Podcast
Family Plot
Hosted by Family Plot Podcast · EN
An odd dad and his 11 year old daughter exploring the strange and unusual in a peculiar world. Discussions will be kept PG-13. Hosted by Dean Boese and Krysta Williams.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support.
26episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Episode 312 Deals at the Crossroads - Robert Johnson, Paganini and Petey Wheatstraw
5d ago01:21:04Tap to summarizeHere we are with another 'Summerween' episode. this time we are digging into musicians who supposedly made deals with the devil for their skill and fame. We start with the Mississippi Delta's favorite crossroads legend, Robert Johnson. We tell both the legendary version of his tale and then we dig down to what is likely the truth behind his life. Then we jump back to Europe in the 1700's where we meet a slightly strange man named Niccolo Paganini and hear about his deal with the devil. Then we dispense with the legend and tell the truth of his life, at least as much as we know, Finally, we tell the legend of Petey Wheatstraw, the Devil's Son-In-Law and then again, contrast that with the real life of Blues musician William Bunch, who used the name to perform and leaned into the legend hard. We examine the legacy of these tales and even discuss how their represented on the modern internet where, under their videos, you can read comments of people openly accusing people like Katy Perry and Taylor Swift of having sold their souls for fame and fortune in this don't look now but the devil's watchin' episode of the Family Plot Podcast!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support.
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Episode 311 Exiled and Executed - The Forgotten Witch Trials of Connecticutt
2w ago01:29:01Tap to summarizeWell, this week we head to what would eventually become the state of Connecticut in the 1600's where we discover that the people of Hartford and multiple other Connecticut villages had their own witch trials complete with Minister's weighing in, a code that included witchcraft as a capital crime and spectral evidence and these trials, in the days before America was a thing, in the days before Salem had quite the body count. The sad thing is that so little information survives in regards to the actual events. No recorded conversations, or recorded trials. We have scattered incomplete records whereas the people in Salem wrote down EVERYTHING. So we dive as deep as we are able in this exhaustive search of fragmentary evidence as we look into the Connecticut witch trials.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support.
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Episode 310 - Lie, Cheat and Kill - The Life and Crimes of HH Holmes with Brenda from Horrifying History
3w ago01:26:55Tap to summarizeMan, what an episode! We are joined by our spooky Friend Brenda from Horrifying History to dig into the life of liar, cheater and serial killer (meaning he killed more than one person for a similar reason, he was not a pattern killer) known as HH Holmes. He was born Herman Webster Mudgett and as a child he was quiet, smart and studious. He tried to claim a legacy as a devil or a fiend who murdered unfortunate souls in turn of the 20th Century Chicago and all across the country. The truth is he started as a con man, using cadavers to cheat insurance companies out of money. He had training as both a doctor and a pharmacist and could have easily built a lucrative career out of those two things but instead, he hatched scheme after scheme, took out loans under fraudulent names and just did as much as he could to make himself wealthy while doing the least amount of work. He only began to kill people to cover up his lies and support his scams and we cover it all in this special episode discussing the life and crimes of HH Holmes!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support.
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Episode 309 The Breaking of Kentucky - The Assassination of Kentucky Governor William Goebel
4w ago01:49:29Tap to summarizeMan kids, this was an episode, and definitely our longest! Have you ever heard about the Democratic Governor of Kentucky was assassinated in 1900, leaving the state with two rival governors, two different governments commanding, effectively, two separate militias! Into this chaos there is a populace who either can't stop talking about local politics or are desperately sick of local politics. This led to fights among politicians, fights among the populace and a Kentucky that was damn near broken afterwards. Into all of this we discuss Arthur deciding what profession he wants to pursue (he wants to be a paleontologist, y'all), our sadness from recent deaths caused by ICE and some of our latest Instagram discoveries, in this packed full episode all about a divisive time in the state of Kentucky episode of the Family Plot Podcast!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support.
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Episode 308 - Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out - The Amazing Life of Doctor Timothy Leary
Jul 901:24:58Tap to summarizeTW: Suicide and Drug Use - What an episode! This episode we flashback to the 20's to attend the birth of Timothy Leary, a man who would get a doctorate in psychology and go on to become a respected psychologist before a trip to Mexico introduced him to psilocybin mushromms. We cover how psilocybin shaped and changed who he became, how he went on to be a central figure of the counterculture, his arrests, his ten year prison sentence for two, count them two marijuana roaches, how he escaped prison with the help of the Brotherhood of Love, became an international fugitive with help from the Weather Underground, how he was recaptured, finished out his sentence and then emerged and reinvented himself again and again challenging both traditional roles of psychology and spirituality as well as becoming fascinated by digital technology, virtual reality and internet culture in this man this guy was fascinating, Tune in, Turn On and Drop Out epissode of the Family Plot Podcast!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support.
