Stuff You Missed in History Class
Join Holly and Tracy as they bring you the greatest and strangest Stuff You Missed In History Class in this podcast by iHeartRadio.
Episodes
Johann George Schrepfer’s life story is clouded by his embellished and falsified tales of his necromancy and spiritualism. And both his followers and detractors also gave biased and incorrect accounts of their interactions with him.
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The Peekskill Riots surrounded a concert by singer and activist Paul Robeson. His stances on political and civil rights issues and his communist affiliations catalyzed protests that were fueled with an undercurrent of racism and antisemitism.
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This 2016 episode covers a skeleton found in a tree near Birmingham, England in 1943. More than 70 years later, it's still unknown who the deceased was and how the body ended up in an elm tree.
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Holly and Tracy discuss the difficult nature of Chapin's personality. They also talk about the ways that the rivalry between Pulitzer and Hearst played out, and the way one of Chapin's employees got quiet revenge.
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Chapin's successful journalism career crumbled as stress chipped away at his mental health, and he committed a terrible crime. But there were still surprises left to his story.
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Chapin built a life people envied, and had a great deal of power. His entire biography is full of noteworthy achievements and awards. As a newsman, he covered many of the key moments of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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This 2019 episode covers the burning of the P.S. General Slocum in the East River in New York on June 15, 1904. It had been chartered for a group outing that suddenly became a deadly maritime disaster.
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Tracy and Holly talk about hunting for sources for Eugene Jacques Bullard's story, and his unpublished memoir. They also talk about wanting to return to Paris knowing Bullard's story.
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After World War I ended, Eugene Jacques Bullard returned to Paris. He worked as a jazz drummer and nightclub owner, and as the tensions that led to World War II loomed, as an intelligence agent for France.
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Bullard is often described as the first Black American fighter pilot – which is true – but he also had a full and fascinating life beyond that. This episode covers his travels before WWI and his military career.
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This 2012 episode from previous hosts Sarah and Deblina discusses how during Jack Johnson's time, the heavyweight championship was unofficially a whites-only title. Despite discrimination, Johnson became the first black heavyweight champion, but some questioned his legitimacy.
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Holly and Tracy talk about the gossip surrounding two of Livinia Fontana Zappi's paintings. They also discuss the degree to which people ignored Imogene Rechtin's actual messaging about kissing when criticizing her campaign.
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In the early 1900s, Imogene Rechtin started a crusade to get people to stop kissing socially as a way to stop disease spread. Her argument was sound, but she was largely dismissed as being uptight.
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Lavinia Fontana was taught painting by her father, and became one of the earliest examples of a woman with an independent career in art that supported her family. She became very well-known for her portraits and her devotional art.
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This 2011 episode from prior hosts Sarah and Deblina covers polio, a threat in the early 20th century that often left victims paralyzed or dead. Vaccines caused an immediate drop in polio cases and today have nearly eradicated the disease.
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Tracy and Holly talk about school science fairs and their performance in them. They then discuss the interesting aspect of Field of Cloth of Gold preparations that put people from England and France side by side as they worked.
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The Field of Cloth of Gold was a summit and celebration that was held to start what was hoped to be a long-term alliance between France and England. And it required a lot of fancy footwork to keep two monarchs appeased.
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The development of penicillin started – but definitely did not end – with the chance discovery of some mold in a petri dish. There is so much more to the story.
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The subject of this 2018 episode is sometimes called a 19th-century Rosa Parks. When Elizabeth boarded a Manhattan streetcar in 1854, a chain of events began which became an important to the civil rights of New York's Black citizens.
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Holly speculates about how one article about Josephine Cochrane got so many details wrong. Tracy then talks about the details of Canada's currency featuring Viola Desmond.
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