Wait! That Actually Happened?

Daniel P. Douglas

Podcast about history's most unbelievable true stories. From wars against birds to dancing plagues, discover the absurd events your teacher never mentioned. authordanielpdouglas.substack.com

  1. 16 JAN

    Podcast - The Cadaver Synod

    In January 897, Pope Stephen VI ordered the corpse of his predecessor Pope Formosus dug up from its tomb, dressed in papal robes, and propped up on a throne to stand trial for crimes including “coveting the papacy” and illegally switching dioceses. The decomposing body was assigned a teenage deacon as its defense attorney while Stephen screamed accusations at it, and the inevitable guilty verdict resulted in the corpse having its three blessing fingers cut off before being thrown into the Tiber River. The macabre spectacle backfired spectacularly when the body was recovered (reportedly performing miracles), an earthquake damaged the very basilica where the trial was held, and Stephen himself was deposed and strangled in prison within months. The so-called “Cadaver Synod” remains one of history’s most bizarre examples of political revenge, proving that medieval church politics made modern cancel culture look like amateur hour. Thanks for listening to Wait! That Actually Happened? from Author Daniel P. Douglas. This podcast is public, so feel free to share it! Subscribe to never miss history’s weirdest moments. Until then, remember: truth is stranger than fiction, and history is weirder than you think. Be sure to check out my Substack (Intelligence Bulletin from Author Daniel P. Douglas) for other podcasts, written articles, and links to my books. Thanks for listening. Have a memorable day! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit authordanielpdouglas.substack.com

    14 min
  2. Podcast - The Caga Tió

    20/12/2025

    Podcast - The Caga Tió

    Since the 1600s, families in Catalonia, Spain have gathered around a small wooden log with a painted smiley face and a red hat every Christmas Eve. They’ve spent the past two weeks “feeding” it scraps of food to fatten it up. Now comes the big moment: the children grab sticks and beat the log while singing songs demanding it poop out presents. When they lift the blanket covering the log, candy and small gifts have magically appeared underneath. This is Caga Tió, the “pooping log,” a tradition that evolved from ancient pagan winter solstice rituals into a beloved holiday custom that’s now over 400 years old. The ritual continues until the log “poops” out something gross like a head of garlic or a herring, signaling it’s empty. And yes, this is the same culture that has hidden a figurine of a pooping man in every nativity scene since the 1700s, because Catalonia committed fully to bathroom-themed holiday cheer centuries ago. Thanks for listening to Wait! That Actually Happened? from Author Daniel P. Douglas. This podcast is public, so feel free to share it! Subscribe to never miss history’s weirdest moments. Until then, remember: truth is stranger than fiction, and history is weirder than you think. Be sure to check out my Substack (Intelligence Bulletin from Author Daniel P. Douglas) for other podcast series, written articles, and links to my books. Thanks for listening. Have a memorable day! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit authordanielpdouglas.substack.com

    13 min
  3. Podcast - The War of Jenkins’ Ear

    03/12/2025

    Podcast - The War of Jenkins’ Ear

    In 1731, Spanish coast guards boarded British Captain Robert Jenkins’ ship, tortured him, and sliced off his ear before telling him to “take it to your king.” Jenkins did something even better. He pickled the ear, carried it around for eight years, and eventually showed it to Parliament, where his testimony sparked public outrage that forced Britain into a nine-year war with Spain. The War of Jenkins’ Ear (1739-1748) saw one of the largest naval invasions in history fail spectacularly at Cartagena, where 18,000 British soldiers died mostly from tropical diseases. By the time the war ended, about 35,000 people were dead, and the peace treaty essentially returned everything to exactly how it was before. The only lasting legacy? George Washington’s Mount Vernon plantation got its name from an admiral who fought in this war, all because one stubborn sea captain refused to stop talking about his ear. Subscribe to never miss history’s weirdest moments. Until then, remember: truth is stranger than fiction, and history is weirder than you think. Be sure to check out my Substack (Intelligence Bulletin from Author Daniel P. Douglas) for other podcast series, written articles, and links to my books. Thanks for listening. Have a memorable day! Thanks for listening to Wait! That Actually Happened? from Author Daniel P. Douglas. This podcast is public, so feel free to share it! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit authordanielpdouglas.substack.com

    13 min

  4. 11/11/2025

    Podcast - The Radium Girls of the 1920s

    In the 1920s, hundreds of young American women were hired to paint watch dials with radium paint that made them glow in the dark. Their employers told them it was completely safe, even encouraged them to lick their brushes to create fine points, while company executives used lead shields and protective equipment when handling the same material. The women, thinking it was harmless fun, painted their nails and teeth with the glowing paint for parties. Within years, their teeth fell out, their jaws literally dissolved, and their bones broke from simple movements as the radium they’d ingested destroyed them from the inside. When they tried to seek help, the companies claimed they had syphilis to destroy their reputations. Five dying women, led by Grace Fryer, finally sued in 1928, arriving in court on stretchers, and won a settlement that established workplace safety rights we still rely on today. Many of the victims are still radioactive in their graves nearly a century later. Subscribe to never miss history’s weirdest moments. Until then, remember: truth is stranger than fiction, and history is weirder than you think. Be sure to check out my Substack (Intelligence Bulletin from Author Daniel P. Douglas) for other podcast series, written articles, and links to my books. Thanks for listening. Have a memorable day! Thanks for listening to Wait! That Actually Happened? from Author Daniel P. Douglas. This podcast is public, so feel free to share it! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit authordanielpdouglas.substack.com

