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Dangerous Excitement [the Caroline Affair, the Patriot War, and the McLeod Incident]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

Release Date: 01/01/2024

#110: The Choice of the Next Generation [the Cola Wars in space]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

War! The balance of power in the Cola Wars has been shifting for years. In a stunning move, Coke has swept into NASA and is about to send its signature beverage into orbit... but not if the underdogs at Pepsi have anything to say about it... Key sources for this episode include Charles T. Bourland and Gregory L. Vogt's The Astronaut's Cookbook; David H. Harland's The Story of the Space Shuttle; Tony Reichart's Space Shuttle: The First 20 Years; numerous patent applications; and contemporary newspaper reports. I'll be presenting at the Intelligent Speech conference on February 8, 2025!...

#109: The Number of the Stars [are there actually twelve planets?]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

New Age types keep saying that there are twelve planets. Where does that number come from, and what are these three extra planets supposed to be? (Plus: a detour to the world of ancient astronauts.) Key sources for this episode include Gottfried de Purucker's Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy and The Fountain-Source of Occultism; Govert Schilling's The Hunt for Planet X: New Worlds and the Fate of Pluto; Maureen Temple Richmond's "The Threefold Rulership System in Esoteric Astrology"; Michael Heiser's website ; and the collected works of Zecharia Sitchin. This week we're promoting...

#108: Your Eyebrows Will Grow Back [Richard Timewell's Space Ranger] presented by #42

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

Everybody always asks, "If this is the future, where's my jetpack?" but only Richard Timewell was bold enough to do something about it. And by "do something" I mean "sell jetpacks through the mail." Presented by #42 (Alex Baumans): Pathologically interested in anything unusual and obscure. Closet goth, armchair general and amateur theologian. Favorite animals are ducks, octopodes and pigs. You will also find me surprisingly knowledgable about K-Pop girl groups. Key sources for this episode include contemporary newspaper reports, with some added material from the Secret Projects forum. ...

#107: Deeply Impressed [Helen Duncan goes on trial]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

Helen Duncan was the last person persecuted in Britain for being a witch. Except she wasn't the last, she wasn't a witch, and she wasn't exactly persecuted either... Key sources for this episode include C.E. Bechhofer Roberts' The Trial of Mrs. Duncan; Gena Brealey and Kay Hunter's The Two Worlds of Helen Duncan; Harry Price's Leaves of a Psychist's Case-Book; Marion Gibson's Witchcraft: A Story in Thirteen Trials; Paul Tabori's Harry Price: The Biography of a Ghost Hunter; Ruth Paley and Simon Fowler's Family Skeletons: Exploring the Lives of Our Disreputable Ancestors; and...

#106: Cloud Dongs [George Gray Barnard's Pennsylvania State Capitol sculpture groups]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

George Gray Barnard's sculptures have been installed in front of the Pennsylvania State Capitol since 1911... but the story of their creation is a long and tortured one, featuring the strangest act of self-censorship you'll ever see. Key sources for this episode include Dan Williams' "George Grey Barnard"; Ingrid Steffensen's "Toward an Iconography of a State Capitol: The Art and Architecture of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg"; Ruth Hoover Seitz's Pennsylvania's Capitol; Samuel W. Pennypacker's The Desecration and Profanation of the Pennsylvania Capitol; the catalog of...

#105: Wild Frantics [the Sanctified Band of Chincoteague Island]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

The Sanctified Band was driven from their homes on Chincoteague Island, forced to live in floating arks, and persecuted up and down the Eastern Seaboard... and all they really wanted was freedom to worship as they pleased. Key sources for this episode include Harry J. Collins, Jr. and Floyd L. Hagan, Sr.'s History of Christ's Santified Holy Church; Kirk Mariner's Once Upon an Island: The Story of Chincoteague; Vinson Synan's The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement in the United States; and contemporary newspaper reports. This week we're promoting our friends The Apocrypals -- a podcast where two...

#104: Rapscallions! Part 3 "Surprised and Excited" [the St. Albans Raid and more] Take 2

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

This week we wrap up our look into Confederate skulduggery with a grab bag of smaller plots: Staging fake peace conferences at Niagara Falls! Robbing banks in Vermont! Burning New York! Kidnapping the vice president! (This episode is the third and final part of Rapscallions!, a series about Confederate cloak-and-dagger operations in the final year of the Civil War.) Key sources for this episode include Adam Mayers' Dixie and the Dominion: Canada, the Confederacy, and the War for the Union; Michelle Arnosky Sherburne's The St. Albans Raid: Confederate Attack on Vermont; Oscar Arvle...

#103: Rapscallions! Part 2: "Resist at Your Peril" [the Philo Parsons Incident]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

The only thing standing between John Yates Beall and the Confederate prisoners-of-war on Johnson's Island was the USS Michigan... Well, that and a terrible con man and the cowardice of his own men. (This episode is part two of Rapscallions!, a three-part series about Confederate cloak-and-dagger operations in the final year of the Civil War. Part three will be released on 10/7.) Key sources for this episode include Adam Mayers' Dixie and the Dominion: Canada, the Confederacy, and the War for the Union; John Bell's Rebels on the Great Lakes: Confederate Naval Commando Operations Launched...

#102: Rapscallions! Part 1: "Patience is Sour" [Thomas Henry Hines and the Great Northwestern Conspiracy]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

Thomas Henry Hines had a cunning plan to free Confederate prisoners-of-war and break the Northwest off of the Union. All he needed were sixty good men, fifty footsoldiers, and friends on the inside. Too bad none of those groups existed. (This episode is part one of Rapscallions!, a three-part series about Confederate cloak-and-dagger operations in the final year of the Civil War. Parts two and three will be released on 9/23 and 10/7 respectively.) Key sources for this episode include Adam Mayers' Dixie and the Dominion: Canada, the Confederacy, and the War for the Union; David C. Keehn's...

#101: Universally Detested [Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury -- the worst governor in New York history]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

Legend says Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury (1661-1723) was New York's worst governor: a nepo baby failson; a bully and bigot; a corrupt spendthrift; a sex pest with an ear fetish. Was he really all that awful? And was he actually a transvestite? Key sources for this episode include Patricia Bonomi's The Lord Cornbury Scandal: The Politics of Reputation in British America; Alan Taylor's Writing Early American History; Charles Worthen Spencer's "The Cornbury Legend"; John Grant Wilson's The Memorial History of the City of New York from Its First Settlement to the Year 1892; and Shelley Ross's Fall...

More Episodes

In 1837 Canadians tried and failed to overthrow the British government. The revolution seemed over... and then the Redcoats seized an American ship, set it on fire, and sent it over Niagara Falls, prolonging the conflict for years.

Transcript, sources and more available at https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/dangerous-excitement/

Key sources for this episode include Edwin C. Guillet's The Lives and Times of the Patriots: An Account of the Rebellion in Upper Canada, 1837-1838, and of the Patriot Agitation in the United States, 1837-1842; Howard Jones's To The Webster-Ashburton Treaty: A Study in Anglo-American Relations, 1783-1843; Kenneth R. Stevens's Border Diplomacy: The Caroline and McLeod Affairs in Anglo-American-Canadian Relations, 1837-1842; Kyle Ward's History in the Making; Orrin Edward Tiffany's The Relations of the United States to the Canadian Rebellion of 1837-1838; R. Bruce Taylor's "Anxious Moments in Frontier History"; and Robert Remini's Daniel Webster: The Man and His Time.

Also, a special thanks to #28 for letting me borrow his copy of John Niven's Martin Van Buren: The Romantic Age of American Politics and hang on to it for far too long.

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