The Book of Clarence
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to first-century Jerusalem with The Book of Clarence! Join us as we learn about Mary Magdalene, Barabbas, Biblical sick burns, and more! Sources: Martínez-Cruz, B., Mendizabal, I., Harmant, C. et al. Origins, admixture and founder lineages in European Roma. Eur J Hum Genet 24, 937–943 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2015.201 Gresham D, Morar B, Underhill PA, Passarino G, Lin AA, Wise C, Angelicheva D, Calafell F, Oefner PJ, Shen P, Tournev I, de Pablo R, Kuĉinskas V, Perez-Lezaun A, Marushiakova E, Popov V, Kalaydjieva L. Origins and divergence of the...
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Akira
Did That Really Happen?
It's a new year, so it's time for our New Year's tradition of taking a look at movies that tried to predict the future. This year, we're traveling to the year 2019 with Akira! Join us as we learn about the Tokyo Olympics, biker gangs, technical schools, riots, and more! Sources: 2020 Host City Election Announcement: https://www.olympics.com/ioc/2020-host-city-election Image of the Stadium: https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1087204/olympic-stadium-for-tokyo-2020-completed' January 2019 image, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kokuritsu_Kasumigaoka_Rikujo_Kyogijo-23a.jpg...
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Frankenstein (2025)
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to the 19th century with Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein! Join us as we learn about syphilis, big-ass blunderbusses, the Evelyn Tables, Arctic expeditions, and more! Sources: An account of divers schemes of arteries and veins, dissected from adult human bodies, and given to the repository of the Royal Society by John Evelyn, Esq; F. R. S. To which are subjoyn'd a description of the extremities of those vessels, and the manner the blood is seen, by the microscope, to pass from the arteries to the veins in quadrupeds when living: with some chirurgical...
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The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to a full century of American history with The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman! Join us as we learn about naming of enslaved people, "paddy rollers", Black communities in East Texas, and more! Sources: Sparks, Elmer E, and Celia Black. Interview with Celia Black, Tyler, Texas. Tyler, Texas, November , 10, 1974. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1975009_afs17476/. Sparks, Elmer E, and Charlie Smith. Interview with Charlie Smith, Bartow, Florida. Bartow, Florida, None , 3, 1975. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1975023_afs17510/. Jennifer Davis, "A Voice from the...
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Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 18th-century France with Perfume: The Story of a Murderer! Join us as we learn about tanneries, the town of Grasse, infanticide, perfumers' guilds, and more! Sources: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/perfume-the-story-of-a-murderer-2007 https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/perfume_the_story_of_a_murderer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume:_The_Story_of_a_Murderer_%28film%29 A.O. Scott, https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/movies/27perf.html Tracey Rizzo (2004) Between dishonor and death: infanticides in the causes célèbres of eighteenth-century...
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Walker
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're going back to a weird, weird version of 19th-century Nicaragua with Walker! Join us as we learn about William Walker's ill-fated efforts in Sonora, the Filibuster War, the El Nicaraguense newspaper, and more! Sources: Monty Python's Flying Circus Sketch: "Sam Peckinpah's 'Salad Days'": https://youtu.be/XL54pji1nfA?si=o0UbrhVH1ewe3p3J Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_(film) Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/walker Roger Ebert's Review: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/walker-1987 Craig J Clark, "Alex Cox Says Goodbye--and Good Riddance--To...
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Freaky Tales
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1987 Oakland with Freaky Tales! Join us as we learn about punk v. skinhead battles, Sleepy Floyd, Operation Ivy, and more! Sources: Southern Poverty Law Center, Timeline of the Racist Skinhead Movement: https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/timeline-racist-skinhead-movement/ Christopher Phelps, "Skinheads: The New Nazism," Marxists.org: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/atc/10048.html Steve Knopper, "Nazi Punks Fuck Off: How Black Flag, Bad Brains, and More Took Back Their Scene from White Supremacists,"...
