In part two of this two-part series, Ben is joined once again with guest host Alex Williams to explore the harrowing tale of the New England Vampire Panic, tracing how increasingly desperate communities resorted to ritualistic desecration of graves to combat the horrors of what some believed to be a supernatural affliction. (And how the rest of the world bra ... Show More
Mar 14
CLASSIC: Idiomatic for the People II, Part II
Language is beautiful and, in many cases, continually evolving. As a result, we end up with hundreds of strange idioms and figures of speech that we use on a daily basis, with little to no understanding of what they originally meant. Join Ben and Noel with special guests Frank Mu ... Show More
38m 47s
Mar 12
Inventors Who Died Due To Their Own Inventions: The Irrational Death of Hippasus
We all know pi, right? It's one of the most famous 'irrational numbers' in history, and mathematicians are still trying to figure it out in the modern day. While this may seem arcane to some of us non-mathheads, in today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max learn these numbers were3 once ... Show More
34m 48s
Mar 10
The Spiritualism Movement Was Utterly Ridiculous, Part Two: Con Artists, Skeptics, and Ghosts
As the Fox sisters became global superstars for their purported ability to speak with the dead, the Spiritualism movement became both a social phenomena and a booming business. Yet along with the rise of true believers and performing psychics, an army of skeptics and investigator ... Show More
52m 36s
Oct 2017
SYMHC Classics: New England Vampire Panic
<p>Today, in honor of Halloween weekend, we're revisiting an episode about vampirism. Starting in the late 1700s and, small rural communities in New England were sometimes stricken with a panicked fear that the dead were feeding off the living.</p><p> </p> Learn more about your a ... Show More
37m 53s
Oct 2023
Eerie Episode: Vampires, Twihards, and The Gothic
<p>The girlies venture into Vampire Lore™ in Part I of a series of Eerie Episodes. They explore the shocking disease that turned people into vampires, the impact of vampiric literature, how Stephanie Meyer bastardized Gothic traditions via Mormonism, and more! Digressions includ ... Show More
1h 9m