26 Jun / 2018

For a Healthy Glow: Episodes from the Crypt

While working on our upcoming “Forbidden Places” episode, Eric and Jordan discovered that one of our intended subjects no longer qualifies as an area off-limits to the public! So, while they scour the planet for other inaccessible locations we thought we’d raise one of our Season 1 episodes (now with a new intro) from the Horrific History Podcast Crypt for your squeamish delight!

For a Healthy Glow: Radiation Poisoning (Episodes from the Crypt)

A finger, hand, limb or life…. What would you give up for the advancement of science? Would you give up as much as the Radium Martyrs of All Nations?

[…]

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12 Jun / 2018

It’s a Trap…?: Booby-traps in History

Have you ever wondered about the use of booby-traps in history or the source of inspiration for common Hollywood tropes? Join Horrific History co-hosts, Eric Slyter and Jordan Watney, as they examine the historical evidence for the use of booby-traps in historical records from across the globe. What kind of danger was waiting for archeologists in the Valley of the Golden Mummies? Was the cinnabar in the Red Queen’s tomb really a trap left for whomever might disturb her sarcophagus? Is there a historical basis for the collapsing temples often found in adventure movies, and would the resulting danger be caused by an intentional trap or merely correlated with the building practices?

As we search through burial sites for signs of traps, we find too much of a good thing from ancient Egypt and questions about whether any ill effects from examining a site is caused by an intentional trap or merely correlated to ritual practices of the period. In the Mayan city of Palenque, we find a burial chamber with a royal sarcophagus and two other bodies. We find a collapsing temple filled with sand in Cambodia before discussing the use of booby-traps in guerrilla warfare tactics during the Vietnam War, and the difference between venom and poison. Finally, we’ll discuss a Chinese tomb believed to contain mercury lakes and crossbows […]

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15 May / 2018

H2-OhNo! Part 2: Raw Water

For what purpose would you willingly use raw water? Drinking? Cooking? Bathing? Join Horrific History co-hosts, Eric Slyter and Jordan Watney, as they look at more instances of raw water usage, both in the past and modern history (including some history humanity is making right now). Learn how John Snow, one of the founders in the field of epidemiology during a period when Miasma theory was prevalent, found Patient Zero in 1854 after cesspools contaminated raw water supplies with cholera. How did raw water help bring an industry to the point of economic collapse around 1925? In what ways have history and modern natural disasters impacted the current safety of raw water in Puerto Rico?

As this journey through the history of raw water comes to the present, and with a better understanding of the progression of water safety, a brief examination is made of some current events relate to raw water contamination. Discover how wells dug by the United Nations to prevent exposure to surface water bacteria created debilitating new problems for […]

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17 Apr / 2018

H2-OhNo! Part 1: Raw Water

Α reconstructed appearance of Myrtis, an 11-year-old girl who died during the plague of Athens and whose skeleton was found in the Kerameikos mass grave, National Archaeological Museum of Athens

Just how pure is your raw water source? Do you trust it? Would you drink it? Join your Horrific History co-hosts, Eric Slyter and Jordan Watney, as they take several trips in the Horrific History time and space machine to look at cases in history when trusted water supplies turned deadly and how some earlier societies handled water quality concerns. Learn how waterborne diseases can help determine the outcome of a war, encourage societies to develop regulations on industry and even kill already starving settlers in a new (to them) land. We’ll also take a brief look at how people have viewed and measured water quality through history (hint: up until recent history water quality was assessed only by human senses), and natural contaminants which can be harmful (or deadly) when you’re drinking water to achieve that healthy glow.

How did scientists prove that typhoid helped determine the outcome of the Peloponnesian War between the Spartans and the Athenians around 430 BCE, and what conditions allowed it to help wipe out an estimated 1/3 of the population in Athens? Is it true that people in the middle ages only drank beer instead of water because the quality was so bad? What made the water so toxic […]

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27 Mar / 2018

The Starvening, Pt. 2: Winter Cannibalism 2

A facial reconstruction of “Jane of Jamestown” is seen during a news conference at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, Wednesday, May 1, 2013. Scientists announced during the news conference that they have found the first solid archaeological evidence that some of the earliest American colonists at Jamestown, Va., survived harsh conditions by turning to cannibalism presenting the discovery of the bones of a 14-year-old girl, “Jane” that show clear signs that she was cannibalized. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

From the last episode, we know Jamestown’s English settlers got their colony off on the wrong foot; this week, join your Horrific History co-hosts, Eric Slyter and Jordan Watney, as they get to the meat of the subject and explore both the period accounts of cannibalism in addition to the recent related archeological finds. What led the Jamestown colonists to experience such desperation that they would themselves engage in murder, grave-robbing, and the eating of human flesh? Which famous person from the colony wrote a book to profit off those same horrors?

