PODCAST · society
Don't Look Now
by Jeni McDonald and Will Hageman
What could an Engineer and an Archaeologist have to talk about? Listen to us discuss history, mysteries, science, culture and art. The world is vast and episode by episode we learn about the way the world works.
Episodes
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344 - The Disappearance of Steven Koecher
In December 2009, Steven Koecher, a 30 year old from nearby Utah, parked his car in a suburb of Las Vegas and was seen on camera walking through the neighborhood. He was never seen again. He took his wallet and phone but left behind Christmas gifts he had bought for his family. No one has ever...
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343 - The Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys
Today's episode is a pretty grim one. The Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys was a reform school operated by the state of Florida in Marianna, Fl that first opened in 1900. While the name changed over the years, one thing didn't: constant rumors and reports of abuse at the school. The school was...
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342 - Chiquita and the CIA - The Guatemala Coup
This week's podcast deals with the Coup in Guatemala in 1954 where the CIA backed a coup and regime change in order to prevent a communist takeover or help the United Fruit Company's bottom line depending on who you ask. The previous government had supported better working conditions and had...
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341 - Amelia Earhart
Most people know that Amelia Earhart was a famous aviator, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean and famously disappeared on an attempt to fly around the world. In today's podcast we talk a bit more about her life, how she got into aviation, and how she got her big break as the...
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340 - Lady Dudley, An Elizabethan Mystery
Amy Robsart was born in 1532 in Norfolk, England to a fairly wealthy farming and grazing family. When she was almost 18 she married Roberty Dudley, a younger son of the Earl of Warwick. It was considered to be a love match as opposed to something political or to bind family lines together.…
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339 - Davey Crockett
After a week off, we're back. This week's topic is Davey Crockett of coonskin hat fame. Crockett is one of those larger than life characters that often seem to show up in early American history. While most of us know him from The Ballad of Davey Crockett and movies about the Alamo, who was the…
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338 - The History of Book Clubs
Most people have belonged to a book club at some point in their lives, but have you ever thought about the history of book clubs? Come find out about how book clubs have developed and changed over time, from ancient Greece, to Puritan America, to Oprah. Probably the only thing they all have in...
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337 - The Ecological Butterfly Effect of Wolves in Yellowstone
Wolves were effectively irradicated from Yellowstone National Park in the early 20th century and were gone until reintroduced through human intervention in 1995. While many could have predicted what the return of wolves might do to th elk population of the park, the truly remarkable thing is the...
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336 - The Magic of Medieval Veterinary Medicine
While we sometimes talk about how the practice of medicine has evolved over time from pure magic and ritual to science-based practice, we often ignore the practice of veterinary medicine and how it evolved and developed. If anything, people of the Middle Ages were more dependent on their animals...
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335 - Goodfellas and the Copa
This week's podcast has a bit of a mobster flair. It's a two parter with the first part dedicated to the life of Henry Hill, the subject of the movie Goodfellas and mentioned a bit previously on our podcast about the Lufthansa Heist. From there we turn our attention to the Copacabana, the NY...
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334 - Shark Attack!
In today's episode we turn our attention to a non-cryptid animal that inspires fear in many,.. the shark. The book and film Jaws have made many afraid to go in the water, but did you know that the events of the book are loosely based on events that happened early in the 20th century? In July 1916...
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333 - Baldwin IV, The Leper King
In this week's podcast we discuss Baldwin IV, King of the Crusader state of Jerusalem and most famously known as The Leper King. Baldwin contracted Leprosy at an early age but it was slow to develop which allowed him to become king before being diagnosed. While leprosy was often a very shunned...
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332 - Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea party is an iconic even that still lives on in American culture and politics. However, how much do you know about the event itself and what led up to it. Who planned it? Was it planned at all? Take a listen this week and find out all about America's favorite protest.
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331 - The Birth of Beer
Ever wondered where your glass of foamy beer got its start? Turns out beer has been around just about as long or longer than written record. It seems that once humans had figured out how to grow grains they also started figuring out how to ferment them. Take a listen this week and learn about the...
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330 - Sisi - Empress Elizabeth of Austria
The Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaira, better known as Sisi, became the Empress of Austria in 1854 when she married Emperor Franz Jospeh the First. She was not raised to be a public figure and never quite fit in as Empress. While she was famed for being beautiful and intelligent, she...
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329 - Mental Health Twofer
This week's podcast revolves around a couple of mental health issues and the story surrounding them. The first is the Pellagratic Delirium or Pellagrous Encephalopathy. This condition is due to lack of Niacin (vitamin B3) and became a widespread problem in the Venetian Empire after the…
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328 - King Tut
This week's subject is King Tut. While the discovery of his tomb and the legend of the related curse has made his name well known around the world, who was he really? Learn a bit about what we know about the man (or more accurately boy) behind the name and myth.
