A Lost Colony from a Lost Episode
John Miller
In newly unearthed audio from Oct. 2015 about then-newly unearthed archaeological evidence, Robo-Ed, Robo-Tim, and regular John discuss the lost Colony of Roanoke.
The Bar Stool Historian Podcast
Vikings, Irishmen, and Tiger Kings (Oh, my.)
John Miller
2 episodes in one week? Yes — that’s the kind of BSH productivity you can only get during a Global Pandemic. In this episode, John, Ed, and Tim give recommendations for what to watch and what to read while you're in Corona lockdown. Find us and sponsor us at barstoolhistorian.com.
WHAT WE’RE READING
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
Yesterday in History (March 23rd)
John Miller
The boys are back in town as they discuss yesterday in history, today. Patrick Henry, Werner Van Braun, NOT Coronavirus and Handel handling good things.
Support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/user?u=32327644
You're the WORST!
John Miller
Serious nightmare material right here.
Warning! This episode is not for the squeamish!
In this shocking (and supersized) episode, we profile three of the most abhorrent members of the History Hall of Shame: Hitler's uber-quack personal physician/drug pusher; the putrid, ravenous 18th century freak/accidental secret agent Tarrare; and the murderous proto-Dracula Elizabeth Bathory. If you have the stomach to listen to all 79 minutes of this episode, you’ll need to take a shower afterwards. Trust us.
Elizabeth Bathory: Infamous for her extreme sadism & murderousness (to put it mildly), and her outreach programs for underprivileged youth.
“Doctor” Theodor Morrell: Morbidly obese, chronic halitosis, persistent & overpowering B.O., and oh, yes., a big-time Nazi — but he takes most insurance and is accepting new patients.
WHAT WE’RE DRINKING
The Glenlivet Founder’s Reserve Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Solemn Oath Ravaged by Vikings American-style Double IPA
Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
Mama Dracula - D-grade Semi-Biopic of Elizabeth Bathory.
Welcome Back, Blame-O-Meter
John Miller
The Bar Stool Historian returns, along with their blame-assigning technological marvel, the Blame-O-Meter 5000!
In this episode. we measure how much the phrase "Read my lips, no new taxes..." was to blame for George H. W. Bush's re-election failure.
Plus, Tim recalls his personal experiences of growing up in the bad-old days of crime-ridden NYC.
WHAT WE’RE DRINKING
MacKinlay’s Shackleton Blended Malt Scotch Whisky
Sierra Nevada Hop Bullet Double IPA
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
To get a sense of the grime, grit, and pervasive dread of 1991 NYC that Tim grew up within, check out this fascinating documentary gem about the freelance photo and video journalists who prowled the nighttime crime scene.
From 1985 until 2003 former New York Daily News photographer Joseph DeMaria ran V&P News Service. Armed with high quality video cameras, former Daily News photographers, police radios and "arrangements" with New York's finest, V&P New Service were often the first responders to many of the city's most lurid, grizzly and important news stories.
Night Wolves and Metal Noses
John Miller
John, Ed, and Tim have pulled together another grab bag of historical curiosities, with a pinch of current events tossed in for good measure.
Episode highlights include:
- The drinking (and non-drinking) habits of 2oth Century American presidents.
- Gubernatorial assassination and general mayhem in Kentucky.
- Shadowy pro-Russian forces in Montenegro, and the attempted coup d'etat that nobody seemed to notice.
Plus, our first nomination for a "Dexty" award, in honor of this podcast's patron saint, Lord Timothy Dexter.
Is there any kind of unifying theme for these topics? Hmm...maybe.
WHAT WE'RE DRINKING
New Glarus Fat Squirrel Ale (Wisconsin only)
Bell's Winter White "Belgian Inspired" Wheat Ale
Macallan 15-year Triple Cask Scotch Whisky
Getting Into the Colonial Spirit(s)
John Miller
Ed, John (suffering from a miserable cold), and Tim (hobbled by influenza), dive into the instructive and wildly entertaining book, Colonial Spirits: A Toast to Our Drunken History, and chat to its equally instructive and entertaining creators, author Steven Grasse and illustrator Michael Allen.
Colonial Spirits: A Toast to Our Drunken History
Other highlights include:
- A dizzying treatment of Ben Franklin's "Drinker's Dictionary."
- How to make Cock Ale in the original 18th century way.
