Cheers to the New Year 🥂 reflections, resolutions & real talk on this New Year’s Eve Round Robin #NewYearPodcast #RoundRobinShow #PodcastLife

Produced and hosted by Tracy Preston

Original Music by Tracy Preston

Original artwork by Todd Preston

Sound effects upload from Uppbeat: party-horn-single-blow-smartsound-fx-3-3-00-01.mp3 / bottle-cork-pop-gfx-sounds-1-1-00-01.mp3 / happy-new-year-cheering-fireworks-gfx-sounds-2-2-00-10.mp3 / haha-sly-grinned-male-laugh-bosnow-1-00-01-mp3 / auld-lang-syne-piano-new-years-eve-intro-jam-fx-1-00-32.mp3

In the final chapter of The Silent Killers Trilogy, Malice in the Mitten turns its focus to Michigan women whose stories disappeared entirely. These were not famous cases. Many never became cases at all. Recorded as illness, misfortune, or family tragedy, their deaths were quietly absorbed into history without investigation or remembrance.

This episode explores how unnamed women, unexamined deaths, and institutional blind spots allowed patterns of violence to repeat — and what it means when silence replaces accountability. This is not a story about spectacle. It’s a story about absence, and the cost of not looking closely enough.

Detroit Free Press. Early 20th-Century Crime Briefs and Obituaries. Detroit Free Press Archives.

Michigan State Archives. County Death Records and Caregiver-Related Mortality Reports (Pre-Regulation Era).

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Historical Death Certification Practices in Michigan. State of Michigan.

Vronsky, Peter. Female Serial Killers. Berkley Books, 2007.

Walker, Samuel. Sense and Nonsense About Crime. Wadsworth Publishing, 2010.

Rafter, Nicole Hahn.  Creating Born Criminals. University of Illinois Press, 1997.

#MaliceInTheMitten #SilentKillers #ForgottenMichigan 

Written, Produced & Narrated by Tracy Preston

Co-Host Christine Mulligan

Research Support & Archival Review: Silas

Original artwork by Todd Preston

Christmas is not always warm lights and joyful songs.

From spectral carolers and cursed celebrations to echoes of Victorian Christmases long buried beneath snow and time, these are the stories that remind us why the longest nights of the year were once feared. This episode blends dark folklore, historical superstition, and chilling holiday atmosphere, accompanied by an original ghostly Christmas score designed to linger like a memory you can’t shake.

#FBombPodcast

Story and original artwork by Todd Preston

Recorded, edited, original theme and score by Tracy Preston

On today’s Round Robin, Tracy leads the table through the many faces of Ebenezer Scrooge — from the dark, musical rage of Albert Finney’s 1970 Scrooge, to the sharp corporate cruelty of Bill Murray’s Frank Cross in Scrooged.

Along the way, the team dives into:

How many Scrooges have appeared on screen (and why each era gets the one it deserves)

Dickens’ real anger behind A Christmas Carol

Victorian-era language we no longer use — and what it actually meant

Holiday trivia, modern parallels, and the Scrooge that feels uncomfortably familiar today

It’s festive, funny, a little dark — and very Round Robin.

🎄 Because Scrooge never disappears… he just changes clothes.

Theme song, background music, researched, recorded & edited by Tracy Preston

Original artwork by Todd Preston

Sound effects from Uppbeat:  sleigh-bells-joshua-chivers-1-00-14.mp3 / Bah-humbag-christmas-is-canceled-scrooge-voice-david-h-m-lambert-1-00-04.mp3 / Merry-christmas-to-all-to-all-a-good-nigh-igh-bells-david-h-m-lambert-1-00-11.mp3

#Scrooge

In Part Two of The Quiet Widow, the story deepens — and the line between accident and intent begins to blur.

What happens when care turns into control?

This episode explores the psychological unraveling at the center of the case — the warning signs, the isolation, and the choices that allowed a slow death to continue unseen. There are no dramatic outbursts here. No sudden violence. Just quiet decisions, made over time, with irreversible consequences.

This is a true crime story about power, indifference, and the moment accountability disappears.

Listener discretion advised.

Researched, written, recorded and edited by Tracy Preston

Original theme song and original background music created by Tracy Preston

Original artwork by Todd Preston

#TrueCrime

Sources:

Vronsky, Peter. Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters. Berkley Books, 2007.

Schechter, Harold. The A–Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. Simon & Schuster, 1996.

Federal Bureau of Investigation. Behavioral Perspectives on Female Offenders. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin Archives.

Smith, Carolyn. Gender, Crime, and Justice: Historical Perspectives. Oxford University Press, 2011.

Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society. Gender Norms and Criminal Proceedings in the Early 20th Century. Lansing, MI.

Rafter, Nicole Hahn. Partial Justice: Women, Prisons, and Social Control. Transaction Publishers, 1990.

