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Professor Buzzkill History Podcast

Professor Buzzkill is an exciting blog & podcast that explores history myths in an illuminating, entertaining, and humorous way.
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Professor Buzzkill History Podcast
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Now displaying: Page 24
Oct 20, 2015

The Cold War was about more than nuclear missles and bomb shelters, Buzzkillers. Literature and art were weapons in the Cultural Cold War, according to Professor Greg Barnhisel. He overturns decades-old myths about Cold War era writers and artists who were sponsored by the US government. Duck and cover, Buzzkillers, it's quite a bombardment!

Oct 15, 2015

He may have had a GPS system named after him, but Ferdinand Magellan wouldn’t have needed it during his trip around the globe back in the early 1500s. He only made it halfway, dying in the Phillipines at the hands of natives who got sick of him asking for directions. But since it was his ship that eventually got back to Europe, he gets the credit. Oh well, Buzzkillers. Who cares about the details anyway?

Oct 8, 2015

Burn the witch! Burn the witch! It makes for a dramatic story, with about as final an ending as you can imagine. Suspected witches were nabbed, put on trial, convicted, and burned at the stake in the 1690s in Massachusetts. But it’s just not true. The convicted witches faced a far more mundane fate. Listen and find out!

Oct 1, 2015

It’s a great “Gone with the Wind” romantic-type story. The defeated, but honorable, General Robert E. Lee offered his sword to the victor, U.S. Grant, during the Confederacy’s surrender at Appomattox Court House. Grant, just as honorably, refused to take it. But it didn’t happen, Buzzkillers. It was a made-up press report that caught the public’s attention and kept getting repeated.

Sep 18, 2015

The Republican Primary this year will see a lot of havering between all the different candidates. They all will be breaking Ronald Reagan’s famous 11th Commandment, “Thou Shalt Not Speak ill of a Fellow Republican.” The historical problem is that Reagan broke his own commandment many times, even against a sitting Republican president. The deification of Reagan as a great Republican unifier is a myth and pundits should stop repeating it! Enjoy!

Sep 17, 2015

Almost nothing about Sir Walter Raleigh is true, or at the very least it’s all been highly exaggerated. He didn’t lay his cloak down for Queen Elizabeth, and he didn’t introduce potatoes and tobacco to Europe after his travels in the New World. He cuts a dashing figure through popular history, nonetheless. Put your romanticizing aside, Buzzkillers and hear the truth!

Sep 15, 2015

The Buzzkill has landed! Right in the heart of London, in Parliament Square. We interview Dr. Caroline Shenton, from the Parliamentary Archives, about myths surrounding the Houses of Parliament. We broadcast directly from Westminster Hall, the oldest and most important part of the building. Centuries of myths are struck down in this ye olde myth busting feste!

Sep 10, 2015

Did the Roman emperor Nero really fiddle while his glorious city of Rome burned? Politicians may often be bad guys, Buzzkillers, but there’s no good evidence for this level of mania in old Nero. It’s a good story, but that’s all it is, a story.

Sep 3, 2015

One of the most most popular history exercises in elementary schools these days is to have students learn about Quilt Codes and the Underground Railroad and make some designs themselves. Students are told that quilt patterns gave escaped slaves directions and warnings on their way to freedom. Alas, it’s a myth, Buzzkillers. But it’s a highly textured one. Geddit? Listen in!

Aug 27, 2015

Find any fraternity member who’s also a freshman history major. Get him drunk, and he’ll start reeling off myths like crazy. One of them will probably be that Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia (1729-1796) died by being crushed by a horse. While she was having sex with that horse! In bed! You can probably guess whether it’s true, Buzzkillers!

Aug 25, 2015

Inside Churchill’s Brain


The Literary Churchill, Buzzkillers! We finally get to hear what was going on inside the old bulldog’s head. Prof Jonathan Rose schools us on how Churchill’s reading, writing, and acting affected his decisions and political career. We even play Churchill Quote or No Quote!

Aug 20, 2015

You’ve probably always seen Napoleon depicted as a shorty. And you may have heard that his ambition was driven by a classic “short man’s complex.” Alas, it’s not true. At least not by his measured height. The nickname came about differently. Listen to the podcast, Buzzkillers, to find out how and why.

