Brooklyn
Did That Really Happen?
This week we've got a listener-requested episode on Brooklyn! Join us as we travel back to 1950s Ireland and New York and learn about Irish dances, golf, Coney Island, 1950s immigration, and more! Sources: Source Paul Rouse, How Golf Took Root in Ireland, Irish Examiner, available at https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport-columnists/arid-20472471.html John T. Ridge, Dance Halls of Irish New York, available at https://nyirishhistory.us/article/dance-halls-of-irish-new-york/ Linda Dowling Almeida, Irish Immigrants in New York City, 1945-1995 (Indiana University Press, 2001),...
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Benedetta
Did That Really Happen?
In this definitely NSFW episode, we're traveling back to 17th century Italy with Benedetta! Join us as we learn about the trial of Benedetta Carlini, comets, convent theater, and more! Sources: https://daily.jstor.org/lesbianism-at-the-convent/ Judith C. Brown, Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (1986, Archive.org) Rudolph M. Bell, "Renaissance Sexuality and the Florentine Archives: An Exchange," Renaissance Quarterly 40, no.3 (1987): 485-511. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2862521 Image of the comet over Heidelberg:...
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Kind Hearts and Coronets
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to Edwardian England with Kind Hearts and Coronets! Join us as we learn about man traps, municipal baths, executing nobility, suffragettes doing awesome stuff like smashing windows and flying hot air balloons, and more! Sources: National Trust Collections: Humane Mantrap with No Teeth: https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/832217 Henry Yau, "Student Spotlight #2: Man Traps," The Museum of English Rural LIfe: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/news-and-views/student-spotlight-2-man-traps/ Keith Fitzpatrick-Mathews, Man Traps and Spring Guns and Burymead,...
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A League of Their Own (2022)
Did That Really Happen?
We don't have a new episode this week, so we're releasing a Patreon episode from the vault: 2022's canceled-too-soon series, A League of Their Own. Join us as we learn about the AAGPBL's weird code of conduct, WWII-era mail censorship, and more! Sources: Full text available at https://www.aagpbl.org/history/rules-of-conduct https://www.aagpbl.org/teams/rockford-peaches/1944 Lisa Taylor/Justina Moloney, "Passed Censor," Folklife Today: American Folklife Center & Veterans History Project, Library of Congress (28 August 2017). https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2017/08/passed-censor/ ...
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Nuremberg
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1940s Germany (yup, this is a heavy one, folks) with Nuremberg! Join us as we learn about real-life figures like Douglas Kelley, Emmy Goering, Howie Triest, and more! Sources: James Wylie, “The Battle to Be ‘First Lady of the Third Reich.’” Daily Telegraph (London), November 14, 2019, 22,23. EBSCOhost. Richard J. Evans. 2015. The Third Reich in History and Memory. Oxford University Press. EBSCOhost. George Mosse, Nationalism and Sexuality. New York: Howard Fertig, 1985 "Frau Goering Gets Year, but is Freed," New York Times, 22 July 1948, available at...
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The Testament of Ann Lee
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 18th century Manchester (and America!) with The Testament of Ann Lee! Join us as we learn about Ann Lee's life with her awful husband Abraham and fellow spiritual leader Jane Wardley, shaker spirituals, pacifism, and more! Sources: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pacifism/ Ngram for Pacifism: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=pacifism&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3 George Fox on peace: https://quaker.org/legacy/minnfm/peace/fox_1651.htm Tolstoy, "The Law of Violence and...
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The Terror (Season 1)
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're cracking open the Patreon vault to deliver unto you a bonus episode on Season 1 of The Terror! Join us as we learn about the horrors of the Franklin expedition, including lead poisoning, proof of death, and creepy old diving gear. Sources: https://www.divingheritage.com/deanekern.htm https://www.whitstablemuseum.org/exhibit/diving/ https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/~cmi/dive/diveHist.html https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/archaeologists-get-eerie-first-look-inside-arctic-shipwreck-franklin-hms-terror-180973011/ Wikipedia:...
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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...
info_outlineIt'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
Education Senmon Gakko: Japanese Vocational Education. Available at https://cordmagazine.com/education/education-senmon-gakko-japanese-vocational-education/
A Complete Guide to Senmon Gakkou in Japan: https://studyinjapan.org/a-complete-guide-to-senmon-gakkou-in-japan/
Rikkyo University Institute of Peace and Community Studies, "Local Responses to Prime Minister Abe's Attack on Article Nine and the Constitution," translated by Saito Yuriko,The Asia-Pacific Journal Vol. 14, issue 3, no. 5 (2016).
David Slater, Robin O'Day, Satsuki Uno, Love Kindstrand and Chiharu Takano, "SEALDs (Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy): Research Note on Contemporary Youth Politics in Japan," The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 13, Issue 37, No. 1, September 14, 2015.
Obe Mitsuro, "World News: Students Protest Japan Military Shift," The Wall Street Journal (2015).
Simon Denyer, "Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka speaks out for Black Lives Matter, faces backlash: Protests in Japan have reignited a debate over racism and policing. Osaka has also won support for speaking out," Washington Post (June 8, 2020).
Motoko Rich and Hikari Hida, "In Japan, the Message of Anti-Racism Protests Fails to Hit Home," New York Times (July 1, 2020).
Anna Fifield, "Fierce opponent of U.S. military bases in Okinawa detained for three months: A protest leader's continued detention without trial has triggered accusations that Japanese authorities are trying to silence him." Washington Post (2017).
"1969: Student Protestors Paralyze Tokyo in Anti-War Demonstrations," New York Times (reprinted October 22, 2019)
Alastair Gale, "Japan Pushes Ahead with Antiterrorism Bill; Government says legislation is needed as part of counterterrorism preparations for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo," Wall Street Journal (May 23, 2017).
Mariko Tamura, "Flower Demo: Fighting Sexual Violence in Japan," https://english.kyodonews.net/articles/-/16387
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_(1988_film)
Tom Usher, "How Akira has Influenced All of Your Favorite Film, TV, and Music," Vice, available at https://www.vice.com/en/article/how-akira-has-influenced-modern-culture/
https://akira.fandom.com/wiki/Akira_(anime)
https://www.yokogaomag.com/editorial/bosozoku-biker-gangs-of-japan
https://medium.com/@essie.angelica/the-rise-and-fall-of-japans-notorious-motorcycle-gang-ee31464c2406
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20251017/p2a/00m/0na/053000c
https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/30-years-akira-teenage-kicks-anime-style
Christopher Gerteis, "Cold War Warriors," in Mobilizing Japanese Youth: The Cold War and the Making of the Sixties Generation (Cornell University Press, 2021), 100-120.