What do Protestant choirmasters, Renaissance pacifiers, mass retailers, and a 700 lb chocolate sculpture of Neil Armstrong have in common? They’re all connected to the history of our favorite Christmas […]
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Latest Posts
The Baron of Arizona, James Reavis – Part I (02×02)
Meet James Reavis, the greatest con man you’ve never heard of. Called the Baron of Arizona, Reavis defrauded thousands of people — scamming them out of more than $150 million in […]
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02X01 Mythbusting Black Friday
Everything you know about Black Friday is wrong (except the mob-driven violence and greed. You’re definitely right about that). It has nothing to do with slave markets or retailers’ profits […]
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MINICAST: Distilling Whiskey – Mer Answers Your Questions
Shouldn’t you always strain your mash before distilling it? What is “on the grain” distilling? Meredith breaks down answers to listener questions in this quick minicast. Our last episode (Ep […]
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Ep 48: Whiskey, Women, and Walgreens
Forget everything you know about whiskey, Prohibition, and the modern liquor industry. The real story is wild ride full of little known tales, plot twists, and unexpected connections that shaped […]
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Ep 47 – The Gold Standard in 7 Minutes (MINICAST)
Frank breaks down the history, controversies, and basics of the Gold Standard in just 7 minutes. Additional Links and Resources: Wikipedia is actually a great source to get the […]
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Ep 46: Mansa Musa- The Richest Person Ever You’ve Never Heard Of
What do large scale sea travel, the Hajj, Parson Weems’s biography of George Washington, and Welsh naming customs have to do with the richest man in history? EVERYTHING, folks! They […]
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Ep 45: The Whiskey Rebellion
This is the story of why tarring and feathering government employees is not a legitimate form of democratic expression. Also, booze. (Happy Tax Day! We’re getting this up one day […]
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Ep 44b: 11 Leadership Lessons from Godzilla
A few years ago, inspired by the films he watched during his naval training, Frank wrote this funny little blog post about Godzilla and leadership. Years later, it’s still our […]
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Ep 44a: Godzilla’s Hidden History
Godzilla is – and always has been — more than a monster movie. April 27th will be the 60th anniversary of Godzilla’s release in the U.S. Join us as we […]
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Ep 43: Nana Asma’u: Educational Innovator Extraordinaire
Nana Asma’u is the smartest and most influential women you’ve probably never heard of. She was a teacher, princess, scholar, social reformer, teen mother — and the original glass ceiling […]
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Ep 41: The Crimean War in 7 Minutes (MINICAST)
Frank explains the Crimean War in 7 minutes. This is a clip from when we recorded Episode 40 on Mary Seacole that we had to edit down for the episode […]
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Ep 40: Mary Seacole: Nurse, Doctress & Social Entrepreneur
There’s a reason Mary Seacole was voted the greatest black Briton in history. Long before Silicon Valley coined the term “social entrepreneurship,” she was using her business savvy to address […]
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Ep 42: Irish Beer, Alewives, and Witches
Happy St. Patty’s Day! What do St. Patrick and Irish beer have to do with the Wicked Witch of The West? EVERYTHING! And we really mean EVERYTHING! Learn how competition […]
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Ep 39: Mary Anning (Sells Seashells By the Seashore)
Mary Anning had the deck stacked against her from the beginning – not only was her family poor and part of a religious minority, she was a woman in Regency […]
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Ep 38: Women in the Workforce
Ever heard people say that “women entered the workforce during World War II?” Meredith, Emily, & Frank address why that belief is incomplete and inaccurate — and how that myth […]
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Episode 37: Leap Year & Government Bureaucracy (A Love Story)
Pirate operettas, misogynistic courtship rituals of uncertain origin, and varying levels of government incompetence? It can only mean one things, folks: We’re talking about Leap Year! Join us as we […]
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Episode 36: Southern Food, Aunt Jemima, & Innovation
Join Emily, Meredith, & Frank as they explore the real story of southern food. They discuss: how a recent episode of the PBS series Mercy Street both illuminated and perpetuated the […]
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Episode 35: Commercializing History (The Murky Story of Nushu & Chinese Tourism)
Join Meredith and Emily as they explore the history of Nushu – a secret language used by Chinese women in Hunan province for centuries. They discuss how Nushu arose out […]
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Episode 34: The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre & Organized Crime
Join Meredith and Frank as they discuss the darker side of business. They’ll explore what organized crime is (and isn’t!), the real meaning of “mafia,” and how both Al Capone […]
