iHeartPodcasts
500 episodes listed below
Tracy Wilson and Holly Frey narrate overlooked history, from Courbet's realism to IUD regulation.
Stuff You Missed in History Class treats history as a set of messy human stories, not a parade of tidy facts. Recent episodes move from Gustave Courbet to Gladys Bentley’s complicated public legacy, with room for caveats, context, and painful material.
PRESS PLAY
Stuff You Missed in History Class is a daily-format history podcast produced by iHeartRadio, hosted primarily by Tracy V. Wilson and Holly Frey (with occasional listing variants of their names in show credits). The bulk of episodes are single-host narrative history essays: one host researches and reads a scripted profile of a person, invention, or event, citing named historical sources, court records, and contemporaneous publications. A second recurring format, released as shorter Friday 'Behind the Scenes' episodes, has both hosts in conversation discussing how a recent episode was researched, including personal anecdotes — for example Tracy Wilson describing her own experience with a copper IUD. Older episodes are periodically re-released under a 'SYMHC Classics' label. Subject matter skews toward figures and events left out of standard history curricula: women scientists and activists (Elizabeth Fulhame, Elizabeth Peratrovich), the regulatory and ethical history of reproductive medicine (the Nelson Pill Hearings, the Dalkon Shield, IUD pain management guidelines), and American civic and Civil War-era history (the naming of Atlanta, blockade running, Reconstruction). Art history and the history of science also recur, often framed around a single artwork, invention, or court case. There are no outside guests in the sampled episodes — the show is carried entirely by its two hosts alternating solo narration and paired discussion. The tone throughout is educational and research-driven rather than comedic or debate-oriented. Listeners interested in social, medical, and women's history that falls outside standard textbook narratives are the core audience. Episodes are self-contained and do not require familiarity with prior episodes to follow.
Made for: History enthusiasts who want researched, narrative deep dives on overlooked women, medical history, and American civic history rather than headline historical events.
What sets it apart: Unlike broad-survey history shows, it pairs solo-narrated single-subject deep dives with a recurring two-host behind-the-scenes format and a sustained focus on reproductive and medical history alongside conventional political and art history.
Join Holly and Tracy as they bring you the greatest and strangest Stuff You Missed In History Class in this podcast by iHeartRadio.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Detailed lives become entry points into institutions, inequality, art and the changing historical record.
Stuff You Missed in History Class builds biographies outward, using individual lives to clarify the institutions and social pressures around them.
Emma Bovary, Alaska's voting barriers, and pine-knot headlights: your history syllabus just became delightfully specific.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A careful, context-rich look at pill safety concerns as drug regulation and public health scrutiny were changing.
Stuff You Missed in History Class frames the Nelson Pill Hearings within a period when confidence in drug safety was under real strain. The discussion ties birth-control pill concerns to the recent thalidomide disaster, tighter expectations for drug testing, and the broader…
A candid behind-the-scenes mini that makes contraceptive care feel specific, practical, and human.
This behind-the-scenes mini is at its strongest when Tracy P. Wilson talks plainly about choosing a copper IUD. Her reasons are specific without turning clinical: hormonal contraception had brought unwanted side effects, her mother's breast cancer history made her uneasy about…
A compact history of the IUD that follows contraception through medicine, taboo, repression, and cross-border advocacy.
The IUD: A History frames contraception as medical history shaped by politics, taboo, exile, and repression. Its strongest thread follows the device across borders, from Weimar-era sex research and the Nazi destruction of the Institute of Sexual Science to Ernst Grafenberg's…
A concise look at Lucy Hobbs Taylor's 1865 recognition by organized dentistry.
Lucy Hobbs Taylor's story lands as a focused account of professional recognition after years of being told women did not belong in dentistry. The key moment comes in July 1865, when Dr.
A modest everyday-history mini on carry-on bags, best for regular listeners who like the show's smaller curiosities.
Behind the Scenes Minis: Carry-on Bags looks like one of Stuff You Missed in History Class's small-scale side trips, built around a familiar object rather than a famous battle, scandal, or public turning point.
A pointed mini on national park signage, public memory, and the politics of changing history in public view.
