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 […]

Black Broth & Broken Vines

What would you suffer or risk to become a full member of your community? Would you jump from extreme heights with only a vine to catch you? Would you allow your body to be surgically and permanently changed without the benefits of modern medicine like anesthesia? Would you kill?

 

Co-hosts Eric Slyter and Curtis Bender discuss real historical rites of passage in this Horrific History episode, covering documented examples from Spartans to more modern accounts of land diving from Papua New Guinea. From extreme heights (and horrible deaths), to murder and ending with genital mutilation we’re covering some of the rituals you may be glad you don’t have to do for your life milestones, right down to the penile subincision. As always: No squeam allowed! […]