For the Love of History - world history, women’s history, weird history

By Tehya N.Comedy Education History

For the Love of History - world history, women’s history, weird history episodes

October 09 The +400 Year War on the Fork! | The Devils Tool
For hundreds of years, many devout Catholics believed the fork was a tool of the devil. Today it's the most used utensil in the world. How did the fork go from public enemy number one to a place at billions of tables?

In this episode, TK digs into the history of the fork, from a scandalous Byzantine wedding in Venice in 1004 to the French pea craze that finally changed Europe's mind.

In this episode:
- The earliest forks in ancient China and the Byzantine Empire
- Maria Argyropoulina, the Byzantine princess whose golden forks horrified her Venetian wedding guests
- Why Saint Peter Damian and other churchmen blamed the fork for her death
- Why eating with your fingers was considered the natural, godly way to eat
- How candied fruit and sugar made the fork respectable in Italy
- Catherine de Medici bringing forks to France, and why French men called them too feminine
- Louis XIV banning his own children from using forks
- How green peas led to the four-tined fork we use today
- The English and American backlash against forks, and the Victorian fork obsession

Is there an everyday object or food you'd like TK to cover? Send us your suggestions!

Support the podcast on Patreon for bonus content, including a watch party of The Mummy (1999) with an archaeologist, a travel vlog, and behind-the-scenes extras

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For the Love of History is a podcast about world history, women's history, and weird history, hosted by TK.

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30 min
October 02 What the Egyptian Book of the Dead Really Says
The Egyptian Book of the Dead wasn't a book, and it wasn't cursed. It was a cheat sheet for surviving the afterlife exam from hell. Fail, and your heart gets eaten by a monster. This week, we open the real Book of the Dead, find out what The Mummy (1999) got wrong, and learn what Joseph Smith has to do with any of it.
Ancient Egyptians believed that after death, you'd face a gauntlet of fire-breathing snakes, demon gatekeepers, and a final judgment in which your heart was weighed against a feather. To help them pass, they were buried with up to 192 spells: the text modern scholars call the Book of the Dead.
In this episode:
- What the Book of the Dead actually was (and why it wasn't a single book)
- The spells against eating poop and drinking pee in the underworld (yes, really)
- Ra's solar boat, the gates of the underworld, and the demons
- The weighing of the heart and Ammit the Devourer
- Spell 30, aka "Heart, please don't snitch on me"
- The barnyard chorus of the blessed dead
- Shabti figurines: 401 tiny servants for the afterlife
- The Book of Breathing, and the breathing permit that ended up in Ohio
- Joseph Smith, the Book of Abraham, and a very consequential mistranslation
This episode was researched and written by our resident archaeologist, Hannah Herrick. If you enjoyed it, send her some love!
Join us on Patreon for early episodes, behind-the-scenes content, travel vlogs, bonus episodes, and this week's Mummy (1999) watch-along with Hannah
Want to help the show grow for free? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and share the episode with a fellow history nerd. It makes a huge difference.
For The Love Of History is a podcast about world history, women's history, and weird history, hosted by TK (Tehya Nakamura). New episodes every week.

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43 min
September 18Ainu Tattoos: Sacred Protection, Then a Crime
Everyone knows Japan has a complicated relationship with tattoos — but most people blame the wrong group. Long before the Yakuza gave tattoos their modern stigma, Japan's indigenous Ainu people were being punished, shamed, and legally banned from practicing a tattoo tradition thousands of years old.
In this episode:
The origin story and animist religion behind Ainu tattoos

How Ainu tattoos were actually done (tools, ink, and technique)

