Badass of the Week Returns, Part One: George Rogers Clark

Its a Badass Badass of the Week Week here on Ridiculous History! In the first part of this special two-part series, Ben, Noel and Max welcome Ben Thompson and Dr. Pat Larash, the co-hosts of the legendary Badass of the Week podcast, to explore the life of a larger-than-life Revolutionary War hero y…

CLASSIC: That Time Ohio and Michigan Almost Went To War

In this week's Classic episode, Ben, Noel and Max explore how a misunderstanding of the geography of the Great Lakes started a feud, known as the Toledo War, between the state of Ohio and a territory called Michigan. Tune in to Ridiculous History to hear how the conflict between these lands was sol…

The Ridiculously Inspiring Story of Free Public Restrooms, Part Two: The Rise of CEPTIA

In this week's Classic episode, Ben, Noel and Max explore how a misunderstanding of the geography of the Great Lakes started a feud, known as the Toledo War, between the state of Ohio and a territory called Michigan. Tune in to Ridiculous History to hear how the conflict between these lands was sol…

The Ridiculously Inspiring Story of Free Public Restrooms, Part One: Everyone Has To Poop

Today a great many people in the United States take free toilets for granted. Yet, as Ben, Noel and Max discover in the first part of this two-part episode, there was a long -- and ridiculous -- road from the origin of public toilets to the free facilities we enjoy today. Tune in to learn how the U…

CLASSIC: The Rise and Fall of Local Scrip: Alternative Currencies of the Great Depression

Have you ever been so broke that you ended up creating your own currency? It may sound like a crazy idea today, but during the Great Depression multiple communities actually created and circulated their own forms of local currency. And this wasn't a lark -- it was a matter of survival. Listen in to…

The Kingdom of Callaway: That Time One Missouri County (Sort Of, Maybe) Became An Independent Nation

Despite the misleading name, the U.S. "Civil War" was anything but. As North fought South, this short-lived, bloody conflict fundamentally shifted the course of the country. Yet if you go just a bit further west to Missouri, you'll encounter a story history largely forgot: amid the chaos, a tiny co…

The Ridiculous History of Saturday Morning Cartoons, Part Two: The Fall of a Grift

For several decades, Saturday morning cartoons were a massive industry in the United States. Every weekend, millions of American children tuned in to watch their favorite shows... and, later, bug their parents for related toys. The studios made bank off this, yet it was only a matter of time before…

CLASSIC: The Attack of the Japanese Balloon Bombs

Picture this: It's late 1944, and you, like thousands of other people on the west coast of North America, have noticed bizarre, jellyfish-like objects floating through the sky. You call the local authorities, maybe even the Air Force, only to be ignored. You don't see anything about this in the pap…

The Ridiculous History of Saturday Morning Cartoons, Part One: A Golden Age

In the economic boom of a post-World War II United States the sudden affordability of television fundamentally rocked the nation. From the 1950s on, millions of kids in America grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons... yet, as it turns out, these shows were often light on the writing -- and hea…

People Used to Do Very Weird Drugs, Part One: Broomsticks, Sailors and Vikings

Today, everyone knows the potential dangers of both illegal and legal drugs. Some are more popular and more widely-accepted than others (shoutout to coffee!), but across time and cultures, it's an open secret that pretty much every civilization was doing one drug or another. Sometimes for ritualist…