PODCAST · history
Did That Really Happen?
by Did That Really Happen?
The movie podcast for history nerds. In every episode, historians Jamie and Sofia talk about a different historical film and take a deep dive into the parts that did and didn't really happen. In each episode, we try to answer the big questions: Is this good history? Is this a good movie? And are those the same thing? To get in touch, send us an email at [email protected], or follow us on Twitter @ReallyHappenPod. You can also support the show by visiting Patreon.com/DidThatReallyHappen Our theme music is "Allon Gay Gay", performed by Jon Sayles.
Episodes
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Ravenous
It's October, so it's time for a cannibal horror cult classic set in the 1840s! Join us as we learn about the Wendigo, military prisons, the origins of the term "Eat me", and more! Sources: Green's Dictionary of Slang entry: https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/fuhappq Google Ngram:...
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Fackham Hall
This week we're going back to 1930s England with the very silly Fackham Hall! Join us as we learn about wedding music, cousin marriage, domestic worker unions, and more! Sources: Kelly Massicot, "The History of the Wedding March," New Orleans Magazine, available at...
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Picnic at Hanging Rock
In this unexpectedly NSFW episode, we're traveling back to 1900 Australia with Picnic at Hanging Rock! Join us as we learn about the curricula and scandals of girls' schools, the history of tourism at Hanging Rock, bananas, the poet Felicia Hemans, and more! Sources: Poem: Casabianca, available…
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First Cow
This week we're traveling back to 1820s Oregon Territory with First Cow! Join us as we learn about baked goods, "soft gold", cats, and more! Sources: Washington Irving, The Beauties of Washington Irving, 1825. Excerpt available at...
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GLOW
We don't have a new episode this week, so we're opening the Patreon vault to take you back to 1980s LA with GLOW! Join us as we learn about the wild world of 80s professional wrestling, including Hulk Hogan, the audition process, and more! Sources:...
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Brooklyn
This week we've got a listener-requested episode on Brooklyn! Join us as we travel back to 1950s Ireland and New York and learn about Irish dances, golf, Coney Island, 1950s immigration, and more! Sources: Source Paul Rouse, How Golf Took Root in Ireland, Irish Examiner, available at...
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Benedetta
In this definitely NSFW episode, we're traveling back to 17th century Italy with Benedetta! Join us as we learn about the trial of Benedetta Carlini, comets, convent theater, and more! Sources: https://daily.jstor.org/lesbianism-at-the-convent/ Judith C. Brown, Immodest Acts: The Life of a…
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Kind Hearts and Coronets
This week we're traveling back to Edwardian England with Kind Hearts and Coronets! Join us as we learn about man traps, municipal baths, executing nobility, suffragettes doing awesome stuff like smashing windows and flying hot air balloons, and more! Sources: National Trust Collections: Humane...
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A League of Their Own (2022)
We don't have a new episode this week, so we're releasing a Patreon episode from the vault: 2022's canceled-too-soon series, A League of Their Own. Join us as we learn about the AAGPBL's weird code of conduct, WWII-era mail censorship, and more! Sources: Full text available at...
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Nuremberg
This week we're traveling back to 1940s Germany (yup, this is a heavy one, folks) with Nuremberg! Join us as we learn about real-life figures like Douglas Kelley, Emmy Goering, Howie Triest, and more! Sources: James Wylie, "The Battle to Be 'First Lady of the Third Reich.'" Daily Telegraph...
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The Testament of Ann Lee
This week we're traveling back to 18th century Manchester (and America!) with The Testament of Ann Lee! Join us as we learn about Ann Lee's life with her awful husband Abraham and fellow spiritual leader Jane Wardley, shaker spirituals, pacifism, and more! Sources: Stanford Encyclopedia of...
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The Terror (Season 1)
This week we're cracking open the Patreon vault to deliver unto you a bonus episode on Season 1 of The Terror! Join us as we learn about the horrors of the Franklin expedition, including lead poisoning, proof of death, and creepy old diving gear. Sources:...
