In The End

As part one of serial killer March, we're kicking things off by talking about who serial killers are - the available statistics, some of the common misconceptions, and the psychological commonalities of those who become serial killers.    If you're interested in looking at the statistics yourself, you can look at the Florida Gulf Coast University and Radford University database mentioned in the episode here. Or you can check out the information available from the FBI.

We've talked about burial before, but we haven't actually covered when humans decided to do that and how it worked. Fear not! This week, that's exactly what we're doing - the how, when, what, and maybe why of humans deciding to bury their dead.   Interested in reading more? Check out: Pettitt, P. 2011. The Palaeolithic Origins of Human Burial. London: Routledge.

Why were the Grimm stories so... well, grim? There are several very good reasons for it. Let's unpack it together. And maybe then we can start to unpack some of the childhood trauma we endured from reading them.   If you're interested in some collections outside of The Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen, might we suggest the following authors (by no means an exhaustive list) who wrote collected fairytales. Many of their collections can be found on the Gutenburg Project.  Joseph Jacobs (Celtic) Samuel Lover (Irish) Wolfram Eberhard (Chinese) Friedrich Kreutzwald (Estonian) Giambattista Basile (Italian) Americo Paredes (Mexican) Alexander Afanasyev (Russian) Peter Henry Emerson (Welsh) J. C. Poestion (Finland) Vishnu Sharma (India)  

Do dead bodies have rights? Are they people or things? Well, in the US at least, it entirely depends on your state. But we're rounding up the general overview of what rights a corpse has and how they work this week because... well, why not?

Well, this is a weird one. We've got some questionable hotel staffing practices in the 1930s, a strange hotel guest, and a lot of mysterious phone calls that leave much to be desired. On the positive side, we've got some great old-timey names like The Kansas City Journal-Post, Artemus Ogletree, and Della Ferguson.

The chilling, thrilling, and ultimately unfortunate conclusion of Scott's attempt to get to the South Pole before anyone else. On an unrelated note, proper preparation is important, kids.   For further reading, check out: Huntford, Roland. 1999. The Last Place on Earth. Scott and Amundsen’s Race to the South Pole. New York: Modern Library.   Cherry-Garrad, Apsley. 1922. The Worst Journey in the World. London: Penguin Books.

(Not so) Great Scott! This week we're jumping into another journey that didn't quite go so great. Was it bad luck or just incompetence? Find out as we walk through the preparation phase of Scott's attempted journey to the South Pole.   If you want to see the maps and timeline of Scott and Amundsen's respective journeys, you can see them on this incredibly detailed website.   For further reading, check out: Huntford, Roland. 1999. The Last Place on Earth. Scott and Amundsen’s Race to the South Pole. New York: Modern Library.   Cherry-Garrad, Apsley. 1922. The Worst Journey in the World. London: Penguin Books.

There are a lot of movies and video games about survival (or murder) in space, but what's the deal with actual death in the final frontier? Has anyone died up there? What's the plan if someone does? What are we thinking about body disposal for longer term missions? Get your space nerd pocket protectors out and let's go!   If you'd like to read more about the Body Back system, check out this article from Slate. Or if you'd like to listen to the entire Apollo 13 mission comms, you can find those here in NASA's archives.  

We know what you're thinking. Well, we might know what you're thinking. But, as is so often the case, common mythos and popular media have largely done this disease a disservice. This week we're delving into the facts (and, of course, the unsettling realities) of Hansen's disease.   For further reading: Tayman, John. 2006. The Colony. New York: Scribner. Edmond, Rod. 2007. Leprosy and Empire. A Medical and Cultural History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ki Che Leung, Angela. 2009. Leprosy in China. A History. New York: Columbia University Press.

Almost everyone has a plan for the zombie apocalypse and maybe you've watched the "Thriller" video in celebration of the spooky season, but this week we're going to talk about how the idea of zombies originated and how it developed into the media craze we see today.   If you're interested in a more detailed history of the origin story of zombies, we highly recommend listening to the Throughline podcast's episode ZOMBIES from 2019.

