This 2017 episode covers Theodosia Burr Alston, Aaron Burr's incredibly smart and well educated daughter. She vanished without a trace as an adult, and her ultimate fate is still a matter of debate.

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Tracy and Holly share experiences of having their hearts monitored using EKG technology. They also talk about whether or not Albert Bierstadt had any natural talent. 

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The Blue Ridge Parkway is the longest roadway in the U.S. that was planned as a single unit. Its origin is connected to government efforts to provide relief from the Great Depression, and conservation of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  

Research:

• "Restoring Western North Carolina's Infrastructure: NCDOT Receives $250 Million in Federal Emergency Relief Funds." National Law Review, 21 Feb. 2025. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A828346450/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=b22cedc8. Accessed 12 May 2025.
• "The Blue Ridge Parkway." NCpedia. Accessed on May 14th, 2025. https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/blue-ridge-parkway.
• “Report In Full of Secretary Work’s Appalachian National Park Committee. “National Parks and Conservation Magazine.” 1924-11-25: Iss 42. https://archive.org/details/sim_national-parks_1924-11-25_42/page/n5/
• Averill, Graham. “The Blue Ridge Parkway: A Monumental Drive.” Our State. 9/27/2021. https://www.ourstate.com/the-blue-ridge-parkway-a-monumental-drive/
• Buxton, Barry. “Blue Ridge Parkway: Agent of Transition.” Proceedings of the Blue Ridge Parkway Golden Anniversary Conference. Appalachian Consortium Press/Boone, North Carolina. 1986.
• Coutant, Linda. “Helene Recovery, 7 Months After the Storm.” National Parks Conservation Association. 4/26/2025. https://www.npca.org/articles/8198-helene-recovery-7-months-after-the-storm
• Coutant, Linda. “Helene: Facing Loss and the Blue Ridge Parkway’s ‘Most Tremendous Challenge’.” National Parks Conservation Association. https://www.npca.org/articles/5459-helene-facing-loss-and-the-blue-ridge-parkway-s-most-tremendous-challenge
• “Driving Through Time: The Digital Blue Ridge Parkway.” https://docsouth.unc.edu/blueridgeparkway/
• Jolley, Harley E., “Blue Ridge Parkway: The First 50 Years,” Appalachian State University Libraries Digital Collections, accessed May 14, 2025, https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/items/show/43667.
• Landis, Mark. “This 5,600-mile highway route was created to see 12 national parks in the West.” The Sun. 6/13/2022. https://www.sbsun.com/2022/06/13/this-5600-mile-highway-route-was-created-to-see-12-national-parks-in-the-west/
• Mitchell, Anne V. “Culture, History, and Development on the Qualla Boundary: The Eastern Cherokees and the Blue Ridge Parkway, 1935-40.” Appalachian Journal , WINTER 1997, Vol. 24, No. 2. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40933835
• National Park Service. “Blue Ridge Parkway: Virginia and North Carolina.” From Highways in Harmony online books exhibit. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/hih/blue_ridge/index.htm
• Roberts, Brett G. “Returning the Land: Native Americans and National Parks.” Ave Maria Law Review 148 (Spring, 2023). https://www.avemarialaw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/v21.Roberts.final38.pdf
• Speer, Jean Haskell. “’Hillbilly Sold Here’: Appalachian Folk Culture and Parkway Tourism.” From Parkways: Past, Present and Future. International Linear Parks Conference. Appalachian State University. (1987). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1xp3kv8.33
• S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration. “America's Highways 1776-1976.” U.S. Government Printing Office. https://archive.org/details/AmericasHighways1776-1976
• Whisnant, Anne Mitchel. “Routing the Parkway, 1934.” Driving Through Time. DocSouth. https://docsouth.unc.edu/blueridgeparkway/overlooks/competing_routes/#footnote9
• Whisnant, Anne Mitchell. “A Capsule History of the Blue Ridge Parkway.” Appalachian Voice. 10/11/2017. https://appvoices.org/2017/10/11/a-capsule-history-of-the-blue-ridge-parkway/
• Whisnant, Anne Mitchell. “Super-Scenic Motorway: A Blue Ridge Parkway History.” University of North Carolina Press. 2006.
• Zeller, Thomas. “Consuming Landscapes: What We See When We Drive and Why It Matters.” Johns Hopkins University Press. 2022. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/book.103002

