Nine small islands, called the Isles of Shoals, lie off the coast just over the line between New Hampshire and Maine. One of them, Smuttynose Island, has a mysterious past. Traditional stories going back to the early 19th century, amplified by

The Dumplings of Death

May 17th, 2021 1h 5m

In March 1815, in London, Elizabeth Fenning served a plate of dumplings to the family that employed her as a cook. Almost all members of the household, including Eliza herself, became violently ill, apparently poisoned. Barely four months later

The Lithuanian Rabbi

Mar 24th, 2021 1h 3m

For centuries, the historic region of Lithuania, torn between its powerful European neighbors, was one of the great centers of Jewish culture and intellectual life. In the 1810s, the small town of Volozhin was the site of a uniquely influential

Bonus

Bonus: Trailer for Age of Confusion Podcast

Mar 19th, 2021 3m 6s

This brief trailer is to introduce you to Second Decade host Sean Munger's newest podcast, a fiction/alternate history show called Age of Confusion. The show examines an alternate timeline of American and world history from 1963 to 1985.Websit

War and Peace

Feb 18th, 2021 1h 3m

This is a crossover episode with the Green Screen podcast.Leo Tolstoy’s epic 1869 novel War & Peace is undeniably one of the great classics of world literature. Although it covers a considerable time period, its climactic episodes involve the

Norway, Part II

Jan 29th, 2021 59m 3s

After being sold out by the great European powers, especially Great Britain, as a sop to Sweden, the people of Norway felt angry and betrayed. The Norwegian nobility had united behind Danish Crown Prince Christian Frederick, who had promised to

Norway, Part I

Dec 19th, 2020 53m 2s

At the beginning of the Napoleonic era, Norway was not its own country, but rather the junior partner in the unequal combination of Denmark-Norway. Just before Bonaparte was defeated and exiled (for the first time), somehow Norway ended up deta

Theo the Pipe Smoker

Oct 26th, 2020 49m 58s

The bodies of dead human beings can tell us a lot about the past, but most human remains from the distant past tend to be rich or important people. A discovery in Basel, Switzerland in 1984 proved an exception to this rule when a number of skel

Heritage Lost

Dec 22nd, 2019 48m 38s

America was growing rapidly in the 1810s, and growth meant building. Buildings of all kinds, from churches, markets and houses to banks and government offices, were sprouting up everywhere. Only a tiny fraction of the many buildings constructed

Year Without Summer, Part III

Nov 17th, 2019 51m 46s

The mysterious weather and climate anomalies of the Year Without Summer did not end with the coming of fall or the end of the calendar year 1816. The Tambora effect—the chilling of the world’s climate by volcanic dust from the 1815 mega-eruptio

Year Without Summer, Part II

Oct 13th, 2019 55m 36s

For many people around the world, 1816 was the oddest summer they ever lived through. Snow from the previous winter was still left in places well into the deep summer; rains and floods lashed central Europe; New England was cold and parched; an

Year Without Summer, Part I

Sep 23rd, 2019 53m 16s

The “Year Without Summer,” 1816, is one of those things that many people have heard of, but very few know anything substantive about. It was the largest environmental event of the Second Decade. Two volcanic eruptions, one from an unknown mount

The Fires of St. John's

Jul 14th, 2019 46m 30s

In the 1810s, St. John’s, Newfoundland was possibly the most remote and inaccessible corner of British America. Located on an island that was often icebound in the winter months, St. John’s was far from self-sufficient, depending on the Royal N

Austen-tatious

Jun 9th, 2019 49m 31s

Jane Austen is rightly considered perhaps the greatest British novelist of her day, or any age. Her novels about women, marriage and family among the English gentry, especially Pride and Prejudice, have defined how we think about British societ

Tomb Raider

May 13th, 2019 54m 34s

One of the most bizarre and mysterious cultures in human history, ancient Egypt still holds considerable interest for us today. This was even more true in the 1810s, not long after battles between France and Britain in the region of the Nile br

Caragea's Plague

Apr 27th, 2019 48m 29s

If you’ve never heard of John Caragea and have no idea where Wallachia is, you’re certainly not alone. This look at the seamy underbelly of Eastern Europe in the 1810s may be obscure, but it’s no less fascinating than anything else covered on S

Antarctica

Apr 7th, 2019 49m 6s

For most of human history, Antarctica was more of a concept than a reality. Geographers from ancient times and voyagers in the Age of Discovery supposed there was a continent at the bottom of the world, but no one had actually seen it, and some

Bonus

Second Decade Update and Special Appeal

Mar 24th, 2019 7m 25s

It’s been a while—too long—since the last episode of Second Decade. In this brief bonus episode, Sean Munger talks to you, the listeners, about the future of the show (yes, it is continuing), some announcements of other podcasts he’s going to b

Bonus

Off Topic: The 80s (Jake's 88 Special, Part III)

Jan 27th, 2019 48m 2s

This bonus episode, the third one released in conjunction with Sean Munger’s newly-released novel Jake’s 88 (which is set in the 80s), examines how the 1980s ended and the transition to a new decade. In the immediate aftermath of the collapse o

Bonus

Off Topic: The 80s (Jake's 88 Special, Part II)

Jan 1st, 2019 49m 1s

This bonus episode, the second one released in conjunction with Sean Munger’s upcoming novel Jake’s 88 (which is set in the 80s), examines the political, cultural and social history of the 1980s. Sean begins with two dreadful disasters in 1988

The Monster of Gloucester

Jan 1st, 2019 43m 8s

In the summer of 1817, residents of the coastal town of Gloucester, Massachusetts suddenly began seeing a mysterious creature swimming around in their harbor. Though reports differed as to exactly what the monster looked like, how long it was

Bonus

Off Topic: The 80s (Jake's 88 Special, Part I)

Dec 24th, 2018 43m 43s

This bonus episode, released in conjunction with Sean Munger’s upcoming novel Jake’s 88 (which is set in the 80s), examines the political, cultural and social history of the 1980s and why, far from being simply a grab-bag of pop culture tropes,

Napoleon's Hundred Days, Part III

Dec 24th, 2018 51m 10s

“Waterloo” is a name so historic and iconic that it’s taken on more than its literal meaning—when we speak of someone “meeting their Waterloo,” we’re talking about their final epic defeat. Napoleon Bonaparte certainly did meet that end on the f

Napoleon's Hundred Days, Part II

Nov 24th, 2018 43m 33s

In retellings of history, Napoleon’s brief return to power in the spring of 1815 is often portrayed as an audacious surprise, the ultimate comeback from an indefatigable historical personality. Actually it wasn’t. Having returned to Paris and r

Napoleon's Hundred Days, Part I

Oct 28th, 2018 42m 29s

Napoleon was the kind of guy who didn’t know when the party was over. Following his disastrous defeat in Russia in 1812 (chronicled in Episodes 10-12 of this podcast) and yet another war in Europe, Napoleon’s enemies invaded France and forced h