In the often-chaotic society of sixteenth-century England, many people enthusiastically consumed true crime narratives in songs, news, and theater plays. Then as now, true crime narratives often centered on community crime-solving as a way of dealing with sensational and upsetting violence. Whether in the form of domestic tragedies or elaborate revenge dramas, true crime played to packed houses in the theaters of Elizabethan London. Amid religious and political upheaval, the popularity of true crime attested not just to evolving habits of media consumption, but also to powerful desires for communal order and mutual responsibility. In this episode, Lucy and guest host Dr. Rachel Clark examine true love, strong hate, and swift revenge – and why audiences tend to love a good murder.

Hosts: Lucy and Rachel

​​Defying Nazis and gender norms, Marlene Dietrich was far more than an Oscar-nominated actress… though she was that too. From Weimar Berlin’s cabaret scene to golden-age Hollywood and beyond, Dietrich carved a distinctive path for herself, and crafted an iconic star image. While that star image relied in large part on a cloud of golden hair and long, elegant legs, Dietrich was also often gender-non-conforming, on and off the stage and screen. This podcast episode looks at her international, multilingual, and intermittently scandalous life and career.

​Host: Lucy

It's our birthday! Footnoting History first launched in February of 2013. To celebrate turning ten, all of our current hosts (yes, all!) picked out their favorite historical footnotes to share. This episode contains anecdotes from a variety of centuries covering things like music, fruit, medieval royalty, and presidential inaugurations. We hope you'll enjoy them as much as we do.
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Hosts: Christine, Kristin, Josh, Lucy, Samantha

Rebecca Gratz helped to shape the vibrant cultural life of Philadelphia after the Revolutionary War. A second-generation immigrant, she supported artists and public institutions, and pioneered co-ed religious and cultural education for American Jewish children. She lived a remarkable life, and lived long enough to be photographed. She is also sometimes credited with being the real-life prototype for one of the nineteenth century’s most popular heroines, Sir Walter Scott’s Rebecca.

Host: Lucy

From haunted houses to hysterical historical happenings, our team is here again with snippets of creepy stories from the past to celebrate Halloween.

​Hosts: Christine, Lucy, and Kristin

Dancer, court favorite, and popular celebrity in late 17th-century England, Jeffrey Hudson was distinguished not chiefly by his achievements, but by his size. Born with dwarfism, Hudson was known as “Lord Minimus.” His diminutive stature and social ableism meant that his court career was dependent in some ways on his novelty. A favorite of Queen Henrietta Maria, Jeffrey Hudson was painted by Van Dyck, and frequently figured in court entertainments. This podcast looks at his life, and what it can tell us about disability in early modern England.

Host: Lucy

You asked, we answered! Join Footnoting History's producers for our first-ever episode entirely dedicated to answering your questions about everything and anything related to history and our show.

Hosts: Christine and Kristin

​Ambitious, resilient, and internationally famous, Anna May Wong was one of the biggest movie stars of the 1930s. She had her first starring role in Hollywood before she was 20. She had also left Hollywood twice by the time she was 30, frustrated by the racism she faced as a Chinese-American woman. Throughout her career, she had to fight racism and censorship rules to get leading roles. But she also made international headlines for her performances on stage and screen. Though comparatively obscure today, Anna May Wong was a celebrity and style icon in a time when the options for women’s roles were being redefined in art and life.

​Host: Lucy

Poet and activist, scholar and politician, Sarojini Naidu inhabited many roles. The daughter of privilege, she enjoyed an elite education... defied societal norms in marrying for love. Before women students could receive degrees, she studied at universities in both India and England, including at Girton College, Cambridge. A gifted poet, she was known as the "Nightingale of India," and wrote about topics including her own experience of chronic illness. She was involved in activism and politics, supporting women's suffrage in England, and working internationally for the cause of Indian independence from the 1920s onwards. This podcast examines both her extraordinary life and her distinctive literary voice.

Host: Lucy

Oh my gosh, we're back again! Our annual tradition continues as this year we bring you yet another round of creepy and fantastic history for the scariest holiday of the year.

