Our Fake History

Most professional wrestling fans have accepted the scripted nature of wrestling for decades, but are we truly living in a post-kayfabe world? This week's guest, RJ City, thinks that maybe kayfabe neve...

Professional Wrestling had a long history of manipulated matches, but it took time to evolve into the pure theatre we know today. Along the road Professional Wrestling passed through a strange interme...

In 1957 the French philosopher Roland Barthes called professional wrestling a "spectacle of excess." That may be the most beautifully succinct description of sports entertainment ever written. For dec...

In 1721 the first Hell-Fire club caused a scandal in London and quickly disbanded, but the story did not end there. Soon new blasphemous rake's clubs were being founded all over England, Scotland and ...

In Britain in the early 18th century private social clubs were all the rage. These societies grew out of the emerging coffeehouse culture and soon became an integral part of the social life of the Bri...

There is a long tradition of writers comparing Christopher Columbus to mythical figures. 16th century historian Peter Martyr believed Columbus was like a later-day Aeneas, the Trojan hero who travelle...

A Columbus biographer once wrote that the famous navigator had an "an imperfect understanding of the line between truth and falsity." The Genoese mariner had a habit of lying, exaggerating, or revisin...

There are few historical figures whose reputation has swung in as many extreme directions as Christopher Columbus. The Genoese mariner once credited with "discovering America" has in recent years been...

On today's show Sebastian has the opportunity to talk to one of his favourite film critics, podcasters, and cultural observers, the great Amy Nicholson. Amy writes about film for the New York Times an...

If you managed to get through elementary school math then you have almost certainly heard the name Pythagoras. The ancient Greek thinker has been celebrated as the man who first discovered the mathema...