PODCAST · history
Everything Is Awful Forever
by Philippa and Jess
A macabre history podcast in which Jess and Philippa wax lyrical over the awful oddities of the past.
Episodes
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Aleister Crowley and the Cursed Child(hood)
This week we look at the greatest mountaineer, poet, chessmaster, spy, and wizard of all time: Aleister Crowley. Join Jess and Philippa as they look into his humble beginnings from a cupboard under the stairs (sort of kind of not really), his initiation into the Golden Dawn, and his role in the...
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The Witch Hunter King
Join Jess and Philippa for a quintessential Awful Forever episode. Witches! Boats! Henry VIII! Murder most foul, and maybe a little murder most pleasant - if you're a king on the hunt for witches. Sources: https://www.britannica.com/story/acts-of-union-uniting-the-united-kingdom...
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Mourning Glory
If you're having trouble getting started with your week, Jess and Philippa are ready to help you get over those Monday morning blues by getting into the (fashion) details of Victorian mourning rituals. Wilde may have thought "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it...
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The Return of Bad (Kar)luk: Ada Blackjack
Sometimes you throw in your lot with rogues who convince you to board their ramshackle vessel and go die in the Arctic. Sure, you might perish in the frozen darkness - but what happened to the person who abandoned you there? Join Jess and Philippa as they see what Vilhjalmur Stefansson, leader of...
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Down to Earth
What do you do when your graveyards are at capacity and everyone's simply dying to get in? Join Jess and Philippa as they confront burial reform in Victorian London and the corpse-ridden scandals that shook the city. Sources: Arnold, C. (2006) Necropolis: London and its Dead. London: Simon &...
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Cursed Cures
It's a Monday and we're all feeling a little down. Sickly, even. But you can always join Jess and Philippa for a small pick-me-up and some sound advice about achieving a healthy glow that is literally radiant. Support the show
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Rick and Naughty
Worry not, for Jess and Philippa will explain to you how to do the perfect crime. If you don't understand it maybe it's just because you're not smart enough; not like two white, wealthy, teenage boys from the 1920's, who were certainly smarter than everyone else, definitely able to flawlessly...
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Alice & Junko
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For Womb The Bell Tolls
It's that time of the week in which we discuss that time of the month. Join Jess and Philippa as they look at the mysteries of the medieval womb, and the monstrous ways in which women were misunderstood. Sources: Hartnell, J. (2019) Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages. London:...
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Blood and Butter: Black Cloaks and Bawbags
Art! Betrayal! Stabbing! Also, what rhymes with testicle? Join Jess and Philippa as they continue with the Blood and Butter epic tale of one artist testing the limits of just how many people he can stab. Caravaggio can get away with murder...but what about a mean poem? Support the show
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Double Demons: The Haunting of the Gibbons Twins
We had one demon, yes. But what about second demons? Another turn of the screw, so to speak. In addition being possessed by paraphrase, Jess and Philippa are obsessed (possessed) by the case of June and Jennifer Gibbons. Join us as we look at this peculiar case that has so much in common with...
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Demoniac
We've always known that Jess might not be quite right, and Philippa suspects that she might finally understand why. Join the demonic duo as they weigh up the pros and cons of possession, as well as two common modern explanations for this phenomenon. Sources: Almond, P. (2004) Demonic Possession…
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Blood and Butter: The Garden of Evil
We've covered the temptations of butter. But have you considered the essential eroticism of fruit? This week, Jess and Philippa talk about the early life of Caravaggio (aka the human dumpster fire) and his fetish for shoulders, lizards, and the fruits to be plucked in the Garden of Evil Instacart...
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Toxic Tyrants
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Shakespeare was talking about a different Henry, but our favourite Tudor would have had a few reasons to keep up at night. After all, his servants needed time to throughly kiss his bed before his head could hit the pillow. Join Jess and Philippa as they…
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Blood and Butter
Join Jess and Philippa as they explore the importance of context in a sweeping history of 1500 years, in which empires rose and fell, towers were buttered, battles were fought, and people were excessively tortured - all in the name of some Middle Eastern Jewish guy. Also, it's about art, maybe?...
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Bottom Feeders
Strap in and hold onto your bottoms because this week we're going monster hunting. Join Jess and Philippa as they chat about the Whipping Toms and the London Monster: criminals with an unhealthy fixation on the female derrière. Support the show
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Mad Monarchs: Nasty Names
If you've ever gotten stuck with a nickname that made you want to burn down an entire kingdom just to abolish it from the face of the earth, then this episode may be for you. Join Jess the Incorrigible and Philippa the Long-Suffering as they look at some of history's rulers whose names reflected…
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Social Diseases: Syphilis
CW: Graphic medical descriptions Philippa's back from her time abroad in the land of disease and she's got syphilis...facts. Join her and Jess for a sexy discussion about disease, eugenics, medical experiments, and blaming foreigners and minority groups for your problems. Support the show
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Ma'am Mandelbaum's School for Thieves.
Join Jess and Fauxlippa (Rosie Cowling) as she tell us about the wheelings and dealings of the the biggest fence in the U.S. The criminal, exciting kind, not the keeps-your-chickens-in kind. A massive criminal enterprise, a school to teach kids how to pick pocket. She was the best. Support the show
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Promiscuous Popery
From the most powerful Italian families comes a tale of promiscuity, mistresses, bribery, rackets and murder. No,no, not the mafia, but the Vatican of course! Join Jess and Philippa??? Rosie, the backup ginger exploring the wild sex parties and crimes of this mob boss pope and his equally…
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Leeches Breeches: Victorian Job Features
Is your current desk job getting you down? Is the capitalist system leeching off your hard labour? Console yourself with the fact that some Victorian jobs involved actual leeches. Join Jess and Philippa as they search for new jobs among the Sin Eaters, Mudlarks, and Funeral Mutes of the Victorian...
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Well Hung
We've looked at the inventive methods of execution that were designed to get attention (and at least a few chuckles), but who was it that had to ensure that the death sentence was carried out to the letter? Join Jess and Philippa for a game of hangman and look into the complicated, stigmatised...
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Night Witches
This week, we are so lucky to have Moxie LaBouche, the host of Your Brain On Facts, pay our podcast a visit! Join Jess, Philippa, and Moxie as they cling to the wood-and-canvas wings of the outdated, ramshackle planes flown by the Russian Night Witches during WWII and look into the lives of those...
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Batavia's Graveyard
If we've learned anything, during our time podcasting (and that may be up for debate), it's that nothing good happens on a boat. Join us onboard the Batavia, which set out from Texel in the Netherlands in 1628 and never returned. It would, however, carry its passengers to the site of one of the...
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Black Beards, Red Hearts
Join Jess and Philippa as they look at one of the greatest boat-based love stories of all time: that of Blackbeard and Black Sam Bellamy. Plunder, booty, and most important of all...REVENGE! Get your best pirate voice going and dive with us into this tale of broken hearties. Support the show
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Vampires and Corpse Brides: A Patreon Sneak Peek
This week, see what we're getting up on Patreon with one of our older episodes dated back to Halloween (a.k.a. back when things were kind of okay). Join Philippa and Jess as they look at a couple of monsters from eastern lore and one very real life monster who took the idea of eternal one-sided...
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Losing Our Heads: Public Execution
Hold onto your heads (and perhaps your limbs, bowels, and sundry bits) because this week, Jess and Philippa are sticking their necks out to peer at public execution. Just how (and why) did England desire to despatch its dastardly denizens? Hang around to find out! Buzzsprout - Let's get your...
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Changeling Children: The Dunbar Disappearance
It's a sad fact that children go missing every day. Sometimes, if one is lucky, they're found once more. But after a long separation, how can you be certain that you've got the right kid? Join Jess and Philippa as they dive back into the early 1900s and the swamps of Louisiana to discuss one of…
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Mary Toft: Down the Rabbit Hole
It's 1726 and all of London is abuzz with the news of a woman who has allegedly given birth to seventeen rabbits. Join Jess and Philippa as they explore the messy affair and the full potential of a Georgian woman's reproductive power. Support the show
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Resurrectionists: Scrumping for Corpses
Hold onto your everything because, this week, Burke and Hare are headed to Surgeon's Hall and need some body to go with them. Join Jess and Philippa as they shadow the resurrection men as well as those with a more "go get 'em" attitude. Support the show
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Consuming Fashion
It's the mid 1850s and one thing is on everyone's lips (and perhaps their freshly laundered handkerchiefs): tuberculosis. Deadly, incurable, and oh so incredibly fashionable. Join Jess and Philippa as they look at what was then called "the white plague", "consumption", or even "graveyard cough"…
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Undark and the Radium Girls
In these difficult times, we're all learning new lessons about hygiene and what not to put in our mouths (lookin' at you, Greg). Join Jess and Philippa as they look back on the 20s of yester-century and the finger-lickin' awfulness of the Radium Girls. Support the show
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The Abode of Love: The Prince and the Spinster
The countryside is underrated. Lush fields, picturesque cows, spring in bloom, and middle class sex (maybe?) cults. Join Jess and Philippa in the Abode of Love as they discuss the Agapemonites, led by Henry Prince, and their involvement in the lives of the Nottidge family. Cults, abductions,...
