The Backstory with Patty Steele

Copyright: 2024 iHeartMedia, Inc. © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent from iHeartMedia

Latest Episodes:

The Backstory: The great stink of 1858 Jul 12, 2024

Show notes

So we’re all sweltering from the heat…air so thick and hot you can feel it go down your throat as you breathe. But heat waves are nothing new. They killed thousands in 1898 and thousands more in the early 1900s. But the one that hit London 166 years ago, changed the city forever. It was “the great stink of 1858.”

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Backstory: Body snatching for profit Jul 09, 2024

Show notes

They say knowledge is power. But is it more important than ethics…or law? Over the centuries, researchers' quest to understand what’s under our skin, the human anatomy, has motivated scientists—as well as money-hungry grave robbers—to become body snatchers. But more than that, it sometimes inspired murder.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Backstory: Trapped in the most inhospitable place on Earth Jul 05, 2024

Show notes

Polar explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew spent almost 2 years trapped in sub-zero desolation after their ship, The Endurance, was ice-bound and finally sank, stranding them on an ice floe. This is their story of survival and endurance.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Backstory: A man’s man…and his colony of pussy cats Jul 02, 2024

Show notes

When you meet a guy dripping with testosterone who loves hunting, war, alcohol, and women, you don’t expect that he’s going to be obsessed with kittens and cats…and have dozens of them all over his home and office. That’s the paradox of Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author, Ernest Hemingway.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Backstory: Do it my way: Politics bust up a Founding Father’s family Jun 28, 2024

Show notes

You think politics bust up our families? It’s hard to believe that, like us, politics could fracture a Founding Father’s family. Ben Franklin was incredibly close to his son William, then NJ’s royal governor, until he declared his allegiance to the king.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Backstory: Brando family: Drugs, murder, and Academy Awards Jun 25, 2024

Show notes

He was an Academy Award-winning mega movie star. He had scores of affairs with women and men, 11 children by a variety of women, and a family story dominated by illness, mental illness, addiction…and murder.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Backstory: Prostitution and murder in the old west Jun 21, 2024

Show notes

Belle Cora went from minister’s daughter, to prostitute, to San Francisco’s richest madam, to wife of a man hung for the murder of someone who insulted her—all that before her death at 34.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Backstory: The Grandmother of Juneteenth Jun 18, 2024

Show notes

An angry mob vandalizes a new home and then burns it to the ground. A young family barely escapes. Now 85 years later, after a lifetime of public service, the oldest daughter, now 97, moves back to that same piece of land, where another new home has been built as a gift from the community. It’s the full-circle life story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth, America’s second Independence Day.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Backstory: Alarms: Mooing, peeing, and knocker-uppers Jun 14, 2024

Show notes

We all have to regularly be somewhere on time. But what did people do before cell phone alarms or even alarm clocks? Animals, body cues, and knocker-uppers were just a few of the methods.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Backstory: A hero emerges from a 19th century insane asylum Jun 11, 2024

Show notes

Did you know that as recently as the Victorian era, somebody could have you committed to an insane asylum just because you disobeyed a husband, were too opinionated, were caught masturbating, and so much more? The treatment ranged from being chained to a wall, beaten...and more. And no one had to prove your insanity! This is the story of how one woman, post-lock-up, changed the status quo.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

The Backstory with Patty Steele

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected