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InterestingPOD

InterestingPOD

著者： Dr. Chase A. Thompson
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 Not every tale from history made the textbooks. Some were too strange. Too secret. Too… interesting. Debunking myths and digging up the facts, we don’t peddle half-baked lies, rumors, or unfounded conspiracies. And we don’t accept easy answers either. Your host is Doctor Chase: historian, author, storyteller. You bring the curiosity, and we’ll bring the intrigue. Ready for a mystery? Or an adventure? Let’s go!2025 ノンフィクション犯罪 世界
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  • Myth Smashing: Is the Bolton Strid 100% Fatal? What is the MOST Dangerous Water Body in the World?

    Myth Smashing: Is the Bolton Strid 100% Fatal? What is the MOST Dangerous Water Body in the World?
    2025/07/25
    On the last episode, we told you all about the Bolton Strid, which is a fairly short section of the River Wharfe in Northern England near Yorkshire that is legendary as a drowning machine. The Strid has had a reputation for literally CENTURIES as being a place where there is a 100% fatality rate - CERTAIN DEATH - for those who fall in. The reasons for that, as we discussed last time, have to do with the geomorphology of the river. In the Strid portion, it’s as if the River Wharfe turns on its sides and becomes very narrow but also very deep and rushing. Kind of like a river flowing rapidly through a canyon. And often, when people fall in, they are either immediately pulled under water or pulled underwater and under the rock shelves on the sides of the Strid, where rescue is impossible, and it is impossible to surface. It’s like you are all of the sudden cave diving without any sort of scuba gear. All around the river are signs warning of danger, as well as something I’ve never seen around rivers before - boxes where you dial a code, and out comes a rescue rig and to throw into the water for people who are drowning. But is the river that dangerous? Is the Strid really 100 percent lethal? Or, as a travel writer Daniel Piggott wrote, is the Strid simply a legend, a myth that hasn’t actually verifiably claimed ANY lives?? Time to go to the archives and do some grunt work research. I’ll add a few dilithium crystals to our time machine, and we will keep going back, back back. Here’s where we put on our historian’s robe and cowl. The oldest newspaper record I can find that covers the Strid comes from Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal, the February 20, 1819 edition. That article doesn’t talk much about the Strid itself, but favorably reviews Samuel Rogers’ epic poem, the Boy of Egremond, which is all about William De Romilly falling into the Strid. The next oldest easily accessible newspaper reference I can find to the Strid is from the Manchester Guardian, June 26, 1839, and it gives a colorfol description of the Strid: I found several non-detailed mentions of the Strid in books from the mid 1700s, but the earliest detailed record I can find of the Strid dates to 1780, with one likely exception from the 1500s…I’m sure there are older references out there, but alas, the brand new podcast budget doesn’t allow me a visit to Yorkshire and a few weeks going through the Abbey and local library records. So, we will have to settle for 1780’s Viator, a poem: or, a journey from London to Scarborough, by the way of York by Thomas Maude. Maude was a bit of a dabbler in everything - a doctor, poet, essayist, estate manager and author. Maude and his wife were married at St Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street church, and I only mention that because I’ll bet some of you pastors listening might want to consider changing your church’s name to Saint Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street too! In his Viator book, Maude writes, “The Strid or Stride, falls here likewise under the traveller’s inspection. It is the cleft of a rock in the bed of the river through which chasm the Wharfe in Summer, entirely passes. In was in stepping this gulph that the last male hier of the family of Romelius lost is life.” Maude goes on to mention that there was a 1670 painting of the boy and his dog, but I do believe that painting is lost to history. It’s lost to me, at least. I couldn’t find it. The next oldest comes from an 1805 book that I do actually have a copy of Dr. Thomas Whitaker’s The History and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven in the County of York. Which is a book written in 1805. If you don’t know Whitaker, he’s a pretty fascinating guy. He originally planned to be a lawyer, and got his doctoral degree in law even after getting called into ministry. He started out at a smaller chapel and paid for the restoration of that chapel out of his own pocket in 1788. He wasn’t just a pastor/vicar/lawyer either - he was a peacemaker in the various villages of his parish and a scientist, studying and writing about topography and forestry. He wrote nine books, mostly on history, edited some others, and published multiple academic articles. He instituted a literary club, and had a vast library, and an impressive array of knowledge. He’s a legit historian, and a highly educated one. True, his doctoral degree wasn’t in history, but PhDs in history didn’t come along until after Whitaker. So when this guy writes about history, we should take notice. He’s not infallible, but he’s solid, and in 1805, writing about the Strid, he mentions the legend - or true story - behind Wordsworth’s poem. Whitaker writes, “In the deep solitude of the woods betwixt Bolton and Barden, the [River] Wharfe suddenly contracts itself to a rocky channel little more than four feet wide, and pours through the tremendous fissure with a rapidity proportioned to its confinement. This ...
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    40 分
  • The Merciless Strid - Deadliest Body of Water in the World. 100% Fatal?!

