GLOW
Did That Really Happen?
We don't have a new episode this week, so we're opening the Patreon vault to take you back to 1980s LA with GLOW! Join us as we learn about the wild world of 80s professional wrestling, including Hulk Hogan, the audition process, and more! Sources: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/original-gorgeous-ladies-of-wresting-glow_n_5953ff80e4b02734df2f98f2 https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2017/06/159777/glow-characters-gorgeous-ladies-of-wrestling-80s-photos#slide-1 Mrspikeshaw "Hulk Hogan - Say Your Prayers, Eat Your Vitamins," https://youtu.be/0-dI4Sl2rzE Sam Migliore, "Professional Wrestling:...
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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:...
info_outlineThis 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 https://www.nytimes.com/1948/07/22/archives/frau-goering-gets-year-but-is-freed-court-also-confiscates-30-of.html
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/the-err-and-the-nazi-partys-systematic-looting-of-europe-xmbqkk/8289/
https://www.errproject.org/jeudepaume/about/err.php
Douglas Kelley, 22 Cells in Nuremberg, https://archive.org/details/22-cells-in-nuremberg-douglas-m-kelley-z-library/page/n7/mode/2up
Jack El-Hai, "The Psychiatrist and the Nazi," World War II 28, no. 5 (2014): 38-45.
Jack El-Hai, "The Nazi and the Psychiatrist," Scientific American, (2011), https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-nazi-and-the-psychiatrist/
Martin Levinson, "General Semantics and PTSD in the Military," ETC: A Review of General Semantics, 72, no.3 (2015): 258-64, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24762164 .
Meilan Solly, "The True Story Behind 'Nuremberg,' a WWII Drama About Hermann Goring's Cat-and-Mouse Game With an American Psychiatrist," Smithsonian Magazine (2025) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-true-story-behind-nuremberg-a-wwii-drama-about-hermann-gorings-cat-and-mouse-game-with-an-american-psychiatrist-180987621/
José Brunner, ""Oh Those Crazy Cards Again": A History of the Debate on the Nazi Rorschachs, 1946-2001," Political Psychology 22, no.2 (2001): 233-61, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3791925
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_(2025_film)
Interview with James Vanderbilt, NPR: https://www.npr.org/2025/11/11/nx-s1-5487719/nuremberg-james-vanderbilt
https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/nuremberg-james-vanderbilt-interview
Mario Cacciotollo, "Jewish Army Translator Who Got Close to the Nazis," BBC, available at https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-14706309