The Darkives: Serious history. Told not so seriously

The Darkives: Serious history. Told not so seriously

di Leo Eaton and Jamie Tavenner
Viktor Frankl: Surviving the Holocaust to Redefine Psychology
Esplicito
support the show https://patreon.com This week Jamie and Leo dig into the life of Viktor Frankl, his career before the war, the four camps he survived, and the book he wrote in nine days when it was all over. Man's Search for Meaning was published anonymously in 1946 because Frankl didn't think anyone would care. It has since sold over 16 million copies and was listed by the Library of Congress as one of the ten most influential books in the United States. Viktor Frankl was a respected psychiatrist deported to Theresienstadt in September 1942. He had corresponded with Sigmund Freud as a teen and treated more than 3,000 suicidal patients a year at Vienna's Steinhof Psychiatric Hospital. He developed Logotherapy (his own school of psychotherapy). Viktor had a visa out of Vienna that he chose not to use because he couldn't leave his aging parents behind. Next came four camps in three years: Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Kaufering, and Türkheim. He was the witness to many horrors of the concentration camps and left with the understanding that through suffering one finds ones reason to live. Serious history. Told not so seriously. Check out our website: darkivespodcast.com Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com Follow us on: instagram Enjoy the show? Consider leaving a rating and a comment or share us to a fellow history lover. Sources: https://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/kl-auschwitz-birkenau/ https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/theresienstadt-concentration-camp https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/dachau https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kaufering https://www.britannica.com/biography/Viktor-Frankl https://viktorfranklamerica.com/viktor-frankl-bio/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8763215/ Frankl, V. E. (1946). Man’s Search For Meaning. Beacon Press. Theme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey Used with permission, Thank you Geoff! licensed through: Pixabay Other music used: licensed through Pixabay-used under the Pixabay Content License
Georgia Tann: The Tennessee Baby Farmer
Esplicito
support the show https://patreon.com In this episode of The Darkives, we look at the history of adoption in the United States and the story of Georgia Tann. Georgia Tann ran the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis. What looked like an organization helping children was actually hiding something far darker. Tann and her network took children from streets, front porches, hospitals and poor neighborhoods, and placed them in adoptive homes. More than 5,000 children passed through her operation, while hundreds of children are estimated to have died in the care of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society. Let's take a deeper look at the history of early adoption malpractice in the United States, the families whose lives were permanently changed, and the survivors who spent decades trying to understand where they came from. Serious history. Told not so seriously. Check out our website: darkivespodcast.com Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com Follow us on: instagram Enjoy the show? Consider leaving a rating and a comment or share us to a fellow history lover. Sources: https://adoptionnetwork.com/history-of-adoption/ https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2019/10/22/lisa-wingate-before-and-after-orphans-tennessee-children https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-20-vw-882-story.html https://www.businessinsider.com/georgia-tann-tennessee-children-home-society-survivors-speak-out-2019-12 https://www.ranker.com/list/life-of-georgia-tann/nicky-benson Theme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey Used with permission, Thank you Geoff! licensed through: Pixabay Other music used: licensed through Pixabay-used under the Pixabay Content License
The History of Execution: Death by 1000 Cuts, Cannon Fire, and Everything Between
Esplicito
support the show https://patreon.com This week Jamie and Leo take a tour through history's most disturbing execution methods across civilizations and centuries. From the Code of Hammurabi (one of the earliest written legal codes), to ancient Rome and how they got down with a death sentence. We also have a few remarkably specific capital offenses from the Aztec Empire, China's Lingchi ( AKA death by 1000 Cuts), and the British practice of blowing condemned prisoners from the mouth of a cannon... Is there anything people won't do? Some of these methods were designed to deter. Some were designed to humiliate. History has always had a lot of ideas on how to end a life and humanity has always had strong feelings about punishment. We go through some examples of the reasons why and the methods used across time to exact "justice" on others. Serious history. Told not so seriously. Check out our website: darkivespodcast.com Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com Follow us on: instagram Enjoy the show? Consider leaving a rating and a comment or share us to a fellow history lover. Sources: youtube.com/watch?v=QEko2CMykuk law.yale.edu worldhistory.org law.yale.edu2 historyhit.com historyhit.com2 cambridge.org wikipedia.org historyskills.com Theme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey Used with permission, Thank you Geoff! licensed through: Pixabay Other music used: licensed through Pixabay-used under the Pixabay Content License
Jolly Jane Toppan: America’s First Woman Serial Killer?
