PODCAST · comedy
Barely Historical
by Barely Historical
Barely Historical is a comedy podcast where two lifelong friends pick a year, dive in, and immediately regret it. Amanda and JoLynne drag the past through the mud, from Salem to the Spice Girls, covering pop culture, scandals, disasters, and all the weird moments that never made it into your textbook. It’s history told by people who probably shouldn’t be trusted with it, but at least you’ll laugh while you learn. Expect games, chaotic commentary, and stories that prove the past was just as unhinged as the present.
Episodes
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Castrati: The Wild History of Opera’s Castrated Superstars
Opera has everything: drama, sex, ridiculous costumes, murder—and apparently, a deeply concerning amount of testicle removal. This week, Jo and Amanda are getting into castrati, the male singers who were castrated as boys to preserve their high singing voices. And somehow, that definition is only...
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Medieval Executioners | You Wouldn't Invite Him to Dinner, Would Absolutely Call Him at 2am
The city needed someone to carry out its justice, so it hired a guy, made him essential, and then treated him like a walking biohazard. This week we ruin the executioner: specifically Franz "Meister Frantz" Schmidt of Nuremberg, who killed almost 400 people, treated something like 15,000 patients...
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The Pony Express: The Wild History Behind America’s Famous Mail Riders
The Pony Express is one of the most famous legends of the American West—but apparently, Jo and Amanda knew almost nothing about it. This week on Barely Historical, we're getting into the real history of the Pony Express: the teenage riders racing mail across nearly 2,000 miles, the isolated…
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History of TV Dinners: Dear Swanson, My Wife Has Stopped Trying
In late 1953, Swanson had ten refrigerated train cars full of unsold Thanksgiving turkey and no plan. A salesman named Jerry Thomas, not a chef, not a food scientist, looked at 260 tons of poultry and said what if we put it on a tray with little compartments like the airlines use. Nobody in that...
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Syphilis: The Horrifying History
Syphilis is one of those diseases you think you know about until you actually learn its history. Then it gets significantly worse. In this episode of Barely Historical, Jo and Amanda dive into the horrifying, bizarre, and occasionally absurd history of syphilis, from its mysterious origins and…
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Victorian Postmortem Photography | The Internet's Been Lying to Us
Postmortem Photography | The Internet's Been Lying to Us In 1867, a photographer walked into a Philadelphia parlor, set up a tripod next to the sofa, and photographed a woman who had died the day before. Her husband had brushed her hair and put her wedding ring back on her finger. He paid three...
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Lizzie Borden: America's First Influencer?
Did Lizzie Borden really kill her father and stepmother, or did America turn an acquitted woman into its first true crime celebrity? In 1892, two brutal hatchet murders shocked Fall River, Massachusetts. But the real story isn't just about the crime. It's about how newspapers, public obsession…
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The World Cup’s Wildest Stories | Stolen Trophies, Dictators & Pickles the Hero Dog
The World Cup is supposed to bring the world together. Instead, its history includes dictators, corruption, stolen trophies, political propaganda, murder, and one very good dog named Pickles. In this episode of Barely Historical, Amanda and Jolynne dive into the unbelievable true stories behind…
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Presidents Behaving Badly: Duels, Dirty Letters, and Stolen Corpses
Forget the eagles and the Boston Tea Party. This 4th of July we're chasing the stories hiding next to the story. Amanda and JoLynne hand out America's most cursed historical awards, dig into the presidents who behaved badly, and cover the ones who literally would not stay in the ground. On the...
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The Whittakers of West Virginia | When the Family Tree Folded Back on Itself
What happens when one family tree becomes less of a tree… and more of a wreath? This week on Barely Historical, we’re tackling one of the internet’s most infamous families: the Whittakers of West Virginia. But instead of treating them like a punchline, we wanted to understand how they got there.…
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Juneteenth | Why Freedom Was Delayed in Texas
Juneteenth marks June 19, 1865, the day Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced that enslaved people there were free more than two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. In this episode of Barely Historical, we explore the history of Juneteenth, why freedom was...
