History Spelunkers

There she blows! In this episode of the podcast we find ourselves out on the high seas learning about the origins of one of the world's most famous pieces of literature: Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Prepare for a truly wild voyage into the obscure...

CW: violence towards animals

Shownotes:

• Opening audio is from the 1956 film edition of Moby Dick staring Gregory Peck and Dir. by John Huston
• Episode art- Nantucket Water Skid by Clifford W. Ashley. (1930) in the public domain accessed via the Wikimedia commons
• Audiobook of Moby Dick that I listened to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg84olIrn-k&ab_channel=AudiobooksUnleashed
• https://slimemoldsyd.medium.com/the-match-that-killed-all-the-turtles-the-galapagos-versus-massachusetts-b68818a82d4e
• https://nha.org/visit/museums-and-tours/whaling-museum/
• https://www.britannica.com/animal/sperm-whale
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nantucket
• Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/through-the-clouds

Hello History Spelunkers!! Welcome back to a new episode just in time for the most wonderful time of the year. The world can seem like a pretty dark place at times, but there is a magic to this season that brings a bit of joy back into the world. And on some occasions that magic is powerful enough that it truly can bring peace on earth…if only for awhile.

Shownotes

• Donation Links: If you are able to please give.
• UNICEF--https://www.unicefusa.org/
• Doctors Without Borders--https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/
• International Rescue Committee--https://www.rescue.org/
• UN Refugee Agency-- https://www.unrefugees.org/
• Save The Children--https://www.savethechildren.org/
• Episode art is a colorized photo of a group of British and German soldiers fraternizing in No Man's Land during the 1914 Christmas truce, courtesy of Cassowary Colorizations, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
• Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/through-the-clouds
• https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/546523/Duke-of-Cambridge-Prince-William-Visit-Memorial-WWI-Christmas-Day-football-match
• https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-real-story-of-the-christmas-truce
• https://www.britannica.com/event/The-Christmas-Truce
• https://www.theworldwar.org/exhibitions/christmas-truce-winter-1914
• https://www.visionofhumanity.org/the-christmas-truce/
• https://gwern.net/doc/economics/1984-axelrod-theevolutionofcooperation-ch4-theliveandletlivesysteminwwi.html
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25206-2004Dec24.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Christmas_Letter#/media/File:Open_Christmas_letter_from_the_Suffragettes_of_Manchester_(11350682363).jpg

Saluton! Bonvenon al alia epizodo!

No, this is not gibberish you are seeing, this is the wonderful language of Esperanto. This language was invented to change the world and solve world peace! It may not have succeeded yet, but Esperantists would argue it's only a matter of time. Join us as we explore the world's most successful constructed languages and the perils its speakers experienced throughout its history.

Shownotes:

• Portrait of L. L. Zamenhoff; Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
• Apologies for all of the botched pronunciations, upon further study I realize i should've read a bit more, before attempting to speak the language.
• Intro is a clip from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country followed by an excerpt from a performance of Hamlet in Klingon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF0k4qV1I1Y&t=357s&ab_channel=boydclanvirginia
• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-hitler-and-stalin-hated-esperanto-the-135-year-old-language-of-peace-180980472/
• https://www.discoveringbelgium.com/bizarre-belgium-neutral-moresnet/
• https://sites.law.wustl.edu/WashULaw/harris-lexlata/esperanto-the-neutral-global-language/
• https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dpa3q/how-klingon-became-a-real-language
• Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/through-the-clouds
• If you stay to the end you can hear my attempt at the Hamlet "To Be or Not To Be" speech in Esperanto

Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of History Spelunkers. In today's episode we are going to delve into the question of why time works the way it does and what is the whole deal about daylight savings time. The short answer is that it is all arbitrary and that the pillars of our society will crumble like sand if we think about them for too long. If you want the more detailed answer, then you will just have to dive down the rabbit hole.....

Shownotes:

• Episode photo is from when the US Senate changed their clocks for the first daylight savings time observed by the country in 1918
• https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/09/samoa-plans-to-move-clocks-24-hours
• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-happened-the-last-time-the-us-tried-to-make-daylight-saving-time-permanent-180979742/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_calendar
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gregorian-calendar
• https://www.britannica.com/science/Julian-calendar
• https://restofworld.org/2023/newsletter-latin-america-mexico-end-daylight-savings/
• https://www.rbth.com/travel/329966-times-zones-russia
• https://www.geographyrealm.com/geography-of-the-international-date-line/
• https://greenwichmeantime.com/articles/history/conference/
• Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/through-the-clouds

Happy Halloween from History Spelunkers! In this year's holiday episode instead of focusing on a monster or two from folklore, we are going to talk about horror movies. And this year we are going to keep things close to home and discuss films set in Texas, starting with one of the most famous horror films of all time: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre!

Content warning! for lots of murder, sexual assault, gore, violence, and other horror stuff.

Shownotes:

• Episode art is a photo of actors Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface) and William Vail (Kirk) as they take a break during filming. Taken from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre official website: https://thetexaschainsawmassacre.com/making-the-original-texas-chainsaw-massacre-1974/
• https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/tobe-hooper
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ed-Gein
• https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/the-houston-mass-murders-what-really-happened/
• https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/texarkana-murder-mystery/
• https://vault.fbi.gov/texarkana-phantom-moonlight-murders/texarkana-phantom-moonlight-murders
• Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/through-the-clouds
• Intro clip is from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Movie List that were Mentioned

• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) Dir. Tobe Hooper
• The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976) Dir. Charles B. Pierce
• The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014) Dir. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
• Alien (1979) Dir. Ridley Scott
• Audition (1999) Dir. Takashi Miike
• The Houses October Built (2014) Dir. Bobby Roe
• Last Shift (2014) Dir. Anthony DiBlasi
• Talk to Me (2022) Dir. Danny and Michael Philippou
• The Cabin in the Woods (2011) Dir. Drew Goddard
• Saw (2004) Dir. James Wan
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) Dir. Marcus Nispel
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994) Dir. Kim Henkel
• Friday the 13th (1980) Dir. Sean S. Cunningham
• A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Dir. Wes Craven
• Scream (1996) Dir. Wes Craven
• The Conjuring (2013) Dir. James Wan
• The Nun II (2023) Dir. Michael Chaves

I might have missed a couple but there are a lot of options.

Welcome back to part two of this special episode of History Spelunkers. In this one we continue talking about the origins of the sport of fencing, with a special focus on how western culture transitioned to stabbing people with swords for honor to instead doing it for points!

Shownotes:

• Episode art is "Säbelmensur" by Georg Mühlberg c. 1900
• Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/through-the-clouds
• By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions by Richard Cohen
• Julie d'Aubigny: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_d%27Aubigny
• Helene Mayer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Mayer
• Example of a Mensur Scar: Dr. Thomas Krüger, Bonn, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_Pieper_(2002).jpg
• https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-long-history-behind-fencers-hitdetecting-electrified-gear#:~:text=It%20wasn't%2C%20in%20fact,been%20practiced%20since%20time%20immemorial.
• https://www.academia.edu/25105787/Fencing_sport_weapon_handles_grips_the_short_chronology_and_history
• http://museumofamericanfencing.com/wp/category/fencing-history/
• https://www.britannica.com/sports/fencing
• https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/25/sports/in-fencing-a-new-day-for-women.html
• https://olympics.com/en/news/the-sabre-the-only-weapon-to-have-been-at-every-games-since-1896

Welcome back to another episode! The gauntlet is at your feet, will you answer the call? Today we begin our talk on the strange history of dueling in western society during the 16th through 19th centuries. We explain how people came up with the idea and how its popularity grew throughout the centuries.

Shownotes:

• Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/through-the-clouds
• Cover art is An Interrupted Duel by Marcus Stone c.1868; Marcus Stone, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
• Intro clip is from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), directed by Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam
• Giant Sword Photo: Zweihander

Welcome back one and all to another episode of History Spelunkers. Today our journey into the niche and obscure will take us back to the American Civil War. Mostly when one thinks of this conflict they imagine fighting in the fields of Gettysburg, Vicksburg, or Shiloh. But have you ever thought about the gray and blue duking it out off the shores of Northern France? Learn about that battle and more in today's episode!

Shownotes:

• Photo Engraving of the Sinking of the CSS Alabama by Harper's Weekly Magazine. In the public domain accessed via Wikimedia Commons
• The song clips are from the 1961 recording of Tennessee Ernie Ford performing "Union Dixie"
• https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/wars-and-events/the-american-civil-war--1861-1865/the-battle-of-cherbourg.html
• https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/kearsarge-and-alabama
• http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/Article/h-973
• https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1932/june/it-happened-bahia
• https://www.britannica.com/event/Saint-Albans-Raid
• https://vermonthistory.org/st-albans-raid
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/brazil-confederate-flag-civil-war-americana-santa-barbara/2020/07/11/1e8a7c84-bec4-11ea-b4f6-cb39cd8940fb_story.html
• Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/through-the-clouds

!Content warning!- this one is basically entirely about death and medical misfortune

Welcome back to another episode of History Spelunkers. Heads up, today's episode might be a bit depressing because there is a lot of terrible things that get talked about. In this episode we dive into the most high profile members of the famous family of American Royalty: the Kennedys. We also attempt to lay out the evidence for why some believe that their family is cursed...

Shownotes:

• Family Photo of the Kennedy family at Hyannis Port in 1931. Public Domain through the Federal Government. Accessed via Wikimedia Commons.
• Opening Music from the musical Camelot (1960): Music by Frederick Loewe and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
• https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/15/us/kennedy-family-curse/index.html
• https://www.historyhit.com/the-kennedy-curse-a-timeline-of-tragedy/
• https://www.historyhit.com/inside-the-myth-what-was-kennedys-camelot/
• https://www.life.com/history/jackie-movie-life-magazine/
• Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/through-the-clouds

Welcome back one and all to Season 2 of History Spelunkers! Starting of our journey into the niche and obscure we are going back in time and across the pond to give you the strange tale of the time someone tried to steal the Crown Jewels of England.

Shownotes:

• https://britishheritage.com/history/man-steals-crown-jewels#:~:text=Known%20as%20one%20of%20the,madness%20and%20ended%20in%20arrest.
• https://www.gla.ac.uk/explore/avenue/ourpast/thedaringcaptureofthestoneofdestiny/
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Stone-of-Scone
• Picture of the Crown Jewels is in the public domain, access via Wikimedia Commons
• Audio of God Save the King is from King Charles III coronation ceremony (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqse9O9j3kg&ab_channel=TheRoyalFamilyChannel)
• Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/through-the-clouds