Unhinged History

Angie is riding her Paddy Mane trip for the second week. This week, she covered Paddy Mane's tumultuous start to military service and how he met the founders of the SAS. 

Theresa takes us in a wildly different direction as she circles back on a previous story. Before she'd covered William Riker, the cult-founder of Holy City in episode 132. Today she covers William Riker's lawyer, Melvin Belli. This man fired a cannon from the roof of his office and flew the Jolly Roger flag when he won cases. 

This episode pairs well with: 

Paddy Mane's Early Years

Melvin Belli's Cult-Founding Client

History is strange and weird. Today's mash-up of stories proves it.

Theresa picks up where she left off last week. (Last week, she shared about that time North Korea sent 31 commandos into South Korea to take out their president.) This week, South Korea responds by forming its own squad, only spoiler alert: things go fantastically awry.

Angie collects her bearings before sharing the early years of her favorite SAS member, "Paddy" Blair Mane. Join us as she tells about him hunting South African springbok in formal wear and more.

These stories pair well with:

The Blue House Raid

History is jam-packed with stories you've never heard, and today's episode brings together two such tales. Angie starts with sharing Josef Mencik – the last knight, or the Knight of Strakonice. This Czech man of noble standing starts to enter the historical narrative by buying a castle, a suit of armour, and then stands up to a Nazi tank division.

Theresa takes the rest of the episode in a wildly different direction when she shares, The Blue House Incident, or that time North Korea snuck 31 commandos into Seoul and got them within 300 meters of the president's palace before the mission went sideways.

These stories pair nicely with:

The Wide Awakes

The SAS raid no one knew about

Do you remember how, in the past, Theresa and Angie explained the start of WWI as that time a Serbian shot an Austrian, so Britain declared war on Germany?

Well today, Theresa does a deep dive and explains how a secretive organization within the Serbian government referred to as The Black Hand is the group that trained the assassins who killed Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie.

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The SAS raid no on knew about

It isn't every week Angie brings the pain, yet here we are. This week Angie shares the Lebensborn program. During this 9-year program, the Third Reich attempted to breed more soldiers. It starts with unwed Aryan mothers going to country estates to give birth and ends with the SS kidnapping children who looked the part.

Theresa offers a palate cleanser by sharing Harvard's Bad Butter Rebellion. Listen to the pre-Revolutionary War era hysterics over Harvard's dining hall serving rancid butter and the chaos that ensues.

This episode pairs well with:

The Children's Crusade of 1212

Angie and Theresa bring you another set of bizarrely wonderful stories to prove that yet again, people are unpredictable.

Angie shares the wildly unhinged tale of the Emu War, or that time Australian farmers waged war against birds, and lost so so badly. It's hard to imagine pitting a machine gun against a flock of birds and losing, but here we are.

Refusing to leave well enough alone, Theresa shares the story of William Riker, not the one from Star Trek, but the one who founded the Holy City cult in the mountains near Santa Cruz, California.

This episode pairs well with:

The Pig War

It's been a while since Theresa tortured Angie and the listeners. This episode is another opportunity to remind yourself that she gets off of curdling stomachs. 

Join us and give Angie moral support, and Theresa forces her to learn about Dr. Harvey Wiley and his volunteers who formed the Poison Squad and built the foundations of the FDA. 

Angie serves up a story so piping hot it consumes the entire episode. Come join us as she regales us with the story of Mata Hari. Whatever you think you know of this WWI spy, this wasn't it.

Angie serves up all the tea and she turns us all into fan girls as she shares her execution.

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We're back to exploring the gritty unhinged history of WWII spies this week as Theresa shares the story of the war's most decorated spy, Odette Samson. This French-born woman left her three young girls in Britain and joined the war effort, as a courier (the fatality rate of couriers was over 40%). During this mission, she fell in love, got tortured, sent to Ravensbruck, and survived without giving the Axis powers any intel.

This all-around badass is a name we should all know.

This episode pairs with:

WWII Spy: Nancy Wake

WWII Spy: Toto Koopman

This episode has it all. Today, Angie takes center stage when she shares the correlation between sliced bread, the Normandy, and WWII. 

Come for Theresa losing her mind at how sliced bread relates to anything. Stay for a thorough retelling of Operation Underworld, or how the Italian mafia helped protect Americans, as the first line of defense from Axis U-boats.  

This episode pairs well with: