Offbeat History: Hennig Brand and the Discovery of Phosphorus
It's a 2019 show about urine! Spoiler alert: Hennig Brand discovered phosphorous by boiling pee. But he was trying to do something else: He thought the secret to the philosopher’s stone might be found...
19 Mar 202029min
Offbeat History: A Culinary History of Spam
Back in 2014, we tackled SPAM's story. This famous Hormel Foods product was invented in the 1930s to make use of a surplus of shoulder meat from pigs. It played a huge role in WWII, and shaped the cui...
19 Mar 202027min
Offbeat History: The Mystery of the Devil’s Footprints
In October 2017, we talked about mysterious prints that looked like hoof marks appeared all over the English seaside county of Devon in February 1855. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www....
19 Mar 202029min
Offbeat History: The American Hippo Ranch Plan, Part 2
We continue out offbeat 2015 story. Once the effort to import hippos to the U.S. got the backing of a politician, two men with intertwined histories, Frederick Russel Burnham and Fritz Duquesne, were ...
19 Mar 202024min
Offbeat History: The American Hippo Ranch Plan, Part 1
An offbeat episode from 2015: In 1910, the U.S. a meat shortage, and a water hyacinth overgrowth problem. The obvious solution to the dilemma: Import hippos from Africa. Learn more about your ad-choi...
19 Mar 202020min
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was founded in 1943, and it went on for years after WWII. These women were athletes, some of whom thought they were starting on a career in professi...
18 Mar 202034min
Anglo-Zanzibar War
Zanzibar is a relatively tiny place, but its place in history is significant, largely because of its geographical position. Its value as a trading port led it, over time, to be the location of what’s ...
16 Mar 202028min
SYMHC Classics: Why did a riot start over Shakespeare?
This 2011 episode from previous hosts Sarah and Deblina covers an often-requested topic. Shakespeare is typically associated with cultural sophistication rather than violent bouts of near-anarchy. But...
14 Mar 202025min
