Horrific History Podcast

Horrific History with Eric Slyter and Jordan Watney
  • 3.9 (8)
  • HISTORY
Horrific History Podcast Podcast

Join us as we peel back the skin of history and exploring the morbid, the macabre, the horrible and sometimes flat-out gross things in the historical record which you might not have heard of before! While attempts are made to try to keep our episodes family-friendly, be forewarned that we often discuss subject matter which may not be suitable for younger listeners. If this is a concern to you, we recommend saving it for when young ears are out of listening range! New episodes are released bi-weekly on Tuesdays! Horrific History Podcast is a program of Kron, an educational 501(c)3 nonprofit headquartered in Ellensburg, WA.

Episodes

  1. 03/17/2019

    Resurrection: Season 3 Teaser

    After a long absence we’re happy to report the Horrific History Podcast isn’t dead yet! We’re not just a footnote in the history of podcasts you used to be able to download but left you “starvening” for more; a new season is getting ready to rise one more time! You can look forward to a lot of brand new exciting content this upcoming season, after we pick up where Season 2 dropped into our unexpected hiatus. A listener mail episode, podcast interview cross-overs about which Eric will only vague-cast the teasing details and a Patron-suggested episode will bring us into Season 3 with a lot of fun squeamish delight. So enjoy a snack while you listen to this new Horrific History Podcast teaser episode for Season 3 through one of your favorite podcast services (iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and more). Just remember, no squeam allowed! Watch you podcatcher for our upcoming release when we’ll get back on track and discuss religious relics! If you’d like to hear the commercial-free version of this episode and receive other great perks, become a patron of our podcast on Patreon!Become a Patron! Click here if you’d like a chance to win a FREE copy of Dead but Dreaming’s Mockingbird EP! Commercial break music by Dead but Dreaming. Slideshow Image by Sarah Richter from Pixabay Blog Image by cyanidekiss from Pixabay

    17 min

  2. 11/14/2018

    The Waking Nightmare: Episodes from the Crypt

    While trying to work on our upcoming new episode (with a special guest), Eric and Jordan discovered that our technology is having some issues (Jordan blames poltergeists, because that makes about as much sense to her as computers)! Since we need a bit more time to fix our problems so we can have a two-way conversation with our interviewee, we’re resurrecting another one of our Season 1 episodes (now with a new intro) from the Horrific History Podcast Crypt for your squeamish delight!   The Waking Nightmare: Sleep Paralysis Have you ever had the experience of waking up but being unable to move? Did you feel the sensation of “the intruder” in your room restraining you? At least 40% of the population has had this experience and people from different times and places have had different explanations for it. Eric Slyter and Curtis Bender, your co-hosts, explore folklore and the paranormal as they dig into the history of sleep paralysis through the ages.   Discover how these “waking hallucinations” have taken the form of witches, demons, vampires, fairies, ghost children and more (as well as which new theme only appeared after the space race)! Nightmares such as these have been connected (usually erroneously) to all sorts of things in the waking hours, from the Salem witch trials to UFOs and alien abductions! It all depends upon which dream interpretation (or doctor!) you choose! But, if you see in your life the expected result after such an encounter in your waking dreams, would it be a case of causation or correlation?   When people from all parts of the world from all across time have similar experiences but see or interpret it differently depending upon their cultural background and time in history, could it be that it’s all the same thing? If you’re religious you’re likely to experience demons or possession. If you like horror movies, sci-fi or conspiracy theories it might be aliens or monsters. And, those with exposure to fantasy or fairy folklore may see goblins or similar fanciful creatures. Depending upon the dream, it wouldn’t be at all uncommon to even have an erotic angle (though we’re not sure if that is more or less traumatic if you’re dreaming of aliens, demons or monsters). Hopefully, you would take to it like Tina Belcher from Bob’s Burgers and her dreams of zombies.   Gastric distress, raccoon scrotums, and house spirits, this episode has it all! Whether you’re interested in things that go bump in the night or how cultural influences can impact your dreams, you’ll find it in this brand new Horrific History Podcast episode! And if this edition inspires a dream, we hope you’ll tell us about it!   So sit back and enjoy this episode through one of your favorite podcast services (iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and more)!   If you’d like to hear the commercial-free version of this episode and receive other great perks, become a patron of our podcast on Patreon! Become a Patron!

    1h 26m

  3. 10/31/2018

    Of Monsters & Men: Halloween Special

    What makes a man a man? Join all three of Horrific History’s co-hosts for this new special Halloween episode as we go back in history to look at one of the times scholars and religious leaders asked this very question! When unexpected visitors come knocking and ask for a fright, Curtis regales us with his cryptid and folklore knowledge with historical impact from the middle ages. A creature from legend, reported to fight knights, bears, wolves and dragons captured the imagination of scholars who asked themselves, “What does it mean to be human?” Going through the centuries, a recurring theme shows up in artwork and literature- even in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight! Emulating this creature caused disaster for French royalty and nobles at a very special masquerade, called the Ball of Savages, when their celebration went up in flames and at least one guest was barbequed. The woodwose stay safely confined to legend until the late 16th Century, when in 1547 a boy with congenital hypertrichosis is given as a gift for King Henry II’s coronation; his name was Petrus Gonsalvus.   From Europe to the Americas, how are the ideas of woodwoses and Sasquatch related, if at all? How do our myths and legends, or even our moral questions and quandaries, have to change and adapt once confronted with reality? What’s more scary, truth or fiction? So sit back and enjoy this episode through one of your favorite podcast services (iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and more) while traveling to your next Halloween costume party; just remember, no squeam allowed. Join us again in two weeks when we release our next episode, trick or treat!   Some of our favorite resources: * Academia * The Portalist * NY Folklore Society * Barbara Tuchman; A Distant Mirror, 1978, Alfred A Knopf Ltd, p504   Slideshow Photo Credit: This file has been provided by the British Library from its digital collections. It is also made available on a British Library website. Catalogue entry: Harley 4380 This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the a class="extiw" title="w:List of countries' copyright len...

    33 min

  4. 10/16/2018

    Guns, Ghosts & Serial Killers: Live from Central City Comic Con

    Have you ever wondered about the awful, bloody and sometimes downright scary history of a town you’re passing through? Take a trip with our co-hosts and join us for our first live interview recorded at Central City Comic Con in this Horrific History Podcast episode as we explore the macabre history of Ellensburg, Washington with a local expert, Museum Director Sadie Thayer of the Kittitas County Historical Museum!   Shootings, hangings and serial killers, this episode has a lot of local history along with some local lore or ghost stories which just don’t stand up to scrutiny. So sit back, relax and beware of strangers as you listen to this new episode through one of your favorite podcast services (iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and more); just remember, no squeam allowed! Join us again in two weeks when we release our next episode!   If you’re passing through Ellensburg, Washington and would like to sign up for one of their walking tours, you can sign up here!   Slideshow Photo Credit: © Steven Pavlov / http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Senapa / CC BY-SA 3.0

    1h 1m

  5. 10/10/2018

    Squeam with us LIVE!

    Would you like to squeam live? Check out this special announcement about our first-ever live podcast recording with a special guest interview and find out how you can be there!   If you’d like to hear the commercial-free version of our episodes and receive other great perks, become a patron of our podcast on Patreon! Become a Patron!   Click here if you’d like a chance to win a FREE copy of Dead but Dreaming’s Mockingbird EP!     Commercial break music by Dead but Dreaming. Slideshow photo credit: Toolstotal Microphone – Credit to https://toolstotal.com/ via photopin (license) Blog photo credit: Skakerman Headset & mic via photopin (license)

    3 min

  6. 09/24/2018

    Birds, Bees and Bitter Apples: Ancient Birth Control

    How have people through history thought of and approached reproduction and family planning? Would you trust their birth control methods or consider it another case of the fallacy of ancient wisdom? Join our co-hosts, Eric Slyter and Jordan Watney, as they explore the history of documented birth control methods in ancient Egypt and the evolution of reproductive theory from antiquity to modern history. How do the solutions they devised fit into the context of the culture and their understanding of how conception worked; were their ideas a result of causation or correlation? Why was crocodile dung so significant in ancient Egypt? What does modern science indicate about how effective their methods likely were?   Join us as we examine how people’s overall ideas on how reproduction worked changed as technology developed and in what ways that impacted cultural and social approaches to reproduction and birth control. Before the advent of modern understanding, how was contraception approached in ancient Egypt according to the Kahun medical papyrus and what role- if any- did the deity Seth play in their approach? How did they believe their vaginal suppositories and fumigation techniques worked? And, as technology became more sophisticated, in what way did that lead to the theory of preformationism? How did they mix up sperm and gonorrheal puss?   From a homunculus to the anti-masturbation craze, crocodile poo to bitter apples, this episode has a lot of early methods of birth control which may make you feel the “terror of the womb”. Before you get to the end of the episode, you might decide some of these methods involve too much of a good thing and you’re glad for more regulation. So sit down and watch out for wandering wombs while you listen to this new Horrific History Podcast episode through one of your favorite podcast services (iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and more). Just remember, no squeam allowed! Join us again in two weeks when we’ll discuss religious relics!   If you’d like to hear the commercial-free version of this episode and receive other great perks, become a patron of our podcast on Patreon! Become a Patron!   Click here if you’d like a chance to win a FREE copy of Dead but Dreaming’s Mockingbird EP!   Some of our favorite resources from this week’s episode: * Wiley * Atlas Obscura * a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.

