Episodes
Dec. 8, 2025
1-800-TYPHOID: The Oregon Trail Part Two
Hope can fit inside a covered wagon, but so can heartbreak. We trace the Sager family’s 1844 push toward Oregon—from a baby born on the prairie and a nine-year-old’s leg crushed under a wagon wheel to typhoid, orphanhood, and...
Dec. 3, 2025
The Origin of Weird: The Anti Pope Schism
Power doesn’t just shape history—it picks the chair. We dive into the Western Schism, when Europe faced not one but multiple popes, and legitimacy became a battlefield of theology, politics, and personality. From Rome to Avig...
Dec. 1, 2025
Chimney Cricket: Oregon Trail Part One
A 2,000-mile promise of “free land” sounds irresistible—until you’re walking beside a creaking wagon at two miles per hour, guarding flour from river water and praying cholera spares your camp. We’re pulling the curtain back ...
Nov. 24, 2025
Hold My Fosters: Dave Kunst Walk Around The World
A wild idea in a Minnesota movie theater turns into a four-year odyssey across continents, palaces, deserts, and a war-torn frontier—only to be shattered and reshaped by a midnight ambush in the Afghan mountains. We follow Da...
Nov. 19, 2025
The Origin of Weird: Uther Pendragon and Lady Igraine
A dragon-tailed comet blazes across the sky, a king takes it as a sign, and a wizard decides the future is worth a dangerous bargain. We dive into the charged origin of King Arthur—not at the anvil, but at Tintagel—where Uthe...
Nov. 17, 2025
The Tudor Wizard: Cardinal Wolsey
Power doesn’t just sit on a throne—it lives in the hands that organize, negotiate, and quietly make things happen. We dive into the life of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the butcher’s son who became England’s most formidable power ...
Nov. 10, 2025
Holy Hitman Roofie: Thuggee Cult of India
A friendly smile by the fire, a shared meal on a dusty road, and a scarf that turns into a weapon in a heartbeat. We dive into the shadowed world of the Thuggee—bands of highway killers who claimed divine orders from the godd...
Nov. 5, 2025
The Origin of Weird: L. Ron Hubbard and His Lackluster Naval Career
A man drops depth charges on a rock formation, shells the wrong country for target practice, and later rebrands himself as a decorated hero and spiritual “Commodore.” We follow L. Ron Hubbard from pulp fiction pages to a chao...
Nov. 3, 2025
PerSwede Them: Black Sox Scandal
A powerhouse roster, a miserly owner, and a storm of quiet resentment set the stage for baseball’s most infamous fall. We trace how the 1919 Chicago White Sox—frustrated by low pay and trapped by the reserve clause—slipped fr...
Oct. 27, 2025
Feared and Revered: The Wendigo and Other Cryptids
A classic cocktail opens a door to stranger places. We start with the crisp snap of a gin and tonic and its unexpected past as a colonial malaria remedy, then step into the woods, deserts, and fog banks where four legends sti...
Oct. 22, 2025
The Origin of Weird: Will West and William West
Two men. Same name. Same face. Same measurements. Different fingerprints. The Leavenworth intake room went silent in 1903 when Will West’s file appeared to match a prisoner already serving time: William West. That uncanny col...
Oct. 20, 2025
I Don't Do Nautical Things: Submarine R-14
Stuck 100-plus miles off Hawaii with dead engines and a silent radio, a 1919 submarine shouldn’t have had a chance. Ours did. We walk through the improbable rescue of USS R-14—how a small crew turned hammocks into sails, bunk...
Oct. 13, 2025
The Audacity of that Kid: William Patrick Hitler
Ever wondered what it takes to outrun a last name that shaped world history? We dive into the strange, complicated life of William Patrick Hitler—born in Liverpool, raised by an Irish mother, and briefly swept into the social...
Oct. 8, 2025
The Origin Of Weird: The Tunguska Event of 1908
A blue-white fireball tore across a quiet Siberian morning and turned a vast forest into matchsticks—yet left no crater. We dive into the 1908 Tunguska event with clear storytelling and sharp science, tracing how eyewitness h...
Oct. 6, 2025
For Profit For His Hairs: MLK Jr.
A single microphone, a sea of people, and a line that still echoes—and a copyright story few expect. We follow “I Have a Dream” from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial into the courts, where old statutes and modern rulings dec...
Sept. 29, 2025
Medieval NDA: John of Nepomuk
A king’s temper, a vicar’s signature, and a midnight plunge off the Charles Bridge—this is the real John of Nepomuk, stripped of centuries of rumor and retold from the sources that watched it happen. We kick off light—birthda...
Sept. 24, 2025
The Origin of Weird: Dennis Wilson and Charlie Manson
The shocking intersection of California surf culture and one of America's most notorious killers comes to light in our exploration of Dennis Wilson's dangerous dance with Charles Manson. What began as a chance encounter with two young hitchhikers in 1968 evolved into a bizarre living arrangement th…
Sept. 22, 2025
"Execute or Evacuate, You Decide": Hugh Thompson Jr.
When helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson Jr. flew over the Vietnamese village of My Lai on March 16, 1968, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Below him, American soldiers—his brothers in arms—were systematically executing una...
Sept. 15, 2025
Spitcicles: The 1925 Serum Run
The frigid winter of 1925 brought more than just bitter cold to Nome, Alaska—it delivered a deadly diphtheria outbreak that threatened to devastate the isolated town of 1,400 people. With the harbor frozen solid and no roads ...
Sept. 10, 2025
The Origin Of Weird: Robert Liston and his 300% Mortality Rate
Would you believe a surgeon could accidentally kill three people in one operation? Welcome to the blood-soaked world of pre-anesthesia surgery through the story of Robert Liston, the fastest knife in the West End of London. B...
Sept. 8, 2025
Icky Fishy: Karen Silkwood
What happens when a lone whistleblower challenges a powerful nuclear corporation? The story of Karen Silkwood unfolds like a thriller, but with deadly real-world consequences that forever changed workplace safety standards. A...
Sept. 1, 2025
Twisted Mustache Villain: Lady Jane Grey
Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to become a monarch overnight—against your will—only to lose everything just days later? This episode unravels the heartbreaking story of Lady Jane Grey, England's "Nine Days Que...
Aug. 27, 2025
The Origin of Weird: The Reincarnation of Omm Sety, The Dorothy Eady Story
Have you ever wondered if our souls might carry memories from past lives? The story of Dorothy Eady challenges everything we think we know about consciousness and history. After falling down the stairs at age three and being ...
Aug. 25, 2025
I'm Just a Bride of Satan: Mary Osgood
What would you confess to if your life depended on it? In 1692, Mary Clements Osgood faced this impossible choice when she was blindfolded, led before a Salem courtroom, and accused of witchcraft after afflicted girls stopped...