PODCAST · society
Bittersweet Infamy
by Josie Mitchell + Taylor Basso
Storytellers and best friends Josie Mitchell and Taylor Basso share the stories that live on in infamy: the strange and the familiar, the tragic and the comic—the bitter and the sweet. Check back on Sundays for new episodes on the 604 Podcast Network! Support the show: ko-fi.com/bittersweetinfamy
Episodes
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#149 - Two Desperate Women Named Aasia Bibi
Taylor tells Josie about two Pakistani women with the same name—one who was sentenced to death for drinking a cup of water on a scorching hot day, and one who was accused of poisoning her entire family in order to escape a troubled marriage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...
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#148 - Get Ur Phreak On
Josie tells Taylor about phone phreaking, a.k.a. hacking the phone lines, and how it became part of the history of telecommunications in North America. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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#147 - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Taylor tells Josie and special guest host Mitchell Collins about the career controversies of musical icon Ms. Lauryn Hill. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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#146 - Mirror, Mirror, in the Sky
Josie tells Taylor about the plans to use mirrors in outer space to provide solar-powered solutions for critical problems, like artificially increasing the length of the work day or hosting a Columbus Day race to Mars. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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#145 - Only Flags Are Planted in Bir Tawil
Taylor tells Josie about the outlandish attempts to establish a new nation in Bir Tawil, a 2,060-square-kilometre piece of unclaimed desert between Egypt and Sudan, and how the legacy of colonialism has shaped the geography of Northeast Africa. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...
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#144 - Bald Girl Summer
Josie tells Taylor about the history of women shaving their heads, from the bald baddies of ancient Egypt to modern pop icons like Grace Jones, Sinéad O'Connor, and Britney Spears. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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#143 - Blood on Rainbow Mountain
Taylor unpacks his recent trip to Peru, and tells Josie the story of Vinicunca, a.k.a. Rainbow Mountain, the breathtaking tourism destination that brought prosperity and tragedy to the remote community of Chillihuani. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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#142 - Fact or Fiction: Disappearing Acts
April Fool's Fact or Fiction special! Josie tells Taylor three stories about people deciding to vanish: the masked wrestler who convinced his mother he died in the 1978 Jonestown massacre; the Japanese trend of jōhatsu (蒸発), or disappearing into thin air; and the literary legend who swapped...
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#141 - Fact or Fiction: Kidding Around
April Fool's Fact or Fiction special! Taylor tells Josie three stories about children's television gone awry: a brand-new Wiggle blows over the limit; a malfunctioning spaceship burns a Brazilian kids' show to the ground; and Bananas in Pyjamas get held hostage by the Russian mob. Two of these...
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#140 - F for Flamin' Hot
Josie tells Taylor about the spicy history of one of America's favourite snack foods, Flamin' Hot Cheetos—and how the brand's well-known rags-to-riches origin story may actually be a flamin' hot fraud. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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#139 - Invasion of the Iceworm
Taylor tells Josie about Camp Century, the U.S. military's once-innovative, now-abandoned science base in northwestern Greenland—and how it was merely a cover for Project Iceworm, a top-secret Cold War plan to hide hundreds of nuclear weapons within the Greenland Ice Sheet. Hosted on Acast. See...
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#138 - Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200
Josie tells Taylor about the hidden history of the classic board game Monopoly, and how Parker Brothers covered up its unlikely roots as the anti-monopolist polemic, The Landlord's Game. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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#137 - Divorced, Beheaded, Died...
Season six premiere! Taylor tells Josie about the temperamental Tudor King of England, Henry VIII, and his six ill-fated wives: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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#136 - Merry Mitchmas!
Josie Margaret Mitchell, Taylor Mitchell Basso, and guest host Mitchell Charles Collins ring in Mitchmas, a made-up holiday celebrating people named Mitchell, by exchanging infamous stories—including a compendium of psychic pets, the surprising history of Christmas tree tinsel, and how a song…
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#135 - Mother of a Monster
Trick-or-Treat Infamy + season finale! Josie tells Taylor about the dramatic life and times of English novelist Mary Shelley, and the infamous origins of her Gothic masterpiece, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Plus: is your Labubu a conduit for an ancient Mesopotamian demon? Find out in...
