Dark History - 175: How Bodybuilding Went from Freak Show to Fitness Empire

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

Hi friends, happy Wednesday! You know, lately I’ve noticed something strange. It feels like every celebrity these days is... jacked. Like, not just in “good shape.” I’m talking veins popping out of places I didn’t even know veins existed. I mean, back in the day, you had, what? 2 or 3 action stars. But now? Even the comedians are huge. Like, why is Jim from the Office looking like he’s training for the Olympics?? All this got me thinking… When did we get so obsessed with muscles? Because I don’t remember Leonardo DiCaprio or Harrison Ford being jacked. They were just normal dudes. Where did it start? And is it even healthy to be so muscular? Today, we’re taking a little trip back in time to talk about the sweaty, sexy, and strange and Dark History of… bodybuilding. I appreciate you for coming by, and tune in next week for more Dark History. I sometimes talk about my Good Reads in the show. So here's the link if you want to check it out. IDK. lol: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/139701263-bailey ________ This podcast is Executive Produced by: Bailey Sarian & Kevin Grosch and Joey Scavuzzo from Made In Network Head Writer: Allyson Philobos Writer: Katie Burris Additional Writing: Jessica Charles Research provided by: Coleen Smith Special thank you to our Historical Consultant: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Professor of History at The New School and author of “Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession” Director: Brian Jaggers Editing: Julien Perez Additional Editing: Maria Norris Post Supervisor: Kelly Hardin Production Management: Ross Woodruff Hair: Angel Gonzalez Makeup: Bailey Sarian ________ Get started today at https://www.stitchfix.com/darkhistory to get $20 off your first order, and they’ll waive your styling fee. That’s https://www.stitchfix.com/darkhistory. Head to https://www.squarespace.com/DARKHISTORY for a free trial. And when you’re ready to launch, use OFFER CODE DARK HISTORY to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

You know lately I've noticed something... strange. It feels like every celebrity these days is like super jacked. And I'm not talking just like good shape. I'm talking veiny bros. I mean, veins I didn't even know existed. I mean, back in the day you had what two or three action stars, but now? Even the comedians are huge. Like why is Jim from the office looking like he's training for the Olympics?

And this got me thinking, like when did we get so obsessed with muscles? Because I don't remember most celebrities being super jacked, right? They're just kind of like, whatever, it's fine. So where did it all start? And is it even healthy to be so muscular? Today we're taking a little trip back in time to talk about the sweaty, sexy, muscular, dark history of bodybuilding. Hi friends I hope you're having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey

Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to my podcast Dark History. Here we believe history does not have to be boring. It might be tragic, sometimes it's happy, but either way it's our dark history. Before we get into it, don't forget to like and subscribe because I'm always posting new content, a lot. And let me know what you think down below in the comment section,

because at the end we read comments. Did you know that? I didn't know that. So let's get into today's story. Here's the thing. Different types of bodies have been in and out of style for as long as people have been around. And the idea of the quote unquote perfect body

is always changing. Even in my lifetime, things have changed a lot. Remember the early 2000s? It was all about being like real thin, right? A stick, starving yourself, not eating, having a glass of wine for dinner and like that was it. And now people, you know, it's kind of gone the opposite direction where people pay a lot of money to be a little bit more, you know, curvy, juicy, all that good stuff. But now it kind of feels like it's circling back to being thin again.

It's a mess, isn't it? But it changes all the time. Now that's just me noticing women's bodies, but the quote unquote ideal male body has shifted a lot over time too. So the first obsession with muscles started way back in ancient Greece. I mean, they invented the Olympics in 776 BC. So, you know, they were kind of obsessed with working out and like lifting and being strong.

So obviously muscles and lifting aren't like a new concept. I mean, not by a long shot, but they did go out of fashion for a really long time. But as society advances and upper class gets more access to education, being smart becomes more important than being strong. I mean, the brain is a muscle, but it was all about working out that muscle you know.

According to our expert people started to believe that focusing too much on your body would actually be bad for your intellect. I mean it did take away from studying and all that stuff. So for a long time like hundreds of years muscles were seen as brutish and kind of tacky. It's just like something you didn't really you didn't want and like you didn't care about because you were too busy being smart. That is up until the 1800s in Europe and America women you know they're completely like corseted up and buttoned up to the chin. Men are all like wearing top hats and vests, layers, lots of layers, fluffy pirate shirts. I mean you never really saw like chest hair, a V-cut? No. What's that? No one knew. So again, people really just valued how smart you were versus everything else.

How many languages could you speak? Can you play the piano? Can you play the piano and read a book and sing at the same time? Sports like playing polo or riding horses were definitely fashionable, but like no one was trying to get super muscular. At this time, muscles were seen as a little class, and it meant you had the body of someone who was like a laborer. You worked a lot, which was so embarrassing. Like, oh, you work? I read.

But when something goes out of style, it never really dies. I mean it usually like circles back around, right? And when it came to like muscles, this came back around. It's kind of like a counterculture or underground movement. And that's exactly what the strongmen were. They were like Victorian era bodybuilders and people saw them as not my words, freaks. Literally. Usually if you were like big and muscular, you were part of like of a circus or traveling show, a freak show is what they would call it. And you were seen as like just entertainment.

Like, let's go look at how big this guy is. Whoa, that's crazy. He's so big. Like, you never see that anywhere. So the strongmen, they would tour around and they would put on these insane performances to show off their strength. They would bend steel bars.

They would break chains. They would throw an anvil. Is that what it's called? An anvil around like it was a frisbee. And people were like, oh my God, wow, like that's so crazy. Because like no one's ever seen that before. It's like toss me next, you know?

But then everything changed when a guy named Louis Attila stepped into the spotlight. Now Attila, he was born in a small town in Germany in July of 1844. And when he was growing up, I guess he went to like one of those strongman shows and he saw a strongman. And I guess he became obsessed.

He was like, this is so cool. I wanna look like that guy. At 19, he left home to become an apprentice to an Italian strongman and learn everything he could and develop his own acts. So Attila, he was like five foot four and one of his signature moves was that he would put like a platform on his chest and he would,

well first he would lay on the ground. He would put a platform on his chest and then they would put a grand piano on the platform and then a pianist would sit on top of the platform playing the piano and just sit there and perform while Attila is just laying there like and people were like oh my god that's crazy he's not smushed he was not smushed but what set Attila apart was that he started treating lifting and getting bigger like a science like he

had a formula. He figured it out. So Attila, he ended up developing new training methods, including resistance exercises, pulley machines, and adjustable dumbbells. Never done before. Iconic, wow. Pretty soon, Attila became a household name.

People across Europe and America started requesting his services. They were like, I kinda wanna be strong like that guy. And he became like a personal trainer. Attila became known as Professor Attila and started training some pretty high profile people. For example, the Tsar of Russia. Yeah, I don't know how they got, okay.

The King of Greece. What? Okay, yeah. And the King of England. So, not a bad client roster, you could say, right? Yeah, I think that's pretty good. So all this fame led to Attila opening up his own gym in New York in 1894. And this was not a thing. A gym? What? Huh? What's that? What do you do there? Attila's gym was basically one of the first in America and he was the first trainer to put a strategy and science into working out. Weights pretty much had to be made by a blacksmith.

Before that, you just kind of lifted, you know, the heaviest thing that was around you. So like a rock. Wee-oh! Now, here's the thing. Professor Attila, he knew that he would never like reach the level of fame he wanted. He didn't have a quote unquote perfect male physique

because of his height. And because at this point in the late 1880s, he was considered older. He was in his forties, which isn't old. It's not old. So this is when Attila decides like to train someone to be his perfect little protege and change the world of muscle building forever.

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to basically be his sidekick. And it happens. He meets a young German guy named Eugen Sandau. So Eugen was in his early 20s, and he was also starting his career by training to be a strong man. But Eugen showed a lot of potential that interested Attila.

