Everything Is Awful Forever

When you decide to go on a road trip do you prioritise transportation, supplies, and company? If so, you're three steps ahead of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, an almost university drop-out on a dangerous ex…

This Wednesday, we're taking a break to explore the steamy realm of Victorian literature. Just what did the Queen's subjects find sultry enough to risk hairy palms and imminent death by consumption?

J…

Too taboo to even refer to the act outright, the Victorians wrote reams on the solitary vice, using whatever euphemisms they had to hand. This week, Jess and Philippa exercise similar tact and sensit…

Running with our theme of people who noped out of society: how does a colony of pilgrims just vanish off the face of the earth? Murder. Probably murder. This week, Jess and Philippa talk about the Ro…

Have you ever looked at something and known that you could have done better? Like: a well-known television series. Or a cake. Or society. This week, Jess and Philippa talk about some eccentric indivi…

This week, we wanted to try something a little different. Over the past couple of months, we've been asking our listeners for some awful stories from your lives and cultures. Death rituals and celebr…

A fire. A string of mysterious coincidences. Five missing children. This week, Jess and Philippa look at an unsolved case of disappearance of five members of the Sodder family.

Music:
"Never Can Stop …

Jess and Philippa return to the medieval dancing epidemic that terrified Strasbourg in 1518. Having established what took place, they now look at a possible explanation for this baffling phenomenon.

S…

Are you ever seized with an unstoppable urge to dance? Are you friends routinely embarrassed by you cutting a jig day and night, waltzing your feet to the bone? If your answer was yes, then you need …

Leapfrogging over bowing dignitaries is one thing, but if you've ever wanted to release leopards amongst your dinner guests or rename everything according to its relation to you, then Roman emperors …

Have you ever thought that centuries of keeping kingship within a very, very tiny gene pool may have resulted in history's royal families being a little bit...off? Meet Charles the Mad who thought th…

This Wednesday, we continue our hysterical journey, deep into the minds of the doctors as they searched frantically for a cure to the bizarre symptoms displayed by their patients. If labial leeches a…

Have you got a case of the Monday Blues? Perhaps you didn't get enough sleep last night. Or you need another cup of coffee and a soothing podcast to settle your nerves.

That, or your womb might be cra…

"No beauty without pain" said the mother to her daughter as she tugged at the knots in her hair; said the elder as she bound her daughter's feet; said the wealthy elite as they tottered around on twe…

Ready for an exclusive club event with a little blasphemy, some sexy nuns, and a baboon dressed up as Satan? Well, here's your ticket to an episode on the hell-fire clubs, which gained in popularity …

Content warning: animal abuse, murder (including infants), and sexual assault. Take care of yourself, and listen at your own discretion.

What do you do when your loved ones, pets, and household items …

Meet Mary Mallon: the first asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever, believed to have infected 51 people during her career as a household cook. Meet George Soper: the sanitation engineer who wasn't goi…

The Witchfinder General is back, and touring Suffolk in search of vulnerable women to accuse of witchcraft. This week, Jess and Philippa finish Matthew Hopkins' grim story, discussing the greatest wi…

It's time to get familiar with the subject of witchcraft. Who were those adorable imps that hung around suspected magic-users in the medieval period? How did one actually catch a witch? Were witches …

Is a seven day week just not enough? Do you have a list of chores as long as a very long arm? Have you considered children? This week, Philippa and Jess take another look at how the Victorians exploi…