Something True
Something True brings you incredible and bizarre true stories from the footnotes of history. A dog in the United States Cabinet? A leading rocket scientist who quit his job to make a moonchild? Virginia Woolf donning blackface to prank a navy? They're all true. They're all Something True.
Episodes
September 3, 2019 • 24 mins
Guillaume le Gentil didn’t find purpose in the church, seeking it instead in the stars. In 1761, he participated in a global astronomical mission to observe the Transit of Venus from various stations across the globe. But the course of science never did run smooth, and le Gentil’s travels would scatter him far and wide, across time and space, and from toilet-bound depression to true illumination. The Something True season finale.
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August 27, 2019 • 21 mins
Richard Welsh thought he could squeeze in a quick drink with his mates after work, but one thing led to another, and he was conscripted into the English army to fight in a global war. His wife, not thrilled, dropped the kids off with a babysitter and set out to bring Richard home. Thus began Christian Welsh's epic, decades-long quest through the battlefields of Europe to find her husband, and herself. And a pet pig, which was a bon...
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August 20, 2019 • 15 mins
Nobody in France had seen anything like it. The boy, Tarrare, could eat whatever he wanted, in enormous quantities, and never felt full or put on weight. Tarrare was just hungry. He was hungry all the time. And as he wandered Paris, eating anything he pleased, he would, in turn, be swallowed up by forces great and sinister.
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something True on Twitter @atr...
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something True on Twitter @atr...
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August 13, 2019 • 21 mins
Together they set out to chart wildest Canada: a management consultant, a dental student, a Hollywood cinematographer, an ex-sniper, a mysterious treasure hunter, and a cowboy. Nobody believed in their expedition, saying things like, “You don't have the experience” and, “Your horses are diseased.” But Charles E. Bedaux was determined. For him this trip wasn’t about making maps, but the measure of a man.
Read a full transcript of t...
Read a full transcript of t...
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August 6, 2019 • 13 mins
In the 16th century, the Oda and Tokugawa clans sought to unite feudal Japan under their rule. These were big and dangerous boys, but the biggest threat to their political alliance wasn’t any enemy clan, but a rude mother-in-law and a young woman who would do anything to protect her family.
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something True on Twitter @atruepodcast. (Or just follow Duncan...
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something True on Twitter @atruepodcast. (Or just follow Duncan...
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July 30, 2019 • 15 mins
The stars themselves proclaimed Timothy Dexter to be a great man, so why wouldn't the Newburyport, Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce? Dexter, a wealthy merchant, wanted nothing more than the respect of Massachusetts high society. And he'd do anything to get it, even if it meant blurring the line between being a great man and a bad guy.
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
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Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
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July 23, 2019 • 10 mins
What if Genghis Khan died, just before he really got going? Thanks to a blacksmith's son called Jelme, we don't have to wonder. We might, however, wonder why Jelme's heroic rescue required so much blood and so little clothing—but thanks to a blacksmith's podcast called Something True, we don't have to wonder.
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something True on Twitter @atruepodcast. (Or ...
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something True on Twitter @atruepodcast. (Or ...
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July 16, 2019 • 15 mins
Something True is back, with the story of a celebrated opera singer who set fire to a convent and whipped the buttocks of Parisian lotharios. Luciano Pavarotti? No, Julie d'Aubigny, who in 17th century Paris delighted the upper classes from the stage and duelled them in the streets. Join us for the dramatic, passionate tale of a life lived fast and furious.
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Fol...
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Fol...
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July 9, 2019 • 2 mins
The opera singer who burned down a convent. A naked man who saved the life of Genghis Khan. An astronomer who ate bad beef.
These are true stories, but they aren't about people who changed the world. You won't read about them on the Wikipedia page for "history", or hear them on a podcast about trains. These stories are of weird creeps and unlucky management consultants, whose lives and legacies crumbled underneath the ind...