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327 - Pauline Bonaparte - Napoleon's Favorite Sister
While we have discussed Napoleon in the past on this podcast, today we talk about his younger sister Pauline. Famous for her beauty and scandalous affairs, she is the only sibling to visit him in exile on Elba. While she only lived to be 44 she certainly lived life to its fullest. Take a listen…
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326 - The Yeti
This week's podcast is dedicated to the search for the Yeti, not the top end drink cooler, but the Cryptid that is rumored to roam the Himalayas eating yaks and sometimes people. The Yeti has attracted the attention of some very famous mountaineers including Sir Edmund Hillary who spent a decent...
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325 - Mary Anning
Mary Anning was a pioneer in the field of paleontology, working in the early 19th Century, she discovered many famous dinosaurs and marine reptiles such as Ichthyosaurus. Her contributions were often overlooked due to her gender and social status, which let to her being ineligible to join the...
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324 - The Roswell Incident
Today's podcast is about one of America's favorite conspiracy theories, The Roswell Incident. In 1947, debris was recovered from a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico that was recovered by personnel from the nearby Army Air Field. The stuff of conspiracy began when the Army announced it had picked up…
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323 - The Pack Horse Library Project
The Pack Horse Library Project was part of the WPA's attempt to relieve rural poverty in Kentucky. Since many people in Appalachian Kentucky didn't have access to books, the "book ladies" of the Pack Horse library brought books to them in remote areas via packhorses. The librarians would haul...
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322 - The History of Midwives
While there might be some debate about what is indeed the world's oldest profession, what might be the world's oldest medical profession is that of the midwife. Women have most likely been helping other women give birth since before modern humans were a thing. Take a listen this week and learn...
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231 - Graham Crackers
This week we discuss the invention of the graham cracker... the tasty snack that is used for making smores, pie crusts, and other fun snacks. However, its history is not what you might expect. The original graham cracker was invented by the reverend Sylvester Graham in the late 1800s. He was a...
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320 - Where Calorie Counting Began
This week we look at one of the most ubiquitous things in modern dieting... calorie counting. When did we first start paying attention to the caloric content of food and worrying about how much energy we were taking in vs. burning off? The popularization of counting calories for weight loss and...
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319 - Margaret Prior and The American Female Moral Reform Society
Hello all! This week we discuss humanitarian and urban missionary Margaret Prior and her founding of the American Female Moral Reform Society, a progressive group originally created to help the plight of poor women stuck in sex work in pre-Civil War New York City. Prior worked tirelessly to help...
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318 - The Origin of the Snake Oil Salesman
Ever wondered why a worthless item being sold as a miracle cure is referred to as Snake Oil? Like just about everything else in Modern America is dates back to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Clark Stanley sold snake oil to relieve aches and pains. The amazing thing is that Snake Oil really can...
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317 - Grace O'Malley
This week's topic, coinciding with St. Patrick's Day, is Grace O'Malley. O'Malley controlled a large portion of County Mayo in the late 1500s and was known as a pirate queen. She famously met on equal terms with Queen Elizabeth I, and received her protection from Richard Bingham, the English lord...
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316 - The Life and Times of Horace Greeley
If you are like me, you mainly know Horace Greeley for the expression "Go West Young Man" and are generally aware that he was a newspaper editor. You might be aware that he was a congressman and crossed paths with just about every famous person of the mid 19th century. Abraham Lincoln (check)…
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315 - Archeology in the News
This week we take a look at the top five archeology stories in the news, ranging from Greek sculpture finds in Athens, to an ancient woodhenge in Denmark, to kids tripping over ancient idols in Isreal, there's plenty up in the archeological world.
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314 - The Shroud of Turin
The Shroud of Turin is a mysterious cloth kept in the city of Turin/Torino, Italy that is purported to be the burial shroud of Jesus. The shroud contains an image of a man baring the marks of crucifixion as if he had burned an image into it while laying on one half with the other half folded over...
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313 - Exorcism of Political Commentary
In the 8th Century an exorcism was performed on a 16 year old girl. The girl began to speak in Latin, which she did not know, claiming to be a demon named Wiggo. The demon claimed to have been roaming the countryside doing terrible things because the lack of piousness and Christian behavior of…
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312 - Ruth Ellis, The UK's Tragic Last Executed Person
On the 13th of July, 1955, Ruth Ellis became the last person to be executed in the United Kingdom. Her story is a tragic one, beginning with childhood abuse and ending with the public shooting of her lover outside a London Pub possibly at the behest of another. While she felt no remorse and…
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311 - The Nazca Lines
The Nazca lines have become famous over the years for their mysterious origins and purpose. Residing in the high desert in Southern Peru, the lines were created by removing the top layer of desert rocks, exposing the different colored clay beneath. Some of the lines appear to be an astronomical...
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310 - Feuding like the Hatfields and McCoys
If you were to think of the quintessential family feud that first thought for most Americans is the Hatfields and McCoys. Two families whose fame is solely based on hating each other. While their feud is famous, the actual details of it are not. Most of us only know that McCoys hate Hatfields and...
