iHeartPodcasts and Grim & Mild
76 episodes listed below
A season-by-season history show pairing dramatized Rasputin and Salem narratives with historian interviews.
Unobscured treats history as a slow excavation rather than a parade of trivia. Across seasons on Salem, Whitechapel, Rasputin, sideshow performers, and related strange histories, it favors context, atmosphere, and historians who can separate legend from lived reality.
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Unobscured is produced by iHeartPodcasts and Grim & Mild and structures each season as a serialized examination of one historical event or figure, including the Salem witch trials, the Spiritualist movement built around the Fox sisters, and the death of Grigori Rasputin within the Romanov court. Episodes split into two recurring formats: narrative episodes that dramatize documented events in scene form (such as the hours after Rasputin's disappearance, tracked through Maria Rasputin, Felix Yusupov, and Empress Alexandra's household), and long-form interview episodes where host Aaron Mahnke, often joined by producer Carl Nellis, questions historians about their published research. Recurring guests are academic historians and biographers rather than journalists or witnesses, including Stacy Schiff on the Salem trials, Molly McGarry and Nancy Rubin Stuart on 19th-century spiritualism, and Douglas Smith, Helen Rappaport, and Joshua Sanborn on Rasputin and the late Russian Empire. The interviews tend to run long, from about an hour to nearly two hours, and are conversational but source-driven, with guests walking through archival findings, court documents, and correspondence rather than giving a broad narrative summary. Recurring themes include the gap between popular myth and documented history, the role of religious movements in social reform such as abolition and early women's rights, and the internal politics of a monarchy under strain. The show repeatedly examines how public reputations are constructed — how terms like 'witch,' 'spiritualist,' or 'mystic' functioned as social labels as much as descriptions of belief or practice. The intended listener already knows the broad outline of an event, such as Salem or Rasputin's death, and wants a more detailed, source-grounded account rather than a casual retelling. Episode length varies widely, from shorter narrative episodes around 40-50 minutes to interview episodes running past 90 minutes. No host besides Aaron Mahnke narrates regularly, and Carl Nellis appears specifically as a secondary interviewer in the historian conversations.
Made for: Listeners who already know an event's broad outline — Salem, Rasputin, the Fox sisters — and want historians unpacking the documented detail behind it.
What sets it apart: Each season combines dramatized narrative episodes with extended, source-driven historian interviews (often 60-120 minutes) rather than relying on a single narrator throughout.
Each season of Unobscured digs deep into one of history's darkest and most misunderstood moments, and sheds light on the true story beneath the myth. Explore the Salem witch trials (S1), the Spiritualist Movement (S2), Jack the Ripper (S3), and Grigori Rasputin (S4) through the narrative storytelling of Aaron Mahnke, along with prominent historian interviews.
Based on 4 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Unobscured uses historian interviews to connect contested lives with the religious institutions, political pressures, and public beliefs surrounding them.
Unobscured keeps returning to the distance between a famous life and the institutions around it. Its interview-led format places Grigory Rasputin within the Romanov court, the Revolution of 1905, Russian religious life, and the pressures on Nicholas and Alexandra.
Rasputin steps out of the myth and into palace politics, with you following the receipts.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A measured Romanov interview about secrecy, seclusion, and the fragile private life behind imperial decline.
Unobscured ends its Romanov season with Helen Rappaport, turning attention from the dynasty's downfall to the guarded life Nicholas, Alexandra, and their children built around the Alexander Palace outside St. Petersburg.
A sharp guide to Russian religion as lived faith, imperial policy, and political anxiety.
Unobscured turns from Rasputin's reputation to the religious world that made his story legible. Heather Coleman, a historian of Russian religion, is strongest when she pulls the subject away from palace intrigue and into lived faith: Baptists, Old Believers, Orthodox missions,…
A sharp Rasputin interview that keeps the myth in view while putting the politics first.
Rasputin arrives here as a political presence as much as a legend, with Douglas Smith tracing how a Siberian mystic became meaningful to Nicholas and Alexandra at a moment when Russia was near rupture. The key is timing.
