

Byte Sized Biographies…
Philip D. Gibbons
Some Very Famous People You’ve Never Really Heard Of, Byte Sized Biographies of the famous, the infamous and the quirky in less than hour. Think of that doorstop sized bio or history related book that you will never read made accessible in an hour. These are people that you may think you know a lot about but really don’t, remarkable human beings you have never heard of and incidents covered in new and different detail, all fascinating.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 30, 2025 • 52min
Senator Edward M. Kennedy and the Bridge at Chappaquiddick (Part One)
On July 19, 1969 an auto accident, involving Senator Edward M. Kennedy and the death of a young woman, changed the course of American political history forever.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, 1968
Edward Kennedy, campaigning in 1962
John Farrar examining the Kennedy automobile as it is being removed from the water near Dike Bridge
Ted Kennedy during nationwide speech following the Chappaquiddick accident
District Attorney Edmund Dinis
Edgartown Police Chief Dominick “Jim” Arena, later in life

Nov 30, 2025 • 53min
Senator Edward M. Kennedy and the Bridge at Chappaquiddick. (Part Two)
On July 19, 1969 an auto accident, involving Senator Edward M. Kennedy and the death of a young woman, changed the course of American political history forever.
Senator Edward Kennedy and his wife Joan in the mid-sixties
Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Joe Gargan’s sister Ann, Joe Kennedy’s longtime caretaker.
Joe Gargan, late in life.
Kopechne family gravestone

Oct 9, 2025 • 51min
Catherine The Great, One of a Kind (Part One)
Brought to Russia as fourteen-year-old Princess Sophia from a tiny German principality, she became Catherine the Great, the most powerful woman in Europe.
Peter III, Catherine’s husband
Catherine’s mother, Princess Johanna
The Empress Elizabeth
Frederick the Great
Grigori Orlov
Poniatowski
Catherine on the the balcony of the Winter Palace after she seized the throne from Peter III
Catherine, in the uniform of the Imperial Guard

Oct 9, 2025 • 51min
Catherine the Great, One of a Kind (Part Two)
Brought to Russia as fourteen-year-old Princess Sophia from a tiny German principality, she became Catherine the Great, the most powerful woman in Europe.
Catherine’s coronation painting, wearing her remarkable crown
Pugachev, harassing captive nobles before their execution
Paul I, Catherine’s son and heir
Grigori Potemkin
Peterhof Palace
The Winter Palace and Hermitage Museum
The Bronze Horseman statue of Peter the Great

Sep 5, 2025 • 39min
Bob Marley, Reggae Superstar and Legend (Part One)
Listen to this February 5, 2020 flashback episode about Bob Marley, homeless at age 20 in one of the poorest cities of the Third World, he became a popular music phenomenon and 20th century icon.
Bob Marley performing in July of 1980
Bob Marley’s mother’s home, Trench Town, Kingston, Jamaica
Bunny Wailer, one of Marley’s earliest collaborators
Peter Tosh, another Marley associate, performing in 1978
The I Threes, performing with Marley, Rita, his wife, center

Sep 5, 2025 • 37min
Bob Marley, Reggae Superstar and Legend (Part Two)
Listen to this February 5, 2020 flashback episode about Bob Marley, homeless at age 20 in one of the poorest cities of the Third World, he became a popular music phenomenon and 20th century icon.
Marley, performing last outdoor show, Dublin, Ireland, July 6, 1980
Marley, publicity photo
Marley’s son, Ziggy
Bob Marley, mausoleum complex entrance, Nine Mile, Jamaica

Aug 9, 2025 • 23min
D. B. Cooper and the Only Unsolved Air Hijacking in US History (Part One)
This special flashback episode, from March 16, 2018, discusses D. B. Cooper and the most infamous unsolved hijacking in US history.
Some of the crew members from the plane Cooper hijacked
Initial crude wanted poster circulated by the FBI
Richard McCoy, wanted poster circulated after he escaped from a federal penitentiary
Another potential D. B. Cooper, Robert Rackstraw.

Aug 9, 2025 • 24min
D. B. Cooper and the Only Unsolved Air Hijacking in US History (Part Two)
This special flashback episode, from March 16, 2018, discusses D. B. Cooper and the most infamous unsolved hijacking in US history.
Northwest Orient Plane similar to the one DB Cooper hijacked.
Money recovered on the shores of the Columbia River that was ultimately identified as part of Cooper’s $200,000
Grave of Richard Mccoy, who many believe was D. B. Cooper

Jul 3, 2025 • 1h 4min
Howard Hughes and His Empire of Madness (Part One)
On April 5, 1976, when he died in a private jet, en route to Houston, Texas, Howard Hughes was a hopeless drug addict, weighed 93 pounds and hadn’t even taken a step on his own in several years. He was also the world’s wealthiest man, living proof that money can’t buy happiness.
Howard R. Hughes Sr., standing next to a drill site
Howard Hughes as a small boy
Howard Hughes’ boyhood home in Houston, Texas
Movie poster for Hell’s Angels
Jane Russell, The Outlaw
Hercules, aka The Spruce Goose, taxiing in Long beach Harbor

Jul 3, 2025 • 58min
Howard Hughes and His Empire of Madness (Part Two)
On April 5, 1976, when he died in a private jet, en route to Houston, Texas, Howard Hughes was a hopeless drug addict, weighed 93 pounds and hadn’t even taken a step on his own in several years. He was also the world’s wealthiest man, living proof that money can’t buy happiness.
The entrance to the Beverly Hills Hotel, Howard Hughes’ home for over a decade
Jean Peters
The Desert Inn, circa 1968
Actress Terry Moore, one of Hughes’ female companions, who claimed after his death that he married her in a boat in international waters and that she gave birth to Hughes’ illegitimate child that died shortly after childbirth. The Hughes estate settled with her for a sum believed to be around 400,000 dollars.


