SPILLED.

Come with us on a holly jolly holiday episode on debunking 10 Christmas traditions and their origins. This episode is a little different, though -- you'll be in charge of guessing if each of the 20 traditions is "Real or Reddit." That's right, Kendyl did her trademark Reddit deep-dive to find 10 family traditions that'll keep you guessing if the origin is Pagan, Nordic, Victorian, or some plain and simple family creativity. We break down the origins of the Christmas Tree, Santa's appearance, why reindeer fly, Christmas cards, and more! Sources: Chastagner, Gary A., and D. Michael Benson. “The Christmas Tree: Traditions, Production, and Diseases.” Plant Health Progress, October 13, 2000. https://doi.org/10.1094/PHP-2000-1013-01-RV . Eldridge, Adam, and Ilaria Pappalepore. “Festive Space and Dream Worlds: Christmas in London.” In Destination London, 183–204. 2019. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvhrd0t9.12 . HISTORY.com Editors. “History of Christmas Trees.” History.com, November 28, 2023 (updated December 19, 2025). https://www.history.com/articles/history-of-christmas-trees . Miller, Daniel. \“Christmas: An Anthropological Lens.” Hau 7, no. 3 (2017): 409–442. https://doi.org/10.14318/hau7.3.027 . Salazar-Porzio, Margaret. “Who Arrives on the 12th Day of Christmas? Three Wise Men, of Course.” National Museum of American History, January 6, 2014. https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/who-arrives-12th-day-christmas-three-wise-men-course . Wachelder, Joseph. “Toys, Christmas Gifts and Consumption Culture in London’s Morning Chronicle, 1800–1827.” Icon 19 (2013): 13–32. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23788118 . https://www.ffungi.org/blog/the-influence-of-hallucinogenic-mushrooms-on-christmas V&A. “Victorian Christmas Traditions.” https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/victorian-christmas-traditions History.com Saturnalia: https://www.history.com/articles/saturnalia Britannica Christmas: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christmas Massachusetts law banning Christmas: https://www.mass.gov/news/massachusetts-law-banning-christmas Smithsonian mistletoe: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/mistletoe-the-evolution-of-a-christmas-tradition-10814188/ Pagan origins overview: https://historycooperative.org/pagan-origins-of-christmas/ BBC Newsround: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/59905614 PBS fruitcake: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/the-misunderstood-fruitcake-has-a-magnificent-shelf-life-and-history Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagine becoming the richest community in America overnight—only for people around you to start turning up dead.This episode uncovers the stunning rise of the Osage Nation during the Oklahoma oil boom: how they strategically secured “worthless” land that sat on massive oil reserves, built extraordinary wealth, and shaped a cultural renaissance that most history books barely mention.Then we get into the part everyone tried to hide—the guardianship scams, the coordinated theft, and the string of murders that became the Osage Reign of Terror. We untangle the schemes, the conspirators, and how the FBI used the case to craft its own origin story.A gripping, human look at power, brilliance, and the truth behind one of America’s darkest scandals. Sources:https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/historic-preservation/osage-cultural-history https://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/archaeology/native-american/early-middle-woodland-period.html https://biodiversity.ku.edu/archaeology/research/ancient-farmingMack, John. “OSAGE MISSION: THE STORY OF CATHOLIC MISSIONARY WORK IN SOUTHEAST KANSAS.” The Catholic Historical Review 96, no. 2 (2010): 262–81. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27806535.Christian, Allison B. “DIGGING DEEPER TO PROTECT TRIBAL PROPERTY INTERESTS: UNITED STATES v. OSAGE WIND, LLC.” American Indian Law Review 43, no. 2 (2018): 411–35. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26789486.Jean Dennison. “The Logic of Recognition: Debating Osage Nation Citizenship in the Twenty-First Century.” American Indian Quarterly 38, no. 1 (2014): 1–35. https://doi.org/10.5250/amerindiquar.38.1.0001.Bone, Corey. “Osage Oil.” