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All Episodes

Dig: A History Podcast — 237 episodes

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Title
1

The Women and the King: Scottish Witch Hunts Under James VI

2

Lesbian Volunteerism in the AIDS Epidemic: A Story We Almost Lost

3

The Rise of the American Right During the Cold War: Anti-Communism, Suburban Women, and a Grassroots Revolution

4

Project MK Ultra: The CIA's Harmful, Pointless Quest for Mind Control

E
5

The KGB’s Queer Honeypots and the Cold War

6

American Idealist in Stalin's City of Steel: A Pre-History of the Cold War

7

Love Canal, or How Toxic Capitalism Poisoned a Neighborhood and How "Housewives" Fought Back

8

Rachel Carson and a Spring Without Nature: Science, Love, and Politics

9

Gwich’in, Food Sovereignty, and Environmental Justice in the Arctic Coastal Plain

10

Bonus: Conversation with Amplified Podcast

11

Save it for the Rag-and-Bone Man: The Premodern History of Recycling, Salvage, and Reuse

12

The Constitutional Convention of 1787

13

Bonus Episode: Best of 2025, What's Coming in 2026!

E
14

Orange Slices, Simmer Pots, and Naked Dancing: A Brief and Incomplete History of Modern Witchcraft

15

Re-Release: A Ghost Story for Christmas!

16

Martian Visitors in the Gilded Age

17

Beasts and Believers: A History of Werewolf Trials in Early Modern Europe

18

You're Bound to Die: The Long History of the American Murder Ballad

19

Suffer a Witch to Live? Religious Conflict and Witchcraft Persecutions; or, No One Expects the Inquisition

20

Yellow Rose of Texas: Myth-making and Race in the 19th Century

21

Whispers and Wives' Tales: A History of Women & Gossip in Premodern Society

22

Women and Slavery: How Harriet Jacobs Revealed Women's Experience of American Enslavement

23

Sati: The Virtuous Woman, the Chaste Wife, and the Immolated Widow in Colonial and Postcolonial India

24

The Pansy Craze

25

Anne Lister's Search for a "Great Love": Reading the Diaries of the First Modern Lesbian

26

Female Husbands, or People Have Always Transed Gender

27

Just Friends: The Ladies of Llangollen

28

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study: Medical Ethics & Race

29

Cripping Contagion: A Long History of Epidemics as Mass-Disabling Events

30

The Section 504 Sit-In: The Protest that Demanded Civil Rights for Disabled Americans

31

Sexuality and Psychiatry

32

Executive Orders, Dog Whistles, and the Lavender Scare

E
33

The Sleepy Lagoon Trial and Zoot Suit Riots: Los Angeles's Season of Violence During WWII

34

The Unjust Execution of the Dakota 38

35

From Respectability to Ruin to Ripper Victim: The Whitechapel Murders and the Precarity of Poverty in Victorian London

36

Ghosting the Patriarchy: Spiritualism and the Nineteenth-Century Women’s Rights Movement

37

Plastic Shamans and Spiritual Hucksters: A History of Peddling and Protecting Native American Spirituality Re-Release

38

Julia’s Bureau: The Temperance Virtuoso, the Father of Journalism, and Life after Death in the Spiritualist Anglo-Atlantic Re-Release

39

Spiritualism's Beginning: Kate and Maggie Fox

40

Kitsune and Kitsunetsuki: A History of Japanese Fox-Witches and Fox Possession

41

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692

42

Spectral Evidence, Floating Witches, and Angry Neighbors: The Other Witch Panic of 1692

43

Love and Magic: A History of Violence

44

History of Thin: The Changing Meaning of Thinness in the Modern World

45

The Battle for Deaf Education: Clashing Methods, Minds, and Cultures in the Nineteenth Century United States

46

One-Sex, Two-Sex, or …?: Thinking About the Sexed Body in History

47

Bonus Episode: The Nineteenth-Century Feminist and Writer that You’ve Probably Never Heard Of: Elizabeth Oakes Smith

48

La Mutine: Gender and France's Forced Migration Schemes

49

Red Power Progressivism: A Biography of American Indian Rights Activist Zitkala Ša

50

“Came home in our droves for you”: Abortion in Ireland

51

The Sentimental State: Book Talk

52

The Leaky Body: Fluids, Disease, and the Millennias-Long Endurance of Humoral Medicine

53

Continuity & the Gender Wage Gap: Or, How Patriarchy Ruins Everything Part II

54

From Slave Patrol to Street Patrol: Police Brutality in America

55

The Invisible Engine: Capitalism's Reliance on Reproductive Labor and a Gendered Wage

56

Islam and the Frankish “Wall of Ice”: Contingency and the Battle of Tours, or Poitiers, or Whatever…

