Stuff You Missed in History Class

This 2017 episode revisits roses, which humans have painted, written about, and assigned symbolic meaning for centuries. But this much-beloved flower predates mankind, and it's a little difficult to track our early relationship with cultivating it.

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On today's episode, Tracy and Holly discuss their levels of familiarity with O. Henry and have a food digression. Talk then turns to how Rudolph became so popular so quickly, and how far reaching the Rudolph story is in culture.

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Most of us grew up with the story of the sweet little reindeer that was picked on by his peers, and becomes the hero who saves Christmas. But Rudolph is unique in that he became part of Christmas tradition almost the moment he was introduced in 1939.

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O. Henry’s writing is taught in many schools because of his stories like “Gift of the Magi,” but it’s rarely mentioned that during his life, he fled to Honduras to avoid prosecution for embezzlement. 

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This classic is from 2014. In 1826, liquor was forbidden at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. Cadets smuggled alcohol into the barracks anyway, and a defiant Christmas party turned into a riot when two officers attempted to break up the festivities.

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Tracy and Holly discuss the difficulty people may have with Civil War history and how surprisingly exciting Constitutional scholarship can be.

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Holly is joined by Kerry Sautner, Chief Learning Officer of the National Constitution Center, to discuss the museum's mission, unlikely career paths to history, and how talking about the Constitution brings people together.

You can visit the National Constitution Center at: https://constitutioncenter.org/

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The myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy was a distortion of the history of the U.S. Civil War that’s still affecting the world today.

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Were revisiting a 2016 episode about the uprising of the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire during the Hellenistic period, which is an integral part of the Hanukkah story. After the restoration of Jewish religious freedom, the Maccabees started another revolt to obtain total independence.

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Tracy and Holly talk about the animated version of Ibn Al-Haytham's story, Omar Sharif, waffle cones, and what to do with holiday leftovers.

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Waffles are popular and commonplace on tables and as street food around the world, but they’ve evolved a lot over time to become the syrup vehicle most of us think of them as. 

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Ibn al-Haytham made massive contributions to the world’s understanding of light and vision through experiments that he did during a prolonged house arrest in the early 11th century. He also wrote about medicine, philosophy, astronomy, math and ethics. 

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This is a holiday throwback to a 2017 episodes. Tasty treats associated with winter holidays have some slightly hazy origins, because the evidence of their histories was eaten.

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Tracy and Holly discuss the issue of final resting places illustrated by Jim Thorpe's story, the pronunciation of poinsettia, and plant toxicity.

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Poinsett was a statesman who was connected to some very important moments in our nation’s history, with mixed results. He’s also credited with introducing the holiday plant named after him – the poinsettia – into the U.S. from Mexico. 

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The conclusion of our three-parter on the life of Jim Thorpe covers his time as a professional athlete, and his life after the end of his athletic career – including two pieces of his story that have tragically continued long after his death. 

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This episode is our 2016 live show from the Dallas Museum of Art about the Olympics. Pierre de Coubertin is described as the father of the modern Olympic Games, which took a few years to really take off.

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Tracy and Holly talk about football, Jim Thorpe, and the morality of trick plays in sports in previous decades. They also discuss the complexities of amateur status in sports and other areas.

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After the 1908-09 football season at Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Thorpe seemed to be headed for a career in baseball. But the offer to return to school and possibly qualify the Olympics altered that path.

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Jim Thorpe was an incredible all-around athlete, famous around the world. In part one, we’ll talk about his life before and during his time at Carlisle, including some context about Carlisle and similar boarding schools.

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This 2018 classics covers Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte, who was the first Native American woman to earn a medical degree. She lived at a time when a lot of change was happening in the United States as a whole, and among Native Americans and the Omaha tribe she was part of specifically

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Tracy and Holly talk about the three people who are linked together in the story of the surgical treatment for cyanotic babies, including stories that didn't make it into this week's episodes.

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In 1944, Thomas developed a surgical treatment for babies with cyanotic heart conditions. Thomas was a Black man working at an institution whose only other black employees did janitorial work, and he had not attended medical school – or even college. 

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Helen’s story is tied to Vivien Thomas and Alfred Blalock in the surgical treatment of blue baby syndrome. She was the one who suggested that Alfred Blalock try to find a surgical approach to congenital heart conditions like tetralogy of Fallot.

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This 2016 episode covers Icelandic history. A fishing territory dispute between Iceland and the U.K. started off with a cordial tone, but escalated into a serious conflict.

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Tracy and Holly talk about the sexism that held back Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin,the desire to see her lecture notes, and stories from their education. Talk then turns to Maria Anna Mozart and the gaps in the record that lead to different interpretations of the Mozart family dynamics.

