Stuff You Missed in History Class

In 2015, we talked about Franz Liszt, who was a pianist, a composer and a conductor, and basically the first rock star who drove fans into fits of swooning and screaming. Some fans even stole the detritus of his life (unfinished coffee, broken piano strings) to carry with them. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The second part of this offbeat revisit! As the New York Sun's series of astonishing moon discoveries concluded, most people recognized that it was a hoax. But what made people buy into the tall tale in the first place? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This offbeat 2015 episode covers a series of 1835 news articles about some utterly mind-blowing discoveries made by Sir John Herschel about the lunar surface. The serial had everything: moon poppies, goat-like unicorns, lunar beavers and even bat people. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's a 2019 show about urine! Spoiler alert: Hennig Brand discovered phosphorous by boiling pee. But he was trying to do something else: He thought the secret to the philosopher’s stone might be found in urine. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Back in 2014, we tackled SPAM's story. This famous Hormel Foods product was invented in the 1930s to make use of a surplus of shoulder meat from pigs. It played a huge role in WWII, and shaped the cuisines of many Pacific Island nations. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In October 2017, we talked about mysterious prints that looked like hoof marks appeared all over the English seaside county of Devon in February 1855. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We continue out offbeat 2015 story. Once the effort to import hippos to the U.S. got the backing of a politician, two men with intertwined histories, Frederick Russel Burnham and Fritz Duquesne, were brought on board to serve as experts and advocates. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An offbeat episode from 2015: In 1910, the U.S. a meat shortage, and a water hyacinth overgrowth problem. The obvious solution to the dilemma: Import hippos from Africa. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was founded in 1943, and it went on for years after WWII. These women were athletes, some of whom thought they were starting on a career in professional baseball. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Zanzibar is a relatively tiny place, but its place in history is significant, largely because of its geographical position. Its value as a trading port led it, over time, to be the location of what’s often called the shortest war in history. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This 2011 episode from previous hosts Sarah and Deblina covers an often-requested topic. Shakespeare is typically associated with cultural sophistication rather than violent bouts of near-anarchy. But this wasn't the case during the Astor Place Riot. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tracy and Holly discuss diabetes, insulin, and the moral complexities that are often part of scientific research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last time we talked about how diabetes has been described through history, including treatment before the development of insulin. Today, we’re telling the insulin part of the story, which was at times fraught and contentious. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To lead into discussing the discovery of insulin, today we have a history of diabetes and its treatment in the centuries before insulin was developed, including the starvation diets that were used in the years just before the discovery. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This 2015 episode delves into how peanut butter got its name in the 18th century, but it's been around in some form for hundreds and hundreds of years. Its modern history features changes to the recipe and even a little litigation with the FDA. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tracy and Holly discuss the ways in which the sexes were perceived during the time of Anna Morandi Manzolini and the aspects of Kemmler's story that made Holly very angry during research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After committing a brutal murder, William Kemmler was the first man to be put to death in the electric chair, at a time when a great deal of conflict and controversy swirled around the death penalty. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 18th-century Bologna, one of the most skilled and renowned anatomists and wax model makers was a woman named Anna Morandi Manzolini. Working first with her husband then on her own, Anna contributed to the medical and scientific fields immeasurably. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we revisit a 2013 episode about the Boston Massacre. That sounds like the slaughter of many innocents, but the reality is smaller and not nearly so one-sided. But there's a reason why we call it a massacre. And that reason is propaganda. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Holly and Tracy discuss the relationship between the Hemingway brothers and the challenges of claiming one's own island. Holly also shares her experiences spending an afternoon at the Atlanta History Center. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Holly was joined in the studio by historian Dr. Calinda Lee to talk about her work with the Atlanta History Center, and specifically the new exhibit "Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow." Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leicester Hemingway's life was very much lived in the shadow of his brother. It isn’t until after Ernest Hemingway’s death that Leicester made his boldest moves in life. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This 2015 episode revisits an event that was half performance for the British troops, and half actual sham. It led to an attack on Dover by the Pennacook tribe in 1689. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Holly and Tracy cover their experiences with croquet and historical stories that didn't fit into the episode, and then discuss the challenges in researching North America's indigenous nations histories when most narratives are written by white colonists. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