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society. https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=OS006.Hunter, Andrea A., James Munkres, and Barker Fariss. Osage Nation NAGPRA Claim for Human Remains Removed from the Clarksville Mound Group (23PI6), Pike County, Missouri. Pawhuska, OK: Osage Nation Historic Preservation Office, 2013.Inskeep, Steve. “In the 1920s, a Community Conspired to Kill Native Americans for Their Oil Money.” NPR, April 17, 2017. https://www.npr.org/2017/04/17/523964584/in-the-1920s-a-community-conspired-to-kill-native-americans-for-their-oil-money.McBride, Mike III. “Reconciling Osage Betrayal: Killers of the Flower Moon.” American Bar Association, January 22, 2024. https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/resources/human-rights/2024-january/reconciling-osage-betrayal-killers-flower-moon/.National Park Service. “Native Americans and the Homestead Act.” https://www.nps.gov/home/learn/historyculture/native-americans-and-the-homestead-act.htm.Strickland, Rennard. “Osage Oil: Mineral Law, Murder, Mayhem, and Manipulation.” Natural Resources & Environment 10, no. 1 (1995): 39–43. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40923431.Toll, Shannon. “For the Osage Nation, the Betrayal Yet Lingers.” The Conversation. Reprinted in News-Register. https://newsregister.com/article?articleId=47809.Warren, Andrew L. “Earning Their Spurs in the Oil Patch: The Cinematic FBI, the Osage Murders, and the Test of the American West.” The Chronicles of Oklahoma.https://www.jstor.org/stable/40923431?searchText=osage+oil&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dosage%2Boil%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fspellcheck_basic_search%2Ftest&refreqid=fastly-default%3Aabbb5d6739d56fe82e30c6d76968d956&seq=1 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we get into the absolutely unhinged Dancing Plague of 1518 — the real moment when hundreds of people in Strasbourg danced for days, weeks, and sometimes literally to death.We look at the dance manias that came before, the political and religious chaos that had everyone on edge, and how it all escalated after Frau Troffea started dancing and just… didn’t stop. We break down the competing explanations of the time — curses, saints, divine punishment, choreomania, humors, ergot, even early “hysteria.”Then we connect it to now: what the dancing plague can teach us about mass psychogenic illness, social contagion, and the way behaviors go viral today, from TikTok tics to doomscrolling spirals.A weird, chaotic, and surprisingly relevant deep dive into one of history’s strangest events. Sources:Andrews, Evan. “What Was the Dancing Plague of 1518?” History, August 31, 2015.Lapinskas, Vincas. “A Brief History of Ergotism: From St. Anthony’s Fire and St. Vitus’ Dance until Today.” Medicina Teorija ir Praktika, 2007.Miller, Lynneth J. “Divine Punishment or Disease? Medieval and Early Modern Approaches to the 1518 Strasbourg Dancing Plague.” Dance Research 35, no. 2 (2017): 149–164.Petlevski, Sibila. “Choreomanic NeuroDance and Its Aesthetics: Dance Research and Controversies Connected to Cognitive Neuroscience and Meme Theory.” In Taboo–Transgression–Transcendence in Art and Science, 650–674.Sweeney, John. “INFECTIOUS CONNECTIVITY: ILLUSTRATING THE THREE TOMORROWS.” In The Postnormal Times Reader, edited by Ziauddin Sardar, 137–58.Turner, Osie. The Dance Manias of the Middle Ages. The Forlorn Press, 2013.Waller, John. “A Forgotten Plague: Making Sense of Dancing Mania.” The Lancet 373, no. 9664 (2009): 624–625.Waller, John C. “In a Spin: The Mysterious Dancing Epidemic of 1518.” Endeavour 32, no. 3 (2008): 117–121. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

efore she became the most infamous “female spy” of World War I, Mata Hari was a Dutch dancer who turned her heartbreak and reinvention into performance art. Celebrated across Belle Époque Europe for her seductive “Eastern” dances, she embodied every fantasy — and every fear — men had about powerful women.When war broke out, that fantasy turned fatal. Accused of being a double agent, Mata Hari was tried, convicted, and executed for espionage — though the evidence was almost entirely fabricated.In this episode, we unravel how a woman who blurred the line between performance and identity became the perfect scapegoat for France’s paranoia. Was she a master spy, a myth, or just a woman ahead of her time? Sources:Alfonso, Kristal L. M. “Introduction.” Femme Fatale: An Examination of the Role of Women in Combat and the Policy Implications for Future American Military Operations. Air University Press, 2009. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep13932.6.Anderson, Jack, and Joseph Spear. “Mata Hari Was Framed, Files Show.” Washington Post, November 23, 1985. Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00965R000100120015-5.pdf.Andrews, Evan. “The Dancer Who Became WWI’s Most Notorious Spy.” History, August 5, 2016. https://www.history.com/articles/the-exotic-dancer-who-became-wwis-most-notorious-spy.