The Fan Who Infected a Movie Star

The sewing machine was once thought to be an impossible invention. It was such a complicated contraption that it would take more than one inventor, with more than one good idea, to make it work. Each of these inventors, including the notorious Isaac Singer, wanted the credit (and ...  Show more

Claude Shannon was brilliant. He was the Einstein of computer science... only he loved "fritterin' away" his time building machines to play chess, solve Rubik's cubes and beat the house at roulette.If Shannon had worked more diligently - instead of juggling, riding a unicycle and ...  Show more

A frequent co-star of Roscoe Arbuckle’s, Mabel Normand was the definitive female screen comedienne of her generation. But it wasn’t her association with Arbuckle that brought Normand’s career to an abrupt close and her life to an early end. Today we’ll interrogate Hollywood Babyl ...  Show more

In this episode I tell podcaster Sarah Marshall a truly wild story I uncovered about the first recognized case of Munchausen Syndrome (Factitious Disorder) in the United States. An alleged professional wrestler and American folk anti-hero called the Indiana Cyclone faked symptoms ...  Show more

This week, Eric Michael Garcia tells Sarah about America’s barely forgotten pastime, plus the Supreme Court’s long history of horrifying decisions. Digressions include due process, The Evil Dead, and what Hitler admired about the United States.

Here's where Eric: ...

Mark Wolynn is the director of the Family Constellation Institute in San Francisco. The focus of his work is healing trauma. Wolynn believes that the traumas of our parents, grandparents, and even great grandparents can live on in us—particularly if they are unresolved. If you’re ...  Show more