Step inside the 42-foot ring and trace the circus from Ancient Rome’s Circus Maximus to Barnum’s “Greatest Show on Earth.” Discover how equestrian tricks, freak shows, and animal acts built a global spectacle — and how cruelty, exploitation, and spectacle shaped its rise and fall. We uncover the stories of performers, animals, and women under the big top, and explore how modern circus art transformed from exploitation into artistry.

In this episode, we trace the gritty, budget-driven rise of reality TV from MTV’s The Real World to VH1’s chaotic “celebreality” era. You’ll hear how networks cut costs by ditching writers, actors, and sets—and how that led to megahits like Flavor of Love, Rock of Love, and Megan Wants a Millionaire. But behind the drama was a dangerous lack of oversight. We unpack the shocking true crime that brought VH1’s empire crashing down and forever changed how reality TV is made.

Join us as we expose the deadly truth behind the Followers of Christ—a secretive cult where medical care is forbidden, obedience is demanded, and preventable deaths are buried in plain sight. Survivors speak out, records vanish, and the body count keeps rising.

On the anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting, we reflect on the legacy of queer resistance—from medical torture disguised as treatment to the state-sanctioned violence that sparked the Stonewall Uprising. This episode uncovers the sanitized history of Pride and centers the voices so often erased: trans women of color, sex workers, street kids, and the criminalized. Before Pride was a parade, it was a rebellion led by those with nothing left to lose. Their fight wasn't for acceptance—it was for survival.

Bananas: cheap, cheerful... and covered in blood. This week, we peel back the sickly sweet skin of the banana industry to uncover CIA coups, corporate death squads, and a century of colonial capitalism. From United Fruit to Chiquita, it’s not just fruit—it’s a crime scene in a peel. Thanks to Tony Guacamole for the tip.

Before “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and rainbow capitalism, there was the Lavender Scare—a government-backed witch hunt targeting LGBTQ+ federal employees as threats to national security. In this episode, we uncover how Cold War paranoia collided with homophobia, turning queerness into a crime of patriotism. From surveillance and mass firings to one man’s fight that helped spark a movement, we trace the eerie parallels between 1950s propaganda and today’s anti-trans legislation and drag bans. History doesn’t repeat—it legislates.

Before Pride, before Stonewall, before RuPaul’s Drag Race—there was William Dorsey Swann. Born into slavery in 1860, Swann became the first self-proclaimed drag queen in American history and led a radical movement of joy, defiance, and survival in the heart of post-Civil War Washington D.C.

In this episode, we dive into the miraculous story of America’s first queer freedom fighter—a man who threw drag balls when the world threw chains. Inspired by Bob the Drag Queen’s Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert, this is a powerful exploration of identity, resistance, and the hidden legacies of Black queer liberation.

On a cold February night in 1978, five men left a basketball game in Chico, California, for what should have been a routine drive home. But instead of heading south, they veered east—deep into the remote and frigid Plumas National Forest—never to be seen alive again. Was it a wrong turn, a sinister encounter, or something far stranger? This is the haunting mystery of the Yuba County Five.