Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you about the assassination of LGBT+ Icon Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. Milk and Moscone were both San Francisco politicians and civil rights leaders whose lives were cut short by their former colleague. Milk was a veteran, Wall Street statistician, and hippie who became one of the first openl…

Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you about the crazy fan murder of Selena Quintanilla-Pérez. **This episode includes sensitive content (CW: death, murder, sexual violence, suicide). Listener discretion is advised.** Selena Quintanilla-Pérez has gone by many titles: the Queen of Tejano music, the Queen of Latin Music, the Queen of Tex…

Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you about the Perilous Fate of the American Space Pioneers. Last episode covered the accidents and tragedies of the early Soviet space program, our rivals in the space race and partners in space exploration today. This episode is going to cover the disasters of the American Space program. What would h…

Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you about the fate of some of the early Soviet space pioneers, including the first death in any space program, Valentin Bondarenko, the failed mission of Soyuz 1, the amazing achievement of Yuri Gagarin, the chilling death of Vladimir Komarov, and the conspiracy theory about the lost cosmonauts. The s…

Come gather around the campfire and hear about one of the most puzzling missing person's cases in U.S. history. It seemed to be a regular winter day when heiress Dorothy Arnold left home for a shopping trip. She was just going to buy a new dress. She was well-known, walking on packed New York City streets, wearing especially eye-catching clothing. …

Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you a story about some of the smartest military teams you've never heard of. Today we’re going to be talking about the code-breakers of World War II. Part 1 discussed Native American code-talkers. Part 2 will discuss Allied code-cracking teams including the stories of the Enigma, Alan Turing, Marian R…

Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you a story about the American heroes you may not have heard about. Today we’re going to be talking about the code-breakers and code-talkers of World War II. This episode actually turned out longer than I thought, so I’m going to be splitting it into two parts. Today, we'll discuss the Native American…

Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you about the great mystery of the high-seas: ghost ships. Hear about the history of the legend of these mysterious vessels, some legendary and some true stories that have puzzled sailors, scholars, and scientists for centuries. The Flying Dutchman is one of the most infamous ships that's ever been sa…

Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you about the creepy urban legend that has held fast throughout history. Is there any truth to the idea of strangers slipping poison or sharp objects to unsuspecting trick-or-treaters? Where did this idea come from? Why did your parents make you dump out your pillowcases and sort your candy haul every…

Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you about two incredible stories of survival. Juliane Koepcke and Ada Blackjack Johnson lived 50 years and 7,000 miles apart. One of them fell two miles into the Amazon rainforest after her plane was struck by lighting. The other survived multiple years in the remote icy tundra of an uninhabited Siber…

Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you about a small group of Russian scientists who gave everything to protect the future of humanity's food supply during the brutal 900-day Siege of Leningrad. Hear about the life of their fearless leader, world-famous botanist and geneticist Nikolai Vavilov who established the first seed bank in hist…

Come gather around the campfire and hear about the freezing race to the South Pole. The Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration was in full swing, and British explorer Robert Falcon Scott led two voyages to the largely unexplored continent of Antarctica with the Royal Geographical Society. His first expedition was called the Discovery, but it was his seco…

Come gather around the campfire and let me take you to the tragic and brutal end of the Russian Empire. Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, and their children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei had no idea that they would be the last royal family before the brutal civil war led by Lenin and the Bolshevik revolutionaries that wo…

Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you about the radioactive secrets of Los Alamos and the town's shocking accidents. During and directly after World War II, scientists worked on secret nuclear projects across the United States as part of the Manhattan Project. Dr. Louis Slotin and Harry Daghlian were two such nuclear scientists workin…