The Backstory: The Not So Innocent Origins of Trick or Treating

Trick or treating on Halloween is a rite of childhood. But it’s origins go back several thousand years and they were pretty dark, including human sacrifice. Centuries later, Irish and Scottish immigrants brought less violent traditions to America where Halloween evolved into something that again be…

The Backstory: The Diamond Necklace That Led to 17,000 Beheadings

The riots in France last week were all about the same things that caused the American Revolution in 1776 as well as the French Revolution in 1789. Distrust and disappointment in how the government treats us. In France 250 years ago, it was actually a stolen diamond necklace that began the downfall …

The Backstory: Halloween: Why We Love Bloody Horror Flicks

What is we love about the blood and gore of a great horror movie or story? And where and when did that spooky interest start? Turns out we’re programmed to love terror . . and Hollywood has made a bundle off of it. Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s …

The Backstory: Mark Cuban: Garbage Bags to Billionaire

How does someone go from being a working class kid to being a billionaire before he’s 40? This is Mark Cuban’s story! Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele

The Backstory: The Light Bulb Conspiracy

We all know the term "planned obsolescence”. But where did it begin? We head back to the light bulb manufacturers of the early 1900s to see where basic needs and business collided, and how nothing has ever been the same since. Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . On Fa…

The Backstory: Columbus Day? Who Really Discovered America?

It’s Columbus Day this Monday . . also called Indigenous People’s Day. But it begs the question, who really “discovered” America? Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele

The Backstory: How to Create a Female Serial Killer

Watching the state of Georgia and their botched attempt to execute murderer Christa Pike this past week has been pretty cringy. Only about 1% of murderers put to death in the U.S. are female. It brought to mind one of America’s most prolific female serial killers, Aileen Wuornos. She admitted to ki…

The Backstory: Death: How We Handle Our Expiration Date

Death . . the word makes us uneasy but we’re all sort of intrigued by it, thus our love of true crime, horror, mysteries, and graveyards. Death is the one thing we all have to face that we simply can’t rationally explain. Going back thousands of years it was the same for all humans. How do we celeb…

The Backstory: The Salem Witch Trials: Stoned to Death

We’re sort of living in a time when finger pointing has become a huge spectator sport. Accuse somebody you don’t like or agree with of something, and you can destroy their life. But human beings have a long history of vicious finger pointing. Case in point, the Salem witch trials of 1692. Feel fre…

The Backstory: Sex Before the Pill

A lot of people want sex . . but they don’t always want babies. That’s been the story of human sexuality for thousands of years. But the pill has only been around for about 65 years. So . . what did folks do to enjoy sex while minimizing the chance of procreation? Think poison plants, animal dung, …