The History Cache Podcast

The Lady Franklin Bay Expedition Part 1: No Way Home

In 1881 an expedition to the Arctic led by Lieutenant Adolphus Greely and organized by the US Army set off for Lady Franklin Bay, Canada, well above the Arctic circle. The plan was to establish a temporary meteorological-observation station as part of the First International Polar Year, a worldwide effort to better understand Earth’s climate by collecting astronomical and magnetic data.

Most of the data was collected by astronomer Edward Israel, a young University of Michigan graduate from Kalamazoo.

Though their mission of data collection was successful, and they would set a record for traveling further north than anyone at the time ever had, this expedition would go down in history as one of the most tragic polar expeditions of all time.

Join me for a true Arctic tale like no other.

Clever Hans: The Horse That Outsmarted Everyone

We know that a lot of our communication happens not just through words, but through facial expressions, tone, and body language too. This can cause a researcher to unintentionally influence the person or animal they are examining. There are ways of getting around this-double blind studies are one way-where neither the researcher nor the subject knows if they are in a control or experimental group. But where did our understanding of subtle cues come from? Well, they came from a particularly clever horse. Clever Hans, a horse who took the media by storm in the early 1900s. Clever Hans was wowing the world with his ability to calculate numbers, identify musical tones, and ace any test thrown his way. His trainer, retired school teacher Wilhelm Van Osten, taught this horse as he would have a human child in front of a chalkboard and a counting machine in his backyard for years. Van Osten and the world truly believed Clever Hans was capable of extraordinary things. And he was…it just wasn’t what they had all suspected. Little did they know, they were all being outsmarted by one clever horse. 

The Lost Voyage of Shackleton: The Edge of Human Endurance Part 5 of 5

The finale is here! Come find out just how one of the most inspiring stories of human endurance ended. We head back to Antarctica and watch the crew of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition make history as Shackleton attempts one last desperate attempt at a rescue mission. This episode has all the answers you've been waiting for. 

The Lost Voyage of Shackleton: The Edge of Human Endurance Part 4 of 5

In 1914 the 28 member crew of the Endurance left to trek across the continent of Antarctica on foot. It is now the beginning of 1916. Their ship has been crushed, they've been stranded on the ice with no way out, and they've taken to the boats in a last ditch effort to escape the ice melting beneath them. In Part 4 we hear what happens next as they head for the yet unexplored Elephant Island, and Shackleton with a sets out on an 820 mile open boat journey on the roughest sea passage in the world to either find rescue, or doom them all to an icy grave. 

The Lost Voyage of Shackleton: The Edge of Human Endurance Part 3 of 5

In Part 3 of Shackleton's Lost Voyage, we join the stranded crew of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914, who have been stranded on the ice now for well over a year. Their ship has been crushed, starvation and madness have begun to set in, and they've been trapped by the ice and sea with no way out. In this episode, we watch as they make a desperate escape attempt while the ice splits beneath them, before heading out towards the unknown on the open sea. 

The First Monsters

In this episode we explore history's first monsters. From the prehistoric beasts that stalked our ancestors to the first mythological oral traditions, then to the first ancient written accounts through the modern day; this is the history of what scares us. What were the first monsters, why do we fear them, and why do we need them? Let's find out and examine the first things that appeared from the darkness. 

Introduction

And so it begins.