It's that time of year when you watch movies that make you too afraid to sleep or shower or maybe just make you give clowns the stink eye when you see them. So, why on Earth would anyone intentionally watch a movie designed to scare your pants off? Well, let's talk about it.   If you're interested in more info on why horror movies are so appealing, there are a ton of things out there, but might we recommend just a few easy to digest pieces: Scream: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear by Margee Kerr Why Do Some People Love Horror Movies from SciShow Lessons from a terrified horror researcher by Mathias Clasen at TEDxAarhus "The Lure of Horror" by Christian Jarrett in The Psychologist, November 2011, Vol. 24

Ever find yourself wondering if cannibalism would cure what ails you? Well, that's a little upsetting, but you wouldn't be the first. In this episode, we cover some of the history of using corpses for anything from curing epilepsy to anti-aging potions.   If you feel compelled to read more on the topic, check out: Sugg, Richard. 2016. Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires. The History of Corpse Medicine from the Renaissance to the Victorians. London: Routledge.

The title probably tells you the basic gist of the situation, but we promise it's still a mystery. To kick off our third season, we're discussing the bizarre and deeply unsettling Tylenol murders from 1980s Chicago.

It's too hot and we need to go to Siberia. Unfortunately, we can't. So, instead, we decided to discuss a truly bizarre mystery from 1959 that took place in Soviet Siberia. We've got dead hikers, an uncanny collection of facts, and absolutely no definitive explanations. Theories? Oh, yeah. There are ever so many theories.

When you have a partially dismantled dam on top of a mountain over a heavily populated valley, what could possibly go wrong? Well, caught up in the classism of the Industrial Revolution in America, the citizens of Johnstown can give you a prime example.    Want to know more? We recommend: The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough (Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (January 15, 1987) or check out The Johnstown Flood Museum (https://www.jaha.org/attractions/johnstown-flood-museum/flood-history/)

Why would anyone pay exorbitant sums and go to a ton of trouble over a scrap of fabric or a bit of questionable bone or the like? Well, we have some questions. But we also have some answers, so this week we're definitely going to break down the history of how, when, and why people in Europe started doing this.

We've talked about mummifying people on purpose and mummifying people with mountains, but now we're going to a whole new place to get our mummies - bogs! These unique biomes also offer some truly unique body preservation and we're taking this week to delve into the where, what, and possible whys of bog bodies.   For more reading: Aldhouse-Green, Miranda. 2015. Bog Bodies Uncovered: Solving Europe’s Ancient Mystery. London: Thames & Hudson.  Cockburn, A., E. Cockburn, and T. A. Reyman. 1998. Mummies, Disease & Ancient Cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

This week we bring you a listener request - Leonarda Cianciulli. This early 20th-century true crime story is a little different from our usual format, but it involves fortunetellers, tea cakes, and even a musical, so we really couldn't go wrong.

The Holodomor (or Terror-Famine) is probably not the first thing you think of when you hear "famine," but we're thinking maybe it should be? It's arguably the only intentionally orchestrated one in history and it involves a whole lot of fascinating (and predictable) Soviet-ness. So, why not join us on a tour of some truly horrific Stalinist policy?   Applebaum, Anne. 2017. Red Famine. Stalin’s War on Ukraine. London: Penguin.   Naimark, Norman M. 2010. Stalin’s Genocides. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Remember when we were all worried that the nuclear apocalypse was nigh instead of re-reading The Stand and watching Contagion? Yeah, we remember that too. So, we thought we could talk about what the outbreak of nuclear war would actually look like on the ground (and the atmosphere) - just in case you're sick of thinking about COVID-19. For more reading on this topic and several other potential "what ifs," check out The Day It Finally Happens: Alien Contact, Dinosaur Parks, Immortal Humans, And Other Possible Phenomena by Mike Pearl. If you'd like to map some nuclear weapon explosions, you can find the NUKE MAP here: https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/