History Fix
In each episode of History Fix, I discuss lesser known stories from history that you won't be able to stop thinking about. Need your history fix? You've come to the right place.
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Episodes
101 episodes
Ep. 92 First Flight: How the Wright Brothers Changed the World Forever
Just in time for the 121st anniversary on Tuesday, I bring to you the story of two brothers from Ohio, Wilbur and Orville Wright, who changed the world forever with their groundbreaking first flight on December 17th, 1903. Though it lasted just...
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Episode 92
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57:38
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Ep. 91 Révolution Part 2: What the French Revolution Can Still Teach Us Today
I'll pick up where I left off last week, with the storming of the Bastille and the fall of the "ancien regime." We'll explore how, over the next few years, this new France will become more of a hellscape than a paradise. As a radical group, the...
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Episode 91
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44:54
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Ep. 90 Révolution Part 1: What the French Revolution Can Still Teach Us Today
This week I discuss the events leading up to the outbreak of the French Revolution during the summer of 1789. You'll learn how Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette came to find themselves on the French throne at a time when the system, that had worke...
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Episode 90
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33:19
Ep. 89 John Billington: How "America's First Murderer" Attended the First Thanksgiving
On November 11, 1620, forty-one men aboard the ship the Mayflower signed a document of great importance. With their signatures they vowed to create fair and just laws and to work together for the good of the Plymouth colony. This document, the ...
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Episode 89
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38:48
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Ep. 88 Sacagawea: How Lewis and Clark's Indigenous Guide Did So Much More Than That
It’s the greatest adventure story ever told, Lewis and Clark’s daring pursuit to cross thousands of miles of rugged terrain, to explore the rest of the continent, to finally reach the Pacific Ocean, gaze out over its vast expanse, with their fa...
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Episode 88
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48:20
Ep. 87 Residential Schools: How the US Government Forced Indigenous Children to Give Up Their Identities
Starting in the 1800s, the US government forcibly removed hundreds of thousands of indigenous children from their homes and sent them to boarding schools hundreds of miles away where they ruthlessly tried to destroy all traces of their culture,...
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Episode 87
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34:07
Ep 86 Mt. Rushmore: How Sacred Indigenous Land Was Stolen and Defaced by the US
In the Black Hills region of South Dakota stands a massive American monument, the faces of four US presidents blasted into the side of a mountain. George Washington represents the birth of the nation. Thomas Jefferson represents its growth. The...
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Episode 86
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35:40
Ep. 85: The Exorcist: How a Real Life Story Inspired the Cult Classic Horror Film
This week, I'll explore the peculiar true story that inspired William Peter Blatty to write the book and screenplay for the 1973 hit film "The Exorcist." This is the story of a boy around 14 years old who experienced something truly...
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Episode 85
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45:50
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Ep. 84 Salem: Why the Witch Trials of 1692 Should Still Scare You Today
It’s January of 1692 and there’s something very wrong with 9 year old Betty Parris. Her father, the minister Samuel Parris, rushes to her bedside. Betty screams. Her body writhes under the blankets, twisting and contorting into grotesque shapes...
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Episode 84
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44:31
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Ep. 83 Historical Hauntings: How Characters Throughout History Have Reappeared From the Afterlife
This week, I'll examine several cases of historical hauntings. These are ghost stories where you actually get to find out the single most important question... who was that? We'll go all the way back to ancient Babylon, cruise through ancient G...
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Episode 83
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43:34
Ep. 82 Mary Shelley: How the Mind Behind Frankenstein Pushed All the Boundaries
Mary Shelley was just 18 years old when the idea for Frankenstein struck her on a rainy night in Geneva, Switzerland. Cooped up on vacation with nonstop rain, famous poet Lord Byron had challenged the group of literary geniuses to come up with ...
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Episode 82
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44:31
Ep. 81 Columbus Part 2: How a Villain Was Twisted Into America's Greatest Hero
This is part 2 of last week's episode on Christopher Columbus. This week, you'll learn about Columbus' disastrous third voyage to the Americas when he finally pays the price for governing like a power hungry tyrant. And yet consequences, of cou...
