Episodes

  • Election Fraud: Cooping, Political Gangs, What It Had To Do With The Death of Edgar Allan Poe|The Strange History Podcast

    Election Fraud: Cooping, Political Gangs, What It Had To Do With The Death of Edgar Allan Poe|The Strange History Podcast
    Feb 23 2026
    Long before modern debates about election fraud, American democracy had a darker, far more violent secret. In this episode of The Strange History Podcast, we uncover the forgotten 19th-century crime known as cooping—a brutal form of election fraud where voters were kidnapped, drugged, disguised, and forced to vote again and again for political machines. This episode dives deep into how election fraud operated openly in cities like Baltimore and New York, how political gangs controlled polling places, and why reform came only after years of violence and public deaths. At the center of this story is Edgar Allan Poe, found delirious on Election Day in 1849, wearing someone else’s clothes, outside a polling station—never to recover. Was one of America’s greatest writers a victim of election fraud? And how many unnamed people disappeared into the system before democracy cleaned up its act? This episode explores historical election fraud, political corruption, voter manipulation, and the shocking truth about how democracy actually functioned in 19th-century America. Perfect for fans of strange history, true crime, political history, and unexplained deaths.

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    🎧 The Strange History Podcast Love bizarre true stories, forgotten scandals, and history’s most unhinged moments?
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    New episodes regularly. History gets weird here.
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    14 mins
  • The Most Awkward Six Seconds in Oscars History, John Travolta, a Meme, and 43 Million Witnesses

    The Most Awkward Six Seconds in Oscars History, John Travolta, a Meme, and 43 Million Witnesses
    Feb 22 2026
    February 22, 2014 was supposed to be just another polished Oscars moment — until it wasn’t.
    In this episode of The Strange History Podcast, host Amy revisits the now-legendary Academy Awards moment when John Travolta walked onstage to introduce Frozen singer Idina Menzel and instead confidently announced the arrival of a brand-new celebrity: “Adele Dazeem.”
    What followed was instant internet history. Memes spread faster than the broadcast delay. Social media exploded mid-song. And a single mispronunciation became one of the most quoted, replayed, and lovingly mocked awards-show moments of the modern era.
    This episode explores how a tiny mistake became a cultural phenomenon, why live television embarrassment is so powerful, and how one awkward February 22 turned a simple introduction into a permanent pop-culture reference.
    Blending humor, media history, and human error at scale, this episode proves that sometimes history isn’t shaped by speeches or trophies — it’s shaped by saying the wrong name with absolute confidence.
    If you love strange history, pop-culture moments, award show disasters, viral mistakes, and stories that feel painfully relatable, this episode belongs in your queue.
    New episodes drop regularly. Follow The Strange History Podcast and keep moving through the calendar — one unforgettable mistake at a time.


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    🎧 The Strange History Podcast Love bizarre true stories, forgotten scandals, and history’s most unhinged moments?
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    New episodes regularly. History gets weird here.
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    6 mins
  • Changelings Explained: How Medieval Monks Tried to Understand Them — and Villagers Tried to Destroy Them

    Changelings Explained: How Medieval Monks Tried to Understand Them — and Villagers Tried to Destroy Them
    Feb 21 2026
    Changelings weren’t just fairy tales — they were a crisis.
    In this episode of The Strange History Podcast, host Amy explores the chilling difference between how medieval villages and monasteries understood changelings, the fair-folk replacements believed to steal human children and adults. Drawing from monk-written chronicles, folklore, and real historical cases, this episode reveals how the same belief system led to radically different outcomes.
    Villagers treated changelings as emergencies that demanded action, while monks treated them as theological problems that required restraint, classification, and observation. Both believed changelings were real — but only one approach consistently ended in violence.
    This episode examines how fear, belief, religion, and authority shaped medieval responses to unexplained illness, behavioral change, and loss, and why changeling myths survived for centuries as tools for explanation rather than fantasy.
    Blending dark humor, medieval history, folklore analysis, and true recorded accounts, this episode uncovers the dangerous logic behind one of Europe’s most enduring supernatural beliefs.
    If you love strange history, medieval folklore, fairy myths, psychological history, and true stories where belief shaped deadly outcomes, this episode belongs in your queue.
    New episodes drop regularly. Follow The Strange History Podcast and keep moving through history’s most uncomfortable explanations.