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Hooked
How do you piss off a pirate? Take away the ‘P’! We'd apologise for the the terribly pirate humour and non-stop "aaaarghs", but we don't think we'll ever be sorry. Join Jess and Philippa as they teach their parrots to swear, adjust their eyepatches, and learn about the pirate code (it's more of a...
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Bend It Like Bedlam
It's our final episode on Bedlam and we're all out of episode titles. Join us this week as Bedlam is dragged kicking and screaming to its new home in St. George's Fields and the 19th century. Support the show
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The Bluebelle Ocean Massacre
A family vacation, cruising on out in the blue of the Bahamas...just what could possibly go wrong? This week, let Jess and Philippa stoke your thalassophobia as we dive into a story about death on the ocean and surprising escapes. Support the show
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Cops and Quakers
Royal assassination attempts, criminal lunacy and...Quakers? When we last looked at Bedlam, it was wobbling uneasily on its shaky masonry. But who's going to be the one to push it over the edge? This week, Jess and Philippa take a look at the dual waves of prison and asylum reform that would soon...
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Speak Easy
This week, join two rum runnin' baby vamps as we speak easy about 1920s prohibition and the G-man's attempts to give America the screaming meemies. It's not all banana oil, so let's get boiled as an owl and jive to the toils of the roaring 20s. Support the show
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Back to Bedlam
This week, Jess and Philippa continue their journey into Bedlam. Join us as we sneak between its tightly locked doors, through the shaky, crumbling structure of the building, eavesdrop on its medical triumvirate, and chat with one of its inmates about a fiendish invention. Support the show
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Mad Monarchs: Royal Rumble
Content warning for brief mention of sexual assault in the episode. As we look away from the awful world of current events, it's a good time to remind ourselves that things could always be more...interesting. Join Jess and Philippa this week as we talk about rulers who thought that they might be...
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Bedlam: The Beginning
The New Year is here, and everything's gone to Bedlam. Join Jess and Philippa this week as we look at the beginnings of this infamous asylum, which would be founded in the thirteenth century and, over the centuries, come to haunt the minds and cultural works of the English - eventually embodying...
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Awful Forever Pre-Christian Christmas Episode
This week, Jess and Philippa encourage you to make Great Britain great again with cannibal pre-Christmas feasts, druidic sacrifices, wode paint, and generalised screaming. Also, some great hair tips. Support the show
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Medieval Madness: Melancholy and Mania
It's Monday and the madness continues with medieval madnessess of melancholy and mania. Also, we can't stop alliterating, please send help. This week, Jess and Philippa look at how medieval Christianity blended with classical Greek and Roman beliefs about madness, and how emotional and…
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Hazzardous Healthcare
Now that December is upon us, Jess and Philippa anticipate your New Year's resolutions of health, wealth, and happiness by giving you a couple of wellbeing tips. 99% of doctors agree that 90 day fasts are NOT the way to the beach body you've always dreamed of (a beach body is a body buried on the...
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Humour in Your Humours
This week, Jess and Philippa's Ship of Fools embarks upon the sea of madness. Join us in this introductory episode to historical perspectives on insanity. What behaviours crossed the line? What caused "madness", and what cured it? This week, we dive into the Old Testament, archaic Greece,...
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Serfs Up, Bro
This week, listen to Jess go mad with power as she and Philippa explore medieval feudalism through the lens of a Choose Your Own Adventure, dystopia style. Support the show
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The Irish Potato Famine
This week, Jess and Philippa go back to 1845 to look at the Great Hunger and England's response to a starving nation. Support the show
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Halloween Special: Vampire Variations
What's that rapping on your window? That shadow on the wall? Only Jess and Philippa who can't let go of Halloween and want to look at one more monster before the Christmas wave hits us. This week we invite vampires over the threshold and look at the different beliefs surrounding them in Eastern...
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Halloween Special: The Spiderman of Denver
A violent murder. A locked house that no assailant could have left. A ghoulish presence in a house that should be empty. Who or what killed Philip Peters? And what's that looming over your shoulder right now? This week, Jess and Philippa get into some spooky history. Support the show
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Naval Cannibal Homicide: The Wreck of the Medusa
This week we explore the true meaning of checking oneself before wrecking oneself. The loss of the French frigate, the Medusa, was caused by gross negligence and incompetence, and resulted in the cruel and needless loss of over a hundred lives. Support the show
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Everything Is Awful Forever have?
Everything Is Awful Forever currently has 108 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Everything Is Awful Forever about?
A macabre history podcast in which Jess and Philippa wax lyrical over the awful oddities of the past.
How often does Everything Is Awful Forever release new episodes?
Everything Is Awful Forever publishes regularly with 108 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Everything Is Awful Forever?
You can listen to Everything Is Awful Forever 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 Everything Is Awful Forever?
Everything Is Awful Forever is created and hosted by Philippa and Jess.
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