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This 2019 episode covers F.W. Murnau, most well known for directing the first vampire film. But the German-born creator went on to make a number of influential films before his early death.

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The Women’s War was a response to British colonialism in Nigeria. British authorities described the group as a “hostile mob” because they didn’t recognize that the so-called mob was largely a long-established method for Igbo women to hold men accountable.

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The story of the ridiculously wealthy Croesus, which was fictionalized in a number of ways, becomes a cautionary tale about pride and hubris, and what really has value in life. 

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This 2018 episode is running in honor of Labor Day in the U.S. Memphis sanitation workers stayed off the job starting January 12, 1968 in a strike that lasted for nine weeks. This was the strike that brought Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis, Tennessee, where he was assassinated on April 4 of that year.

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Tracy and Holly discuss trying to stay organized, the relevance of the Delano grape strike today, and how Joshua Slocum's story makes us think about our travel yearnings, and the tricky part of his story.

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Joshua Slocum was the first person known to sail around the world alone. Unlike lighthouse keeper Ida Lewis, he didn’t always enjoy that solitude – and unlike cyclist Annie Londonderry, he actually made the journey he became famous for. 

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The Delano Grape Strike, which led to an international boycott of table grapes as grape workers in California tried to get better pay, working conditions, and union contracts covering their work. 

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This 2018 episode covers Elbridge Gerry, who signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. Gerrymandering is the drawing of political districts to give a particular party or group an advantage or disadvantage, and it's named after him.

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Holly and Tracy talk about how this week's topic shifted from its original plan. They also discuss how slavery in the U.S. capital has been handled in media.

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On the second part of the discussion of White House history, Holly and Tracy first cover the gardens and landscaping, and then dig into discussion of how slavery is a part of the very foundation of the building.

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Today’s White House has 132 rooms and 35 bathrooms. But that hasn’t always been the case. It also was not always called the White House, of course, and it has a LOT of history. 

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Tracy and Holly discuss the seasonal nature of pumpkin spice, and medicinal uses of nutmeg. They then talk about artificial versus real Christmas trees.

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This 2016 episode covers a time in the the 20th century when the U.S. and Mexico had agreements in place allowing, and even encouraging, Mexican nationals to enter the U.S. to perform agricultural work and other labor in the American Southwest.

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Tracy and Holly talk about their personal thoughts on Symmes's hollow Earth theory, and then talk about their experiences with canning and winning prizes at state fairs.

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Canning dramatically changed how people around the world have dealt with food. Early canning efforts were kind of stabs in the dark, though – we hadn’t figured out the microbiology component yet.

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In 1818, something about the rings of Saturn - we don't know what, exactly - led John Cleves Symmes to conclude that the Earth was hollow. And he spent the rest of his life promoting this strange idea.

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This 2013 episode covers Johann Beringer, the University of Wurzburg's chair of natural history and chief physician to the prince bishop in 1725. He was also unpopular, and some of his colleagues sought to discredit him. There are two versions of the story -- but which is true?

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Tracy and Holly talk about the use and misuse of tear gas, and then a theory that links L. Frank Baum's work "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" to Coxey's Army.

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Jacob Sechler Coxey led the first protest march on Washington, D.C. in the 1890s, with a plan to create jobs for the nation's unemployed population with projects that would build the country's infrastructure.

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Tear gasses, or lachrymator agents, are named for the lachrymal glands, which secrete tears. But tears are just one part of it. It was developed for WWI, but of course continues to be used today.