It wasn't just that Eugen was strong. He had the look. Broad shoulders, tiny waist, perfect symmetry. He looked like a Greek statue is what Attila's thinking. He sees this guy and he's like, oh yes, baby. He was thinking that Mulan song, like I'ma make a man of you is what he's thinking. So Attila decides to take Yujin under his wing,

refine his technique and turn him into a star. So Attila does just that. He helps Eugene going from like, you know, a wannabe strongman into a full on superstar. Eugene was thrilled because he'd always been very ambitious, charismatic, and fame was his number one goal. Well, with Attila's training, Yujin rose up the ranks of strongmen competitions. But he wasn't content with just being strong. He wanted to look good while doing it.

His performances didn't just involve lifting heavy things. Yujin wanted to dazzle the audience. So he oiled up his body before flexing for the audience. He started to promote the idea that strength was just as much about looks as it was about power. Eugene Sandow was ahead of his time because he was doing something that no one else was even thinking about. He was branding himself. He sold the idea of the perfect Zeke based on measurements taken from classical Greek and Roman statues. Weren't those kind of like over exaggerated though? You know, did they

really look like that back then? Sometimes I wonder. Because you look at like Nero. Did you watch the Nero episode? Have you ever seen a picture of him? It's like, I don't know. I don't know. I just feel like, okay but whatever he took measurements. That's great. Well, this idea, this whole thing was very revolutionary because it shifted the focus completely from just being strong and fit to looking a specific way.

He was the Ken doll before the Ken doll. Ken was kind of muscular, wasn't he? I remember. This was huge. It was a big turning point. Before Eugene, it was all about just power. Like how many pounds could you lift? Could you lift a cow?

Could you turn your body into a bridge and have 10 people walk across it? But not anymore. Now, vanity had entered the picture. From this point on, bodybuilding, which is what we call it now, was all about aesthetics. Eugene's whole motto was essentially, why lift in the shadows when you can flex in the spotlight?

Hi, I like that. Why don't? But like, that's a good line. T-shirts, we should get on it before someone else does. So, Yujin is getting more famous, right? So as he's getting more attention, he starts to distance himself from Attila. In fact, he pretty much erases any trace of Attila from his resume. I mean, anything that connected Attila to Eugene's rise to fame, he was like, no, get

rid of it. He wanted people to think like he was self-made. He did this himself. Now naturally, this pissed Attila off. I mean, he's like, I discovered you, I helped you, I treated you like a son, and this is what you do to me? Really? But then, Yujin takes it a step further. He started taking Attila's bodybuilding techniques and was marketing them as his own.

The betrayal. Et tu, Yujin? Caesar, it's a reference. At this point, Eugene was way more famous than Attila. So, you know, they're not gonna, I mean, yeah, they're just gonna believe this, this, this Eugene guy. They're not gonna, who's Attila? We don't know that guy.

So, Eugene, not only was he strong, he was very attractive. He was charismatic and very ambitious. In 1894, he wrote a book called Sandow on Physical Training. And to be honest, most of these methods were directly inspired by, you can say copied from what Attila had taught him. That's ultimate betrayal.

By 1901, Eugene had truly cemented himself as the go-to guy in the fitness world. And this is when he decides to hold the world's first bodybuilding competition. In 1901, Eugene Sandow hosted the world's first bodybuilding competition at the Royal Albert Hall in London. He's like, I got it. He's like, I got the name. I'm gonna call it the Great Competition. I don't know you guys, it just came to me. It's a great competition. Now this event, it was a huge hit. Over 15,000 people showed up to watch. You know, the bodybuilders, they did some weightlifting, they competed in wrestling, fencing, and did even gymnastics. What set Yujin's competition apart from the old school strongmen

was that the winners weren't just going to be judged on how much they could lift, they would be judged on their physique, how they looked. Strength, yes. But also symmetry, muscle definition, is he giving, I don't know, Greek god vibe? Is he nice to look at? Now at this point the majority of people still believe that lifting weights would make you slow, stiff and, you know, weirdly veiny and it was still seen as like low class. But this new twist of bodybuilding becoming, you know, all about the aesthetic, really rebranded muscles to be seen as beautiful and art. A guy named William Murray ended up winning the competition. And guess what

the prize was? Joan Paul, Rob. Hi, so nice to see you again. You're looking really cute today. Any guesses? We would think money, right? Right? It's gotta be money. No. The grand prize winner of the world's first bodybuilding competition? Well, William took home a gold statue of Eugene Sandow. Nice. Put that right up on my shelf and just look at it.

