Sinners
Did That Really Happen?
We're traveling back to the 1930s Mississippi Delta with Sinners! Join us as we learn about fake plantation money, "Rocky Road to Dublin", Chinese-American communities in Mississippi, hoodoo, and more! Sources: John Jung, "Chinese for the South: Mississippi Delta Chinese Migration Chains," in Zhang, Wenxian, et al. Far East, Down South: Asians in the American South. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2016. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/49183. "Shaolu Yu, ""Placing Racial Triangulation, Triangulating Place and Race: Chinese Grocery Stores in the Mississippi Delta during the Jim Crow...
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Strange Way of Life
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're going back to the 19th century American West with Strange Way of Life (Our first episode on a short film)! Join us as we learn about facial hair, wineskins, and plenty of other cowboy stuff! Sources: https://lastreszzz.com/en/history/?srsltid=AfmBOoojnNidxyQUlHy6ROfjs2IvEFdIFplsf640inYm1hGcpgOSP9teChristopher Oldstone-Moore, "Mustaches and Masculine Codes in Early Twentieth-Century America," Journal of Social History 45:1 (2011): 47-60. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41678816 F. Gercher, Man with mustache and goatee, facing left, half-length portrait, platinum print,...
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Call Jane
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to the late 60s/early 70s with Call Jane! Join us as we learn about religion and abortion activism, hospital abortion boards, and the surprisingly complex history of the snickerdoodle. Sources: News Report by Peter Heller on Abortion, 1969. Oregon Public Broadcasting. Available at https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-153-988gtx44 Linda Greenhouse and Reva B. Siegel, Before Roe v. Wade: Voices That Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court's Ruling. Creative Commons. Available at...
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September 5
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling to the 1972 Olympics with September 5! Join us as we learn about journalists like Peter Jennings and Geoffrey Mason, satellite TV, and more! NOTE: Due to a technical issue, there are some sound quality problems on Jamie's audio. We promise these issues will be fixed on our next episode. Sources: Travis Vogan, ABC News Sports: The Rise and Fall of Network Sports Television. University of California Press, 2018 Peter Jennings Interview With Larry King, 2002. Transcript available at https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/lkl/date/2002-04-10/segment/00 Charles Glass, Peter...
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Shirley
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're going back to 1972 with Shirley! Join us as we learn about Barbara Lee, Shirley Chisholm's meeting with George Wallace, the 1972 Democratic Convention, the equal time rule, and more! Note: Due to some microphone-related technical difficulties, this episode has some audio quality issues, but those will be resolved in our next episode. Source PBS: Equal Time Rule: https://www.pbs.org/standards/media-law-101/candidate-appearances/ https://www.nytimes.com/1972/06/03/archives/u-s-court-rules-mrs-chisholm-must-receive-equal-time-on-tv.html Debra Michals, "Shirley Chisholm,"...
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Nosferatu (2024)
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1830s Germany (and Transylvania) with Nosferatu! Join us as we learn about the folklore of garlic, exhuming suspected vampires, plague ships, and more! Sources: Booseum: Vampires! Carnegie Museum of Natural History, available at https://carnegiemnh.org/booseum-vampires/#:~:text=Garlic%2C%20specifically%20the%20chemical%20compound,would%20%E2%80%9Ckill%E2%80%9D%20a%20vampire. Vampire Myths Originated With a Real Blood Disorder, available at https://www.queensu.ca/gazette/stories/vampire-myths-originated-real-blood-disorder Eater Video: How Garlic Became a...
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American Psycho
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to the 1980s with American Psycho! Join us as we learn about Wall Street killers, men's skincare products, Page 6, "Hip to be Square", and more! Sources: Cynthia Weiner, "What We Miss When We Talk About the Preppy Killer," Crime Reads (2025), https://crimereads.com/what-we-miss-when-we-talk-about-the-preppy-killer/ James Feron, "Wall St. Analyst Guilty in Murder of Second Wife," The New York Times 17 March 1989, B2, 38. Leonard Buder, "Suspect Seized in Two Murders in Wall St. Area," The New York Times 23 June 1982, B1. ...
