The Backstory with Patty Steele

The Backstory with Patty Steele

Love a good, juicy story that goes beyond what we already know? We're talking scandalous presidential family members, a mass murder at a world-famous architect's home, stolen inventions, nude athletes at the first Olympics, compulsive liars, the arrival of the bikini, and so much more. History fanatic Patty Steele tells you the inside backstories you didn’t know you needed to know.

Episodes

September 13, 2024 8 mins

On this replay episode of The Backstory: Born into complete poverty and now, by some accounts, the richest man in the world, Vladimir Putin has also become an enemy of most of the world. Here's where he came from, how he got a stranglehold on power, and what he’s doing with it.

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It’s never been easy to be a teacher, and yet their value is immeasurable. But imagine a time when teachers couldn’t date, dye their hair, go to a barber shop, or even enjoy a trip to an ice cream shop.

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Did you know there was a period of time when the U.S. government secretly used the public to test biological weapons? Some sites included rural Georgia, San Francisco Bay, and the New York City subway system. 

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There have been plenty of killers who admitted they were inspired by violent movies, TV shows, and video games. This is the story of a couple of teenagers from the Midwest who robbed and murdered folks just to recreate their favorite movie: Natural Born Killers. And there's a powerful celebrity connection in this saga.

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August 30, 2024 8 mins

We all know major public figures who drive us crazy because they loudly share opinions we don’t agree with. But that’s democracy, right? So, the iconic Greek philosopher Socrates was exactly that kind of big mouth 2,400 years ago in Athens, where democracy was just being originated. Problem is, he angered the wrong big shots and wound up being executed in a really unusual way.

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Partying is supposed to be all about providing entertainment for family, friends, or people you want to impress. But frequently, it’s about entertaining yourself. Some of history's wildest parties involved setting guests on fire, making them eat until they vomited, or making them have sex with strangers.

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Maybe you’ve seen SicarioScarfaceNarcos, or Blow, but they have nothing on the bloody and intense real-life story of Pablo Escobar, the king of cocaine. Starting out as a kid in the slums of Medellin, Columbia, he went on to run the Medellin drug cartel in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. In his short life, Escobar’s cartel made him the 7th richest man in the world, with a net worth of $30 billion. And then…it all collapsed.

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How does someone with such a brilliant mind and fierce work ethic turn out to be a world-class jerk as a dad? Steve Jobs knew how to create the world’s most valuable company. But when it came to his daughter, he admitted at the end of his life he’d failed her. 

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We all know about the midnight ride of Paul Revere at the onset of the Revolution. But what about Sybil Ludington, the female Raul Revere? She was just 16 years old when she made her little-known 40-mile ride to warn about approaching British troops in Connecticut.

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A father hates his son for being everything he’s not: gentle and wildly talented. That hatred culminates in murder. The tragic family story of Marvin Gaye, where a life of pain goes unaddressed.

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War is a terrible thing under any circumstance. But imagine the Civil War. There were more deaths than the combined total in WW1 and WW2. Food, uniforms, medical supplies, working weapons, and more, all in short supply with con artists stealing as much as 25% of government war funds. But the passion and ideology so many soldiers brought to battle was astounding. This is the story of Johnny Clem who desperately wanted to fight for t...

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We had an attempted assassination on the campaign trail this summer. But in addition to the four U.S. presidents who were assassinated, there have been attempts on the lives of presidents or candidates nine other times...one of them was successful. What motivates the would-be killers? And how do we turn down the heat?

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Re-release: The Netflix hit film Society of the Snow is the true story of South American athletes trapped in the snowy mountains after a plane crash…with some surviving by eating their dead teammates. Now we look at the Donner party of pioneers in 1846, trapped in 22 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains…and the even more gruesome way some of them survived. 

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We all dream, but what stops us from making those dreams a reality? This is about a middle-class kid from Ohio who never stopped believing in the future.

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George Washington never lived in the White House or Washington, DC. The White House wasn’t white when it was built, and it wasn’t called the White House for its first 100 years. The famous portrait of George Washington that hangs in the East Room isn’t the original. Those stories...and the famous DC influencer who saved the day when the White House burned.

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Are you intrigued by the thought of aliens visiting Earth and leaving behind signs like cave drawings and pyramids and geoglyphs? Did you know that many of these ancient sites are part of what’s called the Great Circle, appearing along an exact circle within a tenth of a degree of each other?

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She was the sexiest, most beautiful actress in Hollywood during her short career. But Marilyn Monroe had a heartbreaking childhood with a mentally ill mother. Her upbringing destroyed her self-confidence. And that allowed Hollywood and dozens of men to use and abuse her.

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Scandal, fraud, embezzlement, wild parties, and illicit affairs—sounds very presidential, right? Not only was that the name of the game in the roaring 20s, a lot of it was essentially covered up by the press during Warren Harding’s short presidency. It was pure historical drama. With his sudden death, conspiracy theorists pointed at the ultimate insider.

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So we’re all sweltering from the heat…air so thick and hot you can feel it go down your throat as you breathe. But heat waves are nothing new. They killed thousands in 1898 and thousands more in the early 1900s. But the one that hit London 166 years ago, changed the city forever. It was “the great stink of 1858.”

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They say knowledge is power. But is it more important than ethics…or law? Over the centuries, researchers' quest to understand what’s under our skin, the human anatomy, has motivated scientists—as well as money-hungry grave robbers—to become body snatchers. But more than that, it sometimes inspired murder.

 

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