Episodes
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1 - Hauntings, Locally Speaking
S06E01: Local Cults, Formidable Foreheads, and a Haunted Forrest Join Haley and Natali at their local haunts. Literally. We have utopian cults, 1920s dance parties, and the spirits they've left behind. Note: There were some audio issues in this episode. Please forgive our echoes! Show notes...
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4 - Praise Cheeses, We're Back!
Secret cheese caves and dairy divination? Oh, yes. We're getting really cheesy with this one! Show notes: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com/episodes/
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3 - Postage Play and Courting: Love Victorian Style
S05E03: The very Victorian art of dating and the hidden codes in Victorian love letters. Sit down for a bit of old fashioned Victorian dating advice, flirting etiquette, and fan wielding tips, then cozy up by the fire to search for hidden meanings within the latest sweet missive penned by your…
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2 - The Bewitching and Beguiling Power of Love Spells
S05E02: A brief history of love spells and how they’re still being used today. As long as there have been people, there have been love spells. They’re sometimes beautiful, frequently horny, and nearly always ethically questionable. They also might make you want to hide your fingernails, put off...
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1 - Putting the Cult in Cutlery
S05E01: The Oneida Cult. Ever wonder if your silverware was once in a questionable cult? No? Just us? The Oneida Cult had some truly ahead-of-its-time views on sex and sexuality. And, if their community hadn’t also included a dark shadow of appalling abuse towards its teenage members, this could...
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8 - Where Did You Find That Key? Secret Drawers, Hidden Compartments, and Locked Cabinets
S04E08: The secret drawers, hidden compartments, and locked cabinets nestled into pieces of antique furniture. Because, who doesn’t want an excuse to look for indoor treasures on a crisp, cloudy fall day? Show notes: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com/2023/10/13/season-4-episode-08
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7 - Wait. Where did YOU come from?
S04E07: American islands that never lost their British accents (from the 16 and 1700s) and the unnatural origins of the Transatlantic Accent. Learn some new (old) phrases from Hoi Toiders, Outer Banks Brogue speakers, and the folks who live on Tangier Island, Smith Island, and other isolated...
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6 - Dreadnought, Sink Not
S04E06: The USS Recruit (1917), the dreadnought in Union Square, and the Unsinkable Molly Brown Like real historical stories that are way, way better than their legendary counterparts? Join us on a trip back through time and experience the United States’ plan to increase wartime recruitment by...
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5 - Traysure!
S04E05: Metal detecting, geocaching, and digging up stuff in your own backyard! It’s digging in the dirt and tromping through the woods season! Come along with us while Haley contemplates metal detecting, breaking the law, and digging up her basement, and Natali goes on a fantastic geocaching and...
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4 - The Deadly Garden
S04E04: Poisonous Plants and Drury Lane Gardens. Take a stroll around a garden so dangerous that just walking through it can cause you to faint, then scamper off to the world of London’s pocket parks for a wholesome reinvention of a place with a deadly past. Show notes:...
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3 - Paws, Claws, and Caws: The Lore of Black Cats, Crows, and Ravens
S04E03: The lore of black cats, crows, and ravens. Us, to literally every black cat or corvid we see: Who’re our good little witches’ familiars? Sweet baby omens of doom? The bestest spooky speakers of truth ever? Corvids and black cats: Us: YES YOU ARE!! Show notes:...
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2 - Beauty and the Bikes
S04E02: Beauty entrepreneur and philanthropist Madam C. J. Walker and Boston bicycling trailblazer Kittie Knox. Fan of a multi-step beauty routine? (Same.) So, as it happens, was Madam C. J. Walker, who built a national beauty empire while providing a path for other Black women to build…
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1 - You Can Be the President, I’d Rather Be the Pope
S04E01: Weird pope facts and the bizarro world that is Vatican City/the Vatican/the Holy See. First: If you’re unfamiliar with the Prince song “Pope,” we highly recommend going down that weird rabbit hole. It’s where we got the title for this episode. We’ll wait… Okay! Now that you have that…
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17 - Indigenous Badassery
S03E17: It’s National Native American Heritage Month, so we’re talking about stone cold badass Madame Marie Dorion, and the many ways in which Native and Indigenous Americans have contributed to medicine and public health, from baby bottles, to pain killers, to early syringes! Show notes:...
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16 - Feminism on Wheels
S03E16: Victorian dress reform, the Rational Dress Society, and the history of bicycles. For Victorian women, bicycles usher in both a newfound freedom and a new wave in practical, flexible fashion: Pants! Show notes: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com/2022/10/23/season-3-episode-16
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15 - Waxing Dramatic
S03E15: Madame Tussaud and her famed museum of lifelike wax figures, and Grand Guignol, a pioneering theater at the forefront of shockingly realistic body horror. Marie Tussaud’s exceptional talent brought a spark of (kind of creepy) life to the art and craft of creating wax portraiture, inviting...
