War! Good God, y'all. What is it good for? According to Henry Ford: Absolutely nothing. So in 1915 he launched a ship, bound for Europe, with a simple if outlandish mission: to end World War I. On this episode we look at the ill-fated voyage of The Oscar II, better known as The Peace Ship.

Music by:
Blue Dot Sessions
Lee Rosevere
animeistrash

How do you survive in 1932, when The Great Depression is at its peak and prohibition is in full force? How about a little insurance fraud? It's easy: all you need is an undertaker willing to fake a cause of death, a couple of life insurance policies and a target to murder. Simple as sin. The only thing you really need to do to survive 1932 is to make sure your victim isn't better at surviving than you are.

In January of 1749, a London advertisement promised an impossible show at The Haymarket Theatre: a full-grown man would jump into a wine bottle and, from within it, sing. You won't be surprised to find out that the show didn't happen. But you will be surprised by what happened instead.

Music by:
Blue Dot Sessions

Mesmerism didn't stop with Mesmer. This week, we pick up where we left off, tracing the idea of animal magnetism to America, where it went through some... changes. Get ready for a whirlwind tour of American enterprise, religion and entertainment that leads us right through the door of this dark timeline we're living in. This one's a doozy.

Music by:
Lee Rosevere
Blue Dot Sessions
animeistrash

What is this? Are you some kind of hypnotist? We're doing a deep dive into one of the single most fascinating mistaken ideas and the fascinating man who thought it up. This story has got it all: demonic possession, mysterious seductions, beheadings, public shamings, miracle cures and The Avengers of 18th Century Science.

Music by:
Lee Rosevere
Blue Dot Sessions
Animeistrash
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Maria Theresia von Paradis

Happy 100th birthday to one of the strangest disasters in American history: Boston's Great Molasses Flood. For our season 5 premiere, we're looking at the weird and deadly 35 foot tall wall of syrup that destroyed Boston's North End a century ago, and what caused such an enormous--and enormously curious--thing to happen in the first place.

Music by:
​Lee Rosevere
Blue Dot Sessions
and
animeistrash

On today's holiday special we're looking at a Christmas classic: It's a Wonderful Life. A movie that was almost never made, that was almost forever forgotten, and that almost missed its chance to change a woman's life.

Music by:
​Blue Dot Sessions
​Lee Rosevere
​and
​Dimitri Tiomkin

Alright, there are two ways this can go down. Scenario 1: Mark finds the story of the worst tattoo ever and feels heartened by it, going through with finally getting his own. Scenario 2: Mark finds the story of the worst tattoo ever given and feels terrified by it, running away once more from his promises to you, loyal listeners. 

Spoiler Alert: he got it.
​

Because you wonderful, amazing jerks helped reach our stretch goal, Mark's got a promise to fulfill. To explain that promise--and the title of this very show--we're rebroadcasting our season 1 finale. Einstein was a genius, but that didn't save him from messing stuff up. So let's revisit his greatest blunder, and catch-up on the year-long saga of the tattoo that wasn't but will soon be.

It's Halloween and that means it's time for a spooky one. This week, for the last episode of our Kickstarter season, we've got a real-life story of ghosts, possession and a weird nexus where superstition meets science. Plus, there's chance for you to force Mark into getting that tattoo from way back in season 1. All it takes is to donate to our Kickstarter fundraiser right here.

Music by:
animeistrash
Blue Dot Sessions
​Lee Rosevere