Everything is awful forever both in life, and podcast. An update about our hiatusi and our future

As autumn draws to a close and the chill creeps in, follow Jess and Philippa into the cold and dark as they look at the misadventures of Floyd Collins.

It's been a bit of a hiatus, but nothing is going to stop Jess and Philippa from crawling out of their graves on Halloween. Join us around the table as we listen to the rappings of spirits, and look at the tricks of the trade in the (not so) otherworldly lives of Victorian spirit mediums. Sources:TBA

We wanted to do an Easter-themed episode but have already covered Mary Toft, the woman who gave birth to rabbits. May we interest you in some Easter...floods? Grab your water wings and hope they'll keep you afload as Jess and Philippa dive into the very non-watery substances that have plagued humankind. 

Join Jess and Philippa as they set sail off the west coast of Ireland with Grace O'Malley, or Granuaile, a woman whose piratical journey would take her from the Irish seas to the throne of Queen Elizabeth Tudor.

Why do so many monarchs get stuck with the nickname of "...the Mad"? It can't possible be because they're...oh...nevermind. Welcome to the return of the Mad Monarchs series. Join Jess and Philippa as they look into the lives of four teen rulers who should never have been allowed to rule. Content warning for brief mentions of sexual assault in the episode. 

Let's talk about sects. Join Jess and Philippa for another episode on the Wickedest Man in the World, Aleister Crowley. Magical societies, demonic battles, and newspaper scandals: just another regular day in the life of Britain's most famous dark wizard.Sources: Churton, T. (2011) Aleister Crowley: The Biography. London: Watkins.   Lachman, G. (2014) Aleister Crowley: Magick, Rock and Roll, and the Wickedest Man in the World. New York: Tarcher 

Known to history since for over 4000 years, and it's only recently that we've begun to understand it. In the meantime, people had to endure some "cures" that may have been worse than the disorder - especially since most of them did very little help in the first place. Join Jess and Philippa as they look into the confusion surrounding epileptic seizures, and how it was dealt with in the ancient world and medieval period. Sources:Sugg, R. (2011) Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires: The History of Corpse Medicine from the Renaissance to the Victorians. London and New York: Routledge.Temkin, O. (1945) The Falling Sickness: A History of Epilepsy from the Greeks to the Beginnings of Modern Neurology. Baltimore and London: John Hopkins University Press.

CW: Animal experimentationWe know what you're thinking: when will Jess and Philippa release their next episode?! January 1st was more than three weeks ago! If you want to know how we read your minds, join us as we delve into the Russian search for the psi particle and the secrets of Project Stargate. 

Knock knockWho's there?JessJess who?Jester jokes are difficult to ad lib when you're Jess and Philippa. Join us as we prance along the bell-strewn history of jesters and joculators, and find out that the life of a joker wasn't all shits and giggles.

Join Jess and Philippa as they accompany Crowley up to the heights of his greatest accomplishments as well as down to the depths of failure and despair.Sources: Churton, T. (2011) Aleister Crowley: The Biography. London: Watkins.   Crowley, A. (1909) The Book of the LawOriginally published  as part of ΘΕΛΗΜΑ in London by the  A∴A∴ Lachman, G. (2014) Aleister Crowley: Magick, Rock and Roll, and the Wickedest Man in the World. New York: Tarcher 

As we approach Black Friday, join Jess and Philippa as we dive into one of the many ways in which labour has been exploited in the name of profit. It's time at last to work out what they really did in the Victorian workhouse.38g0j45W0kVVNjrSbudl

CW: Violence against children, child deathGood childcare is notoriously difficult to find - and expensive when you do come across it. And if children are really the future, the Victorians were having none of it. Join Jess and Philippa as they look into the grim options available to many a late-Victorian mother and the money-hungry killers that preyed on their children.

