The Constant: A History of Getting Things Wrong

Some things are ordered and some are chaotic. This story is neither.Get $75 credit to upgrade your job post at indeed.com/theconstant (http://www.indeed.com/theconstant)Get 10% off your first month of online counseling by visiting:http://betterhelp.com/theconstant (http://betterhelp.com/theconstant)Visit our Patreon here (https://patreon.com/theconstant).BUY OUR MERCH, YOU FILTHY ANIMALS! (https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirts/the-constant-podcast)Music by:Blue Dot Sessions (https://www.sessions.blue/)Lee Rosevere (https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/)Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com/) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do the modern flat earth movement, the history of animal experimentation, the invention of civil engineering, ballet, pantomime, and the first British robot all have in common?The Eddystone Lighthouse.Get $75 credit to upgrade your job post at indeed.com/theconstant (http://www.indeed.com/theconstant)Get 10% off your first month of online counseling by visiting:http://betterhelp.com/theconstant (http://betterhelp.com/theconstant)Visit our Patreon here (https://patreon.com/theconstant).BUY OUR MERCH, YOU FILTHY ANIMALS! (https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirts/the-constant-podcast)Music by:Blue Dot Sessions (https://www.sessions.blue/)Lee Rosevere (https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/)Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com/) Voice talent by Heather Chrisler (http://www.heatherchrisler.com/) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We no longer make people walk hot coals, or swim witches, or touch dead bodies. But everything we know about solving crime is still wrong.The National Registry of Exonerations (https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/about.aspx)2009 NAS Report (https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/228091.pdf)The Innocence Project (https://innocenceproject.org/)The Story of Gary Dotson (https://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/il/gary-dotson.html)Leora Smith's excellent reporting on Herbert MacDonell and blood spatter (https://features.propublica.org/blood-spatter-analysis/herbert-macdonell-forensic-evidence-judges-and-courts/)Trial by Fire, David Grann for The New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/09/07/trial-by-fire)The Story of Cameron Todd Willingham via The Chicago Tribune (https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/chi-0412090169dec09-story.html)Radley Balko at The Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/radley-balko/)Get 10% off your first month of online counseling by visiting:http://betterhelp.com/theconstant (http://betterhelp.com/theconstant)Visit our Patreon here (https://patreon.com/theconstant).BUY OUR MERCH, YOU FILTHY ANIMALS! (https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirts/the-constant-podcast)Music by:Blue Dot Sessions (https://www.sessions.blue/)Lee RosevereKevin MacLeodBen Sound Voice Talent from:Heather ChrislerCarlo GarciaSteve Peebles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On part two of this three part series on forensics, we're bridging the gap, between the ancient and modern means of solving crimes. How did forensic science get into courts in the first place? And is it actually science at all?Get 10% off your first month of online counseling by visiting:http://betterhelp.com/theconstant (http://betterhelp.com/theconstant)Visit our Patreon here (https://patreon.com/theconstant).BUY OUR MERCH, YOU FILTHY ANIMALS! (https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirts/the-constant-podcast)Music by:Blue Dot Sessions (https://www.sessions.blue/)Lee RosevereJS BachListen to:I Know Dino (https://iknowdino.com/)Rumble Strip (https://rumblestripvermont.com/) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fingerprints, DNA, blood spatter, ballistics. Before any of those forensic sciences, investigators and courts had a very different suite of tools for solving crime. On this episode, we're looking at some of them. Get 10% off your first month of online counseling by visiting:http://betterhelp.com/theconstant (http://betterhelp.com/theconstant)Visit our Patreon here (https://patreon.com/theconstant).BUY OUR MERCH, YOU FILTHY ANIMALS! (https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirts/the-constant-podcast)Music by:Blue Dot Sessions (https://www.sessions.blue/)Lee Rosevere (https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/)Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com/) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the last episode of 2020, we're returning to our fair city, Chicago, for the unlikely story of a hard-scrapple hobo who formed his own independent, autonomous district on the non-existent east side of town, which he managed to keep control of for nearly forty years... well, sort of.Visit https://andstillivote.org/YOUR-Story-Matters/ (https://andstillivote.org/YOUR-Story-Matters/) to join the fight for voting rights today.Get 10% off your first month of online counseling by visiting:http://betterhelp.com/theconstant (http://betterhelp.com/theconstant)Visit our Patreon here (https://patreon.com/theconstant).BUY OUR MERCH, YOU FILTHY ANIMALS! (https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirts/the-constant-podcast)Music by:Blue Dot Sessions (https://www.sessions.blue/)Lee Rosevere (https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/)Kevin MacLeodThe Joy Drops (http://thejoydrops.com/)Heftone Banjo Orchestra (http://www.heftone.com/) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For The Constant's third birthday, here are three stories out of the secret feed. Medicinal gold, the story of theater's greatest Hamlet, and a melancholy Christmas tale, all for you. Visit https://andstillivote.org/YOUR-Story-Matters/ (https://andstillivote.org/YOUR-Story-Matters/) to join the fight for voting rights today.Get 10% off your first month of online counseling by visiting:http://betterhelp.com/theconstant (http://betterhelp.com/theconstant)Visit our Patreon here (https://patreon.com/theconstant).BUY OUR MERCH, YOU FILTHY ANIMALS! (https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirts/the-constant-podcast)Music by:Blue Dot Sessions (https://www.sessions.blue/)Lee RosevereKevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com/) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In September of 1822, a ship carrying 70 immigrants left London bound for St. Joseph, a bustling city on The Mosquito Coast in the small Central American nation of Poyais. They were followed by hundreds more pilgrims, all looking for a better life. They were about to be severely disappointed. Visit andstillivote.org (https://publish.blubrry.com/content/andstillivote.org) to join the fight for voting rights today.Get 10% off your first month of online counseling by visiting:http://betterhelp.com/theconstant (http://betterhelp.com/theconstant)Visit our Patreon here (https://patreon.com/theconstant).BUY OUR MERCH, YOU FILTHY ANIMALS!Listen to Historical Blindness here (https://www.historicalblindness.com/)and Rumble Strip here (https://rumblestripvermont.com/)Music by:Blue Dot Sessions (https://www.sessions.blue/)Lee Rosevere (https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you thread the needle between political and apolitical, frivolous and serious, fun and relevant, on this extremely stressful election day? I don't know, but here's an episode about presidential bathtubs. Visit andstillivote.org (https://publish.blubrry.com/content/andstillivote.org) to join the fight for voting rights today.Get 10% off your first month of online counseling by visiting:http://betterhelp.com/theconstant (http://betterhelp.com/theconstant) Visit our Patreon here (https://patreon.com/theconstant).​Music by:Dana Boule (https://www.danaboule.com/)Blue Dot Sessions (https://www.sessions.blue/)Lee Rosevere (https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's almost Halloween, so how's about a spooky bonfire tale. The spookiest story from the spookiest place we can think of. The story of Gef, The Talking Mongoose. Visit andstillivote.org (andstillivote.org) to join the fight for voting rights today. Get 10% off your first month of online counseling by visiting:http://betterhelp.com/theconstant (http://betterhelp.com/theconstant) Visit our Patreon here (https://patreon.com/theconstant).Music by:Dana Boule (https://www.danaboule.com/)Blue Dot Sessions (https://www.sessions.blue/)Lee Rosevere (https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices