The Reference Desk

In this episode of The Reference Desk, Katie is bewitched with Mackinac Island.

Nestled in the cold, deep waters between the upper and lower pennisulas of Michigan lies the idyllic and picturesque Mackinac Island. What was once a beloved spot for indigenous people evolved into a fur trader’s outpost, a military stronghold, and eventually the tourist destination we know today. From it’s unique ban on automobiles to its Victorian-era flagship hotel, this gem of an island transports its visitor’s back in time.

Let’s explore its unique history, fascinating year-round lifestyle, and it’s darkest haunts.

For more information and a full list of our sources, visit our website.

Recommended titles: 

The Watch That Ends the Night by Allan Wolf

Beauty Mark by Carole Boston Weatherford

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon

Secrets of Mackinac Island series by Katie Winters

The Pink Pony: Murder on Mackinac Island by Charles Cutter

Snowed In by Rachel Hawthorne

Timeless: Inside Mackinac Island's Historic Cottages by Moira Croghan, Mark Bearss

Haunts of Mackinac: Ghost Stories, Legends and Tragic Tales of Mackinac Island by Todd Clements

Mackinac Island: It's History in Pictures by Eugene T. Peterson

If you're interested in purchasing the books mentioned in this episode, visit our bookshop.org affiliate shop

Links: 

@BaileyyJanette on TikTok

@megsonmackinac on TikTok

Voice of Mackinac Island

Lore episode 91: Beneath the Surface

Your Haunted Holiday episode 57: The Grand Hotel

Haunted Places: Mackinac Island

Straits Pride

Mackinac Artists Market

Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians

The Island Bookstore

Harry Potter and the Sacred Text

The Real Question

The Grand Hotel

10 Things You Might Not Know About Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel

Remembering Mackinac Island's Agatha Biddle

Winter Life on Mackinac Island

Island Living: For Mackinac Full-timers, a Different Way of Life

Spend the Night at Michigan's Most Haunted Hotel

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This week, Hailee is bewitched by the tragic fate of the Donner Party.  Literally every conceivable thing went wrong for this rag-tag group of travelers. Pioneers traveling the Oregon trail were inspired by the promise of free land in California and Oregon. Spurred on by what journalist John L. O’Sullivan coined Manifest Destiny, and encouraged by President Polk who was so singular in his focus of owning the western part of the United States he started the Mexican American war, these settlers thought it was their Divine right to journey west and claim the land for themselves. They were promised acres of good, farmable land by the Westward Expansion organizations, never minding that most of California was still owned by Mexico and, of course, hundreds, maybe thousands of indigenous people already called the land home. Hoping to take a newly "discovered" shortcut that would supposedly shave off 300 miles of their journey, the Donner party unfortunately ended up trapped in the Sierra Nevadas in feet of snow and very quickly began to starve.

Titles recommended in this episode:

• The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep by Allen Roth
• The Hunger by Alma Katsu
• To Stay Alive: Mary Ann Graves and the Tragic Journey of the Donner Party by Skila Brown
• Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics
• The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny by Michael Wallis
• The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride by Daniel James Brown

If you’re interested in purchasing the books mentioned in this episode, visit our bookshop.org affiliate shop

For a full list of the members of the Donner Party as well as their fate, click here.

In 2020, a group of snow hikers attempted to take the same path as the Forlorn Hope Expedition. Track their journey here.

For a full list of our sources and show notes, check out our website!

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In this episode, Katie is bewitched with the debutantes of the London social season. 

Since the late 1700s, Britain's most eligible young ladies have been presented to society during London's social season. Providing the framework for our favorite novels like Pride and Prejudice, debutante society hides a deeply problematic world of sexism, racism, classism, and more. In this deep-dive into the beginnings and evolution of this bizarre ritual, we explore the realm of the ultra-exclusive debutante social scene. 

For more information, and a list of all our sources, visit our website. 

Titles recommended in this episode: 

The Season: A Social History of the Debutante by Kristen Richardson

The Husband Hunters: Social Climbing in London and New York by Anne de Courcy and Clare Corbett

Women of Means: The Fascinating Biographies of Royals, Heiresses, Eccentrics, and Other Poor Little Rich Girls by Margaret Wagman-Gellar

The Bridgertons Series by Julia Quinn

Belgravia by Julian Fellowes

The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin

The Debutantes series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

If you're interested in purchasing the books mentioned in this episode, visit our bookshop.org affiliate shop

Links:

The 10 Dos and Don’ts of Etiquette to Become a Lady in Regency England

Debutante balls and the persistent obsession with the purity of young women

Queer in the Regency: a Slice of Once-Hidden LGBT History

Gender roles in the 19th century

Love and Courtship in Regency England

The London Season

The Racist History of Prom

The Curious Plight of the Modern Debutante

The History of British Slave Ownership Has Been Buried

'Princess Seraphina' Steps Out at Vauxhill Gardens

A Survivor's Guide to Georgian Marriage

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In this special episode of The Reference Desk, Katie and Hailee tell you a bit about themselves, why they started a podcast and play a game of Would You Rather!

Books Mentioned

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

The Outlander series by Diana Gabeldon

Books by Louise Miller

Books by Jenny Colgan

The Fingerprints series by Melinda Metz

If you're interested in purchasing the books mentioned in this episode, visit our bookshop.org (affiliate shop)

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In this episode, Katie is bewitched with the psychedelic drug ayahuasca.