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Episode 81
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26:37
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Ep. 80 Columbus Part 1: How a Villain Was Twisted Into America's Greatest Hero
Few humans in history have sent out more shockwaves than Christopher Columbus. His four voyages to the Americas changed our whole existence, culturally, spiritually, ethnically, economically, politically, geographically, morally possibly more t...
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Episode 80
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34:59
Ep. 79 Lucrezia Borgia: How History May Have Cast This Infamous Daughter All Wrong
Before Henry VIII, before Louis XVI, there was a dynasty in Italy so corrupt, so scandalous, gluttonous, hedonistic, that the others don’t even compare. But this was not a royal family. These were not kings, they were popes, cardinals, bishops....
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Episode 79
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37:28
Ep. 78 Childbirth: How a Deadly Ordeal Got Deadlier Before It Got Safer
The bloody history of childbirth is riddled with death and despair. It's a burden that was carried almost entirely by women, behind closed doors, something men took no part in. And, because of that, we know very little about it today. What we d...
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Episode 78
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40:44
Ep. 77 Triangle Factory Fire: How a Horrific Tragedy Sparked a Movement to Save Workers Lives
On March 25th, 1911, a fire erupted on the 8th floor of the Asch building in New York City. The 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of this building housed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory which employed around 500 people, mostly young immigrant women, to...
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Episode 77
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42:48
Ep. 76 Michael Rockefeller: How a Famous Son's Mysterious Disappearance May Not Be Such a Mystery After All
Michael Rockefeller was the great grandson of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil and the richest man in the world. He was also the son of Nelson Rockefeller, New York governor, Vice President of the United States, and a well known...
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Episode 76
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42:13
Ep. 75 Jockey's Ridge: How a Fearless Mother Stood Down a Bulldozer to Save a Natural Wonder For All the People
Perched between the ocean and the sound in Nags Head, completely dominating the narrow sliver of land that makes up part of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, is a monumental sand dune, a mountain of lush golden sand. This dune system, known as Jock...
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Episode 75
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45:25
Ep. 74 Polio: Why a Disease Existing Since Ancient Times Took Millennia to Become a Problem
Polio has been around since ancient times but it was a very quiet disease for most of history, affecting few people and raising little alarm. It wasn’t until the 20th century that polio began to appear among the masses, terrifying epidemics, a ...
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Episode 74
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41:12
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Ep. 73 Theodosia Burr: How a Famous Daughter's Disappearance Remains a Mystery
Check out Outer Lore! In January of 1812 a schooner named The Patriot disappeared off the coast of North Carolina's Outer Banks. This dangerous stretch of coastline has claimed som...
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Episode 73
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37:15
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Ep. 72 Khmer Rouge: How a Violent Government Murdered 1/4 of Cambodia's Population
In 1975, the Khmer Rouge stormed into Cambodia's capital city of Phnom Penh victorious after 5 years of civil war. The people rejoiced. They thought the victors were there to liberate them, to restore peace and order after years of fighting. Th...
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Episode 72
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45:19
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Ep. 71 Aqua Tofana: How A Ring of Female Serial Killers Liberated Italian Women
This episode explores the famed poison, Aqua Tofana, that desperate housewives used to murder their husbands in 17th century Italy. I'll delve into the legend of Giulia Tofana, the apparent namesake behind the poison who was supposedly responsi...
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43:10
Ep. 70 Coffee: How Coffee Changed the World, for Better and for Worse
Coffee may seem like an innocent breakfast beverage to accompany your bacon and eggs, a mid afternoon office pick me up. But did you know, coffee is so much more than that? Did you know that coffee helped spark human enlightenment, the scientif...
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Episode 70
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34:01
Ep. 69 Washington: How We Barely Know America's First President
George Washington - most of you know him as America’s first president, Revolutionary War hero, founding father, face of the one dollar bill, chopped down a cherry tree, wooden teeth, real man’s man if you know what I mean. I think that’s all mo...
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Episode 69
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39:49
Ep. 68 Lost Technology: How Ancient Knowledge Has Been Erased By Time
This episode is all about inventions, techniques, and resources that have been lost or forgotten throughout the ages. From ancient construction techniques to puzzling inventions like the Antikythera mechanism, Greek Fire, and the Archimedes Hea...
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43:25
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