Enjoyable History

Coming up in two weeks: New York Fashion Week! From WNYC’s Sara Fishko is this archival Fishko Files, with a little history.

In 1975, San Diego Zoo began placing tissue samples of rare animals in cryogenic storage for the benefit of future generations. Called the Frozen Zoo, the refrigeration system now contains the cells of more than 1000 species ranging from the white rhinoceros to the black-footed ferret. Scientists are now using the collection to try to save species threatened by extinction. Simon Watts talks to Dr Oliver Ryder, who has worked at the Frozen Zoo from the very beginning. PHOTO: Northern White Rhino cells in the Frozen Zoo (San Diego Zoo Institute For Conservation Research)...moreCopy Link

Johnny investigates an insured writer who’s apparently turned to a life of crime. Rehearsal of Program that Aired March 21, 1950 When making your travel plans, remember... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Motown Records helped create the soundtrack for a generation. And no group at that famous label was more iconic than The Supremes, both for their sound, and for their groundbreaking glamour. This week, hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot talk to Mary Wilson of The Supremes about her days at Motown, and how the group became international ambassadors representing an entire community. Jim and Greg also review new records from the Southern rock band Drive-By Truckers and indie singer-songwriter Torres. ...moreCopy Link

We ignore rumor and speculation and confine our 2020 Movie Preview to the current movie year (see you in 2021, Joel Coen's "Macbeth"!). New stuff from Christopher Nolan, Denis Villeneuve, Wes Anderson and other high-profile directors will – we hope – help us deal with a relative lack of 2019 MVPs Adam Driver and Florence Pugh. And we announce the follow-up to last year's 9 From '99 series: 8 From '84.0:00 - Billboard1:14 - 2020 PreviewBombay Bicycle Club, "Is It Real"29:43 - 8 From '84 / Notes43:16 - 2020 Preview cont.1:30:18 - Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...moreCopy Link

Tim Hardin was an extremely talented songwriter and performer who spent decades struggling with heroin addiction.

From the McCarthy era to the present day, the term "witch hunt" has been used to describe unjust persecution. In this episode, we examine the most notorious witch hunt in American history, in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts. . Hundreds of women and men were accused of witchcraft by young, "afflicted" girls, and many were executed. My guest is Mary Beth Norton, award-winning historian and professor of American history at Cornell University. She joins me to talk about her book, "In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692". Besides explaining the details on how the crisis unfolded, she dispels some of the common myths surrounding this infamous historical event.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...moreCopy Link

When we left off, Cnut had managed to get Eadric... For a full transcript, go to thebritishhistorypodcast.com

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the flow of particles from the outer region of the Sun which we observe in the Northern and Southern Lights, interacting with Earth's magnetosphere, and in comet tails that stream away from the Sun regardless of their own direction. One way of defining the boundary of the solar system is where the pressure from the solar wind is balanced by that from the region between the stars, the interstellar medium. Its existence was suggested from the C19th and Eugene Parker developed the theory of it in the 1950s and it has been examined and tested by a series of probes in C20th up to today, with more planned. With Andrew Coates Professor of Physics and Deputy Director in charge of the Solar System at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London Helen Mason OBE Reader in Solar Physics at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Fellow at St Edmund's College And Tim Horbury Professor of Physics at Imperial College London Producer: Simon Tillotson...moreCopy Link

The Pilgrims and the Puritans dominate our understanding not just of early New England, but also early America and the entire future course of American history. Yet their success and long-term influence weren't foreordained, and they weren't inevitable. Peter Mancall, Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford and Mellon Professor of the Humanities at USC, joins us to talk about his new book, The Trials of Thomas Morton: An Anglican Lawyer, His Puritan Foes, and the Battle for a New England.Get Professor Mancall's new book here.Support us by supporting our sponsors!Gabi Insurance - Take two minutes right now and save big on your car and homeowners insurance at Gabi.com/TIDESIndeed - Go to Indeed.com/TIDES and get a FREE sponsored job upgrade on your post....moreCopy Link

Lars Christian Kofoed Rømer claims his red hat is mere coincidence. He wears it because his mother-in-law knit it for him 15 years ago and he quite likes it. However, it also makes him visually match the mythical underground people he spent three years studying on the Danish island of Bornholm.  Bornholm folklore sometimes references “De Underjordiske”, a kind of people that live under the many ancient burial mounds that spot the landscape. Lars sometimes calls the people “subterraneans”, “pixies” or “underearthlings”. They’re known as a militant group, fiercely defending themselves, their homes in the mounds, and the island. But not an unthankful group either, rewarding humans for kindness or bravery. A tree growing on top of one of Bornholms numerous burial mounds. Photo by Jeff Emtman. It’s worth clarifying that Lars is no “troll hunter” (as the press often gleefully mistakes him to be), nor is he in the business of saying whether reclusive, sometimes-red-hatted people are real or legend. He is, however, in the business of collecting those legends and learning what they can teach us about us. And also what the legends can tell us about the archaeological significance of a Batlic Island that’s been conquered so many times that history’s forgotten who actually made those mounds in the first place.  Lars Christian Kofoed Rømer near a spot where he found a standing stone. Photo by Jeff Emtman. Pursuing legends is difficult though, as Lars attests to in this episode of Here Be Monsters. He tells producer Jeff Emtman stories of both the underearthings and the stories of the skepticism he faced when he pointed the anthropological lens on the place where he grew up. He says, “That’s why there was so much talk about this project. Had it been an anthropological study of shamans in Siberia, or something in the Amazon, then there would have been then public expectation that, ‘of course people there have spirits and stuff like that.’...But when it’s about what happens in your own back garden, then I think that’s where it gets more controversial...there’s certainly magic in distance.” Lars is an anthropologist and the author of Tales in an Underground Landscape, a dissertation he wrote while pursuing a PhD at University of Copenhagen.  Many thanks to producer Rikke Houd, who connected Jeff to Lars and has interviewed him about De Underjordiske for the BBC show Short Cuts.  The Baltic Sea, as seen from the Rønne-Ystad Ferry. Photo by Jeff Emtman. Lars hovers his shadow over the cup marks of the boulder at The Devil’s Bowling Alley. Photo by Jeff Emtman. Bornholm’s biggest town, Rønne, with population approximately 14,000. Photo by Jeff Emtman. A common rocky Bornholm shoreline. Photo by Jeff Emtman. Lars standing on top of an ancient rampart, the site of a legend related to the underearthlings aiding a single patrolman in fending off the Swedish navy. Photo by Jeff Emtman. ...moreCopy Link

