A Popular History of Unpopular Things
A podcast that makes weird, gross, gory, and just generally “unpopular” history more fun and accessible
Episodes
78 episodes
The Bloody Benders
Join Kelli as she talks about a serial killer out of Kansas in the post-civil war era. Taking advantage of westward expansion and a tense climate, the Bender family - Ma, Pa, John, and Kate - were responsible for the murders of at least
The Erfurt Latrine Disaster
Join Kelli as she goes over a very stinky situation that happened in 1184 in Erfurt, part of the Holy Roman Empire and home base of King (and later Emperor) Henry VI.As Henry gathered some squabbling nobles to deal with a petty land disp...
The Voynich Manuscript
Join Kelli in this shorter history on the mysterious Voynich Manuscript, an early Renaissance-era book written in a made up language (dubbed Voynichese) with strange diagrams that seem... out of this world.I love a good *history mystery*...
The Story of Peter the Wild Boy
Join Kelli as she goes over the story of a feral boy found in the woods outside of Hamelin, Germany. He was brought to King George I's court in England and named Peter, and he entertained curious onlookers for months. He had strange mannerisms ...
The Cannibalism of Johan de Witt
Join Kelli as she goes over a strange event from the 17th century Dutch Republic - the time a political leader was killed, strung up, dismembered, and then cannibalized. As always, we set up the history surrounding this event to get...
The Story of Boudica, Warrior Queen
Join Kelli as she goes over the popular legend of Boudica, the short-lived queen of the Iceni peoples in Iron Age Britain.Much of what we know about Boudica comes from heavily-biased Roman sources, written decades or over a century a...
The Roman Black Banquet
Join Kelli as she talks about Rome's first ever Black Banquet, hosted by Emperor Domitian in 89 CE. Today's episode covers some Roman history including the creation of the Colosseum, the Flavian Dynasty, Cynicism and Stoicism, Memen...
The French Pig Trial of 1457
Join Kelli as she looks into the weird world of European animal trials, focusing on the French Pig Trial at Savigny in 1457, where a sow owned by Jehan Bailly was put on trial for the murder of 5-year-old Jehan Martin.That's right - the&...
The Eilean Mòr Lighthouse Mystery
Join Kelli as she goes over the mystery of the Eilean Mòr lighthouse.In December of 1900, the three men keeping the lighthouse on the Flannan Isles - James Ducat, Thomas Marshall, and Donald McArthur - vanished without a trace. The light...
The Tragic Tale of Typhoid Mary
Join Kelli as she goes over the history surrounding Typhoid Mary. We'll go beyond the typhoid-laden peaches and fresh ice cream! When we take a step back and look at her whole story in context, we get a different view of what it must have been ...
The Belgian Congo
Join Kelli as she goes over the Congo Free State, owned not by Belgium, but by its King - Leopold II.During the 19th century in Africa, seven European countries - Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, me...
The 1381 English Peasant's Rebellion
Join Kelli as she goes over the history of the English Peasant's Rebellion, 1381.The Black Death had severely impacted England - not just in high mortality rates, but also its ability to function within its strict feudal order. To help c...
The Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic
Join Kelli as she goes over the history behind the Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic, an event that started with three schoolgirls in late January 1962 and spread to nearby villages. It took roughly 18-24 months for the epidemic to finally stop, and...
The Guatemala Syphilis Experiments
Join Kelli as she goes over another case where the US government experimented on humans - but this time, they purposefully infected Guatemalans with syphilis, taking what happened with the men of Tuskegee a whole step further.So...
The Stonehenge Mystery
Join Kelli as she goes over Stonehenge. We'll start with the basics - what stonehenge is, what it's made of, who might have built it, how they built it, what a henge even is... before talking about some of the more recent explanations ...
The Scottish Cannibal, Sawney Bean
Join Kelli as she goes over a tale of a Scottish incestuous cannibal family - the Beans. As legend goes, they lived in a cave in southwest Scotland, only venturing out to kill passersby and loot them for good - and meat. Over 25 years, ...
The Holmesburg Prison Experiments
Join Kelli as she goes over yet another example of US doctors experimenting on their own people.Starting in the 1950s, dermatology Dr. Albert Kligman came to the Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia and experimented on its prisone...
The Christmas Massacre at Abergavenny
Happy holidays, APHOUT fans! Join Kelli as she goes over a Welsh Christmas Day Massacre! In 1175, William de Braose committed a massacre against some rival families in Gwent, southeast Wales.De Braose, a Norman who was given control of ...
The Ball of the Burning Men
Join Kelli as she goes over the Ball of the Burning Men, an event during King Charles VI's reign in France where 6 men - charivari dancers dressed as wild men in very flammable costumes - caught fire. And one of the men was th...
The Wicker Man
Join Kelli as she goes over the history of the Wicker Man!The Wicker Man was popularized first by the Christopher Lee movie from 1973, and later with Nicholas Cage's remake. The first was folk horror, the second more action suspense. Bu...
The Jersey Devil
Join Kelli as she goes over New Jersey's most famous cryptozoological son - the Jersey Devil. Though the Jersey Devil was the devil-born son of the Leeds Family, not much is known about it; it lives in the Pine Barrens, it looks like a weird, w...
The Headless Horseman
Join Kelli as she goes over the mythology of the Headless Horseman. Most of us associate the headless horseman with Washington Irving's book, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. But the idea of a ghostly rider looking for his head, or perhaps a decapi...
The Pendle Witches
Join Kelli as she goes over the Pendle Witch Trial of 1612, England's most infamous trial. 12 people from the Pendle Hill Area in Lancashire were accused of witchcraft in James I's England, a monarch who hated all-things witches and demons. Of ...
The Original Dracula, Vlad the Impaler
Join Kelli as she goes over the ORIGINAL Dracula- Vlad Dracula, the Impaler. Although the fictional character is only loosely based on Vlad, the two are inextricably linked forever because of Bram Stoker's Dracula. So today, we'll go over the r...
The Delphine LaLaurie Murder Mansion
Join Kelli as she goes over the legend of Madame Delphine LaLaurie, a torturess from New Orleans who tortured, mutilated, and killed at least 20 slaves at her mansion on 1140 Royal Street. But like we saw with the Blood Countess Elizabe...