Christmas Day
a poem by Julia Ann Moore
A special treat: "Christmas Day" by Julia Ann Moore, the Sweet Singer of Michigan, read by the incomparable Eric Leslie.
Categories: Arts & Culture, Bonus Episodes, Least Popular
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Episodes
Armor Class 4
the best defense is never to exist in the first place
An instructive tale where Victorian scholars look back at five centuries of armor and just start making stuff up, because they're just ever-so-clever.
Categories: Popular Facts & Fallacies, Series 13, Sports & Leisure, The Quest for the Past
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The Realest Housewife of Beverly Hills
confidante of kings, movie stars, and mobsters
The Countess di Frasso was the most famous hostess in the world, who threw parties for kings; actors, athletes and aviators; Nazis and mobsters.
Categories: Arts & Culture, Biography, Eccentrics & Prophecies, Entertainment & Media, People & Places, Series 13
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Fruitcake Subculture Conspiracy Revisited
Christmas's most maligned tradition strikes back
Listen up, fruitcake... or, rather, listen up -- fruitcake! Everything you never wanted to know about your least favorite holiday treat.
Categories: Arts & Culture, Series 13, Strange Customs & Superstitions
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Seven Years in Hell
the murder of Susan Mummey, the Witch of Ringtown Valley
For seven years he lived in hell, tormented nightly by a demon cat and the spectre of death. Finally, an angel told him what he had to do to end it all...
Categories: Footsteps into the Unknown, People & Places, Series 13
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The Fakiest Fake in England
the haunting of Borley Rectory
The story of Borley Rectory, the most haunted house in England. Just remember that the most and least haunted house are the exact same amount of haunted...
Categories: Footsteps into the Unknown, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, People & Places, Series 13
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A Good Thing to Die By
the Reverend May S. Pepper and Bright Eyes
This one has it all: the afterlife, evil stepmothers, Kickapoo princesses, the Romanovs, bigamy and fraud, ghost farts and spirit chickens.
Categories: Biography, Footsteps into the Unknown, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, People & Places, Series 13
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What Joy to the Troubled Heart!
the tale of William H. Mumler, spirit photographer
In 1862, William H. Mumler took the first known photograph of a ghost. Maybe. What unfolded next was an epic story of fraud and self-deception...
Categories: Biography, Footsteps into the Unknown, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, People & Places, Series 13
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Pickle Me This
everything you need to know about pickles
This week #7 drops by to tell us everything we need to know about pickles... and then throw a "pickle party" featuring all sorts of unconventional pickles.
Categories: Arts & Culture, Series 13
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I Started a Joke
the difference between laughing with and laughing at
In 1876 poet Julia Ann Moore was beloved by the people of Grand Rapids, precisely because her poems were so bad. Then she went national.
Categories: Arts & Culture, Biography, Eccentrics & Prophecies, Most Popular, Series 13
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Nuns on the Run
miss bunkley's book
Josephine Bunkley wanted to raise awareness of problems wit the convent system... but her "allies" just wanted to use her story to win elections.
Categories: History, Series 13
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Nuns on the Run
The Awful disclosures of Maria Monk
In 1835 Maria Monk claimed that Montreal's Hôtel-Dieu convent was a vice den. She was making it all up... but Americans desperately wanted to believe her.
Categories: History, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Series 13
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