16 Mar / 2019

Resurrection: Season 3 Teaser

Grasping hands rising up from the ground in large numbers

After a long absence we’re happy to report the Horrific History Podcast isn’t dead yet! We’re not just a footnote in the history of podcasts you used to be able to download but left you “starvening” for more; a new season is getting ready to rise one more time!

You can look forward to a lot of brand new exciting content this upcoming season, after we pick up where Season 2 dropped into our unexpected hiatus. A listener mail episode, podcast interview cross-overs about which Eric will only vague-cast the teasing details and a Patron-suggested episode will bring us into Season 3 with a lot of fun squeamish delight.

So enjoy a snack while you listen to this new Horrific History Podcast teaser episode for Season 3 through one of your favorite podcast services (iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and more). Just remember, no squeam allowed! Watch you podcatcher for our upcoming release when we’ll get back on track and discuss religious relics!

If you’d like to hear the commercial-free version of this episode and receive other great perks, become a patron of our podcast on Patreon!
Become a Patron!

Click here if you’d like a chance to win a FREE copy of Dead but Dreaming’s Mockingbird EP!

Commercial break music by Dead but Dreaming.

Slideshow Image by Sarah Richter from Pixabay

Blog Image by cyanidekiss from Pixabay

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30 Oct / 2018

Of Monsters & Men: Halloween Special

One of the children of Petrus Gonsalvus

What makes a man a man? Join all three of Horrific History’s co-hosts for this new special Halloween episode as we go back in history to look at one of the times scholars and religious leaders asked this very question! When unexpected visitors come knocking and ask for a fright, Curtis regales us with his cryptid and folklore knowledge with historical impact from the middle ages. A creature from legend, reported to fight knights, bears, wolves and dragons captured the imagination of scholars who asked themselves, “What does it mean to be human?” Going through the centuries, a recurring theme shows up in artwork and literature- even in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight! Emulating this creature caused disaster for French royalty and nobles at a very special masquerade, called the Ball of Savages, when their celebration went up in flames and at least one guest was barbequed. The woodwose stay safely confined to legend until the late 16th Century, when in 1547 a boy with congenital hypertrichosis is given […]

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10 Oct / 2018

Squeam with us LIVE!

Would you like to squeam live? Check out this special announcement about our first-ever live podcast recording with a special guest interview and find out how you can be there!

If you’d like to hear the commercial-free version of our episodes and receive other great perks, become a patron of our podcast on Patreon!
Become a Patron!

Click here if you’d like a chance to win a FREE copy of Dead but Dreaming’s Mockingbird EP!

Commercial break music by Dead but Dreaming.

Slideshow photo credit: Toolstotal Microphone – Credit to https://toolstotal.com/ via photopin (license)

Blog photo credit: Skakerman Headset & mic via photopin (license)

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4 Sep / 2018

Infectious Summer Lovin’

Welcome back Squeamers!

The season of summer lovin’ has come to a close in our hemisphere, but some things stick with you after your One or Two nights with Venus. While we may not have to worry about public bath houses spreading diseases, some intimate encounters still can and this article indicates that STIs (or STDs) are steadily on the rise. Practice safe lovin’ people, to protect yourself and the ones you love (and listen to our linked old episodes to appreciate how much medicine has advanced)! Come back next week to learn the horrible methods of birth control used in history (that we in no way endorse relying on today)!

Just remember, no squeam allowed!

Slideshow photo credit: taberandrew Syphilitic Diseases via photopin (license)

Blog photo credit: NIAID Chlamydia trachomatis Bacteria and the PmpD Protein via photopin (license)

8 May / 2018

You Don’t Have to be Dreaming to Win!

Hello Squeamers!

We are so excited to announce we have our first contest for you to win something really awesome. If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you know we’ve always had the same music, courtesy of Dead but Dreaming, playing in the background for our commercial breaks, intro and outro. The band has kindly offered us copies of their Mockingbird 5 song EP to use for prizes for our listeners! So, if you’ve loved what you’ve heard, this is a great time to enter to get a FREE copy (while supplies last)! And, the first 5 people who fulfill all the steps to entering are automatic winners. Once the first five prizes have been issued, your odds of winning are 1/10 with winning entries being chosen by a random number generator. Not bad right?!?! You get a chance to win and help our podcast reach new people all at the same time!

