S02E21: Kate Warne, the heroic first woman Pinkerton detective, and Pearl Tytell, handwriting detective and trailblazing forensic document examiner.

When you need a tricky job done, you have to hire the best! As the first lady detective, Kate Warne’s work with the Pinkertons opened new investigative doors for the agency, helped foil a presidential assasination plot, and paved the way for the creation of the CIA. (We’re also told that she did a fabulous southern belle cosplay.) Pearl Tytell’s groundbreaking document investigation techniques exposed fraud in the highest levels of the government and the lowest reaches of backroom business deals and career-ending gossip mills. (She once even uncovered a fake claim to Russian royalty!) At times, her analysis carried more weight in the courts than the opinion of the FBI. From typewriter quirks to ink colors and paper stock, when Pearl was the expert witness, everybody listened!

S02E20: Slender Man and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Heads up: The first story involves violence against children. Listen at your own discretion.

Whether written at the dawn of a nation or crowd-sourced on the internet, all urban legends hold within them at least a tiny kernel of truth. Here’s what happens when those distorted stories stop being fiction and become real living nightmares.

S02E19: Mrs. Margaret Smith-Wilkinson, nicknamed the Countess of Monte Cristo, and Lady Jane Lewson, the possible real life inspiration for Miss Havisham.

Come meet a hotel mogul turned high society con artist (who probably wasn’t a black widow), and the enigmatic walking fire hazard that might have inspired Dickens’ fictional jilted bride; two women whose actual lives are truly the stuff of fiction.

S02E18: Woven spells, sewing magic, and the history of spinsters.

Is there someone in your life who knits with glass needles, spins their own yarn, sews their own patterns, or dyes their own thread? Yes? Well, we strongly discourage getting on their bad side. You know, just in case they decide to throw that project into the fire.

S02E17: Personal Ghost Stories and Haley’s Haunted Mom.

I mean, who doesn’t want to hear stories about a spooky local legend, a whispering apparition, a 1970s UFO, and Haley’s mom talking about the little girl ghost in her hall who looks just a bit too familiar?

S02E16: Sewing spacesuits and the science lab at the Eiffel Tower.

Did you know that the Eiffel Tower doubles as art and science? It’s true! Also true: sewing a space suit is hard, and then your work gets shredded.

S02E15: Catacomb saints and the Sedlec Ossuary.

Here for all of your bejeweled skeleton and fancy skull garland needs!

S02E14: The doctor-prescribed history of condoms and vibrators.

From “American tips” to hysteria treatments (and, somehow, maybe also bees), the history of getting off is exactly as awkward as you think it is.

S02E13: The history of Summer Solstice celebrations, rituals, and crafts.

You like fire, right? Because, honestly, you’re going to need to like fire for this one.

S02E12: Historical queer love letters and lavender languages past and present.

S02E11: Dr. Cyr, the father of School Bus Yellow, and the concerningly yellow canary girls of WWI.

S02E10: Dentures and false teeth throughout history and street dentist Painless Parker. Chipped porcelain, cocaine, and an actual dental circus with a side of rehab? Obviously, we’re in.

S02E09: Recycled silk parachutes and garments made from escape and evade maps. Honestly, what’s hotter than lingerie made from the very map that helped your hot RAF pilot boyfriend escape the Nazis? Nothing! The romance novel practically writes itself.

S02E08: Interesting epitaphs and headstone symbology. Thanks to chisels, stone, and, for some reason, zebras, the dead don’t need to be ghosts to communicate with the living!

(If you can explain the zebras, please get in touch. We’re so confused.)

S02E07: Green burials, body farms, and the inner workings of tombs, vaults, and mausoleums: We jump into the world of burial and interment, and somehow come out on Team Mausoleum. (We’ll also take Team Grad Student Road Trip, pending availability.)

S02E06: The Night Witches (the Nazi-bombing war heroes), and Lilith, the original Night Witch (possibly a demon, a goddess, or Adam’s first wife): These badass babes have at least one thing in common: if they’re around, you definitely won’t be getting any sleep.

S02E05: The Ring of Senicianus (The Real ‘One Ring to Rule Them All’ that inspired Tolkein?) and the Prague Orloj: Meet a cursed Roman artifact that just might lead to Hobbits and an astronomical clock with a rumored penchant for murder. (This is why we can’t have nice historic things.)

S02E04: Mourning attire and practices and black widow murderers: You know, when you think about it, it’s actually kind of unclear which one of these categories is more deadly.

Post-mortem photography and mourning jewelry: It’s not all sunshine and hair locks, my friends.

Let’s take a moment, shall we, to drop in on a dissectable, completely inexplicably orgasmic wax woman or two? Or maybe you’d prefer a mid-kick soccer player who’s just casually stepped out of his skin? Good news! You can totally see both, because, turns out, science and art play together quite nicely!

No human skin lampshades or tooth-bejeweled underthings were waiting under the tree for these podcast hosts! (But, there’s always next year!)

Victorian Christmas Candle Fires and Creepy Holiday Traditions: Spoiler alert–Victorian times were deeply flammable.

Spiritualists, Fraudulent Mediums, and the Cottingley Fairies: You can question the trustworthiness of spirit mediums all you want, but we still wouldn’t recommend fucking with the Fae. Ever.

Tarot History, Tarot Cards, and Pamela Colman Smith: Shuffle the deck and determine your fate! Unless, of course, you’re a woman called Pixie in the 1900s.

Talking boards, spirit boards, Ouija boards: so many names, and so many ways to contact the beyond and/or open up a demon portal to hell.

S01E14: The life of serial killer H. H. Holmes (Herman Webster Mudgett) and the creation of His Murder Castle. (Part 1 in a 4-part Halloween series, including 2 main episodes and 2 episodes for our supporters on Patreon!)

S01E13: Samhain and Halloween history, witchcraft crafts (corn dollies/corn mothers, witch bells, and candles), and creating your own witchcraft altar.

S01E12: The Victorian Language of Flowers (Floriography), Victorian Botanical Scrapbooks (Herbariums), and Seaweed Hunters.

S01E11: Wartime Crafting: Girl Guide Spies and Knitting in Codes –
You’ve probably heard of the Girl Guides (and Girl Scouts), but did you know that they were properly badass in WWI and WWII? And, if knitting patterns have ever looked kind of like a secret code to you? Well, there might be a good reason for that!

S01E10: Witch Bottles and Tomb Curses.

Can we please all just agree not to open the tomb, drink the mystery liquid, or make glass bottles filled with nails and pins to explode in fires?

2020 doesn’t need any excuses to get weirder or more terrifying, okay?

S01E09: The History of Grimoires and How to Make One. Join us today in the restricted area of the Curiosity Shop, where a squeaky old library cart holds grimoires aplenty!

S01E08: Mannequins, Automatons, and a Trip into Hell’s Own Uncanny Valley.

Did that automaton just move? And how long has that mannequin been standing behind me? Hello? Is anybody here?

S01E07: Historical, Medical, and Modern Corsets. In this episode, Haley and Natali discuss sexy potential death traps and boobs. So very many boobs.

S01E06: Making Mummies, Mummy Unwrapping Parties, and Mummy Brown Paint.

S01E04: Victorian Chatelaines and the History of Pockets in Women’s Clothing.

S01E03: Death Masks, the Unknown Woman of the Seine, and the Paris Catacombs.

S01E02: Scheele’s Green (Arsenic Green), Cadmium Red, and the Radium Girls.

S01E01: Mother of Forensic Science Frances Glessner Lee’s Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death and Miyu Kojima’s Miniature Replicas of Lonely Deaths.