Episodes

Dec. 2, 2025

Wheeling, West Virginia: When Steel Workers Became Radio Stars

The Story In the depths of the Great Depression, when unemployment in West Virginia topped 25% and families struggled to afford even basic necessities, something remarkable happened in Wheeling. Steel workers—machinists, cran...

Nov. 25, 2025

Erie, Pennsylvania: The Wall of Water That Killed 36

On August 3, 1915, a wall of water tore through downtown Erie, Pennsylvania, at twenty-five miles per hour, destroying three hundred buildings and killing thirty-six to forty people in the city's deadliest disaster. The Mill ...

Nov. 18, 2025

Athens, Tennessee: The 1946 GI Rebellion and the Limits of Armed Reform

On the night of August 1, 1946, hundreds of World War II veterans laid siege to the McMinn County jail in Athens, Tennessee. Armed with rifles, Thompson submachine guns, and dynamite, they surrounded the brick building where ...

Nov. 11, 2025

Osage County, Oklahoma: The Oil Murders That Created the FBI

The Wealthiest People Per Capita in the World Were Being Murdered for Their Money. In the early 1920s, members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma drove Pierce-Arrow automobiles, built terra-cotta mansions, and employed white cha...

Nov. 4, 2025

Kalaupapa, Hawai'i: The Saint of Exiles and Hansen's Disease Colony

Between 1866 and 1969, the Kingdom and later State of Hawai'i sent over eight thousand people diagnosed with Hansen's disease—then known as leprosy—to permanent exile on the Kalaupapa peninsula on the island of Moloka'i. This...

Oct. 28, 2025

Africatown: The Last Slave Ship Survivors Who Built a Town

How survivors of America's last slave ship founded their own town in 1860s Alabama, creating a self-governed community that preserved African traditions against impossible odds and left a legacy still alive today.

Sept. 26, 2025

171: The Last New England Vampire

In 1892, a quiet town in Rhode Island made headlines across the world when villagers exhumed a young woman’s body, convinced she was rising from the grave to prey on the living. Her name was Mercy Lena Brown—and she became th...

Sept. 5, 2025

170: Radium Girls of Ottawa: Shining Women, Deadly Glow

In 1920s Ottawa, Illinois, hundreds of young “shining women” painted watch dials with radium-laced paint they were told was harmless. Their luminous craft soon became a lethal sentence—and their fight for justice helped forge...

Aug. 4, 2025

Episode 169: When Lightning Struck the Big Top

Wahpeton’s 1897 Circus Tragedy

July 6, 2025

168: The Miracle of Hickory: A Hospital in 54 Hours

In the summer of 1944, as a devastating polio outbreak swept across North Carolina, hospitals were overwhelmed and children were dying. But in Hickory, a small city already stretched thin by World War II, something extraordin...

June 23, 2025

167: How America’s Main Streets Are Fighting Back—The Wabash Playbook

Nearly every American town has the same heart-in-crisis story: a once-bustling Main Street hollowed out by big-box stores, sprawl, and online shopping. In this episode, Shane zooms out to look at the nationwide Main Street mo...

June 17, 2025

166: Nursing Through the Ages, Part 3 – The Rise of Modern Nursing

World War trenches, inflatable splints, and airborne operating rooms—this finale races from post-Nightingale training schools to the helicopter pads of today. Host Shane Waters uncovers how pioneers like Mary Seacole , Clara ...

June 11, 2025

165: Nursing Through the Ages, Part 2 – Florence Nightingale and the War on Death

When war-torn wards near the Bosphorus Strait reeked of sewage and despair, Florence Nightingale arrived with 38 nurses, a ledger, and one stubborn oil-lamp. In today’s Hometown History, Shane Waters traces how Nightingale’s ...

May 29, 2025

164: Nursing Through the Ages, Part 1: The Dark Origins of Nursing

Long before starched whites and stethoscopes, nursing grew out of medieval convents, overcrowded workhouses, and disease-ridden wards where desperate women labored with little training and even less respect. In this debut epi...

March 27, 2025

163: The Mysterious Disappearance of the Sodder Children: A Christmas Eve Tragedy

In this episode of Hometown History , we explore the chilling and unsolved mystery of the Sodder children, who vanished on Christmas Eve, 1945, after a fire destroyed their home in Fayetteville, West Virginia. Despite the dev...

Jan. 29, 2025

162: The Bone Wars: Paleontology’s Greatest Rivalry

In this episode of Hometown History, we dive into one of the most intense scientific rivalries of the 19th century—the infamous "Bone Wars." Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope, two leading paleontologists, began as colleagues but quickly turned into bitter enemies. What started as a comp…

Jan. 16, 2025

161: The Curse of Rebel Without a Cause: Hollywood’s Tragic Tale

In this episode of Hometown History, we explore the eerie and tragic events surrounding one of Hollywood’s most iconic films, Rebel Without a Cause. While celebrated for its portrayal of youthful rebellion, the film is remembered for more than its performances—it’s also linked to a string of untime…

Dec. 30, 2024

160: Psychiana: The Mail-Order Religion That Swept America

In this episode of Hometown History, we uncover the rise and fall of the Psychiana Movement, one of the most unusual religious movements in American history. Founded in 1929 by Frank Bruce Robinson, a man with a troubled past, Psychiana promised its followers the power to communicate directly with …

Nov. 20, 2024

159: The Vanishing of Judge Crater: New York’s Greatest Mystery

In this episode of Hometown History, we uncover the mysterious disappearance of Judge Joseph Force Crater, an event that captured the nation’s attention in 1930 and coined the phrase “to pull a Crater.” Judge Crater’s sudden vanishing after a dinner in New York City sparked one of the most baffling…

Nov. 5, 2024

158: How a Telegraph Cable Launched Tiffany & Co. to Fame

In this episode of Hometown History, we dive into the surprising story of how a monumental achievement in telecommunications catapulted Tiffany & Co. to fame. In 1858, Charles Tiffany seized on the success of the first transa...

Oct. 21, 2024

157: The Vanishing of Ambrose Bierce: A Literary Mystery

In this episode of Hometown History, we delve into one of the most fascinating literary mysteries of the 20th century: the disappearance of Ambrose Bierce. A celebrated writer, Civil War veteran, and the sharp wit behind The Devil’s Dictionary, Bierce vanished without a trace in 1913 while journeyi…

Oct. 10, 2024

156: Beneath the Greenbrier: America’s Cold War Bunker Exposed

In this episode of Hometown History, Shane reveals the secret story of the Greenbrier Resort's hidden underground bunker, built during the Cold War to house Congress in case of a nuclear attack, and how the local town kept this massive secret for over 30 years.

Sept. 19, 2024

155: The Great Diamond Hoax of 1872

In this intriguing episode of Hometown History , we unravel the tale of one of America’s most audacious cons: The Great Diamond Hoax of 1872. What began as a whispered rumor of hidden diamonds in the vast American wilderness ...

Sept. 4, 2024

154: Secrets in Stone: The Mystery of Coral Castle

In this episode of Hometown History , we delve into the enigma of Coral Castle, a mysterious structure hidden in the sunny shores of Florida. Built single-handedly by Edward Leedskalnin, a man of modest stature, this architec...