A Popular History of Unpopular Things

Join Kelli as she goes over what happened to the USS Scorpion, a skipjack-class nuclear-powered attack submarine that disappeared in May of 1967. It was found five months later, 2 miles down on the Atlantic seabed, broken into pieces. It's entire crew of 99 men sank with it.

Was it an attack? Did it implode? What caused her to sink?

Though tons of theories have been crafted, because we don't *actually* know what happened, we'll use our favorite philosophical tool (Occam's Razor) to determine which of the many theories is the most likely.

Sources to Read:

• Stephen Johnson, Silent Steel: The Mysterious Death of the Nuclear Attack Sub USS Scorpion. John Wiley & Sons: Hoboken, NJ. 2006.
• US Navy FOIA Reading Room, specifically the Scorpion Case Files https://www.secnav.navy.mil/foia/readingroom/SitePages/Home.aspx?RootFolder=%2Ffoia%2Freadingroom%2FCaseFiles%2FScorpion%20Submarine&FolderCTID=0x012000CD3AEB341204C14DB4C7B99C57E99B26&View=%7B988EEA5C%2DDFDB%2D4A5D%2D8414%2DB7A63DACECE2%7D

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Join Kelli for another weird episode where she looks at the Great Moon Hoax of 1835.

For six days straight in 1835, the New York Sun (not the same publication as the one that exists today) published a fantastical story about life on the moon. The scientific series of articles talked about witnessing lumbering bipedal moon-bison, crystal spires, temples, men with wings, and more. It was captivating... and although it was complete fiction, many believed it to be fact.

In today's episode we go over the story, how it was received, and how this whole affair fits into the historical context of penny press newspapers in the early- to mid-nineteenth century.

Sources:

• Text of the original newspaper articles
• The Moon Hoax, 1859. https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/moonhoax00lock
• Stephanie Hall, “Belief, Legend, and the Great Moon Hoax,” Library of Congress, 2014. https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/08/the-great-moon-hoax/
• ““The Great Moon Hoax” is published in the “New York Sun”” History Channel. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-25/the-great-moon-hoax
• Sarah Zielinski, “The Great Moon Hoax Was Simply a Sign of Its Time.” Smithsonian, 2015. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/great-moon-hoax-was-simply-sign-its-time-180955761/
• Sierra Laddusaw, “Life on the Moon in Two Acts.” University of Michigan. https://clements.umich.edu/publication/the-heavens/life-on-the-moon/

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Join Kelli as she finally starts tackling the impact of westward expansion on indigenous populations in the United States. In this episode, we focus on the Navajo, or Diné, who were forcibly removed from their homeland starting in the winter of 1863.

Get ready for a nice, long historical context! :)

Sources:

Books

• Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West by Hampton Sides
• Diné: A History of the Navajos by Peter Iverson feat. photographs by Monty Roessel
• Navajo Stories of the Long Walk Period, publ. By Navajo Community College Press

Articles

• Hwéeldi - The Long Walk - https://Dinélanduse.org/hweeldi/

Documentaries/Videos

• The Long Walk: Tears of the Navajo (2009) on PBS
• Sisnaajini: A Navajo Story - Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve on YouTube

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Join Kelli as she talks about a serial killer out of Kansas in the post-civil war era. Taking advantage of westward expansion and a tense climate, the Bender family - Ma, Pa, John, and Kate - were responsible for the murders of at least 11 people... including an 18-month-old baby girl.

Today we explore their dark, dingy, bug-infested cabin to find out what happened to these weary travelers on the Great Osage Trail, looking for a homestead plot and a better life, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sources:

• http://www.slavevoyages.org
• Hell's Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier by Susan Jonasus

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Join Kelli as she goes over a very stinky situation that happened in 1184 in Erfurt, part of the Holy Roman Empire and home base of King (and later Emperor) Henry VI.

As Henry gathered some squabbling nobles to deal with a petty land dispute, the building they were in collapsed under the weight of 60+ people. And two stories below, in the basement of the building, was a cesspit full of... well, you know.

It was a putrid predicament, a malodorous mess, a nauseating nightmare. Get ready for another gross episode with lots of tangents and, somehow, yet another reference to the Protestant Reformation.

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Join Kelli in this shorter history on the mysterious Voynich Manuscript, an early Renaissance-era book written in a made up language (dubbed Voynichese) with strange diagrams that seem... out of this world.