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#134 - The Mad Trapper of Rat River
Trick-or-Treat Infamy! Taylor tells Josie about Albert Johnson (not his real name), the mysterious outlaw who led Mounties on an explosive and deadly winter manhunt through Canada's Yukon and Northwest Territories. Plus: unpacking Taylor's trip to the Yukon, including the community of Carcross,...
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#133 - Naked and Aflame
Big Skookum B.C. Road Trip! In this special episode, Josie tells Taylor about the Sons of Freedom (a.k.a. the Freedomites), the religious sect with an affinity for public nudity and arson, and the history of the Doukhobors in British Columbia. Plus: join Josie, Taylor, and special guests Lucia...
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#132 - Operation: Save Linda's Sweater
Big Skookum B.C. Road Trip! Josie, Taylor, and special guests Lucia Misch and Ruy Gonzalez travel around Canada's beautiful westernmost province, British Columbia, with stops including the legendary Shambhala Music Festival in Salmo, a gusty ferry ride across Upper Arrow Lake, and a dip in the...
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#131 - The Big Skookum Bittersweet Ambush
Big Skookum B.C. Road Trip! In this special episode recorded at the Arthur O. Wheeler hut in Glacier National Park, Taylor and special guests Lucia Misch and Ruy Gonzalez ambush Josie with a game show all about the beautiful province of British Columbia. Watch the plan come together, and play…
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#130 - Bury Me On Rattlesnake Island
Big Skookum B.C. Road Trip! In this special episode, Taylor tells Josie about Lebanese-Canadian entrepreneur Eddy Haymour, and how his dream of building an Arabian theme park on Lake Okanagan led him to take 33 people hostage at the Canadian embassy in Beirut. Plus: join Josie, Taylor, and…
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#129 - A Shipwreck Away from Abalonia
Josie tells Taylor about the 1966 near-founding of the micronation of Abalonia on a sunken island 100 miles off the California coast, and how the would-be country's future was washed away with the tides. Plus: enter the mystical and dangerous world of catch fétiche, a.k.a. Congolese voodoo...
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#128 - Too Cute for Comfort
Taylor tells Josie about Cuties (a.k.a. Mignonnes), the 2020 Netflix film by Senegalese-French writer/director Maïmouna Doucouré, and how it sparked a child exploitation panic that made its way to the U.S. Senate. Plus: illusionist Murray SawChuck breaks the magician's code, and gets disappeared...
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#127 - A Palace of Seeds and Nothing to Eat
Josie tells Taylor how the botanists at the U.S.S.R.'s Institute of Plant Industry kept the world's largest seed bank intact during the infamously brutal Siege of Leningrad (1941-44). Plus: we examine the ancient roots of the al-Badawi tree, the millennia-old olive tree that keeps vigil over the...
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#126 - Spin-Out in the Fast Lane
Taylor tells Josie about the cheating conspiracy behind Brazilian auto racer Nelson Piquet Jr.'s deliberate crash at the 2008 Formula One Singapore Grand Prix. Plus: a few notes on the reclusive Q Lazzarus, the mysterious voice behind the cult favourite song "Goodbye Horses." Hosted on Acast. See...
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#125 - The White Witch of Rose Hall
Josie tells Taylor about Annie Palmer, the legendary murderous vodou matron whose ghost is said to haunt her Montego Bay plantation—and how her story wrestles with the true spectre of slavery in Jamaica. Plus: learn about Lapu-Lapu, the hero of Philippine resistance who crushed Ferdinand…
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#124 - My X Father
Guest host Kai Cheng Thom tells Josie and Taylor about the turbulent relationship between terminally online rich guy Elon Musk and his transgender daughter Vivian Wilson. Plus: look to the heavens as we memorialize the ill-fated Laika, the first dog in space. Hosted on Acast. See…
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#123 - The Wreck of the Titan
In the finale of our Titanic April series, Taylor tells Josie about the discovery and exploration of the Titanic's wreck, and the deadly 2023 implosion of the OceanGate Titan submersible. Plus: learn about Charles Joughin, the infamous "drunken baker" who seemingly survived the sinking of the...
