Did That Really Happen?

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, and given to the repository of the Royal Society by John Evelyn, Esq; F. R. S. To which are subjoyn'd a description of the extremities of those vessels, and the manner the blood is seen, by the microscope, to pass from the arteries to the veins in quadrupeds when living: with some chirurgical observations, and figures after the life, by William Cowper, F. R. S. Richard K Aspin, "John Evelyn's Tables of Veins and Arteries: An Undiscovered Letter," Medical History 39 (1995) Photos: Hunterian Museum, Evelyn Tables: https://hunterianmuseum.org/whats-on/hunterian-museum-displays/surgery-and-anatomy-from-ancient-times-to-the-1700s-room-1 Erling Kagge, "Arctic Rush: Inside the 19th-Century Craze to Reach the North Pole," Literary Hub (2025), https://lithub.com/arctic-rush-inside-the-19th-century-craze-to-reach-the-north-pole/  https://guides.loc.gov/polar-exploration/timeline Javier Cacho, "Arctic Obsession Drove Explorers to Seek the North Pole," National Geographic (2020), https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/expedition-to-the-north-pole  Roald Amundsen, "Expedition to the North Magnetic Pole," (1902), http://www.jstor.org/stable/1775167  Myths of the Blunderbuss https://americanrevolutioninstitute.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/46F42011-5A24-4754-86A9-630691208800   https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_469432  Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(2025_film)  Pop Culture Happy Hour, 'Frankenstein' https://www.npr.org/transcripts/nx-s1-5600702  https://youtu.be/qIXsN-Z3UBE?si=bTQ3GigvOIWAO3_u Film School, "How Guillermo del Toro Made Frankenstein," https://youtu.be/tThIpKCXfJI?si=vKel6PTL08Z1Y_lI The History of Syphilis, Part II: Treatment, Cures, and Legislation. Science Museum. Available at https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/history-syphilis-part-two-treatments-cures-and-legislation' Szu Shen Wong, "Syphilis and the Use of Mercury," Pharmaceutical Journal, available at https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/opinion/syphilis-and-the-use-of-mercury Jeffrey Weeks, Sex, Politics, and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality Since 1800, Third Edition

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, Tyler, Texas. Tyler, Texas, November , 10, 1974. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1975009_afs17476/. Sparks, Elmer E, and Charlie Smith. Interview with Charlie Smith, Bartow, Florida. Bartow, Florida, None , 3, 1975. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1975023_afs17510/. Jennifer Davis, "A Voice from the South: Dr. Anna Julia Cooper," LOC, available at https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2025/02/a-voice-from-the-south-dr-anna-julia-cooper/ Sean Coughlan, "Last Survivor of Transatlantic Slave Trade Discovered," BBC, available at https://www.bbc.com/news/education-52010859 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Autobiography_of_Miss_Jane_Pittman_(film) Creating the Emmy-Winning Old Age Makeup for The Autobiography of Miss Jane PIttman, available at https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/creating-the-emmy-winning-makeup-for-the-autobiography-of-miss-jane-pittman Interview with Thomas Moore on Producing Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, available at https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/autobiography-of-miss-jane-pittman-the?chapter=9&clip=68703 African-American Cowboys with their Mounts Saddled Up, https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.9862669  Ronald Wendell II, MA Thesis, https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/92b088d1-1108-4044-8219-c7a03d5f87e5/content  Scott L. Matthews, "Documenting SNCC and the Rural South: Danny Lyon and the Cultural Politics of Civil Rights Movement Photography" https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469646473_matthews.8  Keith Rice, "The Civil Rights Movement and Steiner-Lobman Polly Brand Work Clothes," 2 September 2022, https://bradleycenterliberated.substack.com/p/denim-and-civil-rights  Sally E. Hadden, "Slave Patrols," https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469616742_ely.57  Lisa Cook, John Parman, and Trevon Logan, "The Antebellum Roots of Distinctively Black Names," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History 55, 1 (2021) Recall Their Names: The Personal Identity of Enslaved South Carolinians, Charleston Time Machine, available at https://www.ccpl.org/charleston-time-machine/recall-their-names-personal-identity-enslaved-south-carolinians Laura Alvarez Lopez, "Who Named Slaves and Their Children? Names and Naming Practices Among Enslaved Africans Brought to the Americas and Their Descendants With a Focus on Brazil," Journal of African Cultural Studies 27, 2 (2015)

