The Constant: A History of Getting Things Wrong
A podcast about exactly what it says it is: examining the bad ideas, mistakes and accidents that misshaped our world.
- Update frequency
- every 13 days
- Average duration
- 51 minutes
- Episodes
- 216
- Years Active
- 2017 - 2025
The Forty Six Dollar Man
While shooting an episode in a Carnival Funhouse, the production team of The Six Million Dollar Man made a gruesome discovery: a mummified human corpse, painted neon red and mistakenly hung from a no…
00:46:16 |
Tue 27 Aug 2019
Madagascar
This is the story of an island, and the worst thing to never happen there. Find our Patreon here (https://patreon.com/theconstant). Get 10% off your first month of online counseling by visiting http:…
00:44:18 |
Tue 13 Aug 2019
The Golden Episode
It's our fiftieth episode! Our golden anniversary! You know what we got you? The Lost City of Gold: El Dorado. We know, we shouldn't have. Seriously, we really shouldn't have. Find our Patreon here (…
00:41:55 |
Tue 30 Jul 2019
The Right Stuff, The Wrong Way
We've got a lot to celebrate this week! Not only have we joined Hub & Spoke Audio Collective (https://www.hubspokeaudio.org/), but it's also a Constant Holiday. The Saint Day of Douglas Corrigan, who…
00:37:49 |
Tue 16 Jul 2019
For That Healthy Glow
In the early 1900s, people finally figured out what made water so healthy: radiation! This week we’re looking at some of the hundreds of terrifying products meant to give you that healthy glow, and t…
00:50:42 |
Tue 02 Jul 2019
Seeing is Believing
1903 was a year of boundless possibilities: the airplane, open heart surgery, Ford Motor Company, and--most importantly--n-rays. This new form of radiation could be gathered from The Sun and stored i…
00:37:13 |
Tue 18 Jun 2019
Shocking
This is the story of the greatest jailbreak ever attempted. Well, maybe not "greatest", but certainly "weirdest." It's also, somehow, the story of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. And one of science's gr…
01:24:16 |
Tue 04 Jun 2019
Endlings
Martha died alone, becoming the first named member of an exclusive and terrible club: The Endlings. This episode we're tracking the history of the passenger pigeon, a bird that once darkened American…
00:24:13 |
Tue 21 May 2019
The Gentle Hammer
Believing he was Jesus Christ, Laszlo Toth entered St. Peter's Basilica on May 21st, 1972 and took a hammer to Michelangelo's Pieta. What happened next would make the world wonder what separates a wo…
00:34:55 |
Tue 07 May 2019
Snap, Crackle, Boom!
The Apocalypse fails to appear. A doctor goes to disturbing lengths to end masturbation. A millionaire spends his fortune dynamiting the sky. Breakfast is changed forever. The Constant is back. Check…
00:39:51 |
Tue 23 Apr 2019
Is There Life on Mars?
Take a look at those star men, gazing at the night sky. Oh man, wonder if they'll ever know? on October 30th, 1938, Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre on The Air unleashed the most infamous media p…
01:02:59 |
Tue 05 Mar 2019
Broadcasting The Barricades
This is the story of the first radio hoax. No, not that one. On January 16th, 1926, a Catholic priest took the mic at BBC Radio and threw all of England into panic with... a joke. Unfortunately, the …
00:33:23 |
Tue 26 Feb 2019
What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Ship and Understanding?
War! Good God, y'all. What is it good for? According to Henry Ford: Absolutely nothing. So in 1915 he launched a ship, bound for Europe, with a simple if outlandish mission: to end World War I. On th…
01:02:07 |
Tue 19 Feb 2019
Let's Kill Mike
How do you survive in 1932, when The Great Depression is at its peak and prohibition is in full force? How about a little insurance fraud? It's easy: all you need is an undertaker willing to fake a c…
00:27:14 |
Tue 12 Feb 2019
GulliBottle
In January of 1749, a London advertisement promised an impossible show at The Haymarket Theatre: a full-grown man would jump into a wine bottle and, from within it, sing. You won't be surprised to fi…
00:16:01 |
Tue 05 Feb 2019
The Idea that Broke America
Mesmerism didn't stop with Mesmer. This week, we pick up where we left off, tracing the idea of animal magnetism to America, where it went through some... changes. Get ready for a whirlwind tour of A…
01:02:40 |
Tue 29 Jan 2019
Mesmerizing
What is this? Are you some kind of hypnotist? We're doing a deep dive into one of the single most fascinating mistaken ideas and the fascinating man who thought it up. This story has got it all: demo…
01:00:58 |
Tue 22 Jan 2019
A Sticky Situation
Happy 100th birthday to one of the strangest disasters in American history: Boston's Great Molasses Flood. For our season 5 premiere, we're looking at the weird and deadly 35 foot tall wall of syrup …
00:21:31 |
Tue 15 Jan 2019
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00:02:51 |
Tue 08 Jan 2019
It's Wonderful
On today's holiday special we're looking at a Christmas classic: It's a Wonderful Life. A movie that was almost never made, that was almost forever forgotten, and that almost missed its chance to cha…
00:24:55 |
Mon 24 Dec 2018
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