Ovaries And Oddities

They say Europe killed its cats and the Black Death was the consequence. Well that's a myth.The real history is darker, a 1233 papal document that put the Pope’s seal on cats as literal "agents of the devil", the witch trials, and the women who paid for it. Meanwhile, on a different timeline, the plague was doing its own catastrophic thing.This episode pulls apart what actually happened to cats in medieval and early modern Europe and why!See you next week,Ivanna BrookesAll socials @OvariesAndOdditiesLinktr.ee/ovariesandoddities

For centuries, two of history’s most powerful dynasties kept their bloodlines pure by keeping them closed: uncle married niece, brother married sister, cousin married cousin. This episode traces that strategy across two continents, the Habsburgs of Spain and Austria, and the Ptolemies of Egypt. A king who couldn’t chew his own food and a dynasty that murdered its way through its own family tree while handing women unprecedented power. This is a story about what happens when power decides it would rather collapse than share.

Their jaw bones glowed in the dark. That’s phossy jaw, and it’s just the start of this episode. This week we’re opening up four diseases that didn’t just kill people, they reshaped labor law, colonial policy, religious doctrine, and royal behavior: phossy jaw, smallpox, leprosy, and the sweating sickness that vanished from history without ever being identified. Industrial poison, biological warfare, social exile, and a mystery epidemic that came for kings. Grab your headphones and get comfortable, this one’s a lot.Let me know what you want to see next!Until next week, Ivanna BrookesMore of the podcast:Linktr.ee/ovariesandoddities

Four women. Four centuries. One question: From Locusta of Gaul, Rome’s poisoner who served an emperor, to Giulia Tofana, whose Aqua Tofana became a quiet lifeline for desperate wives in Renaissance Italy, to Mary Ann Cotton, the Victorian “Angel of Death, and finally Aileen Wuornos breaks the pattern entirely with a gun. This is history’s dark feminine underbelly…Let me know what you want to see nextSee you next Thursday,Ivanna BrookesMore of the podcast:Linktr.ee/ovariesandoddities

This week on Ovaries And Oddities we’re diving into the dark history of the Ouija Board! How it may or may not have killed its inventory and led to dozens of other murders….What topic should I cover next?Until next week,Ivanna BrookesMore of the podcast:Linktr.ee/ovariesandoddities