loader from loading.io

Citizen X

Did That Really Happen?

Release Date: 09/29/2025

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer show art 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 show art 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 show art 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 show art 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 show art 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 show art 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 show art 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 show art 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 show art 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 show art 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_outline
 
More Episodes

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: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1693160699/vintage-military-leather-coat-nkvd-ussr?ls=s&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=ussr+leather+coat&ref=sr_gallery-1-3&pro=1&frs=1&sts=1&content_source=ea92b9d4-aade-40d3-b4f5-76303f343729%253A173171afec9899d2d1a7aae295e34fbd6f5b6db7&organic_search_click=1&logging_key=ea92b9d4-aade-40d3-b4f5-76303f343729%3A173171afec9899d2d1a7aae295e34fbd6f5b6db7
Photo: Two Young Women in Gorky Park, 1990: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/two-young-women-wearing-black-leather-and-heavy-make-up-news-photo/635964153?adppopup=true
Photo: Eduard Shevardnaze Surrounded by Body Guards, 1991: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/soviet-foreign-minister-eduard-on-his-way-to-the-parliament-news-photo/635967087?adppopup=true

"Body-wide chimerism and mosaicism are predominant causes of naturally occurring ABO discrepancies
Eva-Maria Dauber, Oskar A. Haas, Karin Nebral, Christoph Gassner, Sabrina Haslinger, René Geyeregger, Hein Hustinx, Sofia Lejon Crottet, Erwin A. Scharberg, Michael Müller-Steinhardt … See all authors 
First published: 07 July 2024 https://doi.org/10.1111/bjh.19618"
Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrei-Romanovich-Chikatilo

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/archive/a-killers-confidante-in-a-murderous-town 
Priscilla L. Walton, "If You Love Someone, Hunt Them Down and Kill Them," in Our Cannibals, Ourselves (University of Illinois Press), https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctt1xcgrz.10

David E. Powell, "Social Problems in Russia," Current History 92, no. 576 (1993): 325030. https://www.jstor.org/stable/45316885 
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/andrei-chikatilo
Charlotte Houghteling, "Capital Offense: Reducing Crime in the Former Soviet Union," Harvard International Review 21, no.3 (1999): 15-6. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42762546 

Veronique Campion-Vincent, "The Tell-Tale Eye," Folklore 110 (1999): 13-24. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1261063 
Arthur B. Evans, "Optograms and Fiction: Photo in a Dead Man's Eye," Science Fiction Studies 20, no.3 (1993): 341-61. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4240276

Alexander, Rustam. “Soviet Legal and Criminological Debates on the Decriminalization of Homosexuality (1965–75).” Slavic Review 77, no. 1 (2018): 30–52. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26565348.
Rustam Alexander, The Queer Life of Lieutenant Petrenko: The KGB and Male Homosexuality in the Ukrainian SSR of the 1960s. Europe-Asia Studies. Jun2023, Vol. 75 Issue 5, p721-741.
Eremin, Arkadiy, and Oleg Konstantinovich Petrovich-Belkin. “State Policies Regarding Sexual Minorities in Russia: From Russian Empire to Modern Day Russian Federation.” Sexuality & Culture 26, no. 1 (February 1, 2022): 289–311. doi:10.1007/s12119-021-09891-0.