[Opening music]
We all love to listen to stories. Stories help to give a message to others and connect with new audiences. It’s a narrative, either true or fictional, designed to amuse people. If you love stories, it’s one of the best options to listen to the podcast The Past and the Curious.
Mick Sullivan who is a writer, audio creator, museum educator, and curator in Louisville, Kentucky, started the podcast The Past and the Curious in Oct 2016. In each episode, Mick picks two stories from history that are linked thematically and are both fascinating and valuable. He tells an idea in form of stories, presenting real-life characters or past movements in simple and clear language with background music. Background information and context are always clearly provided. So without any prior knowledge, the audience can understand the story.
[audio clip of Mick about the introduction of the podcast]
Mick says “I see myself as a history advocate. It’s my job to pique curiosity and awareness of the past. I really try to cut to the quick and provide just the right amount of historical context. An adult, most likely, could fill in more around the story from their pool of knowledge, but it’s not necessary. The story can stand on its own, without a deep knowledge of the time period or cast of characters.” Most importantly, Mick creates podcast episodes on the audience’s demand. Till now 73 episodes are out. It’s available on many platforms such as Stitcher, Spotify, Apple, and Google Podcasts. At the beginning of the episode, he makes some announcements of upcoming books or advertisements of products such as heinebroscoffee, Homeschoolhistory, and so on. Each episode is around 25-30 minutes. Some of the voices are of Victoria Reibel, Jason Lawrence, and Kelly More. In episode 47, “Leonardo!”, the first part is narrated by a child, Lonnie.
[audio clip of Lonnie from Episode 47 Leonardo!]
Some episodes end with songs performed either by the host or a musical guest. There is sometimes an announcement about the next podcast or upcoming book launch. Mick reads thank you messages to the patrons. Some of them are ending with a song. He featured songs as he is a musician. Mainly background music is from the Great American songbook.
[audio clip of episode ending with the song]
For every episode, there is a section on the website called “About the Episode” that provides information about the story with images. There is a quiz segment presented in the middle of the episode that is one way of sharing fun facts in between the events. Mick invites a guest for episodes and in the form of conversations describes the story. He created some crazy characters like Dr. Awkward, which occurs in several episodes.
The Past and The Curious covers unusual and untold tales from throughout the insane history of the world. He shares humorous, little-known anecdotes about figures such as P.T. Barnum, innovations in the history of underwear, ghost ship, the meat shower of Kentucky, stories of immigrant women, historical movements, and people of diverse backgrounds through lively and creative storytelling. In honor of the Kentucky Meatshower, he made a live reading on Youtube to read his book The Meatshower on March 3, 2022. The Underwear Chronicles is going to be a book and it’s going to be called I See Lincoln’s Underwear. It will be out this winter. It is written for a middle-grade audience but will be enjoyed by kids, younger, and adults too. There is a focus on historical context, societal issues, and big moments. Each chapter is rich with black and white illustrations from the masterful mind of artist Suki Anderson.
This podcast site is free to all. It only charges Patrons for one episode a month. They have several tiers that start from $1 to $22. They reached their goal which is $200 per one episode a month from patrons. Now they are working to create a CD of songs from the first season which needs more funding. The good thing is they don’t do monthly billing. They have some exclusive Patreon content such as “curious names”, a zine that features 16 beautiful illustrations of people featured in past episodes along with some accompanying text and a vinyl sticker. They have partnered with TeePublic to offer some customized stuff relating to the podcast. After each episode, they show gratitude by thanking the patrons and making some customized songs for them.
[audio clip of Mick - showing gratitude to Patron by singing a song]
The Past and The Curious receive several press coverage. According to The New York Times, “This delightful and humorous history show will introduce you to some of the lesser-known stories and historical figures of the past. Come for that delightful pun title, stay for the accessible but never dumbed-down history lessons. Each episode of this monthly show features bite-size audio dramas that illuminate corners of history that children are unlikely to learn in school, often emphasizing the overlooked accomplishments of women and people of color.” Mental Floss says “On The Past and the Curious, host Mick Sullivan devotes himself to finding the little-known details about well-known people and events from history, and telling them in an always engaging, sometimes musical manner that gives children(and adults) a much more robust, interesting understanding of the past.”
[Ending music]
Podcasts are a great alternative to screens, and in this new advent of screen school for most, high-quality kids podcasts can offer students and teachers a great alternative that frees up eyes and minds. Many teachers are already using podcasts in their lesson plans. Overall, The Past and the Curious is a fun and engaging history podcast for the whole family. It’s an educational and entertaining history podcast for kids. The episodes take the audience on a new journey to explore past events, teach valuable lessons and more importantly work as a mood booster.
For Loyola University’s department of Digital Humanities, I’m Ria De.