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This 2011 episode from previous hosts Sarah and Deblina examines Fritz Haber's mixed legacy. The Nobel-Prize-winning Father of Chemical Warfare was responsible for fertilizers that fed billions, as well as poisonous gasses used during World War I. Tune in to learn more about Fritz's complicated life and work.

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Holly and Tracy discuss the complexities of Isabella Bird's story, as well as the similarities between the pneumonic plague in Wu Lien-Teh's story and what we're living through in 2020.

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This episode looks at the early days of Christmas trees, the origin of glass ornaments, and the practice of mounting lit candles on trees before electric bulbs were invented. 

Research:

·     “36 Perish as Party Guests Stampede to Flee Flames.” The Minneapolis Star. Dec 25, 1924. https://www.newspapers.com/image/178762039/ 

·     “Accident From a Christmas Tree.” The Morning Post. Jan 11, 1850. https://www.newspapers.com/image/402121758/?match=1&terms=%22christmas%20tree%22%20Victoria

·     Barnes, Allison. “The First Christmas Tree. History Today. December 12, 2006. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/first-christmas-tree

·     Brittain, J. E.  "John R. Crouse and the Society for Electrical Development [Scanning the Past]." Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 86, no. 12, pp. 2475-2477, Dec. 1998. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/735455

·     Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Woolworth Co.." Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Nov. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/money/Woolworth-Co

·     “A Christmas tree candle set fire … “ The Jersey City News. Jan. 9, 1892. https://www.newspapers.com/image/856106974/?match=1&terms=christmas%20tree%20candles%20fire

·     Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, and Ernest Hartley Coleridge, ed. “LETTERS OF
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.” London. William Heinemann. 1895. Accessed online: https://gutenberg.org/files/44553/44553-h/44553-h.htm

·     Flander, Judith. “Christmas: A Biography.” Thomas Dunne Books. 2017.

·     Foyle, Jonathan. “The Business of Baubles – and the Town That Invented Them.” Financial Times. Dec. 19, 2014. https://www.ft.com/content/ce33a468-812a-11e4-b956-00144feabdc0

·     “Glass Christmas Ornaments.” The German Way. https://www.german-way.com/history-and-culture/holidays-and-celebrations/christmas/glass-christmas-ornaments/

·     Loud, Nicholas. “The History of Christmas Decorations in America.” Saturday Evening Post. December 2020. https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2020/12/the-history-of-christmas-decorations-in-america/

·     Lorch, Mark. “The Forgotten Scientist Who Made Modern Christmas Ornaments Possible.” Fast Company. Dec. 21, 2021. https://www.fastcompany.com/90707875/the-forgotten-scientist-who-made-modern-christmas-ornaments-possible

·     Malanowski, Jamie. “Untangling the History of Christmas Lights.” Smithsonian. December 2016. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/untangling-history-christmas-lights-180961140/

·     “No Christmas Tree Fires Are Reported Here.” Alton Evening Telegraph. Dec. 28. 1921. https://www.newspapers.com/image/19919324/?match=1&terms=christmas%20tree%20candles%20fire

·     “A few years ago the caution …” Daily Plainsman. Dec. 12, 1929. https://www.newspapers.com/image/23432095/?match=1&terms=christmas%20tree%20candles%20fire

·     “Christmas Tree Candles – Fire.” The Courier-Journal of Louisville. Jan. 05, 1909. https://www.newspapers.com/image/119330231/?match=1&terms=christmas%20tree%20candles%20fire

·     “The Christmas Tree at Windsor Castle.” The Morning Post. Dec. 28, 1848. https://www.newspapers.com/image/402196932/?match=1&terms=%22christmas%20tree%22%20Victoria

·     “Feiker Takes Commerce Post.” New York Times. July 2, 1931. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1931/07/02/113339929.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0

·     “German Hospital, Dalston.” The Morning Post. Jan. 1, 1848. https://www.newspapers.com/image/402129709/?match=1&terms=%22christmas%20tree%22%20Victoria

·     Prior, Dr. M. Faye. “Trimming the Tree – Glass and metal Christmas tree decorations.” York Museum Trust. https://www.yorkmuseumstrust.org.uk/blog/trimming-the-tree-glass-and-metal-christmas-tree-decorations/

·     Roberts, Sam. “Si Spiegel, War Hero Who Modernized Christmas Trees, Dies at 99.” New York Times. Feb. 11, 2024.

