PODCAST

Time Tellers

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

history

All Episodes

1:29

Don't Stick a Coin in Your Ear: Hawaii's Wild Laws

Time Tellers ·

2026/03/21

Step into an episode that treats paradise like a courtroom—Hawaii’s sun-drenched beaches, strict billboard bans and the bizarre law against putting coins in your ear become the stage for a series of odd legal tales. We weave through real statutes, urban legends and half-remembered advisories, turning statutes into stories and sparking the question: what makes a law strange enough to tell?Along the way we chase a rumored toilet restriction, tease apart fact from folklore, and then take a sharp turn

28:26

Bad You?

Time Tellers ·

2026/03/17

There’s a secret list—not published, not searchable—that could be written from the small choices you make every day: connecting to an unlocked Wi‑Fi, ripping a DVD for your tablet, picking up a feather on a hike, or sharing a song in a café. This episode follows ordinary people through three surprising worlds—digital life, federal lands, and the modern economy—showing how well‑meaning habits can unknowingly cross into criminal law. We trace the history from early federal crimes about treason and

1:48

Ice Cream, Llamas, and Local Laws: Georgia’s Weird...

Time Tellers ·

2026/03/15

Walk into this episode and find yourself led down a string of bizarre-but-true local laws in Georgia: an origin story about ice cream in back pockets tied to 1800s horse thieves, a surprising statute that treats llama treks like high-risk activities shielded by liability rules, and municipal ordinances that actually control where chickens can cross the road. Blending folklore, historical detective work, and legal clarity, we separate the myths from the statutes and reveal how these odd rules came to

13:07

Who Loves Daylight Savings Time?

Time Tellers ·

2026/03/11

Join us on this intriguing episode of Time Tellers as we delve deep into the history and controversy surrounding one of America's most debated timekeeping practices - Daylight Savings Time (DST). From its satirical origins with Benjamin Franklin to modern legislative battles, discover the stories of innovators and policymakers who have influenced this biannual tradition. Explore how World Wars and energy crises have shaped DST's implementation throughout the 20th century, and why farmers, health

1:51

Skyfall Sunday: The Parachute Law That Might Not Exist

Time Tellers ·

2026/03/08

Picture it: it’s Sunday, you’re a single woman with a packed parachute and a rumor that Florida will throw you in jail for jumping. We trace that laughable — but persistent — town‑ordinance legend, wade into the surprisingly real 1989 ban on dwarf tossing, and follow the paper trail from folklore to statute as lawmakers grapple with dignity, consent, and safety. Then the storm rolls in: during hurricane warnings some counties cut off alcohol sales to stop dangerous hurricane parties, a law born of

16:03

Wired Through History: Energy Drinks!

Time Tellers ·

2026/03/03

It starts at that late hour when confidence outpaces judgment: a fridge opens, a tab snaps, and a can hisses like a dare. From an ancient emperor’s accidental tea to communal yerba paste and the patent-medicine tonics of the 1800s, people have always hunted wakefulness—switching from ritual and necessity to branding and aspiration. This episode follows the winding trail from tea-stoked monks and cocaine-laced soda to postwar caffeine syrups and the moment an Austrian executive repackaged a Thai

1:33

Whisper in Church, Walk Out Fined

Time Tellers ·

2026/02/28

Imagine getting arrested for whispering in church — a $20 fine under a statute that sounds like it belongs in the powdered wig era. In this episode we tour Delaware’s odd legal museum: whispering bans, pants-policing in Luz (or is it Lewis?), and curfews that turned trick-or-treating into a cautionary tale about parenting anxieties.Through sharp storytelling and vivid scenes — a hypothetical 15-year-old in a Batman mask, the selective enforcement of decency laws, and the folklore that outlives its

31:02

Frost and Fire: America’s Winter Olympic Story

Time Tellers ·

2026/02/24

Imagine a ragtag college hockey team toppling the world’s greatest machine, a skater rewriting the limits of the human body, and ceremonies reworked after judges and governments collide — all in the same icy season. This episode stitches together those moments across a century of Winter Games, tracing how medals and mythology grew alongside corruption, boycotts, and geopolitics.From Lake Placid to Salt Lake City, Sochi to Beijing, we tell the stories behind the scores: the miracles, the scandals

1:30

If It Doesn't Bounce, It's not a Pickle

Time Tellers ·

2026/02/21

In the 1940s two men in Connecticut were selling what looked like pickles but failed the simplest of tests — drop one from a foot and if it doesn't bounce, it isn't fit for sale. Health inspectors relied on that dramatic bounce test to protect public health, a shorthand rule rooted in real cases even if not written word-for-word into the law.But the episode isn't just about cucumbers. Hartford once banned collecting rags, metals, and old junk without a license to curb opportunists during wartime

24:39

How the U.S. 'Accidentally' Invaded a Country — and...

