The Past and The Curious: A History Podcast for Kids and Families

The Past and The Curious: A History Podcast for Kids and Families

A History Podcast for Kids! Parents love us, Teachers love us, and most importantly, kids do too! History can be amazing, inspiring and relevant to anyone. We love to share the stories of Spies, funny foods, George Washington's foibles, early advancements in cartooning and ballooning and much more! A professional music score and important songs accompany nearly every themed episode. Proud Kids Listen Member @pastandcurious

Episodes

Halloween Special: Twain's Ouija Novel

October 15, 2025 • 22 mins
Did a no-longer-living Mark Twain send a novel from the great beyond with a Ouija Board? Find out about the real story with help from our pal Nate DuFort of the podcast, Unspookable.
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Very Hairy

September 30, 2025 • 36 mins
Episode 110! Peter the Great, The Hairy Eagle and more! Did I decide on an episode about Peter the Great just so I could say 6-7 a few times to be cringe and make kids laugh? Yes, yes I did. But it's a really fun story about when the Tsar of All Russia travelled "incognito" through Europe.  And as a bonus, we're talking hair sales, hair wreaths, and even the not-so-famous "Hairy Eagle!"
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Handwritten

August 29, 2025 • 33 mins
Episode 109 tells the story of Lincoln's the speech Lincoln lost before his inauguration in 1861. Also included is the story of Ely S. Parker, an indigenous Seneca man who made an impact in the Civil War - and who had really nice handwriting.
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Lost Bones

July 30, 2025 • 32 mins
Composer Joseph Haydn is buried with two skulls. You'll never believe why (hint: it has to do with phrenology). Meanwhile Thomas Paine's bones went missing thanks to an overly enthusiastic fan.
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Mountains To Climb

June 30, 2025 • 31 mins
Henriette D'angeville was the first woman to climb Mount Blanc in the Alps, despite everyone advising her not to try it. Decades later, Julia Archibald Holmes (a friend of John Brown's) became the first woman to summit Pike's Peak, a feat that Pike himself never did.
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Electric Kids

May 30, 2025 • 34 mins
Philo Farnsworth loved electricity so much he came up with a way to invent television - as a 14 year old! Centuries beforehand Stephen Gray, a British scientist, learned more about electricity than anyone before him - and he used children to show how it worked!
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Good Things to Eat

April 29, 2025 • 34 mins
This episode will make you hungry! Rufus Estes and Chin Foin both left a big mark on food, both lived in Chicago at the same time, and both had their food featured in important cookbooks in 1911.
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One Year, Two Hoaxes

March 29, 2025 • 34 mins
The year 1917 gave us both the birth of the Cottingly Fairies and the silly fake history known as the Bathtub Hoax.
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Moving Stuff Around - Hi Jolly and Elisha Otis

February 27, 2025 • 31 mins
A man named Hadji Ali, but known as Hi Jolly, was an important figure with the US Army's short lived Camel Corps, and his legend lives on today. Around the same time a man named Elisha Otis changed the world with the elevator brake. It was safe and carried people higher and higher!
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Banneker's Clock and Pearse's Plane

January 29, 2025 • 33 mins
Two guys who grew up on farms. Both were tinkerers. Benjamin Banneker, a free Black American created the first striking clock built in America. Richard Pearse, from New Zealand, was a pioneer in flight. Was he a first? we don't know for sure. But he was pretty interesting!
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Oceans to Cross with Tori Murden-McClure

December 29, 2024 • 52 mins
Episode 101 tells the story of Tori Murden-McClure's solo row across the Atlantic Ocean. In addition to her story, hear her speak with Mick on the 25th anniversary of her successful solo crossing. Learn more about Tori in her book, "A Pearl in the Storm," or from the Audible recording of Dawn Landes's musical, Row: https://www.amazon.com/Row/dp/B091QB7SMS Or hear Dawn's album of the same name, based on Tori's story here: https://da...
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Animal Surprises

