Footnoting History

(Nicole) What was the main papal headquarters in Rome before the Vatican? Where do Popes go on vacation? Find out in this episode's exploration of papal residences in Rome.

(Christine) King Louis XIV of France may be known as the "Sun King" but not everything about his life was bright and splendid. In this episode we discuss the crippling dental difficulties that plagued Louis and possibly increase your appreciation of modern anesthesia.

(Lesley) The lives of Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I of England may be seen as a contrast in social expectations during early modern Europe worthy of scholarship, and television dramas. Perhaps lesser known is the story of Mary's trial and the legacy of her execution. Go behind the romanticism of Mary's life and learn about her death and the legacy of Elizabeth's final action to end of the life of her "Sister Queen."

(Nathan) Diversity is the key to any well-rounded diet, but variety can be hard to come by if food has to be rapidly consumed to avoid spoilage. Millenia-old methods of salting, pickling, and curing only worked with certain foods and were greatly limited in terms of their applications. It wasn't until the French Revolution that modern methods of food preservation were discovered by a French chef, Nicolas Appert. In this episode we explore the military needs that spurred Appert's innovation and the ways in which his "canning" approach was improved over the course of the next century.

(John) What do the universe, galaxy, Sun, Earth, and state formation have in common? In this episode John discusses Big History and how it can help better define state formation.

(Elizabeth and Mariah)  This week, Elizabeth interviews Mariah Adin about her book The Brooklyn Thrill-Kill Gang and the Great Comic Book Scare of the 1950s to explore why juvenile delinquency kept so many parents up at night in the US in the 1950s.  Were comic books leading kids to lives of crime?

(Kirsti) On July 4, we tend to think about America's birth as a product of plucky colonial grit and determination, but could it have succeeded without the support of Britain's enemies? What did American independence mean for European politics? This week we look at the American Revolution as a continuation of power struggles in Europe.

(Ryan) More than eighty years before General Anthony McAuliffe gave his famous response of "Nuts" or "Go to hell!" to the German ultimatum to surrender the besieged city of Bastogne in World War II, another officer, Colonel James Stephens, issued a similar reply to Confederate forces who had surrounded his small command at Lexington, Missouri.

(Christina) The first animals to be domesticated, for centuries dogs helped their humans conquer the world. So perhaps it was only natural, as humans began to look toward other worlds, that their minds turned back to their first and most loyal companions. In this installment of Doggy History, we will examine the heroic animals (canines and others) sent into space during the mid-20th century.

(John) What if I were to tell you that the Opium Wars weren't really about opium? What if I told you that they were about trade, tea and silver? And what if one of the companies that began trading opium in the mid-nineteenth century is on the London Stock Exchange today? On this episode of Footnoting History, John explores the opium trade and how it led to open markets and the collapse of the Qing dynasty.

(Christine) As his brother Napoleon rose to power in France, Jerome Bonaparte was across the ocean in Baltimore, Maryland. While there the young Bonaparte did what many men do, he married a beautiful woman. Unfortunately his union with Miss Elizabeth Patterson was not welcomed by Napoleon, who had other plans for his little brother. In this episode we’ll examine what happened in Baltimore and how Emperor Napoleon’s disapproval changed the future of the newlywed couple.

(Elizabeth and Christine) As Britain celebrates the birth of Prince George's little brother or sister, Footnoting History is pondering royal siblings who became influential figures in the country's history. Join us as we discuss how so-called "spares" ranging from Empress Matilda in the 12th century to King George VI in the 20th, found themselves in the spotlight.

(Samantha) The average American eats 68 quarts of popcorn each year - making the salty treat the most popular snack food in the country. But where does popcorn come from and how did it get so popular?

(Nicole) Cola di Rienzo had a turbulent career in fourteenth century Rome. Find out how this son of a Roman innkeeper became embroiled in papal and imperial politics, held the ancient positions of tribune and senator, and ultimately died a violent death.

(Elizabeth) Beloved children's classics such as The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, and the Hardy Boys have been appearing in print for 75 to 100 years. The authors - Laura Lee Hope, Carolyn Keene, and Franklin W. Dixon - have kept children enchanted since the early 20th century...or have they?

(Lucy) Kate Marsden was born and died in London, but in the intervening decades, she traversed thousands of miles - and engaged the patronage of two empresses - in her efforts to ameliorate the lot of lepers, from London to the Russian steppes. Her exploits and her writings about them both inspired and scandalized society. This week's episode uses Marsden's career to discuss truth-telling, travel-writing, and Victorian ideas of virtue.

(Nathan) What if everything you ever knew about history and classical literature was fundamentally wrong? What if there were a massive conspiracy, set in motion by medieval monks, to create entire bodies of literature and claim they were much older, or to invent centuries of history? In this episode, we trace the pseudo-history of the great "monastic conspiracy" from its origins in the writings of a French Jesuit in the 17th century to the bizarre New Chronology of a Russian mathematician in the 20th.

(Lesley) In the 1950s, a series of discoveries allowed biologists to capture and construct the double-helio structure of DNA. For these efforts, James Watson, Maurice Wilkins, and Francis Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962. The implications of this work transformed the field of biology and led to dramatic new advancements in medicine. But the story of DNA was not so simple. James Watson's personal behavior diminished the contributions of other scientists. In this episode of Footnoting History, we learn about the complex drama behind the scenes of a landmark and transformative discovery...and the complications that continue to dog the career of a prominent scientist today.

(Christina) Each year in early March, professional mushers and their dog teams converge on Anchorage, Alaska to run the Iditarod, a grueling race to Nome, more than 1,000 miles away, ostensibly in commemoration of the 1925 "Great Race of Mercy." That first "race" consisted of heroic dogs and sledders who rushed diphtheria serum to the stricken city, and ensured the sled dog Balto his place in doggie stardom (and a statue in Central Park). But the Iditarod's legacy has not been free of controversy. Join us as we explore the guts, glory, controversy, and fluffy protagonists of the long history of dog mushing, and examine the shifting relationships between  human and canine that made it possible.

(Christine) The Second French Empire has fallen and Empress Eugénie fled to England, but what happened next? In this episode, we conclude our look at her life in exile, including her reunions with Napoleon III and their son, as well as the lasting piece of French imperialism she established in the English countryside.