The Disturbing History of Last Meals, Part One: A Creepy Origin Story
It's a classic trope of crime stories and folklore across the planet: a criminal due for execution is granted one last meal as a send-off to the afterlife. But where exactly does this strange practice...
20 Aug 202435min
CLASSIC: That Time the US Built a Flying Aircraft Carrier
Nowadays airships are seen as historical relics or novelties meant to fly overhead during sports games. However, not so long ago, the US military thought airships might be the future of warfare. Today...
17 Aug 202433min
CLASSIC: Yes, Those are Corpses in the Diorama
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History is one of the most storied institutions of its kind in the United States, and it's chockful of priceless objects from across the span of history and the globe. H...
15 Aug 202438min
CLASSIC: Weird People Who Built Weird Things
Simeon Ellerton spent years building a house out of stones he found and carried home, one by one. Rejected by his one true love, Edward Leeskalnin spent decades erecting a bizarre monument for her, bu...
13 Aug 202436min
CLASSIC: What was the West Point Eggnog Riot?
Today the United States Military Academy at West Point is known as one the country's top-notch training institutions, but back in 1826 it was home to a night of pure egg-nog-fueled pandemonium. Join B...
10 Aug 202443min
The Noble -- and Kind of Ridiculous -- History of Butlers
Are you a millionaire, billionaire or aristocrat too busy to manage the day-to-day affairs of palatial estate? If so, you may have already secured the last word in personal service: the butler. In tod...
8 Aug 202437min
CLASSIC: Lyndon Johnson Chatted on the Phone More than a Teenager
The 36th President of the United States is often recalled as a complex, flawed individual responsible for profoundly important legislation. However, he was also a notorious telephone fanatic, installi...
6 Aug 202428min
The Founding of the Smithsonian, Part Two: James Gives America a Fortune -- and a Mission
There's no way around it: James Smithson had a tough life. Yet his unhappiness may, in an indirect way, be the prime reason the Smithsonian Institute exists today. In part two of this special two-part...
1 Aug 202432min
