A Popular History of Unpopular Things
A podcast that makes weird, gross, gory, and just generally “unpopular” history more fun and accessible
- Update frequency
- every 13 days
- Average duration
- 36 minutes
- Episodes
- 69
- Years Active
- 2022 - 2025
The Tragic Tale of Typhoid Mary
Join Kelli as she goes over the history surrounding Typhoid Mary. We'll go beyond the typhoid-laden peaches and fresh ice cream! When we take a step back and look at her whole story in context, we ge…
The Belgian Congo
Join Kelli as she goes over the Congo Free State, owned not by Belgium, but by its King - Leopold II.
During the 19th century in Africa, seven European countries - Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, I…
The 1381 English Peasant's Rebellion
Join Kelli as she goes over the history of the English Peasant's Rebellion, 1381.
The Black Death had severely impacted England - not just in high mortality rates, but also its ability to function wit…
The Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic
Join Kelli as she goes over the history behind the Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic, an event that started with three schoolgirls in late January 1962 and spread to nearby villages. It took roughly 18-24…
The Guatemala Syphilis Experiments
Join Kelli as she goes over another case where the US government experimented on humans - but this time, they purposefully infected Guatemalans with syphilis, taking what happened with the men of Tus…
The Stonehenge Mystery
Join Kelli as she goes over Stonehenge. We'll start with the basics - what stonehenge is, what it's made of, who might have built it, how they built it, what a henge even is... before talking about s…
The Scottish Cannibal, Sawney Bean
Join Kelli as she goes over a tale of a Scottish incestuous cannibal family - the Beans.
As legend goes, they lived in a cave in southwest Scotland, only venturing out to kill passersby and loot them…
The Holmesburg Prison Experiments
Join Kelli as she goes over yet another example of US doctors experimenting on their own people.
Starting in the 1950s, dermatology Dr. Albert Kligman came to the Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia and…
The Christmas Massacre at Abergavenny
Happy holidays, APHOUT fans! Join Kelli as she goes over a Welsh Christmas Day Massacre! In 1175, William de Braose committed a massacre against some rival families in Gwent, southeast Wales.
De Braos…
The Ball of the Burning Men
Join Kelli as she goes over the Ball of the Burning Men, an event during King Charles VI's reign in France where 6 men - charivari dancers dressed as wild men in very flammable costumes - caught fire…
The Wicker Man
Join Kelli as she goes over the history of the Wicker Man!
The Wicker Man was popularized first by the Christopher Lee movie from 1973, and later with Nicholas Cage's remake. The first was folk horror…
The Jersey Devil
Join Kelli as she goes over New Jersey's most famous cryptozoological son - the Jersey Devil. Though the Jersey Devil was the devil-born son of the Leeds Family, not much is known about it; it lives …
The Headless Horseman
Join Kelli as she goes over the mythology of the Headless Horseman. Most of us associate the headless horseman with Washington Irving's book, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. But the idea of a ghostly ri…
The Pendle Witches
Join Kelli as she goes over the Pendle Witch Trial of 1612, England's most infamous trial. 12 people from the Pendle Hill Area in Lancashire were accused of witchcraft in James I's England, a monarch…
The Original Dracula, Vlad the Impaler
Join Kelli as she goes over the ORIGINAL Dracula- Vlad Dracula, the Impaler. Although the fictional character is only loosely based on Vlad, the two are inextricably linked forever because of Bram St…
The Delphine LaLaurie Murder Mansion
Join Kelli as she goes over the legend of Madame Delphine LaLaurie, a torturess from New Orleans who tortured, mutilated, and killed at least 20 slaves at her mansion on 1140 Royal Street.
But like w…
The Mignonette Shipwreck
Join Kelli as she goes over ANOTHER shipwreck that ended in cannibalism - that of the Mignonette, a sailing yacht that went down in the South Atlantic. But the Mignonette wasn't really seaworthy, and…
The Spanish Inquisition
Join Kelli as she goes over the history behind the Spanish Inquisition. How and why did Spain hunt down heretics to purge the country of non-Catholics?
And there will be a LOT of medieval torture dev…
The Great Plague and Great Fire of London
Join Kelli as she goes over the Great Plague of London, 1665-1666, which ended in part thanks to the Great Fire of London, 1666.
These are two big events that killed off a good chunk of London's popul…
The Black Death
Join Kelli for her fiftieth episode where she explores her favorite topic - The Black Death!
It's an all-out disease fest, where she goes over the symptoms of plague, how it spread, who it impacted, w…