CLASSIC: The Rise and Fall of Local Scrip: Alternative Currencies of the Great Depression
Have you ever been so broke that you ended up creating your own currency? It may sound like a crazy idea today, but during the Great Depression multiple communities actually created and circulated the...
11 Jul 39min
The Kingdom of Callaway: That Time One Missouri County (Sort Of, Maybe) Became An Independent Nation
Despite the misleading name, the U.S. "Civil War" was anything but. As North fought South, this short-lived, bloody conflict fundamentally shifted the course of the country. Yet if you go just a bit f...
9 Jul 37min
The Ridiculous History of Saturday Morning Cartoons, Part Two: The Fall of a Grift
For several decades, Saturday morning cartoons were a massive industry in the United States. Every weekend, millions of American children tuned in to watch their favorite shows... and, later, bug thei...
7 Jul 45min
CLASSIC: The Attack of the Japanese Balloon Bombs
Picture this: It's late 1944, and you, like thousands of other people on the west coast of North America, have noticed bizarre, jellyfish-like objects floating through the sky. You call the local auth...
4 Jul 34min
The Ridiculous History of Saturday Morning Cartoons, Part One: A Golden Age
In the economic boom of a post-World War II United States the sudden affordability of television fundamentally rocked the nation. From the 1950s on, millions of kids in America grew up watching Saturd...
2 Jul 42min
People Used to Do Very Weird Drugs, Part One: Broomsticks, Sailors and Vikings
Today, everyone knows the potential dangers of both illegal and legal drugs. Some are more popular and more widely-accepted than others (shoutout to coffee!), but across time and cultures, it's an ope...
30 Jun 42min
CLASSIC: Marie Antoinette and the Diamond Necklace Hoax
Queen Marie Antoinette's reputation was already tarnished by gossip in 1784, but was completely ruined by the implication that she defrauded the crown jewelers, conning them out of a dazzling, expensi...
27 Jun 44min
Berserkers: Violent Viking Villains, Unverified
Vikings! Even centuries after their heyday, these seafaring Scandinavian raiders are the subject of countless works of fiction and film -- and some of the stories about them are true. And, legend has ...
25 Jun 31min
