French Leave

a baseball superstar, an irate owner, and a clever workaround

In 1902 baseball player Nap Lajoie was prohibited by law from entering the state of Pennsylvania. How did this weird state of affairs come to pass? Read More...

Categories: Series 4, Sports & Leisure

Tags: American League baseball Byron Bancroft "Ban" Johnson civil law Cleveland, OH Colonel John Ignatius Rogers Cornelius "Connie Mack" McGillicuddy Ed Delahanty National League Oakland Athletics Pennsylvania Philadelphia Athletics Philadelphia Phillies Philadelphia, PA Presented by #13

Published: June 15, 2020
Edited: September 21, 2021

Pleadings from Asbury Park

a fake marriage, a dead baby, and 21 absinthe frappes

The amazing story of Laura Biggar, the Anna Nicole Smith of 1901, and her crazy plot to steal an inheritance that may or may not have been rightfully hers. Read More...

Categories: Biography, History, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Series 4

Tags: civil law crime Freeman Bernstein Henry M. Bennett Laura Biggar New Jersey New York, NY Pittsburgh, PA Presented by #13 vaudeville

Published: June 1, 2020
Edited: May 10, 2021

Herb Washington

We've shared this on social media but not on the web site. Here it is... the first (and so far only) thing we've ever purchased off eBay. Read More...

Categories: Meta, Sports & Leisure

Tags: baseball Herbert Lee Washington Oakland Athletics

Published: May 25, 2020
Edited: June 23, 2021

Son of Eight Things We Like

There's no podcast this week, so if you need your fix of ephemera why not try one of these eight other podcasts, videos, and websites? Read More...

Categories: Meta

Tags: Apocrypals GastroPod stuff we like The Constant The Dollop The Omnibus Project The Pessimist's Archive

Published: May 18, 2020
Edited: June 23, 2021

The Hot House

refining radium in the home, for fun and profit

Lots of people have dabbled with strange home businesses -- but only one of them set up a radium refining facility in the basement of his suburban duplex. Read More...

Categories: Man's Amazing Inventions, Science & Nature, Series 3

Tags: Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA Presented by #13 The Constant The Dollop

Published: May 4, 2020
Edited: October 25, 2021

Milking It for All It’s Worth

let's get saucy and talk about béchamel

We delve into the world of sauces by talking about the history and use of the milkiest sauce of all - béchamel! Read More...

Categories: Arts & Culture, Series 3

Tags: béchamel food François Pierre La Varenne Presented by #13 Presented by #7

Published: April 20, 2020
Edited: September 21, 2021

A Menace to the West

David Grundman goes shooting at a stationary target -- and breaks off more than he can handle

When a man fights a cactus, you probably don't expect the cactus to win. Read More...

Categories: Series 3, Wild Card, Wonders of the Natural World

Tags: Arizona crime Phoenix, AZ Presented by #13

Published: April 6, 2020
Edited: June 25, 2021

Spirit Princess

one woman, thirty aliases, forty years and too many crimes to count

The greatest and most notorious Spiritualist swindler of all time was a woman from Kentucky who looked a bit like Lola Montez (if you squinted). Read More...

Categories: Biography, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Series 3

Tags: "General" Joseph Hubert Diss Debar "Prince" Michael Keyfor Mills Ann O'Delia Diss Debar Baltimore, MD Boston, MA Canada Chicago, IL crime David Livingston Mackay Detroit, MI dime museum Dr. Cyrus Reed Teed "Koresh" Florida Fort Myers, FL Freeman Bernstein Harmony Society Illinois Koreshan Unity London, England Massachusetts Michigan New and Latter House of Israel New York, NY Presented by #13 religion Spiritualism Theosophical Society Theosophy United Kingdom Windsor, ON

Published: March 23, 2020
Edited: June 25, 2021

Death from Above by Chocolate

sometimes a story seems too good to be true because it is

In 1923, a plane flew over downtown Pittsburgh, dropped Baby Ruth candy bars on the crowd below, and caused widespread panic... or did it? Read More...

Categories: Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Series 3, Wild Card

Tags: Pennsylvania Pittsburgh, PA Presented by #13

Published: March 9, 2020
Edited: June 23, 2021