History Fix

By Shea LaFountaineSociety & Culture Documentary True Crime History

History Fix episodes

October 11Ep. 170 Delphine LaLaurie: How New Orleans' Wickedest Woman Turned Trauma Into a Tourist Attraction
Last week's episode on the zombies of Haitian Vodou naturally led me to New Orleans. This week I'll fill you in on the gruesome acts of infamous female enslaver Delphine LaLaurie, who notoriously tortured and abused the people she enslaved at her French Quarter mansion in the 1830s. But this story has been quite twisted and sensationalized through the years as New Orleans tour guides scramble to sell historical ghost tour tickets. So how much of Delphine LaLaurie's story is true and how much was fabricated to meet the desires of an ever more desensitized audience... and at what cost? Let's fix that.
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Sources:
“Retrospect of Western Travel” by Harriet Martineau
“Ghost Stories of Old New Orleans” by Jeanne DeLavigne
“Journey Into Darkness: Ghosts and Vampires of New Orleans” by Kalila Katherina Smith
“Tales from the Haunted South: Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War Era” by Tiya Miles
History.com “Arson uncovers torture chamber in mansion of New Orleans enslaver
New Orleans Historical “The LaLaurie Mansion”
Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans “What really happened at the LaLaurie House?”
Wikipedia “Delphine LaLaurie”
Wikipedia “Harriet Martineau”