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309 - The Hope Diamond
Today's episode is dedicated to a gem that is probably more famous for the rumors and often false history surrounding it then its own beauty... The Hope Diamond. The Hope Diamond is now known to have been cut from a gem owned by the Royal Family of France and looted during the early days of the...
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308 - Love and Thunder
This week's topic is the Lore of Thor. Legends and religions involving Thor come from ancient Northern European roots and have spread around the world, most notably in recent years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ever wonder how a random god in the Norse pantheon became universally known today in...
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307 - Lions and Tigers and Pumas Oh My
The English countryside is often associated with many things, rivers, lakes, moors, hedgehogs, but not large predators. The largest official remaining predator in the UK is the badger. While you might not want to back one into a corner, they're not about to go on a wild killing spree. However,...
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306 - Tickle Torture
When you think about it, the human reaction to tickling is quite odd. Why do we laugh when someone grazes your feet with a feather or digs their fingers into your unsuspecting ribs? While a little tickling can be fun, it has been used as a device of torture in different societies throughout...
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305 - Christmas Traditions and Symbols
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! This Christmas Eve we are coming to you with a podcast full of the history of several Christmas traditions. If you've ever wondered why we have Christmas Tree ornaments, why the colors of Christmas are Red and Green, or why some of the figures in the...
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304 - The Nutcracker
Were you aware that the Nutcracker Ballet was not much of a hit when first performed in 1892 in St. Petersburg, Russia? While the music was well received, the ballet itself was not an instant fan favorite. It didn't grow to high popularity until the 1940s when it began to take off in the United...
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303 - The Great Whiskey Fire of Dublin
On June 18th, 1875 a warehouse full of thousands of casks of whiskey caught fire in the Liberties area of Dublin causing a river of flaming whiskey to pour down the streets, often up to six inches deep. While the fire did a great deal of damage, it most regrettably caused the deaths of 13 people....
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302 - The Rhinelander Scandal
Today's podcast is about a divorce case in New York that took place 100 years ago. Kip Rhinelander, the heir to a prominent New York Family, secretly married Alice Jones, a working class girl. While this would normally draw the ire of his family the situation became national news when rumors…
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301 - Christmas Lights: The Origin Story
This week we discuss the holiday season's most famous bright spot: Christmas Lights. Decorating trees, houses, shopping malls, and making up vast displays; Christmas lights are a staple of the holiday season. When did electric lights on objects become a thing? Take a listen and learn about the...
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300 - Your Looks Are Criminal
This week's podcast in on Cesare Lombroso, an Italian anthropologist and criminologist that had the unfortunate assertation that criminality was inherited and could be directly identified through physical traits. While we now know that some congenital abnormalities can affect brain function and...
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299 - The Candyman Murder
While the Candyman movies involve a mysterious paranormal murderer that can be summoned thought the bathroom mirror stalking the projects of Chicago, they are based on a true story. Today's podcast discusses the bizarre details surrounding the murder of Ruthie Mae McCoy who was killed in her...
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298 - The Mummified Bandit
This week's episode tells the story of Elmer McCurdy, a not too successful bandit of the old west who was eventually killed in Oklahoma in 1911. However, McCurdy's story didn't end then. After being embalmed, no one wanted to pay for his burial, and he went on display at the funeral home. Elmer's...
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297 - Ghosts in the Legal Machine
We're back after a one week hiatus with stories of the bizarre area where the law and ghosts overlap. We have two stories this week: the first where the testimony of a ghost is officially admitted as evidence in a trial, and the second where a house is declared legally haunted. Take a listen and...
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296 - The Pumpkin Patch
Have you ever wondered where the tradition of the pumpkin patch came from? Today, every Halloween season, we have active pumpkin patches on farms that have not just the obligatory pumpkins for sale, but giant slides, corn mazes, hay rack rides, and hundreds of other random activities to attract...
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295 - Bloody Mary - Demon or Drink
Today's episode is dedicated to the debate about who the childhood scare game "Blood Mary" takes its inspiration from. Is it Queen Mary of England, a legendary witch, or a Balkan Countess. Since we are talking about Bloody Marys it's only fitting we spend some time talking about the origin of the...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
What could an Engineer and an Archaeologist have to talk about? Listen to us discuss history, mysteries, science, culture and art. The world is vast and episode by episode we learn about the way the world works.
HOSTED BY
Jeni McDonald and Will Hageman
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Don't Look Now have?
Don't Look Now currently has 344 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Don't Look Now about?
What could an Engineer and an Archaeologist have to talk about? Listen to us discuss history, mysteries, science, culture and art. The world is vast and episode by episode we learn about the way the world works.
How often does Don't Look Now release new episodes?
Don't Look Now publishes regularly with 344 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Don't Look Now?
You can listen to Don't Look Now 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 Don't Look Now?
Don't Look Now is created and hosted by Jeni McDonald and Will Hageman.
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