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The Secret Agent
This week we're traveling back to 1970s Brazil with The Secret Agent! Join us as we learn about deaths at Carnival, the legend of the Hairy Leg, indigenous servants, and more! Sources: Da-Silva, Elidiomar. (2025). A PERNA CABELUDA, DE RECIFE, PERNAMBUCO: POSSÍVEIS DIÁLOGOS COM A ZOOLOGIA CULTURAL…
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The Ghost Bride
We don't have a new episode this week, so we're cracking open the Patreon vault and releasing one of our bonus episodes on The Ghost Bride! Join us on our journey to 1890s Malacca, and learn about the ghost bride custom, clothing, currency, and more! Sources:...
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Good Night, and Good Luck
**Note: Due to technical difficulties, there were issues affecting Jamie's audio quality this week. We apologize and promise it will be fixed on our next episode.** This week we're traveling back to 1950s America with Good Night, and Good Luck! Join us as we learn about Red Scare-Era figurse like...
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Blue Moon
This week we're traveling back to 1940s New York with Blue Moon! Join us as we learn about the relationship between Rogers and Hart, air raid blackouts, EB White, going on the wagon, and more! Sources:...
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Train Dreams
This week we're covering the history of the Pacific Northwest from the late 19th century to 1968 with Train Dreams! Join us as we learn about boot memorials, Chinese and Chinese-American railroad workers, women working as fire lookouts, and more! Sources: Dina Gachman, "The History of Lady...
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Hedda
This week we're traveling back to the 1950s with Hedda! Join us as we learn about pretty little things, 1950s fashion, sparklers, women working as professors, and more! Sources: "Celebrating the Legacy of England's First Female Professor," King's College, available at...
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The Book of Clarence
This week we're traveling back to first-century Jerusalem with The Book of Clarence! Join us as we learn about Mary Magdalene, Barabbas, Biblical sick burns, and more! Sources: Martínez-Cruz, B., Mendizabal, I., Harmant, C. et al. Origins, admixture and founder lineages in European Roma. Eur J…
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Akira
It's a new year, so it's time for our New Year's tradition of taking a look at movies that tried to predict the future. This year, we're traveling to the year 2019 with Akira! Join us as we learn about the Tokyo Olympics, biker gangs, technical schools, riots, and more! Sources: 2020 Host City...
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Frankenstein (2025)
This week we're traveling back to the 19th century with Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein! Join us as we learn about syphilis, big-ass blunderbusses, the Evelyn Tables, Arctic expeditions, and more! Sources: An account of divers schemes of arteries and veins, dissected from adult human bodies…
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The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
This week we're traveling back to a full century of American history with The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman! Join us as we learn about naming of enslaved people, "paddy rollers", Black communities in East Texas, and more! Sources: Sparks, Elmer E, and Celia Black. Interview with Celia Black,...
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Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
This week we're traveling back to 18th-century France with Perfume: The Story of a Murderer! Join us as we learn about tanneries, the town of Grasse, infanticide, perfumers' guilds, and more! Sources: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/perfume-the-story-of-a-murderer-2007...
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Walker
This week we're going back to a weird, weird version of 19th-century Nicaragua with Walker! Join us as we learn about William Walker's ill-fated efforts in Sonora, the Filibuster War, the El Nicaraguense newspaper, and more! Sources: Monty Python's Flying Circus Sketch: "Sam Peckinpah's 'Salad...
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Freaky Tales
This week we're traveling back to 1987 Oakland with Freaky Tales! Join us as we learn about punk v. skinhead battles, Sleepy Floyd, Operation Ivy, and more! Sources: Southern Poverty Law Center, Timeline of the Racist Skinhead Movement:...