I love a good *history mystery* :)

Sources

• Dave Roos, “Why the Voynich Manuscript May Be the World’s Most Mysterious Book” History.com. https://www.history.com/articles/voynich-manuscript-mystery
• Cipher Manuscript, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/2002046
• “Emperor Rudolf II: Prague's Patron of Arts and Science.” Czech Center Museum of Houston. https://www.czechcenter.org/blog/2021/7/1/7q9enwx9t33fqnij3qqswfpo8p07a7
• The Voynich Manuscript. Edited by Raymond Clemens. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, in assoc. With Yale University Press. 2016.

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Join Kelli as she goes over the story of a feral boy found in the woods outside of Hamelin, Germany. He was brought to King George I's court in England and named Peter, and he entertained curious onlookers for months. He had strange mannerisms and was an oddity, until he fell out of favor and "retired" to a farm, where he lived peacefully until his 70s.

But what was really going on with Peter? Was he really feral as people thought? Did he clamber around on all fours like a beast? Or was he just tragically misunderstood in a time before medical science could diagnosis him with an intellectual disability?

Sources:

• Daniel Dafoe, “Mere Nature Delineated: or, A body without a soul. Being observations upon the young forester lately brought to town from Germany. With suitable applications. Also, a brief dissertation upon the usefulness and necessity of fools, whether political or natural.” 1726. https://archive.org/details/merenaturedeline00defo/page/n12/mode/1up
• Jonathan Swift, “It Cannot Rain But It Pours, Or, London Strewed With Rarities.” 1726. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Works_of_the_Rev._Jonathan_Swift/Volume_17/It_Cannot_Rain_But_It_Pours
• Michael Newton, Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children. 2002. https://www.amazon.com/Savage-Girls-Wild-Boys-Children/dp/0312423357
• “Peter 'the Wild Boy' from Hanover: The Boy on the Staircase” Historic Royal Palaces. https://www.hrp.org.uk/blog/peter-the-wild-boy-from-hanover/
• “Peter the Wild Boy” History Today. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/peter-wild-boy
• “The Tragic Origins of Peter the Wild Boy” Ripley’s. https://www.ripleys.com/stories/peter-the-wild-boy
• Lucy Worsley, “Peter The Wild Boy” Public Domain Review, 2011. https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/peter-the-wild-boy/

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Join Kelli as she goes over a strange event from the 17th century Dutch Republic - the time a political leader was killed, strung up, dismembered, and then cannibalized.

As always, we set up the history surrounding this event to get a good understanding of the Rampjaar - the disaster year - and why the Dutch people took out their frustrations on Johan de Witt. And we also look into the alleged cannibalism that took place. What does it all mean? What is the bigger picture? What in the world was happening in 1672?!

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Join Kelli as she goes over the popular legend of Boudica, the short-lived queen of the Iceni peoples in Iron Age Britain.

Much of what we know about Boudica comes from heavily-biased Roman sources, written decades or over a century after the events they describe. So how much of her story is fact, and how much is fiction?

And was Boudica even a real person?

Let's dive into the available written and archaeological sources and analyze why the Romans might have written about her the way they did to try to understand Boudica's role in history.

Sources

• Andrew Roberts, “Cartimandua, Queen of the Brigantes” English Heritage. https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/women-in-history/cartimandua/
• Dr. David Musgrove, “The Romans Were Blamed For Massacring These Iron Age Warriors. But Did They Actually Murder Themselves?” History Extra, 2025. https://www.historyextra.com/period/iron-age/the-romans-were-blamed-for-massacring-these-iron-age-warriors-but-did-they-actually-murder-themselves/
• Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars. Book 5. Translated by W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn. https://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.5.5.html
• Martin Smith, Miles Russell, and Paul Cheetham, “Fraught With High Tragedy: A Contextual And Chronological Reconsideration Of The Maidencastle Iron Age ‘War Cemetery’ (England)”, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 2025. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ojoa.12324?domain=p2p_domain&token=UJWNRVZC4WDFI35RBKYM
• Natasha Sheldon, “The Evidence for the Historical Boudica” 2022. https://historyandarchaeologyonline.com/the-evidence-for-the-historical-boudica%EF%BF%BC%EF%BF%BC/
• Richard Hingley and Christina Unwin, Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen. 2006. https://www.amazon.com/Boudica-Iron-Age-Warrior-Queen/dp/1852855169
• “The Revolt of Boudica according to Cassius Dio” University of Warwick. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/warwickclassicsnetwork/romancoventry/resources/boudica/sources/cassiusdio/
• “The Revolt of Boudica according to Tacitus” University of Warwick. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/warwickclassicsnetwork/romancoventry/resources/boudica/sources/tacitus/
• Vanessa Collingridge, Boudica: The Life of Britain’s Legendary Warrior Queen. Kindle Edition, 2019. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RQX45PR/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

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Join Kelli as she talks about Rome's first ever Black Banquet, hosted by Emperor Domitian in 89 CE.

