The Backstory with Patty Steele

We all have to regularly be somewhere on time. But what did people do before cell phone alarms or even alarm clocks? Animals, body cues, and knocker-uppers were just a few of the methods.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Did you know that as recently as the Victorian era, somebody could have you committed to an insane asylum just because you disobeyed a husband, were too opinionated, were caught masturbating, and so much more? The treatment ranged from being chained to a wall, beaten...and more. And no one had to prove your insanity! This is the story of how one woman, post-lock-up, changed the status quo.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hamilton the musical tells us the story of Alexander Hamilton, a brilliant guy who had a fiery temperament and a cheating heart. Imagine being his wife and raising eight fatherless kids, resurrecting her dead husband’s reputation, and being a tireless champion of widows and orphans. Plus, before her death at 97, Eliza Hamilton also became the toast of NYC and Washington. What a life!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Politics is a nasty business. But it always has been. And it may have played a role in the death of a literary genius. You know the Edgar Allan Poe story called The Tell-Tale Heart, about the heart of a murder victim that never stops beating? Maybe Poe is still trying to tell us something 175 years after his mysterious death.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all love to laugh, no matter when, where, or how we’ve lived. Amazingly, there are a handful of topics that have given us the giggles for at least 5,000 years. And a lot of them involve 6th-grade humor.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

James Brown, the godfather of soul, had some anger issues. In fact, he went to prison after threatening agents at an insurance seminar with a gun because he thought they used his private bathroom. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Think politics today are the most angry and violent they’ve ever been? What about the days when senators and congressmen came to work armed with guns and knives? Or the murder of one congressman by another just because they had an ideological disagreement? That’s when politics were bloody.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We think the world just keeps evolving. But what happens when a civilization like Rome collapses and all that technology disappears? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine meeting your children…and they're way older than you! But you've been obsessed since your earliest memory with the idea that you were the mother of eight kids. But you died, leaving them orphaned. And your guilt was palpable, even as a three-year-old! You may not believe in reincarnation, but it’s hard to ignore Jenny Cockell’s story.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We use words and phrases every day, and usually never question why we say what we say. Why do we say “she’s on a wild goose chase” or “we laughed our heads off”? The surprising origin of ordinary phrases. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You’d think being a princess (and ultimately the queen) of the Hawaiian islands would be an uncomplicated dream life. But the last queen of the kingdom of Hawaii dealt with an unfaithful husband, racism, death threats, and being placed under house arrest for over a year as her kingdom was overthrown by a coup and annexed to America. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Swearing, cursing, cussing, giving somebody the finger…they’re kind of ubiquitous these days, but they’ve been around for thousands of years. And now researchers say that yelling out your favorite four-letter word can even lower your blood pressure. But where in the &^%* did it all start and how has it evolved?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Born into complete poverty and now, by some accounts, the richest man in the world, Vladimir Putin has also become an enemy of most of the world. Here's where he came from, how he got a stranglehold on power, and what he’s doing with it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Being successful at what you do in business doesn’t seem to guarantee you’ll be a successful spouse or parent. Thomas Edison is a clear example of a genius businessman who was a bit of a failure as a father. Most of his children shared stories of their difficult relationship with the Wizard of Menlo Park.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thousands of young people, dreaming of stardom, head to Hollywood. A few make it, but so many more are victimized by predators who specifically prey on the most vulnerable types. This is the story of the Digital Entertainment Network, aka DEN, among the first companies with plans to stream digital content to young adults. That blew up because of its owner's lust for young boys.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seemingly strait-laced Washington, D.C. in the 19th century was actually filled with illicit affairs. One of them involved some powerful players (and a very young wife). It also involved the son of Francis Scott Key, who wrote the Star Spangled Banner and it led to a murder that was the talk of pre-Civil War Washington…and beyond.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The lord of bhang, Reefer Madness…weed has a checkered past. But for thousands of years it was used and celebrated by most cultures. It wasn’t until one pivotal moment in the early 20th century that it became demonized. Now its benefits have been rediscovered and its reputation somewhat salvaged.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are some mysteries that we never quite figure out. One of them is about the 1971 hijacking of a jetliner by a guy called D. B. Cooper. He got $200,000 from the FBI and parachuted out of an airliner into the stormy wilderness of Washington state. They’ve never found him or even figured out who he was. But one man has stepped forward with a likely answer, thanks to his mom.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From a 2-inch wide blurry, black-and-white image, to a giant piece of clear glass that transforms wirelessly into an exquisite screen, television has almost magically evolved. In 100 years, for better or for worse, screens have become one of the most important, controlling devices in our lives. How did it start? And where is it taking us?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby 90 years ago led to the execution of a man a few years later. But researchers say there are plenty of reasons to suspect that there was a rush to judgment. And then there’s Charles Lindbergh’s fascination with Aryan superiority, which led him to have seven children with three German women, in addition to the six he had with his wife.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How did ferocious, man-eating wolves evolve into Labrador Retrievers, St. Bernards, and even teacup poodles—not to mention become our best friends? It's an amazing story of genetics and mutual need. But it's also a story of love. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why do so many of us have the need to be trendy, to do or say things we think make us look as cool as the people we’re copying? Trends through the ages have included everything from style statements to full-on body modification. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s hard to imagine that one of the most powerful presidents in U.S. history was the victim of domestic violence. Abe Lincoln was physically and emotionally battered by Mary Todd Lincoln, primarily due to her mental illness.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Talent, glamour, fame, sex, and possibly murder. What really happened to Natalie Wood more than 40 years ago? One guy who was there has been talking about her death. But nobody’s listening.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