A sharp interview on Maggie Fox, early Spiritualism, and the pressure behind a public mystery.
Nancy Rubin Stuart's Unobscured interview gives Maggie Fox the uneasy center of early Spiritualism: famous raps, public investigations, eager publicity, and a young woman who seems less architect than captive performer.
Multi-part dramatized retellings of scandals like OceanGate's Titan and the Lehman Brothers collapse.
Greg Young and Tom Meyers explain how New York City's streets took shape.
Fashion historians April Callahan and Cassidy Zachary dig into garments, letters, and the people who wore them.
Aaron Mankey announces his debut book 'Exhumed,' a 20-chapter exploration of Mercy Brown and the New England vampire panic, releasing August 4th.
This episode announces the transition of the Unobscured podcast into a new ongoing show called Grim and Mild Presents, which will feature continuous, bi-weekly episodes on historical topics like the American Sideshow.
Unobscured returns to the Romanov household, close enough to hear the doors shutting.
Dr.
Religion has political force here.
Douglas Smith meets Rasputin without the fog.
This episode recounts an assassination attempt on Grigori Rasputin by a woman who ultimately could not go through with it.
This episode uses a metaphor of a car with a mad driver to describe Tsar Nicholas II's leadership during World War I, focusing on Russia's failures and suffering in 1915.
This episode recounts an assassination attempt on Grigori Rasputin by a follower of his former friend Iliadur.
This episode examines the political fallout from Alexander Gukov's 1912 speech attacking Rasputin's influence over Tsar Nicholas II.
This episode explores the controversial figure Grigori Rasputin, debunking myths and examining his role in Russian history.
This episode explores Anna's journey to visit Rasputin at his home in Pokrovskoe, delving into his influence and the devotion of his followers.
This episode explores the lead-up to the 1905 Russian Revolution, focusing on worker strikes and Nicholas II's response.
A grieving father travels to a monastery in the Ural Mountains seeking answers after the death of his infant son, setting the stage for the story of Grigori Rasputin.
Unobscured opens Season 4, Episode 1 with a peasant who studied the butcher's trade and medicine, then turned to occultism, mysticism, and "psychic fluids and astral forces." Writers called him "the cagliostro of our age," a comparison that captures how strange and celebrated his reputation became.
This episode introduces the story of Grigori Rasputin, his journey to St.
An interview with Adam Wood, author and editor of Ripperologist magazine, discussing the Whitechapel murders and Victorian detective Donald Swanson.
This episode examines the debate over whether Alice McKenzie's murder was committed by Jack the Ripper, featuring conflicting expert opinions from Dr.
This episode details the jurisdictional dispute between coroners Wynne Baxter and Roderick MacDonald over the inquest into Mary Kelly's murder, the final Jack the Ripper victim.
Unobscured ends its Season 2 interview series with historian Molly McGarry, Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Riverside, discussing her book Ghosts of Futures Past and the Power of Spiritualism in America.
An interview with historian Kathy Gutierrez about the beliefs and practices of 19th-century spiritualists.
An interview with author Mary Gabriel about Victoria Woodhull and the role of spiritualism in giving women a political and social voice in the 19th century.
Nancy Rubin Stuart traces spiritualism to 19th-century religious ferment, including the Second Great Awakening, upstate New York, and the Erie Canal corridor around Rochester.
Historian Emily Clark discusses the beliefs and practices of 19th-century American spiritualists, including communication with spirits.
Historian Margaret Washington discusses the meaning of being a spiritualist in 19th century America, focusing on continued contact with deceased loved ones.
This episode explores the daily life and work of Frederick Douglass and his associates in Rochester, New York, in 1848.
This episode recounts the arrival of a mesmerism lecturer in 19th-century Poughkeepsie, sparking curiosity among local apprentices.
Stacey Schiff, author of The Witches, joins Aaron Manke for Unobscured Season 1’s interview series to explain why Salem is often treated as a “shorthand” for a history most people do not actually know.