The Reluctant Historian

This week, Liz and Dakota look at where Halloween came from, and what's it's original purpose for celebration was. With roots in Celtic traditions, Halloween has changed greatly over the centuries.

Episode Notes

https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween#:~:text=The%20tradition%20originated%20with%20the,of%20the%20traditions%20of%20Samhain

https://www.yourirish.com/folklore/irish-pookas

https://specifipedia.com/the-legends-of-samhain-part-one/

https://www.history.com/news/halloween-samhain-celts-catholic-church

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

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This week, Liz and Dakota look at a famous beast from Korean folklore: The Kumiho. Taking a peek at a few different tales, they try to understand where this myth came from, and what it represents.

Episode Notes

https://symbolsage.com/kumiho-korean-nine-tailed-fox/

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

https://www.astonishinglegends.com/astonishing-legends/2020/2/24/kumiho

https://mythus.fandom.com/wiki/Kumiho

https://thesupernaturalfoxsisters.com/2015/06/03/monster-of-the-week-kumiho/

https://pantheon.org/articles/k/kumiho.html

https://folkency.nfm.go.kr/en/main

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This week, Liz and Dakota look at a spooky haunting from Tennessee, thought to be the most well documented American haunting, and maybe the inspiration for Poltergeist, Paranormal Activity, The Blair Witch, and The Haunting of Hill House? (okay, we can't verify all that, but Koda is sure that it is).

Episode Notes

https://bloody-disgusting.com/podcasts/3713482/bell-witch-true-story-explored-in-bloody-disgustings-podcast-insidious-inspirations/

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

https://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/tsla/exhibits/myth/bellwitch.htm

http://www.bellwitch.org/story.htm

https://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/bellwitch1.html

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This week, Liz and Dakota start spooky season by taking a look at the stories of poisoned Halloween candy, and wondering if there is any validity to the belief that there are marauding murderers out there to get your Halloween candy.

Episode Notes

https://www.history.com/news/how-americans-became-convinced-their-halloween-candy-was-poisoned

https://www.history.com/news/the-haunted-history-of-halloween-candy?li_source=LI&li_medium=m2m-rcw-history

https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/trick-or-treatings-tricky-history-video

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Clark_O%27Bryan

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/30/health/halloween-candy-panic-conversation-wellness/index.html

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This week's Wicked Wednesday looks back at England's most prolific lady serial killer, Mary Ann Cotton. Taking you through her crimes, Liz and Koda explore how she was able to get away with so much murder.

Episode Notes

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

https://murderpedia.org/female.C/c/cotton-mary-ann.htm

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Ann-Cotton

https://allthatsinteresting.com/mary-ann-cotton

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/history/who-was-mary-ann-cotton-11503447

http://www.maryanncotton.co.uk/index.html

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This week, Liz gets really passionate about research, looking back the most devastating manmade explosion in the pre-atomic age. Dakota is bored.

Episode Notes

https://downtownhalifax.ca/land-acknowledgement

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/halifax-explosion

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

https://maritimemuseum.novascotia.ca/what-see-do/halifax-explosion

https://www.britannica.com/event/Halifax-explosion

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-great-halifax-explosion

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This week, Liz didn't have time to write an episode, so she's reading from lists of weird historical facts while Dakota loses his mind.

Episode Notes

https://bestlifeonline.com/historical-facts/

https://parade.com/1099930/marynliles/history-facts/

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This week, Liz and Dakota look back at America's first recorded serial killer, and talk about whether he truly understood what a hotel was, or if he was just confused by a motel.

Episode Notes

https://www.history.com/news/murder-castle-h-h-holmes-chicago

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/enduring-mystery-hh-holmes-americas-first-serial-killer-180977646/

https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/serial-killers/hh-holmes/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/H-H-Holmes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._H._Holmes

https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/hh-holmes

https://www.history.com/topics/crime/murder-castle

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This week, Liz and Dakota look at the history of queerness on the wild west's frontier.

Episode Notes

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

Article: Paradise of Bachelors: The Social World of Men in Nineteenth-Century America.”

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-dec-15-la-et-out-west15-2009dec15-story.html

https://hornet.com/stories/wild-west-gay-cowboys-history/

https://truewestmagazine.com/old-west-homosexuality-homos-on-the-range/

http://s3.amazonaws.com/arena-attachments/1581066/f18d255fcacf4c1686f54670bf93473d.pdf?1515546270

https://www.notesfromthefrontier.com/post/queer-tales-of-the-old-west

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

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