57

How the Homophile Movement Could Have Been Intersectional and Antiracist, But Wasn’t: Magnus Hirschfeld and Li Shui Tong’s Love and Loss Story

58

Rise and Fall in the Queen City: Contingent Moments in Buffalo, New York

59

Crappy Healthcare is Not Natural: the U.S. Health System is Contingent on a Lot of Bad Decisions

60

Chinese Medicine: The Complex Balance of Individual, State, and Cosmos

61

Puerto Rican Citizenship: A Complex Status

62

Vaudevillian, Countess, Spy, Activist: The Complicated Life of Josephine Baker

63

The History of Fat: The Complex Attitudes Toward Fatness in the Pre-Modern West

64

From Orality to Literacy: A Global History of Writing

65

Feminisms: The Interconnected Rights Revolution

66

The History of America's Changing Political Parties

67

Irish Hero, Queer Traitor, Gay Icon: Roger Casement Over Time

68

The Equal Rights Amendment: Gender Equality? Nah...

69

Irrepressible Conflict, or Failure to Compromise? The Causes of the American Civil War

70

The Fall of Rome: Debating Causality and the Collapse of the Western Empire

71

For King, Country, and… Opium?: Thinking About Causality, Empire, and Historiography in the First Opium War, 1839-42

72

For F*ck’s Sake: A History of English-Language Swearing

E
73

The Controversial Life and Legacy of Margaret Sanger

74

Anne Moody: Context and Conflict in Coming of Age in Mississippi

75

The Women’s War of 1929: Igbo and Ibibio Resistance to British Colonialism

76

Race and Nation in Latin America: Whitening, Browning, and the Failures of Mestizaje

77

Nina Otero-Warren: Suffrage and Strategy in New Mexico

78

Little Laborers: Child Indenture in 18th- and 19th- Century America

79

A Spot of Tea: Empire, Commodities, and the Opportunities in Britain’s Tea Trade

80

Omm Sety and Bridey Murphy: A History of Reincarnation and Past Lives in Britain and America

81

Anna Howard Shaw: Doctor, Reverend, Suffragist Leader

82

The Kingdom of Matthias: Sex, Gender and Alternative Belief in the Second Great Awakening

83

Spectacle and Spiritualism in the Lives of Maggie and Kate Fox

84

Ghosting the Patriarchy: Spiritualism and the Nineteenth-Century Women’s Rights Movement

85

Plastic Shamans and Spiritual Hucksters: A History of Peddling and Protecting Native American Spirituality

86

Julia’s Bureau: The Temperance Virtuoso, the Father of Journalism, and Life after Death in the Spiritualist Anglo-Atlantic

87

Cheesecloth, Spiritualism, and State Secrets: Helen Duncan’s Famous Witchcraft Trial

88

Domesticity and Depression: Kentucky Coal Mining, Song, and Organizing During Bloody Harlan

89

One Medicine: Animal Experiments and the Making of Modern Medical Science

90

Canary in a Coal Mine - Literally

91

Remember Rutterkin? Witch’s Familiars, Religious Reformation, and Sexy Beasts in Early Modern Europe

92

War Elephants from Ancient India to World War II

93

Race in 1920s America: Hellfighters, Red Summer, and Restrictive Immigration

94

Apartheid in South Africa: A History

95

The Long History of Abolition in America

96

The Windrush Generation and the Mystique of British Anti-Racism

97

Rosa Parks: Myth & Memory in the American Civil Rights Movement

98

Tituba, The "Black Witch" of Salem

99

“La lengua”: Malintzin, the Spanish Conquest of Mesoamerica, and the Legacy of the Translator in Mexico

100

Dragon Lady of the South China Sea: Cheng I Sao, Woman Commander of China's Pirate Confederacy

101

Aunt Jemima: American Racism on Your Grocery Shelf

102

Marie Laveau: The Voodoo Queen and the Laveau Legend

103

Werewolves, Vampires, and the Aryans of Ancient Atlantis: The Occultic Roots of the Nazi Party

104

Mizuko: The History behind Vengeful Aborted Fetus Hauntings in 1980s Japan

105

The Demonologist and the Clairvoyant: Ed and Lorraine Warren, Paranormal Investigation, and Exorcism in the Modern World

106

None of Woman Born: Cesarean Birth before 1900, A Pre-History

107

A History of Childbirth in America

108

Birth of a Nation: Everyday Racism in 20th-Century America

109

Obstetric Violence: Childbirth and Symphysiotomy in Catholic Ireland

E
110

France's League of Nations Mandate in Syria and Lebanon

111

LULAC, Adela Sloss-Vento, and the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement

112

Gender, Psychiatry, and Borderline Personality Disorder

113

Lost! Cabeza de Vaca Stumbles Through Southwestern North America in the "Age of Exploration"

