The Weird History Podcast

The Weird History Podcast


Latest Episodes

228 The Mustache Strike
September 05, 2021

In 1907 French waiters went on strike, and won the right to wear facial hair.

227 The Rasputin Disclaimer
August 11, 2021

Nearly every English-language movie has a disclaimer in the credits that says something like This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely c

August 2021 Announcement
August 02, 2021

226 Sara and Jack Gorman on Denying to the Grave
July 15, 2021

Covid-19 has killed and sickened hundreds of thousands of people, and transformed our economy, how we work, and how we relate to each other. Even in the midst of this world-historic crisis, though, pe

225 Los San Patricios
March 16, 2021

The Mexican-American War was not fought for good reasons. The war was one of imperial and expansionist ambition and territorial expansion, and even in the 1840s many Americans at the time knew they were on the wrong side of history. […]

224 Carlton F.W. Larson on Treason in the U.S.
January 24, 2021

Treason is the only crime specifically defined in the U.S. Constitution, and talk of treason has been in the air for the last four years. Carlton F.W. Larson is a professor of constitutional law at University of California at Davis, […]

223 Grand Guignol Part Two: Tales of Terror!
October 30, 2020

It’s not enough to just talk about the history of the Grand Guignol. We also want to bring you a little bit of what it was like to take in a night of horror there. On this special Halloween episode, […]

222 Grand Guignol Part One: Theater of Horror!
October 25, 2020

The Grand Guignol was a small Parisian theater which regularly produced original works of horror. The theater, which operated from 1897 until 1962, showcased short plays about murder, insanity, dismemberment, disease, and other horrors,

221 Sasha Abramsky on Lottie Dod
September 18, 2020

Sasha Abramsky is a journalist and author whose new book Little Wonder tells the story of Lottie Dod, the modern world’s first female sporting celebrity. Dod came to prominence as a tennis prodigy and later excelled in other sports like […]

220 Michel Paradis on Last Mission to Tokyo
August 07, 2020

Today’s show is a conversation with Michel Paradis, attorney and author of Last Mission to Tokyo. Early in WWII the U.S. launched the Doolittle Raids against Japan, attacking the Japanese mainland for the first time. Most of the raiders were […]