Stuff You Missed in History Class: Behind the Scenes Minis – "This Monkey’s Gone to Heaven"

Hosts: Tracy V. Wilson & Holly Fry
Date: January 16, 2026

Episode Overview

In this behind-the-scenes minisode, Tracy and Holly debrief on the latest installment of their recurring "Unearthed" episodes—shows that recap the most intriguing historical finds and news stories that surfaced recently. The conversation is candid and wide-ranging, touching on the challenges of reporting amid political turbulence, the ethics of storytelling, surprising art heist trends, paywalls in journalism, animal burials, ancient languages, and personal reflections on travel. The hosts provide insight into their research process, decision-making on sensitive topics, and what enthralls them about history (and pets).

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Compiling the "Unearthed" Episodes

• Tracy's Method: She prepped much of the episode before holiday break and then caught up on end-of-year news upon returning, adding several late-breaking items (including the Victorian shoes story).
  • “I roughed out basically all of both parts of the episode…anything else that I thought should be added…three or four things that made news at the very end of the year that were added.” (02:34)

2. Challenges from Shifting News & Government Attacks on History

• Tracy and Holly express concern over political actions threatening history, education, and their profession, citing incidents involving threats to the Smithsonian and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

  • Tracy: “...the ones that are specifically related to the field of history and how we do our work continue to be attacked, basically attacked and undermined. I hate it.” (04:42)

• Holly’s sarcastic rejoinder:

  • Holly: “I was gonna make a smart alecky comment and go, really? Because I love it. Which I obviously don't, but obviously not.” (05:15)

3. Art Heists – Media, Prevalence, and Underworld Use

• Tracy considered a whole “heist” section due to frequency in the news, especially after an incident at the Louvre—but concluded there isn’t necessarily a surge, just more reporting.

  • "I think it is more that there's a lot of art heists happening all the time...and that it wasn't necessarily a particular spike..." (05:56)

• Holly shares that art theft is often a barter tool among career criminals, sometimes serving as leverage for get-out-of-jail deals with authorities.

  • Holly: “There are a lot of people that are career criminals…that specifically do art heists as a form of personal insurance.” (06:20)
  • “If they get pinched for some other crime, they could go, hey, you know that painting you've been looking for for four years? I could tell you how to get it back, but you have to let me off these charges.” (06:36)

• Art as money laundering is also flagged as a recurring issue.

4. Research Hurdles: Paywalls & Access

• Tracy notes the BBC’s move behind a paywall as a significant obstacle, particularly when certain stories, like the Victorian shoes, were covered primarily in inaccessible outlets.
  • "BBC News articles now behind a paywall…so I had to go find other Victorian shoe sources because I could not get to the BBC article." (08:44)
• The challenge is even greater when only local or niche publications cover a story, requiring annual subscriptions they can't justify.

5. Victorian Shoes – Inspiration for Fiction

• Holly finds the story of the Victorian shoes so evocative that “someone needs to write a movie based on this one thing.” (09:47)

6. Sensitive Histories: The Dionne Quintuplets

• Hosts revisit why they haven’t covered the Dionne Quintuplets, whose lives were intensely public and marked by a lack of autonomy.

  • Tracy: "When we were asked about that previously, my answer had been that two of them were still living and they had made it really clear…they just wanted their privacy. And so it felt wrong to do an episode about them when their whole life story is about being absolutely stripped of their privacy.” (13:34)

• Despite the last surviving quintuplet’s recent passing, the hosts explain that it's still not the right time to cover this story:

  • "It can be really hard to try to do an episode about someone's life when they have just died.... There’s also a period of time that needs to pass...being able to look on that with an appropriate level of historical remove and context." (14:39)

• Holly: “We just feel like piling on in a space where we don't need to. Yeah, we're not going to offer up anything insightful that hasn't been considered already.” (16:54)

7. Animal Burials – Emotional and Cultural Meanings

• Holly is fascinated by recent finds of animal burials, such as the dog with the dagger and macaques in cemeteries, pondering future archaeologists’ interpretations of our own pet-related customs.