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14 - There’s No Place Like Utopia
S03E14: Celebration, Florida and Arcosanti, Arizona: Two very different approaches to building a (mostly failed) utopia. Learning how to almost successfully thrive in the desert, and why we wouldn’t want Disney in charge of our HOAs. Show notes:...
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12 - Professionally Sneaking
S03E12: The spy gadgets of WWII and a married couple–Jonna and Antonio Mendez–who were very real masters of disguise. Spy craft meets spy crafts with lipstick compasses, pencil daggers, and a truly ingenious use of foot powder. Show notes:...
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11 - Our Bodies, Our Clothes?
S03E11: The history of women in pants and boobs in fashion. Ah, yes. The perennial drama of possessing cleavage and/or legs. Show notes: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com/2022/08/12/season-3-episode-11
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10 - The Tower in the Woods: The Brattleboro Retreat Tower
S03E10: The Brattleboro Retreat Tower, a Victorian structure tucked away amongst the trees and boulders on a hiking trail in Vermont. Haley goes solo this week with a tour of one of her new hometown's most notorious haunts, the Brattleboro Retreat tower. Note: The Brattleboro Retreat was formerly...
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9 - Fragrance, Flowers, and Fat
S03E09: Perfume making techniques, enfleurage, and musk. It's all flowers and frippery...until it's not. Show notes available Friday: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com
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8 - Titties & Teeth: Both Shiny
S03E08: Boobs and bling: the history of sports bras and custom grills. Two jock straps walk into a marathon with some pretty mind-blowing mouth jewelry. Show notes: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com/2022/05/21/season-3-episode-08
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7 - Urban Spelunking We Will Go!
S03E07: Abandoned structures and Architectural Salvage. We don’t want to tell you how to live your lives, but maybe avoid that underground toilet bunker, okay? Show notes: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com/2022/04/25/season-3-episode-07
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6 - When the Moon Hits Your Eye, Just Go With It
S03E06: The stories behind the names for full moons and how the moon does (or doesn’t) impact the human body. Did you know that a blue moon is actually a thing, and that blood moons really do exist? Connect with your inner (North American) moon witch and prepare to be both baffled and delighted…
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5 - You Don’t Have to Go Home, But You Can’t Play Here: Abandoned Places
S03E05: Abandoned Waterparks and Neverland Ranch. The heyday of bad-idea waterparks, when the kids were probably drunk and their 1980s parents decided to just roll the dice on safety, and the dark and over-the-top remnants of Neverland Ranch. (Content warning: We primarily focus on the actual...
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Update: Welp. It Finally Happened.
Hello, creepy crafters! There won't be a new episode this week, because Natali came down with the covid. We decided that excitedly telling each other stories until midnight was probably not the most reasonable road to recovery, so we'll be back as soon as she's feeling up to it! (Probably next...
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4 - Dipping a Skull into Private Clubs, Fraternal Orders, and Secret Societies
S03E04: The Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain and a fascinating look into the history of fraternities and sororities in the United States. Private clubs can be fraught with countless problematic behaviors, but our favorite find turned out to be charming, weird, and so successful that it...
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3 - Stick a Pin in It
S03E03: Entomology (insect collecting) and the taxidermy of Walter Potter. Some people like academic displays with carefully labeled insects, some like kitten weddings. Who are we to judge? Show notes: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com/2022/02/18/season-3-episode-03
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2 - Roses Are Red, Your Lips Are Blue
S03E02: The history of the valentine and the hypnotic love spell murderer, Dr. Carl Coppolino. From penning sweet nothings to vinegar valentines, Natali explains why the history of these cards is far more creative–and more grown up–than today’s grade school-geared counterparts. Then, like a rain...
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1 - The Princesses Are Not Okay
S03E01: “Princess” Alice Roosevelt, the irrepressible eldest daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, who was pretty much always up to no good, and Princess Alexandra of Bavaria, who was pretty much never up to no good, because she was quite sure that she’d swallowed an entire glass piano.…
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24 - All is Artificial, All is Brite
S02E24: The mind-blowing plot twists of WWII bomber pilot Si Spiegel (and his artificial Christmas trees), and the glittering nostalgia that is a box of Shiny Brite Ornaments In short, Mr. Spiegel basically WAS his own action movie. And I’m pretty sure Shiny Brite ornaments don’t need an...
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23 - From Mary Sachs to Coco Sucks
S02E23: Mary Sachs, the Merchant Princess of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Coco Chanel, who was very good at both designing clothes and being a horrifyingly terrible person. Meet Mary Sachs, a single, immigrant woman who bought herself flowers and then built a department store empire that…
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22 - Certain Death & The Final Makeover
S02E22: Historical ways to confirm death and the art and science of modern embalming practices. It was really hard for people throughout history to tell exactly how dead the bodies of other people were, so some questionable decisions were made in the pursuit of confirmation. (Including one...
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21.5 - Halloween Bonus: Trick or Treat, You Decide
A Halloween bonus episode featuring Natali and the girls. ("The girls" being Natali's delightful and witchy teen daughters, who came to Haley's rescue!) Once upon a Halloween week weary, a book deadline and a black cat shook things up dearly. So a witch grabbed her kids, all two, and lo chaos did...