- Taste tests of Cranberry Shrub, Milk Punch, the Hot Flip, and Ginger Liqueur.
Plus, a reflection on the end of the Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey Circus after nearly 150 years. (And do you remember that unicorn?)
WHAT WE'RE DRINKING:
Old Dutch, by QC Malt
Lemon Shrub, by QC Malt
Alesmith Brewing Company's Nut Brown Ale
Brooklyn Brewery's Brooklyn Brown Ale
The Balvenie, Double Wood 12-Year Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Eleventh Hour Episode
John Miller
Veteran's Day Parade, 11/11/2016, New York City - Photo by Tim
We pulled our microphones together at the last minute to deliver this Veteran's Day episode of The Bar Stool Historian.
Topics include:
- Future generals MacArthur and Patton meet on a World War I battlefield.
- The truly nightmarish story of how hundreds of returning Civil War veterans perished in the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history.
- A tribute to Tim's Uncle Charlie.
Get your tissues for this one.
World War I memorial at East 67th and 5th Ave, Manhattan - 11/11/2016 - Photo by John
October (no, wait...November) Surprise
John Miller
The great early 19th-century American eccentric, "Lord" Timothy Dexter strolls his demesne pondering a 108 year-old curse.
With an election just a couple days away, we're off to the races with presidential candidates of and other overachieving eccentrics.
Topics include:
- The third party candidates of the 20th century who helped shape today's political landscape.
- October Surprises that jolted 19th century POTUS races.
- The one-and-only "Lord" Timothy Dexter, the bats**t crazy Newburyport merchant who fell repeatedly ass-backwards into a fortune.
And as promised in the show...we give you Lord Dexter's grand "palace", bedecked with statues of other great men.
WHAT WE'RE READING
Check out "Lord" Timothy Dexter's completely insane autobiography (of sorts) "A Pickle for the Knowing Ones, or Plain truths in a homespun dress."
WHAT WE'RE DRINKING
Urban Legend Brewing Company's You Big Dummy Imperial Red Ale
Shipyard Brewing Company's Pumpkinhead Ale
Bronx Brewery's American Pale Ale
Forty (Not "Fourty")
John Miller
John, Tim and Ed kick off Bar Stool Season 2 with a celebration of our 40th birthdays. Join us as we explore (and in Tim’s case, severely criticize) the mystical number 40 and its special place in history.
Topics include:
- The most meaningful events of the last 40 years (including the true story of when Tim and John met Mikhail Gorbachev.)
- The Lykov family, who survived 40 years in the Siberian Wilderness without seeing another human.
- WD-40
- Japanese fanatical holdouts, possibly wearing diapers.
- Out of nowhere swipes at New York Comic Con.
- Yeti!!!!
(As you'd expect, the whole number 40 theme completely breaks down in a few points in the show. Wild tangents aplenty!)
WHAT WE'RE DRINKING:
Lagavulin 16
Brooklyn Defender IPA
Sam Adams Scotch Ale
Goose Island Winter Ale
"Pretium Iustum Est!"
John Miller
THE POUNDS, SHILLINGS, AND SIXPENCE OF THE PAST, DRAGGED KICKING AND SCREAMING INTO THE PRESENT.
Welcome to a Bar Stool Historian time travel road trip, as we visit the bucolic fictional village of Crittling Stubbs-On-Skirdenback about 600 years ago. What transpired was a full-fledged live game show where contestants guess the price of everyday medieval objects in modern-day dollars: Pretium Iustum Est! (Google-translate that title here!)
How we got here is really due to Ed having a little too much time on his hands: a couple months ago, Ed discovered a list of medieval prices compiled by a then-grad student (now professor) named Kenneth Hodges had pieced together by consulting medieval literature. These prices ranged from the cost of a ceramic cooking pot to the Transept of Gloucester Abbey in 1370, and everything else in-between. Ed then decided to take these wildly varying prices and dates and plug them into website that compares the value of English money from the past to present day using both the Consumer Price Index and the Value of Labor. He then converted that to 2013 dollars. The result is a pretty nifty spreadsheet that you can download here.
Finally, the answer to whether or not you can afford to hire a Welsh infantryman for the day!
