The Backstory with Patty Steele

Jun 13 2024 164

The Backstory with Patty Steele Podcast artwork

Love a good, juicy story that goes beyond what we already know? We're talking scandalous presidential family members, a mass murder at a world-famous architect's home, stolen inventions, nude athletes at the first Olympics, compulsive liars, the arrival of the bikini, and so much more. History fanatic Patty Steele tells you the inside backstories you didn’t know you needed to know.

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The Backstory: Alarms: Mooing, peeing, and knocker-uppers

Jun 13 2024 6 mins

We all have to regularly be somewhere on time. But what did people do before cell phone alarms or even alarm clocks? Animals, body cues, and knocker-uppers were just a few of the methods.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Backstory: A hero emerges from a 19th century insane asylum

Jun 10 2024 8 mins

Did you know that as recently as the Victorian era, somebody could have you committed to an insane asylum just because you disobeyed a husband, were too opinionated, were caught masturbating, and so much more? The treatment ranged from being chained to a wall, beaten...and more. And no one had to prove your insanity! This is the story of how one woman, post-lock-up, changed the sta

The Backstory: Eliza Hamilton: Cheating husband, family deaths, and triumph

Jun 06 2024 9 mins

Hamilton the musical tells us the story of Alexander Hamilton, a brilliant guy who had a fiery temperament and a cheating heart. Imagine being his wife and raising eight fatherless kids, resurrecting her dead husband’s reputation, and being a tireless champion of widows and orphans. Plus, before her death at 97, Eliza Hamilton also became the toast of NYC and Washington. What a l

The Backstory: The mysterious death of Edgar Allan Poe

Jun 03 2024 8 mins

Politics is a nasty business. But it always has been. And it may have played a role in the death of a literary genius. You know the Edgar Allan Poe story called The Tell-Tale Heart, about the heart of a murder victim that never stops beating? Maybe Poe is still trying to tell us something 175 years after his mysterious death.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Backstory: The history of jokes

May 30 2024 8 mins

We all love to laugh, no matter when, where, or how we’ve lived. Amazingly, there are a handful of topics that have given us the giggles for at least 5,000 years. And a lot of them involve 6th-grade humor.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Backstory: James Brown: Drugs, toilets, and guns

May 27 2024 7 mins

James Brown, the godfather of soul, had some anger issues. In fact, he went to prison after threatening agents at an insurance seminar with a gun because he thought they used his private bathroom. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Backstory: Bloody politics

May 23 2024 7 mins

Think politics today are the most angry and violent they’ve ever been? What about the days when senators and congressmen came to work armed with guns and knives? Or the murder of one congressman by another just because they had an ideological disagreement? That’s when politics were bloody.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Backstory: Radiant heat & working toilets 2,000 years ago

May 20 2024 7 mins

We think the world just keeps evolving. But what happens when a civilization like Rome collapses and all that technology disappears? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Backstory: Meeting your children…from a past life

May 16 2024 7 mins

Imagine meeting your children…and they're way older than you! But you've been obsessed since your earliest memory with the idea that you were the mother of eight kids. But you died, leaving them orphaned. And your guilt was palpable, even as a three-year-old! You may not believe in reincarnation, but it’s hard to ignore Jenny Cockell’s story.See omnystudio.com/listener for pr

The Backstory: What in the heck did I just say?!?!

May 13 2024 6 mins

We use words and phrases every day, and usually never question why we say what we say. Why do we say “she’s on a wild goose chase” or “we laughed our heads off”? The surprising origin of ordinary phrases. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.