STORICAL FOOTNOTES: ASSASSINS & STALKERS OF QUEEN VICTORIA
When you’re a person in power, a lot of people want you dead. Would-be assassins tried eight times to kill Queen Victoria, but luck was on her side. Far creepier were her obsessive stalkers. Today we’re looking at the men who tried to kill the Queen and the strange case of the Boy Jones who broke into the palace repeatedly…and stole her underwear.
STORICAL FOOTNOTES: THE KAISER, THE ROMANOVS, AND QUEEN VICTORIA
Queen Victoria had 9 kids and 42 grandchildren! It was hoped that by marrying off her descendants to the different houses of Europe that there would be a lasting peace….that’s not quite what happened. Tune in for a look at Victoria’s children and the role her two most famous grandchildren played in World War I.
STORICAL FOOTNOTES: QUEEN VICTORIA'S BELOVED DOG DASH
Queen Victoria had a lonely childhood thanks to the oppressive Kensington System her mother and Sir John Conroy set up to keep her dependent. All that changed when a cute little Cavalier King Charles spaniel named Dash came into her life. On this week’s episode, find out what happened to Victoria’s beloved dog, Dash.
QUEEN VICTORIA: LOVE & EMPIRE
Queen Victoria was the sovereign of the UK at the height of the British Empire, and until her great-great granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II overtook her in 2015, was the longest reigning monarch. She ruled over 400 million people! But her road to the throne was an unlikely one marked by a horrible childhood and controlling men. Listen in to learn the truth about one of the most recognizable yet misunderstood queens.
GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS PAST:
Pssst…it turns out Christmas is a super pagan holiday. On today’s episode we’re doing a brief overview of the origins of Christmas and how Charles Dickens brought the holiday back after Oliver Cromwell had Christmas canceled. For all those who think there’s a war on Christmas…just be glad Oliver Cromwell’s not still around.
STORICAL FOOTNOTES:
Edgar Allan Poe’s masterpiece, The Raven, was inspired not by any ordinary raven, not by a harbinger of doom, it was a talking pet raven named Grip owned by none other than Charles Dickens. Tune in for the story of Grip…then go visit the real Grip who is still on display at the Free Library of Philadelphia!
CHARLES DICKENS: A DICKENS OF A TALE
‘Tis the holiday season which means that the roughly 9 billion adaptations of A Christmas Carol are on television playing in a continuous loop. But who was the man behind the season’s greatest ghost story? Charles Dickens is considered the greatest English writer, behind Shakespeare, to have ever lived. Tune in to learn about his time in the workhouse, how he influenced Edgar Allan Poe, and how his secret double life was almost his undoing.
STORICAL FOOTNOTES: MARIE ANTOINETTE'S GHOST
In 1901, two British academics had a strange experience at Versailles. Listen in to learn about the Moberly-Jourdain incident, a tale of time travel and Marie Antoinette’s ghost.
STORICAL FOOTNOTES: MARIE ANTOINETTE’S HOLY TRINITY OF FASHION
Marie Antoinette’s fashion is iconic to this day. But how did she go from frumpy Austrian Archduchess to the reigning Queen of Couture? Three people were behind Marie Antoinette’s fashion transformation. Meet Rose Bertin, Léonard Autié, and Jean-Louis Fargeon. Rose was the Minister of Fashion, Léonard the hairdresser, and Jean-Louis the perfumer and cosmetics purveyor. Tune in!
STORICAL FOOTNOTES: MARIE ANTOINETTE'S TRAGIC LOVE AFFAIR
Marie Antoinette was accused of having affairs with numerous men and women. But there was only one who held her heart. There’s no denying her fondness for Axel von Fersen, but were the two actually lovers? Tune in to learn more about Marie Antoinette’s sultry Swedish sidepiece and his tragic end.
STORICAL FOOTNOTES: LET THEM EAT CAKE
Did Marie Antoinette really say, “Let them eat cake?” NO! Then where did the phrase come from and how did it get attributed to her? Today, we’re talking cake, brioche, and Enlightenment philosophers!
MARIE ANTOINETTE: THE LAST QUEEN OF FRANCE
Powder your wig and add an extra hoop to your skirt, today we’re talking all things Marie Antoinette. Who were her lovers? Did she cause the French Revolution? Did she actually say, “Let them eat cake”? We’ll discuss all that and more on today’s episode.
HALLOWEEN SPECIAL: THE BLOOD COUNTESS ELIZABETH BATHORY
Happy Halloween listeners! In honor of my favorite holiday, I send you off into the last creepy night of October with the story of Elizabeth Bathory, the inspiration behind modern vampire lore and the most prolific female serial killer in history. Bathory is said to have bathed in the blood of virgins to stay young and beautiful with a victim count as high as 600 and as low as 50. Tune in for all the bloody details.
STORICAL FOOTNOTES: HOUDINI'S FINAL SÉANCE
Today we whisper a final goodnight to Harry Houdini as we discuss the tradition of Houdini séances that have taken place continuously since his death on Halloween night of 1926. Tune in on Halloween for a special episode about the Blood Countess.
STORICAL FOOTNOTES: THE WITCH OF LIME STREET VS HOUDINI
Margery the Medium used the ghost of her dead brother Walter to conduct her séances. When Scientific American Magazine put forth a contest with a $2500 prize for any medium who could produce verifiable psychic phenomena , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle recommended her. Harry Houdini was not having it and made it his mission to expose Margery as a fraud.
STORICAL FOOTNOTES: MADAME BESS HOUDINI
In today’s episode, we’re going to give voice to Bess Houdini a performer and magician in her own right, who like many women was eclipsed by her husband’s ambition. Tune in to learn all the magical details about Bess’ life before and after Harry.
HARRY HOUDINI: THE MAGICIAN AMONG THE SPIRITS
If you hear the name Houdini and just think of the David Copperfield, David Blaine, Criss Angel school of magicians, that is to say campy and old fashioned, I’m here to blow your mind with espionage, Sherlock Holmes, the Romanovs, and more psychics than you can count! Buckle up dear listeners and imagine yourself in a dark room, hands clasped around the séance table as a series of unearthly raps starts tapping out a message from beyond the grave as we dive into the life of Harry Houdini, Master Mystifier.
STORICAL FOOTNOTES: SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE SEARCHES FOR AGATHA CHRISTIE
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, was a RAGING spiritualist. When Agatha Christie mysteriously disappeared in 1926, the police investigators searching for her had no leads. So they turned to famed detective writers Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dorothy Sayers for fresh angles in their search. Sayers investigated the crime scene, Doyle hired a psychic.
STORICAL FOOTNOTES: DID AGATHA CHRISTIE HAVE ALZHEIMER'S?
The Queen of Crime was a prolific writer. But research suggests that there may have been clues to dementia in Agatha Christie’s later writing. For more information on the research presented, check out the following links:
STORICAL FOOTNOTES: AGATHA CHRISTIE THE ARCHAEOLOGIST
After her divorce from Archie Christie, Agatha Christie found new love and a new life with a young archaeologist. Tune in to learn how the Middle East inspired her and how she made contributions to the field of archaeology.