Ep. #4: Blame-O-Meter
John Miller
SCORING BLAME-WORTHINESS THROUGHOUT HISTORY
Wild accusations and historical libel get hurled around in this installment of Bar Stool Historian! With the help of the Blame-O-Meter, an advanced piece of technology sent from the future, we assign blame through history. In doing so we discover:
- How “history’s greatest monster” ruined sweaters
- Why no one can write a proper letter.
- Perfectionists are terrible.
- The dark secret of Ed’s ancestry!
...and much, much more!
STUFF TO GAPE AT
Click for more info and a better look at some of the historical characters covered in this episode.
STUFF TO READ
- The Guardian (UK): "Robespierre was 'riddled with maladies' at time of his execution"
- Smithsonian Channel: "King Tut's Final Mystery"
- The Telegraph (UK): "Scientists recreate (less ugly) face of Dante"
STUFF TO DRINK
Ravaged by Vikings
Post-Valentine's Day Special Mini-Episode
John Miller
PUTTING 17TH CENTURY PICK-UP LINES TO THE TEST
Inspired by a post in one of our favorite sites, Ask the Past, we tapped into the treasure trove that is John Gough's 1684 book, The Academy of Complements (see below for its full, glorious title), and tried out some his suggestions for complimenting ladies on our unsuspecting spouses.
With the censor's bleep button at the ready, we recorded their actual unfiltered responses for your amusement. We hope you appreciate this special Valentine's Day mini-episode, with the knowledge that we've been forced to sleep on the couch all week for your sake.
STUFF TO READ
Ask the Past - askthepast.blogspot.com
Advice from Old Books. (Warning: please use your best judgement in following these recommendations. Rubbing the oil from a boiled green lizard into your hair may not actually make it long and black.)
Ep. #3: "In-Bred & Bog-Buttered"
John Miller
Leopold I and Margarita Teresa. Holy Roman Emperor & Empress. Husband and Wife. First Cousins. Uncle and Niece! (Ewww...) Genetic time bomb.
Kids love their rancid butter!
Themes, schmemes! In this “news n’ reviews” episode, we’re delivering an hour-long grab bag of historical curios, grotesqueries, and dubious culinary delights....
Thrill to the sound of 90 year-old Confederate veterans sounding the old rebel yell.
Get a case of positional vertigo from tracing the zig-zagging family tree of those ever-handsome Royal Habsburgs!
Let your mouth water at the idea of eating medieval butter dug up from bogs.
Cry into your beer glass to the haunting melody of an ancient Greek lament.
Nod in silent approval of the early reviews of Bleak House by Charles Dickens (aka, Ed’s mortal enemy).
All this, plus commentary from Tim on how fears of rising China might just be a 1990s throwback, in Episode 3: In-Bred and Bog-Buttered.
THIS EPISODE'S RECOMMENDATIONS
Support the show! Follow the links to buy on Amazon!
STUFF TO WATCH
STUFF TO READ
Ep. #2: "Wouldn't It Be Lice?"
John Miller
Albrecht Durer's illustration of a syphilitic man in a 1496 broadsheet.
Diseases that changed the course of history.
After weeks of Ebola dominating the headlines, we thought it appropriate to look at some of history's most civilization-altering diseases. John spins a yarn about how wild fornication in the streets of Naples just might have foiled a French king's plans to launch a crusade to the Holy Land in 1495. Tim tells the nightmarish tale of when the "Grandaddy of all Diseases" arrived in Europe, and explains the medicinal value of chickens. Finally, Ed recounts how Napoleon's 500,000 troops couldn't manage to conquer Russia (hint: it wasn't just the cold!), and gives a new meaning to "bad hair day."
THIS EPISODE'S RECOMMENDATIONS
Support the podcast! Follow the links to buy on Amazon.
STUFF TO READ
Brooklyn Brewery's East India Pale Ale
Midas Touch from Dogfish Head's Ancient Ales Collection
Johnnie Walker Black Label Scotch Whisky
Ep. #1: "Hooked on a Schlieffen"
John Miller
John, Tim, and Ed travel back in time to the fateful days of 1914, with the help of Barbara Tuchman's masterful The Guns of August. How well does this book fare a half-century after its publication? Does it retain the power to surprise (or even shock) the modern reader? What lessons can we apply to our own times? And why does the very mention of Erich Ludendorff make Tim burst out in song? For the answers to these and other burning questions, pour yourself a glass of Bell's Mars, Bringer of War and listen in!
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