Claim OwnershipA Popular History of Unpopular Things
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© 2025 A Popular History of Unpopular Things
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A podcast that makes weird, gross, gory, and just generally “unpopular” history more fun and accessible
69 Episodes
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Join Kelli as she goes over the history surrounding Typhoid Mary. We'll go beyond the typhoid-laden peaches and fresh ice cream! When we take a step back and look at her whole story in context, we get a different view of what it must have been like to be "Typhoid Mary," a strong, no-nonsense, Irish immigrant making a living as a cook in NYC and surrounding areas. The Music Time MachineFeel young again listening to the stories behind the music of your lifeListen on: Apple Podcasts ...
Join Kelli as she goes over the Congo Free State, owned not by Belgium, but by its King - Leopold II. During the 19th century in Africa, seven European countries - Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, met to divide up Africa; they had already encroached on about 10% of it, mostly the coasts, but now they wanted more. In this episode we discuss why, and what happened to the Congolese men, women, and children who were suddenly under the control of King Leopold. Intro ...
Join Kelli as she goes over the history of the English Peasant's Rebellion, 1381. The Black Death had severely impacted England - not just in high mortality rates, but also its ability to function within its strict feudal order. To help compensate for the drop in workers, and to try and get the economy back on track, Edward III passes the Statute of Laborers in 1351. But what this did was set in motion a rage against feudalism, government intervention, and inequality that manifested as the Pe...
Join Kelli as she goes over the history behind the Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic, an event that started with three schoolgirls in late January 1962 and spread to nearby villages. It took roughly 18-24 months for the epidemic to finally stop, and luckily, nobody died. It was determined that this was a case of mass psychogenic illness - the more modern name for "mass hysteria." But how did it start? Why schoolgirls in Tanganyika in early 1962? Let's look to the historical context to get an under...
Join Kelli as she goes over another case where the US government experimented on humans - but this time, they purposefully infected Guatemalans with syphilis, taking what happened with the men of Tuskegee a whole step further. So today we'll do some historical context to figure out why Guatemala - what happened in history that led to such a level of interventionism that the US government would conduct medical experiments on the Guatemalan people? Once that's squared away, we'll briefly ...
Join Kelli as she goes over Stonehenge. We'll start with the basics - what stonehenge is, what it's made of, who might have built it, how they built it, what a henge even is... before talking about some of the more recent explanations for some of its mysteries. We'll also talk about its purpose - a gathering place to celebrate the summer and winter solstices? A burial ground? Both? And does it have a connection with nearby Durrington Walls, only two miles away, and a henge complex that might...
Join Kelli as she goes over a tale of a Scottish incestuous cannibal family - the Beans. As legend goes, they lived in a cave in southwest Scotland, only venturing out to kill passersby and loot them for good - and meat. Over 25 years, it's said they killed over 1,000 people. But how much truth is there to this grisly tale? It sounds a little too gross to be real. Let's dive into the history to find out where the Sawney Bean story comes from, how credible the sources are, and whether th...
Join Kelli as she goes over yet another example of US doctors experimenting on their own people. Starting in the 1950s, dermatology Dr. Albert Kligman came to the Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia and experimented on its prisoners. What started as a simple cure for an athlete's foot outbreak turned into a decades-long series of experiments, ranging from testing lotions and cremes to hallucinogenic drugs to the toxic compounds found in Agent Orange. Though the experiments eventually stopped ...
Happy holidays, APHOUT fans! Join Kelli as she goes over a Welsh Christmas Day Massacre! In 1175, William de Braose committed a massacre against some rival families in Gwent, southeast Wales. De Braose, a Norman who was given control of Abergavenny Castle after his uncle Henry Fitzmiles was killed, decided to seek retribution against the man responsible - Seisyll ap Dyfnwal. Seisyll, his son, and many of his men, came to have a peaceful Christmas dinner at de Braose's Abergavenny keep. Once ...
Join Kelli as she goes over the Ball of the Burning Men, an event during King Charles VI's reign in France where 6 men - charivari dancers dressed as wild men in very flammable costumes - caught fire. And one of the men was the King himself - Charles VI. In today's episode, we go over the historical context of the time, including the Hundred Years War. Then, we look into Charles VI, sometimes called Charles the Mad, to understand how he ended up in a flammable costume on fire at a ball. And...
