The Darkives: Serious history. Told not so seriously

Leo Eaton and Jamie Tavenner

The Darkives is a history podcast where Jamie and Leo dive headfirst into the strangest, creepiest, and most disturbing stories the past tried to bury (and somehow manage to laugh along the way). Each week, we unravel forgotten voyages, infamous historical figures, bizarre disasters, and centuries-old true crime, breaking it all down the way you would with friends - curious, slightly horrified, and occasionally cracking jokes when things get too dark. Nothing is treated like a lecture, and nothing is off the table. If you like weird history, eerie true stories, and conversations that balance “that’s awful” with “how is this real?”, you’ll feel right at home here. Serious history. Told not so seriously.

  1. 1日前

    Lizzie Borden: The True Story of the 1892 Axe Murders

    support the show https://patreon.com This week, We cover the Lizzie Borden murder case of 1892, one of the most famous unsolved crimes in American history. Lizzie was accused of killing her father and stepmother with a hatchet in their Fall River, Massachusetts home and tried for the axe murders. Jamie and Leo cover the murders, the trial, the evidence that never made it to court, a Wild Man theory that suggests the real killer may have walked away entirely and some theories of their own. Come with us as we hack into this Darkive together . Also check out the now streaming Netflix original Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story. Serious history. Told not so seriously. Check out our website: darkivespodcast.com Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com Follow us on: instagram Enjoy the show? Consider leaving a rating and a comment or share us to a fellow history lover. Sources: https://famous-trials.com/lizzieborden/1441-chronologyhttps://www.biography.com/crime/a73581416/lizzie-borden-trialhttps://lizzie-borden.com/blog/the-fascinating-truth-behind-lizzie-bordens-high-stakes-acquittal/https://crimearchives.net/1893_borden/html/trial.htmlhttps://www.britannica.com/biography/Lizzie-Borden-American-murder-suspecthttps://lizzie-borden.com/blog/after-the-axe-lizzie-bordens-post-trial-life/https://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/articles/wild-man-theory-lizzie-bordenTheme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey Used with permission, Thank you Geoff! licensed through: Pixabay Other music used: licensed through Pixabay-used under the Pixabay Content License

    Lizzie Borden: The True Story of the 1892 Axe Murders
  2. 9月11日

    The Real Mowgli and Other Feral Children From History

    support the show https://patreon.com This week Jamie and Leo tell three true stories of history's feral children. Cases that inspired literature and raised questions about what it actually means to be human. In 1725, Peter the Wild Boy was a feral boy found living wild and alone in the forests of Germany. He was brought to the court of King George I, and treated as a royal novelty. In 1828, a teenage boy Kaspar Hauser appeared in Nuremberg unable to speak, claiming to have been held in a dark cell his entire life. By the end of his tale he would be attacked twice, found dead, and his true origins were never confirmed. And In 1867, hunters in the jungles of India found a six-year-old boy living among wolves. Dina Sanichar, the real-life Mowgli whose story is believed to have inspired Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book. The Wild Boy of Hanover, the Wolf Boy of India , and the boy with no past, all will be uncovered in this episode of The Darkives. Serious history. Told not so seriously. Check out our website: darkivespodcast.com Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com Follow us on: instagram Enjoy the show? Consider leaving a rating and a comment or share us to a fellow history lover. Sources: “ A Pet For the Princess - The Tragic Story of Peter The Wild Boy.” YouTube, Accessed 6 Sept. 2026.https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-14215171“Kasper Hauser: The Mystery of the Boy with No Past” YouTube, Accessed 6 Sept. 2026https://www.historydefined.net/life-of-dina-sanichar/https://allthatsinteresting.com/dina-sanicharhttps://www.mentalfloss.com/history/mystery/mysterious-life-and-death-kaspar-hauserhttps://allthatsinteresting.com/feral-childrenTheme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey Used with permission, Thank you Geoff! licensed through: Pixabay Other music used: licensed through Pixabay-used under the Pixabay Content License

    The Real Mowgli and Other Feral Children From History
  3. 8月28日

    Viktor Frankl: Surviving the Holocaust to Redefine Psychology

    support the show https://patreon.com This week Jamie and Leo dig into the life of Viktor Frankl, his career before the war, the four camps he survived, and the book he wrote in nine days when it was all over. Man's Search for Meaning was published anonymously in 1946 because Frankl didn't think anyone would care. It has since sold over 16 million copies and was listed by the Library of Congress as one of the ten most influential books in the United States. Viktor Frankl was a respected psychiatrist deported to Theresienstadt in September 1942. He had corresponded with Sigmund Freud as a teen and treated more than 3,000 suicidal patients a year at Vienna's Steinhof Psychiatric Hospital. He developed Logotherapy (his own school of psychotherapy). Viktor had a visa out of Vienna that he chose not to use because he couldn't leave his aging parents behind. Next came four camps in three years: Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Kaufering, and Türkheim. He was the witness to many horrors of the concentration camps and left with the understanding that through suffering one finds ones reason to live. Serious history. Told not so seriously. Check out our website: darkivespodcast.com Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com Follow us on: instagram Enjoy the show? Consider leaving a rating and a comment or share us to a fellow history lover. Sources: https://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/kl-auschwitz-birkenau/https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/theresienstadt-concentration-camphttps://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/dachauhttps://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kauferinghttps://www.britannica.com/biography/Viktor-Franklhttps://viktorfranklamerica.com/viktor-frankl-bio/https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8763215/Frankl, V. E. (1946). Man’s Search For Meaning. Beacon Press.Theme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey Used with permission, Thank you Geoff! licensed through: Pixabay Other music used: licensed through Pixabay-used under the Pixabay Content License

