Imaginary Histories

A tour through the roots, history, and legacy of eugenics and race science, from the Beehive Riots of 1820s Boston through physical anthropology, Francis Galton, Ellis Island, the American Plan, the Tuskegee experiments, the Nazis, through to the present. Note: some of this episode deals with human sexuality, and some of it is disturbing.

A look at some of the ends of the world: The Great Flood; the Permian Extinction; the triumph of Ahura Mazda; Ragnarok; and the coming climate crisis.

A year after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a timely look back at the context and legacy of the "Great Sedition Trial of 1944" and a deep dive into some of the most influential (and strangest) figures in American far-right history: Joe McWilliams, George Sylvester Viereck, William Dudley Pelley, Gerald Burton Winrod, and Elizabeth Dilling.

Prologue. -- Gold! Gold! -- A Procrastinated Manifesto -- Spirits of the Age -- Complex Marriages -- the Leviathan of Parsontown -- Changes in Space and Time -- A Convention of Women -- A Convention of Free Persons -- Sea Serpent -- The Man Who Should Be Dead -- Marble Palace -- Escape from Bondage, Right Under Their Noses! -- Postscript.

Theseus and the Minotaur; Mad King Ludwig II of Bavaria; the Winchester Mystery House; Halcyon House; and the Collyer Brothers. Five labyrinths in myth, in the mind, and in reality.

Just in time for Samhain: The climax, conclusion, and aftermath of the Salem Witch Trials. Also: the life and times of Cotton Mather, Puritan witch-hunter; the Kissing Bug apocalypse; the conspiracy to burn down Manhattan; and the return and eventual triumph of mass psychogenic illness, starting in upstate New York.

The Salem Witchcraft Trials examined, along with some historical context about the Massachusetts Bay Colony. And don't forget the creepy clowns, Satanic cults, and flying saucers. Part one of two.

A short, short introduction to the Imaginary Histories podcast. Our first full episode will be on the Salem Witch Trials and a history of mass hysteria in America (and the sound quality will be much better than this, I promise). I hope you join me!The song in the background is "Burning Van," by Big Mean Sound Machine, performed live on WFMU's Transpacific Sound Paradise, September 19, 2015; licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 license.