They were your childhood friends. You played with them every day. You told them all your secrets. And while you grew up, they stayed the same. And when you left home, they...waited. This Halloween, join Jess and Philippa as they look into two of the most famous dolls to haunt your nightmares. Sources:Brittle, G. (1981) The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed + Lorraine Warren. New York: Maymalkin Media.Ocker, J. W. (2020) Cursed Objects: Strange but True Stories of the World's Most Infamous Items. Philadelphia: Quirk Books.    Robert the Doll Official Website: http://robertthedoll.orghttps://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/story-behind-robert-the-dollhttps://allthatsinteresting.com/annabelle-doll

This week we look at the greatest mountaineer, poet, chessmaster, spy, and wizard of all time: Aleister Crowley. Join Jess and Philippa as they look into his humble beginnings from a cupboard under the stairs (sort of kind of not really), his initiation into the Golden Dawn, and his role in the most epic wizard battle to ever shake the streets of London. Sources: Churton, T. (2011) Aleister Crowley: The Biography. London: Watkins.   Crowley, A. (2021) The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography Part I-III. Houston Texas: The Winged Globe Libary. Originally published by Mandrake Press as The Spirit of Solitude in 1929.Lachman, G. (2014) Aleister Crowley: Magick, Rock and Roll, and the Wickedest Man in the World. New York: Tarcher

Join Jess and Philippa for a quintessential Awful Forever episode. Witches! Boats! Henry VIII! Murder most foul, and maybe a little murder most pleasant - if you're a king on the hunt for witches.Sources:https://www.britannica.com/story/acts-of-union-uniting-the-united-kingdom https://www.scotlandmag.com/james-vi-and-witch-trials/ https://www.historyextra.com/period/stuart/king-james-vi-i-hunted-witches-hunter-devilry-daemonologie/

If you're having trouble getting started with your week, Jess and Philippa are ready to help you get over those Monday morning blues by getting into the (fashion) details of Victorian mourning rituals. Wilde may have thought "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months" but Victorian women could be confined to black bombazine for two years at a time. Sources: Arnold, C. (2006) Necropolis: London and its Dead. London: Simon & Schuster.  

Sometimes you throw in your lot with rogues who convince you to board their ramshackle vessel and go die in the Arctic. Sure, you might perish in the frozen darkness - but what happened to the person who abandoned you there? Join Jess and Philippa as they see what Vilhjalmur Stefansson, leader of the doomed Karluk and the  Canadian Arctic Expedition, got up to after he left his previous crew to die.

What do you do when your graveyards are at capacity and everyone's simply dying to get in? Join Jess and Philippa as they confront burial reform in Victorian London and the corpse-ridden scandals that shook the city.Sources: Arnold, C. (2006) Necropolis: London and its Dead. London: Simon & Schuster. Jackson, L. (2014) Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Walker, George. (1839) Gatherings from Graveyards.https://wellcomecollection.org/works/y95wwnen

It's a Monday and we're all feeling a little down. Sickly, even. But you can always join Jess and Philippa for a small pick-me-up and some sound advice about achieving a healthy glow that is literally radiant.

Do you ever feel torn between an endless list of podcasts to listen to and that massive pile of books sitting there...judging you for not reading right now? Right. Now? Why not join Jess and Philippa instead, as they flip through the pages of anthropodermic bibliopegy - books bound in human leather.  SourcesBrooke-Hitching, E. (2020) The Madman's Library: The Strangest Books, Manuscripts and Other Literary Curiosities from History. London: Simon & Schuster.Flanders, F. (2011) The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime. London: HarperCollins Publishers.Rosenbloom, M. (2020) Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Flesh. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The Anthropodermic Book Project: https://anthropodermicbooks.org/Needham, P. (2014) A Binding of Skin in the Houghton Library: A Recommendationhttp://www.princeton.edu/~needham/Bouland.pdf 

Worry not, for Jess and Philippa will explain to you how to do the perfect crime. If you don't understand it maybe it's just because you're not smart enough; not like two white, wealthy, teenage boys from the 1920's, who were certainly smarter than everyone else, definitely able  to flawlessly execute  perfect crime. Sources:  For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz Age Chicago By Simon Baatz (2008) 

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It's that time of the week in which we discuss that time of the month. Join Jess and Philippa as they look at the mysteries of the medieval womb, and the monstrous ways in which women were misunderstood.Sources:Hartnell, J. (2019) Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages. London: Wellcome Collection.Miller, S. (2010) Medieval Monstrosity and the Female Body. New York, London: Routledge. 

