The Lets Read Podcast - 294: Listen To My New Show: A Twist of History

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

The course of history never follows a straight line. These are the epic stories that have shaped the world we now live in. From Ballen Studios, join us - for the most heart pounding podcast in history.  New episodes every Wednesday. Listen to A Twist of History: https://ballen.lnk.to/atwistofhistory

Hey everyone, Joel here. Guys, thank you so much for listening to the Let's Read podcast. But now, I've got something really special to announce. Something that I've been waiting to tell you all about for quite a while. So, I've teamed up with Ballin Studios, the home of Mr. Ballin, you might know him, and the best storytelling on the internet. And together, we've created a brand new podcast that I know that you're going to love.

I'm hosting it, of course, and it's got that signature storytelling that you know and love from this show and anything from Ballin Studios. But this time, it's not true crime or horror. It's history. It's called A Twist of History, and I'm about to play you a clip. But first, I want to tell you that this isn't going to be a traditional history podcast. It's not going to be a dry history lesson filled with names and dates. These are going to be fascinating, riveting, and fully immersive character-driven stories, all with a twist, which is to say that they'll all have a clear connection to the things in

our everyday lives. For example, why are we so obsessed with true crime stories anyways? Well, wait till you hear the story from more than a hundred years ago. It's not just the grisly murder, the daring escape, and the thrilling manhunt that'll suck you in. It's the way the story sparked our cultural obsession with true crime that makes it so much more fascinating. And that's just episode one. Do you know how Hollywood became the movie mecca, or why we don't use the metric system, or even why bananas are in all of our supermarkets? These stories will not only answer these questions but actually blow your mind. Just those examples I just gave, they involve pirates, the CIA, political assassinations,

and oh yeah, Thomas Edison being a borderline mafioso bully. History is never a straight line, and pretty often we can pinpoint a remarkable, thrilling twist which affects everything that follows. So, go search up our new podcast, called A Twist of History, and hit that follow button and begin listening right away. The show is free, of course, and new stories will come out each and every Wednesday. And now, here's a clip from episode one of A Twist of History, called How Murder Went Viral. And when you finish, go and check out the full episode wherever you get your shows.

Enjoy. It's late at night. You've had a long day at work. You're exhausted. You finally turn out all the lights and go to bed. But, of course, you get a notification on your phone. You have to check it, right? You're not sleeping yet, so you take a quick look.

And that's when you see that it's about that story that you've been following all week. The international manhunt that's basically the next smash-hit true crime docuseries in the making in real time. And updates are coming in rapid fire. You sit bolt upright, take a deep breath, and begin scrolling. For the next two hours, you devour every delicious detail about the grisly crime, the search for a fugitive, and the mindless commentary that goes along with it. Our collective obsession with true crime stories has, of course, exploded in the last several years, and movies, books, podcasts, social media, daily news stories, they all feed this obsession constantly. It's pretty easy to think that this

is a relatively new thing, but of course, it's not. And while it may be difficult to pinpoint a single moment in history when this cultural phenomenon began, there is one story which may be the very reason why you're up late at night doom-scrolling. One story about a brutal murder, the heart-pounding pursuit of the killer, and a revolutionary new technology which sparked a cultural obsession that we still can't get enough of. History always has a twist. A single, unexpected, and often forgotten moment that changes everything that comes after it. In this series, each week, you'll hear a riveting story about a twist that you've probably never heard of. But it's these stories that have shaped the very world we now live in.

On today's episode, how murder went viral. This is a twist of history. It's July 9th, 1910 in London, England. A 16-year-old boy flies down four flights of stairs of a concrete office building and steps out onto Borough High Street on the south bank of the River Thames. The noise hits him immediately. People rushing down the sidewalk, the road filled with a mix of horse-drawn buggies and rattling automobiles. The street is so crowded it overwhelms the boy. He quickly pulls his hat down further to partially cover his face

and starts weaving his way through the foot traffic. He darts his eyes back and forth, convinced that someone is going to recognize him. He can feel his heartbeat all the way up in his ears. He keeps rushing and scanning the street, but nobody pays any attention to him, so the boy finally relaxes a little. He slows down to a normal walk and makes his way to the entrance of a nearby London underground station. A few minutes later, the boy sees his father coming towards him, holding a single small suitcase. The boy greets his father, and they run down the steps together in the underground,

just in time to catch the next train. The boy watches the train doors close and the mass of passengers exiting. He looks around to make sure that he still hasn't been recognized by anyone and follows his father on board. As the train car continues to fill up, the boy and his dad lower their heads, avoiding eye contact with their fellow passengers. And finally, the train starts to roll down the underground tracks, and the boy and his father exhale. Their escape from England has begun. If you enjoyed that clip from A Twist of History, head over to the show and tap the follow button so you don't miss any of these incredible origin stories. New episodes come out every Wednesday.