Footnoting History

(Christine and Josh) One of the most powerful popes of the Middle Ages, Innocent III made sure to have his hand in everything from religious wars like the Crusades to political squabbles with kings. Here, Josh and Christine take a look at some of the most interesting points in the life of the controversial pontiff. 

(Host: Lucy) 

What ties together a Revolutionary War hero, a Hollywood film director, and twentieth-century Poland’s quest for political independence? The Kościuszko Squadron was an international flying squad, whose airmen included former prisoners of war, idealistic Americans, and international adventurers. The Polish-Soviet War is a conflict that, having taken place in the shadow of the First World War, is largely overlooked in the US today. But at the time, the conflict and the Kościuszko Squadron, named after Tadeusz Kościuszko, generated international enthusiasm and publications from Polish-American presses. This podcast explores this flamboyant, neglected history.

(Hosts: Christine, Kristin, Lucy) It's hard to believe but here we are celebrating a decade of creepy stories from history for our favorite scary holiday!

(Kristin) 

In 1324, a woman named Alice Kyteler was accused of witchcraft in Kilkenny, Ireland. Her story is mysterious and fascinating and considered a landmark case in the history of European witch trials. Find out what happened – or didn’t – this week on Footnoting History!

(Christine) In 1913, Leo Frank was arrested for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan in Atlanta, Georgia. Two years later, he, too, was dead. In this episode, Christine explores the complicated case and its perhaps unexpected musical theatre legacy.

(Kristin) Ever stopped to think about how amazing it is that you have this box, in your home, that keeps food cold? Reliable, at-home refrigeration is pretty new to history – and utterly transformative of how we live. Learn about how this technology came to be so commonplace – and how it changed the world, this week on Footnoting History! 

(Samantha) In the summer of 1678 a defrocked preacher named Titus Oates claimed to have knowledge of a Catholic plot to kill King Charles II and to replace him with his crypto-Catholic brother. At first the story gained no traction, reported as it was by a man of dubious reputation, but when Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey (the man who had first investigated Oates’ story) was found dead people started listening. This week we’ll lay it all out for you: who was Titus Oats? What’s the deal with Godfrey’s death? And what happened when people came to believe that there was a plot against Charles? 

(Christine) Of the four sons of King Henry II of England and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine who lived to adulthood, only one was never called king. In this episode we look at the life of Geoffrey, duke of Brittany, including why he has a reputation for being conniving and the fates of the children he left behind. 

(Lucy and Rachel) In the often-chaotic society of sixteenth-century England, many people enthusiastically consumed true crime narratives in songs, news, and theater plays. Then as now, true crime narratives often centered on community crime-solving as a way of dealing with sensational and upsetting violence. Whether in the form of domestic tragedies or elaborate revenge dramas, true crime played to packed houses in the theaters of Elizabethan London. Amid religious and political upheaval, the popularity of true crime attested not just to evolving habits of media consumption, but also to powerful desires for communal order and mutual responsibility. In this episode, Lucy and guest host Dr. Rachel Clark examine true love, strong hate, and swift revenge – and why audiences tend to love a good murder.

(Josh) In 1896, retired from his life in the so-called "Wild West," Wyatt Earp was asked to referee a boxing match. But not just any boxing match - a bout that would determine the new heavyweight champion. Two legendary boxers, Bob Fitzsimmons and Tom Sharkey, duked it out in San Francisco. The legendary lawman Earp allegedly fixed the fight. On this episode of Footnoting History, come along from a walk through the seedy underbelly of illegal prizefighting and learn how Earp found himself at the center of tremendous controversy.