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About This Podcast
Welcome to Naked History, the podcast that peels back the polished layers of the past to reveal the weird, wild, and wonderful truths beneath. Hosted by historian Dyllan Gasaway, this show dives into the untold tales, strange coincidences, and overlooked events that shaped the world. From volcanic eruptions that sparked literary masterpieces to strange coincedences, absurd inventions, historical what-ifs, and the mystery of it all, you've found the right place.
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Recent Episodes
Ep 21: D.B. Cooper: D. B. Cooper: A Briefcase, a Parachute, and the Perfect Vanishing Act
In 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper boarded a plane, asked for $200,000, strapped on a parachute, and vanished into the night.No body. No confirmed identity. No clear ending.Just a briefcase, a…
Ep 20 Debrief: Victor Lustig: Selling the Eiffel Tower and Other Red Flags
What makes a con actually work?In this week’s Naked History: Debrief, Dyllan Gasaway follows up the Victor Lustig episode by digging into the psychology behind the scam. Why do people fall for frauds…
Ep 20: Victor Lustig: The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower...Twice!
What kind of man looks at the Eiffel Tower and thinks, I could sell that?In this episode of Naked History, Dyllan Gasaway dives into the unbelievable true story of Victor Lustig, the polished con…
Ep 19 Debrief: The Dancing Plague of 1518
The main episode told the street-level nightmare. This Debrief goes under the floorboards.In 1518 Strasbourg, people didn’t “party themselves to death.” They moved—compulsively—inside a…
Ep 19: The Dancing Plague of 1518: When Joy Turned Fatal
In the summer of 1518, the streets of Strasbourg didn’t erupt in celebration.They erupted in compulsion.One person began to dance. Then another. Then dozens. Accounts describe bodies moving past…
S20 Ep 18 Debrief: Valentine's Day: Courtly Love Myths vs. Lived Medieval Marriage
Courtly Love Myths vs. Lived Medieval Marriage (Valentine’s Debrief)Valentine’s Day sells us a medieval love story: longing, poetry, destiny… and maybe a tasteful lute in the background.But medieval…
Ep 18: Saint Valentine(s): Executed, Invented, Monetized
Valentine’s Day isn’t one origin story—it’s a stack of stories.It starts in martyrdom: early Christian executions and a name—Valentine—that becomes attached to a date. Then the legend engine kicks…
Ep 17 Debrief: Laika - The truth, the tragedy, and the responsibility of it all
The main episode told the myth and the mechanics. This Debrief goes where the headlines don’t.We’re talking about what came after Laika’s launch: the later admissions and regrets from inside the…
Ep 17: Laika: Watchdog of the Cosmos
LAIKA: Watchdog of the Cosmos 🐾🚀In 1957, the world heard a beep from orbit… and the Space Age officially began.But behind the triumphal headlines of Sputnik 2 is a truth history loves to soften:…
Ep 16 Debrief: Secret Societies — Power, Panic, and the Fear of “They”
Welcome to the Debrief — the quieter room after the lights come up.In this companion episode to Secret Societies, we step back from the big names and dig into the emotional mechanics behind…
Ep 16: Secret Societies: Illuminati, Freemasons, and the Fears We Make Up
The Illuminati. The Freemasons. Shadowy groups pulling strings behind the scenes — or so we’re told.In this episode of Naked History, we strip away the myths and ask a harder question: what if secret…
S1E30 Ep 15 Debrief: The Times Square Ball Drop and Y2K.
On this week’s Naked History: Debrief, we chase two New Year’s traditions to their logical conclusion: the Times Square Ball Drop and Y2K.First, we pull the glittery curtain back on the Ball Drop—how…
Ep 15: Losing Days: Calendars, New Year Chaos, and the Great Date Fix
What if a government could delete a week… and your life just had to keep going? In this episode of Naked History, we follow the world’s messiest “calendar patch notes”, from Rome’s bonus months and…
S1E24 Ep 14 Debrief: The 1914 Christmas Truce: Myth, Memory, and the Moment the Guns Went Quiet (For a Minute)
In this Debrief, we peel back the tinsel and take a closer look at the 1914 Christmas Truce—what it was, what it wasn’t, and why it still haunts the way we talk about war and humanity. We dig into…
Ep 14: Silent Night at the Front: The 1914 Christmas Truce
On Christmas 1914, scattered pockets of British and German soldiers stepped onto the frozen mud of no-man’s-land to exchange carols, cigarettes, and—sometimes—brief handshakes before the guns…
S1E25 Ep 13 Debrief: Radar, Reindeer & the Real Magic
Radar, Reindeer & the Real Magic — Naked History: DebriefNORAD’s most wholesome “wrong number” becomes a continent-wide ritual. We deep-dive the 1955 Sears misprint that rang CONAD’s hotline, the…
S1E16 Ep 13: Saints, Krampus, & Coca-Cola: Building Santa Claus as We Know Him Today
A bishop with a secret ledger. A wassail-soaked host. A horned shadow with bells. A poem that mapped rooftops. Nast’s North Pole. An ad man who standardized the smile. In this holiday deep dive, we…
S1E24 Ep 12 Debrief: The Navajo Code Talkers
We clock real message-per-minute speeds (why 30 seconds changes a battlefield), show how code lists evolved with “change sheets,” and walk through the improv rules talkers used when the word list ran…
S1E12 Ep 12: The Navajo Code Talkers
A garbled radio net. A pinned patrol. Then a burst of language the enemy can’t read, and the ridge breathes again. In this episode of Naked History, Dyllan traces how Indigenous languages became…
S1E22 Ep 11 Debrief: The Thanksgiving We Don't Tell
A quick myth tune-up for your table. We trace the Macy’s Parade from 1924 street pageant to broadcast spectacle (plus those wild early balloon “releases”), debunk the presidential turkey pardon…
Frequently Asked Questions
Naked History has published 42 episodes since May 2025, covering topics in History.
Naked History is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 18m.
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