Sarah is a journalist obsessed with the past. Every week she reconsiders a person or event that's been miscast in the public imagination.
233 episodes transcribed"Our alleged serial killers deserve better than this." Was Elizabeth Báthory the most prolific serial killer of all time, or was she just in...
Black cats and goblins and broomsticks and ghosts/ Covens of witches with all of their hosts/ You may think they scare me, you're probably right/...
What could possibly go wrong when two skeptical podcasters try to summon a ghost? Join Sarah and Chelsey Weber-Smith (of American Hysteria) for a hist...
Kellie Carter Jackson, author of We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance, is here to take us on a trip through American history where we lea...
"Times can blind us to certain truths and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress. As...
Or, is it legal to have gay sex in your own home? This week, Marcus McCann takes us back to the 2003 Supreme Court case that challenged a Texas anti-s...
"As long as the law is male, women must be outlaws." — Linnea Johnson This week, Moira Donegan takes us back to Chicago in 1969, when an und...
This week we travel back to the 80s, when America’s parents decided to freak out over some kids rolling dice and drawing things on graph paper! Adrian...
Maggie Mertens tells us a tale of the first women who fought to run the marathon, and of one woman who decided to cut to the finish line. Find Maggie...
What is “originalism,” and what does it have to do with all these bribes? Mackenzie Joy Brennan has some answers.Find Mackenzie online here. Support Y...
The city of Cleveland will not be made to apologize for its balloons. Harmony Colangelo defends the mistake on the lake.You can find Harmony on This E...
This week, Taylor Lorenz fights our latest moral panic. Are phones really making kids anxious, or are kids just good at noticing what's going on?...
Alejandra Oliva, author of Rivermouth, came by to catch us up on the last few decades of American immigration policy--and to talk about how the world...
Sarah Archer came by to make an episode from scratch. What's the real history of the American housewife? Where did the tradwife come from, and wh...
Today, Princess Weekes takes us to meet the real Rosa Parks.Find Princess on YouTube: Princess’ video, “The 1920s Sex Scandal You’ve Never Heard of” S...
Let's go outside in the sunshine. An extended cut of this episode is available for Patreon and Apple Plus subscribers.You can buy Marcus McCann...
He turned a bright spark into a flame.(Part 1 of 2!)You can buy Marcus McCann's book, Park Cruising: What Happens When We Wander Off the Path, he...
Sarah talks with Chelsey Weber-Smith, host of American Hysteria, about some of their favorite hoaxes—from the Loch Ness Monster to the Taco Liberty Be...
Celebrity correspondent Eve Lindley came by to tell us about Britney Spears' memoir The Woman in Me. This is part one of a four-part saga we&apos...
In 1974, Robert Opel ran naked through the Academy Awards telecast, and into American history. Today, Michael Schulman, a staff writer at The New York...