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Episode 307 - Charity Adams Earley and the Legacy of the 6888
Jul 200:59:21Tap to summarizeAnother fun episode filled with learning and family banter. Today we examine the life of Charity Adams Earley. One of four children, she was raised by parents who loved her and insisted on education, so much so that when school started, she was jumped to the second grade. She eventually graduated college at 19 with a triple major and a minor in history. We dig deep into this lady who became famous as the leader of the 6888 Central Postal Batallion that cleared three warehouses full of backlogged mail getting letters to troops who desperately needed a connection to home during World War II. She was a girl power rock star far before the terms even existed. So join us in this wholesome bit of American History!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support.
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Episode 306 - Barbara Gittings - The Librarian Who Shelved Shame
Jun 2500:56:45Tap to summarizeSo, as June 2026 draws to a close, we present the life and times of Barbara Gittings, a woman who refused to let the world define her as insane or a degenerate just because she was a lesbian. She set out to change things, curating museum collections so not everything about the LGBT+ was written by doctors, moralists or police. She made libraries a safe space for queer people trying to discover who they were. She lobbied the American Psychiatric Association and the DSM to remove the mental health stigma from a judgement of homosexuality and to get homosexuality removed from the DSM. She, and her longtime partner Kay Lahusen engaged in activist protests right up until her eventuaal death. We celebrate her life, accomplishemnts and death in this episode and Arthur covers Artfight and Empire Records in his corner.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support.
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Episode 305 The History of Juneteenth - Let's Celebrate
Jun 1801:19:14Tap to summarizeThere is a lot in this show. Arthur discusses some of Dad's health problems in his corner leading to discussions about movies he's been watching with Dad, including most recently Big Fish. (It's arguably Tim Burton's best movie) then we get into talking about the celebration that is Jineteenth which leads us to discussing how Abraham Lincoln wound up in the Wrestling Hall of Fame as the inventor of the choke slam and how a guy with a variety store sold souvenir fake confederate bills that helped crash the southern economy. After that we talk about Juneteenth, how it was the celebration of the moment that General George Granger and the Union troops arrived in Galveston on June 19th, 1865; the most remote part of America at that point and announced among other things General Order number 3 which told the people of color in Galveston that they were free. That they had been free since the Emancipation Proclamation. It became a celebrated holiday in Texas and from there grew out to the rest of the country where it was made a national holiday in 2021. . And we cover it all in this episode.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support.
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Episode 304 Pride Month 2026 - The Curious Case of the Gay Ghost Hunters
Jun 1100:59:12Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we celebrate the diversity and inclusion of pride month with an examination of the world of the paranormal, the world of spiritualism and even the world of the Horror space, and how these dark, liminal spaces are not only super inclusive, but also are currently being used to expore and reveal more LGBTQ+ history. This week we go deep into the cultural phenomenon of gay Ghost Hunters, and LGBTQ+ representation in Haunted Tours. All this and more in this special Pride Month episode of the Family Plot Podcast!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support.
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Episode 303 Pride Month 2026 - The Lavender Scare
Jun 401:07:01Tap to summarizeHave you heard of 'Tail-Gunner Joe' McCarthy and the Red Scare? What about Roy Cohn? These two not only kicked off the Red Scare where they pursued supposed communists in Government and later the military, but also went aafter gays under the theory that they were 'moral perverts susceptible to blackmail.'. Despite no evidence appearing that even one of these people were blackmailed outside the movie Clue (which is complete fiction), thousands of employees were fired between 1953 and the 90's when gay employees were forced out of government positions or fotced to live lives undercover simply because of who they loved. We cover the history of the lavender scare, people who were targeted because of it, a similar case in England where Alan Turing, the father of Artificial Intelligence was convicted of gross perversion for his relationship with another man and was chemically castrated which led to the unraveling of his brilliant mind. All this and more in this, this is why we celebrate PRIDE because we need to remind ourselves just how bad it's been for the LGBTQ during our lifetimes episode of the Family Plot Podcast.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support.
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