King Philip’s War was an armed conflict primarily between English colonists and Indigenous nations in what’s now New England, although there were some Indigenous peoples who were allied with the colonists. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Croquet's origins are murky, but because of its relative ease of play and low barrier of entry, it went through a surge in popularity almost as soon as it was documented. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're revisiting a 2015 episode, where Holly chats with archaeologists Patricia Capone and Diana Loren about Harvard's Indian College, the school's importance to Colonial history and the ongoing archaeology of Harvard Yard. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tracy and Holly discuss the nuances of the Equal Rights Amendment's history, and the whaling industry that we discussed in the biography of Quaker Paul Cuffe. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cuffe protested taxation, built wealth for himself in whaling, became a Quaker and used his fortune for the betterment of others. He was also an advocate creating a colony in Africa that people of African ancestry could immigrate to in search of a new life. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The first version of the equal right amendment was first proposed almost 100 years ago. This amendment has been through cycles of support and opposition, but one thing that’s held true is that the loudest voices on both sides have been women. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This 2017 episode delves into the story of the Jamaican Maroons. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Jamaica's Maroon communities clashed with British colonial government. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Holly and Tracy talk about George Sand's defiance against social convention, and the difficulty in discussing certain aspects of their most recent episode on activism. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We've talked about sit-ins on the show before. This time, we’re looking at other -ins – direct action demonstrations and similar protests that have some similarities to the sit-in movement. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

She was an incredibly famous writer of incredible output. Her behavior and personal style were almost as talked about as her novels, and these factors combined made her into a figure that was admired by many, despised by some, and completely fascinating. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Freedom Rides were happening at about the same time as the sit-in movement of the 1960s that we talked about this week – and involved some of the same people. Previous hosts Sarah and Deblina did two episodes on the Freedom Rides in the U.S. in September of 2011, and we’re playing them both together. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Holly and Tracy discuss one of Caspar David Friedrich's paintings that wasn't part of the episode on him. They also discuss Tracy's experience in school not including the Greensboro sit-ins, and how that Woolworth's has become a museum. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David W. Collins recently sat down for a conversation with Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez to talk about their Oscar-nominated songwriting work on "Frozen II" and their shared love of music. That two-part special episode will start next week, so be sure to subscribe to The Soundtrack Show wherever you listen so you don't miss it! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Feb. 1, 1960, four students sat down at a segregated lunch counter at the F.W. Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina. It started with just four of them, but others joined, and sit-ins were taking place around the U.S. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Friedrich's painting career, most closely associated with the German romantic movement, continues to influence and inspire artists today. In his own time, his work was both lauded and controversial, and then fell out of favor for decades. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is two 2010 classics from previous hosts Katie and Sarah, covering the relationship of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, the abdication crisis that resulted, and their sympathies for the Nazi party. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In today's casual Friday chat, Tracy and Holly discuss the Elgin marbles and the complex issues that museums face regarding the repatriation of artifacts. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's episode covers how the removal of Ancient Greek artifacts from Greece by Lord Elgin played out, how these sculptures became part of the collection of the British Museum, and why the controversy over all this has continued until today. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Starting in 1801, the Seventh Earl of Elgin removed many classical Greek sculptures from Greece, particularly from the Parthenon and other monuments at the Acropolis in Athens. Pt. 1 covers the events leading up to the early removal efforts. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re revisiting a 2015 episode about the U.S. Ghost Army, a top-secret group assembled to create confusion and mislead Axis forces during WWII. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Holly and Tracy discuss the great master gardener's work, delve into the moral implications of opulence, and weigh those against the value of the resulting art. They also discuss the nature of unconscious perception of others based on presentation. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In part one, we talked about Le Nôtre's early years and his work at Vaux-le-Vicomte. Today, we'll pick up with his incredible achievements designing and executing the gardens of Versailles and his later life. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Le Nôtre's work defined the French formal garden in the 17th century. Today in part one, we’re going to cover his life up to a project that was controversial not for Le Nôtre's part in it, but because of its implications for the property’s owner. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're revisiting our 2015 episode on Hokusai, who lived during a time when there was not a lot of contact between Japan and the West. But even so, he drew some influence form Western art, and Western art was greatly influenced by his own work. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's casual Friday talk, Tracy and Holly talk about the surprising level of recognition Joan Curran got from male contemporaries, war debris, and the skeevier aspects of the "Tale of Genji." Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Murasaki Shikibu, sometimes known in English as Lady Murasaki, lived during Japan’s Heian period. She was a lady-in-waiting to Empress Shoshi, and is credited with writing the Japanese classic literature work, "Tale of Genji." Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.