Ever wished that you could be a royal? Who doesn'tt? Well, sign up to our three-step Rags to Royalty program, inspired by Madame de Maintenon, that will 100% absolutely take you to queenhood in no time. Sources:Françoise d’Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon (1635—1719) - John J. Conley – 9-(2021) https://iep.utm.edu/mainteno/ Madame de Maintenon – Louis XIV’s secret wife -Moniek (2018) https://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/the-royal-mistresses-series/madame-de-maintenon-louis-xivs-secret-wife/ Undercover Queen - Caroline Weber - 2009 t.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/books/review/Weber-t.html Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon - The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica –(2021) https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francoise-dAubigne-marquise-de-Maintenon

Pocahontas. John Smith. The love. The colours. The wind. You've seen the movie. Now bear witness to the journal ramblings of the hero himself. John Smith, British explorer (2021) https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Smith-British-explorer First Prison in Colonial Virginia (2017) http://www.virginiaplaces.org/government/firstprison.html Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend (2015) her-life-and-legend.htm">https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/pocahontas-her-life-and-legend.htm John Smith of Jamestown: Facts & Biography (2013) captain-john-smith.html">https://www.livescience.com/40898-captain-john-smith.html John Smith (2020) https://historicjamestowne.org/history/pocahontas/john-smith/ The True Story of Pocahontas (2017) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-pocahontas-180962649/ Following John Smith - Stingray Point and another shallop (2006) https://cbf.typepad.com/johnsmith/2006/07/following_john__2.html

If there's one thing you've come to expect from our history podcast it's that we look at the very bluntest edge technology available. And where else to look other than the operating theatre? Join Jess and Philippa as they look at two surgeons: one, the paragon of his age just before the advent of anaesthesia; the other, a French surgeon who got up close and personal with the dark side of the Sun King.  Sources:Fitzharris, L. (2017) The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine. New York: Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Porter, R. (2004) Blood and Guts: A Short History of Medicine. New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company.Snow, S. (2006) Operations Without Pain: The Practice and Science of Anaesthesia in Victorian Britain. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Van de Laar, A. (2018) Under the Knife: A History of Surgery in 28 Remarkable Operations. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Artichokes! Church brawls! Bounties! Tennis matches to the death, fought beneath the cold gaze of the indifferent stars. Pimp knights. Join Jess and Philippa for one last look at the life of the walking catastrophe also known as Caravaggio.

We've looked at demonic possession in Demoniac and Double Demons, but how exactly does one get rid of them once they've invaded your home, made a mess, and insulted your mother-in-law? In this episode, Jess and Philippa look at some of the ways in which both Catholic and Protestant authorities have tried to politely suggest that it might be time for everyone to get on home.  So join us for tales of possession, faith, and potatoes.Sources:Levack, B. (2013) The Devil Within: Possession and Exorcism in the Christian West. New Haven, London: Yale University Press.Sands, K. (2004) Demon Possession in Elizabethan England. Westport, Connecticut, London: Praeger.Young, F. (2016) A History of Exorcism in Catholic Christianity.Cambridge: Palgrave MacMillan.

Art! Betrayal! Stabbing! Also, what rhymes with testicle? Join Jess and Philippa as they continue with the Blood and Butter epic tale of one artist testing the limits of just how many people he can stab. Caravaggio can get away with murder...but what about a mean poem?

We had one demon, yes. But what about second demons? Another turn of the screw, so to speak. In addition being possessed by paraphrase, Jess and Philippa are obsessed (possessed) by the case of June and Jennifer Gibbons. Join us as we look at this peculiar case that has so much in common with historical cases of alleged demonic possession.