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#122 - Women and Children First
As part of our Titanic April series, Josie tells Taylor about the history of the disaster evacuation rule "women and children first," and how the gender roles of 1912 impacted the victims and survivors of the Titanic's sinking. Plus: history repeats itself as we check out the ambitious (or...
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#121 - Nazi Titanic (and Other Films in Which Ships Sink)
As part of our Titanic April series, Taylor tells Josie and guest host Mitchell Collins about the film adaptations of the Titanic story, including Saved from the Titanic, the lost 1912 film that starred an actual survivor, and 1943's Titanic, the Nazi propaganda flick whose turbulent production…
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#120 - The Sinking of the RMS Titanic
To launch our Titanic April series, Josie tells Taylor about the most infamous maritime disaster in history: the sinking of the largest ocean liner in the world, the RMS Titanic, after hitting an iceberg on her 1912 maiden voyage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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#119 - In the Garden of the Emperor
Taylor tells Josie about France's disastrous attempt to overthrow the Mexican government in the 1860s, and the unwise rise and catastrophic fall of the last emperor of Mexico, Maximilian I. Plus: Taylor unpacks his trip to Cuernavaca, Mexico, including a tour of Jardín Borda, Emperor Maximilian's...
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#118 - How the West Was Sold
Josie tells Taylor how our modern cultural image of the Wild West was constructed by one man: soldier and showman "Buffalo" Bill Cody. Plus: unravelling the mystery of the Persian Princess, the mummy whose royal trappings disguised a heartbreaking hoax. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...
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#117 - My Perfect Socialist Daughter Must Die
Taylor tells Josie about the toxic, possessive, and deadly mother-daughter relationship between 1930s Spanish political activists Aurora and Hildegart Rodríguez Carballeira. Plus: unearthing the legend of the green children of Woolpit, the green-skinned changelings who've mystified the world…
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#116 - A Most Unusual Proposal
Josie tells Taylor about the unconventional art project that saw American artist Jill Magid propose to Italian archivist Federica Zanco with a diamond made from the physical remains of prominent Mexican architect Luis Barragán. Plus: head up to Dawson City, Yukon, and join the Sourtoe Cocktail...
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#115 - This Bud's Not for You
Taylor tells Josie the stories of transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, whose TikTok ad for Bud Light kicked off a right-wing beer boycott, and January Marie Lapuz, the beloved social butterfly whose 2012 killing shocked Vancouver's LGBTQ+ community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for…
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#114 - The Terrorist Heiress
Season five premiere! Josie tells Taylor about heiress turned abductee turned revolutionary Patricia Hearst, and her explosive odyssey with the militia that kidnapped her, the Symbionese Liberation Army. Plus: the tragic saga of the animal outlaws who became MAGA martyrs, Peanut the squirrel and...
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#113 - The Twelve Days of Infamy
Holiday special! Taylor tells Josie one infamous story for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas—from the drummer the Beatles drummed out of the band, to a Partridge naked on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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#112 - A Spirited Tour of Spiritualism
Halloween special + season finale! Josie tells Taylor about the haunting history of the modern Spiritualist movement—from the crafty teen sisters who brought it to life, to the high-profile feud between Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that nearly caused its demise. Plus: get dressed up…
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#111 - The War of the Worlds
Halloween special! Taylor tells Josie about the 1938 Orson Welles radio play about a Martian invasion that allegedly caused a mass hysteria, and the 1949 Ecuadorean remake that went even further. Plus: flesh out your fall reading list with the world's largest collection of books bound in human...
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#110 - The Killers of Eden
Guest host Peter Chiykowski tells Josie and Taylor about the pod of orcas who hunted in harmony with humans until a brutal betrayal ended it all. Plus: catch up with Darwin the Ikea Monkey, the stylish snow macaque whose fetching winter coat kept him warm through a chilly legal battle. Hosted on...