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Cleopatra | It's the Trojan Horse, but Horny
Hot take to start the show: every man who has ever lost his entire mind over a woman has blamed her for it. Two thousand years ago that energy started a civil war, ended with Julius Caesar getting stabbed 23 times on the Senate floor, and somehow left us remembering the smartest woman in the...
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De Clare: Too Much Power, Too Few Cousins
This week, we’re diving into the chaotic world of the De Clare sisters, one of medieval England’s most powerful families. What starts as inheritance drama quickly turns into royal favoritism, political manipulation, tangled family trees, suspiciously close relationships, and enough rumors to make...
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Sid & Nancy | Punk Isn't Dead But These Two Sure Are
Patreon Bonus Episode. The year is 1978, and apparently the hottest relationship trend is mutual destruction. JoLynne and Amanda ruin history with the chaotic, toxic, and wildly overrated romance of SID VICIOUS and NANCY SPUNGEN. From the rise of punk in a collapsing England to the disaster that...
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Gilded Age Mansions: Wealth, Labor, & Dark Truths
What were Gilded Age mansions really hiding? In this episode of Barely Historical, we dive into the outrageous world of America’s most extravagant homes—built during the late 1800s by names like the Vanderbilts, Astors, and Morgans. These weren’t just houses… they were statements. Massive,...
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Boston's Great Molasses Flood of 1919 | Brown Paint, Horses, & Bed Rafts
The year is 1919. Boston is minding its business when a 50-foot tank full of molasses says, “absolutely not.” JoLynne and Amanda ruin history with a literal syrup tsunami, corporate negligence, and the moment breakfast turned into a crime scene. This is the Great Molasses Flood of 1919, and yes……
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Ostara | Easter, Rabbits & the Truth About Spring
Every spring, humans suddenly feel the urge to reset their lives. We clean our houses, change our routines, and convince ourselves we’re becoming better people overnight. But this isn’t random. It’s ancient. In this episode of Barely Historical, we dive into the real history behind Ostara…
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NASA Trusted Her With Space But Not A Bathroom | Katherine Johnson & The Colored Computers Sign | 1950s Virginia"
Imagine being so good at math that the federal government trusts you to calculate whether astronauts survive reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. Orbital mechanics. Launch windows. Trajectory equations. Reentry angles. The kind of math where one wrong decimal can kill someone. Now imagine being…
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St. Valentine’s Day Massacre | Fake Cops, Highball the Dog, Raccoon Bootlegger
This Valentine’s Day, Barely Historical is skipping the roses and going straight to the gunfire. In this episode, Jo and Amanda dive into one of the most infamous crimes in American history: the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929, when Chicago’s Prohibition-era gang wars turned a holiday into a...
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Dear Abby, Dissociation, & Don Draper | Rerelease
Welcome to the full unhinged version of Mother’s Little Helpers, where mid-century America dressed women in pastels and then medicated them into silence. JoLynne and Amanda ruin the real history behind the “little yellow pills” of the 1950s and 60s. Valium. Librium. Milltown. Doctors prescribing...
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Salem Witch Trials | Marshall Mathers, Pre-Teen Girls, & Piss Cakes | Rerelease
The year is 1692. Massachusetts is cold, paranoid, and running on bad carbs. Two girls start convulsing, the town loses its collective mind, and suddenly everyone’s a witch — or about to be. This is the chaotic half you’re allowed to hear. We cover the gossip, the bad science, and the first…
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He Beheaded The Polar Bear Sex Doll | Oskar & Alma | 1920 Vienna
In 1920, police in Dresden, Germany responded to what appeared to be a murder scene: a headless, blood-soaked body in an artist's garden. The "victim"? A life-size doll. The perpetrator? Famous Expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka. The motive? A bad breakup three years earlier. This week, we're...
