Sidedoor: Murder Is Her Hobby
Heiress, divorcée … mother of forensic science? Frances Glessner Lee was not your average 19th-century woman. Using the skills that high-society ladies were expected to have—like sewing, crafting, and knitting—Frances…
Futility Closet: Two Vanished Young Writers
Everett Ruess and Barbara Newhall Follett were born in March 1914 at opposite ends of the U.S. Both followed distinctly unusual lives as they pursued a love of writing. And…
The Lamp of Mutual Aid
Joshua Edwards meditates on the nature of work and communal living. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
Allusionist: Curse Soup
Somebody has really ticked you off. You're all steamed up inside and you want to vent that rage using words, but you don't want to confront them directly because you're…
This American Life: We Are in the Future
One of our producers, Neil Drumming, has recently become fascinated with Afrofuturism. It's more than sci-fi. It’s a way of looking at black culture that’s fantastic, creative, and oddly hopeful—which feels especially urgent…
Jennifer Kronovet studied Yiddish so she could communicate with the dead
Kronovet had a ton of ideas for language-related podcast episodes. We eventually settled on her adventures with Yiddish. She shared these adventures with two other students of the language, Faith Jones and Samuel…
Suffragists’ Night of Terror at the Occoquan Workhouse
In November 1917, guards at the Occoquan Workhouse assaulted and terrorized 33 women from the National Woman’s Party. They were serving sentences for charges like “obstructing sidewalk traffic” after peacefully…
Brandon Seifert on Werewolves | The Weird History Podcast
Brandon Seifert has written horror comics such as Witch Doctor, Hellraiser, and The Fly. Lately, he’s been studying werewolf folklore. We talked about the history of werewolf stories, werewolf witch…
How Abandoned and Eroding Victorian Mansions of the Gilded Age Came to Symbolize Impending Doom
In a portentous video essay for Vox, producer Coleman Lowndes explains why the highly decorated, overly trimmed Victorian mansions (McMansions of their time) of the Gilded Age went from being…
Dollhouses of St. Louis – 99% Invisible
driving around The Ville today, the neighborhood looks very different. Some buildings are simply rundown or abandoned, but others are missing large chunks entirely. Walls have disappeared. The bricks are…