It's the recognition, right? Yeah. So Eugene, on top of being like very full of himself and passing off his mentors ideas as his own, Eugene Sandow was also a white supremacist. Great. Which makes me even happier to tell you that Eugene was finally publicly defeated

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save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. In 1884, a woman named Katie Brombach was born to a family of German circus performers. And Katie, you know, growing up in that family, she had really no choice but to be muscular, because both of her parents were professional strongmen. So she grew up wrestling with her family. And she was so good that her dad offered a prize of 100 gold marks to any man who could outlift her or beat her in the ring. He's like come fight my big beefy daughter. That's how I imagine Germans speak. Anyway so he's like come find my daughter find

my daughter and then guess what no one could out her. No one could beat her in the ring. So when Katie was 16, there was an acrobat named Max Heyman who took up this challenge to try and beat Katie. I guess he thought it would be like good publicity. Plus, you know, he can make some money. Well, he fights her, whatever. And Katie crushed him pretty quickly. I guess she like really, she picked him up and she threw him across the ring. You know, she's just like another day, whatever. But allegedly while Max was like on the ground

looking up at her, he was like, oh, from that moment when they locked eyes, he fell in love. He's like, this is the woman of my dreams that is about to pick me up and throw me. And I can't wait. Max ended up marrying Katie. And for the next 50 years,

he was basically her personal hype man. Katie started incorporating Max into her routine right away. She would hoist him over her head in one hand. She would do this whole bit where she pretended to be a soldier and like Max, she would pick him up and like pretend he was the gun. I don't know she would swirl him around doing tricks. Good for him. He loved it. He's like toss me baby. And people

just ate this up. It was cute. It was special. It was different. Especially because like Max was I guess 5'6 and Katie was 6'1". And Katie wasn't just strong for a woman, she was strong, period. She could lift more than some of the top male weightlifters of her era, and she wanted to prove it. So, it's the year 1902. There was a weightlifting competition in New York City,

and Katie decides, I'm gonna go. It seems like it was kind of like a process of elimination like in the competition. So everyone starts out like lifting 50 pounds. They lifted over their heads. I didn't shave my armpits, don't judge me. So they start out 50 pounds, then they go to like a hundred pounds.

Then they go to 150 pounds. I'm already tired. And then like people, you know, start to drop out one by one. So Katie's in there, she's going, whatever. And then they get to 200 pounds and Katie is still in. Yeah, okay, she had lifted over 200 pounds over her head. And guess who else was still in the competition?

Eugene Sandow. That guy. So now it's just them, the two of them. Eugene versus Katie. So they get up there to 300 pounds. Now Katie, she goes first because ladies first. So she takes the barbell and she hoists it up and boom, she clears it over her head. 300 pounds. So then it's Eugene's turn. So he goes and he tries to lift that he's like he can't do it. He tries to lift it and he only gets to his chest and that's it. He's done. Which means that Katie won. Wow. Yep. She officially outlifted Yujin. Now from that point on, she ended up changing her stage name to Katie Sandwina. I know, I was like, what? Okay. You know, Yujin's last name was Sandow? So she made it cute and kind of more feminine sounding,

and she chose Sandwina. So it's kind of like a diss. Like, mmm, showed him. After this, her career took off. Ring Ling was calling her like, come on, please, like, perform with us. So she ended up performing with the Ring Ling brothers and had this incredible act. She juggled cannonballs, she bent iron bars, and of course her husband was there and she lifted her husband up over her head because it was a fan favorite.

But Katie was the exception, not the rule. Most of society was not ready to see a woman deadlift her husband. To them it was just... weird, right? Not the rule. Most of society was not ready to see a woman deadlift her husband. To them it was just weird, right? Wrong. I don't know. A woman shouldn't do that. I mean, there's a reason she was seen as a circus act.