114

Early American Family Limitation

115

Bodies of Evidence: Modern Policing, Sex, and the Intricacies of Authorized Crime and Deception

116

The OG Vaccine: Smallpox, Cowpox, and the Procedure that Changed the World

117

A History of Racial Passing in the United States

118

American Exceptionalism at Its Most Disturbing: The "1776 Report"

119

Yes! Same-Sex Marriage and History-Making in Ireland

120

1968: A Tumultuous American Year

121

Race, Politics, and Chaos in the Capitol: The Election of 1876

122

The Papal Election of 1492: Rodrigo Borgia and the Conclave that Made him Pope Alexander VI

123

Mother’s Little Helper: Psychiatry, Gender, and the Rise of Psychopharmaceuticals

124

"More like a dust heap than a nose": The Global History of Smokeless Tobacco

125

“The Americans Can Fix Nothing without a Drink”: Alcohol in Early America

126

The Sacred Bark: A History of Quinine

127

W.I.T.C.H.: Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell

128

“Wicked Practises and Sorcerye”: Cunning Folk, Witch Trials, and the Tragedy of Joan Flower and Her Daughters

E
129

Both Man and Witch: Uncovering the Invisible History of Male Witches

130

Doctor, Healer, Midwife, Witch: How the the Women’s Health Movement Created the Myth of the Midwife-Witch

131

Slavery & Soul Food: African Crops and Enslaved Cooks in the History of Southern Cuisine

132

The Black Panther Party and the Free Breakfast Program: Feeding a Movement

133

A History of Medicinal Cannibalism: Therapeutic Consumption of Human Bodies, Blood, and Excrement in “Civilized” Societies

134

Hot for Chocolate: Aphrodisiacs, Imperialism, and Cacao in the Early Modern Atlantic

E
135

Sex & Soldiers: Combating Sexually Transmitted Infection in the US Military

136

Steaming the “Nefarious Sin”: Bathhouses and Homosexuality from the Victorian Era to the AIDS Epidemic

E
137

Recogimiento: Virginity, Enclosure, and Female Virtue in Colonial Latin America

138

Honeymoon in Niagara Falls: Heterosexuality and Place

E
139

Three Years DIGGING! Live Recording

E
140

79 and Counting: Women of Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising

141

Blood on the Ravenstone: Judicial Torture, Penal Violence, and Capital Punishment in Early Modern Europe

142

Honor, Manhood, Slavery: Political Violence from Alexander Hamilton to John Brown

143

Anti-Mexican Mob Violence in the Borderlands: A Lynching in Rocksprings, Texas

144

Slave, Contraband, Refugee: The Complicated Story of the End of Slavery in the United States

145

Bittersweet: Sugar, Slavery, Empire and Consumerism in the Atlantic World

146

Frankenstein's Monster: Science, Revolution and Romanticism in the Age of the Enlightenment

147

100 Years of Woman Suffrage

148

La Petite Mort: Investigating the History of Orgasm, aka The Little Death

E
149

Amy Robsart, Lady Dudley: The Death that Launched a Thousand Rumors

150

The Black Death: Dancing with Death in the Medieval World

151

Cult of the Dead: Anglo American Death Practices, Spiritualism, and Speaking with the Dead

152

For Heart and Hearth… and the Rights of Women: Radical Christianity in Pursuit of Conservative Ends in the Nineteenth Century

153

Dancing Toward Wounded Knee: The Hope and Tragedy of the Ghost Dance Religion

154

Duggie Mack, the Jamaican Delegation to Ethiopia, and the Rastafarian Movement

155

Wound Worship, “Enthusiasts" and "Sodomites”: A History of Radical Moravians

156

What’s In a Name? : North American Naming Conventions and the “Death” of Patrilineal Lines

157

Masculinity, Magic & the Meaning of Impotence in Patriarchal Societies of the Past

158

Papa Can You Hear Me? Fatherhood in 19th century US and Britain

159

Patriarchs, Brawlers, and Gentlemen: Manhood in the Civil War Era

160

Secret Societies of Sapphos: Faro Ladies, Bluestockings, and Gendered Insults of Women’s Societies in 18th- and 19th-Century Britain

161

Fragile Masculinity, Playing Indian, and Mechanical Goats: Fraternal Orders in the 19th Century US

162

Who Else but the Illuminati? Conspiracy Theories, French Revolutions, and Historian Heroes

163

Order of Assassins: Myth & Memory of the Nizari in Medieval Iran and Syria

164

Life Unworthy of Life: The Nazi Programs to Kill People with Disabilities

165

Choice, Sterilization, and Eugenics in Twentieth Century Puerto Rico

166

At the Crossroads of Modernity: Japan, the Blood-Type Fad, and Eugenic Science in the 20th Century

