us Americans aren't laughing, 1/2 of us got it but the other 1/2 thinks it's fake news, it's been a bad Time down here

If there's one thing we associate with the British, it's tea. But for most of their history, the British lacked access to tea except through their highly contentious and often one-sided trade relationship with the far-off nation of China. That relationship only began to change with the mass smuggling of opium into China by British traders -- as well as the theft of the secrets of making tea by the Scottish botanist Robert Fortune.

Episode 81: Robert Fortune, Tea Thief

There have historically been two kinds of phenomena known as ghost ships -- the first, a mysterious apparition crewed by the souls of the damned, and the second, the sudden and unexplained disappearance of a ship's very real human crew. The Mary Celeste, an entirely normal American shipping vessel began as the latter when her crew vanished on a routine crossing of the Atlantic, but her story slowly morphed into the former over the next century. The true fate of the Mary Celeste's crew is likely far more mundane and far more disturbing.

Episode 85: The Ghost Ship Mary Celeste

Before Leonardo DiCaprio, before Rock Hudson, before Clark Gable, before even Charlie Chaplin, the biggest star in American television was none other than Roscoe Arbuckle. A larger than life character from the age of silent film, Arbuckle was a talented performer, dancer, and singer who made hundreds of popular (and profitable) movies. He was better known, however, for his immense size, which earned him the name "Fatty" Arbuckle.

All that came crashing down thanks to a lurid scandal which has obscured his legacy to this day.

Episode 86: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Part One - The Rise

In 1921, Roscoe Arbuckle was one of the most famous men in the United States and among the wealthiest actors in the nascent Hollywood. That all ended when a lurid murder trial for the death of Virginia Rappe led to him being a persona non grata, his films banned all around the English-speaking world.

Episode 87: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Part Two - The Fall

The quest for the Northwest Passage -- a navigable sea route through the Canadian arctic -- was long and dangerous. Even so, when Sir John Franklin led two ships, the Erebus and Terror, on a last mission to complete mapping of North America's icy archipelago, there was every reason for confidence. 

The Terror and Erebus were last seen by European whalers off the coast of Greenland in the summer of 1845, after which they simply disappeared into the frozen north.

Episode 88: Franklin's Lost Expedition

Lizzie Borden took an axe
Gave her mother forty wacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one [Citation Needed]

Episode 89: The Borden Axe Murders -- Part One

Lizzie Borden, despite being acquitted of all charges, has remained the primary suspect in her parents double-homicide for over a hundred years. Was she really the killer? And is there any way to know for sure?

Absolutely not.

Episode 90: The Borden Murders -- Part Two

For hundreds of years, Canada and the United States have been each others closest neighbours, strongest allies, and largest trading partners... except for all the times they were at each others throats. The Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Pork and Beans War, and the Pig War -- 50% actual wars, 50% backwoods hijinks. 

This past is one far more recent than one might think, including two declassified documents from the early 20th century -- Defense Scheme One and War Plan Red.

Episode 91: The Canadian Plan to Invade the United States

We expect nurses and doctors to provide knowledge, health, and most of all, safety. But medical professionals compose a distinct subset of serial killers, known as Angels of Death.

Episode 92: Angels of Death, Part One - Charles Cullen

A major distinction between different types of serial killers - and different types of Angels of Death - is motive. Traditionally, male serial killers are more likely to be motivated by sex and female serial killers more motivated by material comfort. However, that it not always the case... particularly not when it comes to killers like Jane Toppan.

Episode 93: Angels of Death, Part Two - Jane Toppan

1820, at the height of whaling, the Nantucket whale-ship Essex suffered an unheard of tragedy - being attacked and sunk by an 80 foot sperm whale. But unlike the book it inspired, this was far from the end for the captain and crew.

Episode 81: Robert Fortune, Tea Thief

Histories and Mysteries with Jessica and Janel

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