Distorted History Podcast
I'm a history teacher and musician and every other week I cover a topic from American history ranging from the important to the cultural to the weird and unusual. Also once a month I produce a bonus episode focusing on the creation on a piece of music be it a modern rock album to classical music or the lore of video game.
Episodes
August 23, 2025 • 59 mins
With the future of the United States balanced upon a knife's edge due to the question of slavery the Compromise of 1850 hold's the promise of easing those tensions. Yet part of that Compromise the new fugitive slave act only serves to bring the country closer to civil war as southern slaveholders look to recapture the people who had fled to the north seeking freedom. This series then focuses on some of the clashes that resulted fro...
Mark as Played
August 9, 2025 • 73 mins
After a pair of shark attacks along the Jersey shore a large shark was swimming up the Matawan Creek. Where despite efforts to raise the alarm a young boy's life could be claimed by the wayward shark. The traedy though was not yet over.
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Please Rate and R...
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
https://www.patreon.com/distortedhistory
Please Rate and R...
Mark as Played
August 2, 2025 • 36 mins
In this episode following the levee collapse at Mounds Landing and the flooding of Greenville Mississippi the nation finally takes notice of the ongoing disaster in their midst. Meanwhile I also look at the life of blues musician Big Bill Broonzy and his song about the 1927 flood Southern Flood blues.
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more inf...
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more inf...
Mark as Played
July 26, 2025 • 57 mins
After the first officially recorded shark attack in American history people continued to flock to the Jersey shore. With many openly dismissing that any danger whatsoever existed. Soon though the region would be thrown into a panic as more fell victim to the 'shark plague.'
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Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
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Mark as Played
July 12, 2025 • 60 mins
As thousands flocked to the Jersey shore in the summer of 1916 none could anticipate the horrors that awaited them. At least in part because no one at the time believed that sharks were dangerous. Indeed never before in American history was their an officially recorded incident of a shark attacking a person. That however would change when over the span of 12 days 5 people would be attacked by a shark or sharks.
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Mark as Played
July 5, 2025 • 29 mins
The Mississippi River could no longer be contained as even the vaunted federal levees started to fail.
The nation as a whole though would not fully take notice of this unfolding disaster until the events at the Mounds Landing levee on the morning of the 21st of April 1927. As the destruction unleashed at this sight would prove to be impossible to ignore
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The nation as a whole though would not fully take notice of this unfolding disaster until the events at the Mounds Landing levee on the morning of the 21st of April 1927. As the destruction unleashed at this sight would prove to be impossible to ignore
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and...
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June 28, 2025 • 98 mins
As the strike spreads into the mid-west the cities of St. Louis and Chicago see massive demonstrations that look to shut down not just thie railroads but all their industries and businesses.
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
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Please Rate and Review the podcast
To contact me:
Email: distort...
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
https://www.patreon.com/distortedhistory
Please Rate and Review the podcast
To contact me:
Email: distort...
Mark as Played
June 14, 2025 • 59 mins
As blood of workers ran through the streets of Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Blood that was shed by soldiers of the government at the behest of the railroad corporations the great strike of 1877 continued to spread to states like New York and Ohio.
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Please Ra...
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
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Please Ra...
Mark as Played
June 7, 2025 • 29 mins
As the federal levees along the Mississippi are barely holding some are forced to labor and put their lives on the line to try and hold the rising waters back. A subject which legendary bluesman Lonnie Johnson covers in one of the 2 songs he penned about this disaster.
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Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
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Mark as Played
May 31, 2025 • 71 mins
Events which started in the small railroad community of Martinsburg West Virginia soon begin to spread as railroad workers all around the country are insnpired by their actions. The response by the railroad corporations and their allies in the government however soon result in violence
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Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
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Mark as Played
May 17, 2025 • 91 mins
The year 1877 saw workers across the country rise up in defiance as a massive strike effort swept across the nation.
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To contact me:
Email: distortedhistorypod@gmail.com
Twitter @DistortedHistor https://twitter.com/Distort...
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
https://www.patreon.com/distortedhistory
Please Rate and Review the podcast
To contact me:
Email: distortedhistorypod@gmail.com
Twitter @DistortedHistor https://twitter.com/Distort...
Mark as Played
May 10, 2025 • 32 mins
Unusual weather starting in the summer of 1926 pours a huge amount of water in the Mississippi valley. This soon leads to flooding displacing people from their homes and the creation of blues songs illustrating these experiences.
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Please Rate and Review t...
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
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Please Rate and Review t...
Mark as Played
May 3, 2025 • 87 mins
After years of back and forth the feud between paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and OC Marsh erupts onto the front page of one of the most widely read newspapers in the nation.
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Email: distortedhistorypod...
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
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April 19, 2025 • 81 mins
The bitter feud between paleontologists OC Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope enters its most famous phase as they compete over a treasure trove of never before seen massive dinosaur bones.
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Please Rate and Review the podcast
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Email: distortedhisto...
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
https://www.patreon.com/distortedhistory
Please Rate and Review the podcast
To contact me:
Email: distortedhisto...
Mark as Played
April 12, 2025 • 38 mins
A rivalry over who should have control over the Mississippi results in more decisions being made that would make the 1927 flood all but inevitable.
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Please Rate and Review the podcast
To contact me:
Email: distortedhistorypod@gmail.com
Twitter @DistortedHis...
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
https://www.patreon.com/distortedhistory
Please Rate and Review the podcast
To contact me:
Email: distortedhistorypod@gmail.com
Twitter @DistortedHis...
Mark as Played
April 5, 2025 • 80 mins
As both paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and OC Marsh head west to discover fossils their once friendly rivalry begins to take a decidedly ugly turn.
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https://www.patreon.com/distortedhistory
Please Rate and Review the podcast
To contact me:
Email: distortedhistorypod@gmail.com
Twitter @Distorte...
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
https://www.patreon.com/distortedhistory
Please Rate and Review the podcast
To contact me:
Email: distortedhistorypod@gmail.com
Twitter @Distorte...
Mark as Played
March 22, 2025 • 60 mins
Paleontologists OC Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope started out seemingly as friends. Men who were exploring a whole new area of scientific study However the pair soon would become the bitterest of rivals.
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Ema...
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Ema...
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March 15, 2025 • 31 mins
The Mississippi flood of 1927 may be little remembered today but it left a tremendous impact on American history and American culture. Which is illustrated by the fact that some 50 Blues songs were written about the flood and its impact. Through this series I will use some of these Blues songs to illustrate life in this disaster. Yet first we have to examine the causes of this disaster which as it turns out are very much man made.
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Mark as Played
March 8, 2025 • 69 mins
Nat Turner tries desperately to hold his rebellion together and over throw slavery but time is quickly running out.
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
https://www.patreon.com/distortedhistory
Please Rate and Review the podcast
To contact me:
Email: distortedhistorypod@gmail.com
Twitter @DistortedHistor https://twitter.com/Distorted...
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
https://www.patreon.com/distortedhistory
Please Rate and Review the podcast
To contact me:
Email: distortedhistorypod@gmail.com
Twitter @DistortedHistor https://twitter.com/Distorted...
Mark as Played
February 22, 2025 • 63 mins
With his rebellion now underway Nat Turner and his co-conspirators look to grow their army as they seek to kill every slave holder they can find and ultimately put an end to the vile system for good.
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
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Please Rate and Review the podcast
To contact me:
Email:...
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
https://www.patreon.com/distortedhistory
Please Rate and Review the podcast
To contact me:
Email:...
Mark as Played
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