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#109 - Night at the Dick Museum
Josie tells Taylor about the Icelandic Phallological Museum, which contains the world's largest display of phalluses, and curator Sigurður Hjartarson's quest for the collection's crown jewel: a human penis. Plus: listen to "Amelia's Song," the mysterious melody that reunited a family across...
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#108 - Satan's Last Stronghold
Guest host Erika Jo Brown tells Josie and Taylor about the evangelical Christian fervour that led American missionary John Chau to contact the voluntarily isolated people of North Sentinel Island—with deadly results. Plus: get to know Erika Jo with a harvest-fresh game of Bitter or Sweet? Hosted…
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#107 - The Tower
Taylor tells Josie about Alicia Esteve "Tania" Head, the prominent 9/11 survivor who was exposed as a fraud. Plus: a deep dive into the centuries-old history of the ama, Japan's legendary pearl divers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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#106 - The Party Bus Omnibus
Josie celebrates Taylor's birthday with a series of infamous party stories, featuring guests of honour from Kim Kardashian to Kim Jong-il. Plus: step into the ring with the Fighting Cholitas, the professional wrestlers crushing stereotypes of Indigenous women in Bolivia. Hosted on Acast. See...
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#105 - I Hate Brenda
Taylor tells Josie and guest host Mitchell Collins about '90s nighttime soap queen and tabloid bad girl Shannen Doherty. Plus: a closer listen to hit em, the new musical genre that came to its creator in a dream. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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#104 - Artifact or Fiction?
Josie tells Taylor about the muddy line between forgery and art, and how Mexican ceramicist Brígido Lara made it even muddier. Plus: 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern, his VP pick Thomas Eagleton, and the electroshock controversy that killed their campaign in only 18 days....
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#103 - Mine, All Mine
Taylor tells Josie about the legend of Slumach's gold, and the curses, killings, and calamity surrounding the mythical lost mine of Pitt Lake, British Columbia. Plus: Pakistani-American artist Shahzia Sikander and the controversial sculpture that lost its head in the culture wars. Hosted on…
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#102 - Waste 'n' Time
Josie tells Taylor about humankind's attempts to communicate the dangers of nuclear waste to our descendants in the very distant future. Plus: the declassified truth about Acoustic Kitty, the CIA's ill-fated attempt to engineer a feline spy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...
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#101 - Hachikō, Stay
Taylor tells Josie about Hachikō, the Japanese dog who became a national icon by loyally waiting for his long-dead master, and other very good boys of note. Plus: the long, curly tale of the feral hogs of Ossabaw Island, and the unusual attempts to preserve and study them. Hosted on Acast. See...
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#100 - One Hundred Gumballs
Josie and Taylor present the Melties, celebrating your choices for the best moments of 100 episodes of Bittersweet Infamy. Josie chews so much gum that she becomes unstuck in the multiverse. Taylor's vendetta with an old foe has deadly consequences. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Storytellers and best friends Josie Mitchell and Taylor Basso share the stories that live on in infamy: the strange and the familiar, the tragic and the comic—the bitter and the sweet. Check back on Sundays for new episodes on the 604 Podcast Network! Support the show: ko-fi.com/bittersweetinfamy
HOSTED BY
Josie Mitchell + Taylor Basso
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Bittersweet Infamy have?
Bittersweet Infamy currently has 148 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Bittersweet Infamy about?
Storytellers and best friends Josie Mitchell and Taylor Basso share the stories that live on in infamy: the strange and the familiar, the tragic and the comic—the bitter and the sweet. Check back on Sundays for new episodes on the 604 Podcast Network! Support the show: ko-fi.com/bittersweetinfamy
How often does Bittersweet Infamy release new episodes?
Bittersweet Infamy publishes regularly with 148 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Bittersweet Infamy?
You can listen to Bittersweet Infamy 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 Bittersweet Infamy?
Bittersweet Infamy is created and hosted by Josie Mitchell + Taylor Basso.
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