PODCAST

Time Tellers

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

history

All Episodes

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

28:28

Snake Oil Nation: Fake Science, Real Consequences in...

Time Tellers ·

2026/01/13

Step into a wagon of wonder and danger: this episode unspools the American love affair with miracle cures, from 19th‑century medicine shows to the cold logic of eugenics. You'll meet charismatic hucksters, desperate families, and doctors whose theories did more harm than good.Through vivid stories—bleeding halls, opiate‑laced tonics, targeted ads, and forced sterilizations—we trace how bad science, entertainment, and prejudice fused into policies that shaped lives for generations. As the hosts

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

128 results

Time Tellers

All Episodes

Similar Podcasts

The Old Front Line

Paul Reed

Today In History with The Retrospectors

The Retrospectors

جنود خلدهم التاريخ

ALSUMOOD PODCAST

Film History - Daily

Inception Point Ai

Madonna - Biography Flash

Inception Point Ai