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...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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,"...
info_outline
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:...
info_outline
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,...
info_outline
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_outline
Marie Antoinette
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're going back to 18th century France with Marie Antoinette! Join us as we learn about Marie' and Louis' not great sex life, giving birth in public, Marie's journey to France, scandalous pamphlets, and more! Sources: Cara Mia DiMassa, "That Austrian Woman," Los Angeles Times (2001). https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-oct-21-bk-59630-story.html Antonia Fraser, Marie Antoinette: The Journey (audiobook) John Hardman, Marie-Antoinette: The Making of a French Queen (Yale University Press, 2019) https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvnwbx1c Charlotte Hodgman, "16 things...
info_outline
Joy
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1970s Britain with Joy! Join us as we learn about the real people who invented IVF, including Patrick Steptoe, Jean Purdy, and Matron Muriel, as well as how papers like the Daily Mirror covered the whole thing. Sources https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/nov/10/screenwriter-jack-thorne-ivf-joy-film-netflix https://deadline.com/2024/10/joy-movie-thomasin-mckenzie-shines-as-test-tube-baby-pioneer-in-joy-1236115393/ https://time.com/7178799/joy-true-story-jean-purdy-netflix/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_(2024_film) Litynski GS. Patrick C. Steptoe:...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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,...
info_outlineNOTE: 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, https://www.flickr.com/photos/beinecke_library/4382703456/in/set-72157623494993704
https://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-is-a-butt-tuba-and-why-is-it-in-medieval-art-michelle-brown
"Foreign Names and Flatulence: Dodging Censorship in the Book Trade," Untold Lives blog 26 September 2016, https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2016/09/foreign-names-and-flatulence-dodging-censorship-in-the-book-trade.html
Hunter Oatman-Stanford, "Naughty Nuns, Flatulent Monks, and Other Surprises of Sacred Medieval Manuscripts," Collectors Weekly 24 July 2014, https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/naughty-nuns-flatulent-monks-and-other-surprises-of-sacred-medieval-manuscripts/
Jody Enders, "The Farce of the Fart" in "The Farce of the Fart" and Other Ribaldries (University of Pennsylvania Press), https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fhctm.9
Anatoly Liberman, "Gone with the Wind: More Thoughts on Medieval Farting," Scandinavian Studies 68, no.1 (1996): 98-104. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40919835
Variety, "Lena Dunhamand the Cast of of 'Catherine Called Birdy' at TIFF 2022| Variety Studio" https://youtu.be/kJTzy63FA-4?si=9u4oC42ZsBvelUSx
People, "Catherine Called Birdy } People + Entertainment Weekly TIFF Studio 2022," https://youtu.be/6RDVfofW6NM?si=ZGPxIH7z4ZBNcZwZ
The Hollywood Reporter, "Bella Ramsey Praises Lena Dunham's Writing in Catherine Called Birdy," https://youtu.be/7JClNeIU7kI?si=YWXRkVbWyD781YjW
RT: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/catherine_called_birdy
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/catherine-called-birdy-bella-ramsey-interview-first-look-exclusive
Variety, https://variety.com/2022/film/reviews/catherine-called-birdy-review-lena-dunham-1235366493/
https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/catherine-called-birdy-review-lena-dunham-b2172806.html
Lindsey Bahr, https://apnews.com/article/film-reviews-entertainment-mel-brooks-8b9cb0885592f58b34353cf2c39591bb
Tacuinum Sanitatis: Medieval Horticulture and Health - Scientific Figure on ResearchGate. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Tropical-fruits-Vienna-2644-A-lemon-Citrus-limon-folio-19r-B-pomegranate_fig6_267278636 [accessed 20 Aug 2025]
"The history of Citrus in the Low Countries during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age, available at https://books.openedition.org/pcjb/2197
Wouter van der Meer"
Tudor History Q and A blog: https://queryblog.tudorhistory.org/2010/04/question-from-jacob-oranges-in-tudor.html?m=0
Susan Cavanaugh, "A Study of Books Privately Owned in England: 1300-1450," available at https://www.proquest.com/openview/cdf761684489fc60d4b2b93e0df09b04/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
Isis Davis-Marks, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-study-shows-medieval-women-used-birthing-belts-180977207/
Andrew Curry, https://www.science.org/content/article/medieval-birthing-girdle-contains-delivery-fluid-milk-and-honey
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2025/01/permission-to-practise-medicine.html
Karen Smith Adams, "From 'The Help of Grave and Modest Women' to 'The Care of Men of Sense': The Transition from Female Midwifery to Male Obstetrics in Early Modern England" MA Thesis, Portland State University (1988). https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4802&context=open_access_etds
Becky Lawton, "Call the Medieval Midwife," https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2018/03/call-the-medieval-midwife.html