Campfire Stories: Astonishing History

Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you about a small group of Russian scientists who gave everything to protect the future of humanity's food supply during the brutal 900-day Siege of Leningrad. Hear about the life of their fearless leader, world-famous botanist and geneticist Nikolai Vavilov who established the first seed bank in history and dedicated his life to ending famine. It took the fall of Imperial Russia, the rise of Stalin and the Soviet Union, and two world wars to finally separate Vavilov from his work. This man really loved his plants. And if you ate something today, Vavilov's work probably had a hand in it. Let's talk about why.
**This episode includes sensitive content (CW: war, starvation, torture). Listener discretion is advised.**
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Check out our links here to support the show, follow our social media, and see photos from the case: https://linktr.ee/CampfireStoriesPodcast

You can contact me at [email protected].
Also check out our YouTube channel Campfire Stories: Astonishing History.
Sources for every episode are available in the episode transcript on Buzzsprout.
Music by: Zoliborz

A LOT of the information for this episode came from the book "Cosmos, Possible Worlds" by Ann Dryuyan. Give it a read if you can! Also I apologize once again to the Russian people for butchering every Russian name in this story.

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Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you about the assassination of LGBT+ Icon Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. Milk and Moscone were both San Francisco politicians and civil rights leaders whose lives were cut short by their former colleague. Milk was a veteran, Wall Street statistician, and hippie who became one of the first openly gay elected official in America. Both men were dealing with a city and country that was bursting with political tension, clashes between the gay rights movement and the fundamentalist anti-gay movement, and violence against the LGBT+ community, sometimes from the very people sworn to protect them. Both new that the more they fought for inclusion and progress, the more their lives were in danger. They fought anyway.

How did Milk grow into one of the most well-known activists in America? What happened to make Supervisor Dan White turn on his former friend Milk and “the people’s mayor” Moscone? How was he protected after he committed an assassination? What legacy did these men leave behind? Let’s talk about it.

**This episode includes sensitive content (CW: death, suicide, LGBT hate crimes, police brutality, sexual content). Listener discretion is advised.**

Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode! Check out our links here to support the show, follow our social media, and see photos from the case: https://linktr.ee/CampfireStoriesPodcast Also check out our YouTube channel Campfire Stories: Astonishing History.
If you are a member of the LGBT+ community and are looking for resources: https://www.hrc.org/resources/direct-online-and-phone-support-services-for-lgbtq-youth
https://www.glaad.org/resourcelist

You can contact me at [email protected] Sources for every episode are available in the episode transcript on Buzzsprout. Music by: Zoliborz

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Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you about the crazy fan murder of Selena Quintanilla-Pérez.
**This episode includes sensitive content (CW: death, murder, sexual violence, suicide). Listener discretion is advised.**

Selena Quintanilla-Pérez has gone by many titles: the Queen of Tejano music, the Queen of Latin Music, the Queen of Tex-Mex, the Mexican Madonna, the Chicana Elvis, the Hispanic Marilyn Monroe, and the Queen of Corpus Christi. But to her family, her friends, and her millions of fans, she will forever be known by just one name: Selena. She was on the path to becoming one of the most famous musical artists in history and crossing over from Spanish-language music to the English-music and bilingual market. But one of her biggest fans and most trusted confidants would be the one who would take all of that away. Let's talk about it.

Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

Check out our links here to support the show, follow our social media, and see photos from the case: https://linktr.ee/CampfireStoriesPodcast

You can contact me at [email protected].

Also check out our YouTube channel Campfire Stories: Astonishing History.

Sources for every episode are available in the episode transcript on Buzzsprout.

Music by: Zoliborz

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Come gather around the campfire and let me tell you about the Perilous Fate of the American Space Pioneers. Last episode covered the accidents and tragedies of the early Soviet space program, our rivals in the space race and partners in space exploration today. This episode is going to cover the disasters of the American Space program. What would have happened if Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin got stuck on the moon? How did the Apollo 1 fire start? Who was the first American casualty of the space race? Did NASA know Challenger was going to explode? Who was Christa McAuliffe? Could the Columbia disaster have been avoided? Let's talk about it.

**This episode includes sensitive content including real audio and graphic descriptions of deadly accidents . Listener discretion is advised.**

Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode! Check out our links here to support the show, follow our social media, and see photos from the case: https://linktr.ee/CampfireStoriesPodcast

You can contact me at [email protected]. Also check out our YouTube channel Campfire Stories: Astonishing History. Sources for every episode are available in the episode transcript on Buzzsprout.

Music by: Zoliborz

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Come gather around the campfire and hear about one of the most puzzling missing person's cases in U.S. history.
It seemed to be a regular winter day when heiress Dorothy Arnold left home for a shopping trip. She was just going to buy a new dress. She was well-known, walking on packed New York City streets, wearing especially eye-catching clothing. Nothing seemed to be dangerous about it, and she assured her family she would be back in time for dinner. And then Dorothy vanished. What happened to her? Did she go missing by choice, escaping to a new life across the country or even across the Atlantic? Was she snatched off the street by a stranger? Did she perish in an underground medical procedure gone wrong? Whatever the truth really was, the case of Dorothy Arnold gripped international attention from the moment it was announced that she was gone.
**This episode includes sensitive content (CW: death, suicide, medical malpractice, pregnancy, abortion). Listener discretion is advised.**
Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode!
Check out our links here to support the show, follow our social media, and see photos from the case: https://linktr.ee/CampfireStoriesPodcast

You can contact me at [email protected].
Also check out our YouTube channel Campfire Stories: Astonishing History.

Sources for every episode are available in the episode transcript on Buzzsprout.
Music by: Zoliborz

Support the show