The Morbid History Podcast

Thomas Gloom

A nonfiction podcast focused on the darker, stranger, and more mysterious aspects of history.

  1. 1d ago

    Episode 16: The Poison Parlor

    Progress has a price tag. And in Victorian America, it was usually fifty cents. In this episode, we pull back the ornate wallpaper of the nineteenth century and look at what was underneath. From the snake oil industry that dosed babies with morphine and sold radium water as a health tonic, to the Civil War physician who turned embalming into a national institution—and left one very specific instruction about his own burial. Because the Victorians weren't primitive. They were confident. And confidence, it turns out, is the most dangerous ingredient of all.   Original music in this episode is provided by the talented: SHDWLRKR www.MorbidHistoryPod.com

    51 min
  2. MM#15 Run Like Hell

    May 27 ·  Bonus

    MM#15 Run Like Hell

    She just wanted to run. That's all.   Twenty years old, bib number 261, tucked into the middle of the pack on a cold, rainy morning in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. She had trained over a thousand miles for this. She was ready.   The men in charge had other ideas. She finished anyway.   In this episode, we lace up and follow Kathrine Switzer through the 1967 Boston Marathon that changed women's sports forever—the attack that tried to stop her, the men who failed her, and the twenty-four miles she ran alone after the world told her to quit.   Because sometimes the most radical thing a woman can do is simply refuse to stop.   🎧 Take a bite of this Morbid Morsel. www.MorbidHistoryPod.com Original music in this episode is provided by the talented: SHDWLRKR

    14 min

  3. May 13

    Episode 15: Justice, Adjusted

    Some crimes have consequences. Others have currency.   In this episode, we examine history's untouchables—the scientists, executives, kings, and killers whose genius, wealth, or strategic value placed them beyond the reach of ordinary justice. From the Japanese bioweapons unit whose commanders were handed immunity in exchange for their data (Unit 731), to the Nazi rocket engineer America gave a new country and eventually the Moon (Wernher von Braun). Because there are two versions of justice. The one written in law. And the one that runs on who you are, and what you're worth, to the people in power.   The price was always paid. Just never by them.   Original music in this episode is provided by the talented: SHDWLRKR www.MorbidHistoryPod.com

    48 min
  4. MM#14 New Deal, Same As The Old Deal

    Apr 29 ·  Bonus

    MM#14 New Deal, Same As The Old Deal

    They called it the New Deal.   A promise. A lifeline. It was the most ambitious expansion of federal protection for working Americans in the nation's history, and was designed to pull a broken country back from the edge of collapse.   But buried in the fine print were some sneaky words that changed everything.   In 1935 and 1938, Southern Democrats struck a deal with the Roosevelt Administration. They would support the New Deal, but made sure to carve out the occupations held overwhelmingly by Black Americans.   Three laws. Three trapdoors.   In this episode, we pull back the curtain on the New Deal's darkest compromise—how the legislation that saved white America was deliberately engineered to leave Black America behind. Because sometimes the most effective forms of racism aren't the ones written in fire. They're the ones written in fine print.   🎧 Take a bite of this Morbid Morsel. www.MorbidHistoryPod.com Original music in this episode is provided by the talented: SHDWLRKR

    18 min

  5. Apr 15

    Episode 14: The Promised Land Lie

    Every utopia has a founder. Every founder has a vision.   And someone always pays for it.   In this episode, we examine the dark history of intentional communities — promised lands built on someone else's labor, someone else's body, or someone else's silence. From a New York commune that ran America's first eugenics program and pivoted to silverware, to a 64,000-acre Oregon ranch whose vision of enlightened community ended in the largest bioterrorism attack in U.S. history.   Because utopias don't fail because people are incapable of community.   They fail when perfection becomes more important than consent. And the walls go up before anyone notices.    Original music in this episode is provided by the talented: SHDWLRKR www.MorbidHistoryPod.com

    47 min
  6. MM#13 When Mama Sued The KKK

    Apr 1 ·  Bonus

    MM#13 When Mama Sued The KKK

    He was just going to the corner store.   In 1981, Michael Donald never made it home.   Two members of the Ku Klux Klan had been driving the streets of Mobile, Alabama with a gun and a rope — looking for any Black man they could find.   But this isn't just the story of a murder. It's the story of what his mother did next.   In this episode, we follow Beulah Mae Donald — a single mother from a Mobile housing project — as she took the most powerful Klan faction in America to civil court, and didn't stop until she had bankrupted the entire organization.   Because sometimes justice doesn't come from a gavel. Sometimes it comes from a mother who refuses to quit.   🎧 Take a bite of this Morbid Morsel. www.MorbidHistoryPod.com Original music in this episode is provided by the talented: SHDWLRKR

    19 min

  7. Mar 18

    Episode 13: The Version They Cut

    Some stories are too strange for fiction. Others are just too inconvenient for runtime.   In this episode, we go behind the screen — examining the true events Hollywood borrowed, polished, and quietly edited before selling them back to us. From Hugh Glass, mauled by a grizzly and left for dead in the Dakota wilderness, to twenty-one men adrift in the Pacific after a sperm whale sank their ship — and what they did to survive.   Because the real stories are full of people who don't get monuments. Who don't get to the third act. Who drew the wrong lot.   Based on a true story. But which true story? And whose?   Original music in this episode is provided by the talented: SHDWLRKR www.MorbidHistoryPod.com

    35 min
  8. MM#12 They Were Small Enough To Fit

    Mar 4 ·  Bonus

    MM#12 They Were Small Enough To Fit

    They were small enough to fit. That’s why they chose them.   In 18th- and 19th-century England, thousands of young boys were forced to climb inside narrow chimneys to scrape away soot. They were underfed to keep them small. Burned if they hesitated. Suffocated if they slipped.   But the worst horror didn’t come in childhood.   Years later, many of these former climbing boys developed a brutal and highly aggressive cancer known as Chimney Sweep’s Carcinoma... a disease that slowly rotted their bodies from the inside out, killing many before their 30th birthday.   In this episode, we descend into the ash-covered truth of Victorian industry, where comfort was built on child labor, and warm hearths were purchased with young lives.   Because sometimes the darkest things in history aren’t monsters. They’re systems.   🎧 Take a bite of this Morbid Morsel. www.MorbidHistoryPod.com Original music in this episode is provided by the talented: SHDWLRKR

    16 min
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About

A nonfiction podcast focused on the darker, stranger, and more mysterious aspects of history.

Information

  • Creator
    Thomas Gloom
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    32
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Morbid History Podcast

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