The meaning behind Ainu women's mouth and arm tattoos

Why and how the Japanese government banned Ainu tattooing

How Ainu women preserved their traditions in secret

Where the Ainu tattoo revival stands today
We also cover the darker chapter of this history: how Japan's push toward Westernization and Meiji-era "civilization" campaigns led to Ainu tattoos being outlawed, practitioners being publicly shamed in newspapers, and generations of forced assimilation — and how Ainu women kept the tradition alive in secret until Japan finally recognized the Ainu as an indigenous people in 2019.
Support Ainu artists:
The Mirai Project
Learn more about the Ainu:
https://www.global.hokudai.ac.jp/catchup/21123/
https://www.biratori-ainu-culture.com/en/trip/nibutani-museum/
https://www.ainu-assn.or.jp/english/begin.html
The Nibutani Ainu Museum / Upopoy
Referenced in this episode:
Experimental tattoo archaeologist

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28 min
September 11Pirate Queen Zheng Yi Sao | The Worlds Greatest Pirate
As a teenager, she worked on floating brothels. By her 30s, she commanded a pirate fleet larger than the Spanish Armada and forced three national governments to negotiate on her terms. This is the true story of Zheng Yi Sao, also known as Ching Shih, the most successful pirate in history, male or female.

What you'll learn in this episode:
Who Zheng Yi Sao (Ching Shih) was and how she rose from poverty to power

How Qing Dynasty floating brothels and the tanka people shaped her early life

How a marriage alliance turned her into an equal partner in a pirate empire

How she built and ran a 1,200-ship, 70,000-pirate fleet — and the pirate banking system that funded it

The strict pirate code she enforced, including rules that protected captured women

How she out-maneuvered the combined navies of China, Portugal, and Britain

How she negotiated her own pardon and retired in peace and wealth
If you love women's history, world history, and stories about the real people behind legendary reputations, this episode is for you!!

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45 min
September 04 The Truth About Samurai Women | Tomoe Gozen
She led 1,000 cavalry into battle, survived facing down 6,000 enemy warriors, and 800 years later, historians still can't agree on whether she was real. Meet Tomoe Gozen — the legendary female samurai commander at the center of Japan's most famous war.
The British Museum's new Samurai Women exhibition has the internet arguing, some calling it revisionist and others calling it long overdue. So we're pulling this fan-favorite episode out of the archives to set the record straight: women didn't just witness samurai history; they fought it.
In this episode:
🗡️ How the samurai class actually formed, starting with a scandal-prone emperor and 40+ kids
⚔️ The real Bushido code, and why the "way of the warrior" myth is mostly a modern invention
🐎 Onna-musha and onna-bugeisha: the real female warriors of feudal Japan
📜 The Genpei War, the Battle of Awazu, and the legend of Tomoe Gozen
🥋 The truth about the naginata — and why it was never "just a woman's weapon"
👑 What actually happened to Tomoe Gozen after her final battle (there are four competing legends — you decide which one you believe)
Grab your snack, hop in the time machine, and let's get into it.

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38 min
August 28 Yokai Women | Evil Monsters or Victims?
What happens when women become the monsters of Japanese folklore? In this episode of For the Love of History, we dive into the terrifying world of Japanese yokai women, exploring the myths, legends, religion, and sexism behind some of Japan's most fascinating female monsters.
From the Jorōgumo spider woman who lures men into her deadly web, to Hino-enma, the seductive demon associated with female sexuality and Buddhist morality, and the iconic Hannya demon mask, these stories reveal a complicated history of women, power, jealousy, sexuality, and revenge in Japanese folklore.
We’ll explore Japanese yokai, Japanese mythology, Japanese ghost stories, Shinto, Buddhism, Buddhist hell, Edo-period folklore, Noh theater, and the history behind Japan's most famous female supernatural creatures.
👹 In this episode:
• What exactly is a Japanese yokai?
• The difference between yokai, ghosts, demons, and mononoke
• Jorōgumo — the deadly spider woman of Japanese folklore
• Why Jorōgumo are always portrayed as female
• Hino-enma and the demonization of female beauty and sexuality
• How Buddhism and Shinto shaped Japanese folklore
• Hannya — the woman behind Japan's famous horned demon mask
• Why female yokai so often become monsters through betrayal, suffering, and revenge
If you love Japanese folklore, Japanese mythology, yokai, ghost stories, mythology, women's history, weird history, or the darker side of Japanese culture, this episode is for you.
📚 BOOK RECOMMENDATION:
Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda, translated by Polly Barton — a feminist retelling of Japanese yokai stories with a modern twist.