    Viktor Frankl: Surviving the Holocaust to Redefine Psychology
  4. 8月21日

    Georgia Tann: The Tennessee Baby Farmer

    support the show https://patreon.com In this episode of The Darkives, we look at the history of adoption in the United States and the story of Georgia Tann. Georgia Tann ran the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis. What looked like an organization helping children was actually hiding something far darker. Tann and her network took children from streets, front porches, hospitals and poor neighborhoods, and placed them in adoptive homes. More than 5,000 children passed through her operation, while hundreds of children are estimated to have died in the care of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society. Let's take a deeper look at the history of early adoption malpractice in the United States, the families whose lives were permanently changed, and the survivors who spent decades trying to understand where they came from. Serious history. Told not so seriously. Check out our website: darkivespodcast.com Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com Follow us on: instagram Enjoy the show? Consider leaving a rating and a comment or share us to a fellow history lover. Sources: https://adoptionnetwork.com/history-of-adoption/https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2019/10/22/lisa-wingate-before-and-after-orphans-tennessee-childrenhttps://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-20-vw-882-story.htmlhttps://www.businessinsider.com/georgia-tann-tennessee-children-home-society-survivors-speak-out-2019-12https://www.ranker.com/list/life-of-georgia-tann/nicky-bensonTheme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey Used with permission, Thank you Geoff! licensed through: Pixabay Other music used: licensed through Pixabay-used under the Pixabay Content License

    Georgia Tann: The Tennessee Baby Farmer
  5. 8月14日

    The History of Execution: Death by 1000 Cuts, Cannon Fire, and Everything Between

    support the show https://patreon.com This week Jamie and Leo take a tour through history's most disturbing execution methods across civilizations and centuries. From the Code of Hammurabi (one of the earliest written legal codes), to ancient Rome and how they got down with a death sentence. We also have a few remarkably specific capital offenses from the Aztec Empire, China's Lingchi ( AKA death by 1000 Cuts), and the British practice of blowing condemned prisoners from the mouth of a cannon... Is there anything people won't do? Some of these methods were designed to deter. Some were designed to humiliate. History has always had a lot of ideas on how to end a life and humanity has always had strong feelings about punishment. We go through some examples of the reasons why and the methods used across time to exact "justice" on others. Serious history. Told not so seriously. Check out our website: darkivespodcast.com Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com Follow us on: instagram Enjoy the show? Consider leaving a rating and a comment or share us to a fellow history lover. Sources: youtube.com/watch?v=QEko2CMykuklaw.yale.eduworldhistory.orglaw.yale.edu2historyhit.comhistoryhit.com2cambridge.orgwikipedia.orghistoryskills.comTheme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey Used with permission, Thank you Geoff! licensed through: Pixabay Other music used: licensed through Pixabay-used under the Pixabay Content License

    The History of Execution: Death by 1000 Cuts, Cannon Fire, and Everything Between
  6. 7月31日

    Mount Tambora 1815: The Biggest Volcanic Eruption in Recorded History

    support the show https://patreon.com This week Jamie and Leo dig into the full story of Mount Tambora. On April 10th, 1815, a volcano on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia erupted. It was the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. The explosion sent so much ash and sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere that it created an aerosol cloud the size of Australia, blocking sunlight from reaching Earth's surface for two years. This eruption killed thousands on the island immediately, the ash that buried an entire kingdom so completely it lay undiscovered for nearly 200 years, and the global chain reaction that followed. Crops failed across Europe and North America. Grain prices in the United States soared by 400 percent. A new strain of cholera emerged in India and spread to Moscow and eventually North America. Riots broke out across European cities. And a group of writers trapped indoors by the relentless cold and rain at Lake Geneva in Switzerland held a writing contest that produced Frankenstein. One volcano. Years of fallout. Serious history. Told not so seriously. Check out our website: darkivespodcast.com Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com Follow us on: instagram Enjoy the show? Leave a rating and a comment or share us to a friend. Sources: Goldrick, Richard. Tambora's Rumblings in The Annals of Lang Xang.https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/1816-the-year-without-summer.htmhttps://www.science.smith.edu/climatelit/the-eruption-of-mount-tambora-1815-1818/https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/year-without-summer-poverty-yearhttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/200-years-after-tambora-volcano-eruption-unusual-effects-linger-180954918/https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/mount-tambora-volcano-sumbawa-island-indonesia-39412/https://visittambora.com/long-lost-kingdom-excavation-site/Theme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey Used with permission, Thank you Geoff! licensed through: Pixabay

    Mount Tambora 1815: The Biggest Volcanic Eruption in Recorded History

番組について

The Darkives is a history podcast where Jamie and Leo dive headfirst into the strangest, creepiest, and most disturbing stories the past tried to bury (and somehow manage to laugh along the way). Each week, we unravel forgotten voyages, infamous historical figures, bizarre disasters, and centuries-old true crime, breaking it all down the way you would with friends - curious, slightly horrified, and occasionally cracking jokes when things get too dark. Nothing is treated like a lecture, and nothing is off the table. If you like weird history, eerie true stories, and conversations that balance “that’s awful” with “how is this real?”, you’ll feel right at home here. Serious history. Told not so seriously.