Behind the Scenes Minis: Censorship Cats listens less like a tidy mini and more like a notebook from a story still moving. The hosts are tracking an executive order about removing or revising national park signage, with the official focus landing on changes since 2020.
A clear, sober account of Pueblo resistance, Spanish repression, and Popay's place in the revolt.
Stuff You Missed in History Class revisits the Pueblo Revolt as a story of pressure building under Spanish colonial rule. The episode connects that pressure to the violence after the Acoma Revolt, the stripping away of Pueblo traditions, disease, taxation, and the harsher…
A loose, amiable mini built from research side notes, sea-robber oddities, coffee, and the show's usual human warmth.
This Behind the Scenes Minis installment keeps to the show's familiar habit of turning research leftovers into a loose, companionable conversation.
History, remembered by witnesses.
Pop culture with the historical wiring exposed.
World news with a historian’s fuse.
Courbet makes poverty hard to prettify.
This episode features promotional clips for multiple iHeart podcasts, including 2% on mental toughness and The Clifford Show with athlete interviews, ending with a teaser about Will Ferrell.
This appears to be a promotional compilation for various iHeart podcasts rather than the actual episode about Peter Kropotkin's Mutual Aid.
This episode introduces Peter Kropotkin's concept of mutual aid, exploring its scientific and philosophical foundations in anarchist thought.
This episode explores the historical Haymarket Riot of 1886 in Chicago, a pivotal event in labor history involving protests, violence, and anarchist movements.
This is a promotional compilation featuring multiple iHeart podcast ads, including 2% with Michael Easter on mental toughness, The Clifford Show with Clifford Taylor IV on sports conversations, and Thanks Dad with Will Ferrell discussing parental advice.
This episode appears to be about James Braid, a surgeon considered the father of hypnotism, exploring his contributions to medical history and psychology.
This episode explores the life and legacy of Gladys Bentley, a prominent but often overlooked figure from the Harlem Renaissance, focusing on her music, sexuality, and the complexities of her story.
Holly and Tracy introduce a classic episode about comedian Moms Mabley, tying it to the TV show The Marvelous Mrs.
Holly and Tracy discuss Emile Coué and auto-suggestion, including historical criticisms and quotes from a biographer.
Holly and Tracy discuss a historical hoax called the Pompey Stone for an April Fool's Day episode.
Stuff You Missed in History Class profiles Elizabeth Fulhame, an 18th-century woman whose 1794 chemistry book described what we now call catalysis and included early experiments in photosensitivity, yet almost nothing is known about her biography beyond her marriage to Edinburgh medical graduate Thomas Fulhame.
Stuff You Missed in History Class profiles Richard Peters, a Pennsylvania-born civil engineer who became one of the most influential figures in Atlanta's founding and post-Civil War rebuilding.
Stuff You Missed in History Class examines the 1970 Nelson Pill Hearings, Senate hearings convened by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin after journalist Barbara Seaman's 1969 book documented serious side effects that patients were not being told about.
Hosts Tracy Wilson and Holly Frey discuss behind-the-scenes research on two recent Stuff You Missed in History Class episodes: Elizabeth Peratrovich and Alaska's pre-Civil Rights Act anti-discrimination law, and the history of the IUD.
Stuff You Missed in History Class traces the history of the IUD from 19th-century intracervical pessaries through the 1909 first publication by Richard Richter, Ernst Grafenberg's development of a contraceptive ring in Weimar Germany, its suppression under Nazism, and the postwar developments that led to modern copper and hormonal devices.
A discriminatory law made its purpose plain.
July 1865 is the turn.
Most of this excerpt is ad copy.
Emma Bovary was never just one woman.
A magazine wanted a circulation stunt, and Elizabeth Bisland got pulled into it with almost no warning.
Marie Laurencin moved through a tough crowd.
The park signs do matter.
Steinlen's politics were not background decor.
Hercules stays at the center.
Acoma Pueblo sits behind this Saturday Classic, but the episode does not hurry there.
Much of the excerpt is promotional spillover.
Fort Mose starts with flight.
Melitta Bentz's filter caught on fast.