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47 min
August 21 Empress Baddie | Theodora of the Byzantine Empire
Was she a teenage s*x worker or a young woman caught in the crossfire of history?! Let’s dive into how Empress Theodora became one of the most powerful women in history.

This episode traces Empress Theodora's rise from poverty and the Byzantine Hippodrome to the imperial throne,e and the wave of laws she wrote protecting women-, from anti-rape statutes to marriage rights- that shaped the Western legal system for centuries. We separate the scandal (thanks, Procopius) from the facts, and ask: saint, sinner, or both?

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37 min
August 14 Minamata | Japan's Cover-Up That Poisoned Generations
A quiet fishing town. Cats dancing themselves to death on the wharf. And a company that knew exactly why. This is what happens when companies choose profit over people.
This week we're covering the Minamata incident: how a chemical company called Chisso spent decades dumping mercury into the waters of Minamata Bay, poisoning fish, animals, and eventually thousands of people, including children. We're tracing the cover-up, the corporate and government betrayal, the fight for justice that dragged on for decades, and the resilience of the Minamata community that refused to be forgotten.
⚠️ Trigger warning: this episode discusses death, child loss, and a difficult environmental/health disaster. Take care of yourself, skip this one if you're not in the headspace for it today, and come back when you are.
If you want more from For The Love Of History, join us on Patreon for bonus episodes, watch-throughs, TK reacts, and early releases.

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38 min
August 07 The Mystery of Scythain Tattoos
For 2,500 years, her tattoos were invisible, hidden beneath mummified skin until infrared imaging revealed what no one knew existed.
In this episode, we dive into the world of Scythian tattoos, tracing the history of the Pazyryk people, a nomadic culture from the Eurasian steppe, through one of archaeology's newest and most fascinating fields: tattoo archaeology. From the discovery of the famous "Ice Maiden" in 1993 to cutting-edge infrared research published in 2025, we explore how ancient nomads used tattoos to mark status, memory, and identity — and why every single preserved mummy from this culture was covered in ink.
We'll also fact-check the ancient Greek historian Herodotus (again), debunk the internet's favorite "aliens made these tattoos" theory, and hear directly from the researchers and a tattoo artist who tattooed himself for 13 hours in the name of science.
A huge thank you to Dr. Aaron Deter-Wolf and tattoo artist Daniel Riday for sharing their expertise for this episode. We also want to acknowledge Dr. Gino Caspari, whose 2025 research paper inspired this deep dive!
✨ Want more untold stories like this? Support the podcast and unlock bonus content over on Patreon.

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40 min
June 05Samurai Fart Art of Japan | 10 Min History
Japan gave us The Great Wave. It also gave us 34 feet of fart scroll! 💨

When archivists at Waseda University unrolled a 34-foot Edo-period scroll, they expected samurai, landscapes, or elegant courtly scenes. What they got was 10 meters of pure, unhinged fart battle art, and it's one of the most fascinating windows into feudal Japanese culture you'll ever find.

In this episode:
The 34-foot Waseda hēgassen scroll and what's actually in it

How fart art dates back to 12th-century Japanese monks

Why the Edo period (1603–1868) became a golden age of gag art

How flatulence scrolls were used as political satire and anti-government commentary

The fart scroll of Toba and its surprisingly pointed critique of Japan's civil war

Why sometimes… a fart joke is just a fart joke
For the Love of History is a history podcast covering world history, women's history, and weird history hosted by TK. New episodes regularly!!

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17 min

About For the Love of History - world history, women’s history, weird history

From the publisher's feed

I'm TK, your guide to the past as we uncover the people, events, and little-known facts hidden in the shadows of your old history textbooks. From empress baddies like Hatshepsut and Wu Zetianto,…