·     Scinto, Madeleine. “Americans Are Spending A Whopping $6 Billion On Christmas Decorations This Year.” Business Insider. Dec. 7, 2011. https://www.businessinsider.com/americans-are-spending-a-record-6-billion-on-christmas-decorations-2011-12

·     Shapiro, Laurie Gwen. “He Bombed the Nazis, Outwitted the Soviets and Modernized Christmas.” New York Times. Dec. 17, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/17/nyregion/bomber-pilot-christmas-trees.html

·     Tikkanen, Amy. "How Did the Tradition of Christmas Trees Start? ". Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Dec. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/story/how-did-the-tradition-of-christmas-trees-start

·     Waxman, Olivia B. “How Christmas Trees Became a Holiday Tradition.” TIME. Dec. 21, 2020. https://time.com/5736523/history-of-christmas-trees/

·     Waxman, Olivia B. “The Electricity Lobby Was Behind the First National Christmas Tree Lighting.” TIME. Dec. 1, 2016. https://time.com/4580764/national-christmas-tree-lighting-history-origins/

·     Waxman, Olivia B. “This Was the First Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.” TIME. Nov. 30, 2016. https://time.com/4578685/first-rockefeller-center-christmas-tree-lighting/

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Wu Lien-Teh was a doctor who’s most well known for his public health work and the pneumonic plague epidemic in the early 20th century.

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Bird is celebrated as a world traveler, though she didn’t really come into her own as a traveler until she was in her 40s. Her books about her journeys were wildly popular. There are also some pretty big questions about the persona she presented publicly.

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The second episode in our revisit of the Irish Famine covers the mid-1800s, when the poorest people in Ireland ate almost nothing but potatoes, saving other crops for selling. So a blight, plus politics, led to tragedy.

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Holly and Tracy discuss the week's topics, including their own experiences with Central Park, and a segment of the summer edition of Unearthed! that Tracy cut.

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This edition of Unearthed! covers episode updates, science and history discoveries, books and letters, and potpourri. And yes, there's (brief) talk about the Verona, Italy floor mosaics.

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Seneca Village was a predominantly black community that built itself from the ground up. But its story is fragmented. Even though it existed at a time when it could have been fairly well-documented, there was a vested interest in erasing it.

Holly's Research:

• “Seneca Village, New York City.” National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/seneca-village-new-york-city.htm
• Alexander, Leslie M. “African or American?” University of Illinois Press. 2008.
• Wall, Diana diZerega, et al. “Seneca Village and Little Africa: Two African American Communities in Antebellum New York City.” Historical Archaeology, vol. 42, no. 1, 2008, pp. 97–107. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25617485.
• “Discover Seneca Village: Selected Research Topics and Resources.” Central Park Conservancy. October 2019. https://d17wymyl890hh0.cloudfront.net/new_images/feature_facilities/SenecaVillage_SelectedResearchTopicsandResources_2020_v4.pdf?mtime=20200219091534
• Capron, Maddie and Christina Zdanowicz. “A black community was displaced to build Central Park. Now a monument will honor them.” CNN Oct. 22, 2019. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/seneca-village-central-park-monument-trnd/index.html
• “The Sale of Manhattan.” The Atlantic World: America and the Netherlands. Library of Congress and the National Library of the Netherlands. http://frontiers.loc.gov/intldl/awkbhtml/kb-1/kb-1-2-1.html
• The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Manhattan.” Encyclopædia Britannica. November 23, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/place/Manhattan-New-York-City
• Connoly, Colleen. “The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland.” Smithsonian. Oct. 5, 2018. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-native-new-yorkers-can-never-truly-reclaim-their-homeland-180970472/
• Cleland, Charles and Bruce R. Greene. “Faith in Paper.” University of Michigan Press. 2011.
• Rosenzweig, Roy and Elizabeth Blackmar. “The Park and the People: A History of Central Park.” Cornell University Press. 1992.
• Blakinger, Keri. “A look at Seneca Village, the black town razed for Central Park.” New York Daily News. May 17, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160518101320/https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/seneca-village-black-town-razed-central-park-article-1.2639611
• Martin, Douglas. “A Village Dies, A Park Is Born.” New York Times. Jan. 31, 1997. https://web.archive.org/web/20160320031313/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/31/arts/a-village-dies-a-park-is-born.html?pagewanted=all
• Arenson, Karen W. “A Technological Dig; Scientists Seek Signs of Central Park Past.” New York Times. July 27, 2000. https://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/27/nyregion/a-technological-dig-scientists-seek-signs-of-central-park-past.html
• Staples, Brent. “The Death of Black Utopia.” New York Times. Nov. 28, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/28/opinion/seneca-central-park-nyc.html
• Kang, Tricia. “160 Years of Central Park: A Brief History.” Central Park Conservancy. June 1, 2017. https://www.centralparknyc.org/blog/central-park-history
• Wall, Diane diZerega and Nan A. Rothschild. “The Seneca Village Archaeological Excavations, Summer 2011.” The African Diaspora Archaeology Network. September 2011 Newsletter. http://www.diaspora.illinois.edu/news0911/news0911-4.pdf
• Central Park Conservancy. “Discover Seneca Village: Selected Research Topics ad Resources.” October 2019. https://d17wymyl890hh0.cloudfront.net/new_images/feature_facilities/SenecaVillage_SelectedResearchTopicsandResources_2020_v4.pdf?mtime=20200219091534
• Wall, Diane diZerega, et al. “SENECA VILLAGE, A FORGOTTEN COMMUNITY: REPORT ON THE 2011 EXCAVATIONS.” 2018. http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/arch_reports/1828.pdf
• Seneca Village Project. http://projects.mcah.columbia.edu/seneca_village/index.html

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We're revisiting a 2013 two-parter. The history lesson kids often get on the Irish Famine could be summed up as "a blight destroyed the potato crops, and a lot of people starved or moved away." Most kids ask, "Why didn't they eat something else?" Good question.

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Tracy and Holly talk about this week's two-parter on COINTELPRO, and how they both think about those initiatives.

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In part two of this topic, the show looks at some of the specifics of the COINTELPROs that targeted black liberation organizations and the New Left, as well as how these programs were finally exposed to the public. 

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FBI surveillance of people associated with the civil rights movement has come up on the show many times. Today, we’re going to talk about the history of the FBI, especially as it related to communism and “subversive threats,” and how that fed directly into COINTELPRO.

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Nutmeg is native to the Banda Islands in Indonesia. Once Europeans discovered nutmeg, they had an enormous - often violent - impact on the islands it was growing on.

Research:

• Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "nutmeg". Encyclopedia Britannica, 25 Oct. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/nutmeg. Accessed 22 November 2024.
• Esarey, Logan. “The Literary Spirit Among the Early Ohio Valley Settlers.” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, vol. 5, no. 2, 1918, pp. 143–57. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1886120. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.
• Ghosh, Amitav. “The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis.” University of Chicago Press. 2021.
• Godinez, Andrea. “3,500-year-old pumpkin spice? Archaeologists find the earliest use of nutmeg as a food.” University of Washington. Via EurekAlert. 10/3/2018. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/578241
• Haliburton, Thomas Chandler. “The Clockmaker; or the Sayings and Doings of Sam Slick, of Slickville, to which is added, The Bubbles of Canada by the Same Author.” Paris, 1839.  https://books.google.com/books?id=jtssAAAAYAAJ
• Hill, Daniel Harvey. “Elements of Algebra.” J.B. Lippincott & Co. Philadelphia. 1857. https://books.google.com/books?id=5JoKAAAAYAAJ
• Intermediate Technology Development Group. “Processing of Nutmeg and Mace.” https://archive.org/details/production_nutmeg_mace/
• Keyser, Hannah. “Why is Connecticut Called the “Nutmeg State”?.” Mental Floss. 9/26/2023. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/55245/why-connecticut-called-nutmeg-state
• Lohman, Sarah. “Why Early America Was Obsessed With Wooden Nutmegs.” Mental Floss. 4/24/2017. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/94734/why-early-america-was-obsessed-wooden-nutmegs
• Rampe, Amelia. “Everything You Need to Know About Nutmeg.” Food and Wine. 12/28/2022. https://www.foodandwine.com/nutmeg-what-it-is-and-how-to-use-it-7089902
• Sasikumar*, B. “Nutmeg - Origin, diversity, distribution and history.” Journal of Spices and Aromatic Crops. Vol. 30, No. 2. 2021.
• Spence, Charles. “Nutmeg and mace: The sweet and savoury spices.” International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science. Vol. 36, 2004.
• The North American Review, vol. 15, no. 37, 1822, pp. 340–47. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25109151. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.
• Weil, Andrew T. “The use of nutmeg as a psychotropic agent.” United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime. https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bulletin_1966-01-01_4_page003.html
• Winn, Philip. “Slavery and cultural creativity in the Banda Islands.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , October 2010, Vol. 41, No. 3. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20778894

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This 2017 episode covered the Scopes Trial, aka the Monkey Trial, that played out in Dayton, Tennessee in the summer of 1925. It all stemmed from a state law prohibiting the teaching of evolution.

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Tracy shares how she landed at the topic of Ignatius Sancho, and she and Holly discuss his writing style. Free Frank's unique story, and how it involves some contradictory situations, is also discussed.

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Free Frank McWorter was the first black man in the U.S. to design a town and establish a multi-racial community. He did this despite having been born into slavery.

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Ignatius Sancho was the first black Briton known to vote in a parliamentary election – that happened in 1774. He became something of a celebrity in 18th-century London.

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This episode travels back to a 2018 episode. Perceptions and interpretations of Phillis Wheatley's life and work have shifted since the 18th century.

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Holly and Tracy talk about the soothing nature of bonsai as well as the places in popular culture it pops up. They also unpack the complex nature of talking about Flexner's legacy.

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The Flexner Report in the early 20th century is often credited with changing the medical field and shaping what medical education looks like today. But this document negatively impacted medicine in the black community. 

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Bonsai’s origins go all the way back to ancient China, long before Japan became infatuated with the art form. Over time, the western world also became fascinated with bonsai, though there has been plenty of cultural confusion about it along the way. This episode is sponsored by Mazda.

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The second of our 2016 episodes on Robert Smalls. After his daring and impressive escape from slavery, Smalls was considered to be contraband, which was a term used for formerly enslaved people who joined the Union. But this was the beginning of an impressive career as a free man.

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Holly and Tracy share stories about touring, and the long period of time Tracy has been planning to work on the falsehood of Irish slavery.

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This 2020 episode covers the iconic figure of mysticism, Madame Blavatsky. She was the founder of the theosophical movement, and lived a life of adventure that's hard to believe.

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This whole idea of Irish slaves distorts some things that really did happen. So today we’re going to talk about that history, and how it’s being twisted and misused today. 

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Since the podcast isn't going on tour this year due to the pandemic, we thought it would be fun to have an episode that's something we normally do as part of a live show -- listener questions.

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