We've always known that Jess might not be quite right, and Philippa suspects that she might finally understand why. Join the demonic duo as they weigh up the pros and cons of  possession, as well as two common modern explanations for this phenomenon.Sources:Almond, P. (2004) Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early Modern England: Contemporary Texts and their Cultural Contexts. Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo: Cambridge University Press.Levack, B. (2013) The Devil Within: Possession and Exorcism in the Christian West. New Haven, London: Yale University Press.Young, F. (2016) A History of Exorcism in Catholic Christianity.Cambridge: Palgrave MacMillan.

We've covered the temptations of butter. But have you considered the essential eroticism of fruit? This week, Jess and Philippa talk about the early life of Caravaggio (aka the human dumpster fire) and his fetish for shoulders, lizards, and the fruits to be plucked in the Garden of EvilInstacart link: http://instacart.oloiyb.net/5Vqm3

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Shakespeare was talking about a different Henry, but our favourite Tudor would have had a few reasons to keep up at night. After all, his servants needed time to throughly kiss his bed before his head could hit the pillow. Join Jess and Philippa as they look at poison prevention in the Renaissance period. Even if you have a few unicorn horns or bezoars, you'd better hope you have a strong stomach! 

Join Jess and Philippa as they explore the importance of context in a sweeping history of 1500 years, in which empires rose and fell, towers were buttered, battles were fought, and people were excessively tortured - all in the name of some Middle Eastern Jewish guy. Also, it's about art, maybe?

Strap in and hold onto your bottoms because this week we're going monster hunting. Join Jess and Philippa as they chat about the Whipping Toms and the London Monster: criminals with an unhealthy fixation on the female derrière.

If you've ever gotten stuck with a nickname that made you want to burn down an entire kingdom just to abolish it from the face of the earth, then this episode may be for you. Join Jess the Incorrigible and Philippa the Long-Suffering as they look at some of history's rulers whose names reflected - or altered - the course of their rule.

CW: Graphic medical descriptionsPhilippa's back from her time abroad in the land of disease and she's got syphilis...facts. Join her and Jess for a sexy discussion about disease, eugenics, medical experiments, and blaming foreigners and minority groups for your problems.

Join Jess and Fauxlippa (Rosie Cowling) as she tell us about the wheelings and dealings of the the biggest fence in the U.S. The criminal, exciting kind, not the keeps-your-chickens-in kind. A massive criminal enterprise, a school to teach kids how to pick pocket. She was the best. 

From the most powerful Italian families comes a tale of promiscuity, mistresses, bribery, rackets and murder. No,no, not the mafia, but the Vatican of course! Join Jess and Philippa??? Rosie, the backup ginger exploring the wild sex parties and crimes of this mob boss pope and his equally terrible children. Everyone run, he comes the popo....pe. 

Is your current desk job getting you down? Is the capitalist system leeching off your hard labour? Console yourself with the fact that some Victorian jobs involved actual leeches. Join Jess and Philippa as they search for new jobs among the Sin Eaters, Mudlarks, and Funeral Mutes of the Victorian underbelly.

We've looked at the inventive methods of execution that were designed to get attention (and at least a few chuckles), but who was it that had to ensure that the death sentence was carried out to the letter? Join Jess and Philippa for a game of hangman and look into the complicated, stigmatised existences (and fashions) of those who ruled the noose. 

This week, we are so lucky to have Moxie LaBouche, the host of Your Brain On Facts, pay our podcast a visit! Join Jess, Philippa, and Moxie as they cling to the wood-and-canvas wings of the outdated, ramshackle planes flown by the Russian Night Witches during WWII and look into the lives of those who are often lost to history and the impact of those whom we choose as a culture to memorialise. 

If we've learned anything, during our time podcasting (and that may be up for debate), it's that nothing good happens on a boat. Join us onboard the Batavia, which set out from Texel in the Netherlands in 1628 and never returned. It would, however, carry its passengers to the site of one of the bloodiest, murderiest (technically not a) mutiny in naval history.CW: Sexual assault, child death, and murder

Join Jess and Philippa as they look at one of the greatest boat-based love stories of all time: that of Blackbeard and Black Sam Bellamy. Plunder, booty, and most important of all...REVENGE! Get your best pirate voice going and dive with us into this tale of broken hearties.

This week, see what we're getting up on Patreon with one of our older episodes dated back to Halloween (a.k.a. back when things were kind of okay). Join Philippa and Jess as they look at a couple of monsters from eastern lore and one very real life monster who took the idea of eternal one-sided love way too far.Content warning for child death in one story and necrophilia in another. Also, turns out we got super confused about the origin story of the langsuir. Turns out no one was owls to begin with. Go figure.

Hold onto your heads (and perhaps your limbs, bowels, and sundry bits) because this week, Jess and Philippa are sticking their necks out to peer at public execution. Just how (and why) did England desire to despatch its dastardly denizens? Hang around to find out!

It's a sad fact that children go missing every day. Sometimes, if one is lucky, they're found once more. But after a long separation, how can you be certain that you've got the right kid? Join Jess and Philippa as they dive back into the early 1900s and the swamps of Louisiana to discuss one of the most baffling disappearances of the century.

It's 1726 and all of London is abuzz with the news of a woman who has allegedly given birth to seventeen rabbits. Join Jess and Philippa as they explore the messy affair and the full potential of a Georgian woman's reproductive power.

Hold onto your everything because, this week, Burke and Hare are headed to Surgeon's Hall and need some body to go with them. Join Jess and Philippa as they shadow the resurrection men as well as those with a more "go get 'em" attitude.

It's the mid 1850s and one thing is on everyone's lips (and perhaps their freshly laundered handkerchiefs): tuberculosis. Deadly, incurable, and oh so incredibly fashionable. Join Jess and Philippa as they look at what was then called "the white plague", "consumption", or even "graveyard cough" and how the Victorians cultivated its sickly pallor in order to give themselves a moral, intellectual - and above all trendy - glow.

In these difficult times, we're all learning new lessons about hygiene and what not to put in our mouths (lookin' at you, Greg). Join Jess and Philippa as they look back on the 20s of yester-century and the finger-lickin' awfulness of the Radium Girls.

The countryside is underrated. Lush fields, picturesque cows, spring in bloom, and middle class sex (maybe?) cults. Join Jess and Philippa in the Abode of Love as they discuss the Agapemonites, led by Henry Prince, and their involvement in the lives of the Nottidge family. Cults, abductions, madhouses, and scandal: it's all topsy turvey in the Abode of Love.

 How do you piss off a pirate? Take away the ‘P’! We'd apologise for the the terribly pirate humour and non-stop "aaaarghs", but we don't think we'll ever be sorry. Join Jess and Philippa as they teach their parrots to swear, adjust their eyepatches, and learn about the pirate code (it's more of a guideline, really). 

It's our final episode on Bedlam and we're all out of episode titles. Join us this week as Bedlam is dragged kicking and screaming to its new home in St. George's Fields and the 19th century. 

A family vacation, cruising on out in the blue of the Bahamas...just what could possibly go wrong? This week, let Jess and Philippa stoke your thalassophobia as we dive into a story about death on the ocean and surprising escapes.

Royal assassination attempts, criminal lunacy and...Quakers? When we last looked at Bedlam, it was wobbling uneasily on its shaky masonry. But who's going to be the one to push it over the edge? This week, Jess and Philippa take a look at the dual waves of prison and asylum reform that would soon sweep Bedlam out of its chains and into the modern age.

This week, join two rum runnin' baby vamps as we speak easy about 1920s prohibition and the G-man's attempts to give America the screaming meemies. It's not all banana oil, so let's get boiled as an owl and jive to the toils of the roaring 20s.

This week, Jess and Philippa continue their journey into Bedlam. Join us as we sneak between its tightly locked doors, through the shaky, crumbling structure of the building, eavesdrop on its medical triumvirate, and chat with one of its inmates about a fiendish invention.

Content warning for brief mention of sexual assault in the episode.As we look away from the awful world of current events, it's a good time to remind ourselves that things could always be more...interesting. Join Jess and Philippa this week as we talk about rulers who thought that they might be blamed for the weather, held court martials (and executions) for rats, or just tied their guests to water wheels to watch them drown.

The New Year is here, and everything's gone to Bedlam. Join Jess and Philippa this week as we look at the beginnings of this infamous asylum, which would be founded in the thirteenth century and, over the centuries, come to haunt the minds and cultural works of the English - eventually embodying the very idea of madness itself.

This week, Jess and Philippa encourage you to make Great Britain great again with cannibal pre-Christmas feasts, druidic sacrifices, wode paint, and generalised screaming. Also, some great hair tips. 

It's Monday and the madness continues with medieval madnessess of melancholy and mania. Also, we can't stop alliterating, please send help. This week, Jess and Philippa look at how medieval Christianity blended with classical Greek and Roman beliefs about madness, and how emotional and behavioural disturbances were analysed through the lenses of mania and melancholia.

Now that December is upon us, Jess and Philippa anticipate your New Year's resolutions of health, wealth, and happiness by giving you a couple of wellbeing tips. 99% of doctors agree that 90 day fasts are NOT the way to the beach body you've always dreamed of (a beach body is a body buried on the beach. Get it right, this year). 99% of doctors would suggest NOT starving people to death in order to steal their wealth. This week, we look at the 1% that would say otherwise. The doctor will see you now.

This week, Jess and Philippa's Ship of Fools embarks upon the sea of madness. Join us in this introductory episode to historical perspectives on insanity. What behaviours crossed the line? What caused "madness", and what cured it? This week, we dive into the Old Testament, archaic Greece, Hippocratic theory, and more.

This week, listen to Jess go mad with power as she and Philippa explore medieval feudalism through the lens of a Choose Your Own Adventure, dystopia style.

This week, Jess and Philippa go back to 1845 to look at the Great Hunger and England's response to a starving nation. 

What's that rapping on your window? That shadow on the wall? Only Jess and Philippa who can't let go of Halloween and want to look at one more monster before the Christmas wave hits us. This week we invite vampires over the threshold and look at the different beliefs surrounding them in Eastern European folklore as well as the problems that they posed to the Christian faith.

A violent murder. A locked house that no assailant could have left. A ghoulish presence in a house that should be empty. Who or what killed Philip Peters? And what's that looming over your shoulder right now? This week, Jess and Philippa get into some spooky history.

This week we explore the true meaning of checking oneself before wrecking oneself. The loss of the French frigate, the Medusa, was caused by gross negligence and incompetence, and resulted in the cruel and needless loss of over a hundred lives.

Halloween is drawing near, and it's time for a little historical horror. This week, Jess and Philippa look at the how do's and who do's of voodoo, and how it's not too bad if you're open to a zombie apocalypse.

We've discussed cannibalism before (S1E4) but our stomaches are still growling. Join Jess and Philippa for a second course of culinary culture. This week, we look at ritual cannibalism and the different forms that it might take across a variety of cultures.

How have we survived as a species? I don't just mean in the sense that we've been awful forever, but how we actually come into this world. Childbirth was the most dangerous and harrowing thing in women's lives. From pasting the dung of dangerous creatures on ourselves, using tortoise shells condoms, to drugging women into a thrashing screaming state during labour and doctors walking around with a diseased womb in their pocket, the miracle of childbirth, it seems, is it's a miracle women didn't' decide to stop ever having children ever again.

Turns out the archetypal femme fatale - lying and manipulating hapless men into their black widow spun webs of duplicitousness - is absolutely true...at least for these confidence lasses. This week the people are not just mendacious - they're women-dacious. Neither Jess not guest host Rosie will apologise for puns as we flim flam you into listening about women pretending to be royalty, selling snake oil or just generally, unapologetically scamming so many men you earn the moniker Confidence Queen. 

Have you ever ended up with more national monuments than you have space in your living room and therefore need to sell on eBay? Got a magical country surprisingly in need of wealthy citizens? Neither did any of these men, but they didn't let this hold them back. Join Jess and Philippa as they look at everyone's favourite scheming shyster: the confidence man.

Last episode, we looked at the connections between women and Satan. This week, it's time to look at what Rush Limbaugh oh so wittily refers to as witches with a "B". And how do women take control of such patriarchal narratives and redirect them to their own ends? And how does the successful witch keep her penis collection alive? Join Philippa and Jess as they ask the important questions.

Evil deceiver or Romantic individualist? A monster of shifting boundaries or a cosmic force that transcends duality? This week, Jess and Philippa look at one of history's most enigmatic figures: Satan himself. Throughout history, we've been asking ourselves: is he really all that bad? And why are women just unable to keep their hands off of him?

In our last episode, we looked at the beauty regimes of the upper classes. But what if you don't have an infinite supply of arsenic bath bombs? Or a bath? Or easy access to water? Jess and Philippa wallow amongst the lower classes of Victorian London to look at the methods by which they kept clean, and the ways in which efforts to assist them led to a new hobby for all.

Water is dangerous - and nowhere more so than in the bath. In a world dominated by the great unwashed - the putrid proletariat - the upper classes fought to preserve a modicum of decency while fending off sudsy perils. Join us this week for clean conversation and Jess's disturbing skin song. 

Was one atrocious failure of an expedition not enough? Want to hear about another wannabe explorer who set out into brutal conditions woefully unprepared in order to beat a more experienced explorer to the goal? While they were dismally short on supplies, the world has a bounty of idiots, and so this week Jess and Philippa set out into the outback to follow the trail of Robert O'Hara Burke as he journeyed to the north of Australia, gong in hand.

When you decide to go on a road trip do you prioritise transportation, supplies, and company? If so, you're three steps ahead of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, an almost university drop-out on a dangerous expedition. This week, Jess and Philippa compare travel plans as they dive into the deep dark of the Arctic winter and the merry snow ball fights that you can get up to when you're trapped on the ice.

This Wednesday, we're taking a break to explore the steamy realm of Victorian literature. Just what did the Queen's subjects find sultry enough to risk hairy palms and imminent death by consumption?Join Jess and Philippa as they read from The Pearl, a magazine devoted to publishing erotic material towards the end of the 1800s before they were shut down by the authorities. For obvious reasons, these readings should not be considered safe for work or human decency.

Too taboo to even refer to the act outright, the Victorians wrote reams on the solitary vice, using whatever euphemisms they had to hand. This week, Jess and Philippa exercise similar tact and sensitively explore the act of riding the mayonnaise surf as well as the steps that the Victorians took to stem the tide.

Running with our theme of people who noped out of society: how does a colony of pilgrims just vanish off the face of the earth? Murder. Probably murder. This week, Jess and Philippa talk about the Roanoke colony and the possible reason behind their eerie disappearance (hint: we're still going with murder).

Have you ever looked at something and known that you could have done better? Like: a well-known television series. Or a cake. Or society. This week, Jess and Philippa talk about some eccentric individuals who decided to go off the grid and live the dream. Let's tag along...what could possible go wrong? Just don't forget to pack your entire Nietzsche collection. Don't have room for your teeth? Leave them behind - you won't need 'em.

This week, we wanted to try something a little different. Over the past couple of months, we've been asking our listeners for some awful stories from your lives and cultures. Death rituals and celebrations? Ghost belly buttons? State-wide eugenics programs? Maybe everything is awful forever...

A fire. A string of mysterious coincidences. Five missing children. This week, Jess and Philippa look at an unsolved case of disappearance of five members of the Sodder family.Music: "Never Can Stop It" by Lobo LocoFrom the Free Music ArchiveCC BY NC"Der Fruling: Chorus: Ewiger, Machtiger, Gutiger Gott!" by MIT Concert ChoirFrom the Free Music ArchiveCC BY NC

Jess and Philippa return to the medieval dancing epidemic that terrified Strasbourg in 1518. Having established what took place, they now look at a possible explanation for this baffling phenomenon.