    1h 34m

  7. 08/28/2018

    Twelve Thousand Downloads (of Death): Special Episode

    Horrific History Podcast has hit (and exceeded) a new milestone, so we’re bringing you a special episode with a guest host you’ll remember from Season 1: Curtis Bender! We hope you’ll enjoy this special recording for our 10,000-12,000 download milestones! So join us for this change of pace and hear about how the destruction of an old hospital gave Curtis rat problems, how the air quality is impacting him at work, and how all of that ties into this brand new special episode.   Listen now to learn how the 1952 Great London Smog fits the theme of our milestones and has ties that goes back seven centuries? What medieval regulations were enacted to try to tamp down on the choking miasma while bathhouses went down the drain? Discover what commercial industries, combined with a population boom, helped to exacerbate the problem. How did circumstances ultimately coalesce to create a public health disaster which would bring about change?   So sit down next to the fire with a nice cup of London Fog while you enjoy this special episode through one of your favorite podcast services (iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and more). Come back again in two weeks to join us as we get back to our usual schedule and release our new episode on awful birth control in history.  Just remember, no squeam allowed.         If you’d like to hear the commercial-free version of this episode and receive other great perks, become a patron of our podcast on Patreon! Become a Patron!   Some of our favorite resources from this week’s episode: * Telegraph * University of California, Davis * Mainly Norfolk * Taylor and Francis * The Culture Trip     Commercial break music by Dead but Dreaming. Slideshow photo credit: Smog over London, as seen from Primrose Hill, 2011 | ©Luton Anderson/Flickr Blog post photo credit: The Great Smog of 1952 | ©N T Stobbs/Geograph.org

    56 min

  8. 08/14/2018

    Forbidden Shmershmidden: Forbidden Places

    Do you like to push boundaries? Would you go to, and stay in, an area which was legally designated as “off-limits”? If the location was reputed to be haunted, would that spook you out of staying the night? Our co-hosts, Eric Slyter and Jordan Watney, explore areas forbidden to the general public in this brand new Horrific History Podcast episode. What mysterious circumstances caused the destruction and abandonment of the Bhangarh Fort? What Italian island has been reputably haunted by its history with wars, plague and insane asylums? Are the existing rumors and stories about the locations fanciful superstition priming our perception, or is there something more to explain the reported phenomenon which make many visitors squeam?   Join us as we dig through the records of history, looking for celestial events and natural disasters for explanations for curses and ghost stories from an Indian city and fortification. Could natural events which brought famine & disease be conflated with supernatural influence? Will we have a bone to pick with legends about Poveglia Island when we try to verify accounts of cannibalism and torture, or can we verify their accuracy?   Holy men and evil wizards, wars and disease, mass graves and medical experiments… this episode has a lot of facts and legends to keep you entertained. So sit down in front of the campfire and make some s’mores while we tell you ghost stories and the real events which inspired them. Just remember, no squeam allowed! Join us again in two weeks when we’ll explore the horrible history of birth control.   (Jordan sincerely apologizes to all those she may have offended with her “total inability to ever, in a single instance, pronounce “Bhangarh” or any associated names/locations correctly” during this podcast recording. It seems all her diligent practice on proper pronunciation only cemented the incorrect habits!)   If you’d like to hear the commercial-free version of this episode and receive other great perks, become a patron of our podcast on Patreon! Become a Patron!   Click here if you’d like a chance to win a FREE copy of Dead but Dreaming’s Mockingbird EP!   Some of our favorite resources from this week’s episode: * Holidify * Trip Advisor * TopYaps * a href="https://www.onceinalifetimejourney.com/once-in-a-lifetime-journeys/sunset-yoga-indias-haunted-place...