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 https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/perfume_the_story_of_a_murderer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume:_The_Story_of_a_Murderer_%28film%29 A.O. Scott, https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/movies/27perf.html  Tracey Rizzo (2004) Between dishonor and death: infanticides in the causes célèbres of eighteenth-century France, Women's History Review, 13:1, 5-22, DOI: 10.1080/09612020400200380 Arhoune, Ilham@, Impact of Chemicals and Working Conditions on Tannery Workers' Health and Recommendations for Improving the Situation. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5347318 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5347318 "     1. Rabbani G, Billah B, Giri A, et al. Factors Associated With Health Complaints Among Leather Tannery Workers in Bangladesh. Workplace Health & Safety. 2020;69(1):22-31. doi:10.1177/2165079920936222   " https://montecristomagazine.com/beauty/medieval-tannery-town-french-riviera-became-perfume-capital-world#gsc.tab=0 https://www.tfcg.ca/old-occupation-tanner Kirsten James, The Science of Scent and Business of Perfume in Paris and London, 1650-1815, PhD thesis, University of Toronto (2019).  Eleanor Beardsley, "Sick Of Tanneries' Stench Centuries Ago, A French Town Began Making Perfume. It Stuck." NPR, available at https://www.npr.org/2021/09/21/1039393853/sick-of-tanneries-stench-centuries-ago-a-french-town-began-making-perfume-it-stu Luxus Magazine, Grasse: World Capital of Perfume: https://magazine.luxus-plus.com/en/brief-history-of-luxury-grasse-world-capital-of-perfume/

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 Days'": https://youtu.be/XL54pji1nfA?si=o0UbrhVH1ewe3p3J Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_(film) Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/walker Roger Ebert's Review: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/walker-1987 Craig J Clark, "Alex Cox Says Goodbye--and Good Riddance--To Hollywood," Crooked Marquee, available at https://crookedmarquee.com/alex-cox-says-goodbye-and-good-riddance-to-hollywood/ Rufus Kay Wyllys, "William Walker's Invasion Of Sonora, 1854" Arizona Historical Review, http://hdl.handle.net/10150/623744  Rufus Kay Wyllys, "The Republic of Lower California, 1853-1854," Pacific Historical Review 2:2 (1933): 194-213. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3633829  Robert G. Cleland, "Bandini's Account of William Walker's Invasion of Lower California," Huntington Library Quarterly 7:2 (1944): 153-66. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3815990  The Sierra citizen. (Downieville, CA), Feb. 11 1854. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86058097/1854-02-11/ed-1/. The Nevada journal. (Nevada City, CA), Apr. 14 1854. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84026884/1854-04-14/ed-1/ Joseph Bilby, "Through Hades with his Hat Off: The strange career of A.J. Morrison," Military Images 11:5 (1990): 14-15. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44032253  Walter Johnson, "The Grey-Eyed Man of Destiny," in River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom (Harvard University Press, Belknap Press, 2013). https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvjsf5q7.17  Michel Gobat, Empire by Invitation: William Walker and Manifest Destiny in Central America (Harvard University Press, 2018). https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv24w64hk.7  Issue of El Nicaraguense from 3/12/1856, UT Austin Archives: available at https://collections.lib.utexas.edu/catalog/utblac:c81aa1b7-44bd-444c-b097-de95dd810392 Issues of El Nicaraguense, Volume 1: https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/nicaragua/El_Nicaraguense-Aug-Nov-1856.pdf James Carson Jamison, With Walker in Nicaragua. First Battle of Rivas excerpt available at https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=GYpnAAAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA28&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en

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: https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/timeline-racist-skinhead-movement/ Christopher Phelps, "Skinheads: The New Nazism," Marxists.org: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/atc/10048.html Steve Knopper, "Nazi Punks Fuck Off: How Black Flag, Bad Brains, and More Took Back Their Scene from White Supremacists," https://www.gq.com/story/punks-and-nazis-oral-history Gabe Meline, "The Realy Life Freaky Tales Behind Freaky Tales," available at https://www.kqed.org/arts/13973907/freaky-tales-true-stories-pedro-pascal-too-short-924-gilman-oakland Singh SP. Sakshi and Dhyana: the origin of mindfulness-based therapies. BJPsych Bull. 2023 Apr;47(2):94-97. doi: 10.1192/bjb.2022.39. PMID: 35796539; PMCID: PMC10063990. Ngram: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=mindfulness&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3 Jessie Sun, "Mindfulness in Context: A Historical Discourse Analysis," available at https://jessiesun.me/publication/sun-2014/sun-2014.pdf Aaron Carnes, In Defense of Ska, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/operation-ivy-energy-in-defense-of-ska-book-aaron-carnes-1162048/  https://cmagazine.org/2018/03/22/924-gilman/ https://www.concertarchives.org/concerts/rancid-rice-the-rudiments-bumblescrump-the-aborted?photo=392323  https://www.924gilman.org/about   https://eastbayexpress.com/twenty-five-years-of-924-gilman-1/  https://eastbaypunk.com/about/ https://www.kqed.org/arts/11333286/green-day-dookie-924-gilman Liam O'Donoghue, https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/berkeley-nazi-brawl-bay-area-movie-freaky-tales-20250563.php  RT: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/freaky_tales  Christy Lemire, https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/freaky-tales-pedro-pascal-movie-review-2025 The Hollywood Reporter, https://youtu.be/DhgFbs2QPbo?si=sLuHMtMzF3xh_Ket  CBS Mornings, https://youtu.be/BRYTyYOLQEk?si=9k8aWh0GNErBWvJg  https://www.kqed.org/arts/13973907/freaky-tales-true-stories-pedro-pascal-too-short-924-gilman-oakland https://www.espn.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/3703/sleepy-floyd  https://www.espn.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/3703/type/nba/seasontype/3