History's heiresses and hotheads, talked over by two.
Scandal Sheets is history as a two-person conversation: one host brings the research, and the other reacts, interrupts and asks the obvious question out loud. Its subjects run from Hedy Lamarr and San Francisco's Alma Spreckels to the abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay and the reclusive heiress Hugette Clark.
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Scandal Sheets treats history as something to talk over rather than recite. Caroline and Adrienne tend to split each story in two: one host has done the reading, and the other reacts, interrupts and asks the question hanging in the air. That second role sets the pace. When the story of Cassius Marcellus Clay reaches his wife leaving him after 45 years and 10 children, the follow-ups come quickly: how, exactly, had she abandoned him, and why didn't she go with him overseas? Names are a running hazard. Tanzler and Hugette are both argued over before their stories properly start, and one host admits to learning that Clay went by Cash, which would have made the first part easier to narrate. The subjects vary widely. Hedy Lamarr arrives as both an American actress and a scientist, in an episode the hosts use to relaunch the podcast with its original theme song. Alma Spreckels, described as a grandmother figure for San Francisco, belongs to a California-themed series the hosts call California Dreaming, subtitled Scandals of the Golden State. Clay is an abolitionist who, unlike Lloyd Garrison, favoured a gradual end to slavery, and a hothead who clashed with fellow legislators and was not above using his fists. Carl Tanzler von Casel takes the show to Key West, complete with a pointed white beard, round spectacles and an airplane under construction behind a hospital. Hugette Clark, a reclusive heiress and the youngest daughter of William Clark, closes a longer Clark family story. The hosts read period sources out loud as well as summarising them. A newspaper report of Alma's $50,000 breach-of-promise suit against a millionaire comes in such ornate courtroom prose that one host admits to having no clue what it means. Tangents are part of the texture. The Hedy Lamarr episode takes in the design of a passenger ship, from ductwork shifted to the outer shell to an early commercial radar set and a dummy third smokestack housing air conditioning and dog kennels. The Clark story stops to consider the architect Reginald Johnson and the principles he brought to his best-known houses. Even Clay's nickname sparks a quick detour into Glow. A good first listen is 'E36: The First Cassius Clay, Scandalous Politician and Abolitionist' and its second part, where the split between teller and questioner is at its clearest. Across these episodes the sign-off never changes: stay scandalous.
Made for: Suits a listener who likes history as a conversation, with room for tangents and second-guessing, and who would rather hear about heiresses, hotheaded politicians and eccentrics than battles and treaties.
What sets it apart: Rather than one narrated account, Scandal Sheets splits the telling between a researcher and a questioner, so its stories come with interruptions, pronunciation disputes and ornate period newspaper prose read aloud and puzzled over.
Scandal Sheets is coming back on November 1st! Scandal Sheets is the podcast that explores the infamous people and places of the past. In every episode, hosts Caroline and Adrienne discuss a historical scandal along with the people and places associated with it. Tune in for our themed 5 episode seasons starting November 1st!
A millionaire's divorce drew spectators; Caroline and Adrienne give you a better seat.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A San Francisco breach-of-promise case becomes a showcase for ornate old scandal prose.
Alma the Bretville Spreckles plays as a San Francisco scandal story with a taste for grand names, asserted nobility, and a breach-of-promise suit seeking $50,000.
Hedy Lamarr's beauty makes the loudest entrance, while her identity as a scientist becomes the episode's deeper pull.
Scandal Sheets returns with Caroline and Adrienne relaunching the podcast around Hedy Lamarr, framed here as a famous American actress and scientist.
A contested divorce, a splintered family, and four daughters pulled toward women's suffrage.
Scandal Sheets closes its account of Cassius Marcellus Clay by turning from public reputation to the damage left at home. The episode follows Cash through his nickname, his time in Russia, and the collapse of his long marriage to Mary Jane after 10 children.
A Kentucky abolitionist with cannons, creditors, and a gift for political brawls.
Cassius Marcellus Clay emerges as a volatile Kentucky abolitionist, less a tidy reformer than a man full of force and contradiction. He did not claim slavery would vanish overnight, but he pushed for it to be phased out, picked verbal fights with fellow legislators, and used his…
A queasy Key West scandal where illness, fantasy, and misplaced confidence drive the story.
Scandal Sheets treats Carl Tanzler's case as a grim Key West story about fantasy, illness, and the danger of misplaced confidence. Caroline and Adrienne follow Tanzler from Dresden to his fixation on Elena, a tuberculosis patient whose parents accepted his promise that…
Overlooked lives, read from the sources, talked through warmly.
Mike Duncan narrates Rome's full history solo, from Aeneas to Romulus Augustulus's exile in 476.
["Scandal Sheets opens the California Dreaming series with Alma de Bretville Spreckels, born in San Francisco on March 24, 1881, and tied to a family that ran a bakery, a laundry service, and a masseuse business.", "The episode centers on Alma's six-week relationship with Klondike millionaire Charlie Anderson, her January 5, 1902 breach-of-promise suit in San Francisco court, and the testimony about jeweled garters, wine, and who kissed whom first.", "After Judge Kerrigan awarded her $1,250 instead of the $50,000 she asked for, the hosts trace her 1908 marriage to Adolph Spreckels, the line about being an old man's darling, and her rise into San Francisco society.", "The back half follows the Spreckels mansion in Pacific Heights and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, including the rivalry with Mike de Young and Alma's Rodin collection."]
Scandal Sheets relaunches with Hedy Lamarr, born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna on November 4, 1914, to a banker father and a concert-pianist mother.
Scandal Sheets follows Cassius Marcellus Clay, the Kentucky politician who founded The True American, armed the office with a cannon, and kept publishing after a mob stole his presses.
Scandal Sheets profiles Cassius Marcellus Clay, the Kentucky abolitionist and politician born in Richmond on October 10, 1810, whose name later became a point of confusion with Muhammad Ali.
Scandal Sheets follows Carl Tanzler, born in Dresden in 1877, from Germany and Australia to Key West, where he worked at the Marine Hospital and reinvented himself as Count Carl Tanzler von Cosel.
Scandal Sheets follows Huguette Clark, youngest daughter of Montana Copper King William Andrews Clark, from a $300 million inheritance to an intensely private life.
Scandal Sheets examines William Andrews Clark, a Montana mining magnate described as one of the world's two wealthiest men alongside John Rockefeller.
Scandal Sheets follows Syrie Maugham, born Gwendolyn Maud Syrie Bernardo in 1879, from a sheltered upbringing to a design career launched at age 42.
Scandal Sheets examines Alma Margaretha Maria Schindler, born in Vienna on August 31, 1879, whose marriages connected her to Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius, and Franz Werfel.
Scandal Sheets examines the Lemp family's St.
Host Caroline interviews Roxanna Robinson, great-granddaughter of Frank Dawson, about the historical murder case of the newspaper editor.
Hosts Caroline and Adrienne recap the life of architect Stanford White and introduce his murder, part of a series on historical scandals.
Hosts Caroline and Adrienne introduce their podcast about historical scandals and the people and places involved, with casual banter.
Hosts Caroline and Adrienne introduce a podcast about historical scandals, teasing an episode on the Glensheen estate in Duluth, Minnesota.