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45 min
October 04Ep. 169 Zombies: How Centuries of Trauma Transformed Into the Walking Dead of Today
It’s finally Spooktober! All October long I’ll be telling spooky, mysterious true stories from history, starting with zombies. Zombies are a big deal. They are all over pop culture in movies and TV shows, even video games. People love a good zombie apocalypse story. But the pop culture zombies of today are quite different than how zombies started out. They’re almost a different beast entirely. So where did the idea of a zombie come from? How did they get so twisted? And could zombies possibly be real? Let’s fix all that.
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Sources:
Harvard Magazine “The Secrets of Haiti’s Living Dead”
The Atlantic “The Tragic, Forgotten History of Zombies”
History.com “History of Zombies”
Ohio State University “The History of the Zombie in Popular Culture”
NPR “Zoinks! Tracing the History of “Zombie” From Haiti to the CDC”
New York Times “A Zombie Is a Slave Forever”
(Im)possibilities “The History of Zombies”
Encyclopedia Britannica “Vodou”
University of Delaware “The Roots of Haitian Vodou”
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37 min
September 27Ep. 168 The Fall of the Inca Empire: How the Inca Actually Conquered Themselves, Pizarro Just Got Lucky
Despite the results of my recent poll, I'm making the executive decision to cover Francisco Pizarro and the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532. But, trust me, you won't be disappointed. This story is insane. We have rags to riches characters, we have mighty kings, we have brothers fighting amongst themselves, partners backstabbing each other. We have lies and deceit and secret ambushes. We have murder, lots and lots of murder, and we have the rise of a new world order, for better, or for worse. In the end, we’re left with a lot of questions here. How did such a small rag tag group of Spaniards, less than 200 men, manage to take down the largest empire in the world? And what lessons can we learn from mistakes made by the Inca? Yes the Inca. You thought I was gonna say Spanish. Let's fix that.
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Sources:
History.com “Francisco Pizarro Traps Incan Emperor Atahualpa”
EBSCO “Pizarro Conquers the Incas in Peru”
World History Encyclopedia “Pizarro and the Fall of the Inca Empire”
National Geographic “Inca Civilization”
Encyclopedia Britannica “Francisco Pizarro”
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42 min
September 20Ep. 167 El Dorado: How the Mythical City of Gold Was Actually Always a Person
Of course we’re going to El Dorado! Or, at least, we’re going to meet him? Because, when you take a look at the primary sources, where this myth of El Dorado, the city of gold, really came from, it becomes immediately apparent that El Dorado was never a city at all… he was a person. El Dorado, the gilded one, was first described as a wealthy leader who covered his body in gold dust and then washed it off in a sacred lake. The Spanish simply took that and ran with it. If this king had enough gold that he could wash it away, discard it, every single night, he must be extraordinarily wealthy. In fact, he must live in an entire city made of gold. But that, of course, was a stretch based entirely on cultural misunderstandings and downright greed. Nevertheless, it didn’t stop man after man - Spanish, German, English - from trying, and failing, to find this imaginary city of gold.
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Sources:
BBC “El Dorado: The truth behind the myth”
National Geographic “The real history behind El Dorado, the legendary city of gold”
Wikipedia “El Dorado”
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43 min
September 13Ep. 166 Sir Walter Raleigh: How the Elizabethan Golden Boy Flew Too Close to the Sun
I have wanted to talk about Sir Walter Raleigh for so very long. He had a lot of power and influence during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and impacted the world we know today more than people realize. He's even the one who came up with the name Virginia! And yet, most don't know the first thing about Raleigh. Who was he really? And how did he go from the queen’s favorite golden boy to beheaded at Westminster in the span of just a few decades? Let's fix that.
Episodes about the Roanoke expeditions:
Roanoke Parts 1 and 2
The Found Colony of Roanoke?
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Sources:
Historic Royal Palaces “Sir Walter Raleigh”
History.com “Walter Raleigh”
North Carolina Museum of History “The Demise of Sir Walter Raleigh”
BBC “Walter Raleigh”
Sir Walter Raleigh’s letter to his wife (Matthew Lyons)
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41 min
September 06Ep. 165 Dolly Parton: How a Poor Girl from East Tennessee Became One of the Most Universally Loved Superstars of All Time
So many important lessons to be learned from the late and great Dolly Parton! I'm back with a bang this week Fixies to uncover the unexpected legacy left by super famous, super loved, greatly missed Dolly Parton. How does a girl from a poverty stricken tobacco farm in the mountains of Tennessee, one of twelve children, with an illiterate father, come to be one of the most famous performers, business women, philanthropists, and all around enigmas of all time? More importantly, how is it possible to pull all that off while remaining almost universally loved by the masses? What does it actually mean to be a Dolly? Let's fix that.
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Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
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Sources:
Dollyparton.com “Dolly’s Story”
Wikipedia “Dolly Parton”
Country Music Hall of Fame “Dolly Parton”
Wikipedia “Porter Wagoner”
Fox News “Dolly Parton’s most iconic ‘Dolly-isms’ on beauty, wigs, Botox and living on her own terms”
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42 min
August 19History Fix News #2: The Theft of the Ancient Vix Torque Necklace Robs Us of Much More Than Its Weight In Gold
Join the Patreon for more exclusive content like this! I'm back with my second ever episode of History Fix News and this time I'm sharing it with the masses! This news story comes out of Burgundy, France and deals with the recent theft of an ancient Celtic necklace known as the Vix Torque. We'll discuss serious flaws in French museum security following both the October 2025 jewel heist (episode 137) and this new Vix Torque heist. We'll also explore what the Vix Torque told us about the ancient Celtic world, including trade with the Mediterranean, and what it suggests about it's wearer, the Princess of Vix, a surprisingly high status woman in a world so often ruled by men.
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Sources:
Artnews “Thieves Snatch 2,500-Year-Old Celtic Gold Torque from French Museum in Broad Daylight”
History and Archaeology Online “The Princess of Vix: Trade, Culture and Women in Celtic Society”
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22 min
August 02 A Quick Announcment
Subscribe to the Patreon here! You'll have access to 37 mini fix episodes, 3 History Fix Trivia episodes, plus a fun new segment I have up my sleeve! Otherwise, I'll catch you all in September!
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2 min
July 26Mini Fix #37 Preview: Benedict Arnold
Listen to this full mini fix episode on Patreon!
Benedict Arnold is remembered as a notorious turncoat, a traitor who secretly switched sides during the Revolutionary War. His legacy is one of betrayal, selfishness, and greed. But how did it happen? How did a man who once exclaimed “Good God, are the Americans all asleep and tamely giving up their glorious liberties?” upon hearing news of the Boston Massacre end up fighting alongside the enemy? Like with most villains from history, there has to be more to the story. Nathaniel Philbrick writes in a Smithsonian magazine article “Although it later became convenient to portray Arnold as a conniving Satan from the start, the truth is more complex and, ultimately, more disturbing. Without the discovery of his treason in the fall of 1780, the American people might never have been forced to realize that the real threat to their liberties came not from without, but from within.” Let’s fix that.
Sources:
Smithsonian Magazine “Why Benedict Arnold Turned Traitor Against the American Revolution”
Mountvernon.org “Benedict Arnold”
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2 min
July 19Ep. 164 James Armistead Lafayette: How an Enslaved Black Man Helped Win Freedom for White Americans
Everyone knows about General George Washington and the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781. But, very few people know the circumstances surrounding that surrender. Very few people know about the involvement of an enslaved Black man named James who worked as a double agent during the war, secretly passing information to the Americans while feeding the British false leads. Few people know the risks James took, risks that eventually led to an American victory, risks that stood to gain him nothing in return. Let's fix that.
Support the show!
Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
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Buy Me a Coffee
Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine
Sources:
American Battlefield Trust "James Armistead Lafayette"
Library of Virginia "James Lafayette Petition for Freedom, 1786"
United States Army National Museum "James Armistead Lafayette"
Wikipedia "James Armistead Lafayette"
Wikipedia "Benedict Arnold"
Wikipedia "Marquis de Lafayette"
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28 min

About History Fix

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In each episode of History Fix, I discuss lesser known stories from history that you won't be able to stop thinking about. Need your history fix? You've come to the right place.

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