The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

David White
  • 4.7 (12)
  • HISTORY
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to sharing strange stories and amazing facts. No topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll do an episode about it.

  1. #118: They Came from Inner Space [the weird life of Dr. Walter Siegmeister]

    SEP 1

    #118: They Came from Inner Space [the weird life of Dr. Walter Siegmeister]

    Dr. Walter Siegmeister believed we could create a psychic master race by taking off our clothes, moving to the jungle, and consuming only fruit and megadoses of lecithin. And that wasn't even the weirdest thing about him. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/they-came-from-inner-space/ Key sources for this episode include Walter Siegmeister's The Hollow Earth: The Greatest Geographical Discovery in History; Walter Kafton-Minkel's Subterranean Worlds: 10,000 Years of Dragons, Dwars, the Dead, Lost Races & UFOs from Inside the Earth; and Professor Solomon's Visitors to the Inner Earth. Jenn Thorson: https://www.jennthorson.com/ The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it! Email: jackalope@order-of-the-jackalope.com  Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com  Discord: https://discord.gg/Mbap3UQyCB  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@orderjackalope  Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/orderjackalope  YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

    1 hr
  2. #117: Kulopus [Elwood Towner, aka "Chief Red Cloud"]

    AUG 11

    #117: Kulopus [Elwood Towner, aka "Chief Red Cloud"]

    Come for the strange, sad, and hate-filled story of the Q Shaman of 1940: Elwood Towner, a.k.a. "Chief Red Cloud," who spoke at Nazi rallies in full Native American ceremonial regalia. Stay to hear #13 gets angry and go off the rails. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/kulopus/ Key sources for this episode include Arnie Bernstein's Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German-American Bund; Kenneth William Townsend's World War II and the American Indian; Knute berger's "The strange case of the Northwest's Native American Nazi"; and contemporary newspaper reports. Robert Lifson Ultra The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it! Email: jackalope@order-of-the-jackalope.com Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com Discord: https://discord.gg/Mbap3UQyCB TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@orderjackalope Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/orderjackalope YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

    31 min
  3. #116: The Marshal is Missing! [the heist of Marshal Pétain's remains] presented by #42 (Alex Baumans)

    JUL 21

    #116: The Marshal is Missing! [the heist of Marshal Pétain's remains] presented by #42 (Alex Baumans)

    In February 1973, French right wingers broke into the grave of of fascist dictator Philippe Pétain and made off with his mortal remains. This is the tragicomic story of what led them to that moment... and what happened afterwards.  https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/the-marshal-is-missing/ Key sources for this episode include Jean-Yves La Naour’s On a volé le Maréchal; Michel Dumas’ La permission du Maréchal; Hugo Coniez’s La mort de la IIIe Republique; and Julian Jackson’s France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Petain. Presented by #42 (Alex Baumans). Alex is pathologically interested in anything unusual and obscure. He’s a closet goth, armchair general and amateur theologian. His favorite animals are ducks, octopodes and pigs. You will also find him surprisingly knowledgable about K-Pop girl groups. The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it! Email: jackalope@order-of-the-jackalope.com Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com Discord: https://discord.gg/Mbap3UQyCB TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@orderjackalope Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/orderjackalope YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

    35 min
  4. #115: Fluffy Raffles Comes To Town [who?]

    JUN 30

    #115: Fluffy Raffles Comes To Town [who?]

    She was the meandering metropolitan mystery, the famous will-o'-the-wisp of the continent, who fooled police and the public from Abilene to Akron. Who was this mysterious and alluring woman, and why did she love bread so much?  https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/fluffy-raffles-comes-to-town Thanks to the initiates who contributed their voices to this episode, including Dorothy Sibole (#7), Eric Leslie, and Jenn Thorson! Jenn Thorson: https://jennthorson.com/ Little Lake Theater Company: https://www.littlelake.org/ Key sources for this episode include contemporary newspaper report and that's about it. (You may find this hard to believe, not a lot of people are out there writing about this.) So let me recommend Rebeca Rego Barry's The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells, where she does some literary detective work to track down this vanished author, and Bill Peschel's Sherlock Holmes: Great War Parodies and Pastiches, an anthology of Sherlockian oddities. The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it! Email: jackalope@order-of-the-jackalope.com Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com Discord: https://discord.gg/Mbap3UQyCB TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@orderjackalope Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/orderjackalope YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