Saul David - historian, broadcaster and author of several critically-acclaimed works of fiction and non-fiction - comes on the show to discuss the most brutal and controversial British imperial conflict of the 19th century: the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

The Brazilian federal government on Tuesday revealed charges of cybercrimes against Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, for his alleged role in the leaking of explosive messages written by high-ranking law enforcement officials. Press freedom advocates immediately decried the charges as a dangerous blow to basic press freedoms; Greenwald himself told Washington Post cybersecurity reporter Joseph Marks, "Governments [are] figuring out how they can criminalize journalism based on large-scale leaks." In this podcast extra, Marks breaks down the charges and draws comparisons (and contrasts) with the American government's prosecution of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. ...moreCopy Link

Today's episode covers how the removal of Ancient Greek artifacts from Greece by Lord Elgin played out, how these sculptures became part of the collection of the British Museum, and why the controversy over all this has continued until today. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Susanna Zaraysky, speaker of nine languages, is one of those people who seem able to pick up French or Portuguese almost overnight. In reality, it’s not so effortless—but is she cognitively predisposed to attaining fluency in so many languages? We follow her to an MIT lab where researchers put her through a series of tests. Photo by Patrick Cox. Music by Silver Maple, Lucention, Pause For Concern, Podington Bear and Blue Dot Sessions.

Historian Sophie Ambler chronicles the dramatic life of Simon de Montfort, the 13th-century rebel who battled Henry III for mastery in England and established a revolutionary form of government. Historyextra.com/podcast For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

Since we’ve watched Amanda’s favorite vampire movie, it seemed like a good time to submerge ourselves in all things vampire. We touch on the vast history of vampire folklore and tradition, then dive into some of our favorite examples of vampire media.  This week, Amanda recommends Blood, Bones, and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton and Burn the Ice by Kevin Alexander.  Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about suicide, death, physical assault, child endangerment/death, miscarriage, body horror, mentions of racism and anti-Semitism, and prejudice based on congenital disorders.    Sponsors - Calm is the #1 app to help you reduce your anxiety and stress and help you sleep better. Get 25% off a Calm Premium subscription at calm.com/spirits. - ThirdLove is on a mission to find a perfect bra for everyone. Get 15% off your first order at thirdlove.com/spirits. - Tab for a Cause is a free browser extension that lets you earn money for charity as you browse the web. Join Team Spirits at tabforacause.org/spirits.   Find Us Online If you like Spirits, help us grow by spreading the word! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Goodreads. You can support us on Patreon to unlock bonus Your Urban Legends episodes, director’s commentaries, custom recipe cards, and so much more.  Transcripts are available at spiritspodcast.com/episodes. To buy merch, hear us on other podcasts, contact us, find our mailing address, or download our press kit, head on over to SpiritsPodcast.com.   About Us Spirits was created by Julia Schifini, Amanda McLoughlin and Eric Schneider. We are founding members of Multitude, a production collective of indie audio professionals. Our music is "Danger Storm" by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0....moreCopy Link

Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is already unfolding as a Mitch McConnell-coordinated farce. The charges against Trump are serious, but they beg the question of why Congress has never impeached a president for war crimes. None of the three Senate trials of a president was for imperial crimes committed in plain sight, despite a long history of presidents invading countries, killing civilians, and torturing prisoners.Constitutional and international law scholar Marjorie Cohn discusses the trial of Trump, the refusal of lawmakers to prosecute war crimes, and presents the case that Trump should be impeached for assassinating Iranian Gen. Qassim Suleimani in Baghdad.This month marks 29 straight years that the US has been bombing Iraq. Joe Biden, who proactively aided and abetted the Bush administration’s drive for war, has been openly lying about his record, but Bernie Sanders also has some serious questions he needs to answer about his own support for regime change, missile strikes, and deadly economic sanctions. Jeremy Scahill and Sam Husseini, of the Institute for Public Accuracy, present a thorough history of both candidates records on Iraq over the past three decades....moreCopy Link

What is so unique about the Book of Romans that it has had such a great impact on the church throughout history? Tune in this week as the hosts outline the "big picture" of Paul's letter to the Romans and discuss its incredible historical influence. Joining the hosts again on this program is World Magazine columnist, Gene Edward Veith (originally aired 02-12-06).

Mary Terrell was one of the first African American Women to graduate from college, and rose to prominence during the battles for universal suffrage and civil rights. With fiery speeches and a push in the back, she demanded that we all to go forth and do some good. We have a responsibility to lift each other up as we climb, she said, in order to make the world a better place for all.