History Fix

Welcome to Spooktober! It's my favorite month on History Fix because I get to bust out all of the spooky stories I've been saving. This week, we're talking about the notorious serial killer who operated in New Orleans in the nineteen teens known as the Axeman. The Axeman attacked strictly Italian grocers, breaking into their houses with stolen axes to bludgeon them to death. This guy has been embraced by popular cult...

I'm back again this week with four more "lost cities" for you. First we'll explore the  Egyptian city of Thonis-Heracleion that literally sank beneath the Mediterranean Sea and was rediscovered some 1,200 years later. Next, we'll hop over to Jordan to discover the ancient Nabataean city of Petra with it's grand facades etched into the red rock landscape. After that it's off to Cambodia to learn ab...

We'll be visiting 8 lost cities over the next couple of weeks! This week we'll journey to an ancient city of mythic proportions that most thought to be fictional until it was actually discovered in the mid 1800s: Troy of Homer's Iliad fame. Next we'll make our way to southern Pakistan to explore the ruins of the completely unknown and yet stunningly advanced city of Mohenjo Daro. Then we'll hop the pond to ...

William Shakespeare is undoubtedly one of the greatest literary geniuses of all time. Author of over 30 plays and over 150 poems, he masterfully knit together over 20,000 English words, all out inventing some 1,700 of them, to beautifully capture full ranges of complex emotions and subtle nuances of human nature that still capture audiences over 400 years later. Pretty impressive for a 16th century man from a modest family with onl...

In this week's episode, I delve farther into one of the character's from last week's episode about the War of the Roses: Richard III. Richard is a highly misunderstood historical figure, whose reputation was tainted by later Tudor propaganda during the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, the son and granddaughter of his usurper, Henry VII. But how much of that reputation was deserved? And, possibly more interesting...

Link to family tree! Game of Thrones is typically considered to be the most popular television show of all time based on its massive global reach and deep cultural impact. If you haven’t seen it, it’s an 8 season historical fantasy series based on a book series by George R. R. Martin about different houses, different families, the Starks, the Lannisters, the Targaryens, the Baratheons, all battling and plotting and backstabbing eac...

In this episode, I tackle the history of education from prehistoric hunter-gatherer days all the way to today. We'll look at the many motives that have shaped the education and formal schooling of children from the agricultural revolution, through ancient times, to the protestant reformation and the industrial revolution. Through it all, motives have been... questionable. We educated children because we needed them to work the...

This week I'm tackling a topic that's been on my mind for quite some time: Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition. Shackleton was really a huge failure. Almost everything this man did failed. He failed to reach the South Pole first. He failed to cross the continent of Antarctica. He failed in many business endeavors, tobacco, stamp collecting, a Hungarian mining venture. He failed miserably in politics. He spent m...

Discovered accidentally in the 1930s, studied as a possible psychiatric wonder drug, used by the CIA in highly unethical clandestine mind control experiments for project MKUltra during the cold war, adopted by the counterculture hippies of the summer of love, LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) is viewed by some for its potential to expand human consciousness and promote peace and by others for its potential to completely destroy our ...

This episode was supposed to be about Lady Jane Grey, the "Nine Days Queen" who was hastily placed on the English throne following the death of Henry VIII's son Edward VI, usurping his older sister Mary. But as I researched Jane Grey, I came across another character entirely who desperately needed her story "fixed." Frances Grey was Jane Grey's mother (and the niece of Henry VIII). History has not reme...

Join me this week as I recount the unbelievable true story of Joan of Arc, the 16 year old peasant girl who dressed in mens clothing and led French armies to victory in the 1420s. Something like this happening today seems near impossible, but in the 15th century when women had few rights, it was inconceivable. So how did a teenage girl with no military training come to lead successfully soldiers in battle? And what about the voices...

This week is all about the history of salt! Yes, salt. You've probably never given it much thought. It sits in a salt shaker on your kitchen counter, spice rack, or cabinet. You can buy a pound of it for 76 cents at Walmart right now. But, believe it or not, salt was once an extremely valuable commodity. Whole civilizations rose up over salt. Trade routes were established. People became very wealthy. Salt allowed for the prese...

Varina Howell Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis and First Lady of the Confederacy played the part well. She was educated, graceful, the picture of antebellum perfection. She hosted elegant soirees at the Confederate white house in Richmond, Virginia and managed a household of around 20 workers, black and white, enslaved and free. But Varina, when examined closely, was not what she seemed. In writing, she referred to herself as a “half...

Thomas Jefferson was America's golden boy. Author of the Declaration of Independence, secretary of state under George Washington, vice president to John Adams, and 3rd president of the United States, he penned famous words like "all men are created equal," and "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." For this, he's often remembered as a moral champion who fought for equality and liberty for all. B...

Back this week with one final, somewhat nautical episode to round out the month of June. This week we're talking about the Great Flood of Noah's Ark fame. It's one of the best known bible stories. But did you know, it doesn't end there? Almost every other major culture or religion that we know of has almost the same flood myth. The ancient Babylonians, the Greeks, Hindu, Buddhist, Aztec, Chinese, Norse, Aborigin...

In keeping with the nautical theme I accidentally adopted this month, I'll be exploring the rather misleading story of sixteen century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan this week. Magellan's claim to fame is being the first person to circumnavigate the globe, to sail all the way around the Earth, a full circle. That really is Magellan’s only claim to fame. Except for one thing. He never even did that. Did you know th...

I'm back this week with four more shipwreck stories. We'll start with the horrific explosion of the Mississippi river steamboat, the Sultana in 1865. Next, we'll tackle the Titanic which famously sank in 1912, killing around 1,500 passengers. On to another famous ship, the Endeavor. The Endeavor was the British naval ship used by explorer Captain James Cook during his first voyage of discovery which landed him in Aus...

This week, we'll uncover the stories of four different shipwrecks. I'll start with an ancient Roman ship found near the Greek island of Antikythera which sank around 60 to 70 BC with mind blowing treasures on board. Next, I'll talk about the sinking of King Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose, in 1545 and it's rediscovery twice in the 400 years since. Then we'll move on to my personal favorite, the Qu...

This week I teamed up with fellow podcaster and prolific world traveler, Gary Arndt, from the "Everything Everywhere Daily" podcast to talk about UNESCO, an organization with a mission to save natural wonders and cultural heritage sites around the world. You'll hear the story of how UNESCO got it's start, specifically the painstaking dismantling, transport, and reconstruction of one some ancient Egypt's gre...