By the turn of the century, men are still very much leading the way in the bodybuilding world. Over in England, they were having a whole weird ass movement. It was called muscular Christianity. What the hell is muscular Christianity you might be thinking? Well it all started with a guy named Charles Kingsley. So he was a

writer and he was also a man of the church. Charles looked around one day and realized that all these British heroes that he really looked up to were muscular and he was like hmm these guys were brave and muscular and good Christians. Coincidence? I think not. So he became a huge proponent of muscular Christianity. Just hyping up dudes to be buff in the name of the Lord. Well, it was kind of like good timing. The industrial revolution was in full swing and it had a lot of men moving from farms to office jobs.

And it turned out sitting at a desk all day just wasn't great for the body or their biceps. On top of that, women all of a sudden had fricking rights. Pfft. So they're mad. And they're like, oh man, like, what are we gonna do? Like, if we're not men, what are we? You know, equal to women?

No. So in Europe and America, everyone was just losing their mind at the idea that men were turning into weaklings, especially the upper crust of society who didn't do jobs involving manual labor. I mean, they were all looking for a way to get, you know, jacked up and fast.

The solution? Sports and exercise. Yeah, who would have thought? The idea was that discipline, teamwork, and physical strength weren't just good for winning games. They were also good for the soul. Churches and religious schools started promoting athletics as a way to build character. The Young Men's Christian Association?

The YMCA? Ever heard of it? YMCA. That's what it stands for. Yeah, I didn't know that. Well, the YMCA was actually founded in 1844 to help young men stay physically, mentally, and spiritually strong. They built gyms specifically to keep men out of trouble and in top shape all while keeping the faith. Praise God. Another thing muscular Christianity was like secretly behind. They created American football. Yeah, I'm not kidding.

Because of the fear that men were becoming weak, they needed a sport that like knocked them around a little bit, roughed up these boys, you know? And by the 1870s and 80s, the combination of rugby and soccer morphed into something with more tackling, more aggression, and a whole lot more broken bones. The thinking was like getting bruises would prove

that just because they didn't work a job with physical labor, it didn't mean that they weren't strong. And it sounds crazy, but college administrators and Christian leaders actually encouraged football's brutality. They saw it as these young men being like tough, resilient, and manly. President Teddy Roosevelt, I love Teddy.

Like it's such a good name. Teddy, what a cute name. President Teddy Roosevelt was a big supporter of muscular Christianity and he freaking loved football. And this obsession with strong godly bodies didn't just stop at football. It made its way all the way to Jesus himself. Have you ever noticed like in certain churches or certain images of Jesus,

all of a sudden like he's super ripped? I mean, it's not always the case, but in a lot of American churches, buff Jesus is lean, he's chiseled, he's like oily sometimes, and you're like, okay, buff Jesus. Here's my buff Jesus meme. I have it saved on my phone just in case of emergencies.

It started with muscular Christianity. Because if being physically strong was a sign of godliness, then obviously Jesus had to have the best physique of all. You can't have the son of God looking like a frail young man when all these Christian men are out here deadlifting for the Lord. And this is where bodybuilding really took off as we know it now. So it could have been seen as like self obsession or you know someone just showing off. It now became a symbol of wholesome values, discipline

and apparently divine favor. Thanks to muscular Christianity, America's obsession with fitness wasn't just about sports. Working out wasn't just good for you, it was tied to moral character and wholesome values. So, in 1939, there was the first ever Mr. America competition. For bodybuilders, the Mr. America contest was like the Triple Crown, the Indy 500, the Oscars, the Olympics, all rolled into one. And before you know it, this was followed by competitions like Mr. USA, Mr. World, Mr. Galaxy, Mr. Universe. What else can we claim? Mr. Olympia.

And the people who won these competitions could go on to have successful careers based just off that win. And one of these guys was a man named Charles Atlas. He was an American bodybuilder who won a competition. And Charles used his fame to create a bodybuilding empire. He created a workout program that became known as the Atlas program

and I guess to bodybuilders it was like the Bible. Don't bring Buff Jesus into this. The advertising for his program became pretty iconic. So it was like a comic strip, right? And it would show like a skinny guy getting sand kicked in his face at the beach. And because he's getting bullied at the beach it motivates him to build muscle using the Atlas system. The guy, the skinny guy comes back later and he's totally jacked up and he stands up to the bully. It sounds cheesy, but the whole like underdog approach, it really struck a nerve.