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21 - The First Femmes of Forensics
S02E21: Kate Warne, the heroic first woman Pinkerton detective, and Pearl Tytell, handwriting detective and trailblazing forensic document examiner. When you need a tricky job done, you have to hire the best! As the first lady detective, Kate Warne’s work with the Pinkertons opened new...
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20 - Living Nightmares
S02E20: Slender Man and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Whether written at the dawn of a nation or crowd-sourced on the internet, all urban legends hold within them at least a tiny kernel of truth. Here’s what happens when those distorted stories stop being fiction and become real living nightmares....
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19 - She Walks in Beauty Like a Fright?
S02E19: Mrs. Margaret Smith-Wilkinson, nicknamed the Countess of Monte Cristo, and Lady Jane Lewson, the possible real life inspiration for Miss Havisham. Come meet a hotel mogul turned high society con artist (who probably wasn’t a black widow), and the enigmatic walking fire hazard that might...
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18 - Wicked Stitches
S02E18: Woven spells, sewing magic, and the history of spinsters. Is there someone in your life who knits with glass needles, spins their own yarn, sews their own patterns, or dyes their own thread? Yes? Well, we strongly discourage getting on their bad side. You know, just in case they decide to...
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17 - Whoa, Mama!
S02E17: Personal Ghost Stories and Haley’s Haunted Mom. I mean, who doesn’t want to hear stories about a spooky local legend, a whispering apparition, a 1970s UFO, and Haley’s mom talking about the little girl ghost in her hall who looks just a bit too familiar? Show notes:...
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16 - Fashion and Function
S02E16: Sewing spacesuits and the science lab at the Eiffel Tower. Did you know that the Eiffel Tower doubles as art and science? It’s true! Also true: sewing a space suit is hard, and then your work gets shredded. Show notes: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com/2021/08/06/season-2-episode-16
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15 - Make All the Bones About It
S02E15: Catacomb saints and the Sedlec Ossuary. Here for all of your bejeweled skeleton and fancy skull garland needs! Show notes: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com/2021/07/23/season-2-episode-15
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14 - Fizzle and Bang
S02E14: The doctor-prescribed history of condoms and vibrators. From “American tips” to hysteria treatments (and, somehow, maybe also bees), the history of getting off is exactly as awkward as you think it is. Show notes: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com/2021/07/09/season-2-episode-14
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13 - Come on Baby Light My Fire!
S02E13: The history of Summer Solstice celebrations, rituals, and crafts. You like fire, right? Because, honestly, you’re going to need to like fire for this one. Show notes: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com/2021/06/25/season-2-episode-13
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12 - Pride & Prejudice
S02E12: Historical queer love letters and lavender languages past and present. It’s Pride month! Come along with your queer cohosts and meet Rose Cleveland, a gay First Lady, and Evangeline, the love of her life. Then take a moment to soak in the many languages that helped--and still help--queer...
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11 - Not So Mellow Yellow
S02E11: Dr. Cyr, the father of School Bus Yellow, and the concerningly yellow canary girls of WWI. Step right up and learn why school buses are bright yellow, and one of the many reasons that babies probably shouldn’t be. Show notes: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com/2021/05/28/season-2-episode-11
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10 - Pearly Whites and Pearly Frights
S02E10: Dentures and false teeth throughout history and street dentist Painless Parker. Chipped porcelain, cocaine, and an actual dental circus with a side of rehab? Obviously, we’re in. Show notes: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com/2021/05/14/season-2-episode-10
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09 - Keep Your Filthy Paws Off Our Silky...Parachutes?
S02E09: Recycled silk parachutes and garments made from escape and evade maps. Honestly, what’s hotter than lingerie made from the very map that helped your hot RAF pilot boyfriend escape the Nazis? Nothing! The romance novel practically writes itself. Show notes:...
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08 - If These Graves Could Talk
S02E08: Interesting epitaphs and headstone symbology. Thanks to chisels, stone, and, for some reason, zebras, the dead don’t need to be ghosts to communicate with the living! (If you can explain the zebras, please get in touch. We’re so confused.) Show notes:...
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07 - Don’t Ever Laugh as a Hearse Goes By
S02E07: Green burials, body farms, and the inner workings of tombs, vaults, and mausoleums: We jump into the world of burial and interment, and somehow come out on Team Mausoleum. (We’ll also take Team Grad Student Road Trip, pending availability.) Show notes:...
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06 - Witches Get Shit Done
S02E06: The Night Witches (the Nazi-bombing war heroes), and Lilith, the original Night Witch (possibly a demon, a goddess, or Adam’s first wife): These badass babes have at least one thing in common: if they’re around, you definitely won’t be getting any sleep. Show notes:...
About this show
In the Venn diagram of crafting, true crime, and morbid curiosity, you’ll find Bones & Bobbins digging through dusty old boxes in a curiosity shop parked right at the center.
Hosted by
Haley Pierson-Cox and Natali Heuss
Categories