Texas Steampunk Connection

recorded December 10, 2025

Did you ever wonder about that line about “scary ghost stories” in the Christmas carol “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”? Well, we’re gonna tell y’all all about that glorious Victorian Christmas tradition! Besides Dickens' Christmas Carol, what other stories have you heard of? Lets see if we can find any. 

Christmas Ghosts: A Victorian Tradition

Christopher Lee tells the story of a loud hotel neighbor.

In the Bleak Mid-Winter: Must-Read Ghost Stories for Christmas

recorded November 26, 2025

Before Steampunk November, organizers were approached by Big Media asking about the "Steampunk Lifestyle." What does that mean, to Big Media or to us? How does steampunk play a part in your life on a regular or daily basis? 

recorded November 12, 2025

Steampunk November is the longest running steampunk event in Texas. And it's in three days!! Sheriff Natalie McTavish joins us for a pre-fest hang out. What changes will there be this year? What are you looking forward to? How will we tea duel?

Frankenstein 

The Thief and the Cobbler 

Powers of Darkness (Dracula) 

recorded October 29, 2025

It's the last show before Halloween! Let's finish off a season of cults and strange societies with Madame Blavatsky and her occult/religious movement, Theosophy. We discuss the questionable origin story, and how Theosophy has influenced modern culture.

Theosophical Society on Wikipedia

Madame Blavatsky: a seeker of truth — and a fraud

Henry Steel Olcott: Timeline of an Occult Pioneer

recorded October 15, 2025

This Mid-October we welcome researcher Bekah June back to talk about about esoteric secret societies and strange luminaries of the time. Thax reveals the secrets of the Freemason (not real super secrets, tho.) Jack picks it up as three Masons create the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn for more occultism than the Masons offered. Political intrigues and infighting commence!

Freemasons Grand Lodge of Texas

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

More work from Bekah June

Voicemails of the Unexplained

recorded October 1, 2025

Tonight we celebrate the coming of October, our favorite month! Also the rapture that didn't happen on Tuesday a week past. Yeah, for real. I guess. What is the rapture, anyway? Also, since we're sliding that way, horrific religious cults of the 1800's!

A warning. Some may find this episode disturbing. Listen at your own risk.

Edmund Creffield and the Brides of Christ

Frank Sandford and the Shiloh Compound

Cult of Margaretta Peter

recorded September 17, 2025

No topic this week. Instead lets hang out and have a good old school show and tell! We haven't done one of these in months, so we're all over the place. 

Nautilus is still the greatest SP show we've seen in a long time.

Wednesday the new season has its problems, but we still think it's a good watch. 

O. Henry a turn-of-the-century author from Austin, Texas

Perfect Creature a vampire B movie with great SP setting

Steampunk Banditos: Sex Slaves of Shark Island Thax read the free first chapter, and it was better than it had any right to be. Is this an actual good read?

recorded September 3, 2025

This week we celebrate the American laborer that keeps the wheels of industry turning. But what was it like at a time when labor drove the actual industrial revolution? TLDR, it was a horror show of course! We go from the Poor Law of 1834 to workhouses, to manufacturing fire in a locked building, to labor safety laws and the value of unions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_Law_Amendment_Act_1834

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Victorian-Workhouse/

https://www.osha.gov/aboutosha/40-years/trianglefactoryfire

https://workerorganizing.org/premajority-unionism/unions/history/

recorded August 20, 2025

Tonight we begin an exploration of the tawdry underbelly of repressed Victorian society, venturing into what is not discussed in polite society. We approach Victorian drug use, medical and recreational, of opium, cocaine, and cannabis.

The Steampunk Doctor: Practicing Medicine in a Victorian Mechanical Age

Drugs in Victorian Britain

Opium in Victorian Britain

Opium Use in the 19th Century

Busted: How Cocaine went from Friend to Fiend in the 19th Century

How Marijuana Was Used In Victorian England

Cannabis Britannica: The Rise and Demise of a Victorian England Wonder-Drug

recorded August 6, 2025

This week we are joined by Bekah June, host of cosmic horror series "Voicemails of the Unexplained." She is also a veteran steampunk, and into weird paranormal conspiracies so this should be a fun chat.

Bekah's web page, Default Theory Productions

Voicemails of the Unexplained

Bekah's TikTok

Bekah's previous project, Tales of a Broken Reality

Turning the Table: A Look at The Victorian Supernatural Obsession