Grim & Mild Presents

We didn’t become fascinated with the Wild West until Hollywood gave us gunfights at high noon and heroic outlaws. 

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 When we think of the Wild West, we conjure up certain characters in our imaginations. But none are more iconic than the outlaw.

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Hollywood portrays the Wild West as a tough man’s world. Yet, there were some who refused to be labeled. 

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The post office has a saying about mail delivery in all kinds of weather. Meet Mary, a mail carrier in the West whose story is nothing short of a Western novel. 

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Gold. New lives. Second chances. The West provided many opportunities. But conquering the land often came at a high cost. Here’s the story of one of the most well-known families on the frontier: the Ingalls. 

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 Getting from East to West was difficult, especially for those who chose the Oregon Trail. Survival meant timing their passage and path just right. Those who didn’t served as a dire warning to others.  

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With westward expansion came the Homestead Act. What followed was nothing short of horrific for the people already occupying the land.

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From Stetson hats to barbed wire, this episode sheds some light on little-known Wild West icons and how they came to be. 

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The French, Spanish, and the Americans believed that heading west was a divine calling. This is the story of when beliefs cross the line into territory more dangerous than the land itself.

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The Gold Rush became a beacon of hope for many. They headed West to seek their fortunes. But Americans weren’t the only ones looking for a better life.  

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 One of the most horrific times in history came when treaties and deals with Native Americans were broken. In 1836, US troops rounded up Cherokee tribes with acts of extreme violence and forced them across the country. 

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From the Spanish to the French, to the British — everyone had their eye on the vast expanse of America’s western frontier. Then, in the early 1800s, Thomas Jefferson saw an opportunity and made a deal no one expected.

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When it comes to tales of the Wild West, there’s one tale that surfaces again and again — and for good reason. Join us for the story of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. 

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The one guarantee in life is that it will end—we can anticipate that, and we have tried to cope with that truth forever. But when the suffering overextends itself, we’ve always tried to find ways to adapt. 

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Humans have been mothering and midwifing since the beginning of humanity. Why, then, did something so natural become so fiercely under fire? 

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Florence Nightingale set out to change the course of nursing as the world knew it… and ended up getting more than she ever bargained for. 

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Everyone poops. And for thousands of years, as civilizations have risen and fallen, humans have been trying to figure out exactly what to do with it all. The story of waste is one of ingenuity and class, of innovation and epidemic – and it is one that is deeply human. 

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A doctor might dismiss your concerns by saying that something is all in your head…as if the brain doesn’t play host to many kinds of illness. Some  of our oldest corpses bear physical evidence that directly cutting into the brain is one way to attempt healing the mind. But what happens when our modern attempts at this become a bit more…misguided?

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