Dig: A History Podcast

Recorded History Podcast Network

4.7 (363)
SOCIETY & CULTURE
UPDATED SEMIMONTHLY

Four women historians, a world of history to unearth. Can you dig it?

FEB 25 · BONUS

Bonus: Conversation with Amplified Podcast

Bonus! Marissa and Averill chat with Stacey and Hannah of the Amplify Podcast Network about podcasting and teaching, the realities of funding and institutional recognition, and what it means to do feminist history that "matters" in a shifting political landscape. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

39 min
FEB 9

Save it for the Rag-and-Bone Man: The Premodern History of Recycling, Salvage, and Reuse

Environmental Series. Episode #1 of 4. In 1851, a journalist named Henry Mayhew set out to document the lives of London's working poor. What he found was astonishing. In the richest city in the world, thousands of people made their living by picking through other people's trash. There were the bone-grubbers, who scavenged bones from gutters to sell to soap manufacturers. There were the mudlarks, mostly children, who waded through the filthy banks of the Thames searching for coal, rope, and bits of metal. And then there were the pure-finders. What’s “pure” you ask? Well, "pure" was a Victorian euphemism for dog excrement. Pure-finders, mostly elderly women, spent their days scouring the streets of London for dog droppings, which they then sold by the pailful to tanneries in Bermondsey. The tanners used it to purify leather. Hence the name. We tend to think of recycling as a modern invention, something that started with the environmental movement of the 1970s. Blue bins, sorting instructions, that kind of thing. But as brilliant historians have uncovered, the story of how humans have dealt with their discarded materials stretches back millennia. For most of human history, the concept of "throwing something away" barely existed. To begin our series on environmental history, we're tackling the premodern history of recycling. Or as pre-WWII people would have called it: reclamation, salvage, scrapping, repair, and reuse. We'll meet rag-and-bone men and dustmen, shoddy masters and mudlarks. We'll discover how rags became paper, how old wool became new cloth, and how virtually nothing in the premodern world was ever truly waste. Find transcripts and show notes at www.digpodcast.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

50 min
JAN 26 · BONUS

The Constitutional Convention of 1787

Bonus Episode: This year, 2026, marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the moment when American patriots pledged their lives and their sacred honor to declare the American colonies independent of the British crown. By the time the Continental Congress signed that document, American blood had already been shed and the colonies were already fighting the war that would ultimately lead to the birth of the United States as an independent nation. As momentous as this revolution was, it wasn’t until over 10 years after the Declaration was signed that the revolutionary act that truly founded the nation took place: the Constitutional Convention of 1787. It’s one thing to declare your independence and earn that freedom with spilt blood and military victory; it’s quite another to make that independence meaningful and real in the form of a meaningful, functional and enduring government. And in a moment when the meaning of that government, and indeed the integrity of the the central document of the founding - the Constitution - itself, is as imperiled as it has ever been, it’s the Constitutional Convention, not the Declaration of Independence, that has real resonance for us in the ‘now.’ On this special bonus episode of Dig, join us in a little deep dive into the United States Constitutional Convention. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

1h 28m
JAN 5

Bonus Episode: Best of 2025, What's Coming in 2026!

Trying something we've never done before - an end-of-year wrap up in which we discuss our favorite episodes to write and be co-hosts on from the 2025 season, and a little sneaky preview of what is coming in 2026! Happy New Year, all, and thank you for being supporters of this show! xoxox Ave, Marissa, Sarah and Elizabeth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

40 min
12/21/2025

Orange Slices, Simmer Pots, and Naked Dancing: A Brief and Incomplete History of Modern Witchcraft

A Bonus Episode! Yule logs, dried orange slices strung across your windows, decorated trees and simmer pots - all the marks of a neopagan holiday season! Wait, that's Christmas, you say? Well, can't it be both? A brief history of modern witchcraft, just in time for the winter solstice celebration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

27 min
12/07/2025

Re-Release: A Ghost Story for Christmas!

