Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast

Story: Why does the President, and only the President, require natural born citizenship in the Constitution? If you think you know why, you're likely only half-correct. It has a lot to do with the wa…

Flying was luxurious (and costly) before 1977. Then deregulation happened. Now flying is cheap and bad. Pioneering low-cost / no-frills airlines like People Express showed us the way.

In its short li…

A 90,000-seat stadium is built to host a single event, then torn down. And it was in, of all places, Toledo, Ohio.

In 1919 boxing was the king of the sports and entertainment world, and a match betwe…

Story: Today's new cars are crammed full of tech to compensate for unusually poor rear and blind spot visibility. They've also gotten much heavier since 2000 - and more dangerous to for pedestrians. …

After World War I, German utopian pacifist architect Herman Sörgel proposed a scheme to keep European nations busy (and not fighting wars!) for 100 years by damming the Strait of Gibraltar, the Darda…

Two police forces. Two sets of laws. Two postal systems. Two kinds of money. For 74 years the UK and France governed the island colony of the New Hebrides (since 1980, the independent nation of Vanua…

In a life-or-death situation, would you engage in cannibalism? What do people even taste like?

In 1931, journalist and author William Seabrook wrote a book in which he answers that question for you..…

Story: Diamond Jim Brady's Million Dollar Sauce. Famous gourmand and eccentric rich person of the Gilded Age goes to ludicrous lengths to steal the recipe for what is purported to be the world's most…

If you've ever wondered, "Is it possible to guarantee winning the lottery by buying one ticket for every possible combination of numbers?" this is the Minicast for you.

Does it work? Is it legal? Is …

Guest: Dr. Daniel Immerwahr, associate professor of history at Northwestern University and author of the new "How to Hide an Empire: the history of the greater United States." We talk about the many …

Fish are served as fish. Chickens as chicken. Turkeys as turkey. But when it comes to other commonly consumed animals in the English-speaking world we use different words for the animal and the food.…

A young Long Island housewife named Penelope Ashe saw her debut novel, Naked Came the Stranger, go straight to the best-seller list despite the mystery surrounding its reclusive author, its racy cont…

Guest: Dr. Rebekah Tromble (Leiden University), professor of political communication, led a team chosen by Twitter to conduct research on overall "health" of conversation on the platform. As soon as …

Story: Andrew Johnson gets incredibly drunk at his inauguration and makes a scene you'll have to hear about to believe. He calls out every member of the Cabinet by name (Wu-Tang style), makes up his …

Ms. Julia Chase, 53, of Hagerstown, MD took the White House public tour on April 3, 1956. She wandered away from her group and spent two hours creeping around the Executive Manson...starting fires. F…

Story: Shakespeare Comes to America - How was a minor American industrialist, Henry Clay Folger, able to buy up so much of Shakespeare that more of Ol' William's written output is now in Washington D…

During the Cold War, the Pentagon tried to come up with a non-military use for nuclear warheads to justify building even more of them. Project Plowshare was one of the results. Because detonating nuk…

Question Cathy joins me for an entire episode of user submitted questions about the midterm election. Topics we cover include Beto-mania, the Democrats' challenge in retaking the Senate, alternativ…

Story: Ten Cent Beer Night - In 1974 the Cleveland Indians turned to the forbidden fruit of promo giveaways to cure their ailing attendance. Results are predictable, except the part where a guy was n…

Story: The Disappearing Prime Minister - Australia is a crazy place. It's huge, empty, and full of things that can kill you. And every once in a while one of their Prime Ministers will disappear with…