Today's episode covers some Roman history including the creation of the Colosseum, the Flavian Dynasty, Cynicism and Stoicism, Memento Mori, and Domitian's spooky banquet - so scary, his guests fled in terror, fearing for their lives!

Happy early Halloween, APHOUT fans <3

Referenced Sources:

• C. Suetonius Tranquillus, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, first composed in 121 CE. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Titus*.html
• Cassius Dio, Roman History. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/67*.html
• https://dailystoic.com/stoicism-cynicism/

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Join Kelli as she looks into the weird world of European animal trials, focusing on the French Pig Trial at Savigny in 1457, where a sow owned by Jehan Bailly was put on trial for the murder of 5-year-old Jehan Martin.

That's right - the pig was put on trial for murder. Not her human owner.

But where does the legal precedent for animal trials come from? Let's find out!

Sources Referenced:

• Alexander Lee, “Pigs Might Try,” 2020. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/natural-histories/pigs-might-try
• Esther Cohen, Law, Folklore, and Animal Lore. 1986. https://www.academia.edu/66540937/Law_folklore_and_animal_lore
• E. P. Evans, The Criminal Prosecution And Capital Punishment Of Animals. 1906. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43286/43286-h/43286-h.htm#Page_138
• J. J. Finkelstein, The Ox That Gored. 1981. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1006346.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default%3A9eca8c357bbe59ed8b98754ab5426357&ab_segments=&initiator=&acceptTC=1
• Paul Schiff Berman, Rats, Pigs, and Statues on Trial: The Creation of Cultural Narratives in the Prosecution of Animals and Inanimate Objects. 1994. https://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1241&context=faculty_publications

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Join Kelli as she goes over the mystery of the Eilean Mòr lighthouse.

In December of 1900, the three men keeping the lighthouse on the Flannan Isles - James Ducat, Thomas Marshall, and Donald McArthur - vanished without a trace. The light was out for about two weeks. When a fourth keeper came to relieve one of the men and bring more supplies, he stumbled upon a dark island with an empty lighthouse - and no signs of distress.

Let's go over the history of the Eilean Mòr lighthouse, the primary sources of those who were there to see it, and some of the theories as to what happened. Then, we'll apply Occam's Razor and determine the most likely scenario.

Sources referenced in the episode:

• Primary Sources from the NLB website: https://www.nlb.org.uk/history/flannan-isles/
• Christopher P. Nicholson, Rock Lighthouses of Britain. 1983. https://archive.org/details/rocklighthouseso0000nich/page/179/mode/1up?q=flannan+isles
• Keith McCloskey, The Lighthouse: The Mystery of the Eilean Mor Lighthouse Keepers, 2014. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HSFUK1S/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title
• The Vanishing (2019 film)
• The Lighthouse (2019 film)

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Join Kelli as she goes over the history surrounding Typhoid Mary. We'll go beyond the typhoid-laden peaches and fresh ice cream! When we take a step back and look at her whole story in context, we get a different view of what it must have been like to be "Typhoid Mary," a strong, no-nonsense, Irish immigrant making a living as a cook in NYC and surrounding areas.

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Join Kelli as she goes over the Congo Free State, owned not by Belgium, but by its King - Leopold II.

During the 19th century in Africa, seven European countries - Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, met to divide up Africa; they had already encroached on about 10% of it, mostly the coasts, but now they wanted more. In this episode we discuss why, and what happened to the Congolese men, women, and children who were suddenly under the control of King Leopold.

Intro and Outro music credit: @nedricmusic
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Sources

Books

• Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost. https://www.amazon.com/King-Leopolds-Ghost-Heroism-Colonial/dp/0618001905
• David Van Reybrouck, Congo: The Epic History of a People.

Articles/Websites

• Germany officially recognises colonial-era Namibia genocide - BBC, 2021 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57279008
• Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden” 1899 | https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_burden.htm
• George Washington Williams, “An Open Letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold II, King of the Belgians and Sovereign of the Independent State of Congo By Colonel, The Honorable Geo. W. Williams, of the United States of America” as found on BlackPast | https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/primary-documents-global-african-history/george-washington-williams-open-letter-king-leopold-congo-1890/

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Join Kelli as she goes over the history of the English Peasant's Rebellion, 1381.

