Horrific History Podcast

Mementos of You

After your death, what do you think your survivors (friendly or foe) might keep to remember you? Perhaps a photo or some inanimate object which carried a lot of meaning to you both? Or do you think they might want something more personal, like a lock of hair or your ashes? It’s a nice thought, isn’t it? But what if they wanted to keep your rotting skin, your head or even just your re-purposed skull or bones? Eric Slyter and Curtis Bender hunt for the gruesome details on various kinds of human trophies in history beginning with the Scythians, Norse Vikings, and Aztec festivities honoring Xipe Totec (Our Lord the Flayed One) before ending with Maori mokomokai.

 

Skull cups, garments made of rotting skin and heads with carved tattoos, this episode has all the gory details you’d expect from humanity’s horrific history! We’ll be exploring human trophies in history as they’ve been used for dominance, commemoration, veneration, desecration, body snatching and grave robbing! Just remember: no squeam allowed!

 

So sit down to drink from the head of your worst enemy (or most beloved family member) and join us through one of your favorite podcast services (iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and more) as we delve into this Horrific History episode; come back again in two weeks to learn about bad dads in history (just in time for Fathers’ Day)!

 

Some of our favorite resources from this week’s episode (you can find more in our Store!):

* Daily Mail, 2

* LA Times

* Damaru Works

* Victoria University of Wellington, 2, 3, 4,

* Aukland Libraries

* CVLT Nation

* The Vintage News

* Dark Trophies: Hunting and the Enemy Body in Modern War

*

International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management

* Noted

* The Chick and the Dead

*

A Horrible Inheritance

What is the worst thing you can imagine receiving as an inheritance or “legacy gift”? What if the worst your parents could give you was their shared DNA? Sure, we know we’re going to get a combinations of physical traits, for better or worse, from our parents but some people have terrible genetic odds due to the close relations of their parents! From Neanderthal discoveries found in modern day Siberia to the royal affairs (and marriages) of royalty in Egypt and Spain and ending with the modern Colt family incest cult in Australia, this episode gets around! Co-hosts Curtis Bender and Eric Slyter will be filling this Horrific History Podcast with the tragic details on what can happen when you keep the genes inside the family!

 

Hapsburg’s jaws, club feet and cleft palates, we’ll be including the physical deformities which were, at certain times in history, attributed to curses and witchcraft by the superstitious before the effects of inbreeding were understood by science! Just remember: No squeam allowed!

 

Join us through one of your favorite podcast services (iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and more) as we delve into this Horrific History episode, and come back again in two weeks to learn about human trophies!

 

You learn more about Kenny the Tiger, referenced in our podcast, here.

 

Some of our favorite resources from this week’s episode (you can find more in our store here!):

* Daily Mail, and here

* National Geographic, and again

* Live Science

* Providentia

* MedicineNet.com

* Too Much Information

* The Tech Museum of Innovation

* National Center for Biotechnology Information

* West Virginia University

* ABC News

* PubMed.gov

* US National Library of Medicine, here, and here

* National Organization for Rare...

Poison, Pokers & Pee, Oh My…

The gauntlet has been thrown and the challenge issued. Co-hosts Curtis “Curlystache” Bender and Eric “Iron Fist” Slyter each receive two opportunities to stump their opponent (and you) on horrible deaths and lives of the famous people in history who met those untimely demises. From ancient Egypt and Greece to medieval England and finally ending in 16th Century Denmark, we have suicides, murders, executions and assassinations. Conspiracy theories abound, and you’ll get all the explosive details as we probe history to separate fact from fiction.

 

A sadistic ruler who had an affinity for toxins, poisons and venom; a deposed king with Arthurian expectations who suffered from rotten luck and terrible choices which would aid a posthumous propaganda campaign; and an eccentric nerd who was willing to defend mathematics at risk of life or limb or suffer great discomfort (and death) to preserve social niceties… this episode has it all! Opium and wolfsbane, royal affairs and anal impalement, we’ve included all the sordid details but remember, no squeam allowed!

 

Pit your knowledge of historical deaths against that of our co-hosts as you listen to this Horrific History episode through one of your favorite podcast services (iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and more); you can tell us how you did on our blog or Facebook page! Join us in two weeks when springtime love is in the air for our kissing cousins (inbreeding) episode!

Some of our favorite resources from this week’s episode (you can find more in our store here!):

* CNN

* Toxipedia

* Ancient Egypt

* Isiopolis

* Moments in Time

* Edward the Second and here

* Lament of Edward II (Poem)

* Notches Blog

* Dr. Ian Mortimer

* US National Library of Medicine: National Institutes of Health

* Gary Corby

* TIME and here

* International Business Times...