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Citizen X
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to the Soviet Union of the 1980s with Citizen X! Join us as we learn about the people who hunted Andrei Chikatilo, the myth of eyes retaining the last image they see before they die, blood typing tests, leather jackets, and more! Sources: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_X Monday Morning Critic Interview with Chris Gerolmo: https://youtu.be/OTgt3qA8bE4?si=KPSXouQ0xBQoTONS Rare Historical Photos: 1980s Soviet Fashion: https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/soviet-fashion-from-1980s/ Ebay, Vintage NKVD Coat:...
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Catherine Called Birdy
Did That Really Happen?
NOTE: Due to a technical mishap, there are some issues with Jamie's audio quality in this episode. We apologize and promise the issue will be fixed in our next episode. This week we're traveling back to the Middle Ages with Catherine Called Birdy! Join us as we talk about medieval birthing practices, book ownership, citrus, farts, why "butt trumpet" should become a widely used phrase, and more! Sources: Butt trumpet marginalia in the Rothschild Canticles, c. 1300, MS 404, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University,...
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Nickel Boys
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to the 1960s with Nickel Boys! Join us as we learn about the horrific excavations of the Dozier School, the circulation of MLK speeches, Mexican-American identity in the South, and more! Sources: David Canfield Interview with RaMell Ross and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Vanity Fair: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/nickel-boys-telluride-exclusive-awards-insider?srsltid=AfmBOor0GmWj9WdElwUsFDSFjin9iJFcXiJGYeKF1ZkLFVGHvogkPHAI How Nickel Boys Was Filmed in First-Person POV:...
info_outlineThis week we're going back to 1970 with a patron-requested episode on The Holdovers! Join us as we learn about The Newlywed Game, helicopters, Librium, race and class in the Vietnam War, the surprisingly heated controversies over men with long hair, and more!
Sources:
IMDB trivia page: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14849194/goofs/
US Centennial Flight Commission, History of Private Helicopters: https://www.centennialofflight.net/essay/Rotary/Private_heli/HE15.htm
Civil and Commercial Helicopter Use: https://www.century-of-flight.net/civil-and-commercial-helicopter-use/
Leigh H. Edwards, "Reality TV and the American Family," The Tube Has Spoken: Reality TV and History (2010), 123-44. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jcnkz.12
"Fear of a Black Movement: Public Enemy's Chuck D Fights the Power Thirty Years Strong: A Dialogue with Alicia Virani," in Rebel Speak: A Justice Movement Mixtape (2022): 162. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2ks6vsj.10
Bryan Hardin Thrift, "Turning Off Turn-On: Helms as a TV Executive in the 1960s," Conservative Bias: How Jesse Helps Pioneered the Rise of Right-Wing Media and Realigned the Republican Party (University Press of Florida, 2014), 137-63. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvx1htq1.10
https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/newlywed-game-the
Ingrid Waldron, "Increased Prescribing of Valium, Librium, and Other Drugs--An Example of the Influence of Economic and Social Factors on the Practice of Medicine," International Journal of Health Services 7, no.1 (1977): 37-62. https://www.jstor.org/stable/45129975
"Tranquilizer Librium Best for Alcoholics," The Science News-Letter 87, no. 19 (1965): 303. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3948684
HOFFER, A. “Lack of potentiation by chlordiazepoxide (Librium) of depression or excitation due to alcohol.” Canadian Medical Association journal vol. 87,17 (1962): 920-1.
"Racial, Ethnic, and Religious Minorities in the Vietnam War: A Resource Guide," Library of Congress, https://guides.loc.gov/racial-ethnic-and-religious-minorities-in-the-vietnam-war
"Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics," Military Records, National Archives, https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics
James Burk and Evelyn Espinoza, "Race Relations Within the US Military," Annual Review of Sociology 38 (2012): 401-22. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23254602
Arnold Barnett, Timothy Stanley, and Michael Shore, "America's Vietnam Casualties: Victims of a Class War?" Operations Research 40, no.5 (1992): 856-66. https://www.jstor.org/stable/171812
Seija Rankin, "Making of the Holdovers: Depressing S*** Can Still Feel Cozy," Hollywood Reporter, available at https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/making-of-the-holdovers-paul-giamatti-1235788162/
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holdovers
Andrew Robert Herrick, "A Hairy Predicament: The Problem with Long Hair in the 1960s and 1970s." Masters Thesis, 2006, available at https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1875&context=etd