We’ll also explore the more recent historical accounts of the 1972 Andes Flight Disaster, also referred to as the Miracle of the Andes, when 45 people aboard a small aircraft crashed atop an unnamed mountain (later named Glaciar de las Lágrimas, or Glacier of Tears) which straddled the remote mountainous border between Chile and Argentina. When the remaining survivors heard on the radio that the search parties had called off the rescue efforts, they had to give up hope or find a way to survive. Hear about the lengths they went to survive the crash and the journey to, without provisions or equipment, climb down a mountain to let the world know they were still alive and needed help. Could you go to the same lengths, eating your deceased family, friends, or even your wife? […]

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13 Feb / 2018

There’s Something in the Air at Hanford

Hello Squeamers!

The home state of Horrific History Podcast’s co-hosts got into the news today, and the reasons are terrible. Our Hanford Nuclear Reservation made headlines with the on-going drama of radiation leaks of plutonium particles not only detected in 45 workers (so far) but also found outside the safety zone. Is it a case of profits over people at this key facility for the development of the first nuclear weapons? To learn more about the new developments in this compelling situation, read this article. Just remember, no squeam allowed!

Slideshow photo credit: Andras, Fulop Radiation Area 9606_814 via photopin (license)

Blog photo credit: NagasakiOsada civildefenseradiationmeter via photopin (license)

12 Sep / 2017

Not Your Garden Variety Episode: Toxic Plants

Can you identify all the plants in your yard or garden pots? After hearing this episode, you may never look at them (or honey products) the same way again! Eric Slyter and Curtis Bender, your Horrific History co-hosts, explore some pretty (and highly toxic) plants from across the globe. From nightshade to wolfsbane, and rhododendron to barbasco, this episode will have you questioning the biological warfare applications of your garden plants… just remember to watch how much you use!

Discover which invading armies might have thought of new territory as the “Lands of Tainted Honey.” While Xenophon weighs in with his thoughts on the matter, discover the awful side effects of the wholly natural (but toxic to mammals) “mad honey” which had a history of being used as a tool of violent conflicts long before Draco Malfoy thought to lace a mead with poison.

The “queen of poisons,” derived from […]

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5 Sep / 2017

Labor & Brooklyn Bridge

In Horrific History’s most recent episode about some of the precursors to different labor movement across the globe in history, Eric covered some pieces of history contemporary to the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. While we may never know exactly how many died and the ways in which they lost their lives (many deaths and details have been lost to history and/or gone unrecorded) in the construction of the bridge, we do know that some were crushed by falling stones, killed by cables, or fell from great heights. Most deaths, however, seem to have come from “the bends” which was covered in our decompression sickness episode.

We found a source of information for those who are interested in learning more about the unsung builders of “The Great East River Bridge and some of the working conditions which led them to later organize and strike. Just remember, no squeam allowed!

Slideshow photo credit: Kai Lehmann brooklyn bridge (NYC) via photopin (license)

31 Aug / 2017

Profits Before People: Assassinations, Disasters and Child Labor

Profits Before People: Assassinations, Disasters & Child Labor

What are the worst job conditions you have ever experienced or known about? What were your biggest concerns? Join Horrific History co-hosts, Eric Slyter and Curtis Bender, as they scratch the surface on the long struggle for workers’ rights in human history when the profit margins of the rich and powerful have hung in the balance. From Venice to pre-Soviet Russia, Europe to the United States, the guys cover a lot of space and time in this episode while discussing some of the precursors to different labor movements and our modern Labor Day.

Learn about the Italian glass industry monopoly so coveted that the purchase of their work could have bankrupted a country. Its success, in large part due to its workers’ isolation in a “gilded cage” on the island of Moreno, allowed some to “marry up” while others feared a private police force which could carry out assassinations of themselves and […]

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29 Aug / 2017

It was the solar eclipse!

Hello Squeamers!

Your next regularly scheduled and eagerly anticipated podcast episode from Horrific History was almost ready for publishing when we suddenly had some very unexpected technical difficulties. Since our last episode was about Harbingers of Doom: Celestial Events and Superstitions and two of our volunteer staff went to see the event in its totality…. we’re just going to go with the superstitions of old and say the eclipse somehow fried our hard drive. We’re in the process of trying to do data recovery so we can get you your episode as quickly as possible, but our best guess at the moment is that the Chinese dragon or dog that “ate the sun” also ate our latest episode.

So send us some positive vibes, tell us your favorite technological superstitions and give us your best recommendations for inexpensive data recovery programs online (when the computers won’t even recognize the bricked external drive) and we’ll get you your next episode as soon as we can. Or, if you’re feeling really generous, you can go to our Support Us page, click the donate button, and help us raise the funds to pay professionals to fix our equipment since we don’t have a computer guru on staff!

Keep squeaming! We’ll be back in your podcatcher just as soon as we can!

Slideshow photo credit: Ömer Ünlü Old Wehicle via photopin (license)

Blog post photo credit: Horrific History Podcast