The Black Death had severely impacted England - not just in high mortality rates, but also its ability to function within its strict feudal order. To help compensate for the drop in workers, and to try and get the economy back on track, Edward III passes the Statute of Laborers in 1351. But what this did was set in motion a rage against feudalism, government intervention, and inequality that manifested as the Peasant's Rebellion, led by men like Wat Tyler and John Ball, in 1381.

The Peasant army would meet King Richard II in London, and it was an absolute bloodbath.

Let's go over the historical context that leads us to the Rebellion, then the event itself. It's a fascinating story that shows us how far the common folk are willing to be pushed before they break.

Intro and Outro music credit: @nedricmusic
Find him on all streaming services and YouTube!
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Sources
Books:

• Dan Jones, Summer of Blood (2009)
• Elizabeth Kimball Kendall, Source-book of English History (2015)
• Rosemary Horrox, The Black Death Medieval Sourcebook (1994)

Articles/Online Sources:

• “Ordinance of Laborers, 1349” Fordham University Medieval History Sourcebook https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/seth/ordinance-labourers.asp
• “Tales from Froissart: Beginning of the English Peasant Revolt” Nipissing University https://uts.nipissingu.ca/muhlberger/FROISSART/PEASANTS.HTM

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Join Kelli as she goes over the history behind the Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic, an event that started with three schoolgirls in late January 1962 and spread to nearby villages. It took roughly 18-24 months for the epidemic to finally stop, and luckily, nobody died.

It was determined that this was a case of mass psychogenic illness - the more modern name for "mass hysteria."

But how did it start? Why schoolgirls in Tanganyika in early 1962? Let's look to the historical context to get an understanding of what happened here and why.

And a special thanks to one of my cannibal patrons, Zack, for recommending this episode!

Intro and Outro music credit: @nedricmusic
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Join Kelli as she goes over another case where the US government experimented on humans - but this time, they purposefully infected Guatemalans with syphilis, taking what happened with the men of Tuskegee a whole step further.

So today we'll do some historical context to figure out why Guatemala - what happened in history that led to such a level of interventionism that the US government would conduct medical experiments on the Guatemalan people?

Once that's squared away, we'll briefly go over syphilis so we have a complete understanding on what the infected Guatemalans faced. Then, we'll talk about the event itself - and how we only just learned about it.

I really hope I run out of examples of the US doing this.

Intro and Outro music credit: @nedricmusic
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Join Kelli as she goes over Stonehenge. We'll start with the basics - what stonehenge is, what it's made of, who might have built it, how they built it, what a henge even is... before talking about some of the more recent explanations for some of its mysteries.

We'll also talk about its purpose - a gathering place to celebrate the summer and winter solstices? A burial ground? Both? And does it have a connection with nearby Durrington Walls, only two miles away, and a henge complex that might have the evidence needed to understand who built Stonehenge, and why.

Sources referenced:
Stonehenge―A New Understanding: Solving the Mysteries of the Greatest Stone Age Monument by Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

Intro and Outro music credit: @nedricmusic
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Join Kelli as she goes over a tale of a Scottish incestuous cannibal family - the Beans.

As legend goes, they lived in a cave in southwest Scotland, only venturing out to kill passersby and loot them for good - and meat. Over 25 years, it's said they killed over 1,000 people.

But how much truth is there to this grisly tale? It sounds a little too gross to be real.

Let's dive into the history to find out where the Sawney Bean story comes from, how credible the sources are, and whether there's any truth we can corroborate from the story.

From James I and his bloodhounds to the Jacobite Rebellion and Battle of Culloden (I see you, Outlander fans), let's see how much history we can attribute to this gory story.

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Join Kelli as she goes over yet another example of US doctors experimenting on their own people.

Starting in the 1950s, dermatology Dr. Albert Kligman came to the Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia and experimented on its prisoners. What started as a simple cure for an athlete's foot outbreak turned into a decades-long series of experiments, ranging from testing lotions and cremes to hallucinogenic drugs to the toxic compounds found in Agent Orange.

Though the experiments eventually stopped in 1974, it was more or less swept under the rug, despite prisoner/victims filing lawsuits. But thanks to the work of men like Allen Hornblum, and the victims and their families who never gave up, the horrors at what happened at Holmesburg are coming to light.

Source referenced:
Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison by Allen Hornblum

Intro and Outro music credit: @nedricmusic
Find him on all streaming services and YouTube!
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