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Episode 33: The Tipsy History of Honeymoons
Join Emily and Frank as they explore the link between honeymoons and mead, an alcoholic beverage made from – you guessed it – honey! Kidnapping, Valhalla, monastery profit margins, the […]
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Episode 32: Ben Franklin & Corporate Espionage
Join Emily, Frank, and Meredith as they explore the sneaky secret Ben Franklin, the Oracle at Delphi, and Hollywood share: they all manipulated the public through corporate espionage, strategically leaked […]
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Episode 31: Life, Death, & Butter
Join Meredith, Emily, and Frank as they explore the history of butter. Like beer, butter’s history tells the story of adaptation, survival, surplus, and innovation. Learn: Why the medieval rich ate […]
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Episode 30: Spam, Hawaii, & Japanese Internment
Join Emily, Frank, and Meredith as they explore the hidden history of Spam — including how Japanese internment and martial law made Spam popular in Hawaii. They also discuss why Safeway […]
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Ep 29 Minicast: Beer in Israel & Egypt, Pasta Sauce, & Rotten Fish
In this minicast, Emily and Frank discuss the twisty connections between how wine and beer were shared between Ancient Egypt and Israel, why Prego sells so many different varieties, and […]
Read more![Woman filling a cup with kava at Niufo'ou By Wendy Pond [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://hiddenhistoryofbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Kava_at_Niuafoʻou_1971_13-292x270.jpg)
Ep 28 Minicast: Pasifika, Beer, & Bias
Join Emily, Meredith, and Frank for this minicast as they discuss fermented beverages in the South Pacific and Pacific Islander cultures, and why Google isn’t a substitute for real research. […]
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Ep 27 Minicast: Hitchhiking, Uber, & AirBnB (Disruption III)
Join Meredith, Emily, and Frank as they discuss why Uber and Airbnb aren’t as revolutionary as they seem, the real history of the sharing economy, and what tech mags really […]
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Episode 26: Mail Order, Catalogs, & Warby Parker (Disruption, Part II)
Join Emily, Meredith, and Frank as they discuss whether companies like Warby Parker and Birchbox really qualify as disruptive innovators, the history of the catalog, how Sears Roebuck & Co […]
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Episode 25: Disruption – You’re Doing It Wrong
Join Emily, Meredith, & Frank as they discuss disruptive technology – from germ theory to refrigeration, and clocks to computers. We’ll go beyond the buzzwords to explore what the modern tech industry […]
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Episode 24: Time Within Itself – Interview with Dr. Michael Waldrop
Join Meredith as she interviews Dr. Michael Waldrop, Director of Percussion Studies at Eastern Washington University. They explore the history of cymbals and percussion from the late 1800s to the […]
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Episode 23: Bounty Hunters, The Pentagon, & Zildjian Cymbals
Join Emily, Meredith, & Frank as they explore how companies and industries adapt and pivot to survive changing times — including the bail industry and bounty hunters (and other disappearing […]
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Episode 22: What People in 1900 Thought 2000 Would Look Like
Join Frank, Meredith, and Emily as they discuss what artists in the early 1900s thought 2000 would look like, why NASA engineers started hanging out in comic book stores, and […]
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Episode 21: Ridiculous Regulations & Craft Beer – Interview with Marcus Gall
Join Meredith as she interviews Seattle-based beer enthusiast, history geek, and homebrewing expert Marcus Gall. They explore how historical taxation created our modern beers, Prohibition’s effect on U.S. beer culture, […]
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Episode 20: Beer and Industrialization
Join Meredith, Emily, and Frank as they discuss corporate espionage in the 19th brewing, the glass drinkware revolution, how Guinness used a pickaxe to protect his beer empire, and some […]
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Episode 19: Beer & Shakespeare
Join Emily, Meredith, and Frank as they discuss preservatives and Elizabethan beer regulations, including how beer helped build the Shakespeare family’s fortunes. Links and Additional Content: Why Shakespeare liked ale […]
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Episode 18: Twisted History of Potatoes
Join Meredith as she discusses how the potato has built and brought down economies – from the King of France using potato flowers to mitigate flatulence, to the Potato Famine, […]
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Episode 17: Beer in India
Join Meredith and Frank as they discuss the social and economic role of beer in ancient India. Links and Additional Content: Surabhanam – The oldest Indian beer via Beer in India […]
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Episode 16: Beer & Alcohol in China
Join Meredith as she discusses the twisted history of alcohol in Ancient China, from wild excess to strict prohibition. Links and Additional Content: World’s Earliest Tipple Discovered in China […]