  • Holly: “I always think about how things that, you know, we in the...modern humans will be perceived down the road. Including things like…jars full of ashes and all of the ways that people manage the passing of their beloved pets…” (17:53)

• Tracy is struck by the scale of animal burials and that some animals were interred with human-like care, suggesting deep cultural significance.

  • “Something that really struck me was like how many burials there are at the [animal] cemetery...there were a lot of them.” (18:13)
  • Holly: “Those macaques were buried with the kinds of things we associate with human burials…not only says…perhaps a beloved pet…that the people doing those burials are also thinking about the soul and afterlife of that animal.”* (18:38)

8. The Ancient Celtic Dictionary

• Both hosts are amazed that a “complete” Ancient Celtic dictionary will encompass only about a thousand words, far less than constructed languages like Klingon.
  • Tracy: “When it’s complete, it’ll only have about a thousand words…a complete dictionary is still really limited.” (19:33)
  • Holly: “There are fictional languages…that have more vocabulary available than that.”* (19:58)

9. Bayeux Tapestry Loan & Personal Travels

• The Bayeux Tapestry will soon travel to London, prompting lively speculation about trips to see it.

  • Holly: “When I discovered that was the case…I immediately texted two of my closest friends and said, like, get your calendars out, we're gonna have a discussion.” (21:39)

• Tracy opens up about never imagining she’d travel to Europe, due to financial constraints and a fear of flying—a fear partly inherited and partly the result of childhood scare stories. Most of her European travel has been possible solely through the podcast and its community.

  • Tracy: “As a child, I never would have imagined myself as a person that went to Europe…that was not a thing. That was within our family's means.” (21:46)
  • “Almost all of my trips...outside of, like, North America and the Caribbean has been for the podcast. So thank you, everyone, for, you know, making that a possibility in my life.” (23:34)

10. Reflecting on the Year

• As the episode closes, the hosts wish listeners well:
  • Tracy: “I think a lot of us were hoping that the new year might be a little better than last year, and it's…instead had immediate chaos within days of the year opening. So…hope everybody's hanging in there, doing as well as possible." (23:54)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On researching "Unearthed":
  “Boy, wasn’t it nice that I didn’t have to have a lengthy exploration of all of the ways that the federal government is attacking my profession? And then I went, wait a minute…” – Tracy (03:39)

• On art crime as ‘insurance’:
  “You know that painting you’ve been looking for for four years? I could tell you how to get it back, but you have to let me off these charges.” – Holly (06:36)

• On ethical storytelling:
  “It just seemed wrong to be like, well, we’re gonna do a podcast on you anyway.” – Tracy, about the Dionne Quintuplets (13:55)

• On the paywall conundrum:
  "Yes, I know that the publications need to make money, that this is a reality of life…they do absolutely become a hindrance to these kinds of episodes...” – Tracy (09:09)

• On ancient languages:
  “There are fictional languages…that have more vocabulary available than that.” – Holly, on the limited Ancient Celtic dictionary (19:58)

• On deep gratitude for the podcast’s impact:
  “So thank you, everyone, for, you know, making that a possibility in my life.” – Tracy, on travel made possible by listeners and the show (23:34)

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |-----------------|----------------------------------------------------| | 02:34–04:42 | Compiling the Unearthed episodes, political context| | 05:15–06:56 | Art heists and art in the criminal underworld | | 07:55–09:19 | Researching with paywalls; BBC and local news | | 13:21–14:39 | Dionne Quintuplets and storytelling ethics | | 17:21–19:12 | Animal burials and cultural meanings | | 19:29–20:19 | Ancient Celtic Dictionary | | 20:20–21:46 | Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, personal travel | | 21:46–23:34 | Tracy’s reflections on travel and gratitude | | 23:54–end | Well wishes for listeners, closing thoughts |

Tone & Style

The episode’s tone is conversational, thoughtful, sometimes lighthearted or wry (especially when discussing bureaucracy or the criminal underworld), but always anchored in respect for historical research and ethical storytelling. Holly and Tracy balance their scholarly interests with personal anecdotes, keeping the minisode both informative and relatable.

This behind-the-scenes look underscores the complexity of history podcasting: the practical hurdles, personal commitments, and ethical decisions that shape each episode, as well as the lasting community built around their shared fascination with the past.