The Birth of the Jersey Devil
In my last spooky episode for October, I look at the widely spread legend of a creature roaming the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The Jersey Devi...
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Historical Blindness
The Historical Blindness podcast is a podcast about history’s myths, mysteries, and forgotten truths. By examining cases of outrageous hoaxes, pernicious conspiracy theory, mass delusion, ba...
Episodes
20 of 251 episodes
The Path of the Headless Horseman
In my first spooky episode for October, I look at the real, historical basis of Washington Irving's story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, as w...
Hibernian Hokum: Irish Origins and the Stone of Destiny
In this new episode, I explore the various claims about the origins of the Irish people and a certain legendary magical stone, which require...
The Atlantis Fantasy - Part Three: Location, Location, Location
In the last part of my series on belief in the historicity of Atlantis, I look at the problems with all the many places proposed as the actu...
The Atlantis Fantasy - Part Two: A Convenient Fiction
In part 2 of my series on belief in the historicity of Atlantis, I look at how the myth was kept alive through the ages because it convenien...
The Atlantis Fantasy - Part One: The Platonic Idea
This series explores belief in the long-lived myth of Atlantis. In this first part, I look at the origin of the story in Plato's Timaeus and...
Common Séance; A History of Spiritualism - Part Two: Manifestly False
In the conclusion of my look at the practice of mediumship, its origins and its fraudulence, I trace the evolution of Spiritualism into a ne...
Common Séance; A History of Spiritualism - Part One: The Fox Sisters, Rap Artists
In this new 2-part series, I look at the practice of mediumship, its origins and its fraudulence. In Part One, I talk examine the originator...
The Shape of Things; An Intellectual History of Flat Earth Theory - Part Two: Stunt Performers and Grifters
In part two of my series on the history of Flat Earth Theory, I talk about the devotees of Flat Earthism, who promote it through publicity s...
The Shape of Things; An Intellectual History of Flat Earth Theory - Part One: Zetetic Astronomy
In part one of a new series on the history of Flat Earth Theory, I talk about ancient conceptions of the Earth's flatness, ancient proofs of...
Moonstruck! Debunking Apollo Hoax Claims - Part Two: Dignifying Lunarcy
In part two of my series on the long-lived claims that the Apollo program was a hoax, I look more closely at the "evidence" of denialists an...
Moonstruck! Debunking Apollo Hoax Claims - Part One: An Astronomical Amount of Evidence
In part one of a two-part series, I review all the positive evidence proving humanity reached the Moon to refute long-lived claims that the...
Wunderwaffe: The Myths of Nazi Supertechnology - Part Two, The Bell Hoax
In part 2 of my series on the myth that Nazis developed supertechnology, I look at the growth of this conspiracy theory and later hoaxes, li...
Wunderwaffe: The Myths of Nazi Supertechnology - Part One, The Vril Fiction
In part 1 of a 2-parter, I explore the myth that Nazis developed supertechnology, like flying saucers, looking at both the reality of German...
Versailles Time-Slip: The Moberly-Jourdain Incident
In this episode, I look into an early 20th century claim of a supernatural encounter with the past. Did two Oxford dons really see Marie Ant...
Under the Pink Triangle: Transgender Experience in Interwar Germany
In this episode, I continue to look at the topic of women's persecution under fascism then pivot, in observation of International Trans Visi...
The Martyrdom of Hypatia of Alexandria
In this episode, I kick off women's history month with the story of the much mythologized but undeniably symbolic and important Hypatia of A...
The Gun Controllers: Freedom, Firearms, and Fear of Black Power
In this episode, I talk about the history of gun rights and gun control as a history of systemic racism. Check out the sho...
Crispus Attucks, American Martyr
In this episode, I talk about Crispus Attucks, a figure in Black history both lauded as the first martyr of American liberty and maligned as...
Doomsday Deferred: The Failed Predictions of American Millennialism
In this episode, I recount TikTok's recent brush with rapture predictions and then survey America's deep history of failed millennialist pre...