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Citizen X
This week we're traveling back to the Soviet Union of the 1980s with Citizen X! Join us as we learn about the people who hunted Andrei Chikatilo, the myth of eyes retaining the last image they see before they die, blood typing tests, leather jackets, and more! Sources: Wikipedia:...
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Catherine Called Birdy
NOTE: Due to a technical mishap, there are some issues with Jamie's audio quality in this episode. We apologize and promise the issue will be fixed in our next episode. This week we're traveling back to the Middle Ages with Catherine Called Birdy! Join us as we talk about medieval birthing...
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Nickel Boys
This week we're traveling back to the 1960s with Nickel Boys! Join us as we learn about the horrific excavations of the Dozier School, the circulation of MLK speeches, Mexican-American identity in the South, and more! Sources: David Canfield Interview with RaMell Ross and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor,...
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Marie Antoinette
This week we're going back to 18th century France with Marie Antoinette! Join us as we learn about Marie' and Louis' not great sex life, giving birth in public, Marie's journey to France, scandalous pamphlets, and more! Sources: Cara Mia DiMassa, "That Austrian Woman," Los Angeles Times (2001)....
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Joy
This week we're traveling back to 1970s Britain with Joy! Join us as we learn about the real people who invented IVF, including Patrick Steptoe, Jean Purdy, and Matron Muriel, as well as how papers like the Daily Mirror covered the whole thing. Sources...
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Sinners
We're traveling back to the 1930s Mississippi Delta with Sinners! Join us as we learn about fake plantation money, "Rocky Road to Dublin", Chinese-American communities in Mississippi, hoodoo, and more! Sources: John Jung, "Chinese for the South: Mississippi Delta Chinese Migration Chains," in...
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Strange Way of Life
This week we're going back to the 19th century American West with Strange Way of Life (Our first episode on a short film)! Join us as we learn about facial hair, wineskins, and plenty of other cowboy stuff! Sources:...
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Call Jane
This week we're traveling back to the late 60s/early 70s with Call Jane! Join us as we learn about religion and abortion activism, hospital abortion boards, and the surprisingly complex history of the snickerdoodle. Sources: News Report by Peter Heller on Abortion, 1969. Oregon Public…
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September 5
This week we're traveling to the 1972 Olympics with September 5! Join us as we learn about journalists like Peter Jennings and Geoffrey Mason, satellite TV, and more! NOTE: Due to a technical issue, there are some sound quality problems on Jamie's audio. We promise these issues will be fixed on…
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Shirley
This week we're going back to 1972 with Shirley! Join us as we learn about Barbara Lee, Shirley Chisholm's meeting with George Wallace, the 1972 Democratic Convention, the equal time rule, and more! Note: Due to some microphone-related technical difficulties, this episode has some audio quality...
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Nosferatu (2024)
This week we're traveling back to 1830s Germany (and Transylvania) with Nosferatu! Join us as we learn about the folklore of garlic, exhuming suspected vampires, plague ships, and more! Sources: Booseum: Vampires! Carnegie Museum of Natural History, available at...
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American Psycho
This week we're traveling back to the 1980s with American Psycho! Join us as we learn about Wall Street killers, men's skincare products, Page 6, "Hip to be Square", and more! Sources: Cynthia Weiner, "What We Miss When We Talk About the Preppy Killer," Crime Reads (2025),...
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Some Like It Hot
This week we're going back to the Roaring 20s with Some Like It Hot! Join us as we learn about the Valentine's Day Massacre, speakeasies, Shell Oil, blood typing, and more! Sources: "Prohibition," Mob Museum, available at...
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Zola
This week we're traveling back to the ye old internet days of 2015 with Zola! Join us as we learn about Vine, Backpage, Florida strip club rules, and more! Sources: Casey Newton, "Why Vine Died: Closing the Loop" The Verge (2016)...
