Christine de Pizan and the Book of the City of Ladies
Christine de Pizan is often described as a late-Medieval writer. But just “writer” does not really sum up everything she did. She wrote verse, military manuals, and treatises on war, peace and the ju...
5 Sep 201828min
Interview: Anne Byrn's 'American Cookie'
We're delighted to have Anne Byrn back on the show to talk about her latest book, "American Cookie." Anne shares her vast knowledge of historical baking and how it fits into the cultural history of th...
3 Sep 201842min
SYMHC Classics: The Great Moon Hoax of 1835, Part 2
We're revisiting part two of the Great Moon Hoax! As the New York Sun's series of astonishing moon discoveries concluded, most people recognized that it was a hoax. But what made people buy into the t...
1 Sep 201823min
A Condensed History of Air Conditioning
From hand fans to today’s high-end air conditioning technology, people have always found ways to deal with heat and humidity. And as mechanical cooling became more ubiquitous, some of the cultural pra...
29 Aug 201833min
The Georgia Gold Rush
In the late 1820s, north Georgia became the site of the first gold rush in the United States, predating the more famous California gold rush by two decades. It's also tied to some of the darkest parts...
27 Aug 201822min
SYMHC Classics: The Great Moon Hoax of 1835, Part 1
We're revisiting a silly two-parter from 2015. In August 1835, the New York Sun ran a series about some utterly mind-blowing discoveries made by Sir John Herschel about the lunar surface. The serial h...
25 Aug 201824min
The Battle of Ambos Nogales
Two cities, both named Nogales, were established, one on each side of the U.S.-Mexico border, after the Gadsden Purchase but before Arizona’s statehood. In the summer of 1918, ongoing tension led to a...
22 Aug 201832min
Interview: Mary Robinette Kowal on the 'Lady Astronaut' Duology
Mary Robinette Kowal’s work has inspired several episodes of the podcast. She has just written a pair of books that are called the Lady Astronaut duology, and Tracy got the chance to speak with Mary a...
20 Aug 201845min