Esplicito
support the show https://patreon.com This week Jamie and Leo dig into the story of Jane Toppan. Born Honora Kelley, and later she was known as Jolly Jane. Raised as an indentured servant, dismissed from two of Massachusetts' most prestigious hospitals, Doctors recommended her by name, she was one of the most sought-after private nurses in her region. She confessed to 31 confirmed murders. The real number may have been as high as 100. Poisoning, bringing patients to the edge of death then back. Killing landlords, friends, foster sisters, and entire families. Her own words were that killing gave her exquisite pleasure... Sit back and take your medicine, this episode we got a nurse whose a baddie with an attie. Serious history. Told not so seriously. Check out our website: darkivespodcast.com Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com Follow us on: instagram Enjoy the show? Consider leaving a rating and a comment or share us to a fellow history lover. Sources: https://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Toppan,%20Jane%20-%202005.pdf https://www.lowellhistoricalsociety.org/lowells-ties-to-jolly-jane-massachusetts-female-serial-killer/ Theme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey Used with permission, Thank you Geoff! licensed through: Pixabay Other music used: licensed through Pixabay-used under the Pixabay Content License
Mount Tambora 1815: The Biggest Volcanic Eruption in Recorded History
Esplicito
support the show https://patreon.com This week Jamie and Leo dig into the full story of Mount Tambora. On April 10th, 1815, a volcano on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia erupted. It was the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. The explosion sent so much ash and sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere that it created an aerosol cloud the size of Australia, blocking sunlight from reaching Earth's surface for two years. This eruption killed thousands on the island immediately, the ash that buried an entire kingdom so completely it lay undiscovered for nearly 200 years, and the global chain reaction that followed. Crops failed across Europe and North America. Grain prices in the United States soared by 400 percent. A new strain of cholera emerged in India and spread to Moscow and eventually North America. Riots broke out across European cities. And a group of writers trapped indoors by the relentless cold and rain at Lake Geneva in Switzerland held a writing contest that produced Frankenstein. One volcano. Years of fallout. Serious history. Told not so seriously. Check out our website: darkivespodcast.com Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com Follow us on: instagram Enjoy the show? Leave a rating and a comment or share us to a friend. Sources: Goldrick, Richard. Tambora's Rumblings in The Annals of Lang Xang. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/1816-the-year-without-summer.htm https://www.science.smith.edu/climatelit/the-eruption-of-mount-tambora-1815-1818/ https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/year-without-summer-poverty-year https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/200-years-after-tambora-volcano-eruption-unusual-effects-linger-180954918/ https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/mount-tambora-volcano-sumbawa-island-indonesia-39412/ https://visittambora.com/long-lost-kingdom-excavation-site/ Theme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey Used with permission, Thank you Geoff! licensed through: Pixabay
Spontaneous Human Combustion: Real Phenomenon, Unsolved Mystery, or Space Lasers?
Esplicito
support the show https://patreon.com This week Jamie and Leo dig into spontaneous human combustion. We go over the the cases, the wick effect theory that might explain it, and question... how does a human body burn to ash while the chair next to them survives? For centuries people have been found burned beyond recognition in rooms that barely show a scorch mark. No accelerant. No external ignition source. No good explanation. Coroners have listed it as an official cause of death. Scientists have spent decades arguing about whether it's real. Starting with a knight in the 17th century, then to Mary Reeser, who was found reduced almost entirely to ashes in her St. Petersburg, Florida apartment in 1951 (with only her left foot remaining- still in its slipper), and finishing with Michael Faherty, whose 2010 death in Galway, Ireland became the first case in the history of that country officially ruled as spontaneous combustion by a coroner. The cases are bizarre, the evidence is strange, and even Jamie isn't sure what to believe. Also... Somewhere in here we go completely off the rails on the existence of aliens. Amaze! Amaze! Serious history. Told not so seriously. Check out our website: darkivespodcast.com Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com Follow us on: instagram Enjoy the show? Leave a rating and a comment or share us to a friend. Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Theme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey Used with permission, Thank you Geoff! licensed through: Pixabay
Tombstone: The Earps, the Cowboys, and the OK Corral
Esplicito
support the show https://patreon.com This week Jamie and Leo dig into the full story before the smoke cleared: who the Earps were and how they ended up in Tombstone, who the Clantons and McLaurys were and why they couldn't leave well enough alone, and how a dentist from Georgia named Doc Holliday became the most feared man in the Arizona Territory. On October 26th, 1881, in a narrow vacant lot behind the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, thirty shots rang out in thirty seconds. Three men were dead. The most famous gunfight in American history was over almost before it started. But the gunfight didn't start that day. It started years earlier, in saloons, in cattle rustling and stagecoach robberies. Northern businessmen and Southern cowboys were fighting for control of everything. Fair warning: we also spend an unreasonable amount of time talking about the 1993 film Tombstone. No apologies. Val Kilmer is a national treasure and we will die on that hill. Serious history. Told not so seriously. Check out our website: darkivespodcast.com Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com Follow us on: instagram Enjoy the show? Leave a rating and a comment or share us to a friend. Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 The Illustrated Life and Times of Doc Holliday. Tri-Star-Boze Publications, 1994. Theme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey Used with permission, Thank you Geoff! licensed through: Pixabay
The Britannic: All Aboard for Ticket to Disaster... Again
Esplicito
support the show https://patreon.com This week Jamie and Leo dig into the full story of the Britannic, her construction, her brief life as a hospital ship, and the disaster that put her on the ocean floor. Along the way, meet the crew members who somehow had to survive a sinking twice. Violet Jessop was there for the Titanic and showed up again for the Britannic, so did Arthur Priest. Archie Jewell survived both ships and then didn't. We also answer the insurance fraud questions from the Titanic episode (because apparently Leo wasn't alone in hearing this). The Titanic was an explosive hit movie. The Britannic still made a splash with its own explosive hit. Serious history. Told not so seriously. Check out our website: darkivespodcast.com Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com Follow us on: instagram Enjoy the show? Consider leaving a rating and a comment or share us to a fellow history lover. Sources: https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/arthur-john-priest.html https://mollybrown.org/servants-at-sea-violet-jessop/ https://www.britannica.com/topic/Britannic https://www.titanicandco.com/britannic/britannicindex.php https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-titanics-sister-ship-the-britannic-sank-in-1916-for-the-first-time-ever-divers-have-recovered-artifacts-from-its-wreck-180987402/ https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/archie-jewell.html Theme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey Used with permission, Thank you Geoff! licensed through: Pixabay
The Erfurt Latrine Disaster: The Crappiest Day in History
Esplicito
support the show https://patreon.com In this episode Jamie tells Leo a story involving a...umm...well, lets just say a 'messy' situation. King Henry VI, King of Germanic Europe during the Holy Roman Empire, did a slick job covering up a debacle involving a couple of 'turds' in a land dispute. Many men met their untimely end while attempting to settle the dispute due to the 'throne', but not the one the king rests on. Welcome to a dirty little tale in history from The Darkives Check out our website: darkivespodcast.com Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com Follow us on: instagram Enjoy the show? Consider leaving a rating and a comment or share us to a fellow history lover. Sources: https://allthatsinteresting.com/erfurt-latrine-disaster https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/erfurt-latrine-disaster-what-happened/ https://www.historicmysteries.com/history/erfurt-latrine-disaster/37890/ https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ludowinger-15 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-VI-Holy-Roman-emperor Theme music: Ways of the Wizard Composed by: Geoff Harvey Licensed through: Pixabay Used with permission, Thank you Geoff!
The Titanic: A Ticket to Disaster
Esplicito
support the show https://patreon.com This week, Jamie and Leo dig into the construction of the Titanic, the staggering gap between how her passengers lived on board, and the night everything went wrong. In 1912, the most luxurious ship ever built sank on its maiden voyage, taking more than 1,500 people down with it. A third-class ticket cost the equivalent of roughly $1,000 today. The best suite cost over $130,000. When the ship went down, both classes went down together. Some more than others... From the band that kept playing as the ship sank to the couple who refused to be separated even as the lifeboats loaded, this is the story behind the most famous disaster in maritime history. Grab a life jacket and run for the lifeboats because this episode of The Darkives, it's going down. Serious history. Told not so seriously. Check out our website: darkivespodcast.com Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com Follow us on: instagram Enjoy the show? Consider leaving a rating and a comment or share us to a fellow history lover. Sources: https://www.cruisemummy.co.uk/titanic-ticket-prices/ https://www.britannica.com/topic/Titanic https://mollybrown.org/building-the-titanic/ https://www.titanicandco.com/ https://www.biography.com/history-culture/famous-titanic-passengers-surviviors-victims https://nypost.com/2026/06/18/world-news/cause-of-titan-submersible-implosion-that-killed-five-revealed-in-damning-final-report/ Diehl, Digby. Front Page: 100 Years of the Los Angeles Times. H.N. Abrams, 1981. Theme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey Used with permission, Thank you Geoff! licensed through: Pixabay Other music used: licensed through Pixabay-used under the Pixabay Content License Special thanks to Sonican for the background music
1 di 6