Stuff You Missed in History Class

This 2012 episode from prior hosts Sarah and Deblina explains how the 1900 Paris Olympics are considered some of the strangest. Many of the events were so under-promoted, the athletes competing in them didn't know they were even in the Olympics.

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Holly and Tracy discuss the challenge of understanding concepts in fields outside their own. They also talk about memories from their previous separate trips to Iceland. 

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This 2020 episode covers the path of beekeeping from its global origins thousands of years ago to modern square hives and beekeepers in white suits and big veiled hats. 

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Tracy talks about how and why the Unearthed episodes are structured into categories. There's also discussion of how to manage a visit to the Louvre, and the use of the George Washington cherries. 

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This 2018 episode covers a 1918 conflict between two cities, both named Nogales, one on each side of the U.S.-Mexico border. 

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Holly and Tracy talk about the various roadside stops that people can find in various places. They also examine the arduous nature of long bicycle and hiking trips. 

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This 2015 episode on Henry Gerber covers his founding of the Society for Human Rights  in Chicago in the 1920s with the intent to decriminalize homosexuality. Gerber was inspired by Germany's homosexual emancipation movement.

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Tracy discusses a surprising Google Street View discovery she made while working on the Francisco de Miranda episodes. Holly shares her thoughts about Miranda as a person. 

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Francisco de Miranda participated in the struggle for independence in the United States, the French revolution and the emancipation of Latin America. Part one covers his early life and his connection to the American Revolution.

Research:

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This 2016 episode covers the Tupac Amaru rebellion, a conflict between Spain and its colonies in South America which took place from 1780 to 1783.

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Tracy and Holly talk about hard-to-spell words and good intentions without knowledge to go with them. Then Holly discusses some of Solon's laws before things derail into popcorn talk.

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This 2012 episode from previous hosts Sarah and Deblina explores the rivalry between paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. The two started out as friends, but their friendship soon soured.

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Holly and Tracy share experiences with MRIs and hospital stays, and also talk about the various disagreements and biases in play in the medical community when giving attribution for the invention of the MRI.

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Once Dr. Ray Damadian had the idea to create a machine that used nuclear magnetic resonance to capture diagnostic data by scanning a human body, he still had to build it. And though he did, other scientists got credit for inventing the MRI.  

Research:

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This 2019 episode examines thyroid disease through history, and the physics lecture heard by Saul Hertz in the 1930s that changed the treatment of hyperthyroidism forever. 

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Holly and Tracy discuss ways that they like to make popcorn, and historical recipes that used popcorn. They also talk about the incorrect assumption that iodized salt is the cause of an overall rise in blood pressure statistics.

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This 2017 episode covers the work of Jules Cotard, the first psychiatrist to write about the cluster of symptoms that would come to be called Walking Corpse Syndrome. But his unfinished work was hotly debated among his colleagues.

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Tracy and Holly talk about the Disney animators' strike of 1941, Angel Island, and Tyrus Wong's Christmas cards. They also discuss the merits of dandelions. 

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This 2019 episode covers the earthquake of April 18, 1906 that changed San Francisco forever. The earthquake and a series of fires devastated much of the city and had long-term ramifications.

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Tracy and Holly talk about the eerie similarities of the stories of the Andrea Doria and the Empress of Ireland. They also talk about Jacob Haish's poetry about barbed wire.

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This 2014 episode covers Aimee Semple McPherson, an extraordinary figure in the early 20th-century religious landscape. As an evangelist, she rose to incredible popularity in the 1920s, and then vanished.

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Holly and Tracy talk about how to pronounce Sophia, and speculate about why Jex-Blake didn't pursue an education at New England Female Medical College.

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This 2014 episode covers the invention of the canned meat known as Spam. The Hormel Foods product was invented in the 1930s to make use of a surplus of shoulder meat from pigs, and was an instant hit in the U.S. and abroad.

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Holly and Tracy discuss George Heye using his senior thesis to drink beer and how his collection was almost purchased by Ross Perot. They also discuss Maria Orosa and the types of bananas used to make banana ketchup. 

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This 2012 episode from prior hosts Sarah and Deblina covers dentist Horace Wells. At an exhibition in 1844 he became certain that nitrous oxide could revolutionize medicine. He tried to demonstrate his findings, but things didn't go as planned.

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Tracy and Holly discuss Sir Humphry Davy's less than spectacular poems, Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," and the end of Davy's career and life. 

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This 2014 episode covers the Sultana, which sank the day after John Wilkes Booth was captured and killed for the murder of Abraham Lincoln So the maritime tragedy didn't make headline news. 

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Holly and Tracy discuss Ward McAllister as the ultimate historical mean girl. They also talk about how people were reacting to the Blitz when it was happening. 

