PODCAST

Time Tellers

Time Tellers, hosted by Renee and Dan, explores stories and events that have shaped the USA

history

All Episodes

2:01

Thou Shalt Not Wrestle Bears

Time Tellers ·

2026/01/10

Dan, hypothetical. You, me, a boxing ring, and one very confused black bear—welcome to Alabama. In this episode we follow a thread of stories that feel equal parts courtroom drama and tall tale: a 1990s crackdown on sideshow bear wrestling born from animal-welfare concerns, barroom tranquilizers gone wrong, and bruised human egos.From an enforceable anti-cruelty statute to a tidy traffic law outlawing blindfold driving and a church-decorum rule that reads like Southern Gothic folklore, each

39:07

Taco Tuesday Lies

Time Tellers ·

2026/01/06

When a midnight improvisation becomes a stadium staple and a roadside stand sparks a fast‑food empire, what stories do our favorite late‑night meals tell? This episode follows tacos, burritos, nachos, fajitas, and chimichangas as they cross borders, get reinvented, and shape a new culinary language.Through vivid anecdotes, surprising origin myths, and on‑the‑ground voices, we trace how necessity, invention, and appetite transformed regional recipes into national phenomena—turning humble street food

3:16

American Laws That Time Forgot

Time Tellers ·

2026/01/03

Ever been so bored you wondered, what if I wrestled a bear — and the bear signed a waiver? In this episode of Time Tellers, Dan and Renee open a dusty legal atlas and step into America’s stranger corners: laws born of church mores, backyard feuds, and theatrical protest. We tell the origin stories, read the actual or reported wording, and decide whether each oddity is enforceable law, folklore, or something hilariously in-between.From Alabama’s bear-wrestling tall tales and church-mustache rules to

23:31

When the Ball Drops

Time Tellers ·

2026/01/01

One glittering sphere, one counted-down second, and millions pause: this episode follows the ball from rooftop to broadcast, revealing how a simple descent became a carefully engineered ritual of time, crowd, and meaning. Interwoven with the history are the hosts’ messy human stories—stage lights and post-it costumes, a blizzarded drive, a funeral song, and a knocked-over microphone—reminding listeners that every ceremony is powered by real people, imperfect and hopeful. Also a short preview of the

31:52

Christmas Carol Special

Time Tellers ·

2025/12/24

Follow the trail of familiar melodies from medieval Europe to American front porches: a story of banished festivities, Victorian reinvention, wartime solace, and booming radio hits. Along the way you’ll meet Puritans who banned Christmas, a songwriter who never meant to write a carol, and soldiers who found peace in a simple hymn.In this episode we weave together the human moments behind the music — Dickensian charity, sleigh races in New England, immigrant voices, and modern pop reinventions — to

12:32

Dark Christmas

Time Tellers ·

2025/12/23

Picture a Christmas that smells of smoke and fear instead of cinnamon and spice: villages lit by bonfires, masked figures pounding through the night, and a goat-demon whose rattling chains make children hide behind shutters. This episode peels back the cozy remaster and walks you through the original holiday — a season forged by the terror of winter and the rituals people invented to survive it.We trace the story from sun-calling solstice festivals and Roman chaos to Alpine Krampus runs, Icelandic

12:15

Metric Mayhem

Time Tellers ·

2025/12/17

In this captivating episode of Time Tellers, Dan and Renee delve into America's tumultuous history with the metric system—a tale filled with twists, turns, and unexpected drama. From the chaos of pirates intercepting metric shipments to the political maneuvers that stymied a full conversion, the duo unravels why the United States remains one of the few countries resisting the global embrace of the metric system.They recount the peculiar past of measurement mishaps and missed opportunities,

27:45

Behind Barbed Wire: America’s Japanese Concentration...

Time Tellers ·

2025/12/02

When Pearl Harbor shattered the nation, thousands of Japanese‑Americans were forced from their homes into horse stalls, fairgrounds, and hastily built camps surrounded by barbed wire. This episode follows families as they pack in hours, children say goodbye to pets, and communities try to build schools, gardens, and daily life amid fences and guard towers.Through archival headlines, the shocking language of Executive Order 9066, the infamous loyalty questionnaire, and the courage of soldiers who

27:09

The Day After Thanksgiving

Time Tellers ·

2025/11/28

Imagine its 3:45 a.m. in late November: a freezing parking lot, a lukewarm to-go coffee, and a line that snakes around the building. Hundreds of people wait for one sliding door to open and a chance at a discounted TV. That familiar chaos—camped-out shoppers, terrifying crowds, and fevered deals—was once tied to financial panic, presidential calendars, and annoyed police officers. In this episode of Timetellers, we trace the odd, surprising life of Black Friday: from a 19th-century Wall Street crash

25:13

When Curry Met Ketchup: How America Remixed the...

Time Tellers ·

2025/11/25

Pull up a chair as Time Tellers serves a short, spicy history of how global dishes were translated, watered down, and gloriously reinvented on American tables—from chicken tikka masala’s Glasgow epiphany to the gyro, fries, and pad thai that became something new on this side of the world.Through lively anecdotes, immigrant voices, and kitchen confessions, this episode reveals the human stories behind every adaptation and asks: what do we lose — and gain — when food crosses borders?