    1h 59m

  9. 07/24/2018

    Harbingers of Doom: Episodes from the Crypt

    While working on our upcoming new episode, Eric and Jordan discovered that there are three noteworthy celestial events coming up! Since they need a bit more time to finish the summer tour of one of our other programs which goes to libraries all across the Pacific Northwest for Summer Reading programs, we decided to raise another one of our Season 1 episodes (now with a new intro) from the Horrific History Podcast Crypt for your squeamish delight! Harbingers of Doom: Celestial Events and Superstitions   What kind of superstitions or myths do you think of when you look up at the stars? Every culture has them; there have been stories developed all over the world to explain star constellations or natural phenomena like solar and lunar eclipses, comets, meteors and more. When the sun provides warmth to help the crops grow and night skies are used to measure the passage of time, it’s not surprising that any unexpected or unusual phenomenon is assigned meaning when the science isn’t sophisticated enough to distinguish between causation and correlation. Horrific History co-hosts, Eric Slyter and Curtis Bender, explore beliefs related to celestial events from across the globe.  Hindu serpent demons, China’s dragons (or dogs) and modern conspiracy theorists watching for alien spaceships, we have a lot of “bad omens” for your enjoyment.   Lunacy and humours, werewolves and witches, this episode brings you from past paranormal superstition to modern “remote viewing” and “Flat Earth Theory” pseudoscience! From the “Tears of St. Lawrence” to angels being cast from heaven, we’ve also included many spiritual explanations for the natural workings of the heavens; we even have some signs from the aboriginal afterlife! Hear about doomsday cults, castrations, suicides and plagues all associated with cosmic events and the illusory correlations humans have assigned to them (sometimes, like with the Battle of Hastings, even after the event has long passed)! Of course, this episode wouldn’t be complete without the tale of the woman who survived being hit by a meteorite! Just remember, no squeam allowed.   So put on your eclipse glasses and pull out your Aztec sun stone to keep time as you listen to this Horrific History Podcast episode through one of your favorite podcast services (iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and more); we’ll provide you with your own little collection of cosmic harbingers of doom to keep you entertained while you look out into space, the final squeam-teir. Come back again in two weeks to hear our Labor Day and horrible in history episode.   If you’d like to hear the commercial-free version of this episode and receive other great perks, become a patron of our podcast on Patreon! Become a Patron!

    1h 49m

  10. 06/27/2018

    For a Healthy Glow: Episodes from the Crypt

    While working on our upcoming “Forbidden Places” episode, Eric and Jordan discovered that one of our intended subjects no longer qualifies as an area off-limits to the public! So, while they scour the planet for other inaccessible locations we thought we’d raise one of our Season 1 episodes (now with a new intro) from the Horrific History Podcast Crypt for your squeamish delight!   For a Healthy Glow: Radiation Poisoning (Episodes from the Crypt) A finger, hand, limb or life…. What would you give up for the advancement of science? Would you give up as much as the Radium Martyrs of All Nations? Horrific History Podcast’s co-hosts, Eric Slyter and Curtis Bender discuss radiation poisoning in history, beginning with late Renaissance alchemy research in 1603 and continuing on to address more modern history including the Manhattan Project, Kyshtym Disaster, Chernobyl, and touching on current-day Fukushima.   From capturing the “golden light of the sun” to “seeing one’s death” through x-ray experimentation, this episode discusses all the horrifying things that came with the development of radiation research including blindness, loss of appendages, and even slow painful demises! You’ll hear about radium condoms, miracle “cures” and other products like “liquid sunshine,” as well as the legal case of the “Radium Girls” who had been so exposed to radium over the course of their factory work that parts of them glowed (even as as their living bodies decomposed)! Cancer, amputations and assassinations, you’ll hear all the disgusting gory details, right down to the glowing snot! Just remember, no squeam allowed!   Join us as we delve into this Horrific History episode through one of your favorite podcast services (iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and more), and come back again in two weeks to learn about various rites of passage!   Some of our favorite resources from this week’s episode: * Bologna stone * Chemistry World * Schweizerbart Science Publishers * MAX IV Laboratory * US National Library of Medicine: National Institutes of Health * Profile of Dr. Kells * University of Vermont Libraries: Dana Medical Library * Smithsonian Magazine * New Yorker * CNN

    1h 37m
  • 10 Episodes

3.9
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

Join us as we peel back the skin of history and exploring the morbid, the macabre, the horrible and sometimes flat-out gross things in the historical record which you might not have heard of before! While attempts are made to try to keep our episodes family-friendly, be forewarned that we often discuss subject matter which may not be suitable for younger listeners. If this is a concern to you, we recommend saving it for when young ears are out of listening range! New episodes are released bi-weekly on Tuesdays! Horrific History Podcast is a program of Kron, an educational 501(c)3 nonprofit headquartered in Ellensburg, WA.

Information

  • Creator
    Horrific History with Eric Slyter and Jordan Watney
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2019
  • Episodes
    10
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Horrific History Podcast
  • Show Website
    Horrific History Podcast

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