To Enter:

Give Horrific History Podcast an honest rating with text on iTunes. (Sure, we’d love to receive only 5 star reviews but we’re not going to disqualify your entry if your review has fewer than 5 stars!)
Take a screenshot of your review and email it to us.
Watch your email! If you are a winner we will respond back to ask for your name and mailing address so we can send you your free copy of Dead but Dreaming‘s 5 song EP, Mockingbird! (Your email will not be kept, stored, added to a mailing list, sold or used for any other purpose than fulfilling the terms of this contest.)

Don’t have an Apple device or iTunes? That’s okay! You can […]

24 Apr / 2018

H2-OhWait…

What happened? This isn’t the regularly scheduled Horrific History Podcast episode! Both your co-hosts are currently dedicating their energy to recovering from a seasonal bug that took over our offices and are getting ready for public outreach this weekend. Find out where can you go, this Saturday or Sunday, to meet all three of Horrific History’s co-hosts (Eric, Curtis & Jordan) as they offer Knights of Veritas programming at an event in Washington state! Hear about all the fun activities and services they’ll be offering throughout the weekend.

Next week, assuming Eric and Jordan have recovered, we’ll release Part 2 of H2-OhNo! Until then, no squeam allowed.

Slideshow photo credit: wuestenigel Cold Medecine on a White Background via photopin (license)

Blog post photo credit: marcoverch Elektronisches Thermometer via photopin (license)

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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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14 Feb / 2018

Dark Side of Love

Welcome back Squeamers!

Does the light side of love have you down? Take a walk on the dark side, both literally and metaphorically, when chocolate and cynicism mix. For your vicious valentine, twisted twosome or solitary celebrant we submit this timely article for your enjoyment. Eat your heart out.

Our first episode of Horrific History Podcast’s Season 2 will release soon, but in the meantime we invite you to enjoy our Valentine’s Day debut from last year: One Night with Venus Part 1 and Part 2! Just remember, no squeam allowed!

Slideshow Photo Credit: Danielle Konya’s bakery, A box of Valentine’s day chocolates from Danielle Konya’s bakery.

31 Jan / 2018

Once in a Super Blue Blood Moon….

VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA – JANUARY 31, 2018: A red supermoon rises over hills in the city of Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East. Yuri Smityuk/TASS (Photo by Yuri SmityukTASS via Getty Images)

Welcome back Squeamers!

This morning marked the occasion of the super blue blood moon, an occurrence last seen about 152 years ago! Did you miss it? We’ve not seen any catastrophic events in our social media news feeds, so we’re betting it’s safe to say there are no celestial prophesies we need to worry about foretelling doom on the world. Although, humanity is funny when it comes to historical accounts and remembering the difference between causation vs. correlation. There’s a rich history of humans retroactively attributing credit to unrelated celestial events when horrible or unexpected things happen. Nonetheless, there are still those which assign apocalyptic meaning to the entirely predictable clockwork of the universe; for an example, read this article.

If you missed the lunar event, you can find some fantastic images online; here are some of the sources we found:

23 Jan / 2018

Super Blue Blood Moon… of doom?

Hello Squeamers!

Are you expecting the end times to arrive at the end of the month? As you may remember from our Harbingers of Doom episode, even stranger superstitions have developed around celestial events and we’re expecting a rare one on January 31st, 2018! The super blue blood moon, which last appeared in March 1886, seems to be an exception to this trend however. We weren’t able to find any record of associated panic or concern. Apparently a red blue moon isn’t noteworthy enough… or maybe it the masses don’t care if the name implies that it will only impact “blue-bloods?”

To learn more about this rare event (it won’t come around again for 150 years!), you can read this article from ScienceAlert.com.

Photo credit: JDB Sound Photography Lunar Eclipse With Stars – 2010 December 20 2:58am via photopin (license)