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Holly talks with previous podcast guest Dr. Rachel Lance about her new book "Chamber Divers," which details the WWII research that advanced underwater science. 

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This 2020 episode shares the story of the ridiculously wealthy Croesus, which was likely fictionalized in a number of ways. It has become sort of a cautionary tale about pride and hubris, and what really has value in life.

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Tracy shares frustration over a historical find being described as a piggy bank. She and Holly then discuss the Van Gogh Pokémon and whether they would chase similar items. 

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This 2020 episode looks at croquet's murky origins. Because of its relative ease of play and low barrier of entry, it went through a surge in popularity almost as soon as it was documented.

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Tracy and Holly talk about how much Tracy loves eclipses. They also discuss their favorite TV jingles for the game of Life. 

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On May 28, in the year 585 BCE, there was a total solar eclipse during a battle between the kingdoms of Media and Lydia. This eclipse had been predicted by Thales of Miletus, and it led to the ends of both the battle and the war. Maybe. 

Research:

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This 2019 episode covers Sylvia of Hollywood, famous in the 1920s and 1930s for shaping up starlets, cementing the idea that Hollywood's beauties were aspirational figures for the average woman. 

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Holly reads Vinnie Ream's account of when she met Franz Liszt. Then discussion turns to Ream's friendships, her shopping habits, and why she lived in Rome instead of closer to Carrara. 

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Part two of our episode on Vinnie Ream covers the completion of her first major work, and the rest of her life, which was just as controversial as her early adulthood. 

Research:

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This 2014 episode covers the story of how in 1859, the United States and Great Britain nearly went to war over an American settler shooting a Canadian pig that was rooting around his garden. 

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Holly and Tracy ponder why the wrong photo has become used so frequently in mentions of Margaret E. Knight. Tracy shares the reasons she almost didn't cover Henry Martyn Robert on the show. 

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This 2019 episode covers James G. Fair, known as the Silver King. But though Fair often appears on lists of the richest men in U.S. history, his image was also tainted by scandal. 

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Holly and Tracy talk about there not being a national divorce law in the U.S. and how to pronounce Nevada. Tracy talks about the ways social rules are necessary but can be used in ways that are exclusionary. 

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This 2021 episode covers sixteenth-century barber surgeon Ambroise Paré, who has been called everything from “the gentle surgeon” to “the father of modern surgery.”

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Holly talks about the various theories about events in Charles Francis Hall's life. Tracy discusses some of the troubling sources she came across while researching Götz von Berlichingen. 

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This 2017 episode covers the extinction of one New Zealand bird species that's often attributed to a single cat. While feline predation played a significant role in the end of the Stephens Island wren, the story is more complex.

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Holly and Tracy discuss how neither of them like Sloppy Joes, and a cocktail recipe Holly found during research. Tracy shares how very much she adores Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer.

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This 2020 episode examines how, though rinderpest was declared eradicated fairly recently, rinderpest's history goes way back. Eradicating the disease took a coordinated, international effort.

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Tracy mentions tracking down sources for quotes about Rebecca Crumpler during research. She and Holly also discuss measles vaccine protocols. 

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This 2017 episode features three unique women, all of whom are notable. They each have a surprising aspect to their stories, and they each have the name Belle. 

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Tracy shares why the story of George Washington Williams makes her so sad. Holly then offers some additional information about John Mytton that wasn't in the Wednesday episode. 

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John Mytton is often called an eccentric, but that doesn’t really capture his whole story. Despite his wild behavior, he's something of a local hero, and sometimes a joke, but his life is sort of sad in many ways. 

Research:

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This 2018 episode covers Mary Breckinridge, who advanced the medical field and found new ways to treat underserved communities. But there are problematic elements to her story.               

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Tracy explains why Natalie Clifford Barney needed two episodes. She also shares some of the stories from Barney's stories that didn't make it into either of the episodes.

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This 2021 episode covers Lola Montez, a figure whose life is hard to pin down. That's not because of a lack of documentation, but because that documentation repeats the completely fictional backstory she made up for herself.

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Holly and Tracy discuss the unfortunate and gruesome event that allegedly happened at Anne-Marie-Louse's funeral. Harrison Dyar's compulsion and cruelty are also examined.

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Anne-Marie-Louise d’Orleans has been described by historians as having been one of the richest heiresses in history, as an insurgent, as unaccomplished, as an Amazon, as a writer, and as a fool. And she was sort of all of those things. 

Research: 

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This 2015 episode examines how Dr. Peters helped revolutionize the treatment of both breast cancer and Hodgkin's lymphoma. But, at the time, her work was largely dismissed.

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