Podcasts by i am not making this up podcast
Four Ferrets In A Trench Coat Masquerading As A Human Being.
Further podcasts by Tracy S. Morris
Podcast on the topic Gesellschaft und Kultur
All episodes
I Am Not Making This Up: EP. 57 This Episode is Full of Dinosaur Poop from 2019-05-07T05:32:43
In this episode, we delve into William Buckland, a pioneer in Paleontology who was more than a little obsessed with Poop.
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 56 So I’m Not Royalty from 2019-04-01T06:00:53
There are some family history stories that you just know you should take with a grain of salt. Like the one about how your ancestor was bffs forevah with George Washington. Or the one where you a...
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I am Not Making This Up: Ep. 55 Thomas Jefferson’s Murder Sheep from 2019-02-11T06:00:06
Depending on who you ask, Thomas Jefferson is either much loved, or the founding father you love to hate. Not only did he write the Declaration of Independence, but he also presided over the Louis...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 54 That Time When A Lot Of People Mailed Their Children. from 2019-01-08T05:03:28
100 years ago was a simpler time. A time when you could pin postage on your four year old’s coat and send them on a mail train to Grandma. Back then people would laugh about it and go ̶...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 53 How Charlie Brown Killed The Aluminum Christmas Tree from 2018-12-17T06:00:45
In 1964, one of the hottest selling items around Thanksgiving was the aluminum Christmas tree. The Aluminum Specialty Company manufactured an estimated 150,000 trees that year. Then in 1965, A Ch...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 52 They Knew Their Place from 2018-11-06T05:57:05
Susan B. Antony and Nine Friends managed to vote for Ulysses S. Grant. For her trouble, Anthony was arrested, sent to court and fined. She swore she would never pay the fine, and she didn’t...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep.51 Julie or Julia? from 2018-10-15T06:00:21
It’s the season of ghosts, ghouls and goblins. So let’s tell a story. This is the story of Julie, or possibly Julia Brown, or possibly Black, or maybe even White. A Voodoo practitione...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 50 Why We Don’t Live In The United States Of Columbia from 2018-10-01T06:00:23
Rightly or wrongly (and these days, everyone considers it wrongly) Columbus is known as “The Man Who Discovered America.” For many of us, that is how history is taught: Columbus set out to prove t...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 49 She Had Style, She Had Grace, She Would Punch You In The Face from 2018-09-17T06:00:33
A well-worn Hollywood plot is one where the President’s daughter is kidnapped, so a hero has to rescue her. In real life, this never would have happened to Alice Roosevelt. Not just because her fa...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 48 The Greatest Loss of Knowledge that Never Happened. from 2018-09-10T17:23:46
On September 2, a fire destroyed the National Museum of Brazil, taking with it 90 percent of the museum’s collection. This included recordings of dead languages and zoological and botanical ...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 47 How An Earthquake Helped Shape Missouri from 2018-08-21T03:51:40
When Thomas Jefferson envisioned westward expansion, he wanted the new states to be neat and orderly, unlike the 13 colonies. Jefferson wanted each state boundary to lay along latitude and longitu...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 46 When One Apex Predator Meets Another from 2018-08-06T11:00:04
The attacks came in the night. Monsters came into the very tents, undaunted by campfire and torchlight. The monsters dragged fully grown men from their beds, taking them away in the night to satisf...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 45 Little Jack Horner Sat In His Corner Making a Chickenosarus from 2018-07-16T06:00:06
The archaeopterx is considered the link between dinosaurs and modern birds. A Chickenosarus might resemble one of these extinct creatures. After working as a consultant on Jurassic Park, a paleonto...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 44 Baseball’s Murky Origins from 2018-07-03T04:22:41
Inspired by the holiday, and by my Arkansas Razorbacks Baseball Team going to the college world series (where, despite my wishes in the podcast, they did not win) I focused on the history of Baseba...
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I am Not Making This Up: Ep. 43 Hot Dog, Hot Diggity Dog! from 2018-06-18T11:00
For something that could be considered the poster child for processed food, hot dogs have a very organic origin.
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 42 George Washington Loved Him Some Ice Cream from 2018-06-04T19:23:11
There is a story (definitely not true) that Martha Washington invented ice cream. Regardless of the story’s truth or fiction, George Washington loved ice cream. So much that he and Martha ser...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 41 Marie Antoinette Was The Ultimate Cosplayer from 2018-05-22T03:40:58
You would think that Comicon attendees invented cosplay, but Queen Marie Antoinette would tell you au contraire. When she was Queen of France, rocked the milkmaid look while visiting her personal v...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 40 Like Taking Crown Jewels From A Baby from 2018-05-07T06:00:12
When something is easy, we say that it’s like taking candy from a baby. Maybe we should say that it’s like stealing the French Crown Jewels. Because stealing the French Crown Jewels wa...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 39 Cattle Kate, The Outlaw Who Never Existed from 2018-04-16T06:00:49
One of the most infamous outlaws of the Old West may not have existed, but may have been invented by real murderers to cover up the lynching of an innocent rancher and her husband. This is the stor...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 38 The Cobra Effect from 2018-04-02T06:00:32
Ever hear of the cobra effect? Sadly, it’s not an episode of GI Joe. But if you listen to this episode, you’ll know what it is. And knowing is half the battle.
