History Fix

I'm back this week with the promised second part to my Women in STEM special. This week, we'll explore the stories of 6 more women who changed the world, beginning with Genevieve Grotjan Feinstein who cracked the elusive Japanese Purple code during World War II. Chien-Shiung Wu made breakthrough discoveries in physics and helped develop the first atomic bomb with her critical involvement in the Manhattan Project. Katherin...

This week kicks off a two part episode spectacular about women in STEM. Join me to learn about Elizabeth Blackwell who was admitted to medical school as a practical joke and went on to graduate first in her class, becoming the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States. Nettie Stevens discovered X and Y chromosomes and got none of the credit. Lise Meitner helped discover nuclear fission. Florence Siebert developed th...

This week I'm uncovering the real story of Micaela Leonarda Antonia de Almonester Rojas y de la Ronde, Baroness de Pontalba. And, yes, everyone in this story has a super long name! Micaela is best known for helping to transform New Orleans' Place d'Armes into the Jackson Square we know today. She designed and oversaw the construction of the iconic Pontalba Buildings that flank the sqaure in the heart of the New Orlea...

As we transition from Black History Month to Women's History Month, I've chosen a topic that encompasses both, a topic that addresses a major misconception in American history. What role did white women actually play in enslaving people? For a very long time, historians assumed that women were merely passive enslavers. They enslaved because their husbands enslaved. They were involved only because of their roles as houseke...

Get ready for a wild ride because this story is bananas! This week, I uncover the unbelievable true story that is the life of Harriet Jacobs. Born enslaved in Edenton, North Carolina in 1813, Harriet would go on to escape from slavery in the most remarkable way. I'm talking, hoodwinking various prominent white men and hiding in an attic crawl space for 7 years remarkable. But, most importantly, Harriet would later tell her sto...

In this episode, I unpack the dynamic character that is Dangerfield Newby, the real life inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's title character in the film "Django Unchained." For many years Dangerfield Newby was viewed as a villain. He took part in John Brown's 1859 raid on the military arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. These raiders took people hostage. They killed people. But when we take a closer look at thei...

Happy Black History Month! We're kicking off the month with a story that was suggested by Janice on Instagram. Nowadays, when you call for emergency services, you expect the speedy arrival of an ambulance staffed by personnel who have the skills to save your life en route if necessary. But, believe it or not, that's actually a new concept. Before the 1960s, your call would have been answered (quite slowly) by a police pad...

Here it is! My first ever live History Fix episode! This live show was recorded at College of the Albemarle in Manteo, North Carolina on January 28th. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to each person who braved freezing temperatures to see this show live. For all the rest, here is the recording. I do recommend watching the video version of this one as there are lots of great visuals to go along with it. That can be found on eit...

This week I'm uncovering a lost city that was left out of my lost cities two parter (episodes 131 and 132). Nineveh, the capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire, is mentioned in the Bible no less than 19 times. But, for millennia we weren't sure if it was a fictional setting or a real place. All of that changed in the 1840s when British explorer Austen Henry Layard discovered the ruins of a vast metropolis on the banks of ...

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day this Monday, January 19th, I'm delving into the story behind this remarkable man. How does a Black man born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929, a man whose grandparents were sharecroppers in a post slavery American South, a man subjected to Jim Crow laws that intentionally sought to hold him down, rise to such great heights as to become the only single American with his own dedicated national ho...

In this episode I finally explore a topic I've wondered about for a long time: circumcision. How did an ancient punishment for prisoners turned religious ritual become a medical procedure carried out by over 80% of Americans? What triggered doctors to start recommending circumcision for all newborn boys starting in the late 1800s and why doesn't the rest of the world do it too? What about the ethical implications of perfo...

Consider this the third and final installment of my war with Japan triptych. In this episode, we'll discuss the top secret "Manhattan Project" led by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer that led to the development of the first atomic bomb. We'll uncover the motives behind creating such a dangerous weapon and for using it on two cities in Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to civilian casualties of up to 300,000 ...

I had planned to take this week and next off but I can't leave y'all hanging without your fix on Christmas! This week I'm bringing you a special mini fix episode about the Christmas Truce of 1914. This remarkable ceasefire that happened spontaneously all along the Western Front during the first winter of World War I has shocked and inspired the masses ever since. But despite tons of eyewitness accounts and tangible e...

After talking about the Pearl Harbor attack last week and how it prompted US involvement in World War II, I realized I glorified the aftermath pretty hard. Yes, Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor did directly lead to the US declaring war on both Japan and Germany. Yes, US involvement in World War II undeniably helped bring that war to a close. However, the US reacted in other ways at home that weren't quite as glorious. This ...

I feel pretty well versed when it comes to World War II. I understand fairly well what was happening in Europe at least with Germany and whatnot. I know that the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 (84 years ago today) was the event that drew the United States into the war. But Pearl Harbor wasn't bombed by Germany. It was bombed by Japan. Wait, what? Japan? What does Japan have to do with Nazi Germany and World War II?...

To follow up my perspective seeking conversation with Gray Parsons of the Secotan Alliance, I sat down next with Chief Marilyn Berry Morrison of the Roanoke-Hatteras Tribe. I asked Chief Morrison the same question: why do you think the misconception exists that Indigenous Americans no longer exist in the eastern part of the United States? She had similar thoughts to share. Chief Morrison spoke a lot about fear and shame stemming fr...

This week, I sat down with Gray Parsons of the Secotan Alliance to get to the bottom of a common misconception. It seems, to me at least, that there's a notion in our country that Indigenous Americans no longer exist in the eastern states, that they were either killed or forced to relocate west. Gray's response provided the much needed perspective I was seeking. Join us as we chat about Wingina, the first Indigenous Ameri...

This week I’m shattering preconceived notions that Indigenous Americans north of Mexico didn’t build cities. That they organized, instead, into only small, nomadic villages. Because, for around 800 years there was a great city, the largest pre-Colombian city north of Mexico, a city that, if you were to have visited in the year 1200, is theorized to have been larger than both London and Paris at that same time. In fact, it held the ...