The Secret Agent
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1970s Brazil with The Secret Agent! Join us as we learn about deaths at Carnival, the legend of the Hairy Leg, indigenous servants, and more! Sources: Da-Silva, Elidiomar. (2025). A PERNA CABELUDA, DE RECIFE, PERNAMBUCO: POSSÍVEIS DIÁLOGOS COM A ZOOLOGIA CULTURAL - Barbante - Revista Literária (ISSN 2338-1414) (Da-Silva, Elidiomar. 2025). 13. 20-27. 10.5281/zenodo.17655754. Diario de Pernambuco, Issue from 10 December 1975: https://memoria.bn.gov.br/docreader/DocReader.aspx?bib=029033_15&pagfis=78246 Diario de Pernambuco, Issue from 11 December...
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The Ghost Bride
Did That Really Happen?
We don't have a new episode this week, so we're cracking open the Patreon vault and releasing one of our bonus episodes on The Ghost Bride! Join us on our journey to 1890s Malacca, and learn about the ghost bride custom, clothing, currency, and more! Sources: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-37103447 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-07/ghost-marriages-in-rural-china-continue-to-thrive/9608624 Wenzhang Zhou and Yang Feng, "When Religious Folk Practice Meets Karl Marx: Courts' Response to Ghost Marriage in Modern China," Religions, 14 (2023) Myron L. Cohen, "Souls and Salvation:...
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Good Night, and Good Luck
Did That Really Happen?
**Note: Due to technical difficulties, there were issues affecting Jamie's audio quality this week. We apologize and promise it will be fixed on our next episode.** This week we're traveling back to 1950s America with Good Night, and Good Luck! Join us as we learn about Red Scare-Era figurse like Annie Lee Moss, Joe and Shirley Wershba, Milo Radulovich, Don Hollenbeck, and more! Sources: Loren Ghiglione, Why Don Hollenbeck Fascinated Me Enough to Write His Biography. History News Network. Available at https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/why-don-hollenbeck-fascinated-me-enough-to-write-h...
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Blue Moon
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1940s New York with Blue Moon! Join us as we learn about the relationship between Rogers and Hart, air raid blackouts, EB White, going on the wagon, and more! Sources: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22off+the+wagon%22&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22on+the+wagon%22&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3 Jellinek, Elvin Morton. Phases in the Drinking History of Alcoholics: Analysis of a Survey Conducted by the Grapevine, Official...
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Train Dreams
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're covering the history of the Pacific Northwest from the late 19th century to 1968 with Train Dreams! Join us as we learn about boot memorials, Chinese and Chinese-American railroad workers, women working as fire lookouts, and more! Sources: Dina Gachman, "The History of Lady Lookouts," Smithsonian Magazine, available at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/female-fire-lookouts-have-been-saving-wilderness-over-century-180977352/ Photo of Hallie Daggett and Her Dog, Fish and Wildlife: https://www.fws.gov/media/hallie-daggett ...
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Hedda
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to the 1950s with Hedda! Join us as we learn about pretty little things, 1950s fashion, sparklers, women working as professors, and more! Sources: "Celebrating the Legacy of England's First Female Professor," King's College, available at https://www.kcl.ac.uk/celebrating-legacy-of-englands-first-female-professor "Gender Breakdown for Teachers in History," Making History, available at https://archives.history.ac.uk/makinghistory/resources/statistics/gender.html Peter West, "Five Lessons on Bringing Truth Back to Politics from Britain's First Female Philosophy...
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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...
info_outlineThis 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 Jennings Obituary, 2005. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/peter-jennings-304600.html
Bob Granath, "Telstar Opened Era of Global Satellite Television," https://www.nasa.gov/history/telstar-opened-era-of-global-satellite-television/
Garry Whannel, "Television and the Transformation of Sport," The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 625 (2009): 205-18. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40375916
Eva Maria Gajek, "More than Munich 1972. Media, Emotions, and the Body in TV Broadcast of the 20th Summer Olympics," Historical Social Research, 43, no.2 (2018): 181-202. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26454286
David Wharton, "Eye on the Storm: Events in Munich forever changed Games, and how TV presents them," Los Angeles Times 26 August 2002: D1, D10.
Les Carpenter, "Telling it like it was in 'September 5' meant sidelining Howard Cosell," The Washington Post 14 January 2025.
CBS Sunday Morning, "Reporting the tragedy of the 1972 Munich Olympics," https://youtu.be/emhJrz4eYlc?si=r051-xBlOhbzVASh
"Why the media played a fatal role in the 1972 Munich Olympics | DW History and Culture" https://youtu.be/GwFG0d_wzds?si=W5G5-DKTKWKYEarR
https://books.google.com/books?id=5VYEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=LIFE+magazine+olympics+1972&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwidm9q5lPOMAxUuhIkEHQX6NmkQ6AF6BAgHEAM
Sports Video Group, "Geoffrey Mason, Sean McManus on ABC Sports Remaining in Control of the Munich Massacre Coverage," https://youtu.be/cnElwryDcA0?si=mPczShOAirk_QKFn
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_5_(film)
Carolyn Giardina, "How the September 5 Filmmakers Created an Authentic Experience," Variety: https://variety.com/2024/artisans/artists/september-5-authentic-experience-cinematography-production-design-1236204356/
Jake Kanter, "‘September 5’ Director Tim Fehlbaum Says Film About 1972 Olympics Massacre Is Not A “Political Statement” On Israel-Gaza — Venice Film Festival," Deadline, available at https://deadline.com/2024/08/september-5-tim-fehlbaum-not-political-statement-israel-gaza-venice-film-festival-1236072543/