P.T. Barnum

Greg Jenner is joined by Dr Corin Throsby and Stuart Goldsmith to look at early cultural fandom in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although many consider Beatlemania to be the start of what is now considered fan culture, Greg and his guests consider some much earlier and often hilar ...  Show more

When Germany's biggest magazine Stern announced in 1983 that they'd found the long-lost diaries of Adolf Hitler, the world was poised to rewrite history. Unfortunately, they were fake. In this new series of The History Podcast, The Hitler Diaries Scandal, Andrew Hunter Murray goe ...  Show more

This 2012 episode from prior hosts Sarah and Deblina covers P.T. Barnum the circus man, museum entrepreneur, and freak show runner. Barnum attracted people to his American Museum through shrewd advertising, and he wasn't afraid of a hoax.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy in ...  Show more

PT Barnum may be better known as the loose subject of the movie The Greatest Showman, but his life was so much more than that work of fiction. A master of entertainment, an entrepreneur, and a genius of publicity, he built a career on feeding public curiosity with his grand illus ...  Show more

Tickling tigers one day, and cracking jokes to expectant crowds the next, Bob Carlisle was a circus showman, agent, clown and big cat tamer. In the third episode of our new series on this larger-than-life character of the Victorian age, David Musgrove speaks to historian John Woo ...  Show more

Circus sideshows have fascinated people for centuries. From the bearded lady to PT Barnum, contortionists to fire eaters, people have flocked to see the peculiarities of the 10-in-1 show. From their early beginnings at Bartholomew Fair to their decline in the politically correct ...  Show more