Because of these ads, the everyday person was now kind of drawn to these weightlifting gyms and they were like joining bodybuilding competitions. Finally by the 60s and 70s weightlifting became mainstream. You know, but of course like this was all centered around men and it's like, well where did it leave the women? Well for a long time it left them out of the picture completely. Before the 50s women were not allowed to compete in weightlifting competitions. Period. You're a woman. Sit down. Sure, there were people in the fitness community who promoted women being strong too, but that definitely wasn't how most people felt at the

time. The idea that women could or should be muscular did not sit well with most of society. I mean, you're a woman. You're supposed to be helpless and frail and be tied up to a railroad and a rail, a train is coming and I need to untie you and save you. You know, that's what a woman's supposed to be. Helpless. So women were like, fine, we're just going to do our own. So women's bodybuilding competitions started to pop up. And of course, like they faced way more criticism than the male ones. You know people were asking like how muscular is too muscular for a woman? And this turned a lot of women off like I don't want to be too big or bulky from lifting weights. And if women did exercise you know they mostly and to this day it still happens but they mostly stuck to cardio workouts, thigh master,

It still happens, but they mostly stuck to cardio workouts, thigh master, jazzercise, you know, like what's aerobics? I don't know, stuff like that. Cute stuff where you get to wear a little cute little outfit, not like lifting weights. But the truth was it was just all propaganda because if women could be strong, potentially stronger than a man, it would be just hurt the ego.

I mean, the panic of men not being men anymore is what started the whole muscular Christianity movement in the first place. But thankfully not all women were scared off by this bull crap. There were some serious female legends in the world of bodybuilding. There was a woman named Lisa Lyon.

If you've ever seen a 70s poster of an absolutely shredded babe in an animal print bathing suit with a mullet holding weights, it's probably her. Or at least inspired by her. Lisa Lyon was the first woman's world bodybuilding champion in 1979, and she was a muse for famous photographers like Robert Mapplethorpe.

She was a fitness icon. Her body inspired comic book characters. And honestly just redefined female hotness. You could be strong and hot. But of course, you know, there's still a huge gap between what society views as acceptable workouts for men versus women. Back in the early 2000s, strength training for women?

Not really a thing. But fast forward to today, there was a 2023 survey that found that nearly 50% of women who exercise now incorporate some form of strength training into their routine. Which is progress! Yeah! Especially when you compare that to the early 2000s when you'd walk into a gym and only see men in the weight room. And there was like that myth. I remember growing up, it was like,

you didn't wanna lift weights because you didn't wanna be bulky. And I don't know, you just never really saw it, but it's changing, which is great. And social media is a huge part of like this uptick. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok have been flooded with strong female influencers who inspired women to start lifting. And then on top of that,

the rise of CrossFit in the early 2000s played a huge role in normalizing women lifting heavy. And it was like making it more about what your body can do rather than just how it looks. Medical research today has consistently shown that strength training does so much good for you. It like improves bone density, it boosts your metabolism, and it reduces the risk of injury.

I know you're thinking like, Bailey, why didn't you mention steroids at all? Listen, I just wanted to get into like the bodybuilding itself. If you want an episode about steroids, let me know down below. Cause that could be a whole nother thing, okay? The main reason I wanted to do this story is because

if you go on social media, well, I don't know about you, but I see it all the time, people are getting beefed up, beef cakes everywhere. And it was like, what is going on? What is this about? And we could have talked about this forever. But it's just interesting and crazy that working out and being strong went from like a circus act to a mainstream part of our culture in less than 200 years.