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Some Like It Hot
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're going back to the Roaring 20s with Some Like It Hot! Join us as we learn about the Valentine's Day Massacre, speakeasies, Shell Oil, blood typing, and more! Sources: "Prohibition," Mob Museum, available at https://prohibition.themobmuseum.org/the-history/the-prohibition-underworld/the-speakeasies-of-the-1920s/ Legends of America, Prohibition Speakeasies: https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ah-prohibitionspeakeasy/' Farhud DD, Zarif Yeganeh M. A brief history of human blood groups. Iran J Public Health. 2013;42(1):1-6. Epub 2013 Jan 1. PMID: 23514954; PMCID: PMC3595629. Mitra R,...
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Zola
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to the ye old internet days of 2015 with Zola! Join us as we learn about Vine, Backpage, Florida strip club rules, and more! Sources: Casey Newton, "Why Vine Died: Closing the Loop" The Verge (2016) https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/28/13456208/why-vine-died-twitter-shutdown John Herrman, "Vine Changed the Internet Forever. How Much Does the Internet Miss It?" New York Times (2020). Justin Perlman, "What was Backpage? Why Did It Shut Down?" Philadelphia Weekly February 29, 2024....
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Aguirre, The Wrath of God
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're going back to 16th-century Peru with Aguirre, The Wrath of God! Join us as we learn about Spanish women who went on expeditions, the real Lope de Aguirre, the wild stories behind the production of this film, and more! Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of incest and sexual abuse. Sources: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aguirre,_the_Wrath_of_God Roger Ebert Review: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-aguirre-the-wrath-of-god-1972 Geoff Andrew, "Great Beginnings: Aguirre, The Wrath of God," BFI:...
info_outlineThis week we're going back to the 1970s with If Beale Street Could Talk! Join us as we learn about the Rockefeller Drug Laws, New York jails, the term "Holy Roller", and more!
Source
Brian Mann, "The Drug Laws That Changed How We Punished," NPR, available at https://www.npr.org/2013/02/14/171822608/the-drug-laws-that-changed-how-we-punish
Fodei Batty, "How to Understand the Complicated History of 'Go Back to Africa'" Washington Post, available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/04/26/is-go-back-to-africa-always-an-insult-heres-a-brief-history-of-american-back-to-africa-movements/
African Americans in Ghana, Khan Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/whp-origins/era-7-the-great-convergence-and-divergence-1880-ce-to-the-future/x23c41635548726c4:other-materials-origins-era-7/a/connecting-decolonization-in-africa-and-the-us-civil-rights-movement#:~:text=The%20desire%20to%20repatriate%E2%80%94to,building%20their%20new%20nation%2Dstate.
Heather Ann Thompson, "How a Series of Jail Rebellions Rocked New York--and Woke a City," The Nation, 21 March 2019 https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/new-york-jail-rebellion-1970-tombs-mdc/
Daniel Chasin, "Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: How New York's Bail Reform Saga Tiptoes around Addressing Economic Inequality," Cardozo Law Review 43, no. 1 (October 2021): 273-312
Aleza Van Brunt and Locke E. Bowman, "Toward a Just Model of Pretrial Release: A History of Bail Reform and a Prescription for What's Next," The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 108, no.4 (2018): 701-774. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48572970
https://www.uscourts.gov/services-forms/probation-and-pretrial-services/supervision/pretrial-risk-assessment/pretrial-release
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/research/pretrial_detention/
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/jails2024_table3.html
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/incomejails.html
Ngram: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22holy+roller%22&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3
Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “Holy Roller (n.),” March 2024.
Gregg Kilday, "Making of 'If Beale Street Could Talk': How 'Moonlight' Oscar Winner Barry Jenkins Brought James Baldwin's 1974 Novel to the Big Screen," Hollywood REporter, available at https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/a-look-making-beale-street-could-talk-1160625/'
Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/if_beale_street_could_talk/reviews
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_Beale_Street_Could_Talk_(film)