Professor Buzzkill History Podcast

Latest Episodes:

#69 - Mini-Myth: Thanksgiving Popcorn Nov 26, 2015

Show notes

As the pilgrims pushed their chairs back from the first Thanksgiving table, their stomachs full of turkey and potatoes, Squanto appeared with bushels of popped corn and spilled it out on the tables for the Pilgrims to enjoy. That’s how Americans got popcorn, right Buzzkillers? Well, maybe not. but you’ll have to listen to find out!

#66 - Mini-Myth: The Alamo Nov 12, 2015

Show notes

Everyone was killed at the Alamo. Right, Buzzkillers? That’s why “Remember the Alamo” is such a famous rallying cry in American history. But was everyone killed inside the Alamo? Civilians? Women and children? Was Santa Anna essentially a murderer? Find out, Buzzkillers, by listening to our latest MiniMyth!

#64 - Mini-Myth: Guy Fawkes Nov 05, 2015

Show notes

Remember, remember, the Fifth of November, The Gunpowder treason and plot…. Children’s rhymes make poor history. So do modern day movies, like V for Vendetta. Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators weren’t radicals fighting for the working people. So why do we all wear that mask?

*Encore Episode* #36 - Black Adder and World War 1 Nov 03, 2015

Show notes

It’s time to go over the top, Buzzkillers! We interview Professor Richard Grayson about the wildly popular BBC television series, BlackAdder, and how close it was to historical reality. There are probably more myths about war than any other part of history, and BlackAdder addressed many of them. Let’s “go forth!” and see if they got their history right.

#63 - Mini-Myth: Halloween Oct 29, 2015

Show notes

Halloween is a demonic holiday chock full of sin and endangered by razor blades in trick or treat candy, right? Wrong. Nothing about the origins of Halloween can be called demonic, satanic, or anti-Christian. And the adulterated candy thing is an urban legend. Get the full story from the Buzzkill Institute.

#61 - Mini-Myth: Patrick Henry “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” Oct 22, 2015

Show notes

“Give me liberty or give me death,” Virginia patriot Patrick Henry was supposed to have said in a stirring speech before the American Revolution. We Buzzkill this quote and show that, like most “quotes,” it was written decades after the event. Download Professor Buzzkill and download death to history myths!

*Encore Episode* #32 - The Cultural Cold War Oct 20, 2015

Show notes

The Cold War was about more than nuclear missles and bomb shelters, Buzzkillers. Literature and art were weapons in the Cultural Cold War, according to Professor Greg Barnhisel. He overturns decades-old myths about Cold War era writers and artists who were sponsored by the US government. Duck and cover, Buzzkillers, it's quite a bombardment!

#60 - Mini-Myth: Magellan Didn’t Circumnavigate the Globe Oct 15, 2015

Show notes

He may have had a GPS system named after him, but Ferdinand Magellan wouldn’t have needed it during his trip around the globe back in the early 1500s. He only made it halfway, dying in the Phillipines at the hands of natives who got sick of him asking for directions. But since it was his ship that eventually got back to Europe, he gets the credit. Oh well, Buzzkillers. Who cares about the details anyway?

#58 - Mini-Myth: Witches Burned at the Stake at Salem Oct 08, 2015

Show notes

Burn the witch! Burn the witch! It makes for a dramatic story, with about as final an ending as you can imagine. Suspected witches were nabbed, put on trial, convicted, and burned at the stake in the 1690s in Massachusetts. But it’s just not true. The convicted witches faced a far more mundane fate. Listen and find out!

#56 - Mini-Myth: Lee Offered His Sword to Grant Oct 01, 2015

Show notes

It’s a great “Gone with the Wind” romantic-type story. The defeated, but honorable, General Robert E. Lee offered his sword to the victor, U.S. Grant, during the Confederacy’s surrender at Appomattox Court House. Grant, just as honorably, refused to take it. But it didn’t happen, Buzzkillers. It was a made-up press report that caught the public’s attention and kept getting repeated.

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