167

Eugenics in the Making: Human Typologies, Population Hygiene, and Racial Science in the 18th Century

168

Seduction, Prostitution, Bastardy, and Child Abandonment in Georgian London

169

Anthony Comstock: Sex, Censorship, and the Power of Policing the Subjective

170

Rape and Race in Early America

171

Locked Up and Poxxed: THE Venereal Disease and Women who Sold Sex in the Victorian British Empire

172

Miscarriage in Nineteenth Century America

173

Skull Collectors: Race, Pseudoscience, and Native American Bodies

174

Syphilis: Origin Story. Or, Early Modern Europeans Don’t Know Where It Came From, Current Scholars Don’t Know Where It Came From, and a Lot of Poxy Penises and Vulvas Suffered in Between

175

“Walking Corpses”: Life as a Leper in Medieval Eurasia

176

Hearts of Darkness: Victorian Imperialism and Travel of the African Continent

177

Black Cowboys: People of Color in the American West

178

The Final Frontier: History, Science, and Space Exploration

179

Fur Trading and Frontier Life in French Canada

180

Cannibalism, Frostbite, and The Quest for the Northwest Passage

181

Haunted Slavery: The Lalaurie Mansion

182

Witches Brew: How the Patriarchy Ruins Everything for Women, Even Beer

183

Forensic Pathology and the History of Death Investigation

184

Rebel Slaves and Resistance in the Revolutionary Caribbean

185

Slavery and Freedom in New York City

186

Slave Codes, Black Codes & Jim Crow: Codifying the Color Line

187

Devşirme: The Tribute of Children, Slavery and the Ottoman Empire

188

The Age of Crime! Civil War Veterans and Crime in America

189

The United States Children's Bureau: An Attempt to Curb Infant Mortality

190

Queer Politics: The Dublin Castle Scandal of 1884

E
191

Employment Agencies in 18c London... and Boobs

192

Underwear: A History of Intimate Apparel

193

Struggle for the Breeches: Pants, Women, and Power

194

Suit Up: Class, Economics, Manhood, and Menswear

195

The Labor of Fashion: Shirtwaists and the Labor Movement in the Early 20th Century

196

Tuberculean Chic: How White Plague Shaped Beauty Standards in the 18c & 19c

197

Trees that Fight Back: Shinto & the Environment in Japan

198

Mt. Tambora & The Year Without a Summer

199

National Parks in America: Health, Manhood, and Wilderness

200

The Rise of Natural History Museums

201

“No peace, No p*ssy”: Sex Strikes and the Recent History of Global Feminist Protest

E
202

Victoria Woodhull: Free Love, Feminism & Finance

203

Marriage in America: A Brief History

204

King Ahebi Ugbabe: Sex, Gender, and Power in Colonial Nigeria

205

Auburn System: Prisons & Punishment in 19c U.S.

206

Nuremberg Laws and Nazi Discrimination against Jewish Germans

207

Coverture: Married Women and Legal Personhood in Britain

208

Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States

209

Jane Roe and The Pill

210

Suitcase Murder: Abortion, Mystery and Murder in 20th Century America

211

Celia, A Slave: The True Crime Case that Rocked the American Slave Power

212

Child Abuse, Murder & Execution in Georgian London: Case of Elizabeth Brownrigg

213

Brutal Murder of Bridget Cleary in 1895 Ireland

214

Abortion and Birth Control before Roe v. Wade

215

Early American Family Limitation

216

Charles Dickens and Scary Winter Stories

217

Great White Hurricane of 1913

218

Heating and Illuminating Homes in Victorian Britain

219

Little Ice Age: Weird Weather, Witchcraft, Famine & Fashion

220

Death, Religion, and Euro-Native Encounters

221

Cock Lane Ghost: 18c London’s Haunting Hoax

222

Halloween, Samhain, and Moral Panics in the 1980s

223

Photos of the Dead: Victorian Postmortem Photography and the Case of the Standing Corpse

224

The Lost Cause: Texas Independence, Slavery and Historical Memory

225

Guerrilla Warfare: The American Civil War and Irregular Soldiers

226

Death, Mud & Guns II: Military Rev and Birth of Bureaucracy

227

Death, Mud & Guns I: Military Rev and Birth of Bureaucracy

228

George McGovern and the Elusive Christian Left

229

Puritan Sex: The Surprising History of Puritans and Sexual Practices

230

Selling Sex in 19th C. NYC

231

Marie Stopes’ Sex Guide for Marital Bliss

232

Sadism, Sex & the French Rev

233

Vietnam Protest and the Buffalo 9

234

Communism and Uteruses

235

Founding of AIDS Project of the Ozarks

236

Black Athena and the Battle of Historians

237

War of 1812 and the Burning of Buffalo