On this episode of History You Didn't Know But Should, Chris and Ray kick off their annual Spooktober series with one of North Carolina’s most infamous figures: Blackbeard the Pirate. They revisit his bloody final battle at Ocracoke and the eerie legends claiming his ghost still roams the waters of Teach’s Hole, searching for his severed head. But there’s more to the story than pirates and ghosts. They also explore a side of pirate life that often gets overlooked, including surprisingly good pay, democratic practices aboard some pirate ships, and the complicated relationship between piracy and slavery. Join us as history, legend, and a little Halloween spookiness collide on the North Carolina coast.

In this episode of History You Didn’t Know But Should, Ray sits down with historian Dr. Scott Billingsley to explore deism and the religious beliefs of America’s Founders. What exactly was deism in the eighteenth century? How influential was it during the founding era? And how accurately does the label “deist” describe figures such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington?

Dr. Billingsley helps us separate historical evidence from some of the assumptions that have developed around the Founders and their faith. It’s a fascinating look at one of the most debated, and frequently misunderstood, aspects of the American Founding.

In this episode of History You Didn't Know But Should, Chris and Ray revisit one of the strangest moments of Richard Nixon's presidency: his unexpected early morning visit to the Lincoln Memorial on May 9, 1970. Just days after the Kent State shootings and amid growing protests over the Vietnam War, Nixon left the White House and found himself talking with student demonstrators gathered at the memorial. What followed was an unusual, sometimes awkward, and revealing encounter between a president and a generation increasingly divided over the war.