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King Henry VIII | Everyone Enabled This
Henry VIII didn’t just have “wife drama” he turned his midlife crisis into national policy. In this episode of Barely Historical, Jo and Amanda break down how one insecure man with too much power went from “kinda charming” to full-blown menace, and why the real story is way messier than the…
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Stranger Things Works Because the '80s Were Actually Horrifying | MKUltra, Satanic Panic, & Why Eddie Munson Had to Die | Midwest 1980s
What if Stranger Things isn’t just a nostalgic monster show, but a remix of real government experiments, moral panic, and 1980s paranoia? In this episode of Barely Historical, Amanda and JoLynne ruin the real history behind Stranger Things, from MKUltra and the Montauk Project to Dungeons &…
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NYE | Glitter, Midnight & Superstitions
New Year’s Eve has never been chill. In this episode of Barely Historical, hosts JoLynne and Amanda explore the strange, dark, and often unhinged history of New Year’s Eve superstitions from around the world. Long before glitter, champagne, and countdown clocks, people genuinely believed that…
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Anastasia & The Romanovs | Basements, Bats, & Bayonets
There are two types of people in the world: People who accept that Anastasia Romanov died in 1918… and people who saw the animated movie once and said absolutely not. In this episode, Amanda and Jo finally confront the Romanov story that emotionally ruined them as children and refuses to die on...
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The Stolen History of Christmas | Mistletoe Sex, Jesus Stickers, & Audacity
🎄 How Christmas Was Stolen This week on Barely Historical, Amanda and JoLynne are sharing a full Patreon-style deep dive for free as a Christmas gift. Christmas history is messier than most people realize. Long before it became a Christian holiday, pagan winter solstice celebrations like...
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336 CE Rome: Constantine, Arius, and the First Dec 25 Christmas
Welcome back to Barely Historical, the comedy history podcast where we ruin the past one year at a time. This episode drops us into 336 CE Rome and the chaos of the late Roman Empire, when Christianity is less “faith” and more “power play.” We unpack the Arian controversy and the priest Arius,...
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Patreon Sneak Peek | Frogs, Festivity, & Freakouts
Victorian Christmas cards were not cozy snowmen and Hallmark hearts. They were dead robins, frogs with firearms, demonic turnips, Krampus kidnappings, and families roasting in hell… all wishing you a “Merry Christmas.” In this Patreon only episode of Barely Historical, Jolynne and Amanda dive…
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1883 United States | Bridges, Bandits, & B*tches
The year is 1883. Volcanoes are exploding, bridges are causing stampedes, and a stagecoach robber is leaving poetry like a Victorian theater kid on the loose. JoLynne and Amanda ruin one of the most chaotic years of the Gilded Age the only way we know how. With research, sarcasm, and at least one...
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Mother's Little Helpers |Dear Abby, Dissociation, & Don Draper
The 1950s and 60s looked cute on the outside. Pastels. Casseroles. Aprons. Inside the house? Mid-century America was held together with Valium, denial, and whatever advice Dear Abby tossed into the newspaper that week. In this sneak peek of our Patreon-only dark history episode, JoLynne and…
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1963 | Vacuums, Vows, & Vitamin D
1963 looks polished in the photos. Pastel dresses, church picnics, men in suits who definitely smell like cigarettes and bad coffee. Underneath, it is a year of civil rights marches, Cold War nerves, televised grief, and housewives being told a vacuum is the ultimate romantic gesture. In this...
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Macy's Day Parade | Turkeys, Tinsel, and Tradition
This episode is a special main feed drop that normally lives on our Patreon. Think of it as our little Thanksgiving gift to you. We are taking you back to the very first Macy's Day Parade in 1924. The modern parade sparkle was not there yet. Instead, it featured real animals, stiff costumes…
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1924 New York | Gin, Garbage, & Glamour
New York in 1924 looks glamorous until you tap it with your fingernail and hear pure hollow chaos underneath. In this episode, Amanda and JoLynne drag you through the smells, the sweat, the speakeasies, the Harlem Renaissance, the class divide, the crime, the corruption, the glitter on top, and…
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Chernobyl | Babushkas, Buses, & Birch Trees
The year is 1986, and Pripyat is about to become the most famous ghost town on Earth. In this Patreon preview, Jo and Amanda break down the real story of the Chernobyl disaster in a way only a dark history podcast could. This is the partial main feed cut. The full episode lives on our Patreon. In...
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1986 | Perms, Popcorn, Panic
Jo arrives in late 1986 as a six pound ball of chaos while Amanda watches from the cosmic waiting room and together they drag you through one of the wildest years of the eighties. In this Barely Historical episode, we talk Challenger, Chernobyl, Reagan era politics, chaotic 80s parenting, working...