    The Merciless Strid - Deadliest Body of Water in the World. 100% Fatal?!
    2025/07/24
    Interesting Pod #1: “Bloodthirsty River”: The Bolton Strid, The most dangerous body of water on earth - The Bolton Strid, River Wharfe, Bolton Abbey in Yorkshire. “ Thalassophobics beware - today we’re talking about one of the scariest bodies of water on Earth! From the book of Genesis until today, floods have been one of humanity's greatest enemies. On August 15, 1998, Barry and Lynn Collett were married at Long Sutton Church near Hampshire, UK, before spending their wedding night at a hotel in Maiden's Green, Berkshire, and travelling north on Sunday. By all accounts, the couple were sensible, fine people who loved each other greatly, but I can’t help but think their wedding day was marred by one of the worst United Kingdom terror incidents that happened in the twentieth century. You see, the day the Colletts were married was the same day the Real IRA a provisional splinter group of the I.R.A. (Irish Republican Army) set off a massive bomb in Omaugh (Owe-Muh), Northern Ireland, that killed 29 and injured 220. It was the deadliest Northern Ireland incident of the Troubles, and it happened because the Real IRA, who were not, in fact, the Real IRA, but just called themselves that, opposed the IRA's ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement, signed earlier in the year. They were against peace. So I imagine that the Collett’s had mixed feelings in August as they drove towards the Bolton Abbey area of North Yorkshire, wondering if the bomb might be an omen, or a harbinger of something worse to come. Barry was a computer guy and his new wife Lynn a student nurse…good people. They got married on a Saturday, and by Sunday night, they were near Bolton Abbey, staying in a holiday cottage in Appletreewick, a tiny village of 200 on the shores of the River Wharfe. That Sunday night, they likely huddled up in that cottage as a fierce rain storm beat down, swelling the River Wharfe to dangerous levels. Monday the 17th, the rain abated for a bit, and Barry and Lynn decided to go for a walk by the river, not overly familiar with the area, and apparently not aware of the dangers of the Strid, a stretch of river that many today call a “drowning machine.” U.K. Officers believed the couple went into the water slightly north of Bardon Bridge near stepping stones after setting off from their honeymoon cottage at Appletreewick on Monday. They just wanted to have a bit of a nature walk and stretch their legs after a long drive, and being cooped up in their cottage during the rain. Totally understandable. Unfortunately, they were never seen alive again. A local, Desmond Thomas, of Pembroke Dock was walking near the river that fateful Monday with his family and said: "The level, speed, and turbulence of the water looked like flood water. It rose a matter of feet in seconds.” He also apparently saw Mr. Collett, caught in the deadly current of the Strid, rush past him in a blur. "I went to the water's edge and just as I got there I saw a man's body, who I now know to be Barry, pop out of the water. "The face popped up towards me and within a matter of seconds it disappeared." Terrifying and heart-wrenching. What happened? Many people over the years have tried to jump across the Strid. Certainly, it’s doable - only about 6.5 feet wide in some places, but on this particular Monday, that would have been even more ill-advised than normal. The River bailiff for that stretch of the Strid - if you’re American, think of a Game Warden - was Charles Hoyle. He found Mrs Collett's jacket in the water the Tuesday after she disappeared, and he said that on the Monday the couple was lost, he personally witnessed the river rise five feet in less than 60 seconds because of the rain from the night before. This was something he said he had only seen happen about six times before. ELEVEN LABS Superintendent Parker of the local Constabulary said, "They were a sensible couple. We do not believe they tried to jump the Strid - the water was very high and we have no reason to think they would do anything like that," We don’t know exactly what happened. We don’t know precisely how the Strid claimed those two lovely honeymooners, but it did. Somehow, someway, Barry and Lynn just got too close to what may well be the most dangerous tiny stretch of water in the world. There were not the first victims of the Strid, and they may not have been the 100th or even the 1000th. In 1875, the Craven Herald and Pioneer reports that two grappling irons - for rescue - were suspended from trees near the Strid so that people who fell in might somehow, someway, be rescued. The paper reports: For centuries, people in that area have respected and trembled at their beautiful river, and the poet William Wordsworth, he of “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud” fame, also wrote an utterly haunting, poignant, and striking poem over 200 years ago about a young boy who also lost his life while trying to leap ...
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    45 分
  • InterestingPOD Trailer - Episode #0