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Aguirre, The Wrath of God
This week we're going back to 16th-century Peru with Aguirre, The Wrath of God! Join us as we learn about Spanish women who went on expeditions, the real Lope de Aguirre, the wild stories behind the production of this film, and more! Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of incest…
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Blade Runner
It's a new year, so it's once again time for our annual special episode on depictions of the future! Join us as we take a look at 2019-as-imagined-in-1981's Blade Runner, with discussions of gas flares, Japanese influence on American culture, the resurgence of 1940s fashion, and more! Sources…
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Singin in the Rain
For our last episode of 2024, we're traveling back to 1920s Hollywood with Singin' in the Rain! Join us as we learn about mood music on set, elocution lessons, fan magazines, stunts, and more! Sources: Pamela Hutchinson, "The Silent Era Film Stars Who Risked Life and Limb Doing Their Own Stunts,"...
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Lisa Frankenstein
This week we're traveling back to 1989 with Lisa Frankstein! Join us as we learn about leg warmers, intuitive people and emotional vampires, the world's biggest contraceptive sponge, tanning beds, and more! Sources: Tori Telfer, "A Brief History of Leg Warmers," Bustle, available at...
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Wicked Little Letters
This week we're traveling back to 1920s England with Wicked Little Letters! Join us as we learn about the real women who appear as characters in this movie, including Edith Swan, Rose Gooding, and Police Officer Gladys Moss! Sources: Audrey Cartron, Women in the Police Forces in Britain…
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Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret
This week we're traveling back to 1970 with Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret! Join us as we learn about Earth Day, female cantors, espadrilles, supermodels, adhesive pads, and more! Sources: Sources: Kathleen Horton, "The Story of. . . The Supermodel," The Conversation, available at...
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Wasp Network
This week we're traveling back to 1990s Miami with Wasp Network! Join us as we learn about terrorist attacks on Cuban resorts, the Angola Crisis, that McDonald's in Guantanamo Bay, and more! Sources: Central Intelligence Agency National Foreign Assessment Center, "An Analysis of Cuban Military...
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Sweet Land
This week we're traveling back to 1920s Minnesota with Sweet Land! Join us as we learn about immigrant marriages, German acceptance in Minnesota, English-only churches, and more! We also debut the new Tina Belcher Film Grading Scale, and award this film a respectable score of Two Butts. Sources…
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Godzilla Minus One
This week we're going back to postwar Tokyo with Godzilla Minus One! Join us as we learn about the rebuilding of Ginza, war orphans, sea mine removal, how Godzilla stands upright in the water, and more! Sources: "Ginza," Tokyo Official Website:...
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The Siege of Jadotville
This week we're traveling back to 1960s Congo with The Siege of Jadotville! Join us as we learn about General Tshombe, Dag Hammarsjkold, UN forces in Jadotville, uranium mining, and more! Sources: Frank Swain, "The forgotten mine that built the atomic bomb," BBC (2020)....
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The movie podcast for history nerds. In every episode, historians Jamie and Sofia talk about a different historical film and take a deep dive into the parts that did and didn't really happen. In each episode, we try to answer the big questions: Is this good history? Is this a good movie? And are those the same thing? To get in touch, send us an email at [email protected], or follow us on Twitter @ReallyHappenPod. You can also support the show by visiting Patreon.com/DidThatReallyHappen Our theme music is "Allon Gay Gay", performed by Jon Sayles.
HOSTED BY
Did That Really Happen?
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Did That Really Happen? have?
Did That Really Happen? currently has 100 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Did That Really Happen? about?
The movie podcast for history nerds. In every episode, historians Jamie and Sofia talk about a different historical film and take a deep dive into the parts that did and didn't really happen. In each episode, we try to answer the big questions: Is this good history? Is this a good movie? And are...
How often does Did That Really Happen? release new episodes?
Did That Really Happen? has 100 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Did That Really Happen??
You can listen to Did That Really Happen? 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 Did That Really Happen??
Did That Really Happen? is created and hosted by Did That Really Happen?.
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