    29 min
  5. #114: Unhuman Animals [Pennsylvania's anti-cartoon bills of 1903]

    JUN 9

    #114: Unhuman Animals [Pennsylvania's anti-cartoon bills of 1903]

    In 1903 Pennsylvania found the recipe for disaster: two of the greatest political cartoonists of the day, and an easily caricatured governor with no sense of humor. Their battle went to some...u unexpected places. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/unhuman-animals Key sources for this episode include... Stephen Piott's "The Right of the Cartoonist: Samuel Pennypacker and the Freedom of the Press," contemporary newspaper reports... and that's it. Almost every other source I found either did not go into any detail about the act, or got the specifics so very wrong (like confusing the Pusey and Salus-Grady bills) to the point where I had to doubt everything else it had to say. The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it! Email: jackalope@order-of-the-jackalope.com Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com Discord: https://discord.gg/Mbap3UQyCB TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@orderjackalope Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/orderjackalope YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

    28 min
  6. #113: Such Was Railroading [the Castle Shannon Railway War]

    MAY 19

    #113: Such Was Railroading [the Castle Shannon Railway War]

    Milton D. Hays had two things: a dream of a railroad linking Pittsburgh to the coal fields of southwestern Pennsylvania, and a lack of ethics that would allow him to realize that dream. This is the story of the Castle Shannon Railway War. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/such-was-railroading Key sources for this episode include contemporary newspaper reports; the Bridgeville Area Historical Society, Brookline Connection, and Carrick-Overbrook Historical Society web sites; and N.A. Critchett's fantastic (and highly inaccurate) "Double Gauge." The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it! Email: jackalope@order-of-the-jackalope.com Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com Discord: https://discord.gg/Mbap3UQyCB TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@orderjackalope Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/orderjackalope YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

    18 min
  7. #112: There Must Come a Change [Octavius Valentine Catto]

    APR 28

    #112: There Must Come a Change [Octavius Valentine Catto]

    Octavius Valentine Catto was truly a man for all seasons: scholar, activist, politician, baseball star. He could have been the inspiring black leader Reconstruction-era Philadelphia needed... if he hadn't been murdered. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/there-must-come-a-change Key sources for this episode include Daniel Biddle and Murray Dubin's Tasting Freedom: Octavius Catto and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America; Joe William Trotter Jr and Eric Ledell Smith's African Americans in Pennsylvania: Shifting Historical Perspectives; Michael E. Lomax's Black Baseball Entrepreneurs: 1860-1901: Operating by Any Means Necessary; Ryan A. Swanson's When Baseball Went White: Reconstruction, Reconciliation, and Dreams of a National Pastime; and Stephan Segal's "An Unbreakable Game: Baseball and Its Inability to Bring About Equality During Reconstruction" The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it! Email: jackalope@order-of-the-jackalope.com Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com Discord: https://discord.gg/Mbap3UQyCB TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@orderjackalope Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/orderjackalope YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

    1h 3m
  8. #111: Samozvantsy [false Dmitrys in the Time of Troubles]

    APR 7

    #111: Samozvantsy [false Dmitrys in the Time of Troubles]

    The Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich died from an accidental self-inflicted knife wound in 1591... but that didn't stop him from popping up to try and reclaim his throne in 1604. And 1607. And 1611. And 1612. And... https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/samozvantsy Key sources for this episode include Chester S.L. Dunning's Russia's First Civil War: The Time of Troubles and the Romanov Dynasty; Maureen Perrie's Pretenders and Popular Monarchism in Early Modern Russia: The False Tsars of the Time of Troubles; Paul Avrich's Russian Rebels, 1600-1800; and Peter Julicher's Renegades, Rebels and Rogues Under the Tsars. Special thanks to Kristen Harkness for her help with Russian transliteration and pronunciation. (Sorry, Kristen, I still beefed it!) The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it! Email: jackalope@order-of-the-jackalope.com Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com Discord: https://discord.gg/Mbap3UQyCB TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@orderjackalope Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/orderjackalope YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

    1h 13m
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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to sharing strange stories and amazing facts. No topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll do an episode about it.

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