A Popular History of Unpopular Things

Mar 01 2025 66 ep. 36 mins 19
A Popular History of Unpopular Things Podcast artwork

A podcast that makes history more fun and accessible - we love all things gory, gross, mysterious, and weird!

  History  Society & Culture
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The Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic

Mar 01 2025 25 mins  
Join Kelli as she goes over the history behind the Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic, an event that started with three schoolgirls in late January 1962 and spread to nearby villages. It took roughly 18-24 months for the epidemic to finally stop, and luckily, nobody died. It was determined that this was a case of mass psychogenic illness - the more modern name for "mass hysteria." But ho

The Guatemala Syphilis Experiments

Feb 15 2025 34 mins  
Join Kelli as she goes over another case where the US government experimented on humans - but this time, they purposefully infected Guatemalans with syphilis, taking what happened with the men of Tuskegee a whole step further. So today we'll do some historical context to figure out why Guatemala - what happened in history that led to such a level of interventionism that the US gove

The Stonehenge Mystery

Feb 01 2025 28 mins  
Join Kelli as she goes over Stonehenge. We'll start with the basics - what stonehenge is, what it's made of, who might have built it, how they built it, what a henge even is... before talking about some of the more recent explanations for some of its mysteries. We'll also talk about its purpose - a gathering place to celebrate the summer and winter solstices? A burial ground? Both?

The Scottish Cannibal, Sawney Bean

Jan 18 2025 24 mins  
Join Kelli as she goes over a tale of a Scottish incestuous cannibal family - the Beans. As legend goes, they lived in a cave in southwest Scotland, only venturing out to kill passersby and loot them for good - and meat. Over 25 years, it's said they killed over 1,000 people. But how much truth is there to this grisly tale? It sounds a little too gross to be real. Let's dive into t

The Holmesburg Prison Experiments

Jan 04 2025 26 mins  
Join Kelli as she goes over yet another example of US doctors experimenting on their own people. Starting in the 1950s, dermatology Dr. Albert Kligman came to the Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia and experimented on its prisoners. What started as a simple cure for an athlete's foot outbreak turned into a decades-long series of experiments, ranging from testing lotions and cremes t

The Christmas Massacre at Abergavenny

Dec 21 2024 18 mins  
Happy holidays, APHOUT fans! Join Kelli as she goes over a Welsh Christmas Day Massacre! In 1175, William de Braose committed a massacre against some rival families in Gwent, southeast Wales. De Braose, a Norman who was given control of Abergavenny Castle after his uncle Henry Fitzmiles was killed, decided to seek retribution against the man responsible - Seisyll ap Dyfnwal. Seisyl

The Ball of the Burning Men

Dec 07 2024 23 mins  
Join Kelli as she goes over the Ball of the Burning Men, an event during King Charles VI's reign in France where 6 men - charivari dancers dressed as wild men in very flammable costumes - caught fire. And one of the men was the King himself - Charles VI. In today's episode, we go over the historical context of the time, including the Hundred Years War. Then, we look into Charles VI

The Wicker Man

Nov 23 2024 25 mins  
Join Kelli as she goes over the history of the Wicker Man! The Wicker Man was popularized first by the Christopher Lee movie from 1973, and later with Nicholas Cage's remake. The first was folk horror, the second more action suspense. But was the Wicker Man a real thing? Let's go back into the primary sources to read the first ever mention of a Wicker Man in the historical record -

The Jersey Devil

Nov 09 2024 22 mins  
Join Kelli as she goes over New Jersey's most famous cryptozoological son - the Jersey Devil. Though the Jersey Devil was the devil-born son of the Leeds Family, not much is known about it; it lives in the Pine Barrens, it looks like a weird, winged amalgamation of animals, and it was once "caught" and put in a Philly museum in 1909 (spoiler: they painted a kangaroo with stripes).

The Headless Horseman

Oct 26 2024 18 mins  
Join Kelli as she goes over the mythology of the Headless Horseman. Most of us associate the headless horseman with Washington Irving's book, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. But the idea of a ghostly rider looking for his head, or perhaps a decapitated ghost haunting local villages, goes all the way back to medieval Europe, perhaps even deeper into ancient Celtic mythology. Support me