The Port Chicago Disaster
This was the worst stateside disaster in the United States during World War II. Apart from being a horrific tragedy, the disaster itself and its aftermath were threaded through with racism and injusti...
17 Jul 201939min
Ferdinand and Barbara, Married Mad Royals
Despite ascending to power in a court filled with intrigue, juggling relations with Britain and France, and both likely having mental health conditions, the reign of Ferdinand VI of Spain and his wife...
15 Jul 201928min
SYMHC Classics: Ibn Battuta, the Traveler of Islam
Today we revisit an episode from 2017 about Ibn Battuta, whose 14th-century travels were extensive. He was away from home for roughly 24 years and during that time traveled through virtually every Mus...
13 Jul 201932min
Fearless, Feisty and Unflagging: The Women of Gettysburg
Military history rarely focuses on the women who lived through conflict and worked on recovery efforts. This episode covers women who assisted troops, buried the dead, nursed the wounded, and managed ...
10 Jul 201937min
Thomas Cook, John Cook, and the Rise of the Tourism Industry
Thomas Cook and his son John Mason Cook were pioneers of the idea of a travel agency to manage tourist holidays. But Thomas Cook was initially motivated by his support of the temperance movement and h...
8 Jul 201928min
SYMHC Classics: Hartford Circus Fire
This 2015 episode covers an event in 1944, when one of the most disastrous fires in U.S. history broke out during a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performance. Dozens of lives were lost and...
6 Jul 201923min
Hatshepsut and the Expeditions to Punt
One of our biggest sources of information on Punt comes from Hatshepsut, who sent a huge expedition there in the 15th century B.C.E. The expedition to Punt is also an important and illustrative part o...
3 Jul 201939min
Sylvia of Hollywood – Beauty Consultant to the Stars
In the 1920s and 1930s, Sylvia was famous for shaping up starlets, cementing the idea that Hollywood’s beauties were aspirational figures for the average woman. Many of Sylvia's ideas about fitness we...
1 Jul 201938min
