Campfire Stories: Astonishing History Tess Herdman

Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you about the assassination of LGBT+ Icon Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. Milk and Moscone were both San Francisco politicians and civil rights leaders whose lives were cut short by their former colleague. Milk was a veteran, Wall Street statistician, and hippie who became one of the first openly gay elected official in America. Both men were dealing with a city and country that was bursting with political tension, clashes between the gay ...

Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you about the crazy fan murder of Selena Quintanilla-Pérez. **This episode includes sensitive content (CW: death, murder, sexual violence, suicide). Listener discretion is advised.**Selena Quintanilla-Pérez has gone by many titles: the Queen of Tejano music, the Queen of Latin Music, the Queen of Tex-Mex, the Mexican Madonna, the Chicana Elvis, the Hispanic Marilyn Monroe, and the Queen of Corpus Christi. But to her family, her friends, an...

Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you about the Perilous Fate of the American Space Pioneers. Last episode covered the accidents and tragedies of the early Soviet space program, our rivals in the space race and partners in space exploration today. This episode is going to cover the disasters of the American Space program. What would have happened if Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin got stuck on the moon? How did the Apollo 1 fire start? Who was the first American casualty of...

Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you about the fate of some of the early Soviet space pioneers, including the first death in any space program, Valentin Bondarenko, the failed mission of Soyuz 1, the amazing achievement of Yuri Gagarin, the chilling death of Vladimir Komarov, and the conspiracy theory about the lost cosmonauts. The space race was full of incredible milestones in human history, but it also came with intense danger. Next episode we'll cover the sacrifices o...

Come gather around the campfire and hear about one of the most puzzling missing person's cases in U.S. history. It seemed to be a regular winter day when heiress Dorothy Arnold left home for a shopping trip. She was just going to buy a new dress. She was well-known, walking on packed New York City streets, wearing especially eye-catching clothing. Nothing seemed to be dangerous about it, and she assured her family she would be back in time for dinner. And then Dorothy vanished. What happened ...

Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you a story about some of the smartest military teams you've never heard of. Today we’re going to be talking about the code-breakers of World War II. Part 1 discussed Native American code-talkers. Part 2 will discuss Allied code-cracking teams including the stories of the Enigma, Alan Turing, Marian Rejewski, Elizabeth Friedman, and the Venona project.Most code-breaking departments of the time started with a few civilian staff members, inc...