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    🎧 The Strange History Podcast Love bizarre true stories, forgotten scandals, and history’s most unhinged moments?
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    Follow The Strange History Podcast wherever you listen and never miss an episode. 🔗 Listen & Subscribe:
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    New episodes regularly. History gets weird here.
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    20 mins
  • The Wild Hunt — When Medieval Europe Believed the Dead Rode the Sky

    The Wild Hunt — When Medieval Europe Believed the Dead Rode the Sky
    Feb 20 2026
    In this episode of The Strange History Podcast, host Amy explores the terrifying folklore of the Wild Hunt — a ghostly procession of dead riders believed to race across the winter sky during late February. Across England, Germany, Scandinavia, and France, February 20 was feared as a night when the boundary between the living and the dead weakened, and spectral hunters led by gods and spirits tore through the air with horns, hooves, and howling winds. Drawing from medieval folklore, regional legends, and historical accounts of strange winter storms, this episode reveals why people believed the Wild Hunt stole livestock, marked homes for misfortune, and carried away those unlucky enough to witness it. Blending dark humor, mythology, medieval belief, and eerie calendar traditions, this episode uncovers why February 20 was treated not as a celebration — but as a night to lock doors, shutter windows, and wait for morning. If you love strange history, ancient folklore, ghost stories, medieval myths, and dark seasonal legends rooted in real belief systems, this episode belongs in your queue. New episodes drop regularly. Follow The Strange History Podcast and keep moving through the calendar — one haunted date at a time.

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    🎧 The Strange History Podcast Love bizarre true stories, forgotten scandals, and history’s most unhinged moments?
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    New episodes regularly. History gets weird here.
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    6 mins
  • Florida’s Bizarre Laws Still on the Books: The Legal Chaos That Refuses to Die

    Florida’s Bizarre Laws Still on the Books: The Legal Chaos That Refuses to Die
    Feb 20 2026
    Florida has sunshine, beaches, alligators… and a law book that looks like it was written during a collective nervous breakdown. In this mega-episode of The Strange History Podcast, host Amy dives deep into the strangest Florida laws that are technically still on the books, from outdated morality statutes and hyper-specific crimes to regulations that only make sense if someone absolutely did that exact thing at least once. This episode explores the real historical incidents behind Florida’s most bizarre legislation, why many of these laws were never repealed, and how Florida became the state that documents chaos instead of denying it. If you love strange history, weird laws, dark humor, and the eternal mystery of “why is this illegal,” this episode proves that Florida didn’t invent insanity — it just filed it properly.

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    🎧 The Strange History Podcast Love bizarre true stories, forgotten scandals, and history’s most unhinged moments?
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    Follow The Strange History Podcast wherever you listen and never miss an episode. 🔗 Listen & Subscribe:
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    New episodes regularly. History gets weird here.
    Show More Show Less
    18 mins
  • The Golden Serpent of Benevento and the Saint Who Erased a God| The Strange History Podcast

    The Golden Serpent of Benevento and the Saint Who Erased a God| The Strange History Podcast
    Feb 19 2026
    In this episode of The Strange History Podcast, host Amy explores the bizarre and little-known story of a pagan serpent cult in Benevento, Italy, and the moment a Christian bishop allegedly destroyed a golden serpent idol that locals believed protected their city. Drawing from medieval church records, folklore, and historical accounts, this episode examines how myth, religion, and authority collided — and how victory stories are written by the side that survives.
    From sacred groves and whispered rituals to public idol destruction and sudden “miracles,” this episode reveals how pagan belief systems were erased, rewritten, and absorbed into Christian history, leaving behind fear, superstition, and centuries of witch lore.
    Blending dark humor, medieval history, folklore, and unsettling calendar coincidences, this episode asks whether February 19 marks the death of a myth — or simply the moment it was forced underground.
    If you love strange history, medieval myths, pagan cults, forgotten gods, religious conflict, and eerie folklore rooted in real places, this episode belongs in your queue.
    New episodes drop regularly. Follow The Strange History Podcast and keep moving through the calendar — one buried belief at a time.