Time Tellers ·

2026/02/17

Imagine a navy sailing into a peaceful harbor, Marines ashore and the American flag raised—only to discover a newspaper proving there is no war. In this episode, Time Tellers follows Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones as a string of assumptions, fear of being late, and a system that rewards decisive action nearly turns a mistake into international crisis.We trace the story from Monterey’s surreal occupation to later near-disasters—Tampico, the USS Vincennes, and the terrifying Able Archer

1:38

Want Snow? Colorado Says File a Permit First

Time Tellers ·

2026/02/14

In Colorado, weather isn’t just forecast—it’s permitted. Follow the surprising path from ski-resort water worries to cloud-seeding airplanes and the paperwork that makes engineered snow legal, plausible, and surprisingly bureaucratic.In Boulder, a run of couch fires near student housing turned a strange hazard into law: no indoor furniture on porches. It’s a small regulation with a big human story about safety, parties, and unintended consequences. And for the rumor hunters: the idea that llamas

6:26

The Heart That Isn't a Heart

Time Tellers ·

2026/02/12

When you draw a heart, you think of love — but the Valentine's heart looks nothing like a human heart. In this episode, Renee and Dan follow a surprising trail from ancient medicine and plant seed pods to medieval devotion and the rise of print, asking how a simple, abstract shape became the world's shorthand for affection.This is a brisk, curious story of symbols and survival: fertility, faith, poetry, and commerce collide as the heart shifts from anatomical organ to sacred sign to mass‑market

25:31

By Permission Only: Laws that decided who was allowed...

Time Tellers ·

2026/02/10

On a Valentine’s Day special, Time Tellers traces the strange and powerful history of when love wasn’t private but political: a right doled out and denied by statutes, courts, and customs. From colonial Virginia bans on interracial unions to eugenics-era restrictions, criminal sodomy raids, and the heartbreak of lost children, this episode stitches together the laws that decided who could marry, touch, and be recognized as family.Through courtroom language, secret networks, and quiet acts of

1:33

Frogs, Fines, and Farmstand Warheads

Time Tellers ·

2026/02/07

Step into a tour of the delightful and absurd: Mark Twain’s frog tale meets the real-life rules of small-town America. At the Calaveras County Fair frogs leap for glory, but a blunt public-health line separates sport from supper — if a frog dies mid-jump it cannot be eaten and must be disposed of, a pragmatic and strangely moving rule to prevent disease.Then we pivot to civic theater: Chico’s symbolic ban on building or storing nuclear weapons—complete with a token fine—reveals how municipalities

20:53

A World Made of Emerald: The Green Moon Hoax and...

Time Tellers ·

2026/02/03

August 1835. A penny paper prints a breathless scientific report and, overnight, the moon blooms with forests, oceans, and winged humanoids. Listeners gather in public squares to hear the tale read aloud; theologians and citizens debate souls and science while the nation wrestles with a new, electrifying media age.This episode follows the Green Moon hoax from its breathless headlines to the ashes of trust it left behind, tracing how borrowed authority, vivid detail, and a hunger for sensational

1:31

Say It Right

Time Tellers ·

2026/01/31

When a passerby insists on pronouncing the state one way, a single resolution from the 1880s stands between history and habit. This episode opens with that small-but-stubborn decision — a deliberate choice to honor French spelling and Quapaw heritage that turned pronunciation into law.From there we chase the folklore: bans on blue light bulbs and teachers punished for bobbed hair. Those stories smell like the kind of municipal overreach that thrived in the early 20th century — real in places,

23:49

When the River Took the City

Time Tellers ·

2026/01/27

On March 25, 1913, a series of relentless storms and rapid snowmelt turned the rivers around Dayton into a single unstoppable force. What began as a quiet morning expecting spring rain soon became a tidal wave that swept through downtown, ripping foundations from the earth, turning Main Street into a watery highway, and trapping families on rooftops. Corporations, soldiers, nurses, and ordinary neighbors rose into action—building boats on factory floors, marching through mud to set up relief

1:39

Donkeys in a Bathtub

Time Tellers ·

2026/01/24

It’s the 1920s: an Arizona rancher lets his donkey nap in a bathtub, a sudden flood turns a sleepy scene into a chaotic rescue, and a costly retrieval sparks a town ordinance banning dozing equines in tubs. The tale—part history, part folklore—traces how one small, messy problem became a cautionary legend carried far beyond its prairie roots.Along the way, meet Mojave County’s wink-worthy fixes—laws about stolen soap and frontier-style punishments—and the very real public-health rules about feeding

15:07

Beyond the Mainland: National Parks at America's Edge

Time Tellers ·

2026/01/20

This final episode takes you beyond the Lower 48 into Alaska’s glacial silence, Hawaii’s living volcanoes, and the contested shores of the territories. Dan and Renee weave intimate stories of scale—ancient ice and roaring lava—alongside people who have lived these places for millennia. These parks are living, changing landscapes where conservation collides with colonization, sacred names are reclaimed, and communities demand stewardship. Tune in to hear how land keeps time through ceremonies,

2:00

No Drunks, No Moose-Drops

Time Tellers ·

2026/01/17

Imagine owning a bar where nobody's allowed to be... drunk. In this episode we follow the absurd-sounding Alaska rule that a drunken person may not remain where alcohol is sold, and meet the staff and officers who treat the law as public-safety gospel rather than punchline.What reads like a cartoon ordinance is actually a tool to prevent over-serving and keep people safe — selectively enforced, often laughed about online, but with real consequences on the ground. We trace how a blunt line on a page

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Time Tellers

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