He’s been called the devil, the monster. But H.H. Holmes was America’s first known serial killer. Even he said killing was his destiny. His victims were men, women, and even little children, many coming to Chicago and his hotel for the great 1893 World’s Fair. The tabloid press described his murders and then embellished the story.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anybody who took to the sky in the early days of aviation had nerves of steel. Amelia Earhart was pure cast iron, and her disappearance over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 made her legendary. But despite all the wild theories about what happened to her, we may soon discover the truth. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Want to be fabulously successful? Just make sure everybody notices you. Wanna be a fabulously successful spy? Just make sure nobody notices you.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sex scandals are as constant in Hollywood as gorgeous people, glittering clothes, and scads of money. But while the paparazzi these days use every trick to give us an inside look at the private lives of the stars, they have nothing on the stars of Hollywood’s golden age. Sex, shocking divorces, and even murder—there’s nothing new under the Hollywood sun.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Despite the fact there have been well over 125 female presidents and prime ministers around the world, the U.S. has never had a woman who ran the country. Or did we?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Food plays so many roles in our lives. Obviously, it keeps us alive, but it also satisfies desires and brings us closer to the people we share it with. But over thousands of years, we’ve eaten some pretty weird stuff. From flaming, feathered peacocks to all sorts of bugs and “unexpected” animal secretions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Netflix hit film Society of the Snow is the true story of South American athletes trapped in the snowy mountains after a plane crash…with some surviving by eating their dead teammates. Now we look at the Donner party of pioneers in 1846, trapped in 22 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains…and the even more gruesome way some of them survived. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the remarkable story of Robert Smalls. In 1862, he was a young slave who managed to commandeer a rebel warship in Charleston, South Carolina’s heavily fortified harbor, turn it over to the North and go on to have a spectacular business and political career. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Nazis not only had a deluded belief in their own racial superiority, some of their top leaders believed they were superhumans descended from the inhabitants of the lost city of Atlantis. (They had a whole branch of the military dedicated to proving that.)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Human attachment is thousands of years old but Valentine’s Day started off as a blood soaked pagan fertility festival, and it wasn’t much fun for women. On the flip side, the romance element is a recent invention. You can thank the Victorians for that. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sports, whether they're big-time or small-time, make an awful lot of people happy. They can also push folks to pull some crazy stunts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re all a contradiction at times, but nothing like Civil War general Oliver Howard. He was a medal of honor winner, he worked to get freed black men the right to vote, and was the founder of historically black Howard University. But after the war he chased down and killed or captured hundreds of Native Americans in the Nez Perce War with the U.S.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What would we do to live better, longer, or maybe even forever? Lots of quests for immortality involved mystical potions or objects. And one very popular fad in the 1920s involved transplanted monkey testicles!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the race to become the reigning superpower, nations have resorted to all sorts of bizarre tactics. Some of them were pretty humorous. And that reached new heights during the Cold War.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stop and think about the impact of radio on our world. For thousands of years, storytelling, music, news, and entertainment were all in person. Suddenly, this gadget arrives and opens up the world to us. What did we hear, and how did it change us?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You love gangster TV shows and movies like The Sopranos, The Godfather, and Goodfellas? You love Las Vegas? Bugsy Siegel was the mobster/visionary who created Las Vegas with his spectacular Flamingo Hotel and Casino in 1947. But it cost him his life.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It seems like iconic, larger-than-life folks should meet larger-than-life demises. But that's not always the case. There are huge names who died from all sorts of ridiculous and messy mistakes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hearing about a panel on an Alaska Airlines jet popping off mid-air gives us all a serious case of the creeps. But imagine you’re in a jet at almost 35,000 feet when a terrorist’s bomb blows it into pieces. You free fall to Earth…and survive. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On a beautiful summer morning in 1908, a massive explosion hit Siberia. It downed 80 million trees and lit the night sky 3,000 miles away in Sweden. But to this day, no one knows what caused it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Depression is nothing new, although we call it by a different name than they did centuries ago, and we have some new ways of treating it. But some of our greatest minds, like JFK, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Abe Lincoln have been strengthened by their battles with depression. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s the Wild West and the first democratic governor of Wyoming, as well as the state's first female doctor, have ties to vicious train robber Big Nose George Parrott. And you won’t believe the mementos they kept. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ll do anything to look fabulous these days, but we have nothing on our ancestors. They used face creams made from animal and human pee. They glued animal pelts on unusual body parts. And they literally poisoned themselves in their quest for perfect skin and hair. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all have our Christmas traditions, but how did Santa Claus, Christmas trees, and George Washington’s recipe for heavily spiked eggnog rule the season?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beauty intrigues everyone, but a desire for control, massive ego, and hatred drive some to steal beauty belonging to others. That was Hitler’s motivation as he rampaged through Europe attempting to steal art, architecture, and even a spectacular race car.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We take our beds for granted. But how and where we slept, as well as who we were with and what we did while in bed, has changed dramatically over the centuries.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Criminal forensics has seen some pretty amazing advances over the past decade. But less than a century ago, investigators were attempting to nab killers through "optography," a process that involved dissecting a murder victim's eyes to harvest an actual image of the last thing the victim saw.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.