Step into a wagon of wonder and danger: this episode unspools the American love affair with miracle cures, from 19th‑century medicine shows to the cold logic of eugenics. You'll meet charismatic hucksters, desperate families, and doctors whose theories did more harm than good.

Through vivid stories—bleeding halls, opiate‑laced tonics, targeted ads, and forced sterilizations—we trace how bad science, entertainment, and prejudice fused into policies that shaped lives for generations.

As the hosts untangle placebo effects, racial and gendered exploitation, and the social roots of mistrust, they invite you to listen with curiosity: learn how to spot red flags, why skepticism matters, and how history still echoes in today’s wellness culture.

This podcast is a work of historical interpretation. While we strive for accuracy, some aspects of history are open to interpretation and debate. Thank you for listening.

Dan, hypothetical. You, me, a boxing ring, and one very confused black bear—welcome to Alabama. In this episode we follow a thread of stories that feel equal parts courtroom drama and tall tale: a 1990s crackdown on sideshow bear wrestling born from animal-welfare concerns, barroom tranquilizers gone wrong, and bruised human egos.

From an enforceable anti-cruelty statute to a tidy traffic law outlawing blindfold driving and a church-decorum rule that reads like Southern Gothic folklore, each vignette reveals the people, the motives, and the strange logic that turned common sense into statute. Stick around—Alaska is next, and the legal oddities keep coming.

When a midnight improvisation becomes a stadium staple and a roadside stand sparks a fast‑food empire, what stories do our favorite late‑night meals tell? This episode follows tacos, burritos, nachos, fajitas, and chimichangas as they cross borders, get reinvented, and shape a new culinary language.

Through vivid anecdotes, surprising origin myths, and on‑the‑ground voices, we trace how necessity, invention, and appetite transformed regional recipes into national phenomena—turning humble street food into theatrical dining and mass‑market icons.

Bite by bite, listen for the texture of history: food as identity, survival, and celebration. Come for the sizzle and the queso; stay for the human stories behind every crunchy, cheesy, overstuffed bite.

This podcast is a work of historical interpretation. While we strive for accuracy, some aspects of history are open to interpretation and debate. Thank you for listening.

Ever been so bored you wondered, what if I wrestled a bear — and the bear signed a waiver? In this episode of Time Tellers, Dan and Renee open a dusty legal atlas and step into America’s stranger corners: laws born of church mores, backyard feuds, and theatrical protest. We tell the origin stories, read the actual or reported wording, and decide whether each oddity is enforceable law, folklore, or something hilariously in-between.

From Alabama’s bear-wrestling tall tales and church-mustache rules to a donkey-forbidden bathtub, a frog-jumping contest that forbids frog-eating, and the paperwork that turns roadkill into dinner: these are the statutes that make you laugh and then scratch your head. Short, punchy stories, historical color, and a Time Teller’s verdict — buckle up for Episode Two: Alabama.

One glittering sphere, one counted-down second, and millions pause: this episode follows the ball from rooftop to broadcast, revealing how a simple descent became a carefully engineered ritual of time, crowd, and meaning.

Interwoven with the history are the hosts’ messy human stories—stage lights and post-it costumes, a blizzarded drive, a funeral song, and a knocked-over microphone—reminding listeners that every ceremony is powered by real people, imperfect and hopeful. Also a short preview of the year ahead.

Follow the trail of familiar melodies from medieval Europe to American front porches: a story of banished festivities, Victorian reinvention, wartime solace, and booming radio hits. Along the way you’ll meet Puritans who banned Christmas, a songwriter who never meant to write a carol, and soldiers who found peace in a simple hymn.

In this episode we weave together the human moments behind the music — Dickensian charity, sleigh races in New England, immigrant voices, and modern pop reinventions — to show how these songs became the soundtrack of an American season.

Tune in to discover the surprising origins and emotional stories behind the carols you thought you knew, and learn why these songs still matter to families, choirs, and even astronauts.

Picture a Christmas that smells of smoke and fear instead of cinnamon and spice: villages lit by bonfires, masked figures pounding through the night, and a goat-demon whose rattling chains make children hide behind shutters. This episode peels back the cozy remaster and walks you through the original holiday — a season forged by the terror of winter and the rituals people invented to survive it.

We trace the story from sun-calling solstice festivals and Roman chaos to Alpine Krampus runs, Icelandic cat-gorging legends, and Puritan attempts to erase the whole thing. Along the way the narrative shifts — punishment morphs into redemption with Dickens, then into shopping lists and performance, leaving us with a holiday that hides its darker roots under lace and store windows.

By the end, the monsters feel less like villains and more like mirrors: reminders that the holiday has always been about surviving darkness together. Join us for a short, haunting history that makes your quiet, imperfect Christmas feel part of a long, strange tradition — and maybe a little less alone.”

In this captivating episode of Time Tellers, Dan and Renee delve into America's tumultuous history with the metric system—a tale filled with twists, turns, and unexpected drama. From the chaos of pirates intercepting metric shipments to the political maneuvers that stymied a full conversion, the duo unravels why the United States remains one of the few countries resisting the global embrace of the metric system.

They recount the peculiar past of measurement mishaps and missed opportunities, highlighting key moments like the Mars Climate Orbiter debacle that resulted from metric-imperial confusion. This isn't just a story about numbers—it's about national identity, inertia, and political chess games that have led to today's hybrid measurement chaos.

Join the hosts as they navigate this intriguing narrative, revealing how America's stubbornness in clinging to inches and pounds persists amidst a world dominated by the ease and logic of meters and liters. Tune in to explore whether the U.S. will ever fully transition to the metric system, the factors at play, and the humorous contradictions that define America's measurement story.