Read more![A mural from the house of Julia Felix. By ho visto nina volare from Italy (Pompei 2012 Uploaded by tm) [CC BY-SA 2.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons](http://hiddenhistoryofbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Pompei_-_House_of_Julia_Felix_-_3_-_MAN-360x270.jpg)
Episode 15: Women Business Owners in Pompeii
Join Meredith and Frank as they discuss how women in ancient Pompeii built their own business empires, despite cultural and legal biases against them. Links and Additional Content: Explore Pompeii […]
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Episode 14: Holy Relics
Join Emily and Meredith as they discuss the business side of relics, religion, and religious tourism in Medieval Europe. Links and Additional Content: A Morbid Taste for Bones (Brother Cadfael […]
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Episode 13: Beer in the Americas
Join Emily, Meredith, and Frank as they discuss how chicha and other fermented beverages evolved in the Americas. Links and Additional Content: How to Make Chicha via Draft Magazine Chicha […]
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Episode 12: Vikings – International Business Tycoons
Join Meredith as she discusses misperceptions about Viking society, their technology and cities, and how Viking merchants managed their international client bases. Links and Additional Content: Vikings were […]
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Episode 11: Ancient Irrigation in Lima, Peru
Join Meredith as she discusses water — including water restrictions in the California drought, the cost of desalination, and how Lima, Peru is combating its modern drought with ancient pre-Inca […]
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Episode 10: Fermentation
Join Emily and Frank as they discuss the basics of fermentation and the role it’s played — both historically, and in our kitchens today. Links and Additional Content: ‘Fermentation’ – […]
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Episode 9b: Beer in Mesopotamia
Join Emily, Meredith, and Frank as they discuss the role of beer in ancient Mesopotamia, including its origins as a woman-dominated industry, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Code of […]
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Episode 9a: Intro to Beer
Join Meredith, Emily, and Frank as they discuss why beer is the foundation of civilization, specialization, accounting, and business. Links and Additional Content:
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Episode 8: Hospitality III – St. Peter’s Stiftskeller continued
Join Emily, Meredith, and Frank as they continue discussing St. Peter’s Stiftskeller – the oldest restaurant in the world – and what has kept it open for more than 1,200 […]
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Episode 7: Hospitality Part II – The History of Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan
Join Meredith, Frank, and Emily and they discuss celebrity, longevity, and the history of the oldest inn in the world — Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan — which they began discussing in […]
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Episode 6: The Oldest Hospitality Businesses in the World
Join Emily, Meredith, and Frank as they discuss hospitality – one of the oldest industries in the world – and two of the oldest restaurants in the world: St Peter’s Stiftskeller […]
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Episode 5: Oldest Companies in the World
Join Emily, Meredith, and Frank as they discuss why most lists of oldest companies in the world are incomplete and biased, Stella Artois, logos, Inca technology, and the salt trade […]
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Episode 4: Columbus, Turkey, & Christmas KFC
Join Meredith and Emily as they discuss branding and exoticism in the food marketing — with topics ranging from Christopher Columbus to Hawaiian pizza, including the spice trade and the […]
Read more!["Las Tortilleras": women making tortillas through nixtamilization, early 19th century Mexico. Hand-colored lithograph. Carl Nebel [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://hiddenhistoryofbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tortilleras_Nebel-360x270.jpg)
Episode 3: Biases & History II
Join Emily, Meredith, and Frank as they discuss nixtamilization of corn, the Kentucky long rifle, the Inca Road system, the ancient North American city of Cahokia near modern St. Louis, […]
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Episode 2: Biases and History I
Join Emily, Meredith, and Frank as they talk about spotting our own biases, the hidden history of women business owners, and more. Links and Additional Content: Biography of Laurel […]
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Episode 1: Hidden in Plain Sight
Join Emily, Meredith, and Frank as they discuss the USS Plunger submarine, the Venetian Arsenal, logos, sandal labels in Ancient Egypt, and why learning the hidden history of business […]
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It’s All Been Done Before
There are no new problems, folks. Sure, we all like to think our industries and issues are special snowflakes. But our problems are nothing new. Over more than 60 years […]
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Listen in Order
Some words here.
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