Author Interview: Jason Surrell and The Haunted Mansion

On Christmas day in 1950, the Stone of Scone was removed, heist-style, from Westminster Abbey. Some believed it to be an act of theft, and others, liberation.  Research: Aitchison, Nick. “Scotland's Stone of Destiny : myth, history and nationhood.” Stroud : Tempus. 2000. BBC World Service. “The removal of Scotland's Stone of Destiny - BBC World Service.” Via YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd_FC2zWlOQ Brocklehurst, Steven. “The students who stole the Stone of Destiny.” BBC. 3/24/2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-63130942 George, Stephen C. “What Is the Stone of Destiny?” Discover. 6/5/2023. https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/what-is-the-stone-of-destiny Glasgow Police Museum. “THE STONE OF DESTINY – 1950.” https://www.policemuseum.org.uk/crime-casebook/interesting-cases/the-stone-of-destiny-1950/ Historic Environment Scotland. “Research shines new light on the Stone of Destiny.” 4/5/2023. https://www.historicenvironment.scot/about-us/news/research-shines-new-light-on-the-stone-of-destiny/ Historic Environment Scotland. “Stone Of Destiny, Edinburgh Castle.” 3D Scan. https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/stone-of-destiny-edinburgh-castle-4d46d1df627d41a2adc65f6550b2fa9c London staff. “No trace of missing Stone of Destiny.” The Guardian. 12/27/1950. https://www.theguardian.com/century/1950-1959/Story/0,,105149,00.html McAleer, Brendan. “When four students in two Fords stole the Stone of Destiny.” Hagerty Media. 9/29/2022. https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/when-four-students-in-two-fords-stole-the-stone-of-destiny/ Rodwell, Warwick. “The Coronation Chair and Stone of Scone : history, archaeology and conservation.” Oxford, Oxbow Books. 2013. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

25 Joulu 202339min

For Christmas Eve, we’re sharing our 2016 episode about holiday figures from around the world. This one features the Mari Lwyd, which came up on a recent episode. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

24 Joulu 202328min

This 2019 episode covers John Wilkins who planned out what he thought it would take for humans to travel to the moon In the 1600s. Wilkins managed to ride out a rocky time in England's history comfortably.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

23 Joulu 202327min

Tracy talks about not seeing a frozen body of water that could support a person as a kid. Holly discusses how difficult it is to pare down Hedda Hopper's life into an episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

22 Joulu 202321min

Though she started out acting, what really made Hedda Hopper famous was her work in newspapers. For several decades, she could make or break a movie career with her gossip column, sending statements to print regardless of whether there was any actual proof of what she claimed. Research:  Collins, Amy Fine. “The Powerful Rivalry of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons.” Vanity Fair. April 1997. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/02/rivalry-hedda-hopper-louella-parsons-gossip-columnists Eells, George. “Hedda and Louella.” W.H. Allen. Virgin Books. 1972. Ephron, Nora. “Hedda and Louella.” New York Times. April 23, 1972. https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/23/archives/hedda-and-louella-by-george-eells-illustrated-360-pp-new-york-g-p-p.html FROST, JENNIFER. “‘GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD COMPANY’: HEDDA HOPPER, HOLLYWOOD GOSSIP, AND THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHARLIE CHAPLIN, 1940-1952.” Australasian Journal of American Studies, vol. 26, no. 2, 2007, pp. 74–88. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41054077 “Hedda Hopper, Columnist, Dies; Chronicled Gossip of Hollywood.” New York Times. Feb. 2, 1966. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/02/02/79310265.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 “Hollywood’s Godmother to Give Views on Past, Present, Future.” The Tampa Tribune. Jan. 10, 1960. https://www.newspapers.com/image/329731973/?terms=hedda%20hopper&match=1 Hopper, Hedda. “Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood.” The Shreveport Journal. October 4, 1938. https://www.newspapers.com/image/600365053/?terms=hedda%20hopper&match=1 Peak, Mamie Ober. “Social Butterfly of Screen a Different Person at Home.” Hartford Courant. Jan 10, 1932. https://www.newspapers.com/image/369469825/?terms=hedda%20hopper&match=1 Sbardellati, John and Tony Shaw. “Booting a Tramp: Charlie Chaplin, the FBI, and the Construction of the Subversive Image in Red Scare America.” The Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 72, No. 4 (Nov., 2003), pp. 495-530. University of California Press. https://web.viu.ca/davies/H323Vietnam/CharlieChaplin.McCarthyism.pdf “William Randolph Hearst’s Campaign to Suppress Citizen Kane.” American Experience. PBS. April 30, 2021. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/kane-william-randolph-hearst-campaign-suppress-citizen-kane/  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