Join Kelli as she goes over the history of the Wicker Man! The Wicker Man was popularized first by the Christopher Lee movie from 1973, and later with Nicholas Cage's remake. The first was folk horror, the second more action suspense. But was the Wicker Man a real thing? Let's go back into the primary sources to read the first ever mention of a Wicker Man in the historical record - Julius Caesar's Commentary of the Gallic Wars. Once we get all the facts, analyze the sources, and take note o...
Join Kelli as she goes over New Jersey's most famous cryptozoological son - the Jersey Devil. Though the Jersey Devil was the devil-born son of the Leeds Family, not much is known about it; it lives in the Pine Barrens, it looks like a weird, winged amalgamation of animals, and it was once "caught" and put in a Philly museum in 1909 (spoiler: they painted a kangaroo with stripes). But beneath the myth is a real history - who were the Leeds family, and why is there a story about them birthing...
Join Kelli as she goes over the mythology of the Headless Horseman. Most of us associate the headless horseman with Washington Irving's book, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. But the idea of a ghostly rider looking for his head, or perhaps a decapitated ghost haunting local villages, goes all the way back to medieval Europe, perhaps even deeper into ancient Celtic mythology. Intro and Outro music credit: @nedricmusic Find him on all streaming services and YouTube! http://www.nedricmusic.co...
Join Kelli as she goes over the Pendle Witch Trial of 1612, England's most infamous trial. 12 people from the Pendle Hill Area in Lancashire were accused of witchcraft in James I's England, a monarch who hated all-things witches and demons. Of the 12, eleven were put on trial, and ten were hanged. But, like we saw with Salem, two of the main sources of evidence came from hearsay and children's testimonies. Worse still, a nine-year-old girl helped get most of her family convicted! What happ...
Join Kelli as she goes over the ORIGINAL Dracula- Vlad Dracula, the Impaler. Although the fictional character is only loosely based on Vlad, the two are inextricably linked forever because of Bram Stoker's Dracula. So today, we'll go over the real Vlad Dracula - who is he, what did his world look like, and how did he earn the moniker "the Impaler?" Then, we'll look at the connections between the real Vlad and his Hollywood counterpart. Happy 2024 spooky APHOUT season! 🎃👻💀 The translation fo...
Join Kelli as she goes over the legend of Madame Delphine LaLaurie, a torturess from New Orleans who tortured, mutilated, and killed at least 20 slaves at her mansion on 1140 Royal Street. But like we saw with the Blood Countess Elizabeth Bathory... is LaLaurie's story grossly exaggerated? How much is fact, and how much is fiction? Let's dive into the mysterious world of New Orleans legend to find out what really happened in Delphine LaLaurie's Murder Mansion. Intro and Outro music credit...
Join Kelli as she goes over ANOTHER shipwreck that ended in cannibalism - that of the Mignonette, a sailing yacht that went down in the South Atlantic. But the Mignonette wasn't really seaworthy, and should never have been out that far... so when a rogue wave destroyed it, and the four men on board had to take their chances on a small dinghy with essentially no supplies... it didn't end well for one of them. Intro and Outro music credit: Nedric Find him on all streaming services and YouTube!...
Join Kelli as she goes over the history behind the Spanish Inquisition. How and why did Spain hunt down heretics to purge the country of non-Catholics? And there will be a LOT of medieval torture devices in today's episode! Intro and Outro music credit: Nedric Find him on all streaming services and YouTube! The Music Time MachineFeel young again listening to the stories behind the music of your lifeListen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify Support the show Intro and Outro music credit: Nedr...
Join Kelli as she goes over the Great Plague of London, 1665-1666, which ended in part thanks to the Great Fire of London, 1666. These are two big events that killed off a good chunk of London's population and destroyed four-fifths of the city. The new London that was built was better suited to withstand fires and plague, and though it still had some sanitation problems, the days of plague-infested roofs and damaging fires was over. Intro and Outro music credit: Nedric Find him on all strea...
Join Kelli for her fiftieth episode where she explores her favorite topic - The Black Death! It's an all-out disease fest, where she goes over the symptoms of plague, how it spread, who it impacted, what it was like for people living with it, and how it impacted the Medieval world. Intro and Outro music credit: Nedric Find him on all streaming services and YouTube! The Music Time MachineFeel young again listening to the stories behind the music of your lifeListen on: Apple Podcasts S...
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