Then This Happened: Musical Stories
True stories are told and musical improvisers cut in and out with songs moving the story along. Each episode is about 15 to 25 minutes long. The show is put together by comedian and musician Matt Griffo. It’s recorded in his tiny studio in Chicago.
Episodes
CHARNA HALPERN
Charna Halpern (born June 1, 1952) is founded the ImprovOlympic, now known as iO. Upon iO's founding, in 1983, with partner Del Close, she began teaching Harold to many students in the Chicago theater community. Many prominent comedians performed at iO, from Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Mike Myers,
She and Close co-authored the book Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation with editor Kim "Howard" Johnson in...
In 1910, Halley’s Comet was due to pass close by Earth — and everyone from religious fanatics to news reporters stoked the fires of a global panic, believing it was the end of the world.
Samba/Bossa Nova Band
VOCALISTS
The Curse of the Ghost of Colonel Sanders and the Japanese Kansai-based Hanshin Tigers baseball team
The Curse of the Colonel refers to a 1985 Japanese urban legend regarding a reputed curse placed on the Japanese Kansai-based Hanshin Tigers baseball team by the ghost of deceased KFC founder and mascot Colonel Sanders.
The curse was said to be placed on the team because of the Colonel's anger over treatment of one of his store-front statues, which was thrown into the Dōtonbori River by celebrating Hanshin fans before their team...
When complex computer programs were first written in the 1960s, engineers used a two-digit code for the year, leaving out the "19." As the year 2000 approached, many believed that the systems would not interpret the "00" correctly, therefore causing a major glitch in the system
STORYTELLER
BAND
The Radium Girls were female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with self-luminous paint. The painting was done by women at three different factories, and the term now applies to the women working at the facilities: one in Orange, New Jersey, beginning around 1917; one in Ottawa, Illinois, beginning in the early 1920s; and a third facility in Waterbury, Connecticut, also in the 1920s.
The Montreal Screwjob was an infamous unscripted professional wrestling incident that occurred on November 9, 1997, at the Survivor Series pay-per-view at the Molson Centre. Vince McMahon and his employees covertly manipulated the outcome of the match between Bret Hart, the reigning WWF Champion, and Shawn Michaels.
Storyteller Chris Hanley
BAND:
Most Brazilians believe their national identity is closely tied to the country’s music, as it unites those of all social backgrounds and creates a place of refuge from real life. However, as the dictatorship gained more control and became increasingly strict during the mid-1960s, innovation and creativity in art greatly diminished.
One key figure in uprooting this paradigm was Caetano Veloso. He aligned with the hippie movement and ...
Aileen Wuornos is an American serial killer who murdered at least seven people in 1989–90. Her case drew national attention to issues such as the relationship between gender and violence and the legal treatment of acts of self-defense by women.
Storyteller Sharron Palm
BAND:
About 27 tonnes of caramelised brown goat cheese - a delicacy known as Brunost - caught light as it was being driven through the Brattli Tunnel at Tysfjord, northern Norway in 2013.
The fire raged for five days.
Told by Asgeir Døhl Dybvig from Oslo, Norway.
BAND:
A coyote bit a little boy, Chicagoans wanted the coyote dead, but Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation in suburban Barrington, IL stepped in to show everyone Mercy.
Listen to the unedited podcast and help support the episodes at --> https://www.patreon.com/mattgriffo <--
Malic White (Storyteller)
BAND:
Cosmic science. Black holes and how we know about them thanks to multiple scientists and LIGO (The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory).
Listen to the unedited podcast and help support the episodes at --> https://www.patreon.com/mattgriffo <--
Drake Shrader (Storyteller)
BAND:
This is a Story about Cap Streeter, a drifter who schemed his way into creating what is now one of the most expensive parts of Chicago.
Steph Charaska (Storyteller)
BAND:
Support the show via Matt Griffo's Patreon page at Patreon.com/mattgriffo
The woman who threw a dildo at Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce on New Zealand's national day.
Listen to the unedited podcast and help support the episodes at --> https://www.patreon.com/mattgriffo <--
Robbie Ellis (Storyteller)
BAND:
In 2019, a scandal arose over a criminal conspiracy to influence undergraduate admissions decisions at several top American universities. The investigation into the conspiracy was nicknamed Operation Varsity Blues.
Listen to the unedited podcast and help support the episodes at --> https://www.patreon.com/mattgriffo <--
Danielle Elizabeth (Storyteller)
BAND:
Jane Fonda has had a life full of activism and has now begun “Fire Drill Fridays.” The protests, which Fonda refers to as "Fire Drill Friday," are to show support for a Green New Deal and bring awareness to the ways in which climate change affects other parts of human life, such as women's rights, access to drinking water and global militarism.
It's amazing to me how many other people she is having come with her to j...
An art feud over color between Stuart Semple and Anish Kapoor. They have been feuding since 2016 when Kapoor received exclusive rights to the Vantablack pigment, said to be the blackest shade of black ever created.
In retaliation, Semple created the "pinkest pink" paint pigment and banned Kapoor from purchasing it, shortly followed by his Faze colour-changing paint. Now the British artist has done the same thing with Black 3...
In this episode comedian Ron Ervin tells the story of Paul McCartney getting arrested in Tokyo in 1980.
Listen to the unedited podcast at and help support the episodes at --> https://www.patreon.com/posts/32302553 <--
Ron Ervin (Storyteller)
BAND:
This one was really fun to record in studio...
Balloonfest '86 was a 1986 event in which the United Way of Cleveland in Ohio set a world record by releasing almost one-and-a-half million balloons. The event was intended to be a harmless fundraising publicity stunt, but the balloons drifted back over the city, Lake Erie, and landed in the surrounding area, and caused problems for traffic and a nearby airport. The event also interfered with a United States Coast Guard search ...
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