“‘Mata Hari’ alias McLeod Margaretha Geertruida (Marguerite Gertrude): Executed by the French in 1917 for Accusations of Spying for Germany, KV 2/1, 1914–1924.” The National Archives (UK). https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/filesonfilm/mata-hari-alias-mcleod-margaretha-geertruida-marguerite-gertrude-kv-2-1.pdf.Matano, Lisette. “Letters from Mata Hari.” Georgetown University Library, June 24, 2016. https://library.georgetown.edu/special-collections/manuscripts/letters-mata-hari.Myers, Alice. “France Executes Mata Hari.” EBSCO Research Starters, 2023. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/france-executes-mata-hari.Solly, Meilan. “Revisiting the Myth of Mata Hari, From Sultry Spy to Government Scapegoat.” Smithsonian Magazine, November 1, 2017. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/revisiting-myth-mata-hari-sultry-spy-government-scapegoat-180967013.Wheelwright, J. “The Language of Espionage: Mata Hari and the Creation of the Spy-Courtesan.” In Languages and the First World War: Representation and Memory, edited by C. Declercq and J. Walker, 164–177. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137550361_11.Wheelwright, J. “Poisoned Honey: The Myth of Women in Espionage.” Queen’s Quarterly 100, no. 2 (2019): 291–309.“Mata Hari.” Fries Museum, https://www.friesmuseum.nl/en/collection/icons/mata-hari. Accessed 2 Nov. 2025.Pitel, Laura. “Cache of Files Unveils British and Irish Conquests in Mata Hari’s Last Summer of Seduction.” The Times, 21 Oct. 2023, https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/cache-of-files-unveils-british-and-irish-conquests-in-mata-haris-last-summer-of-seduction-gp0zc8spp.“‘Mata Hari’ alias McLeod Margaretha Geertruida (Marguerite Gertrude): Executed by the French in 1917 for Accusations of Spying for Germany, KV 2/1, 1914–1924.” The National Archives (UK), https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/filesonfilm/mata-hari-alias-mcleod-margaretha-geertruida-marguerite-gertrude-kv-2-1.pdf. Accessed 2 Nov. 2025.Andrews, Evan. “The Dancer Who Became WWI’s Most Notorious Spy.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 5 Aug. 2016, https://www.history.com/articles/the-exotic-dancer-who-became-wwis-most-notorious-spy.“Mata Hari.” Vincentian Collections, DePaul University, https://resources.depaul.edu/vincentian-collections/story/footnotes/Pages/MataHari.aspx. Accessed 2 Nov. 2025.“New-York Tribune (New York, NY), June 25, 1905.” Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83030214/1905-06-25/ed-1/. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is Abraham Lincoln still haunting the halls of the White House?  This week on SPILLED., we’re talking presidential paranormal activity. He showed up in offices and bathrooms alike. Was Honest Abe trying to warn us… or just checking in on democracy?Join us as we unpack the ghostly lore surrounding Lincoln, the séances held in the White House, and why America’s most solemn president became its most famous spirit. Expect spooky history, dramatic retellings, and our completely unqualified theories.Tune in if you love ghost stories, U.S. history, or the weird overlap between politics and the paranormal.Sources:Bach, Jennifer L. “Acts of Remembrance: Mary Todd Lincoln and Her Husband’s Memory.” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 25, no. 2 (2004): 25–49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20149062.Baker, Jean H. Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1987.DJangi, Parissa. “Séances at the White House? Why These First Ladies Turned to the Occult.” National Geographic, April 24, 2024. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/seances-at-the-white-house.Kommel, Alexandra. “Séances in the Red Room: How Spiritualism Comforted the Nation during and after the Civil War.” White House History, April 24, 2019. https://www.whitehousehistory.org/seances-in-the-red-room.Moore, R. Laurence. “Spiritualism and Science: Reflections on the First Decade of the Spirit Rappings.” American Quarterly 24, no. 4 (1972): 474–500. https://doi.org/10.2307/2711685.Pimple, Kenneth D. “Ghosts, Spirits, and Scholars: The Origins of Modern Spiritualism.” In Out Of The Ordinary: Folklore and the Supernatural, edited by Barbara Walker, 75–89. University Press of Colorado, 1995. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt46nwn8.10.White House Historical Association. “White House Ghost Stories.” White House History. Accessed October 21, 2025. https://www.whitehousehistory.org/press-room/press-backgrounders/white-house-ghost-stories.“Last Hours Of Abraham Lincoln.” The British Medical Journal 1, no. 231 (1865): 569–70. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25204716.West, Nancy M. “CAMERA FIENDS: EARLY PHOTOGRAPHY, DEATH, AND THE SUPERNATURAL.” The Centennial Review 40, no. 1 (1996): 170–206. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23740730. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.