Are you ever seized with an unstoppable urge to dance? Are you friends routinely embarrassed by you cutting a jig day and night, waltzing your feet to the bone? If your answer was yes, then you need to listen to this episode and perhaps seek out your nearest Catholic shrine to Saint Vitus.This week, Philippa and Jess talk about the dancing plague that took hold of Strasbourg in 1518, and the bizarre remedies that...actually worked?

Leapfrogging over bowing dignitaries is one thing, but if you've ever wanted to release leopards amongst your dinner guests or rename everything according to its relation to you, then Roman emperors may have a thing or two to teach us.This week, Jess and Philippa talk about the hilarious pranks available to Roman emperors and maybe...just maybe...learn the meaning of true friendship.

Have you ever thought that centuries of keeping kingship within a very, very tiny gene pool may have resulted in history's royal families being a little bit...off? Meet Charles the Mad who thought that he was a wolfman made of glass. Or The Mad King Christian VII of Denmark. Or The Mad King George.This week, Jess and Philippa look at some of history's most eccentric rulers and the quirky habits that earned them that most sought-after epithet: mad.

This Wednesday, we continue our hysterical journey, deep into the minds of the doctors as they searched frantically for a cure to the bizarre symptoms displayed by their patients. If labial leeches and some light hypnotism sound like just your cup of tea, join us for a diagnostic jaunt that would baffle Dr House himself.

Have you got a case of the Monday Blues? Perhaps you didn't get enough sleep last night. Or you need another cup of coffee and a soothing podcast to settle your nerves.That, or your womb might be crawling up your chest cavity and into your throat where it is now trying to strangle you. This week, Philippa and Jess talk about hysteria: one of history's most mystifying (and mesmerising) illnesses. 

"No beauty without pain" said the mother to her daughter as she tugged at the knots in her hair; said the elder as she bound her daughter's feet; said the wealthy elite as they tottered around on twenty inch heels; said the debutante as she burned to ash in a crinoline conflagration. This episode, Jess and Philippa look at the ridiculous ways in which we have perished in the name of fashion and go through some of the greatest beauty Dos & Don'ts of all time.

Ready for an exclusive club event with a little blasphemy, some sexy nuns, and a baboon dressed up as Satan? Well, here's your ticket to an episode on the hell-fire clubs, which gained in popularity and infamy throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. This week, Jess and Philippa look at some of the libertines who were members of clubs such as the Ballers, the Damned Crew, and the Bugle Boys. Hold onto your habits, we're in for a boozy ride!

Content warning: animal abuse, murder (including infants), and sexual assault. Take care of yourself, and listen at your own discretion.What do you do when your loved ones, pets, and household items have been replaced with flawless doppelgängers? Or when your organs have been replaced with soap? Or you're already dead and no one else has noticed? This episode, Jess and Philippa dip into the uncanny valley to discuss cases of Capgras and Cotard's delusion, the most famous of which being that of Richard Chase: The Vampire of Sacramento.

Meet Mary Mallon: the first asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever, believed to have infected 51 people during her career as a household cook. Meet George Soper: the sanitation engineer who wasn't going to take no for an answer when she refused his request for her blood and faeces. This week, Jess and Philippa discuss a romcom for the ages (and the people infected along the way).

The Witchfinder General is back, and touring Suffolk in search of vulnerable women to accuse of witchcraft. This week, Jess and Philippa finish Matthew Hopkins' grim story, discussing the greatest witch trial in English history and how East Anglia eventually returned to its senses.

It's time to get familiar with the subject of witchcraft. Who were those adorable imps that hung around suspected magic-users in the medieval period? How did one actually catch a witch? Were witches hanged or burned? And just how many men and women were accused of witchcraft in England, anyway?This week, Jess and Philippa look at supersitions surrounding witches and witchcraft in England during the mid-1600s, as well as Matthew Hopkins: the self-made Witchfinder General who instigated the biggest witch trial in all of English history.

Is a seven day week just not enough? Do you have a list of chores as long as a very long arm? Have you considered children? This week, Philippa and Jess take another look at how the Victorians exploited children and used their labour to literally fuel their sooty lifestyles.  Join us as we dig up the dirty details on child miners.