November 30, 2024 • 45 mins
Episode 100, y'all! Beautiful Jim Key was born sickly and weak, but became world famous and is remembered as the smartest horse in the world. His training and care came from a former enslaved man named Doctor William Key, and together, they made a profound impact on the world. Likewise, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer was a museum curator in South Africa who discovered a fish believed to be extinct in 1938. The discovery made a tremendo...
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Bone Wars and The Ghost Town Rhyolite

October 30, 2024 • 36 mins
Our 99th Episode! This episode features the narration talents of musician Will Oldham, also known as Bonnie Prince Billy. Will tells the story of Rhyolite, a town once founded in Death Valley after the discovery of gold by Frank "Shorty" Harris. Today it is a ghost town. But first, Mick tells the story of the Bone Wars, when Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope should have gotten along, but didn't. Still, they made some m...
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A Very Special Desk - an Election Season Special Episode

October 17, 2024 • 26 mins
The Resolute Desk is a fixture in the Oval Office. American Presidents have used it during some of the country's most pivotal moments. But what does the Resolute Desk have to do with England's dangerous expeditions into the Arctic in the 1800s? Find out on this episode - and learn about ghost ships, the search for the Northwest Passage, and a gift in honor of international friendship and diplomacy. This episode is sponsored by/bro...
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Microscopes and Telescopes

September 30, 2024 • 35 mins
Episode 98 goes to the Netherlands. There is something remarkable about the Dutch when it comes to glass lenses and scientific tools. Maybe Hans Lippershay invented the telescope. Maybe it was some kids in his town. Or maybe it was one of two other guys who seem to have come up with the idea at the same time and place. And as far as microscopes go, a dutch man named Antonie von Leeuwenhoek got obsessed with microscopes. He is remem...
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I Scream for Ice Cream

August 31, 2024 • 30 mins
Episode 97 is all about ice cream. Eat it anytime of year - it's a treat that we might take for granted today. It used to be expensive, impossible, or potentially dangerous. From George Washington to Edmund Albius to Nancy Johnson to the Hokey Pokey Man, the stories around ice cream are richer than double chocolate chunk. Written, edited, and produced by Mick Sullivan. Original music by Mick Sullivan
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No Chill - Pioneers in Ice

August 16, 2024 • 28 mins
Episode 96 is all about Ice - in preparation for our following episode about Ice Cream. Boston's Frederic Tudor became the "Ice King" by taking ice to places in the world where it had never been before. But it wasn't easy Dr. John Gorrie was looking for ways to care for the sick and became one of the first humans to make ice himself. It sparked a cool revolution.
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International Games: Field of Cloth of Gold and Olympic Marathon

July 29, 2024 • 34 mins
Episode 95 covers two great stories of international competition. First, The Field of Cloth and Gold was a historic summit that brought together Henry VIII and Francis I with the hopes of peace, competition, and maybe a bit of wrestling. Second, the 1904 Olympics put a Cuban runner named Felix Carvajal on the map. He didn't win the Olympic marathon, but his spirit made him the winner among the crowds who saw him.
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Park People

June 28, 2024 • 36 mins
Minerva Hoyt was a wealthy socialite who loved to escape to the desert of California and sleep in the sand. Her hard work and dedication in convincing people about the value of the desert led to preservation of today's Joshua Tree National Park. Col. Charles Young was born before the end of the Civil War and he would go on to be the third Black graduate from West Point Military Academy. When the Buffalo Soldiers under his command w...
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Bad Milk

May 27, 2024 • 38 mins
Episode 93: Milk has been a lot of things through the years, but it was often poisonous, spoiled or both. Learn about how far we've come in making milk safe, and who may or may not have helped us get to the root cause of what was making milk dangerous.  From Dr. Anna Bixby and the mystery of Milk Sickness to Gail Borden who invented condensed milk, it's been a long road to your grocery store. 
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