Dig: A History Podcast

Bonus Episode #4 of 20. Birth control and abortion are constant flash points in contemporary politics, and they're often described as signs of a rapidly changing society. But women have always had ways (though not always quite as effective ones) to control family size, and early American women were no exception. Understanding the role that reproductive rights has played in American history provides critical context to today's debates. Have we always had these kinds of debates? How did Americans think about abortion in the late 18th century, or the 19th century? In this episode, Elizabeth and Sarah start a three part conversation about women's reproductive rights in United States history by talking about birth control methods and abortion in the 18th and 19th century. For Show Notes & Further Reading, visit https://digpodcast.org/2017/02/05/early-american-family-limitation/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Winter Series #4 of 4. Charles Dickens may have capitalized on telling ghost stories at Christmas with A Christmas Carol, but this practice stretches well beyond the famous Victorian novelist. Join us as we explore the tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmastime. Show Notes, Further Reading, and a full transcript available at https://digpodcast.org/2017/12/17/ghost-christmas-charles-dickens/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Winter Series #3 of 4. During the hey-day of Great Lakes shipping, when ships crossed these huge lakes loaded down with cargo, a fall storm could be – and often was - deadly. You might be familiar with one particular fall shipwreck, the 1977 sinking of the freighter, The Edmund Fitzgerald, or Big Fitz during a brutal November gale on Lake Superior. But today, we’re talking about another November storm, one that took place sixty-four years earlier. That storm became known as the Great White Hurricane of 1913. This storm was so severe that it killed 250 people and caused millions of dollars in lost ships, cargo, and property damage. This was a winter storm that exemplifies the storms of the Great Lakes region: hurricane force winds, coupled with blinding blizzard conditions, heavy snowfalls and bitter cold.   Find show notes, further reading and episode transcripts here.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Winter Series #2 of 4. The warmth - and light - of the houses of 19th century Britain were a characteristic of Victorian life. While open coal hearths continued to dominate home heating, the Victorian era was also the first to use radiant boiler-powered heat, whole-house gas lighting, and even - infrequently, but innovatively nonetheless - electricity. It was a brave, sometimes dangerous, often times poisonous, new world, but at least it was warm? Show Notes, Further Reading, and a complete transcript: https://digpodcast.org/2017/11/21/heating-homes-victorian-britain/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Winter Series #1 of 4. Today we are discussing the ways the theoretical Little Ice Age impacted the people who lived through it. The study of past climates is highly politicized. Historical climatologists argue bitterly, writing scathing critiques of each other’s data and interpretations. Climate change deniers use historical climatology to argue that what the science community refers to as global warming is merely a natural climatic variation. While believers in global warming use stories of climatic disaster uncovered by climatologists as warnings of our impending doom. By far the most hotly debated period in historical climatology is the Little Ice Age. It’s not only the underlying cause of some of history’s most critical moments: the Black Death, the Thirty Years War, the French Fronde, the English Civil War, and the French Revolution… just to name a handful… The Little Ice Age is also and an example of how CURRENT history can be. Find our show notes and full transcripts of this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Creepy, Occult & Spooky Series #4 of 4.  People are often surprised to learn that yes, even death has a history. In fact, death can be a powerful tool for unlocking the ways that people thought about themselves, their world, and one another – both for historians, and for people of different cultures trying to relate to one another. Today, we’re talking about death and how two vastly different cultures used it to try to relate to one another in early modern Canada. Find Show Notes, Further Reading, and a complete transcript at: https://digpodcast.org/2017/11/11/death-huron-wendat-feast-dead/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Creepy, Occult & Spooky Series #3 of 4.  There wasn’t a soul in London, much less the neighborhood of Smithfield market, who hadn’t heard of the Cock Lane ghost. In 1762, the narrow London street was crowded with throngs of onlookers and busy-bodies who wanted to know if the rumors were true. A young girl at 20 Cock Lane , Elizabeth Parsons, was said to be possessed by a restless spirit. The Cock Lane ghost’s biggest claim to fame was its alleged knocking and scratching at all hours of the night and day. Witnesses devised a code to communicate with the ghost who claimed to have been murdered by her lover two years earlier. This had Londoners up in arms. Everyone took a side. Methodists and Anglicans viciously argued over the possibility of contact with the dead. London newspapers wrote daily updates about the séances, investigations and hearings that sought to uncover the truth behind Scratching Fanny, as the ghost was named, and her suspicious death. Londoners used the mysterious happenings at Cock Lane as a vehicle to debate religious difference, pre-marital sex, fraud, murder, and the vulnerability of some of London’s greatest minds in the face of superstition. Find Show Notes, Affiliate Links and a Transcript here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Creepy, Occult & Spooky Series #2 of 4.  In 1978, John Carpenter created a horror film that would arguably change the genre, certainly led the way in slasher films, and all on a $325,000 budget, with a 21 day shoot and no big star names to speak of. The second film was released in 1981; the third in 1982; four and five were ‘88 and ‘89, respectively. The 1980s were particularly ripe for a horror storyline centered around Halloween - celebrated by a community of neo-pagans, and demonized by the New Christian Right for its pagan roots. In the US, this was a period of anxiety about Satanic cults, nerds playing Dungeons and Dragons in dank basements, and the dark stranger handing out razor-bladed candy to naive and unsuspecting trick or treaters. These anxieties were capitalized on by clever filmmakers, and the tone of the Halloween franchise shifted from the horror of the ordinary to the supernatural, the pagan, and even the importers of Halloween--the Irish! Show Notes, Further Reading, and a full transcript are available at https://digpodcast.org/2017/10/29/halloween-ii-vi-samhain/    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Creepy, Occult & Spooky Series #1 of 4. We commemorate and document life through photographs, and have been doing so since the 19th century. But photography has also been used to document death. In this episode we are discussing Victorian postmortem photography. This has received a lot of interest on the internet lately as Victorian memento mori photographs have become rather popular on certain internet sites. And although many of the pictures on those sites are in fact postmortem photographs, many are not. They are either completely fake, or they are pictures of living people being passed off as postmortem photos. Find show notes, affiliate links and the transcript at digpodcast.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

War, Conflict and Violence Series #4 of 4. Today’s discussion is about the creation of historical memory and how one war in particular, The Texas War of Independence, is remembered. But also how historical memory of that war is profoundly colored by the memory of the Civil War through what is known as the Lost Cause. Find Show Notes, Further Reading, and a complete transcript of this episode at https://digpodcast.org/2017/10/08/lost-cause-texas-slavery/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices