A Popular History of Unpopular Things

About A Popular History of Unpopular Things

A podcast that makes weird, gross, gory, and just generally “unpopular” history more fun and accessible

Publisher

Kelli Beard

Category

history · society & culture · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

18 Sept 2022

Latest episode

23 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

2 of 81 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   23 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT

   The USS Scorpion Disaster

   Join Kelli as she goes over what happened to the USS Scorpion, a skipjack-class nuclear-powered attack submarine that disappeared in May of 1967. It was found five months later, 2 miles down on the Atlantic seabed, broken into pieces. It's entire crew of 99 men sank with it. Was it an attack? Did it implode? What caused her to sink? Though tons of theories have been crafted, because we don't *actually* know what happened, we'll use our favorite philosophical tool (Occam's Razor) to determine ...

2. 

   21 Jun 2026

   The Great Moon Hoax

   Join Kelli for another weird episode where she looks at the Great Moon Hoax of 1835. For six days straight in 1835, the New York Sun (not the same publication as the one that exists today) published a fantastical story about life on the moon. The scientific series of articles talked about witnessing lumbering bipedal moon-bison, crystal spires, temples, men with wings, and more. It was captivating... and although it was complete fiction, many believed it to be fact. In today's episode we...

3. 

   31 May 2026

   The Navajo (Diné) Long Walk

   Join Kelli as she finally starts tackling the impact of westward expansion on indigenous populations in the United States. In this episode, we focus on the Navajo, or Diné, who were forcibly removed from their homeland starting in the winter of 1863. Get ready for a nice, long historical context! :) Sources: Books Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West by Hampton SidesDiné: A History of the Navajos by Peter Iverson feat. photographs by...

Inside a recent episode

The USS Scorpion Disaster

Published 23 Aug 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] But again, I'm trying to keep this context relatively brief for a change, so excuse me for skipping over it. I guess I didn't skip over it, though, because I just mentioned it. Anyways, by its nature, a Cold War is not an actual war, right? The U.S. and the USSR were not technically at war with one another. Instead, proxy wars broke out in other countries. which are wars that were fought because of this tension between communism and capitalism, between the U.S. and the Soviets, but not actually between the main powers involved. One of those wars was the Vietnam War. North Vietnam was backed by both the Soviet Union and China, communist states, and South Vietnam was supported by the U.S. and its democratic allies. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

307,384

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.9 / 5

72 ratings

Spotify

4.7 / 5

419 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 87 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

86

Social presence

91

YouTube

86

Engagement

89

Contact A Popular History of Unpopular Things

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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