73: The Pet Rock: A Fad is Born (Patreon Bonus)
Wipe your slate clean of everything you *think* you know about the pet rock. You’ll marble (err, marvel) over its true history! Its inventor, Gary Dahl, thought he’d created a novelty gift that was se...
24 Sep 20251h 52min
72: Last Man Standing: Hiroo Onoda Finally Surrenders (Part 3)
It took countless efforts and nearly three decades to convince Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda that World War II was over. When those efforts finally paid off, Hiroo Onoda went home to Japan. He receive...
17 Sep 20251h 24min
71: Hiroo Onoda Fights a Non-Existent War (Part 2)
World War II was over. (Really. Truly.) But a group of Japanese soldiers stationed on Lubang Island in the Philippines weren’t convinced. They didn’t believe that Japan had surrendered. So they kept f...
10 Sep 20251h 35min
70: The Japanese Soldier Who Refused to Surrender (Part 1)
As a second lieutenant in the Japanese Army, Hiroo Onoda took his job seriously. He’d been ordered to lead guerilla warfare missions on Lubang Island in the Philippines. He was told to never surrender...
3 Sep 20251h 22min
69: Judgement Day for the Donner Party (Part 5)
In the finale of our series on The Donner Party, rescue groups head off for Truckee Lake and Alder Creek, hoping to save as many survivors as they could. For many members of The Donner Party, the resc...
27 Aug 20251h 56min
68: The Donner Party Resorts to Cannibalism (Part 4)
By the winter of 1846, the Donner Party found themselves in the exact scenario they’d been dreading. They were trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, pummeled by snowstorms. Their food supply dwindle...
20 Aug 20251h 30min
67: The Donner Party Falls Apart (Part 3)
By the time they realized what they’d done, it was too late. Hastings Cutoff turned out to not be much of a cutoff at all. In fact, it was more time consuming and taxing than the regular California Tr...
13 Aug 20251h 25min
66: Warnings and Lies: The Deception of the Donner Party (Part 2)
The Donner Party was at a crossroads. They’d made good progress on their journey to California, but they were still about a week behind schedule. Lansford Hasting’s new shortcut appealed to the worrie...
6 Aug 20251h 13min