We're on a little break, getting our stocking stuffers and Yule logs together, so to tide you over until our next new release, here's an oldie but goodie (with a little remixing - though unfortunately there is no fixing our singing) about the history of ghost stories at Christmas time! Original transcript at: https://digpodcast.org/2017/12/22/christmas-ghost-dickens/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

44 min
11/10/2025

Martian Visitors in the Gilded Age

Spooky Series, Episode #4 of 4. Over an eight-month period in 1896-1897, thousands of people across North America reported seeing mysterious ships in the air or lights in the sky. There were over 12,000 newspaper accounts published about the phenomenon in 408 different newspapers in 41 American states and six Canadian provinces. The airships were usually described as oblong, cigar-shaped objects, sometimes with wings that would flap up and down. What was going on that would have inspired so many unidentified flying object sightings? And why did they seem to cluster around an eight month period in 1896-1897? Today, in the last installment of our 2025 spooky series, we are going to dive into this late nineteenth century UFO-sighting phenomenon and perhaps figure out what was going on. For the complete bibliography, visit digpodcast.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

43 min
10/27/2025

Beasts and Believers: A History of Werewolf Trials in Early Modern Europe

Spooky Series. Episode #3 of 4. In 1220 CE, St. Francis of Assisi tamed a ferocious werewolf terrorizing Gubbio, Italy—transforming "Brother Wolf" from savage beast to peaceful townsperson. But why did Christianity need to conquer the wolf? For millennia, werewolves have stalked the boundaries between civilization and savagery, humanity and monstrosity. From ancient Mesopotamian curses to Greek myths of divine punishment, from medieval theology to early modern courtrooms where hundreds died in werewolf trials, the shape-shifter has embodied our deepest anxieties about human nature itself. Join Marissa and Elizabeth as they uncover the forgotten history of werewolf prosecutions that claimed real lives, explore how economic crises and religious upheaval sparked lycanthropy panics, and trace the transformation of the werewolf from genuine judicial threat to Hollywood monster. This third episode in our Spooky series reveals how the figure of the werewolf has shaped—and been shaped by—Western culture's evolving understanding of violence, identity, and the wild within us all. NOTE: This episode contains references to sexual assault, violence against children, and descriptions of gruesome gore. Listen/read with extreme caution. Find show notes and transcripts at www.digpodcast.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

59 min

See All (228)

4.7

out of 5

363 Ratings

Addictive

08/25/2025

Sensei Evan Hughes

I have been listening to this podcast for years now and I have not encountered a single episode that was not fascinating. Some episode titles I think “how can this possibly be relevant to me?” But without fail, they tie it in to so many other aspects of the subject at hand that I learn something incredible. 11 stars, out of 5.
Excellent!

07/31/2025

@samypaden

Thank you so much for this podcast and the breadth of subjects and issues discussed! ᏩᏓ (Wado!—thank you!)
Need to invest in a pop filter …

08/15/2025

sooty chat

Please realize that you are producing content in an aural medium and learn to adjust speech sounds for microphone. Also, a little less labeling historical actors and a lot more source mentions and citations would provide the now lacking seriousness to this podcast. Edit: Lose playing recording bloopers at the end of episodes; takes away from the sincerely researched content. And one of you is still smacking your tongue inside your mouth; very distracting. Episode on Sati: Bengal is northeast, not northwest in the subcontinent. Also, William Bentinck (one of you constantly mangling names, even English ones now) was the Governor General of India, not just an official of the EIC. And the other host needs to enunciate and not slide words rapidly together.
Anne Lister Podcast

07/08/2025

AzRaffiJ

I love this podcast more than I can say. As a queer historian and someone who has studied Anne Lister for years, I have had the honor of seeing her diaries in person at the Yorkshire archives and walking the halls of Shibden Hall. This episode is one of my top ten favorite episodes you've all done. Thank you for making history accessible and engaging to everyone. Well done 👏🏼👏🏼