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    🎧 The Strange History Podcast Love bizarre true stories, forgotten scandals, and history’s most unhinged moments?
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    Follow The Strange History Podcast wherever you listen and never miss an episode. 🔗 Listen & Subscribe:
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    New episodes regularly. History gets weird here.
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    6 mins
  • The Lead Masks Case (1966): Brazil’s Strangest Unsolved Deaths | Unsolved-ish A Strange History Podcast

    The Lead Masks Case (1966): Brazil’s Strangest Unsolved Deaths | Unsolved-ish A Strange History Podcast
    Feb 18 2026
    In 1966, two Brazilian electronics technicians were found dead on a remote hill near Rio de Janeiro — lying side by side, wearing crude lead masks, and carrying a notebook filled with cryptic instructions. There were no signs of violence.
    No clear cause of death.
    And no explanation that made sense. We dive deep into The Lead Masks Case, one of the most unsettling and overlooked mysteries in modern history. We explore who these men were, why they believed they were preparing for “contact,” and how Brazilian spiritualism, Cold War paranoia, early electronics culture, and ritual experimentation all collided in one inexplicable event. Was it a failed spiritual experiment?
    A misunderstood scientific ritual?
    Accidental poisoning?
    Or something that authorities couldn’t — or wouldn’t — investigate fully? This case wasn’t solved.
    It wasn’t proven a crime.
    It was quietly filed away. And that’s what makes it so disturbing. A strange history story involving unexplained deaths, cryptic notes, altered states, and a mystery that still has no ending — told with deep research, atmospheric storytelling, and the occasional darkly funny fake ad.

    Sister podcast to The Strange History Podcast

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    🎧 The Strange History Podcast Love bizarre true stories, forgotten scandals, and history’s most unhinged moments?
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    Follow The Strange History Podcast wherever you listen and never miss an episode. 🔗 Listen & Subscribe:
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    New episodes regularly. History gets weird here.
    Show More Show Less
    7 mins
  • When Medieval Europe Swore the Sky Was Full of Dragons| Feb 18th The Strange History Podcast

    When Medieval Europe Swore the Sky Was Full of Dragons| Feb 18th The Strange History Podcast
    Feb 18 2026
    In this episode of The Strange History Podcast, host Amy explores the forgotten medieval belief that dragons filled the winter skies. Drawing from monastic chronicles, folklore, and early historical records, this episode uncovers why late February — especially February 18 — was feared as a time when flying serpents, fiery worms, and winged beasts crossed the heavens as warnings of famine, plague, and catastrophe. From dragon sightings recorded in medieval manuscripts to folklore tales of flying worms crossing the moon, this episode reveals how myth and observation blended in a world where the sky was believed to communicate directly with humanity. Blending dark humor, medieval history, folklore, and eerie calendar coincidences, this episode asks why dragons were once treated not as fantasy — but as omens written in cloud and fire. If you love strange history, medieval myths, forgotten folklore, dragons, ancient sky legends, and unsettling historical beliefs, this episode belongs in your queue. New episodes drop regularly. Follow The Strange History Podcast and keep moving through the calendar — one myth the past took seriously at a time.

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    🎧 The Strange History Podcast Love bizarre true stories, forgotten scandals, and history’s most unhinged moments?
    Submit your ideas for The Strange History Podcast
    Follow The Strange History Podcast wherever you listen and never miss an episode. 🔗 Listen & Subscribe:
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    New episodes regularly. History gets weird here.
    Show More Show Less
    7 mins