Alice Kyteler's witchcraft trial shocked 14th century Ireland. Today, the charges against her are seen largely as nonsense, and more about personal vendettas and struggles for power. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

These diseases - West Nile Virus, Lyme disease, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever - are named for the places where outbreaks happened. But they're also all things you get from being bitten by mosquitoes or ticks. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

This 2014 episode covers the collision of the S.S. Arctic with another ship in a fog in 1854. The resulting panic led to the deaths of most of the passengers. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Holly talks about the many survivor accounts of the Medusa shipwreck, which were questioned regarding bias and intent. There's also a follow-up on what happened to Géricault's son. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

In the aftermath of the shipwreck, France was scandalized by what had happened as the details emerged. And artist Théodore Géricault became obsessed with it. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

The first episode of this two-parter covers the French mission to Senegal that the frigate Medusa led in 1816. Soon, the mission fell disastrously apart. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

This 2013 episode covers the years after the Industrial Revolution and the Civil War when the oyster supply became so scarce that people turned to oyster piracy. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Holly shares a story about Augustin Fresnel's early career. Tracy discusses an article criticizing the Smithsonian and points out its incorrect contents. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton is known as one of the earliest Mexican-American authors published in English, and her life story is tied closely to the Mexican-American war and the establishment of California as a state. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Augustin Fresnel didn’t live a long life, but he contributed significantly to the understanding of light and to the safety of coastlines. Neither of those had anything to do with his career. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

This 2020 episode talks about how Pettenkofer's ideas about cholera's spread weren’t exactly right, but they still had really beneficial impacts on the way we live. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Tracy talks about her background writing copy for sanitation and cleaning products. She and Holly also discuss how the implementation of the Wells' recommendations could have prevented a lot of illness. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Husband-and-wife team William Firth Wells and Mildred Weeks Wells conducted research that had the potential to make a big difference in the safety of indoor air. But it didn’t really have a significant impact on public health. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

All over the world, for all of human history – and probably going back to our earliest hominid ancestors – people have found ways to try to keep themselves clean. But how did soap come about? Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Holly talks about nebulous passages in the writing of Jane Croly and her brother. Tracy and Holly talk about watching TV as children. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

This 2022 episode discusses how modern rabies prophylaxis is almost 100% effective at preventing human death from the bite of a rabid animal. How did people come to understand rabies, and then develop a vaccination for it? Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Holly talks about the arguments she found online about whether graffiti is art. Tracy talks about how the Dickin Medal impacted veterinary medicine. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Maria Dickin wanted to raise the status of animals in society and bring more awareness to the work they were doing during World War II. The Dickin Medal was created to honor military working animals. This episode covers six of those recipients. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

The possible contenders for the title of inventor of spray paint were actually working across decades. And really, all those people contributed pieces of the story. Lsiten here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

This 2021 episode covers Eunice Newton Foote, who became the first person to make a connection between the Earth’s temperature and the concentration of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere in 1856. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Tracy discusses the concept of race as it has and hasn't existed in European history. Both Tracy and Holly share their frustration and fury about the Buck v. Bell story. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Buck v. Bell is the 1927 SCOTUS decision that upheld the constitutionality of laws allowing involuntary sterilization of people deemed to be “unfit.” Most of these laws have been repealed, but Buck v. Bell has never been directly overturned. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Estevanico was a translator and guide, and was probably the first person of any race from outside the Americas to enter what’s now Arizona and New Mexico – which happened in 1539. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

This 2022 episode covers six highly ingenious and low-violence prison breaks from history. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Tracy shares a funny confusion about Unitarians and the University of Utrecht she kept having during research. Holly talks about how often escape stories to claim the escaper was never heard from again, even if that's not true. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

William J. Sharkey was a pickpocket, a con man, a politician, and a murderer, though whether or not that murder was an accident became the question at the center of a case that gripped New York for months. And then, he vanished. Sort of. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Polymath Anna Maria van Schurman was a very well-educated woman in the 17th century, making her exceptional. She’s described as the most learned woman of her time, and she basically became a celebrity because of it. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

This 2019 episode covers Sappho, often described as the greatest female poet of ancient Greece. Her reputation as a poet has persisted for more than 2500 years, but the overwhelming majority of her work has not. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Holly talks about gaining compassion for Fitz Hugh Ludlow through reading his work. Tracy discusses her training in massage school. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Fitz Hugh Ludlow’s fame as a writer was directly tied to his drug use initially. In his final years, his advocacy for treatment of the illness of addiction was really ahead of its time. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

This 2020 episode covers James Baldwin, who was a brilliant essayist, one of the chroniclers of the Civil Rights Movement, and a powerful voice against racism. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Holly talks about an opera based on the life of Eadweard Muybridge. Tracy and Holly talk about how they learned about periods as kids. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Beatrice Kenner’s inventions were focused largely on making life easier and less annoying for herself and the people around her, including period products. Mildred Smith’s invention was about family, and it grew from her disability. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

The invention Eadweard Muybridge is known for is his zoopraxiscope, an early movie technology. But he also innovated in photography, had some other inventions, and was the defendant in a murder trial. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

This 2019 episode covers Mary Winston Jackson, best known as the first black woman to become an engineer at NASA. But she also worked to clear the way for other underrepresented people at NASA. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Tracy talks about current events and how they relate to the show and education. She and Holly also talk about the people who work in national parks and historical sites. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

This edition of Unearthed! continues, this time covering the mixed items we call potpourri, shipwrecks, edibles and potables, books and letters, and exhumations. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

This installment of Unearthed! starts with lots of updates! And then some art-related unearthings, and a few things at the end that fall under the category of adult content. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

This 2017 episode covers a very short time between Edward VI and Mary I when Lady Jane was, at least nominally, Queen of England and Ireland. Whether she had any right to the title is still the subject of dispute. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Holly and Tracy discuss the challenge of enlarging sewing patterns from small diagrams. They also talk about one of Butterick's most popular patterns of all time -- the 1952 walk-away dress. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Ellen Curtis Demorest and Ebeneezer Butterick are the two names most often invoked as the start of multi-sized patterns printed for home sewists. Once they proved it was a viable business, a lot of other offerings appeared. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Commercially available sewing patterns have been a cornerstone of home stitching for a century. But well before they existed, there were people trying to share sewing patterns. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

This 2020 episode examines how the U.S. got to the point of having one resource, specifically for poisoning, that’s so reliable and available that it gets printed on the labels of consumer products. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Tracy and Holly talk about their favorite pens, and Tracy describes a unique radio she had as a child. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Edwin Howard Armstrong isn’t exactly a well-known inventor, but his work in radio literally changed communications around the globe. But his most famous invention – FM radio – became a source of constant frustration after he developed it. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Before the ballpoint pen, people used their hands, reeds, bamboo, brushes, quills, and eventually nibs to write or draw. But how did things evolve from there to get to things like the fountain pen, and eventually, a ballpoint? Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

This 2022 episode starts with the story of John Bibb, credited with cultivating Bibb lettuce. But his family’s legacy, good and bad, is all tied to having enslaved people build their familial wealth. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Holly discusses the inscription on the Beachamps' headstone and the court of public opinion. Tracy shares information about Wilfred Owen's brother Harold. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

Wilfred Owen is considered one of the most important English-language poets of World War I. His work also part of a shift in how many British poets were writing about war. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...

The Beauchamp-Sharpe tragedy of 1825, sometimes called the Kentucky tragedy, involves a politician, a young lawyer, and the lawyer’s wife. It unfolds as a story of sexual scandal and political intrigue that ultimately led to murder. Listen here: omny.fm/shows/stuff-...