Lots o' big news at The Constant. New episodes begin Tuesday, 4/23, and will follow every two weeks thereafter. No more seasons, no more gluts of material to overwhelm you followed by months of radio silence. Just a slow, steady stream of new stories.
And to support this new model, we're introducing a Patreon. I hope you'll support us by chipping in $2 an episode--four bucks a month, max--to help bring the show to everyone. If you do, you'll get an array of cool benefits, like access to the new Secret Feed, where we'll be dropping regular bonus episodes and content just for our Patreon Supporters. Take a look, check it out, climb on board. Thanks to all of you for helping to build and support this weird little show.
Cheers,
Mark

Take a look at those star men, gazing at the night sky. Oh man, wonder if they'll ever know? on October 30th, 1938, Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre on The Air unleashed the most infamous media prank of all time. But The War of The Worlds wasn't the first time humanity got itself turned sideways thinking about Martians, and it sure wasn't the last. This week, for our season finale, we're doing a little primer on our weird and sordid history with our closest planetary neighbor. From Aristotle to the Martians we've maybe already discovered, we've got The Red Planet covered.

And don't forget to visit www.takecareof.com to take their free quiz and get monthly vitamins delivered right to your door. Enter promo code theconstant50 at checkout for 50% off your first month.

Music by:
Lee Rosevere
and
Blue Dot Sessions

This is the story of the first radio hoax. No, not that one. On January 16th, 1926, a Catholic priest took the mic at BBC Radio and through all of England into panic with... a joke. Unfortunately, the original recording was lost long ago. Fortunately, this week, we're recreating it.

Featuring Nick Sandys as Father Ronald Knox

Music by:
Blue Dot Sessions
and
​The Savoy Havana Band

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