Dirt Nap City

In this episode of Dirt Nap City, we dive into the enigma that is Andy Kaufman. This episode unravels the life and career of the comedic genius who blurred the lines between performance and reality. From his outrageous characters like Latka Gravas to his legendary wrestling battles with Jerry Lawler, we explore the tactics that made him a legend...and sometimes, a villain. Was he a brilliant provocateur or a hilarious troll? We sep...

Cursive writing, once a cornerstone of education, has seen a dramatic decline in recent decades. The elegant loops and flowing connections that adorned historical documents are increasingly a relic of the past. But what factors led to this shift?
The rise of technology is a major culprit. Typewriters, introduced in the early 20th century, offered a faster and more efficient way to produce written documents. Later, computers and...

After George Washington, Benjamin Franklin is considered one of the most important figures during the early days of the United States of America. He was a scholar, a writer, an inventor and a statesman. But did you know that he also tried to invent a new alphabet that eliminated "useless letters" and added new ones? And he also famously wrote an essay about flatulence...among many essays that he wrote - both under his own...

Did you know that you don't pronounce the name of the famous synthesizer "Moog" with a "moo" (like a cow)? It's "Moog" with a long "o" like "mode". In this episode of Dirt Nap City Dead Ends, Alex and Kelly explore the heyday of synthesizers, the 1980's, and which music could rock the synth and which were just trying too hard. If you like 70's, 80's, and eve...

He's the name synonymous with seduction, a legend whispered in bedrooms for centuries. But Giacomo Casanova was far more than just a notorious lover. Get ready to delve into the life of this 18th-century adventurer, writer, and self-proclaimed genius.Casanova was a man of many hats - a violinist, a clergyman, a mathematician, even a librarian! We'll explore his intellectual pursuits and the fascinating world he inhabited....

Flagpole sitting is exactly what it sounds like: a person climbing on top of a towering pole, usually in the middle of a city, and testing their endurance by sitting atop it for as long as their body holds up. It began in Hollywood in January 1924, when a former sailor, boxer, steelworker, and stuntman named Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly was hired by a local theater to sit on a pole outside of the building for as long as possible to drum...

William Mathias Scholl, also known as Dr. Scholl,  was born in Indiana as one of 13 children. He studied medicine at Loyola University Chicago. During his studies, while working in a shoe store in the evenings, he became interested in podiatry. Dr. Scholl saw the lack of attention the medical and wellness community paid to people's feet and was able to build a business based on maladies and care of people's feet, which wa...

If you remember the early days of television, then you surely remember the variety show! From Ed Sullivan in the 1950's to Donny and Marie Osmond in the 1970's all the way up to Pink Lady and Jeff in the 1980's, variety shows had something for everyone in the family. Some were silly, some were serious, and some were just stupid - but if you ever hummed along to the singers on Hee Haw, you remember what fun variety sh...

John Chapman, also known as Johnny Appleseed, was a Christian evangelist one of the first American conservationists. He lived in the late 18th and early 19th century and was known to have planted apple nurseries throughout the northern United States and parts of Canada. He was rumored to have had a pet wolf and walk through the snow with no shoes. But despite his shabby appearance, Johnny Appleseed was also a savvy business man who...

Every time you throw in some bluetooth ear buds and go for a walk, did you know that you are following in the footsteps of the OG of personal soundtracks? The Sony Walkman was introduced in 1979 and was originally designed out of a desire that the head of Sony had at the time to listen to music on his walks! This innovation eventually lead to the Walkman with a radio built in, the disc-man, the MP3 player, the iPod and even the Mic...

Stede Bonnet was born into a wealthy English family on the island of Barbados in 1688. He had money, land and eventually a wife and children. But in 1717, at the age of 29, he turned to a life of crime on high seas to become a pirate of the Caribbean. And because of his status before turning to piracy, he became known as "the gentleman pirate".  But being a gentleman and being a pirate were two completely different ways o...

If you grew up somewhere in the southern US, you probably remember riding in the back of a pickup truck when you were a kid. Riding to little league practice, riding to the Dairy Queen - these were some of the memories many of us have from childhood. But was riding in the back of a pickup truck really a good idea? While we don't want to say what people should or should not do, riding in the back of a pickup truck has become le...

Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Because she was born in 1897, she grew up at the dawn of aviation and she was bit by the aviation bug at an early age. After convincing her parents to finance flying lessons, Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many other records, was one of the first aviators to promote commercial air travel, wrote best-selling books ab...

Do you remember going to recess at school, running around, getting hot and thirsty, and then lining up to get a drink at your school's water fountain? If not, then you missed out on something really special. Water fountains were common and used frequently not too long ago. But did you know that they originated as the primary source of clean water for most people in big cities a few hundred years ago? Or did you know that they ...

Reformer or dictator? Napoleon Bonaparte was one of the greatest military strategists of all time and served as not only the leader of France, but the Emperor of the French Empire. During the late 1700's and early 1800's, France was a formidable military power and ruled a very large part of the European continent and beyond - mostly because of Napoleon. But why did he divorce the wife that he claimed to love until  his de...

Everyone loves shoes that fit just right. But did you know that not too long ago, people loved them enough to risk their health for perfectly fitting shoes? In this episode, we take a look at the X-Ray Shoe Fitter, also known as the Foot-O-Scope was a popular device used at shoe stores in the 1930's, 1940's and even 1950's to show people a real time view of their foot in a shoe. And while the process was entertaining...

In today's world, Tesla is often associated with Elon Musk's electric car company. But the original Tesla was a brilliant man born in 1856 in Croatia. Nikola Tesla lived at the dawn of electricity and sometimes butted heads with other great minds of his time like Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse. But did you know that this brilliant scientist had a strange obsession with a pigeon in New York City? Or that he was obse...

If you are over 40 years old, you probably remember going to the "All You Can Eat Buffet" with your family or friends. It was an amazing display of food and it was all for one low price! But this style of low cost gluttony has fallen out of favor in recent years - both because the food was generally not healthy and the business model was unattainable for many restaurants. In this episode, Alex takes us through some of his...

Beyond the shamrock lies a story of adventure, faith, and cultural transformation. Join us as we peel back the layers on St. Patrick, the man behind the legend. Was he a snake-banishing miracle worker or a shrewd political operator? How did he come to represent the country in which he was enslaved as a young man? Whether you are here for the history lesson, the funny stories about Alex in Ireland, or the green beer, you've com...