Posts by Professor Buzzkill
Did Abner Doubleday Invent Baseball?
Not only did Abner Doubleday not invent baseball, it wasn’t even invented in Cooperstown (the site of the Baseball Hall of Fame). Put away your hankies, Buzzkillers, America will survive this revelation. According to legend, a young man named Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, New York in the summer of 1839. But Doubleday was…
Read MoreDog Poop and Social Order in Recent History
Dr. Tim Newburn explains how modern societies (especially Britain) have organized themselves since the 1970s. He uses the new practice of cleaning up after dogs to bust myths about the orderliness of the “good old days.” The relatively recent phenomenon of “pooper scoopers” explains why some societies have been able to regulate themselves around a…
Read MoreRonald Reagan and Ann Sheridan for the Lead Parts in Casablanca?
Ronald Reagan was already a successful actor by the time Hal Wallis was getting around to producing Casablanca (which went on to become one of the most famous and best-loved movies of all time, Buzzkillers). And an early press release from Warner Brothers, the film’s studio, listed Reagan and Ann Sheridan in the lead roles. …
Read MoreRace and the US Supreme Court: Justice Deferred
Professor Vernon Burton joins us to explain the long and tortured history of the ways in which the United States Supreme Court has handled race. The Supreme Court is usually seen as the protector of our liberties: it ended segregation, was a guarantor of fair trials, and safeguarded free speech and the vote. But what’s…
Read MoreManhattan for $24? Best Real Estate Deal Ever! Or Was It?
Have you heard the one about 17th-century Europeans buying the entire island of Manhattan for $24 worth of beads and trinkets? It would have been the best real estate deal in history. Manhattan property now goes for close to $2,000 per square foot. But it’s an urban legend–and a myth ripe for the Professor Buzzkill…
Read More3-year-old “Chimney Sweep” Video
Jason Steinhauer of the History Communications Institute joins us to explain the veracity of the film clip of a “3-year-old chimney sweep” from the 1930s that’s gone viral on social media. Is it heart-breaking evidence of child labor, or is it something else? He also explains how it went viral and what that means for…
Read MoreVikings Didn’t Wear Horned Helmets
A Viking horned helmet would have been very impractical, and perhaps dangerous, in battle. A sword blow to the head might glance off a smooth helmet. But it would surely catch on a horn and send the helmet flying, leaving the Viking bareheaded and highly vulnerable to a death blow to the skull. There is…
Read MoreUSS Indianapolis Anniversary Encore
July 30th is the anniversary of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis during World War II in the Pacific in 1945. One of our early shows was about the stories that have arisen from that now-famous event. Books have been written, there was a Hollywood movie about the Indianapolis in 2016, but most of know…
Read MoreBefore Evil: Lenin, Stalin, and Putin
Professor Brandon Gauthier uses Lenin, Stalin, and Putin as case studies to try to help us understand the reasons why certain political leaders become monsters. By looking further into their pasts and noting the important changes in their attitudes towards other human beings, Gauthier shows how radical ideologies coupled with the erasure of any sense…
Read MorePeople Rarely Bathed in the Past?
You might have heard that people didn’t bathe very often in the past, at least in the distant past. A lot of other stories go along with this. To whit: —Mainland Europeans thought that Vikings were obsessed with cleanliness because they bathed every week. —Brides carried bouquets of flowers at their weddings in order to…
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