And the journey has given us a lot along the way. I mean, football, the YMCA, Arnold, Planet Fitness, that ugly purple they use. Good for them. I mean working out and lifting weights it's definitely it's not everyone's thing but it's cool that anyone can do it now. So then I had a little light bulb moment when I was doing the story. I was thinking okay remember when the Christian muscular buff Jesus thing came along and like at the time women were having a bunch of they were getting rights right and they're and men were kind of feeling like, oh, what's our place in the world now if women are equal to us? Like, what's gonna make us stand out? And that kind of like sparked men to work out and like get buff and like set them apart. And I feel like it's kind of happening again today where men are feeling like they're not really sure what their world, their role is in society right now

and I feel like lifting and getting buff and yeah it's kind of like coming back in the same way. Does that make sense? Is that fair to say? It's an observation I had right now, don't come from me, but like it's kind of, it's giving me the same vibe, right? That was a lightbulb moment I had but I, oh, there might be something there. If anything, it gives like people just a sense of belonging, whether you're a man, woman, whatever, like working out and taking care of your body is great. And I think we should all just support that, right? But at the end of the day, we've come a really long way.

I mean, it went from a circus act to, well, liver king, you know, so it's kind of maybe we've done a circle. But let me know down below if you want me to do an episode on steroids because we could go there. Anyways, thank you for hanging out with me today. What a journey. Next time on Dark History, sometimes I kind of miss the old school commercials from like the 90s. They were a little bit more creative. They had jingles. They were fun. There was characters.

Commercials now, they just yell at you. Whatever, you know. But back in the 90s, like the cereal commercials, cookie crisp, cookie crisp. Back then, I mean, they were always hammering into our heads. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And, you know, me, hi, I wondered, is that true? It turns out there's a long and controversial history behind the food we eat in the morning.

It has to do with marketing, feminism, the Catholic Church, the government. Well, join us next time for our episode on the dark history of breakfast. I'd love to hear your guys' reactions to today's stories. Make sure to leave a comment down below so I can see what you guys are saying and your comment might even be featured in a future episode. Now let's read a couple of comments you guys have left me. Stacey Wiley 7928 left us a comment on our vaping episode saying,

test to see if Bailey reads comment. I have been smoking cowboy killers since I was 14. Now I'm at the age where I need to quit. I'm not vaping. My e-cig is just lavender, no nicotine. I have gone from two packs to one, so I guess it works. Bailey looks so hot. That's all that matters to me, Stacey.

Was that last little sentence? Thank you. I'm just kidding. Listen, Stacey, I know, I read the comments. Hi, I always wanna know what you guys are saying. The vaping episode, wild. I know, listen, I understand the struggle. It's very hard to quit.

Listen, let me tell you, I was vaping for a long time and that episode kinda scared me straight. I, after trying numerous times, I actually, I haven't vaped for, it's been over a month now. Oh, it's been almost two months. I'm waiting for my applause, my God. But listen, you can do it.

Here's my hot tip for you. I got nicotine gum. Yeah, I chewed the crap out of the nicotine gum, but it helped me tremendously with like that nicotine fix. Oh, but you said you're smoking not nicotine, but it just helped me tremendously. And then just trying, just try, try. That's all you could do is try,

but it's possible is what I'm trying to say. It's definitely possible. Thank you for calling me hot. Thank you. Good luck. Take care of yourself though. I got a comment from To The Stars. Shout out to Tom DeLong and his aliens.

To The Stars commented on our John Wilkes booth episode saying, other than that, how did you like the play, Miss Lincoln? Well, I think if Miss Lincoln was here,'d be like well it was a good show until my husband got shot in the head and died. Two out of five stars. Thank you. I don't know. I don't know how she would come back from that. That's yeah. I know I wonder if she had a review. Never mind. Anyway thanks for watching and stay safe out there. Get it honey gave us an episode recommendation. We need part two if you have more momsters please.

Yeah, that was a good episode, huh? Listen, after doing some research, let me say a lot of these moms are out or momsters are out here doing the most. And that episode was just the tip of the iceberg. So maybe I will have to do a part two. Okay thank you, I hope you have a good day. Thank you for watching. I love you guys so much. I appreciate you for hanging out with me and watching and learning. Keep on commenting because maybe you'll be featured in

a future episode. And hey if you don't know, Dark History is an audio boom original. A special thank you to our expert Natalia Melman Petruzzella, professor of history at the New School. And check out her book, Fit Nation, the gains and pains of America's exercise obsession. And I'm your host, Bailey Sarian. I hope you have a good day, you make good choices, and I'll be talking to you guys later.

Goodbye. and I'll be talking to you guys later. Goodbye. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"]