Send us a Text Message.

In 1975, the Khmer Rouge stormed into Cambodia's capital city of Phnom Penh victorious after 5 years of civil war. The people rejoiced. They thought the victors were there to liberate them, to restore peace and order after years of fighting. That couldn't have been farther from the truth. Over the next 4 years, the Khmer Rouge communist regime would force people into the countryside to work in rice fields night and day, where many died of starvation and disease. They killed the weak, the slow, the intellectuals, anyone who thought for themselves was a threat. In just 4 years, an estimated 2 million Cambodians were murdered by the Khmer Rouge. How could this happen? Join me to discover how the pieces came together, how this violent regime used fear and manipulation to control the masses, and how we can stop it from happening again. Knowledge is power.

Sources:

• worldhistory.org "Khmer Empire"
• history.com "Khmer Rouge"
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum "Cambodia"
• University of Minnesota "Cambodia"
• Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields "Worms from Our Skin"
• Holocaust Museum Houston "Genocide in Cambodia"

Support the show!

• Join the Patreon
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Send us a Text Message.

This episode explores the famed poison, Aqua Tofana, that desperate housewives used to murder their husbands in 17th century Italy. I'll delve into the legend of Giulia Tofana, the apparent namesake behind the poison who was supposedly responsible for the deaths of 600 men in the mid 1600s and do my best to separate fact from fiction to uncover what in the world was going on in Italy and, more importantly, why.

Sources:

• mikedashhistory.com "Aqua Tofana: slow poisoning and husband killing in 17th century Italy"
• SyFy "Giulia Tofana, the Italian Serial Poisoner Who Became a Legend"
• National Centre for Domestic Violence "Giulia Tofana - Serial Killer or Heroine?!"
• allthatsinteresting.com "Meet Giulia Tofana: the 17th century professional poisoner said to have killed 600 men"
• TBS News "When makeup can kill: The sinister tale of Giulia Tofana"
• Encyclopedia Britannica "Drawing and Quartering"

Support the show!

• Join the Patreon
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Send us a Text Message.

Coffee may seem like an innocent breakfast beverage to accompany your bacon and eggs, a mid afternoon office pick me up. But did you know, coffee is so much more than that? Did you know that coffee helped spark human enlightenment, the scientific revolution, the industrial revolution, capitalism, helped build the world as we know it? Let’s fix that.

Sources:

• Gastropod "Grounds for Revolution: The Stimulating Story of How Coffee Shaped the World"
• National Coffee Association "The History of Coffee"
• Encyclopedia Britannica "History of Coffee"
• Eater "How America's Coffee Got Bad - and Then Got Great"
• Coffee or Die "A Brief History of Coffee in the United States"
• US Justice Department "Khat Fast Facts"
• New York Times "Who are Sufi Muslims and Why Do Some Extremists Hate Them?"
• Mirage News "NASA Experiment with Spiders & Mind-Altering Drugs"

Support the show!

• Join the Patreon
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify