Episodes

  • Hercules Posey & the President’s House

    Hercules Posey & the President’s House
    Mar 2 2026
    The President's House was the first home of the U.S. president in the temporary capital of Phildelphia. While George Washington lived there, he had nine enslaved people that we know of., including the cook, Hercules. Research: “George Washington to Tobias Lear, 12 April 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0062 . [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 8, 22 March 1791 – 22 September 1791, ed. Mark A. Mastromarino. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999, pp. 84–]“President's House Civic Engagement Forum Grant Report 1.” USHistory.org. https://www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse/controversy/october_30_2004_report.php“Tobias Lear to George Washington, 5 June 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0172 . [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 8, 22 March 1791 – 22 September 1791, ed. Mark A. Mastromarino. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999, pp. 231–]1838 Black Metropolis et al. “Re: President Donald Trump’s Executive Order, ‘Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.’” 9/8/2025. https://preservationalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/NPS-Signage-Letter-9-9-25.pdfAlthouse, Michela. “President's House display on George Washington's slaves remains despite White House scrutiny — for now.” Philly Voice. 9/26/2025. https://www.phillyvoice.com/george-washington-slaves-presidents-house-exhibit-trump/Andersen, Eva. “Philadelphia advocates say key panels of slavery exhibit still missing at President's House Site.” CBS News. 2/25/2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/slavery-exhibit-philadelphia-presidents-house/Bomar, Mary A. and Dennis R. Reidenbach. “Report on Site Review of Interpretive Programs by The Organization of American Historians.” National Park Service Independence National Historical Park. 9/8/2025. https://www.oah.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Review-of-Independence-National-Historic-Parks-interpretive-programs.pdfCerino, Marco. “Feds detail plans for restoring President's House.” Philadelphia Tribune. 2/24/2026. https://www.phillytrib.com/news/local_news/feds-detail-plans-for-restoring-presidents-house/article_85ee7f4a-0b19-4d20-8933-951c7e2bfea0.html.Chervinsky, Lindsay M. “The Enslaved Household of President George Washington.” The White House Historical Association. 9/6/2019. https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-enslaved-household-of-president-george-washingtonCustis, George Washington Parke. “Recollections and private memoirs of Washington.” Philadelphia, J. W. Bradley. 1861. https://archive.org/details/recollectionspri02cust/Evans, Dorinda. “Portrait of a Man from the Island of Dominica (?).” Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional. https://www.museothyssen.org/en/collection/artists/reynolds-circle-sir-joshua/portrait-man-island-dominicaFanelli, Doris Devine. “History, Commemoration, and an Interdisciplinary Approach to Interpreting the President's House Site.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography , Oct, 2005, Vol. 129, No. 4. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20093820George Washington’s Mount Vernon. “A Case of Mistaken Identity.” https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/slavery/mistaken-identityGeorge Washington’s Mount Vernon. “Hercules Posey.” https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/herculesHinks, Peter. “A Shambles for the President's House.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies , Vol. 81, No. 2 (Spring 2014). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/pennhistory.81.2.0253House Appropriations Committee. “H. Rept. 107-564 - DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS BILL, 2003.” https://www.congress.gov/committee-report/107th-congress/house-report/564Joselow, Maxine. “Park Service Is Ordered to Take Down Some Materials on Slavery and Tribes.” 9/16/2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/climate/trump-park-service-slavery-photo-tribes.htmlLawler, Edward Jr. “The President's House Revisited.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography , Oct., 2005, Vol. 129, No. 4 (Oct., 2005). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20093817Organization of American Historians. “Statement on the Freedom and Slavery Exhibit Removal at Independence National Historical Park.” 1/24/2026. https://www.oah.org/2026/01/24/statement-on-the-freedom-and-slavery-exhibit-removal-at-independence-national-historical-park/Preservation Alliance. “We are outraged … “ 1/22/2026. https://preservationalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/President-House-Statement-1-22-26.pdf“US national parks told to remove signs on mistreatment of Native Americans, climate, Wash Post reports.” 1/27/2026. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/...
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    Not Yet Known
  • SYMHC Classics: Pueblo Revolt

    SYMHC Classics: Pueblo Revolt
    Feb 28 2026

    This 2014 episode covers the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, in which Native Americans rose up against Spanish colonists and missionaries at the turn of the 17th century.

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    24 mins
  • Behind the Scenes Minis: Coffee, 'Pirats' and Sea Robbers

    Behind the Scenes Minis: Coffee, 'Pirats' and Sea Robbers
    Feb 27 2026

    Holly and Tracy talk about their coffee preferences. Then Tracy traces the path that led her from a listener mail to the topic of Fort Mose.

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    31 mins
  • Francisco Menéndez & Fort Mose

    Francisco Menéndez & Fort Mose
    Feb 25 2026

    Fort Mose was the first officially sanctioned settlement for free Black people in what’s now the United States. It was established as a place where people who escaped enslavement in the U.S. could live in the Spanish territory of Florida.

    Research:

    • Blumetti, Jordan. “The First Floridians.” The Bitter Southerner. https://bittersoutherner.com/the-first-floridians-fort-mose-st-augustine
    • Cancio-Donlebún Ballvé, J. Á. (2021). The King of Spain’s Slaves in St. Augustine, Florida (1580–1618). Estudios del Observatorio / Observatorio Studies, 74, pp. 1-81. https://cervantesobservatorio.fas.harvard.edu/en/reports
    • curtis, Marcus. “Fort Mose: Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose.” 3/2/2022. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/2f5446036d2d4e109439baade4e1f4e7
    • Dunlop, J.G. “Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose: A Free Black Town in Spanish Colonial Florida.” The American Historical Review , Feb., 1990, Vol. 95, No. 1 (Feb., 1990). https://www.jstor.org/stable/2162952
    • org. “Francisco Menéndez.” https://enslaved.org/fullStory/16-23-92885/
    • Florida Frontiers. “Fort Mose: America’s First Free Black Community.” 12/11/2016. https://www.pbs.org/video/florida-frontiers-fort-mose-americas-first-free-black-community/
    • Florida Museum. “Fort Mose.” https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/histarch/research/st-augustine/fort-mose/
    • Fort Mose Historical Society. “The Fort Mose Story.” https://fortmose.org/about-fort-mose/
    • Halbirt, Carl D. “La Ciudad de San Agustín: A European Fighting Presidio in Eighteenth-Century ‘La Florida.’” Historical Archaeology , 2004, Vol. 38, No. 3, Presidios of the North American Spanish Borderlands (2004). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25617179
    • Hurston, Zora Neale and John R. Lynch. “The Journal of Negro History , Oct., 1927, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Oct., 1927). https://www.jstor.org/stable/2714042
    • Landers, Jane. “Black Frontier Settlements in Spanish Colonial Florida.” OAH Magazine of History , Spring, 1988, Vol. 3, No. 2, The Frontier (Spring, 1988). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25162596
    • Landers, Jane. “Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose: A Free Black Town in Spanish Colonial Florida.” The American Historical Review , Feb., 1990, Vol. 95, No. 1 (Feb., 1990). https://www.jstor.org/stable/2162952
    • Landers, Jane. “The Atlantic Transformations of Francisco Menéndez.” From Biography and the Black Atlantic. University of Pennsylvania Press. 2014.
    • MacMahon, Darcie and Kathleen Deagan. “Legacy of Fort Mose.” Archaeology , September/October 1996, Vol. 49, No. 5 (September/October 1996). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41771187
    • Proenza-Coles, Christina. “Freedom Seekers.” Lapham’s Quarterly. 3/19/2019. https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/freedom-seekers
    • Wasserman, Adam. “Forming a nation: the free black settlement at Fort Mose.” From A People’s History of Florida. Via Libcom.org.6/28/2009. https://libcom.org/article/forming-nation-free-black-settlement-fort-mose
    • Weiss, Daniel. “Freedom Fort.” Archaeology. Mar/Apr2024, Vol. 77 Issue 2, p36-41.

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    38 mins
  • Melitta Bentz and the Coffee Filter

    Melitta Bentz and the Coffee Filter
    Feb 23 2026

    Melitta Bentz invented the coffee filter in 1908 and changed coffee culture forever. Through the decades and after reckoning with its relationship with the Third Reich, the company she founded in her Dresden apartment endures today.

    Research:

    • “The Weimar Republic 1918-1929 - EdexcelChanges in society, 1924–29.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z9y64j6/revision/8#:~:text=Hourly%20wages%20rose%20in%20real,crisis%2C%20such%20as%20the%20hyperinflation
    • DEUTSCHES REICH REICHSPATENTAMТ PATENTSCHRIFT. “Melitta-Werke Akt.-Ges. in Minden, Westf. Filterpapiereinsatz für Kaffeeaufbrühfilter u. dgl.” https://www.dpma.de/docs/dpma/veroeffentlichungen/de653796a_melitta1937.pdf
    • German Patent and Trademark Office. “The invention of the coffee filters.” https://www.dpma.de/english/our_office/publications/ingeniouswomen/110jahrekaffeefilter/index.html
    • “The History of Leipziger Messe.” https://www.leipziger-messe.de/en/company/portrait/history/
    • KOSSACK, KRISTAN. “Betriebsalltag und Unternehmensentwicklung eines NS-Musterbetriebs im Spiegel seiner Werkzeitung.” Westfälische Zeitschrift 155. 2005. http://www.westfaelische-zeitschrift.lwl.org
    • “Melitta Bentz - the woman who invented the coffee filter.” Europeana. https://www.europeana.eu/en/stories/melitta-bentz-the-woman-who-invented-the-coffee-filter
    • “Melitta Bentz KG - coffee filter.” Deutsches-Kunststoff Museum. https://www.deutsches-kunststoff-museum.de/sammlung/virtuelles-museum/k-2002-00982/
    • Morris, Jonathan. “Coffee: A Global History.” Reaktion Books. 2019.
    • Moses, Claire. “Overlooked No More: Melitta Bentz, Who Invented the Coffee Filter.” New York Times. Sept. 5, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/obituaries/melitta-bentz-overlooked.html
    • “Our History.” Melitta Group. https://www.melitta-group.com/en/unternehmen/unsere-geschichte
    • Wierling, Dorothee. “Coffee.” International Encyclopedia of the First World War. https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/coffee/

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    39 mins
  • SYMHC Classics: COINTELPRO 2

    SYMHC Classics: COINTELPRO 2
    Feb 21 2026

    Part two of this 2020 episode looks at some of the specifics of the COINTELPROs that targeted black liberation organizations and the New Left, as well as how these programs were finally exposed to the public.

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    41 mins
  • Behind the Scenes Minis: Whoopsy Whimsy

    Behind the Scenes Minis: Whoopsy Whimsy
    Feb 20 2026

    Holly shares a story of accidentally taking ephedrine. Tracy shares her delight at a pronunciation of the word catastrophe.

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    25 mins
  • Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755

    Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755
    Feb 18 2026

    On November 1, 1755, a massive earthquake took place on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Lisbon, Portugal. The destruction in Portugal led to one of the first coordinated government responses to a natural disaster.

    Research:

    • Algarve History Association. “The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake and the Algarve.” https://www.algarvehistoryassociation.com/en/portuguese-history/algarve-history/194-the-1755-lisbon-earthquake-and-the-algarve
    • Blanc, P.-L.: Earthquakes and tsunami in November 1755 in Morocco: a different reading of contemporaneous documentary sources, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 9, 725–738, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-9-725-2009, 2009.
    • Borlase, William. “The Natural History of Cornwall.” Oxford : printed for the author; by W. Jackson: sold by W. Sandby, London; and the booksellers of Oxford. 1758.
    • Cavendish, Richard. “Pombal and the Inquisition in Portugal.” History Today. 5/5/2001. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/pombal-and-inquisition-portugal
    • Dynes, Russell R. “The Lisbon Earthquake in 1755: The First Modern Disaster.” University of Delaware Disaster Research Center. Preliminary Paper #333.
    • Joel, Lucas. “November 1, 1755: Earthquake Destroys Lisbon.” EARTH. November/December 2015.
    • Lai, Dria. “The Great Lisbon Earthquake: A Journey through the First Modern Disaster.” https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/e30a2ea6401e4f2e8805dfbcfa604dc5
    • Lisbon Earthquake Museum. “Inquérito.” https://lisbonquake.com/en-GB/blog/inquerito
    • Lisbon Earthquake Museum. “Providências.” https://lisbonquake.com/en-GB/blog/providencias
    • Martínez-Loriente, S., Sallarès, V. & Gràcia, E. The Horseshoe Abyssal plain Thrust could be the source of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and tsunami. Commun Earth Environ 2, 145 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00216-5
    • Mascarenhas, J., Belgas, L., Branco, F.G., Vieira, E. (2024). The Pombaline Cage (“Gaiola Pombalina”): An European Anti-seismic System Based on Enlightenment Era of Experimentation. In: Endo, Y., Hanazato, T. (eds) Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions. SAHC 2023. RILEM Bookseries, vol 47. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39603-8_5
    • Molesky, Mark. “The Vicar and the Earthquake: Conflict, Controversy, and a Christening during the Great Lisbon Disaster of 1755.” e-JPH, Vol. 10, number 2, Winter 2012.
    • Penwith Local History Group. “The Mounts Bay Tsunami.” https://www.penwithlocalhistorygroup.co.uk/on-this-day/?id=269

    Pereira, Alvaro S. “The Opportunity of a Disaster: The Economic Impact of the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake.” The Journal of Economic History , Jun. 2009. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40263964

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    39 mins