Don't Look Now

We discuss the details of the case of Christopher McCandless who opted into living a nomadic lifestyle and ultimately starved to death in the Alaskan wilderness leading to a somewhat cult following.  What led him to do what he did and why do people still risk their lives to emulate his ultimately fatal decision to live unprepared in the wilderness?

We discuss to urban legends that revolve around female monsters.  The first is the Kuchisake-onna, or “slit faced woman”, of Japan.  She confronts lone travelers at night and murders those that no longer find her beautiful after revealing her bloody slit open mouth.  The second is Baba Yaga, the Slavic grandma living in the woods in her chicken-footed home, cooking and eating children.

One of the great revolutions in the history of the development of humankind is the controlled use of fire.  When did we as a species learn to keep and make fire?  What changes did it make to humans socially and physically.  Jeni, our resident Anthropologist, has the answers.

Our episode this week is on the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.  A time when major drought, grasshopper plagued, swarms of jackrabbits, and massive migration shook the Great Plains of the United States.  Take a listed and find out the multiple horrors of the Dirty Thirties.

This week we discuss Floriography better known as the Language of Flowers.  Floriography is a long practiced means of coded communication through the arrangement and display of flowers.  Want to tell someone that you enjoyed their party and want to be friends, there's an arrangement for that.  Want to tell someone they disgust you and you think they are childish, there's an arrangement for that.  Take a listen and learn about the secret language of flowers.

The Pony Express only functioned for about 18 months in 1860-61, but the mail delivery service has somehow managed to sink it's way into the zeitgeist of the America West due to the influence of the Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West Show.  Take a listen and find out what the Pony Express was really like. 

The concept of the Holy Grail as ultimate quest item, the true goal of any quest has sunk into the fabric of our culture.  When did the concept of the Grail and the Grail quest get started?  What is the Grail: last supper cup? serving dish? magic rock?  Is there any adaptation of the Grail Quest better than that of Monty Python?  These questions and more are answered this week.

Take a listen and learn about the history of the hit cartoon franchise Scooby-Doo.  Created in the late sixties and still going strong today, it was originally made as part of an attempt to push back against violence in kid's cartoons.  Want to know how the characters got their personalities, what Shaggy's real name is, and how Scooby got is strange name?  We've got you covered.

In today's podcast we discuss the phenomenon of The Wild Hunt, a bit of folklore shared under various names and guises all over much of Europe.  The core principle is a spectral hunt of spirits roaming the countryside lead by a shadowy figure rumored to be anything from death itself to King Arthur.  Spirits condemned to join the hunt are forced to ride until they have absolved themselves, and anyone witnessing the hunt ride by is doomed to ill fate.  Take a listen and learn more about the ghostly riders and hounds of the wild hunt!

Take a listen and learn about Nellie Bly, or Elizabeth Cochran.  She was a pioneer in the filed of investigative journalism, famous for going undercover as a patient to expose the horrible conditions in mental institutions and for traveling around the world in less than 80 days to break the record of the fictional Phileas Fogg.  Her various turns in life lead her to running a steel company and being a war correspondent on the eastern front of WWI in addition to her more well know stint as world traveller.  

The Voynich Manuscript is a roughly 240 page hand written and illustrated manuscript that appears to be from the early renaissance which appears to be filled with information about plants, biology, astronomy, and other subjects but has proven completely impossible to decipher.  Originally purchased by Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II, it has been eluding the best cryptographers ever since.  Will someone ever crack the code, or is the manuscript possibly just a giant nonsensical joke?  Take a listen and see what you think.

In 2016 the Tromp family living on a farm near Melbourne, Australia appeared to suffer a group delusion and went on an impromptu family road trip.  The disappeared suddenly, leaving behind, money, vehicles with keys still in the ignition, and many other strange things.  Within a few days all were located.  Some had left the group and tried to make it home, others seemed to exhibit strange paranoid behavior and were hospitalized.  None of them know why they left home or why they suddenly feared for their lives.  

When you think of Western philosophy, science, and thought, almost everything traces back to the philosophers of ancient Greece.  Take a listen as we discuss Socrates and friends.

Today's episode is about the history of automobile safety.  From improvements in roads and signage, to improvements in driver training, to improvements in crash survivability, we recount the long (sadly slow) march of progress from the days of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride to the modern roadway.

The Third Man Syndrome or Third Man Factor is a phenomenon wherein a person in extreme duress will suddenly feel the presence of another that helps guide them through the ordeal.  Is this an example of a common mental disassociation that occurs under extreme stress or some sort of guardian angel or other paranormal event?  Take a listen and see what you think.

In 1970 a the remains of a woman were found in the Isdal valley near Bergen, Norway.  She was burned over the front of her body and unrecognizable and strangely all of the tags on her clothing were removed as well as any other identifying marks on any personal items.  Police have speculated about her identity for over 50 years, slowly piecing together strange facts that lead many to think she was a spy.  The investigation into her identity has recently been reopened using modern technology that has yielded some new clues, but the mystery remains. 

Charles Babbage was a 19th century inventor and polymath who is most famous for inventing the programmable digital computer in a purely mechanical as opposed to electrical form.  He was joined by Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, who was an early visionary with ideas about the application of computers beyond mere calculation.

Gather your pocket full of posies and plague doctor's mask, it's time to discuss the Black Death.  The bubonic plague struck Europe in the 1340s and resulted in one of he most devastating pandemics in human history.  We discuss a bit about the disease itself, the history of the pandemic, how it lead to the Renaissance and the fall of Feudalism, and how it is still with us today, virtually unchanged.

King Tutankhamun or King Tut is probably the most well known Egyptian pharaoh due to his unspoiled tomb being found and unsealed by Howard Carter in 1923.  Learn a bit about his life, when he reigned, what ailments he suffered from (hint, Royal Incest was def. a thing), and how his tomb was discovered and opened over 3000 years after his death.  Is there really anything to the supposed Curse of Tutankhamun? 

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was an Oxford mathematician and photographer with a knack for telling stories and entertaining the children of his friends.  At the request of Alice Liddell he wrote down the stories he told of her imaginary adventures underground, and the work became famous as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with Dodgson adopting the pseudonym Lewis Carroll.  Come learn the history behind his adventures of Alice, his active hobby of photography, and how changing social norms resulted in a general smearing of his name in the 20th century.