51 episodes

Stories of the fun, bizarre and often ridiculous, history of food.

Join me as we explore The Fantastic History of Food.

Contact me on foodhistorypod@gmail.com

The Fantastic History Of Food Storymachine Creative

    • History
    • 4.8 • 108 Ratings

Stories of the fun, bizarre and often ridiculous, history of food.

Join me as we explore The Fantastic History of Food.

Contact me on foodhistorypod@gmail.com

    50 - How Alcohol Prohibition Created NASCAR

    50 - How Alcohol Prohibition Created NASCAR

    This episode is a look at how in the early to mid 1900’s the abolitionist laws banning the production and consumption of alcohol played a majorly significant role in the creation of what, today, is a veritable institution of the American South, NASCAR.

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    Please support me on Patreon for just $2 a month: patreon.com/foodhistorypod

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    Sources for this episode's research:


    https://winstoncupmuseum.com/nascar-and-prohibition/#:~:text=Across%20the%20country%2C%20bootleggers%20had,cases%20of%20liquor%20as%20possible
    https://www.history.com/news/how-prohibition-gave-birth-to-nascar
    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-moonshine-bootlegging-gave-rise-nascar-180962014/
    https://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-racing/nascar/history/nascar-bootleggers.htm
    https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/nascar-moonshine
    https://www.ranker.com/list/ways-people-hid-alcohol-during-prohibition/kellen-perry?utm_source=newsletters&utm_medium=weirdhistory&utm_campaign=wh_active&utm_content=%7Bdate%28%27yyyyMMdd%27%29%7D
    https://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-early-american-booze-consumption/rachel-souerbry?utm_source=newsletters&utm_medium=weirdhistory&utm_campaign=wh_active&utm_content=%7Bdate%28%27yyyyMMdd%27%29%7D
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower

    • 21 min
    49 - Charles Domery Ate Cats, Grass & A Fellow Soldier's Leg

    49 - Charles Domery Ate Cats, Grass & A Fellow Soldier's Leg

    There are many stories throughout history of individuals with freakish appetites, who seem to be able to consume quantities of food well past what a human stomach should be capable of handling.

    Today, we’ll be diving into the story of Charles Domery, a Polish-born soldier who tried to eat the whole world.

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    Please support me on Patreon for just $2 a month: patreon.com/foodhistorypod

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    Sources for this episode's research:

    https://historianandrew.medium.com/the-man-who-couldnt-stop-eating-including-cats-rats-grass-and-his-friend-s-leg-c7ec7e1fce01https://www.weirdhistorian.com/domery-the-man-who-ate-anything-and-a-whole-lot-of-it/https://allthatsinteresting.com/charles-domeryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Domery

    • 12 min
    48 - The Dutch Once Ate Their Prime Minister

    48 - The Dutch Once Ate Their Prime Minister

    For most of history, the Dutch have been an almost all-powerful force to be reckoned with. They were the forerunners for a lot of the world's exploration, and for a long time dominated the seas and trade routes through the stranglehold of the Dutch East India Company.

    In the preceding century, they were still under Spanish rule, with 2 of their kings, Charles the Fifth and his Son Phillip II, simultaneously ruling as the kings of Spain and the so-called Low Countries of The Netherlands.

    But the Dutch weren’t having any of this for long and at the first sign of mismanagement, made their feelings known.

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    Please support me on Patreon for just $2 a month: patreon.com/foodhistorypod

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    Sources for this episode's research:


    https://www.historydefined.net/when-the-dutch-murdered-and-ate-their-own-prime-minister/
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_de_Witt
    https://dutchreview.com/culture/dutch-history-crowds-ate-prime-minister/
    https://www.historyextra.com/period/stuart/is-it-true-that-an-angry-mob-of-dutchmen-killed-and-ate-their-own-prime-minister-in-1672/
    https://allthatsinteresting.com/johan-de-witt

    • 15 min
    47 - William McKenna the "Human Ostrich"

    47 - William McKenna the "Human Ostrich"

    For today's story we will be diving into the life of a truly extraordinary man named William V McKenna, and while he fits the category of “people who eat random things”, those things that he ate can’t really be classified as food.

    So let's see just how this man, William McKenna first discovered his talented digestive system.

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    Please support me on Patreon for just $2 a month : patreon.com/foodhistorypod

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    Sources for this episode's research:

    https://www.picuki.com/tag/humanostrichhttps://www.weirdhistorian.com/appetite-for-intestinal-destruction-the-man-who-ate-glass-nails-tacks-and-frogs/https://historianandrew.medium.com/william-mckenna-the-human-ostrich-who-made-a-living-eating-nails-glass-and-live-frogs-dd1697a3c7d5

    • 14 min
    46 - Turning Hitler Into A Woman By Poisoning His Food

    46 - Turning Hitler Into A Woman By Poisoning His Food

    WW2 was raging onwards, with men fighting and dying each and every day. It was so delicately poised that there seemed to be no end to the fighting in sight.

    Weeks and months dragged on into years, and with them came more and more plots of how to win the war. Some were impractical, some were impossible, and some were downright insane.

    But every now and again, one of these plots would be just insane enough to work.

    And so, out of this think tank came possibly one of military history’s greatest-ever schemes.

    What if we turned Adolf Hitler into a woman?

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    Please support me on Patreon for just $2 a month : https://www.patreon.com/foodhistorypod

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    Sources for this episode's research:
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-15/allies-planned-to-make-hitler-a-woman/2839874https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hitler-estrogen-hormone-plot_n_927281https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/book-claims-allies-tried-to-turn-the-fuhrer-into-a-female-464589https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2025975/Hitler-hormone-plot-Bizarre-plan-British-spies-make-Fuhrer-fraulein.htmlhttps://theweek.com/articles/482449/bizarre-plan-turn-hitler-into-womanhttps://medium.com/the-collector/the-bizzare-plot-to-turn-hitler-into-a-woman-185bc837eba5https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8701024/Revealed-sex-hormone-plan-to-feminise-Hitler.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Has_Only_Got_One_Ballhttps://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/hitlers-psychological-profile-shows-feminine-side/72P2CQ6HYWXN6NHH57GO57FMRU/?c_id=2&objectid=10118222

    • 12 min
    45 - A Spice Worth Killing For

    45 - A Spice Worth Killing For

    There is a spice we use so commonly today that it's hard to believe that at one time, wars were fought, people were killed and entire civilizations almost wiped out, simply so that the strongest force could get their hands on this prized spice.

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    Thank you to Four Sigmatic for being a sponsor for this episode.

    To make it easy, Four Sigmatic is offering you 30% off anything in their range when you use promo code: FOODHISTORY at checkout.

    Check out their range here: https://us.foursigmatic.com/

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    Thank you also to Chemists In The Kitchen by LabX and the National Academy of Sciences.

    In each episode, real scientists walk you through things like making your own pickles, the chemistry behind ceviche, the formula for perfect homemade pretzels, and much, much more!

    Watch their YouTube Channel Here: https://bit.ly/3CVKz5E

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    Please support me on Patreon for just $2 a month : https://www.patreon.com/foodhistorypod

    • 17 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
108 Ratings

108 Ratings

Pixie950515 ,

Really glad I found this

Interesting, dry sense of humour. Would love longer episodes though 🙏🏻🙏🏻

InemariR ,

Incredibly random but fantastic food stories!

Love this! Super entertaining while learning interesting and very random facts.

llllllllllllolllllllllllll ,

amazing

👏🏻

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