    14 min

  5. 29/10/2025

    Podcast - The Tulip Mania of 1637

    In this episode of “Wait, That Actually Happened?” we explore Tulip Mania, the world’s first recorded financial bubble that gripped Holland from 1633 to 1637. During the Dutch Golden Age, tulip bulbs became so valuable that single bulbs sold for ten times a skilled worker’s annual salary, and people traded entire houses for just three rare bulbs. The market operated through taverns turned into flower exchanges, where merchants and craftsmen traded futures contracts on bulbs that hadn’t even grown yet, with some contracts changing hands ten times in a single day. The bubble spectacularly burst in February 1637 when an auction in Haarlem failed to attract any bidders, triggering a panic that saw prices plummet 99 percent within days. While myths have exaggerated the economic impact, the verified history is strange enough: Amsterdam’s bankruptcies doubled, the government had to void contracts, and the most beautiful tulips, ironically made gorgeous by a virus, went extinct. The episode draws parallels to modern bubbles like cryptocurrency and NFTs, showing how the “greater fool theory” has driven human behavior for nearly 400 years, proving that financial madness isn’t new, it just updates its format. Subscribe to never miss history’s weirdest moments. Until then, remember: truth is stranger than fiction, and history is weirder than you think. Be sure to check out my Substack (Intelligence Bulletin from Author Daniel P. Douglas) for other podcast series, written articles, and links to my books. Thanks for listening. Have a memorable day! Thanks for listening to Wait! That Actually Happened? from Author Daniel P. Douglas. This podcast is public, so feel free to share it! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit authordanielpdouglas.substack.com

    14 min

  6. 16/10/2025

    Podcast - The Bal des Ardents, or “Ball of the Burning Men”

    This Party Was Fire! On January 28, 1393, King Charles VI of France and five nobles dressed as “wild men” for a masquerade, covering themselves in pitch (tar) and flax to look hairy and savage, then chaining themselves together for a group dance. When the king’s brother arrived late with a torch and got too close to investigate the costumes, the highly flammable outfits instantly ignited, creating human torches chained together. Four nobles burned to death while the king only survived because his teenage aunt tackled him and smothered the flames with her dress. The disaster worsened the king’s existing mental illness, destabilized France, and contributed to French defeats in the Hundred Years’ War, proving that even in 1393, people should have known not to combine tar-covered costumes with open flames. New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe to never miss history’s weirdest moments. Until then, remember: truth is stranger than fiction, and history is weirder than you think. Be sure to check out my Substack (Intelligence Bulletin from Author Daniel P. Douglas) for other podcast series, written articles, and links to my books. Thanks for listening. Have a memorable day! Thanks for listening to Wait! That Actually Happened? from Author Daniel P. Douglas. This podcast is public, so feel free to share it! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit authordanielpdouglas.substack.com

    11 min

  7. 09/10/2025

    Podcast - The Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic

    On January 30th, 1962, three girls at a mission school in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) started giggling and couldn’t stop, triggering one of history’s strangest epidemics that would last 18 months and affect over 1,000 people. The uncontrollable laughter spread from Kashasha School to nearby villages, forcing 14 schools to close as students laughed continuously for days or even weeks, experiencing pain, fainting, and terror rather than joy. The epidemic primarily affected young women and students in the newly independent nation, with some victims laughing for up to 16 days straight before collapsing from exhaustion. Scientists later diagnosed it as Mass Sociogenic Illness, essentially stress-induced mass hysteria triggered by the extreme pressures of political independence, poverty, and strict colonial-style education. The laughter finally stopped in mid-1963 as mysteriously as it began, leaving affected individuals stigmatized in their communities and providing a disturbing preview of how psychological symptoms can spread through populations like a contagious disease, a phenomenon we now see globally through social media with conditions like “TikTok Tics.” New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe to never miss history’s weirdest moments. Until then, remember: truth is stranger than fiction, and history is weirder than you think. Be sure to check out my Substack (Intelligence Bulletin from Author Daniel P. Douglas) for other podcast series, written articles, and links to my books. Thanks for listening. Have a memorable day! Thanks for listening to Wait! That Actually Happened? from Author Daniel P. Douglas. This podcast is public, so feel free to share it! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit authordanielpdouglas.substack.com

    13 min

  8. 02/10/2025

    Podcast - The 1904 Olympic Marathon

    When the Olympics Decided Water Was Bad and Poison Was Good The 1904 Olympic Marathon in St. Louis remains the most catastrophic Olympic event ever held, when organizer James E. Sullivan deliberately withheld water from runners in 90-degree heat as a “scientific experiment” to study dehydration. Of 32 starters, only 14 finished the dusty 24.85-mile course that wound through traffic on dirt roads. Thomas Hicks “won” after his trainers fed him multiple doses of strychnine sulfate (rat poison) mixed with brandy and egg whites, causing him to hallucinate the entire last mile while they literally carried him across the finish line. Other highlights include Felix Carvajal stopping mid-race to eat rotten apples and taking a nap, Fred Lorz hitchhiking 11 miles then trying to claim victory, Len Tau being chased off course by wild dogs, and William Garcia nearly dying from internal hemorrhaging caused by dust inhalation. The race was so disastrous it almost got the marathon removed from future Olympics, yet Sullivan declared it a complete success for his dehydration research. New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe to never miss history’s weirdest moments. Until then, remember: truth is stranger than fiction, and history is weirder than you think. Be sure to check out my Substack (Intelligence Bulletin from Author Daniel P. Douglas) for other podcast series, written articles, and links to my books. Thanks for listening. Have a memorable day! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit authordanielpdouglas.substack.com

    13 min
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Podcast about history's most unbelievable true stories. From wars against birds to dancing plagues, discover the absurd events your teacher never mentioned. authordanielpdouglas.substack.com

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