Softcore History

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The Pennsylvania Tsunami That Was Armed And On Fire Jun 05, 2023

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What happened when Andrew Carnegie and his robber baron friends made a few cosmetic adjustments to an important dam to upgrade the aesthetics of their fishing club? Just the Johnstown Flood, the most violent flood in American history.
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The Other Book of Mormon May 30, 2023

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Is Brigham Young REALLY the heir to Joseph Smith? After Smith was killed in 1844 there was not one but TWO claimants to lead the Mormon Church. The other would-be Polygamy Pope was James Strang, a lawyer and self-described "cool philosopher" who claimed to have been named Smith's heir by the Latter Day Saints founder himself. And Strang (conveniently) had the legal documents to prove it! The split eventually led Strang and his followers to Beaver Island, Michigan, where things kept getting weirder.
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This Episode Could Get Us Excommunicated (Seriously) May 22, 2023

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The Catholic Church has a long and bizarre history with holy relics, but the story of The Holy Prepuce — aka baby Jesus’s circumcised foreskin — is easily the weirdest of them all. So odd that Pope Leo XIII issued a decree in 1900 that if a Catholic talked about it (or made fun of it) they could be immediately excommunicated from the Church.
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The Troll Who Won World War 2 May 15, 2023

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Juan Pujol Garcia was a Spanish chicken farmer turned self-made spy. A fervent hater of fascism, he decided to volunteer as a spy for the Nazis and then feed them bogus info from himself and a network of totally fictional agents he said were working for him in London. He was so trusted, and the Nazis were so stupid, that he became their most important spy during the war. His influence was so great that may have given the Allies the intelligence advantage they needed to win World War 2.
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Guess The Dead Language - Free Patreon Preview May 11, 2023

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Think you'd know Latin if you heard it? Can you understand Middle English? Can you even possibly guess what ancient Aztec or Sumerian sounds like? Tune in and guess along with our hosts as they attempt (and fail miserably) to identify what dead languages are being spoken to them.
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The Time Dracula Saved Jesus May 08, 2023

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Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini was a 15th-century smut writer who climbed all the way up the Papal ladder and became Pope Pius II, head of the Catholic Church. But his reign was during a time of major crisis for the religion. After the fall of Constantinople, with limited options to fight off the Turks, he turned to Vlad the Impaler to save Europe from Muslim rule.
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When A Fruit Became God May 01, 2023

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What happens when you eliminate religion during a cultural revolution? Sometimes people, looking to fulfill their spiritual needs, start worshipping mangos. From mango shrines to mango cigarettes, China under Mao went all in on worshiping mangos in the 1960s.
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The King Who Beat Off Sea Men Apr 24, 2023

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Ramesses III took power in Egypt during the Late Bronze Age Collapse, a literal regional apocalypse caused by a horrifying invading horde known as the Sea Peoples and the fact that sun didn’t shine for about 20 years, making farming… difficult. Despite the invading horde and severe lack of food — and facing the first worker strike in human history — the guy did pretty well. But not everyone was a fan.
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Boston’s Streets Ran Brown With Blood Apr 17, 2023

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The Great Molasses Flood was a disaster that occurred on January 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood of Boston after a large storage tank of the viscous substance burst and rushed through the streets killing 21 residents and injuring 150 more.
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Get Back To Work, Peasant Apr 10, 2023

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The guys discuss a meme floating around the internet that claims medieval peasants had more time off than modern workers. Spoiler alert! That’s not really true. Learn about peasant life this week and be thankful for your soulless corporate job.
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