Podcasters: Christine, Lucy, Kristin

How did Ivanhoe become a wildly popular school text? And what happened to the interpretation of the text when it did? Across the Anglophone world, Scott’s medieval England became reified as a time and place of chivalric adventure, despite the novel’s often ironic tone and often pointed social criticisms. This episode examines how Sir Walter Scott’s imagined past became something very different as it was reinterpreted in popular culture, in sometimes sinister ways. 

Podcaster: Lucy

There are some things that almost any Hollywood film set in the Middle Ages can count on. It will be set in England. There will be a lot of forests. The Norman nobility will oppress the Saxon peasantry. Other things are optional but frequent. There may be a tournament or a siege. There may be a reference to the Crusades. Robin Hood may turn up. There may be a trial for witchcraft. Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe contains all of these things, and since its publication in 1819, this runaway bestseller has helped to shape Anglophone ideas of the Middle Ages. 

Podcaster: Lucy

​Mohenjo Daro was a vast metropolis, with elaborate urban infrastructure… and largely mysterious urban organization. It was a center of the Indus Valley civilization. Located in what is now Pakistan and northwestern India, the cities of this civilization covered territory roughly the size of western Europe. Because its language still hasn’t been deciphered by modern scholars, there’s still a lot we don’t know about it. But this hasn’t stopped modern scholars, writers, politicians, and artists from engaging with and fantasizing about it. This episode looks at what history can tell us about the art and culture — and water management — of this ancient civilization.

Podcaster: Lucy

Plucked from obscurity to become the wife of an emperor, Irene of Athens went on to become regent and empress in her own right. A ruthless strategist, an international diplomat, and an intelligent politician, she was also an influential participant in Byzantium’s early medieval controversy over icons, which some saw as threatening imperial power. This episode explores her life, reign, and historical reputation.

Host: Lucy

What does Beowulf have to do with the linguistics of African-American history? The same man studied them both… and his scholarship on medieval literature helped frame his search for linguistic communities.  This podcast examines the career of Lorenzo Dow Turner, celebrated linguist known as the Father of Gullah Studies. Turner studied the language, ideas, and culture of Black island communities in the southeastern United States, and created recognition for that culture in so doing.

Podcaster: Lucy

The Aztecs are famous as conquerors, as sometime cannibals, and as, eventually, the conquered of an expanding European empire. This episode goes beyond human sacrifice to look at how Aztec beliefs about the body, religion, and nature were reflected in their practices of medicine and healing. Dismissed as sorcerers by some Spanish observers, physicians were significant to Aztec culture, and active in providing healing, surgery, and preventative care.
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Podcaster: Lucy

The civil service examinations taken by the bureaucrats and administrators of imperial China were not merely academic. They also served as social rites of passage. Moreover, they were designed to test the moral aptitudes of test-takers for a lifetime of upholding Confucian ideals. Naturally, they were a source of individual stress, as well as a key part of imperial power and authority for centuries, outlasting several dynasties. This episode looks at the roles civil service examinations played in premodern China, and the mythos that grew around them.

​Podcaster: Lucy

Mulan is a story without a single historical precedent. From a medieval ballad to early modern narratives to plays and operas, it’s been told over and over again. Mulan’s exploits are always presented as having happened “once upon a time,” anytime from the Han dynasty to the early Tang period. These stories about a fierce heroine and her loyalties tell us a lot about changing ideas of gender and cultural identity in China.

Podcaster: Lucy

​Ghosts, vampires, and more lurk in this year's installment of History for Halloween. Join us for our traditional episode featuring bits of history perfect for the creepiest time of the year.

Podcasters: Christine, Elizabeth, Kristin, Lesley, and Lucy.

Ache in the head, running of the nose, and the throat being pierced by pain like a spear: medieval descriptions of common ailments are often familiar, as well as startlingly vivid. This podcast episode looks at everyday remedies in medieval Europe. From chicken and barley to spiced wine, many such remedies were delicious and nutritious. Administering medicine — from comfort food to careful concoctions — was based on both education and experience.

Podcaster: Lucy