In the frozen wilderness of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, stories have endured for generations—whispers of Ice Bound Giants, massive figures said to roam the snow-choked forests during the dead of winter.

In this episode of F-Bomb Friday, we explore one of the U.P.’s most chilling pieces of folklore. Lumber camps spoke of towering shapes moving through blizzards. Hunters reported impossible footprints frozen deep into the ice. Entire communities passed down warnings meant to keep people indoors after dark.

Are the Ice Bound Giants a cautionary legend born from isolation and winter madness—or something far older, rooted in Indigenous storytelling and the brutal reality of Great Lakes winters?

Welcome to F-Bomb Friday—where Michigan folklore, fables, and frights come alive.

Story written and original artwork by Todd Preston

Recorded, edited and original music by Tracy Preston

#FBombFriday

What if ancient Egypt had better city planning than modern suburbs… but worse HR policies?

In this episode of Round Robin, the table dives headfirst into the weird, funny, and wildly misunderstood truths about ancient Egypt and Cleopatra. From the fact that Cleopatra wasn’t Egyptian and lived closer to the moon landing than the pyramids, to beer for breakfast, sacred cats, and cities designed with astronomical precision, this conversation proves history is stranger—and funnier—than fiction.

This episode will change how you think about Cleopatra, pyramids, and one of the most advanced civilizations in human history.

Written, recorded and edited by Tracy Preston

Original artwork by Todd Preston

Original music by Tracy Preston

#RoundRobinPodcast

In the late nineteenth century, illness inside the home was often indistinguishable from something far more sinister. Limited medical knowledge, common household poisons, and deeply ingrained social fears created a perfect environment for suspicion to thrive.

This episode examines the case of Euphemia Mondich, a Michigan woman whose marriages ended repeatedly in prolonged illness and death. As rumors spread and authorities became involved, Mondich was transformed in the public eye from a grieving widow into a symbol of domestic danger.

Through contemporary reporting, historical context, and careful examination of what can and cannot be known, this episode explores how accusation, uncertainty, and gendered assumptions shaped one of Michigan’s most unsettling nineteenth-century cases.

A companion research document for this episode is available for listeners who want to go deeper.

Link below:

https://tracypreston4.gumroad.com/l/vkqae 

Researched, written, recorded and edited by Tracy Preston

Music created by Tracy Preston

Original artwork by Todd Preston

Sources:

Detroit Free Press. Trial Coverage and Crime Reports on Euphemia Mondich. 1919–1922. Detroit Free Press Archives.

Detroit News. Poisoning Investigation and Court Proceedings. 1921–1922. Detroit News Archives.

Michigan Department of Corrections. Historical Prison Records: Michigan State Prison (Jackson). State of Michigan.

Schechter, Harold. The A–Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. Simon & Schuster, 1996.

Federal Bureau of Investigation. Behavioral Perspectives on Female Serial Offenders. FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit, archival reference material.

Vronsky, Peter. Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters. Berkley Books, 2007.

#MaliceInTheMitten

Step into the frozen heart of Michigan with Michigan's Col Spirits & Yuletide Shadows an original dark-winter theme crafted for true folklore, fables and supernatural storytelling.  Inspired by icy forests, haunted legends, and bone-cold nights of the Great Lakes. 

Theme song written and recorded by Alan Hunt

Story and Todd Preston original artwork by Todd Preston

Recorded, edited and original music by Tracy Preston

#MichiganFolklore #WinterSpirits #YuletideShadows #GreatLakesLegends #MichiganMyth #HolidayHorror #MichiganGhosts #WinterHauntings

On this festive Round Robin, we're taking Christmas off the nice list and digging into the weirdest holiday facts you’ve probably never heard. Why do Catalonians hide a pooping figurine in their Nativity scenes? Why does Japan eat KFC for Christmas dinner? And why did Massachusetts once make Christmas illegal?

From Victorian ghost storytelling traditions to Iceland’s 13 mischievous Yuletide trolls, we’re bringing you bizarre global customs, strange history, Santa lore, and some jaw-dropping holiday trivia that’ll wow your family at dinner. Funny, weird, and unexpectedly dark — this is Christmas like you’ve never heard it before.

Perfect for holiday car rides, dinner table interventions, or just flexing your festive knowledge.

#ChristmasHistory #StrangeTraditions #ChristmasPodcast #HolidayEpisode #UnusualChristmas #FunChristmasFacts #RoundRobinShow #HolidayWeirdness

Sound effects from Uppbeat:  ba-dum-tss-drum-rimbshot-om-fx-1-00-14.mp3 / trombone-squeak-danijel-zambo-low-2-00-02.mp3

Original music created by Tracy Preston

Original artwork created by Todd Preston

Recorded and edited by Tracy Preston