It's COINTELPRO.
Very special episodes lead the way.
Portugal was already under pressure.
Pervitin was sold as improvement.
COINTELPRO starts in anticommunist fear.
Most of this excerpt is promotional audio.
Violence hits the courthouse.
A quote opens the door.
Samuel Pepys keeps getting pulled into the machinery.
The excerpt is basically ad copy.
Helen Preece did not wait for permission.
Coal smoke kept coming back.
The usable thread is thin here.
Around 1630, Brand comes into view.
George Stephenson studies beside Robert.
Rickets enters the episode through paperwork.
"School life was not a happy one." The hosts use Theodore Hook's school complaints, Oxford trouble, and reputation as a writer and wit to show why he might plan an elaborate prank.
Mostly, this excerpt is promo copy.
Samplers were useful before they were pretty, though they could be both.
Embroidery gets ancient fast here.
Stuff You Missed in History Class presents a classic episode on Paul Cuffee, born in 1759 to a formerly enslaved African father and a Wampanoag mother, who became one of the wealthiest people of color in the United States through maritime trade and shipbuilding while simultaneously becoming a pivotal figure in early American civil rights, Black education, and abolitionism.
Hosts Tracy and Holly discuss behind-the-scenes updates from their Unearthed segment, covering topics like art heists used in criminal insurance, ethical dilemmas in covering exploited figures like the Dionne Quintuplets, and challenges with paywalls in historical research.
Stuff You Missed in History Class presents the second part of its Q4 2025 Unearthed roundup, covering remarkable archaeological and historical discoveries from around the world.
Stuff You Missed in History Class hosts Tracy Wilson and Holly Frey present the first part of their quarterly Unearthed segment covering archaeological and historical discoveries from the final quarter of 2025.
This episode explores the history of disability rights in U.S.
Tracy and Holly discuss the 504 sit-ins and Rehabilitation Act of 1973, exploring disability rights history, accessibility issues, and personal stories.
Holly and Tracy discuss self-help books and historical self-improvement methods, including Ben Franklin's virtues.
Holly and Tracy introduce an episode about aerospace engineer Mary Golda Ross, the first known indigenous woman engineer in the US, noting that details of her work are classified.
This episode explores the life and works of Alexandre Dumas-Pere, author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo.
Holly and Tracy discuss the Great Fear of 1789 and the complexities of the French Revolution.
This episode explores the life and impact of Clarence Birdseye, the inventor of modern frozen food, highlighting his self-promotion and true contributions.
Holly and Tracy introduce an episode about the Great Fear of 1789, a conspiracy-fueled panic during the French Revolution.
This episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class explores the life of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, a historical figure connected to the French Revolution and father of author Alexandre Dumas.
Holly and Tracy discuss unsubstantiated claims about a fire at Villas de Vecchi and other odd details they omitted from a previous episode.
This episode explores a historical case where belief in a ghost led to a major legal battle that exposed a flaw in British law.
Holly and Tracy explore the history and legends surrounding an abandoned mansion in Northern Ireland, known as the Red House or Witch's House, and examine the contradictions in its haunted reputation.
Holly and Tracy present a classic episode about historical figure Alistair Crowley on their history podcast.
Holly and Tracy discuss ghost stories and historical anecdotes related to the Drury Lane theatre in London.
Holly and Tracy discuss listener-requested ghost towns, exploring abandoned places and their stories.
This episode explores the history and ghost stories associated with the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, one of Britain's most haunted theaters.
Holly and Tracy replay an episode on hellhounds and the Rougarou, exploring historical folklore around demon dogs.
Holly and Tracy discuss a study on bias in reporting historical and archaeological finds.
This episode features promotional clips for multiple iHeart podcasts, including 2% on mental toughness, The Clifford Show with athlete interviews, Thanks Dad with advice from Will Ferrell, and a teaser about women confronting a con artist.
This episode features promotional segments for various iHeart podcasts, including 2% on mental toughness and The Clifford Show with athlete interviews, along with a tire advertisement.
This SYMHC Classics episode revisits the life and legacy of Paul Robeson, a multifaceted entertainer and civil rights activist.