History Extra podcast: The librarian who stole KGB secrets
When an elderly man with a battered suitcase walked into the British embassy in Vilnius in 1992, few could have guessed what he was about to hand over. Gordon Corera…
When an elderly man with a battered suitcase walked into the British embassy in Vilnius in 1992, few could have guessed what he was about to hand over. Gordon Corera…
When did poo become a problem? Why was manure so important in the medieval economy? And why don't we have vacuum-powered sewers? All these questions – and more – are…
George Redmonds, a researcher with the British National Archives studying 14th-century names, finds a girl's moniker that pops with recognition: Diot Coke. Redmonds believes Coke was a corruption of "Cook,"…
Not long ago, everybody was arguing about whether characters need to be "relatable". We get to the bottom of a debate that still makes us intensely grouchy. Plus we talk…
We love science fiction and fantasy conventions — especially the ones that are run by fans, for fans. But they haven't changed much since the 1970s in many ways, and…
In the ‘60s and ‘70s, world-class musicians gathered in smoky studios to record tracks that you couldn’t buy in a store… but ended up everywhere. In this episode, Dallas and…
Mary deYoung had always been interested in deviants and deviance. As a social-psychologist, she studied “behavior that broke the rules,” and whether the worst parts of a person’s behavior were…
Burying the dead has never been a simple matter. Whether due to elaborate grave goods, unique burial rituals, or public health concerns, burial places through history have taken on a…
In honor of the spooky season, we present two monstrous origin stories -- Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. We know when these books were written in the 19th…