Your humble hosts are traveling this week, trying to see the first total eclipse of our lifetimes. Â While weâre gone, listen to the story of the 1806 eclipse, the first total eclipse seen in Boston after European colonization.
Category: Episodes
Episode 41: Canoes and Canoodling on the Charles River
During a late nineteenth century canoe craze, recreational canoeing became Bostonâs hottest leisure time activity. Â Young lovers took advantage of the privacy and intimacy of a canoe to engage in a little bit of illicit romance, leading a humorless state police agency to ban kissing in canoes on the Charles River.
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Episode 40: Banned in Boston
Despite our liberal reputation today, for years Boston was a bastion of official censorship. Authors and playwrights whose works were considered obscene had to create a watered-down âBoston version.â The Watch and Ward Society decided what art, theater, and literature was permissible, and what would be Banned in Boston!
Episode 39: Tragedy at Cocoanut Grove
The 1942 fire at Bostonâs Cocoanut Grove nightclub killed a staggering 492 people, making it the deadliest fire in Boston history and one of the deadliest fires in US history. For Boston, it is the deadliest modern disaster of any type. Only the smallpox epidemics of the early 1700s and the 1918 Spanish flu rival it for loss of life.
Episode 38: The Reign of Charles “King” Solomon
This weekâs show is about Charles âKingâ Solomon, also known as Boston Charlie, whose criminal enterprise placed him at the head of organized crime in Boston throughout the prohibition era. Â He reached influence at the national level, set policies in play that led to tragedy at the Cocoanut Grove, and in death, left a wake that may have led to the rise of Whitey Bulger.
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Episode 37: This Week in Boston History
Your humble hosts are out having summertime fun this week.  Donât worry, though⊠Jake is flying solo this week, and bringing you this weekâs historical anniversaries.  Weâll be back next week with a real episode.
Episode 36 Boston in the Golden Age of Piracy, Part 2
In this episode, we continue our tale of Boston in the Golden Age of Piracy, picking up at the end of the War of The Spanish Succession. Â Weâll learn about some of the most fearsome and notorious pirates in history, as well as one of the most ineffective. Â Weâll see how one of these pirates gave a founding father his start in public life, which US presidentâs great grandfather bought a former pirate as a slave, and what other presidentâs great grandfather decapitated a pirate with an axe. Â
Continue reading Episode 36 Boston in the Golden Age of Piracy, Part 2
Episode 35: The Boston Symphony Orchestra in World War I
With a partial âMuslim Banâ in place, itâs important to remember that vilifying âenemy aliensâ is one of the darkest chapters of our nationâs history. Â A hundred years ago, Americans were all too willing to imprison or even deport their neighbors of German descent. Â Here in Boston, the preeminent director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra was affected, along with almost a third of the orchestraâs musicians.
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Episode 34: Boston in the Golden Age of Piracy, part 1
Shiver me timbers! Â This is the first in a two-part series about Bostonâs role in the Golden Age of Piracy, from 1650 to 1726. Â A few pirates set sail from our city, some preyed on the shipping coming in and out of our port, and even more met their ends on the gallows in Boston. Â Weâll hear stories of daring raids and buried treasures, of mutiny, jailbreak, and double crossing.
Continue reading Episode 34: Boston in the Golden Age of Piracy, part 1
Episode 33: The Four Burials of Joseph Warren
Dr. Joseph Warren was the greatest Patriot leader youâve never heard of. Â His many accomplishments led the royal governor of Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage, to remark that âThe death of Joseph Warren is akin to the death of five hundred Patriots.â Â He was so in demand that his body was moved three times after his death at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
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