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Maria Anna Mozart is often left out of brief accounts of her brother’s life. But his sister was sharing the bench with him and was also considered an impressive and accomplished musician. 

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Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was an astronomer who made a lot of firsts. She grew up in a society that didn’t really prioritize education for girls, and she was determined and creative about getting around that.

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This episode from 2015 covers the Night Witches, an all-female bombing regiment in the Soviet Air Force. Flying biplanes meant for dusting crops and training new recruits, they dropped 23,000 tons of bombs on German forces in WWII.

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Tracy and Holly discuss the wealth of unearthed stories that came up this time around, as well as their favorite finds from this batch.

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Part two of our autumnal unearthing report includes shipwrecks, exhumations, repatriations, and quite a bit about Vikings, and a bit of potpourri. 

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It's once again time to take a look at things that have been literally and figuratively unearthed over the last few months. In part one of this Autumn 2020 edition, we'll talk about books and letters, edibles and potables, animals, and some other stuff. 

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Happy Halloween! To celebrate, we're revisiting a 2014 episode. Candy and Halloween go hand-in-hand, but when did candy become the standard for trick-or-treating, and who invented the holiday's most famous sweet treats like candy corn? 

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Holly and Tracy talk about their experience with tarot cards and readings, and about the bad rap black dogs get. Happy Halloween to all of our listeners who celebrate it!

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As we inch closer to Halloween, we're talking about three of the MANY supernatural canines and hellhounds that have lengthy histories in our collective storytelling. Two are similar and from England, and one is a fun figure from southern Louisiana.

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How did a card game gain a reputation for being connected to mysticism? Tarot's history takes a significant turn in the 18th century, but much of that shift in perception is based on one author's suppositions and theories.

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We're revisiting a 2011 episode today. In 1908, a fire leveled the Indiana home of Belle Gunness. Four bodies were found in the cellar, and it seemed possible that Gunnes might have escaped. When about a dozen more bodies were found, Gunness was revealed as a serial killer.

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Holly and Tracy talk about the work and life of Bram Stoker, including a brief talk about his mother. And then talk turns to Tracy's new interview with Kate Landdeck, and the glamour of Jackie Cochran.

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Dr. Katherine Sharp Landdeck joins the show for a second time, to talk with Tracy about Kate’s new book – but mostly about Jacqueline Cochran – who was an incredible pilot, and one of the driving forces behind the Women Airforce Service Pilots.

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Dracula is an iconic character, and the man who created him has become almost as much of a source of fascination for many as his famous vampire.. But even Bram Stoker's own life story - at least as he told it - may have some fictional elements.

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In this 2011 episode, prior hosts Sarah and Deblina cover Pope Stephen VI having his deceased predecessor Formosus exhumed and put on trial in 897. The corpse was found guilty, but this desecration disgusted Romans and made them rebel.

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Tracy and Holly share stories of their own moments of poor judgement, and the Tracy discusses her interview with Alvin Hall and Janée Woods Weber, creators of the podcast Driving the Green Book.

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Tracy talked to Alvin Hall and Janée Woods Weber, host and producer of the podcast Driving the Green Book. Alvin and Janée share their thoughts on the show, the Green Book, and the road trip they took to make the show.

You can find the Driving the Green Book podcast here: https://us.macmillan.com/podcasts/podcast/driving-the-green-book/

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The Demon Core was a sphere of plutonium-gallium alloy that the U.S. made for use in an atomic bomb during World War II. After the war, researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory had two separate, fatal criticality accidents while working with it. 

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We're revisiting a 2010 episode from previous hosts. Most people are familiar with Jack the Ripper, but Victorian England was also plagued by an odd character named Spring-heeled Jack. Were reports of this bounding scoundrel a symptom of mass hysteria, or something factual? 

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Holly and Tracy talk about Madame Blavatsky's shocking level of cigarette smoking and the surprising amount of Mother Shipton material Tracy was able to find.

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Mother Shipton may or may not have been a real person. She's described as living in 16th-century England, and was everything from an oracle to a witch to the daughter of the devil, depending on which of the many sources you’re reading.

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Blavatsky is an iconic figure. She was the founder of the theosophical movement, and lived a life of adventure that’s hard to believe. The impact of her work is undeniable whether you believe her to have been a genuine mystic or a total fraud.

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This 2017 episode covers the story of how, in the 12th century, two children, green in color, appeared in Suffolk, England. The green children were written about in the 12th and 13th centuries as fact, but some people today classify as this tale as folklore.

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On this casual Friday chat, Tracy and Holly talk about the genius of Tanaka Hisashige, and Tracy's frustrations at finding the more problematic aspects of Nina Otero-Warren's story.

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