Notorious Narratives

We know a lot of stories about Ben Franklin and his role in many of America's most historic founding moments. But in the earth below his London home there are secrets that may change the way we view one of America's favorite sons. This is the story of The Bones in Ben's Basement.

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In this episode Robin will tell you the tale of Olive Ann Oatman. If you haven't heard of her don't feel bad, but hers is a story dripping with Wild West intrigue.

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Countless atrocities took place during Imperialist endeavors but some of the most horrible were committed in the Belgian Congo. In this episode, Jen will tell you the true story of Heart of Darkness.

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The Trail of Tears is a term used to describe the route that was traveled during the forced removal of over 100,000 Native Americans in the Southeast to what would be called "Indian Territory" in what is today, Oklahoma. The trip was brutal and not well supplied, The harsh reality of starvation, disease and exposure along the trip meant that many would never arrive in their new home. In this episode, Robin tells you one of American history's most shame-filled stories, that of The Trail of Tears.

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After the death of her husband and the rape of her daughters, Queen Boudica would not lie down and allow the Romans to take her land, her people. In this story, Robin introduces us to the warrior queen who rallied an army to fight against the Roman invasion.

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Curiosity is natural, and humans are just as curious as any other animal. In the late 19th century as travel and exploration boomed the curiosity about how other cultures lived turned quickly to spectacle. What began as curiosity quickly turned into pure exploitation as humans were stolen from villages and forced into camps where they would perform their daily lives and rituals for American and European audiences to gawk at. In this episode, Jen will tell us the story of the shameful history of human zoos.

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While most of us know Julia Child as the great television cooking personality she had quite an interesting start to her career. In this episode, Robin introduces us to the Julia that most do not know, one who's road to the kitchen was paved with espionage and science.

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This week in Part Two of our look into Civil War POW camps we will learn about the most notorious of the camps: Andersonville. In this savage and lawless place almost a third of prisoners lost their lives to starvation, disease and violence.

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For the next two episode we are going to take a deep dive into two of the worst Civil War prisoner camps, one Union and one Confederate. The starvation, disease and violence that took place in these camps are horrifying. In this episode we will focus on Camp Douglas, just outside of Chicago, this camp saw more death than most civil war battles.

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In the 1920s a German architect named Herman Sorgel had a plan change the landscape of Europe, Asia and Africa. On the heels of such massive undertakings as the Hoover Dam and the TVA, Sorgel envisioned a land where a system of dams and bridges would connect Europe and Africa, emptying the Mediterranean and providing unlimited hydroelectric power to Europe. While this may sound like madness the dream of Atlantropa was real, and Sorgel was taken seriously by many at the time. In this episode, Robin tells us the story of Atlantropa, and it is up to you to decide if it was genius or madness.

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