Episodes
In this very short episode Genevieve waxes on the current state of affairs. We will return to the 1800s next week, and especially in 2 months.
Published 11/11/24
Published 11/11/24
On today's episode, Genevieve pulls out a few articles from the Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record: volumes between 1871 and 1875. She'll provide you with your Weekly Dose of Blood, a very concerning case of 2 men either infected with rabies, or turning into werewolves - it’s a bit unclear, a Frenchman nearly eaten alive by rats, a grizzly wedding party, a blood-thirsty maniac, a woman melting down exquisitely on stage, and a damsel giving an impromptu acrobatic performance on the...
Published 11/04/24
On today's minisode, Genevieve reads her 3 favorite spooky Victorian Halloween poems! Edgar Allan Poe's, The Raven, Lake of the Dismal Swamp by Thomas Moore, and The Broomstick Train or the Return of the Witches by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Published 10/31/24
Today’s episode will contain absolutely delightful, bone-chillingly fascinating Victorian Halloween traditions, as well as a few more creepy-eepy Victorian house histories and hauntings. References for today's...
Published 10/28/24
In today's episode, Genevieve will be diving back into your favorite grizzly, hideous, at times very witty, and fabulously illustrated Victorian publication - The Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record. She'll discuss a creepy German law, Revolutionary war skeletons found in walls, coffins for lifeboats, and a journalist’s detailed report on what it was like to walk around a surgical school in the middle of the night in 1871.
Published 10/21/24
On today's episode, Genevieve discusses the creepiest Victorian haunted house she could find: The Villisca Axe murder house. She talks about both the chilling backstory and the hauntings.  References for today's...
Published 10/14/24
On today's episode, Genevieve will discuss coffin-shaped boxes in mysterious huts, a case of suspended animation, a struggle in an elevator with a lunatic, and some other disturbing, little “Items of interest” as they’re called in the 1878 volume of The Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record which are indeed very interesting items. We’ll also enjoy a pumpkin smash.
Published 10/07/24
On today's episode, Genevieve discusses "America's most haunted house®" - The Whaley House of San Diego California. She'll dive into the bone chilling back story, as well as the spooky hauntings that delight (and seriously creep out) visitors today.  References for today's episode...
Published 09/30/24
In today's (first!) minisode, Genevieve reads articles from the "Weekly Dose of Blood" in an 1873 volume of The Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record publication, as well as a spooky little article about a thieving somnambulist. 
Published 09/23/24
In today's episode, Genevieve will discuss Mediums getting attacked by spirits, men drinking their own blood, live burials, nuns getting struck with lightning and rising from the dead – it’s going to be a spooky rollercoaster.
Published 09/16/24
In today's episode, Genevieve talks about Victorian circus horrors. The freak shows, fires, riots, kidnappings, train wrecks and morbid taxidermy. References for today's...
Published 09/02/24
In today’s episode, Genevieve dives back into the Illustrated Police News from 1871 - the insane Victorian publication full of grizzly murders, botched suicides, body snatchers, mice in donuts – it was a publication full of complete chaos.
Published 08/19/24
In today's episode, Genevieve discusses how Tuberculosis influenced fashion, hazardous beauty routines, deadly hatpins, the dangers of corsets, and strange, kind of gross beauty trends, as well as some really weird and intriguing facts about Victorian fashion.   References for today's...
Published 08/07/24
Today’s episode is going to be a little different. Genevieve will be reading horrifying stories from the Illustrated Police News from 1871, and giving context to the stories.   Warning: Some of these are deeply disturbing, and related to child abuse, domestic abuse and suicide. If you’re triggered by these topics, please be aware that they will be discussed.   References for today's...
Published 07/29/24
In today's episode, Genevieve dives into the spine tingling world of Victorian Spiritualism. She'll talk about where it all began, what a Victorian materializing seance would entail, the ways mediums would trick people into believing they were talking to dead people, and the history of the Ouija board.   References for today's...
Published 07/15/24
In today’s episode, Genevieve will discuss the wild world of Victorian vampires. She'll discuss vampire panic and vampire autopsies of the 1800s, real vampires - or at least, folks who were believed to be real vampires, and the inspirations for everyone's favorite vampire, Dracula.   References for today's...
Published 07/08/24
On today's episode, Genevieve talks about the life and times of a Ms. Mary Mallon, otherwise known as Typhoid Mary – much to her chagrin.   References for today's show: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mallon https://the-line-up.com/north-brother-island https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/north-brother-island https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2019/03/28/are-victorian-diseases-making-a-comeback/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/typhoid/letter.html https://www.americanhauntingsink.com/typhoid
Published 07/01/24
In today's episode, Genevieve talks about the deeply disturbing world of Victorian Children’s stories and the twisted origins of some nursery rhymes of the time that we still enjoy today. References for today's...
Published 06/24/24
In today's episode, Genevieve covers the life and mysterious death of beloved gothic fiction writer, Edgar Allan Poe.   My Main References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Edgar_Allan_Poe https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/a45782209/edgar-allan-poe-death-mystery/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/still-mysterious-death-edgar-allan-poe-180952936/
Published 06/17/24
In this week's episode, Genevieve talks about elaborate Victorian funeral traditions, what was, and was not, acceptable mourning fashion of the day, Queen Victoria’s obsession with her dead husband that sparked the trends, the hardship and power of 19th-century widowhood, as well as the almost fetishistic keepsaking of the deceased.
Published 06/10/24
In this episode, Genevieve covers the mysterious death of Octavia Hatcher – a women who died in 1891 who, according to legend, was buried alive.
Published 06/03/24