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Titanic | Corsets, Coal, & Catastrophe | Patreon Sneak Peak
Were we too young to watch Titanic when we did? Yes. Did that stop our parents from handing us grape-flavored lip gloss, greasy popcorn, and a front row seat to lifelong emotional damage? Absolutely not. In this episode, we skip the door debate and head straight for the real Titanic. The ship of...
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1997 | Bagel Bites, Parental Neglect, & Body Glitter
The year is 1997. The internet screams, Leo floats, and everything smells like Cucumber Melon and regret. Jo and Amanda ruin the year that gave us Titanic, Princess Diana, boy bands, Heaven’s Gate, and the first online red flag named Brad_420. They break down the world before Wi-Fi, when malls…
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The Bitch of Buchenwald | Curtains, Corpses, & Control | Patreon Sneak Peek
Curtains, Corpses, and Control The year is 1945. Evil is tidy, cruelty is domestic, and someone’s polishing silver while the world burns. JoLynne and Amanda ruin the story of Ilse Koch, the “Bitch of Buchenwald”, a woman who proved that order without empathy is just horror in heels. This is a…
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1945 | Lies, Lobster, & Champagne
The year is 1945, world leaders are running on caffeine, cigarettes, and denial while the planet burns and everyone’s pretending it’s fine. From lobster feasts in bombed out Crimea to victory haircuts and ration book romance, JoLynne and Amanda unpack the year the world “won” and immediately...
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The Salem Witch Trials | Marshall Mathers, Pre-Teen Girls, & Piss Cakes | Patreon Sneak Peek
The year is 1692. Massachusetts is cold, paranoid, and running on bad carbs. Two girls start convulsing, the town loses its collective mind, and suddenly everyone’s a witch — or about to be. This is the chaotic half you’re allowed to hear. We cover the gossip, the bad science, and the first…
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1692 Colonial America | Goat Smells, Good Boy, & God's Wrath
Welcome to Barely Historical, the podcast where accuracy is debatable, but enthusiasm is eternal. This week, JoLynne and Amanda take you back to 1692 Massachusetts, where the air smelled like goat, the beer was safer than water, and paranoia was the hottest trend in town. From moldy bread and…
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Who Let Us Have a Podcast?
Welcome to Barely Historical, the funny history podcast where two lifelong friends pick a year, dive in, and instantly regret it. In this first episode, meet Amanda and JoLynne, best friends for 25 years, failed Russian princesses, and self-appointed historians of chaos. They share how the…
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Barely Historical with JoLynne and Amanda
Meet Amanda and Jolynne, lifelong friends, failed Russian princesses, and self-appointed historians of chaos. Barely Historical is the funny history podcast where they pick a year, dive in, and instantly regret it. In this trailer, they share what inspired the show and what’s coming next, from…
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1963 | Vacuums, Vows, & Vitamin D
1963 looks polished in the photos. Pastel dresses, church picnics, men in suits who definitely smell like cigarettes and bad coffee. Underneath, it is a year of civil rights marches, Cold War nerves, televised grief, and housewives being told a vacuum is the ultimate romantic gesture. In this...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Barely Historical is a comedy podcast where two lifelong friends pick a year, dive in, and immediately regret it. Amanda and JoLynne drag the past through the mud, from Salem to the Spice Girls, covering pop culture, scandals, disasters, and all the weird moments that never made it into your textbook. It’s history told by people who probably shouldn’t be trusted with it, but at least you’ll laugh while you learn. Expect games, chaotic commentary, and stories that prove the past was just as unhinged as the present.
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Barely Historical
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Barely Historical have?
Barely Historical currently has 45 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Barely Historical about?
Barely Historical is a comedy podcast where two lifelong friends pick a year, dive in, and immediately regret it. Amanda and JoLynne drag the past through the mud, from Salem to the Spice Girls, covering pop culture, scandals, disasters, and all the weird moments that never made it into your...
How often does Barely Historical release new episodes?
Barely Historical has 45 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Barely Historical?
You can listen to Barely Historical on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Barely Historical?
Barely Historical is created and hosted by Barely Historical.
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