20 Joulu 202335min

The London Frost Fairs, were festivals held out on the ice when the River Thames froze over. Most of these fairs were in January or February, and the last of them took place in 1814. Research: Andrews, William. “Famous Frosts and Frost Fairs in Great Britain: Chronicled from the Earliest to the Present Time.” G. Redway. 1887. https://archive.org/details/famousfrostsand00andrgoog Davis, George. “Frostiana: Or a History of the River Thames in a Frozen State.” London, 1814. Evelyn, John. “The Diary of John Evelyn (Volume 2 of 2).” Edited by William Bray. 1901. Holman, Martin. “Frost fairs and the frozen Thames.” Art UK. 1/11/2017. https://artuk.org/discover/stories/frost-fairs-and-the-frozen-thames Johnson, Ben. “The Thames Frost Fairs.” Historic UK. https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/The-Thames-Frost-Fairs/ Magdalen College. “An Historical Account of the Late Great Frost.” https://www.magd.ox.ac.uk/blog/an-historical-account-of-the-late-great-frost/ Marchant, Katrina. “Frost Fairs: Fun on the Frozen Thames.” Reading the Past. 11/25/2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq-ZZ9CdsDk Melhuish, Fiona. “’Carnival on the Water’: The Thames Frost Fairs.” 1/16/2017. https://collections.reading.ac.uk/special-collections/2017/01/16/carnivals-on-the-water-the-thames-frost-fairs/ Nelson, Jessica. “Frost Fairs on the Thames.” 1/31/2018. https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/frost-fairs-thames/ Selli, Fabrizio. “All the fun of the Frost Fair: why, when and how did Londoners party on the ice?” Museum of London. 11/27/2018. https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/frost-fairs Shaull-Thompson, Remi. “’Frost Fairs,’ the Little Ice Age and Climate Change.” 5/7/2019. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/frost-fairs-the-little-ice-age-and-climate-change/ Srigley, Michael. “The Great Frost Fair of 1683-4.” History Today. 12/12/1960. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/feature/great-frost-fair-1683-4 Staveley-Wadham, Rose. “‘The Thames is Now Both a Fair and Market Too’ – Discovering the Frost Fair of 1814.” British Newspaper Archive. 1/21/2019. https://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2019/01/21/discovering-the-frost-fair-of-1814/ “The great frost. cold doings in London, except it be at the lotterie. With newes out of the country. A familiar talke betwene a country-man and a citizen touching this terrible frost and the great lotterie, and the effects of them. the description of the Thames frozen over.” https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/B07684.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext The History Press. “The last Thames frost fair.” https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-last-thames-frost-fair/ Ward, Jospeh P. “The Taming of the Thames: Reading the River in the Seventeenth Century.” Huntington Library Quarterly , Vol. 71, No. 1 (March 2008). https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/hlq.2008.71.1.55 “Broadside ballad, 1684, describing a Frost Fair on the frozen Thames at Temple.” https://www.layersoflondon.org/map/records/broadside-ballad-1684-describing-a-frost-fair-on-the-frozen-thames-at-temple See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

18 Joulu 202337min

This 2016 episode was inspired by our trip to the Royall House & Slave Quarters. It's about Belinda Sutton and her petitions to be compensated for her enslavement to the Royall family. Here is the link to the video we recorded for HowStuffWorks at Royall House & Slave Quarters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdE7ravZvas&list=PLNrBwGzpymDJwMDZeUI939TpVViLOKHpySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

16 Joulu 202325min

Holly and Tracy share formative experiences with math classes. Then Tracy discusses a spinning bee, Lafayette in Medford, and her historical fanfiction.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

15 Joulu 202327min