Built in the waning days of the 19th century, the Eiffel tower was erected as the entrance arch to a world fair and survived two world wars to become a towering beacon of Parisian resilience and French resistance. As a modern icon of romance, every day, dozens upon dozens of couples pose and propose in front of the tower as a symbol of their love. In the early 20th, century, however, the Eiffel tower was seen as something of a tacky, modernist eye-sore -- a dangerous pile of rubbish and rust. To con artist Victor Lustig, however, the tower was much more: the perfect scam.

Fat, French and Fabulous

Episode 84: Victor Lustig, the Man Who Stole the Eiffel Tower

In the early 20th century, Georgia Tann was perhaps the most famous, most beloved figure in American social work, even receiving a personal invitation to the inauguration of President Truman. But as the reports of stolen children and advances in standards and statistics brought more in more scrutiny on the Tennessee Children's Aid Society, the house of cards she built could only stand for so long.

Episode 83: Baby Merchant Georgia Tann, part two -- A Stolen Generation

Adoption has always existed as a human practice, but our modern understanding of adoption, where a child is taken in by complete strangers who legally incorporate that child as a member of the family, is relatively new, originating in the 20th century. One woman did more than any other to normalize the practice: social worker Georgia Tann, the beloved head of the Tennessee Children's Home Society. It was only later that questions would be asked as to how she acquired these children and the fate of many who wound up in her care.

Episode 83: Baby Merchant Georgia Tann, part one -- For Profit Kidnapping

Timothy Dexter was born poor in 1747. At 8 years old, he dropped out of school to become a farm laborer, then a tanner's apprentice at 16. At 22, he married a rich widow, then invested her money in various business ventures -- primarily based on the malicious advice of other wealthy men who absolutely hated him.

Episode 82: Timothy Dexter, a Man of Questionable Wealth and Questionable Taste

If there's one thing we associate with the British, it's tea. But for most of their history, the British lacked access to tea except through their highly contentious and often one-sided trade relationship with the far-off nation of China. That relationship only began to change with the mass smuggling of opium into China by British traders -- as well as the theft of the secrets of making tea by the Scottish botanist Robert Fortune.

Episode 81: Robert Fortune, Tea Thief

The family living at the Bavarian homestead of Hinterkaifeck had their share of dark secrets. All were overshadowed, however, by their gruesome deaths at the hands of an unknown attacker -- who had likely been living for several days, unnoticed, in the family's attic.

Episode 80: The Hinterkaifeck Murders

Mishima Yukio was a complicated man -- a successful author, celebrity, committed family man, repressed homosexual, and budding fascist paramilitary leader. His attempted overthrowal of the elected government of Japan walks a fine line between failed coup and conscious act of suicide. He lived as an international literary icon, but died as a controversial nationalist figure, forever complicating his legacy.

Episode 79: The Life and Suicide of Mishima Yukio, part two -- Revolutionary without a Cause

Mishima Yukio was a celebrated and prolific 20th century actor, director, model, poet, playright, and especially author. To this day he is considered one of the most important Japanese writers of the era, though many of his works remain untranslated in English. He was even three times in contention for the Nobel Prize in Literature. But what he is perhaps best known for is dying by his own hand after an attempted coup against the democratically elected government of Japan. How did Mishima go from famous author to failed cult leader? Listen to find out.

Episode 78: the Life and Suicide of Mishima Yukio, part one -- Gay for Death

Joan Risch was in many ways your average 60s housewife -- beloved wife, doting mother, and trusted neighbor. She was intelligent and well-read, as a writer and former secretary, and she intended to return to work when her children were older. No evidence was ever found that she was in any way unhappy. There are many theories about what happened to Joan Risch: Murder, Suicide, or an Intentional Disappearance. None fully explain the evidence she left behind.

Episode 77: Gone Girl Joan Risch

In 2013, 44 year-old former drug addict David Sullivan attacked and repeatedly stabbed his elderly mother. In 2015, 19 year-old former high school rugby star Thomas Chan brutally murdered his own father. Both suffered severe psychotic breaks that led to their violent actions, but due to a quirk in Canadian law, both were convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. The successful appeal of these cases was reported as the court legalizing intoxication as a defense for sexual assault, resulting in a massive public backlash largely unrelated to the ultimate fates of two innocent men. Maclean's Article: https://www.macleans.ca/longforms/thomas-chan-supreme-court/ Legal Analysis from the Saskatchewan Review: https://sasklawreview.ca/the-constitutionality-of-section-33.1-a-never-ending-story.php

Episode 76: Mens Rea and the Automatism Defense

When the munitions ship, the Mont Blanc, exploded in the Halifax harbor, thousands died in an instant, while thousands more were injured, tens of thousands left homeless or buried in the rubble. The devastation took Halifax decades to fully recover from. For two generations, many Haligonians refused to even discuss the tragedy, meaning their stories died with them. Join us for our second episode on the Halifax Explosion, discussing the terrible consequences of a single unlucky accident.

Episode 75: Halifax Explosion, part two -- The Aftermath

During WWI, the deep natural harbour of Halifax, Canada was the most important seaport in North America. All neutral merchant traffic, military convoys, and army recruits coming and going from the eastern seaboard came through Halifax first, including shipments of munitions intended for the European front. December 6, 1917, 9:05:35 A.M., the realities of war would have tragic consequences for the people of Halifax and Dartmouth with the biggest accidental explosion the world has ever known.

Episode 74: Halifax Explosion, part one

In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton, veteran polar explorer, announced his most daring expedition to date: a land crossing of the Antarctic continent. The journey would be perilous, but fame and fortune would be his likely reward should he make it back alive. However, even before they set ashore, they found themselves trapped by sea ice, adrift, certain of only one thing: help wasn't coming.

Episode 73: Ernest Shackleton and the Drift of the Endurance

The year is 1907 when the household maid of a wealthy family living on well-to-do Park Avenue in Manhattan suddenly grows ill. Soon after, the family's only daughter likewise grows sick and dies. The cause? Typhoid, a disease associated with poverty and poor sanitation. Upon investigation, signs pointed to the recently hired head cook -- Mary Mallon, a perfectly healthy woman who had never before had the disease. Her story would become the go-to case study for asymptomatic disease transmission and would earn her both decades in medical isolation and the cruel nickname "Typhoid Mary".

Episode 72: Mary Mallon AKA Typhoid Mary

Before the Cold War race to the moon between the USA and the USSR, there was the purely peaceable race to the South Pole between the British Empire and the recently independent nation of Norway. The Norse were led by Roald Amundsen with his traditional, low-tech approach of sled dogs and skis, while the British were led by Naval stalwart Robert Falcon Scott and his experimental strategy of motor sledges and horses. Join Jessica and Janel as they discuss frostbite, dog cannibalism, and H.P. Lovecraft's deep fear of penguins.

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Fat, French and Fabulous

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