Unhinged History

Unhinged History strives to bring you the stories you’ve never heard of in your history class, and this week is no exception.

Angie kicks off this week by exploring the Silk Road and the heist that liberated silkworms and opened the door for countries other than China to produce this incredibly luxurious textile.

Theresa veers off in a wildly different direction as she shares the story of Nakahama Manjiro, also known as John Mung. Manjiro starts off as a stranded Japanese 14-year-old fisherman, gets rescued by an American whaling ship, becomes the first Japanese man in the United States, and returns home just in time to be an interpreter for Commodore Matthew Perry coming to Japan to sell weapons.

This episode pairs well with:
Battle of Hastings and Bayeux Tapestry
The Fall of the Shogun and the Women's Army

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Look at Unhinged History, we are known for a couple of things. A love of the National Parks Service content, stories you’ve never heard, and banter. This episode is basically more of the same.
Theresa takes the entire episode to share the story of Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi and the Battle of Attu. For most of us, we never realized that the Battle of Attu was the only time since the War of 1812 that the United States lost ground to a foreign invader. Dick Laird, the man who killed Paul Tatsuguchi, would spend 50 years living with the trauma of this battle, only to share his burden with Laura Tasuguchi Davis, Paul’s daughter. The two develop an unlikely friendship.

This story pairs well with:
The time the Japanese bombed Brookings, Oregon, during WWII
 
Join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/UnhingedHistory
Email us: [email protected]
 
Head to Social Media and be Social With Us:
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@unhinged.history
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unhinged.historypod
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@unhingedhistory
 
Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe. As a small, independent podcast, we rely heavily on those small actions to help. They’re free, and so are you. Hopefully.

Angie and Theresa have quite a set of stories to share with you. Kicking things off, Angie shares the wild story of Saladin. This man held it down as the Sultan of Egypt and Syria during the Crusades. Getting his position after a ...ahem series of deaths, he proves to be an incredible ruler, who would give away his vast fortune throughout his life.

Theresa veers wildly from this story, as she shares the time a convent in medieval France started meowing, non-stop. The plague of the meowing nuns gets recorded in two books of the 1800’s. Theresa desperately tried to hunt down all of the details.

This episode pairs well with:
Eleanor of Aquitaine
The Dancing Plagues

What a week where Angie and Theresa do exactly what they do best.

Convinced she might run out of spies to cover, Theresa shares the story of Krystyna Skarbek, also known as Christine Granville. Born a literal Polish countess, Krystyna cycles through husbands and lovers before seeing her country invaded by Nazi Germany. Convinced she can fight for her homeland, she becomes the first female spy for MI6 during the war and serves Britain for six years, fighting on three different fronts.

Angie pivots sharply from WWII, as she shares the quaint and whimsical story of the Cottingley Fairies. Journey with us to a simpler time as two girls, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, stage photos of themselves with fairies, just to get out of trouble and accidentally kick off belief in the little folk, fooling even Sir Author Conan Doyle.

This story pairs well with:
The Night Witches
The Fox Sisters

Today we have a very special guest. The Unhinged History podcast welcomes Jenny Chan, author and podcaster, exploring the atrocities of the Pacific theater during World War II. In this episode, we explore her in-depth study of Chinese comfort women, Unit 731, and so much more.

Website: https://www.pacificatrocities.org/
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PacificFrontUntold