Victor Lustig: Con Man Extraordinaire

Holly and Tracy talk about there not being a national divorce law in the U.S. and how to pronounce Nevada. Tracy talks about the ways social rules are necessary but can be used in ways that are exclus...

22 Mar 202433min

Books on etiquette don’t necessarily reflect rules everyone is actually following – they’re more like what the author thinks the ideal standard of behavior should be. This episode looks at six such bo...

20 Mar 202446min

Divorce ranches sprung up in the 1930s when Nevada relaxed its divorce laws. This unique and controversial style of resort was incredibly popular for several decades before becoming obsolete. Research...

18 Mar 202433min

This 2021 episode covers sixteenth-century barber surgeon Ambroise Paré, who has been called everything from “the gentle surgeon” to “the father of modern surgery.”See omnystudio.com/listener for priv...

16 Mar 202433min

Holly talks about the various theories about events in Charles Francis Hall's life. Tracy discusses some of the troubling sources she came across while researching Götz von Berlichingen. See omnystudi...

15 Mar 202425min

In the early 16th century Gottfried von Berlichingen was known as Götz of the Iron Hand because after an injury and amputation, he wore a prosthesis made of sheet iron that was painted to match his sk...

13 Mar 202434min

Charles Francis Hall was inspired by expeditions like Sir John Franklin’s push to find the Northwest Passage, but he repeated the pattern of doom when he made a try for the North Pole – though he was ...

11 Mar 202434min

This 2017 episode covers the extinction of one New Zealand bird species that's often attributed to a single cat. While feline predation played a significant role in the end of the Stephens Island wren...

9 Mar 202431min