16:29

Anyone? Anyone? Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act? Anyone? Anyone?

Time Tellers ·

2025/11/18

It was the start of a new decade. America, still reeling from the 1929 crash, passed a single law meant to save its farmers and manufacturers — and instead helped plunge the world into deeper economic ruin. In this episode of Time Tellers, Renee and Dan trace the rise of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act: from a farm-focused bill to a 20,000-item tariff behemoth, the political fights that carried it into law, and the swift global retaliation that collapsed trade and devastated communities.Through

48:00

The Liberty Bell: Cracks in a Nation’s Story

Time Tellers ·

2025/11/11

Step into the steeple and listen: this episode peels back the gleam to reveal the Liberty Bell's real life — a noisy workbell, a flawed casting, and a slow-creeping crack that history remade into meaning. From humble laborers and Quaker ideals to abolitionists, suffragists, and touring crowds, the bell's fracture becomes a story of contested liberty and hopeful reinvention.We follow the bell from London foundries to Philadelphia crowds, myth-making tales of July 4th, and the abolitionists who

26:45

Royale with Cheese: The Secret Origins of the...

Time Tellers ·

2025/11/04

It’s late, you’re tired, and the glowing drive‑thru menu promises salvation: melty, greasy, perfect. In this episode we follow that first bite back through time — from Hamburg steak to county fair tinkering, from a kid named Lionel’s bold slice of cheese to the diner counters of Erie where Greek sauce rules — and uncover the messy, delicious arguments over who really invented the cheeseburger.Along the way we trace how immigrants, entrepreneurs, and the fast‑food machine turned a simple idea into a

34:53

Time Tellers Tales: Halloween Special 2025

Time Tellers ·

2025/10/31

Renee and Dan take on a chilling REDACTED

12:59

Canyons, Cliff Dwellings, and the Cost of Forever:...

Time Tellers ·

2025/10/28

It’s not just silence — it’s something older than sound. Stand on the rim of a mile-deep canyon as sunlight crawls across stone that remembers a time before life had legs, and climb into cliff rooms where hands shaped a life that still speaks. In this final episode of our series, Renee and Dan follow rivers through red rock, explore Mesa Verde’s ancient masonry, and listen to the people who’ve lived these places long before they were parks.From Theodore Roosevelt’s proclamations to dam battles,

29:22

Erie Canal Bicentennial

Time Tellers ·

2025/10/25

October 26, 1825: a packet boat slides out of Buffalo, Governor DeWitt Clinton pours Lake Erie into the Atlantic, and a ribbon of water reshapes a continent. This episode sails the Erie Canal’s dramatic voyage — from the feverish hand‑digging and deadly swamps to the politics that branded it “Clinton’s Folly” and the jubilant Wedding of the Waters that proved its power.Along the towpath we meet the immigrants and farmers who dug the locks, hear the silenced voices of Indigenous nations whose lands

12:04

Mountains, Marshes, and Memory: Exploring the...

Time Tellers ·

2025/10/21

Stand ankle-deep in a cypress swamp as mist rises and something moves in the reeds — this episode opens in the thick, humming heart of the Southeast and pulls you into a landscape that feels alive and full of secrets. We hike the Great Smoky Mountains at sunrise, paddle the Everglades’ river of grass, creep along Congaree’s cathedral of trees, and visit the isolated ruins of Fort Jefferson. Along the way we meet Cherokee and Seminole histories, New Deal builders, displaced families, and the

15:20

Wolves; Waterfalls; and the Wilderness Myth :...

Time Tellers ·

2025/10/14

Step into a vast, wind-carved landscape where geysers huff like old engines, glaciers whisper their slow retreat, and redwoods stand like stone columns holding fog in their branches. In Episode 3, hosts Renee and Dan lead you from Yellowstone’s boiling, bison-strewn plains through Glacier’s alpine drama and Olympic’s dripping rainforests to the cathedral hush of the redwoods, tracing each park’s breathtaking sights and the human stories tangled around them.Beyond the postcard views are layered

18:07

Stone, Story, and Struggle: The National Parks of the...

Time Tellers ·

2025/10/07

Join Renee and Dan on a brisk, intimate tour through the Northeast’s packed pockets of history and wildness: Acadia’s granite coasts and carriage roads, Saratoga’s decisive fields where a young nation proved itself, and Gettysburg’s haunted ridges where Lincoln reshaped a country in two minutes. The episode moves like a walk through layered time, from Wabanaki canoes to Gilded Age benefactors, battlefield drama, and the quiet power of memory.With sharp storytelling and lived-in voices, the hosts

19:58

The History of U.S. Government Shutdowns

Time Tellers ·

2025/10/02

From horse-drawn carriages on Pennsylvania Avenue to locked museum gates in modern Washington, this episode traces the unlikely history of government shutdowns — a story that begins as procedural quibbles and becomes national crisis. We follow the 1884 Anti-Deficiency Act, the 1980 opinion that introduced “shutdowns,” and the dramatic standoffs of the 1990s, 2013, 2018–2019 and today, revealing how political brinkmanship turns into real hardship for federal workers, travelers, and small

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Time Tellers

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