Aug 18, 2015

Here's an encore presentation of Episode 9 - Rosa Parks.

Meek and mild Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in 1950s Alabama because she was just tired after a long day at work. That’s mostly myth, and it obscures all the work that Mrs. Parks did, as well as over-simplifying the complicated politics of the civil rights movement. Join us as we interview Professor Jeanne Theoharis, author of The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks.

Read more at http://professorbuzzkill.libsyn.com/page/2/size/25#WMg7CxjmJ4clxE9w.99

Aug 14, 2015

Did Ben Franklin really discover electricity by flying a kite in a lightning storm? Well, he may have flown the kite, Buzzkillers, but knowledge of electricity’s been around a long, long time. Take the journey of discovery back in time with the old Professor.

Aug 7, 2015

Like all good Americans, I just had a PB&J for lunch. I couldn’t help thinking of George Washington Carver, the reputed inventor of peanut butter. You won’t be surprised to hear that the invention of peanut butter is much more complicated (and more important) than is usually told. Listen in over your own PB&J, Buzzkillers!

Jul 30, 2015

What a great way to get taxes lowered! Get your land-owning husband to agree to lower property taxes if you ride naked on horseback right down main street. That’s just what Lady Godiva agreed to do in 11th century England in order to get her tight-fisted husband to lighten up on his tenants. But is it true or just another mini-myth? Listen in Buzzkillers!

Jul 23, 2015

It’s an exciting and romantic tale: a future Roman hero has to be cut out of his mother’s womb as she’s dying in childbirth. The procedure is later named after the famous baby who survived — Julius Caesar. Alas, the story is as mythological as the one about storks delivering babies down chimneys. Hang on, I just heard a tiny thumb and a muffled cry coming from the living room…...

Jul 22, 2015

The Cuban Embassy in Washington DC re-opened yesterday, symbolizing the thaw in US-Cuba relations in the past year. This is all warm and fuzzy, but we look at one of the most important historical myths of US-Cuba relations since the start of the Cold War. There were many more missiles in the Cuban Missile Crisis than you probably think. And the “eye-to-eye” showdown between Kennedy and Khrushchev had both sides blinking!

Jul 21, 2015

It’s time to go over the top, Buzzkillers! We interview Professor Richard Grayson about the wildly popular BBC television series, BlackAdder, and how close it was to historical reality. There are probably more myths about war than any other part of history, and BlackAdder addressed many of them. Let’s “go forth!” and see if they got their history right.

Jul 16, 2015

Herr Hitler gets credit for an awful lot, Buzzkillers, including the invention of the Volkswagen. The story is that he demand a “people’s car” that the average German could afford. Alas, Buzzkillers, the story is much more complicated than that, and Adolph played only a small part in the invention of the cute, little VW Beetle.

Jul 14, 2015

The Buzzkill has landed! Right in the heart of London, in Parliament Square. We interview Dr. Caroline Shenton, from the Parliamentary Archives, about myths surrounding the Houses of Parliament. We broadcast directly from Westminster Hall, the oldest and most important part of the building. Centuries of myths are struck down in this ye olde myth busting feste!

Jul 9, 2015

Abner Doubleday didn’t invent baseball, and he didn’t do it in Cooperstown in 1839, Buzzkillers. Once again, a second- or third-hand story created a persistent myth. It was Alexander Cartwright in Manhattan in 1845. The Baseball Hall of Fame is still a great place to visit and I hope to run into you there sometime, Buzzkillers!

Jul 2, 2015

Cold War Berlin was a tense place, and certainly not the place to make an embarrassing gaffe in a major speech. So it’s a good thing that President Kennedy didn’t call himself a jam doughnut while speaking to a massive crowd in front of the Berlin Wall. Imagine the warning bells that would have gone off in Washington DC and Moscow if Cold Warriors suddenly thought, “oh no, we’re in a pastry war”!

Jun 25, 2015

Pity the poor Dutch, Buzzkillers!. They travelled all over the world and get almost no credit for it. Captain James Cook of England wasn’t the first European to discover Australia. Willem Janszoon was. Ever heard of him? I didn’t think so.

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