Distorted History Podcast

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

The Tragedy of the Donner Party Episode 5 Rescue and Relief

November 29, 2025 • 105 mins
With the arrival of the survivors of the Forlorn Hope expedition word was finally out about the desperate situation the Donner party was in. Yet even these rescue efforts could not save them from their terrible fate.

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The Tragedy of the Donner Party Episode 4 The Forlorn Hope

November 15, 2025 • 69 mins
Now trapped in the mountains without enough food to get through the winter the members of the Donner party attempt to go and get help. This expedition designed to bring back aid however would come to be known as the Forlorn Hope as it becomes one of the main reasons why this story gets passed down through history.

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Blues and the Mississippi Flood of 1927 Part 9 Charley Patton and the Klan comes to Greenville

November 8, 2025 • 47 mins
While much of the mainstream white press has nothing but praise for the relief efforts being led by presidential hopeful Herbert Hoover there is an ugly reality just underneath the surface. Nowhere is that reality uglier than in Greenville Mississippi. Yet before we get into the virtual return of slavery in the city we first look at the history of Greenville and why what happens there is both surprising and inevitable.

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The Tragedy of the Donner Party Episode 3 Trapped in the Mountains

November 1, 2025 • 79 mins
With Hastings supposed short cut proving to be anything but the Donner Party desperately try to make it across the Sierra Nevadas before winter sets in. Luck however is not on their side and the soon become trapped in the mountains.

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The Tragedy of the Donner Party Episode 2 The Hastings Cutoff

October 18, 2025 • 71 mins
During their journey to California the various families that would make up the Donner Party make a fateful choice to leave behind the well traveled and proven trail to take the so called Hastings Cutoff. Doing so because it promised to shave some 200 miles off their journey but somethings are too good to be true.

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Blues and the Mississippi Flood of 1927 Part 8 Barbecue Bob and the Trouble with New Orleans

October 11, 2025 • 40 mins
We deviate from the main thrust of our narrative to talk about the life and music of blues musician Robert Hicks aka BBQ Bob. Then we look at the curious case of New Orleans the richest city in the south. Where the city's bankers and businessmen in an effort to protect their own wealth and power sought to have a levee destroyed thereby flooding another community.

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The Tragedy of the Donner Party Episode 1 Manifest Destiny

October 4, 2025 • 78 mins
The ultimate fate of the Donner party is a well known one but this week we see the beginnings of their fateful journey and the reasons why they left their homes to start over in California. 

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Christiana Riot Episode 3 Flights and Trials

September 20, 2025 • 82 mins
Following the brave act of resistance by William Parker and the others in Christiana Pennsylvania the national press dubs it a riot. Meanwhile even as those directly involved make a run for it others are arrested and put on trial.

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Blues and the Mississippi Flood of 1927 Part 7 Bessie Smith

September 13, 2025 • 45 mins
As performer's around the country rally to raise money to aid those affected by the flood the Empress of the Blues Bessie Smith's 'Back Water Blues' become the sound track of this disaster.

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Christiana Riot Episode 2 Fight for Freedom

September 6, 2025 • 79 mins
The Gorsuch posse find more than they bargained for as they arrive in Christiana Pennsylvania. As they learn that not only do people not want to be enslaved but that they're willing to fight for their hard won freedom.

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Christiana Riot Episode 1 Fugitive Slave Act

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...
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1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks Part 3

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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Blues and the Mississippi Flood of 1927 Part 6 The Nation Takes Note

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.


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1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks Part 2

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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1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks Part 1

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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Blues and the Mississippi Flood of 1927 Part 5 Mounds Landing

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 Labor Uprising of 1877 Part 4

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. 


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The Labor Uprising of 1877 Part 3

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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Blues and the Mississippi Flood of 1927 Part 4 Lonnie Johnson

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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The Labor Uprising of 1877 Part 2

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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