Forgotten History

Diccon Hyatt

Forgotten History is a podcast that tells intriguing and obscure stories from central New Jersey's past. Join us for strange and surprising tales you won't hear anywhere else.

  1. 13 The Last Plague

    03/27/2020

    13 The Last Plague

    When the Spanish Flu hit Philadelphia in 1918, it first overwhelmed the hospitals, then the morgues, then the gravediggers. The disaster was the fault of one man, public health director Wilmer Krusen, who allowed a Liberty Bond parade that spread the disease at a catastrophic rate. But was Krusen really at fault? We speak with James Higgins, a history professor at Rider University whose research challenges the commonly told story.

    41 min
  2. 12 New Jersey's Bermuda Triangle

    03/18/2020

    12 New Jersey's Bermuda Triangle

    In the mid-1800s, the isolation of the Sourlands region made it a refuge for some, and was a place where black people could own land and establish their own communities. (See Episode 2) But the isolation also meant that the mountains could be lawless. Historian Jim Davidson, in his talk, "The Dark Side of the Sourlands" discusses the mayhem, murder, and disappearances that made this region "New Jersey's Bermuda Triangle."

    51 min
  3. 11 Hellfighter

    02/13/2020

    11 Hellfighter

    Needham Roberts, a porter from Trenton, went to fight in WW1 and returned home decorated and victorious after a bloody hand-to-hand battle against impossible odds. But he and many other black veterans would find that America in the era of Jim Crow could be almost as hostile as the trenches of the Argonne. Algernon Ward, Jr., a re-enactor, tells the story of this brave but flawed war hero.

    1h 17m
  4. 10 The Cloudbuster Part 2

    01/09/2020

    10 The Cloudbuster Part 2

    In Part 2 of our two-part series on Wilhelm Reich, we examine the ongoing legacy of his work, a college in Princeton that carries on his research into “orgone energy,” and Diccon Hyatt interviews a man who was given Reichian therapy as a child. Please note there is potentially disturbing material in this episode.

    49 min
  5. 9 The Cloudbuster Part 1

    01/08/2020

    9 The Cloudbuster Part 1

    In Part 1 of a two-part series, we discuss the life of Wilhelm Reich, one of the most controversial figures of 20th century science. Reich claimed to have discovered a new form of energy called “orgone” which was responsible for everything from the human libido to the movements of the planets in the Solar System. In 1940 he visited Albert Einstein at his Princeton home to prove once and for all that orgone energy was real. Many of the details of Reich's life used in this episode came from Christopher Turner's biography Adventures in the Orgasmatron.

    1h 5m
  6. 6 The Garden In The Machine

    12/06/2019

    6 The Garden In The Machine

    Far beneath the roar of Route 1 in Trenton, there is another manmade highway that lies in stillness and darkness, unused and nearly forgotten for nearly 100 years. It is a section of the Delaware and Raritan Canal and in the last century it too was a great artery of commerce, dug with shovels and picks by thousands of men. Beyond this underground section, the rest of the canal is now beautiful parkland in the center of New Jersey. What started as the machine in the garden has become the garden in the machine.

    38 min
  7. 8 Horror At The State House

    10/07/2019

    8 Horror At The State House

    On the afternoon of Friday, December 22, 1978, the festive mood of Trenton preparing for the holiday weekend was shattered when a shocking crime took place on the steps of the state house. This is a story about that crime, and about the aftermath for the people whose lives it affected.

    28 min
  8. 7 F. Scott Fitzgerald's Gift to Football

    08/27/2019

    7 F. Scott Fitzgerald's Gift to Football

    It's pretty common for football fans to have ideas for how the coach should run their favorite team better. What's unusual is for those ideas to be put into practice. When F. Scott Fitzgerald, who has been described as history's first football fan, called Princeton's football coach with an idea one night, the coach listened, and the game of football changed forever.

    41 min
See All (13)

5
out of 5
16 Ratings

About

Forgotten History is a podcast that tells intriguing and obscure stories from central New Jersey's past. Join us for strange and surprising tales you won't hear anywhere else.

Information

  • Creator
    Diccon Hyatt
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2020
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    Forgotten History