    InterestingPOD Trailer - Episode #0
    2025/07/12

    Not every tale from history made the textbooks. Some were too strange. Too secret. Too… interesting. Debunking myths and digging up the truth—we don’t peddle half-baked lies, rumors, or unfounded conspiracies. And we don’t accept easy answers either.

    You bring the curiosity—we’ll bring the intrigue.

    Ready for a mystery? Or an adventure?
    Well, here’s a preview of some of our first few episodes:

    Did you know that there is a forbidden Hawaiian island owned by one family, and the residents can leave when ever they want, but they can’t bring anybody back with them? If you’re lucky enough to live there, it’s rent free, you get all of the meat to eat that you want, but there’s not really much electricity, plumbing, internet, tv or running water. Speaking of primitive conditions, how would you survive a winter in Victorian England if you were dirt poor and homeless? Well, if you could somehow get at least a penny a day, you could sleep in a penny shelter sitting up on a bench. (NO LYING ON THE BENCH) And you’d likely be sitting next to one or two other dudes also. If you had two pennies, you could sleep hanging over on a rope at a two-penny hangover…but not on the floor. If you had FOUR pennies…well, my friend, you’re in luck because you’d be able to sleep in a coffin like box on a hard floor, with bugs in it, and you’d also have 50-100 more people in that seem ill-heated room, many of them sleeping in their own coffin boxes just inches away from you. Yuck!

    In another episode, we will shift gears and explore the documented prophetic dreams that predict the future. Could such a thing really happen? In 1979 David Booth dreamt ten nights in a row about a terrible air crash that would soon happen. He called Jack Barker with the FAA multiple times leading up to the cross, but though he provided specific details, and though Barker took him seriously, they couldn’t figure what exact plane Booth’s dream might be referring to. A few days later, in a scenario eerily similar to Booth’s dream, American Airlines flight 191 crashed shortly after takeoff, the worst aviation disaster in American history. How could that be possible? We will explore that incident in depth.

    A few more early episodes: Did John F. Kennedy, in trying to address a crowd in Berlin, inadvertently call himself a jelly donut in German? The truth might surprise you! Speaking of surprises, what about witches burned at the stake in Salem?? Everybody knows that happened, right? Right? Related to facts everybody knows…if you are even a casual sports fan, I’ll bet you know that Jackie Robinson was the first black Major league baseball player, right? Except…actually, he wasn’t.

    Well, that’s enough of a preview. I’m your host, Doctor Chase, and I’m a historian, author, storyteller and podcaster. I began podcasting in early 2005, and was one half of the first podcast in Alabama history, which is an achievement that probably won’t go on my gravestone. I have a doctoral degree in counseling, and I’m close to finishing a PhD in history. I care as much about footnotes, historiographical analyses, Turabian formatting, and memorizing dozens of dates as you do, but the thing I love about history is the STORIES. I love a good story, and I’ve stayed up many late nights listening and telling a good tale.

    That said, I also love truth, and facts. We live in an age of accelerated conspiracy theories, and urban legends are as common as online political disagreements. When I was a kid, I didn’t want to grow up to be a teacher, or a historian, or a pastor, or a counselor…I was a Hardy Boys guy. A wannabe Sherlock Holmes, and even though I was a History major in college, my eyes were dead set on being an FBI agent, or some other form of detective, and I even attended Criminal Justice graduate school at the University of Alabama before my life took a different turn…but I never lost my love of a good mystery, or love of investigations, and I want to apply that passion for investigating to history. On this show, we will put on our deerstalker hat (even if Holmes didn’t wear one in the canonical books) get out our magnifying glasses, and do the actual research that’s necessary to get at the truth. I can’t promise that we will be infallible, but I do promise you will get maximal effort to put together an interesting - hopefully fascinating - podcast that prioritizes excellent research and values the truth. If we miss it, we’ll own it. It’s cliche for podcast hosts to tell people to “hit that subscribe button,” so I won’t say that, but deep down, I’ll secretly be hoping that you do.

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    6 分
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