Oiran: The Courtesans Trapped in Yoshiwara
Japan'sBehind the glittering “floating world” of Edo Japan was a walled red-light district with a moat and only two ways out. Today on For t...
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History
For the Love of History
I'm TK, your guide to the past as we uncover the people, events, and little-known-facts hidden in the shadows of your old history textbooks. From empress baddies to activist profiles, turkey...
Episodes
20 of 152 episodes
The +400 Year War on the Fork! | The Devils Tool
For hundreds of years, many devout Catholics believed the fork was a tool of the devil. Today it's the most used utensil in the world. How d...
What the Egyptian Book of the Dead Really Says
The Egyptian Book of the Dead wasn't a book, and it wasn't cursed. It was a cheat sheet for surviving the afterlife exam from hell. Fail, an...
Ainu Tattoos: Sacred Protection, Then a Crime
Everyone knows Japan has a complicated relationship with tattoos — but most people blame the wrong group. Long before the Yakuza gave tattoo...
Pirate Queen Zheng Yi Sao | The Worlds Greatest Pirate
As a teenager, she worked on floating brothels. By her 30s, she commanded a pirate fleet larger than the Spanish Armada and forced three nat...
The Truth About Samurai Women | Tomoe Gozen
She led 1,000 cavalry into battle, survived facing down 6,000 enemy warriors, and 800 years later, historians still can't agree on whether s...
Yokai Women | Evil Monsters or Victims?
What happens when women become the monsters of Japanese folklore? In this episode of For the Love of History, we dive into the terrifying wo...
Empress Baddie | Theodora of the Byzantine Empire
Was she a teenage s*x worker or a young woman caught in the crossfire of history?! Let’s dive into how Empress Theodora became one of the mo...
Minamata | Japan's Cover-Up That Poisoned Generations
A quiet fishing town. Cats dancing themselves to death on the wharf. And a company that knew exactly why. This is what happens when companie...
The Mystery of Scythain Tattoos
For 2,500 years, her tattoos were invisible, hidden beneath mummified skin until infrared imaging revealed what no one knew existed. In this...
Samurai Fart Art of Japan | 10 Min History
Japan gave us The Great Wave. It also gave us 34 feet of fart scroll! 💨 When archivists at Waseda University unrolled a 34-foot Edo-period...
The Deadly Search For Immortality
What if the pill you believed would save your life was slowly killing you? In the third century, the most powerful ruler in human history, Q...
The History of Heels | The Military Tech That Became Women's Most Impractical Shoe
Men invented high heels. Men made them a power symbol. Then men decided women should wear them instead. Classic. In this episode of For the...
Japan's Dirtiest Jobs — and Why One of Them Created a Caste System That Still Exists
From professional fart scapegoats to the workers who literally built civilization from the ground up. Edo Japan's labor history is wild, gro...
The Forgotten Scientist Behind Every Pair of Glasses You've Ever Worn | The History of Glasses
Did we invent glasses, or did we invent the problem that makes us need them? 👓 From bone goggles carved by the Inuit 2,000 years ago to the...
Polianitsy Warrior Women: Myth, Misogyny, and the Evidence They Ignored
Were warrior women real—or is that just a myth we’ve been told for centuries? From the legendary Amazons of Greek myth to the very real Scyt...
6 Years of Weird, Dark & Hidden History 👀 | Q&A + Women’s History, Books & Podcast Life
Six years. SIX. YEARS. 🎉 And somehow… we’re still here, still talking about history, and now—✨we’ve finally released the intern from the ed...
Empress Baddie Lady K’abel: Maya Supreme Warlord of the Snake Dynasty
What if one of the most powerful warlords in the ancient Maya world… was a woman? In this episode of For the Love of History, we dive deep i...
The Real Mythology of Spirited Away | Yokai, River Dragons & the Meaning of No-Face
What does Spirited Away actually mean? And who—or what—is No-Face really supposed to be? In this episode of For the Love of History, we dive...
History of Alchemy Explained: Ancient Science Before Chemistry
When most people think of alchemy, they imagine a medieval wizard desperately trying to turn lead into gold. But the real story of alchemy i...