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 37 The Greatest Lion Tamer from 2018-03-19T06:00:38
When you think of a lion tamer, you probably imagine a guy in a safari outfit, pith helmet and wielding a chair and whip. That’s because the most famous lion tamer ever, Clyde Beatty, dresse...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 36 The Wild Horses of South Carolina from 2018-03-05T12:00:56
If you visit the Outer Banks of South Carolina, you may see the descendants of some of the first immigrants to our country, still living in the area where their ancestors first settled. These desc...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 35 Sarah Winchester, The Crazy Cat Lady of Architecture from 2018-02-19T06:00:45
We all think we know the story of Sarah Winchester. Folklore states that the heiress of the Winchester fortune was told by a psychic to go west and build a house for the spirits of everyone who ha...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 34 Vladimir Putin Liked It (So He Allegedly Took A Ring) from 2018-02-05T06:00:12
If Russian hackers crash this podcast and website, you’ll know that this episode is why. Yesterday, the New England Patriots met the Philadelphia Eagles in the Superbowl for the first time in...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 33 That Time Bunnies Attacked Napoleon from 2018-01-16T00:00:13
Napoleon is widely regarded as one of the greatest military leaders of all time, up there with Alexander the Great. But one of his most humiliating defeats actually came from a pack of domesticate...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 32 One Way To Spend An Afternoon When Visiting The City in 1848 from 2018-01-01T06:00
Imagine you’re an American farmer 170 years ago. Depending on where you live, you may go to a big city once a year, when it’s time to sell off your surplus livestock. And, after you’ve done that,...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 31 When Special Snowflake Wasn’t An Insult from 2017-12-18T06:00
You probably already know that no two snowflakes are alike. Every school child knows that. But before 1931, no one knew that. The man who changed our perspective on snowflakes was Wilson “snowfl...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 30 Catch Me If You Can, Gingerbread Man from 2017-12-04T06:00
Gingerbread men are practically synonymous with Christmas. But, at the risk of sounding click-bait-y, you won’t believe the surprising origins of this cookie. Spoiler it’s Queen Elizabeth. Maybe.
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 29 What Was On The Table That First Thanksgiving? from 2017-11-20T06:00
When we gather around the table this Thanksgiving, we’ll probably have turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing and mashed potatoes. Turkey is such an iconic part of Thanksgiving that there is even a g...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 28 John Smith Is The Wrong John from 2017-11-06T06:00:16
Long before the founding of the United States, some of the first colonists didn’t have much to be thankful for. Including food. They called that season the starving time.
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 27 Dude! Where’s My Poe from 2017-10-16T06:00
Author Edgar Allan Poe is known for some of the best horror fiction around. He's also a bit of a sad sack for whom things never seemed to go right. In the days leading up to his death, he vanishe...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 26 The Birth of the Byronpire from 2017-10-02T06:00
Author Melanie Miller Fletcher is my special guest for this episode. Join us as we discuss the birth of Science Fiction and the modern vampire (A.K.A. the Byronpire).
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 25 Lifestyles of the Rich and Poisonous from 2017-09-18T06:00:31
Though the Robert Browning poem The Laboratory is a fictional poem, it may be based on a true event. A scandal that swept 17th century France, leading all the way to the Sun King's inner circle, a...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 24 The Real Rapunzel from 2017-09-04T06:00:21
There is a story of a girl who is locked away in a tower and forbidden to see her one true love. But this is no story about a signing princess with a talking animal friend. And the king in this s...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 23 Why You Shouldn’t Order The Lincoln Special from 2017-08-21T06:00
When you’re a high-profile figure, your life isn’t really your own. This can even be true of elected officials. Particularly martyred elected officials. Such was the case with Abraham Lincoln, w...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 22 He Gave His Life For Tourism from 2017-08-07T06:00
When he was born, about 1342 BC, Tutankhaten’s life wasn’t his own. But the boy who would become known to us as Tutankhamen would be especially noteworthy because even in death his story isn’t his...
