Don't Look Now

We discuss the phenomenon of the Cargo Cult, a brand of apocalyptic cult that sprang up in indigenous societies that were suddenly exposed to industrial cultures during the Pacific campaign of World War II. 

In December 1978 over $5 million dollars in cash was stolen from Lufthansa at JFK airport.  The crime has gone nominally unsolved, with one primary suspect, Jimmy Burke, who was never arrested for the heist.  Burke and his associates are the subject of the hit film Goodfellas. 

It is thought that Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was inspired by the real life Deacon Brodie, a prominent citizen of Edinburgh that happened to be a burglar and inveterate gambler on the DL.

We discuss the AIDS epidemic and the creation of the largest piece of folk art in the world, the AIDS memorial quilt.

We discuss the history, lore, and possible present whereabouts of the Lost Ark of the Covenant.  Indiana Jones references might or might not be added.

We discuss Leonardo Da Vinci, artist, scientist, engineer, (and stage manager?).  Come learn the backstory and fashion sense of the OG Renaissance Man.

We discuss the history and nuances of  American Barbeque.  Where did it come from?  What types are there?  Why are we so obsessed with it?  Learn all about it on this week's episode.

Today we discuss Gustave, the demon crocodile of Lake Tanganyika in Africa.  Thought to have potentially killed up to 300 people, Gustave has stalked the lake for decades seemingly killing his victims for sport (since many are not eaten).  Listen in and learn more about this serial killer of the reptile variety.

We discuss Niccolo Michiavelli, multitalented politician of Renaissance Florence and famed writer of The Prince.  

The Medici Family controlled Florence and Tuscany for hundreds of years, dominating politics and bankrolling the great artists and scientists of the Renaissance.  Learn the history of the family from their rise as a banking power to their eventual decay and fall.

William Buke and William Hare committed some of the most infamous murders in history by killing their victims in order to sell their bodies to the blossoming medical school industry in early 19th century Edinburgh, Scotland.  We discuss how the crime of "Burking" came about and what became of the two.  Hint: One met a much worse fate than the other

We discuss the lost English Colony of Roanoke.  What became of the vanished settlers that were left on the island without contact for years?  What was the meaning of the lone word left behind, "Croatoan"?  We discuss the timeline of the settlement and the possible fates that befell the people in it. 

In 1959 a shipment of 75,000 doses of polio vaccine was stolen before it could be distributed to the people of Montreal, Canada.  We discuss the inside job and how it prevented children in desperate need of vaccines from receiving them at the height of the summer polio outbreak.

From 1917 - 1919 a serial axe murder wreaked terror in New Orleans, slaying local grocers and their families in their sleep.  Was this the work of a crazed homicidal maniac, or the culmination of vendettas playing out in the recently immigrated Italian community.  Listen is as we discuss the Jazz loving Axeman of New Orleans.

John List, a mass murderer that killed his entire family in 1971 was found 18 years later when he was featured on the TV show "America's Most Wanted", thanks in large part to an eerily accurate artist's depiction of what he would look like at age 60.  We discuss the case, how this was one of the first widely known effective uses of artistic aging,  and the class of killers known as family annihilators.

Juanita Moody dropped out of college to aid in the World War II war effort by enlisting as part of the Signal Intelligence Service, the precursor to the NSA.  Her career eventually lead her to one of the most important crossroads of the 20th century as the primary US intelligence leaders during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

Isabella Bird went from a sickly young girl growing up in early Victorian Great Britain to become a world traveler.  She put Estes Park Colorado on the map, writing about her travels everywhere from  the American West to the Far East and becoming the first women elected as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

James Barry was a British army surgeon in the early part of the 19th century.  He performed the first recorded successful Caesarean section section in Africa by a European, pushed for health reform, and rose to the position of Inspector General.  He was also born Margaret Ann Bulkley in a time when women were not allowed to study medicine.

We discuss the invention of two of of the 20th Century's greatest ideas, the Super Soaker and the Slinky.

The Little Ice Age is a term that was coined to describe the period from about 1300-1850 over which the average temperature worldwide dipped, resulting in many forms of global upset.  We discuss some of the effects, from Vikings leaving Greenland to new dynasties in China.