Deep in the Amazon basin of South America, indigenous people rely on the wisdom of the sacred ayahuasca brew, a psychoactive drink. For centuries, this medicine has guided and healed those who partake in its sacred ritual. Traditionally, a trained shaman guides their community members through the ritual, but Westerners want in, too.

For more information and a full list of our sources, visit our website

Recommended titles: 

Songteller by Dolly Parton

Cravings by Chrissy Teigen

Cravings: Hungry for More by Chrissy Teigen

The Little Blue Cottage by Kelly Jordan and Jessica Courtney-Tickle

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

You Are Your Child's First Teacher by Rahima Baldwin Dancy

Ayahuasca in my Blood: Twenty-five Years of Medicine Dreaming by Peter Gorman

Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman by Pablo Amaringo and Luis Eduardo Luna

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

Fitness Junkie by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza

If you're interested in purchasing the books mentioned in this episode, visit our bookshop.org affiliate shop

Links: 

The Brutal Mirror

Ayahuasca Research

Why You Will Never Get a Traditional Ayahuasca Treatment

What's a "Traditional" Ayahuasca Ceremony?

How Can You Drink Ayahuasca Legally in the US?

Ayahuasca: The Dark Side and Dangers

The Colonization of the Ayahuasca Experience

Cultural Context and the Beneficial Applications of Ayahuasca

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In this episode of the Reference Desk, Hailee tells us about the strange Coney Island sideshow responsible for saving hundreds of lives. Martin Couney's Infant Incubator facility was one of Coney Island's most popular exhibits.

For more information and a full list of our sources, visit our website.

To buy books mentioned in this episode: Bookshop.org affiliate shop.

Links:

Life Under Glass - Radio Documentary

The Forgotten Carnival Sideshow that Saved Countless Babies

NPR: Babies On Display

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In this episode of The Reference Desk, Katie is bewitched by Frank Abagnale, Jr.  

One of America's most notorious con-men, Frank Abagnale Jr's unlikely journey into the world of check forgery, criminal impersonation, and other scams, inspired the popular film "Catch Me If You Can."  From his humble beginnings as a teenage runaway cashing bad checks, to his summer spent escorting a group of Pan-Am flight attendant hopefuls through Europe, this episode covers his life of crime from beginning to end. After our deep-dive into Abagnale's problematic rise to notoriety, we give you book recommendations about the world of fraud, scams, and swindles. 

 For more information and a full list of our sources, visit our website.

Recommended books: 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk

Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake by Frank W. Abagnale and Stan Redding

Revival by Stephen King

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

Charlatan by Pope Brock

The Bling Ring by Nancy Jo Sales

Dot Con by James Veitch

To buy books mentioned in this episode: Bookshop.org affiliate shop. 

Links:  Frank Abagnale

 https://www.campsidemedia.com/shows/chameleon

 https://www.earwolf.com/show/scam-goddess/

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In this episode of The Reference Desk, Hailee is bewitched with The Salem Witch Trials. 

Between February 1692 and May 1693, more than two hundred people were accused of witchcraft in Salem and surrounding towns. Thirty were found guilty, nineteen were executed by hanging, one other man was pressed to death, and at least five people died in jail. Also, two dogs were found guilty of witchcraft. Listen to find out more about this strange time in America's history!

For more information and a full list of our sources, visit our website.

Recommended books: 

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Conversion by Katherine Howe

The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs by Katherine Howe

A Season With the Witch by J. W. Ocker

Six Women of Salem by Marilynne K. Roach

The Witches: Suspicion, Betrayal, and Hysteria in 1692 Salem by Stacy Schiff

Rebel Spy by Veronica Rossi

To buy books mentioned in this episode: Bookshop.org affiliate shop!

Links:

A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials by Smithsonian Magazine

How Rye Bread May Have Caused the Salem Witch Trials

Unobscured Podcast: Season 1

Salem's Haunted Happenings

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In this episode of The Reference Desk, Katie is bewitched with the WPA Packhorse Library.

As part of FDR's New Deal, the Works Progress Administration provided employment for millions of Americans struggling with the effects of the Great Depression. In the most remote pockets of Appalachia, the WPA Packhorse Library Program delivered books by horse to thousands of nearly-inaccessible homes and hollers.

This episode details the history and impact of the WPA Packhorse Library program, and provides book recommendations for listeners interested in emerging themselves even further into the bizarre and beautiful piece of American history.

For more information and a full list of our sources, visit our website.

Books recommended: 

Miss Dorothy and her Bookmobile by Gloria Houston and Susan Condie Lamb

My Librarian is a Camel by Margriet Ruurs

Biblioburro by Jeanette Winter

That Book Woman by Heather Henson and David Small

Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia by Steven Stoll

Wednesday's Children by Kathryn Anne Michaels

What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte

Down Cut Shin Creek by Kathi Appelt and Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer

Library on Wheels by Sharlee Glenn

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan

The Librarian of Boone's Hollow by Kim Vogel Sawyer

The Book Women of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

Links: 

Horse-Riding Librarians Were the Great Depression's Bookmobiles

Culture, Poverty, and Education in Appalachian Kentucky

A History of US Public Libraries Exhibit

New Deal

In 1932, Works Program Spelled HOPE for Millions of Jobless Americans

Where is Appalachia?

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