These are true stories, but they aren't about people who changed the world. You won't read about them on the Wikipedia page for "history", or hear them on a podcast about trains. These stories are of weird creeps and unlucky management consultants, whose lives and legacies crumbled underneath the ind...
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December 22, 2017 • 13 mins
Whatever you eat this holiday season, it won’t be anything like this. Something True returns for the holidays with the story of a monstrous pie, cooked by an English village in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Queen Victoria’s coronation. It was the largest pie ever made. Larger than reason. Larger than dreams. Large enough to hide a secret.
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow So...
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow So...
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May 16, 2017 • 16 mins
In the season finale of Something True, we crack the seal on Jack Parsons—a legendary rocket scientist, drummed out of the profession for his overbearing interest in the occult magick of Aleister Crowley. Parsons devoted his early retirement to a full-throated study of the arcane arts. His ambitions were nothing less than to coax an ancient, beautiful goddess from her primal dimension into the spare bedroom of his Pasadena bungalow...
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May 9, 2017 • 14 mins
Elias Mortimer, a construction lobbyist, needed to land his firm a fat government contract to build veterans' hospitals. Luckily for him, the chief of the Veterans' Bureau had three great loves: getting bribed, misappropriating government funds, and intense 24/7 partying. They thought there was no way anything could go wrong. But what happened nearly destroyed them both.
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True...
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True...
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May 2, 2017 • 14 mins
Who was this mysterious boy from the city of Gävle? Johan came to Stockholm in 1676, an orphan. His mother had been executed. Executed because Johan accused her of being a witch. And he was just getting started. Stockholm was in trouble. Trouble with a capital T. And that rhymed with G... which stood for Gävle Boy.
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something true on Twitter @atruepodcast...
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something true on Twitter @atruepodcast...
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April 25, 2017 • 11 mins
John Swartwout was minding his own business—scheming against the United States government with his friend, vice president Aaron Burr—when a senator slandered him as a scoundrel. A scoundrel! What was Swartwout to do? Challenge the senator to a duel, of course.
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something true on Twitter @atruepodcast. (Or just follow Duncan and Alex.)
Music on this week’...
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something true on Twitter @atruepodcast. (Or just follow Duncan and Alex.)
Music on this week’...
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April 18, 2017 • 14 mins
The prince was murdered, and the princess given two demands: surrender the kingdom, and marry the enemy prince. She said yes—but what she did instead, nobody saw coming. If this were a video podcast, it'd be banned in all territories.
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something true on Twitter @atruepodcast. (Or just follow Duncan and Alex.)
Music on this week’s episode:
Kosta T – Red i...
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something true on Twitter @atruepodcast. (Or just follow Duncan and Alex.)
Music on this week’s episode:
Kosta T – Red i...
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April 11, 2017 • 15 mins
In 1852, one of the wealthiest landowners in California drowned crossing a river. The ensuing scramble for his fortune spilled blood and broke hearts. Note: The area in which this story takes place is now Gilroy, California, home of the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival. Adult general admission is $20, parking $10 per day. Wear comfortable shoes.
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something t...
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something t...
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April 4, 2017 • 13 mins
What is history's greatest prank? There's the intimate—perching a bucket of water over the door. And the grandly ambitious—say, humiliating an entire navy. These are some good pranks indeed. But history's greatest prank was something much stranger... and much darker.
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something true on Twitter @atruepodcast. (Or just follow Duncan and Alex.)
Music ...
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something true on Twitter @atruepodcast. (Or just follow Duncan and Alex.)
Music ...
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March 27, 2017 • 12 mins
Our debut episode brings you the story of a good boy. A very good boy. Laddie Boy, the First Dog of the United States. A wonderful, charming terrier whom Americans loved even more than they hated his owner: Warren G. Harding, one of the worst presidents the country has ever known.
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something true on Twitter @atruepodcast. (Or just follow Dunca...
Read a full transcript of this episode on the Something True website.
Follow Something true on Twitter @atruepodcast. (Or just follow Dunca...
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