🎙️ Episode Title: Moon Bats, Unicorns, and the Greatest Newspaper Prank of All Time

Podcast: That’s So Historical

Episode #: 2

Release Date: July 28 2025

🎧 Episode Summary:

What do you get when you mix Victorian science, flying bat-people, unicorns, and a newspaper desperate for sales?

You get The Great Moon Hoax of 1835 — one of history’s most bizarre (and hilarious) cases of fake news.

In this episode, we explore how the New York Sun duped thousands into believing the moon was home to a thriving fantasyland, complete with rivers, jungles, and amethyst palaces. We also track how this outrageous fiction nearly fooled Yale scientists — and how it all ended with a shrug and a laugh. Plus: how JFK later made the moon a real goal, minus the beavers.

📌 Fun Fact:

The moon was ...