unsuccessful attempts at becoming educated, his aunt, hjis cousin, his many girlfriends, his children, and his jobs.  We discover his short stint as a drug mule and his violent bosses at the local BP station (Amoco at the time) and how he was found, deceased, on a road he could not get to with public transportation (which is the only way he travelled) with two strange sheets of paper in his pocket containing what might be a coded message in this local true crime episode of the Family Plot Podcast!

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This week we head to Carthage Missouri to attend the birth of a Wild West :Legend, the Bandit Queen Belle Starr,  We discuss her birth, her family, her brothers who all came to bad ends, including one who disappeared mysteriously.  We discuss her family's ties to the South as the Civil War came and went and her family's move to Scylene, Texas where she drove one of the wagons.  She idolized the James-Younger gang and learned how to shoot, eventually becoming a legendary outlaw and a planner of criminal activities, employing various criminals for various purposes, fencing their ill gotten gains and even arranging for their release from jail if they were caught.  She was eventually caught and charged with horse thievery and even that didn't stop her.  She served her time in Detroit before returning to a life of crime.  She was famously murdered and her murder remains unsolved.  In Arthur's corner we discuss the death of Ozzy Osbourne, the release of the game Secret of the Mimic and of course, Dandy's World in this wide ranging crazy episode of the Family Plot Podcast.

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TRIGGER WARNING - This Episode contains mentions of accidental shootings and murder-suicide.  If these are too much for you, please, feel free to skip the episode.  You Matter!

Well, Friends and Neighbors, pull up a chair and sit a spell as we go back to the birth of Kansas City to talk a little about the early days of Kansas City and a figure that came out of it named Sands. W. Hopkins.  A child who lost his parents young, was raised by his Uncle, hunted a ghost, with pistols of course, while attending college, lost his wife in an accidental shooting and whose life bogged down into gambling, drinking and depravity from there.  We cover his birth, his amazing life and his slow descent into madness, alcoholism and death in this local and incredibly strange episode of the Family Plot Podcast!

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This week on Family Plot, we’re joined by our youngest plotter—8-year-old Lexi Boese—who asked us to tell the story of Autherine Juanita Lucy, the first Black student admitted to the University of Alabama. Her brave enrollment in 1956 was court-ordered and historic… and it ignited the largest anti-integration riot in American history. What followed was a shameful twist: Lucy was expelled “for her safety”—a coward’s move cloaked as concern. Even the local Birmingham paper applauded the university’s decision, celebrating the city’s “peace”—a peace built on exclusion. (Yeah… that didn’t age well.) In this episode, we dive into Lucy’s incredible journey:

• Her decision to challenge segregation
• The three harrowing days she spent on campus
• The court’s demand to reinstate her—and the university’s retaliatory slander ban
• Her triumphant return in 1988, earning a master’s degree the same year her daughter graduated with a BA

This isn’t just a story—it’s resistance wrapped in legacy. And with Lexi, Arthur, Laura, and Dean at the table, we explore how one woman’s courage changed history. Pull up a seat. Let’s learn something. #AutherineLucy #CivilRightsHero #FamilyPlotPodcast #LetsLearnSomething #BlackHistory #HistoryPodcast #AmplifyBlackVoices #TrailblazerThursday #PG13WithHeart


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In this episode we are joined by Kelsey Black, of the Book Burrow Bookstore in Pflugerville Texas as we discuss the history of Bookstores as Resistance Centers.  We discuss David Ruggles and the first Black-owned bookstore in the United States and how he was a figurative and literal stop on the Underground Railroad, selling books about feminism and the abolitionist movement.  We talk the FBI's illegal COINTELPRO and how they went after book stores like Hakim's and The Drum and Spear Bookstore.  We discuss the Gotham Book Mart, the 8th Street Bookstore and Peace Eye Books in New York City and so much more, even digging into how booksellers have sneaked secret information to their customers in this fully amazing episode of the Family Plot Podcast

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