The Backstory with Patty Steele

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.

Have we really only known about dinosaurs for less than 200 years? They roamed the earth for almost 200 million years and were wiped out in a matter of months. Where did they go and how did we find out about them?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The sister of a president and two senators, Rosemary Kennedy was subjected to surgery that destroyed her brain and her life...simply because she didn’t fit the mold.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Being President doesn't mean you don't have some pretty weird personal quirks...everything from what they did in their free time, to some of the odd ways they took care of themselves. Wait until you hear the one about LBJ and "Jumbo"!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fake news has cost a lot of people their reputations...and even their lives. Was that the case for America's so-called first female serial killer?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark Twain invented the modern bra strap? A ventriloquist who was a huge star in kids’ television and in Vegas invented the first artificial heart? A rock star’s invention saved model train giant Lionel? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's lots of tradition when it comes to Thanksgiving. But a lot of how and when we celebrate, what we eat, and what we look forward to about the long holiday weekend sort of evolved on the fly.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Napoleon Bonaparte, legendary general, legendary emperor, legendary lover…or was he? It seems his feelings about sex were all over the map. He was an insecure guy who’s love life with Josephine ran the gamut from red hot to ice cold.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here’s a surprise! It seems lots of our icons have something in common. We’re talking about Albert Einstein, Walt Disney, Mozart, Abe Lincoln, Thomas Edison, John F. Kennedy, John Lennon, Michael Jordan, Olympic stars Simone Biles and Michael Phelps, as well as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk. What’s their common thread? ADHD! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest artists in the history of the world. And he loved understanding how things worked, coming up with designs for helicopters, robots, a self-propelled car, and machine guns centuries before they got made. He was also one wacky guy! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sex has been a complicated topic throughout history...at times celebrated as a life force, and at other times vilified. Some of the items invented to discourage sex included the pricking ring and, believe it or not, Corn Flakes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s 1944 and a 22-year-old Japanese soldier is left to defend a South Pacific island during World War 2. But he’s never told the war ended, so he stays on the job for 30 years.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The problem with psychopaths is they're incredibly charming...until they go in for the kill. This is the story of Edgar Smith, a killer who managed to convince publisher/TV star political commentator William F. Buckley Jr., that he was completely innocent. Buckley took up his cause until the unthinkable happened.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NYC streets in the 1860s were filthy, bumpy, and fiercely crowded. Then an ingenious guy built a working demo of a wind-driven underground railroad…the first subway. But corruption let the air out of his idea.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We love Halloween, but how did it all start? Turns out its origins go back thousands of years to ancient Ireland and a holiday that involved human sacrifice.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you love the blood and gore of a great horror flick? What is that about?! Why we love abject fear and how the movies cashed in on it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jack the Ripper murdered and dismembered at least 5 women in London 135 years ago and was never found. Was it faulty profiling? There are experts with evidence who believe Jack the Ripper was actually a woman.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The witch trials in Salem Massachusetts ended over 300 years ago. In Europe, the last witch was executed in 1782. But in both cases, the last of those accused weren't exonerated until as recently as a year ago.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re all intrigued by political rivalries. But how far can rivals go? This is all about a medieval pope whose body was exhumed, dressed up, and put on trial by his opponents.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Marie Antoinette, the last queen before the French revolution, has a pretty bad rap. Falsely accused of the infamous “let them eat cake” quote, she was given to the French king in a political deal, stripped naked in front of the king’s advisors at 14 before her wedding, and massively attacked by both pro-royalists and revolutionaries before facing the guillotine at 37. Lots of riches, but not an easy life. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thomas Edison was a lot of things – genius businessman, incredible marketing guy, someone with an insane work ethic and no need of sleep. But he an inventor? Not so much. He and his team borrowed the light bulb, perfected it and mass produced it. Then his business and marketing skills did the rest. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.