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I am Not Making This Up: Ep. 21 The Fabulous Fox Sisters from 2017-07-17T13:00:44
Imagine if you were 11 years old, and your April fool's prank got out of hand. So out of hand that it spawned a major religion? This actually happened to Kate Fox. She, along with her two siste...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 20 Tell My Friend Willie Brown from 2017-07-03T13:00:37
Robert Johnson is known as the king of Blues and the granddaddy of Rock and Roll, influencing some of the biggest names in music from Bob Dylan to Eric Clapton. Johnson's life is shrouded in myth,...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 19 How The West Was Spun from 2017-06-19T13:00
Go anywhere in the world, and ask people what they think of Americans, and the word "cowboy" is likely to pop up. How is it that a brief 50 year period involving the least populated part of the Un...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 18 Barnum’s Burning Buildings from 2017-06-05T13:00
Recently it was announced to the world that in May of 2017, the Ringling brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus would be rolling up it's tents for the last time. P.T. Barnum revolutionized entertainmen...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 17 Warrior, Princess, Badass from 2017-05-15T13:00
If I asked you to name a badass warrior princess, you might mention Xena or Wonder Woman. But one real life woman left them all behind. Her name was Khutulun, and she was the great-great-granddau...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 16 When Frederick Law Olmsted Changed The World from 2017-05-01T13:00
In 1857, if a New Yorker wanted to get away from the city, he or she would go to a cemetery. That all changed with the establishment of Manhattan's Central Park, and it's architect and superintende...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 15 Would The Real Anastasia Please Stand Up? from 2017-04-17T08:00:37
It was a cold February night in Berlin, 1920, when Franziska Shanzkowska jumped into the Landwher Canal. We know why she jumped: she’d lost her fiancee during the war. She’d also suffe...
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I am Not Making This Up: Ep. 14 Agatha Christie’s Personal Mystery from 2017-04-03T08:00:46
Agatha Christie is the bestselling author of all time. Her works outsell Shakespeare, J. K. Rowling, and Stephen King. Even if you’ve never read her work, you’ve probably heard of Mur...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 13 Tale Literally As Old As Time from 2017-03-20T08:00:45
Out of all the fairy tales known worldwide, Beauty and the Beast, or “La Belle et la bete” as it is known in French, may be one of the most popular. The themes of the fairy tale are ev...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 12 The Titanic Man from 2017-03-06T08:00:01
All Carlos Hurd wanted was to take a vacation. But when he boarded the Carpathia for Italy with his wife, Katherine, the reporter and his wife were put on the path to the most Titanic scoop in Ca...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 11 People Were Once Paid To Be Garden Gnomes. This Is A Thing That Happened. from 2017-02-20T08:00
In the 18th century, the English took conspicuous consumption to a whole new level when they hired actual old men to live in their gardens as ornamental hermits.
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 10 The Littlest Pirate from 2017-02-06T08:00
Lots of kids talk about running away to join the circus or become pirates. But few actually do it. However in 1716, one boy did. His name as John King, and he was around ten years old.
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 9 That Time Edwin Booth Could Have Changed Everything from 2017-01-16T14:00
Let's talk a little about Edwin Booth. People don’t remember the other two Booth brothers. John Wilkes Booth casts a long shadow. And when they do, it’s because Edwin once rescued Robert Lincoln...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 8 Why Some People Hate History from 2017-01-02T14:00
Until you saw the musical Hamilton, You probably got the impression that the founding fathers all got along and always knew exactly what they were doing. That's because people like to tell stories.
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I Am Not Making This Up: Special Announcement from 2016-12-26T08:00:03
If you don’t have a lot of patience to listen to the audio, it says that starting next week, I’ll be producing the I Am Not Making This Up podcast twice a month instead of only once. &#...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 7 Herodotus. The Michael Bay of the Classical World from 2016-12-05T08:00:53
Imagine if that massive solar flare that scientists worry about actually hits Earth and wipes out all electronics. What if in 2,000 years time, the only record we have of WWII (or that WWII e...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 6 That Time the Catholic Church Put A Corpse on Trial from 2016-11-07T08:00
If you think politics now is strange, we have nothing on the ancient Catholic Church. At one point, a sitting pope put a former pope on trial. It went a little like the Monty Python dead parrot s...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 5 That Time the French King Was Cannibalized (Podcast Version) from 2016-10-03T08:00
If one of your party guests has a reputation for eating anything, perhaps you shouldn't pass him a prized family heirloom. Especially if it's the mummified heart of a famous King.
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 4 The Most Bonkers Race in Olympic History from 2016-09-05T13:00
Next time someone mentions the plight of the Olympic athlete, remember that it's not that bad. They could be forced to run a marathon through a cloud of dust while wearing cutoff shorts, having cr...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 3 That Time Someone Caught a Shark In Illinois from 2016-08-01T08:00:21
Herbert Cope and his fishing partner Dudge Collins knew they had a big catch in their fishing trap. Maybe some kind of Muskie or Catfish. But when they hauled it in, they never expected...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 2 The Curse of the Little Bastard from 2016-07-04T13:00
My short story, The Hobos, The Devil and James Dean’s Car is featured over at the pulp magazine Crimson Streets. You can read it here. In honor of the publication, I’m podcasting an abr...
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I Am Not Making This Up: Ep. 1 That Time Wallpaper Killed Napoleon from 2016-06-06T08:00
During the Industrial Revolution, nearly everything could kill you. You could catch the flu from your big, drafty manor house, catch illness from your unpasteurized milk, or poison yourself wearin...
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