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Actually... Forgotten Stories for Curious Minds

Cortex Creative Media

Actually... is a deep-dive podcast that digs up the stories history left behind - the ones that got buried, dismissed, or quietly erased. Each episode pulls apart a piece of pop culture, true crime, or hidden history to find the version nobody tells you: the hoaxes, the cover-ups, the myths that calcified into "fact."

Join us each week for the stories that are stranger, messier, and far more interesting than the official version.

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19 episodes
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Avg 31 min
English

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#19
Tuesday · 32 min
Episode 18: Good Luck: The Strange, True Story of the Ouija Board
For more than a century, the Ouija board has fascinated, frightened, and mystified millions. But what if one of the world's most infamous supernatural objects started out as something far less sinister...a clever business opportunity? From the rise of Spiritualism in nineteenth-century America to a mysterious naming session, bitter business rivalries, and a tragic factory accident, the true history of the Ouija board is stranger than you might expect. In this episode of Actually... Forgotten Stories for Curious Minds, we uncover the surprising origins of the talking board, explore the science behind its seemingly mysterious movements, and discover how an ordinary parlor game became a symbol of supernatural terror. And as for the name Ouija? Well, according to legend, the board actually...chose it itself. Say what?? You'll have to tune in for the rest! :)
#18
October 15 · 47 min
Episode 17: The Salem Witch Trials, Part 2: Twenty Innocent People
So how much of what we think we know about the Salem witch trials is actually true? In Part 2, the conclusion of our two-part series, on the Salem Witch Trials, we're heading into the courtrooms of 1692, where invisible evidence could send someone to the gallows, proclaiming your innocence could make things worse, and even a respected grandmother wasn't safe from accusation. We'll uncover the real stories behind some of Salem's most infamous executions, meet the man who refused to enter a plea, and discover why one woman remained imprisoned even after being found not guilty. But the story doesn't end when the executions stop. From judges who refused to apologize to a group of eighth-graders who helped correct a 329-year-old injustice, we'll explore how Massachusetts spent centuries trying to undo what Salem accomplished in a matter of months. And we'll ask one final question: When an entire community participates in an injustice, who is responsible for making it right? Don't forget to listen to Part 1 to get the backstory on how this all started! Show Notes for Part 2: Learn more about the wacky world of "poppets" here: https://www.learnreligions.com/all-about-magical-poppets-2562563 Dry Tinder, a Tale of Rivalry and Injustice in Salem Village by Janice C. Thompson: https://amzn.to/4hR3S38 Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials by Marilynne K. Roach: https://amzn.to/4hR3S38 Actually Facebook Page for some of your host's photos from a visit in August 2026 https://www.facebook.com/actuallypodcast Actually Instagram Page for some of your host's photos from a visit in August 2026 https://www.instagram.com/actuallynerdy
#17
October 13 · 39 min
Episode 16: The Salem Witch Trials Part 1: How a Village Invented Its Witches
Everyone knows the story of the Salem witch trials. A group of girls behaved strangely, frightened villagers cried witchcraft, and innocent people paid the price. Right? Except…that's not quite how it happened. In Part One of this two-part series, we're going back to 1692 to uncover what really set the Salem witch trials in motion - such as a community divided and under pressure, a controversial minister, an enslaved woman named Tituba, a VERY questionable cake recipe, and a justice system willing to accept invisible evidence as fact. How did a handful of accusations become a deadly conspiracy? And why did questioning the accusers eventually make you a suspect yourself? The truth is far more complicated - and far more disturbing - than the version most of us learned in school. Part Two arrives Thursday...make sure you tune in to both to hear the full story! Show Notes for Part 1: Book recommendations to learn more: I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Conde https://amzn.to/3TReDuy Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem by Elaine Breslaw https://amzn.to/4B3vbjR
#16
October 8 · 27 min
Episode 15: The Greenbriar Ghost: The Dead Woman Who Named Her Killer
In 1897, a young West Virginia woman died suddenly, was buried quickly, and might have been forgotten. The doctor called it natural causes. Her mother, Mary Jane Heaster, wasn’t convinced. Then she made an extraordinary claim: her daughter had returned from the dead – and named her killer. On this episode of Actually, we explore the tale of the Greenbrier Ghost – a haunting story of a suspicious death, a determined mother, a murder case that took an unexpected turn in court, and a story that refused to stay buried. It’s remembered as the case a ghost helped solve. But what happened when that supernatural story met the very earthly business of proving a crime? Tune in to find out this and more...
#15
October 6 · 34 min
Episode 14: The Room Where Death Used to Live: Coffin Doors, Parlors, and a Very Persistent Myth
Was your living room once a “death room”? And did old American houses in the Northeast really have special doors for carrying out coffins? They’re the kind of stories that make a haunted walking tour memorable. But behind those wonderfully creepy explanations lies a stranger – and surprisingly human – history. Actually kicks off spooky season with “The Room Where Death Used to Live,” exploring home funerals, Victorian mourning customs, and how America’s relationship with death changed the spaces we call home. Along the way: a mysterious side door, a magazine editor with strong opinions, and a very persistent story about how the living room got its name. Before you give your couch a suspicious look, give it a listen. And stay tuned for the second episode of the week which is dropping THIS THURSDAY!
#14
September 29 · 40 min
Episode 13: The Unluckiest Number in History...?
Why does the number thirteen make so many people uneasy...and when did Friday the 13th become a miniature horror holiday? In this week's episode, we untangle centuries of superstition, folklore and extremely effective marketing to uncover how thirteen acquired its sinister reputation. From the Last Supper and a suspiciously tidy Norse legend to an anti-superstition club serving coffin-shaped lobster salad (no, seriously...), the real history is far stranger - and far less ancient - than most of us have been told.
#13
September 22 · 44 min
Episode 12: Pure Imagination: The Real Story of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
You probably think you know this movie. You've seen it. You can quote it. You maybe watched it more times than you can count as a kid. But the funny part about Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is that, when it was originally released...it was supposed to be marketing for a candy bar that never took off. The movie itself, too, was a flop - and the author that created the story it's based on hated it. All of this led to it almost getting lost to the dustbin of history - until an unlikely savior came along and turned it into one of the most beloved and important films in American cultural history (So much so that even the Library of Congress agrees). And now...it's about to get a new spin - or at least Gene Wilder's version of Mr. Wonka is - with a new Netflix series that is using Wilder's voice to narrate it. Yes, even though Mr. Wilder died about 10 years ago. Say what? What's THAT about?? And...exactly how does something go from a movie that was a failure every step of the way initially get this kind of glow up - and the lead actor's performance becomes so iconic that the performer himself becomes secondary to it? In this episode, we trace the full story. Tune in and check it out - and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any episode!
#12
September 15 · 19 min
Episode 11: The Case the Jury Never Heard: How Lizzie Borden Walked Free
Everyone knows the rhyme: Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks. But nearly every part of it is wrong. In 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally murdered inside their Fall River home, and Andrew’s daughter Lizzie quickly became the prime suspect. The case against her included contradictory testimony, an attempted poison purchase, a mysteriously burned dress, and a possible murder weapon found in the basement. But when Lizzie went on trial, the jury never heard some of the prosecution’s most damaging evidence. In this episode of Actually, we look beyond the infamous rhyme to examine what really happened inside the Borden house, why the strongest evidence was excluded, and how Victorian ideas about women may have helped Lizzie walk free. Show Notes: The Actually Facebook Page for Photos of the Borden House: https://www.facebook.com/actuallypodcast The Actually Instagram Page for Photos of the Borden House: https://www.instagram.com/actuallynerdy
#11
September 8 · 40 min
Episode 10: The Ground Zero Imposter: Inside Tania Head’s Lie About Surviving 9/11
For years, Tania Head was regarded as one of the most remarkable survivors of September 11. She claimed she had escaped from the 78th floor of the South Tower, been rescued by the heroic “Man in the Red Bandana,” and lost her fiancé in the North Tower. Her story made her a leader of the World Trade Center survivor community and a trusted guide at Ground Zero. But Tania Head had never been inside the towers. In fact, she wasn’t even in the United States on September 11, 2001. In this episode of Actually, we uncover how Tania Head aka Alicia Esteve Head constructed an extraordinary identity from the experiences of real victims and survivors - and how her deception went unquestioned for years. It’s a story about stolen trauma, borrowed heroism, and the unsettling power of a lie built from pieces of the truth. Show Notes: The Woman Who Wasn't There by Angelo Guglielmo and Robin Fisher https://amzn.to/4iWczeG The Woman Who Wasn't There Documentary (Prime Video) https://amzn.to/4qZHtVL Book written by Susan Rescorla, Rick Rescorla's widow, as a tribute to her husband who was Morgan Stanley's head of security on 9/11 https://amzn.to/4ymDwN4
#9
September 1 · 27 min
Episode 9A - The Hole Story - What Ever Happened to the Ozone Layer?
Remember when the hole in the ozone layer seemed like an impending global catastrophe...and then everyone simply stopped talking about it? In this episode, we look at how humans damaged the planet’s protective UV shield, the remarkable international agreement that helped repair it, and where the ozone layer stands today. Along the way, we’ll uncover McDonald’s surprising role in the story, revisit the gloriously excessive McDLT, and learn why solving one environmental problem accidentally created another. So, did we actually fix the ozone layer? You'll have to listen in to find out! :) Show Notes: View the McDLT and it's packaging at these handy links: https://mcdonalds.fandom.com/wiki/McD.L.T. https://www.seriouseats.com/blast-from-the-past-the-mcdlt-mcdonalds-1980s-jason-alexander
#10
September 1 · 21 min
Episode 9B: 600 Feet from Home: The Jennifer Odom Kidnapping Case
In February 1993, twelve-year-old Jennifer Odom disappeared during the 600-foot walk from her school bus stop to her home in rural Pasco County, Florida. Her body was discovered days later, but the search for her killer would continue for more than three decades. In this episode, we examine Jennifer’s case, the haunting clues investigators refused to abandon, and the advances in forensic science that eventually led them to Jeffrey Norman Crum Sr. It is a story of a family’s unimaginable loss, a community that never forgot, and justice that took thirty-three years to arrive.
#8
August 25 · 32 min
Episode 8: Robert Todd Lincoln: The Man History Wouldn’t Leave Alone
Robert Todd Lincoln is remembered for one of history’s strangest coincidences: his eerie connection to the assassinations of three American presidents: his father, Abraham Lincoln; James A. Garfield; and William McKinley. But the familiar version of the story isn’t entirely true. In this episode of Actually..., we separate documented history from the legend, trace Robert’s encounters with three national tragedies, and uncover an astonishing twist: years before John Wilkes Booth murdered Abraham Lincoln, another member of the Booth family saved Robert’s life. Was Robert Todd Lincoln really cursed...or simply trapped inside a remarkable historical coincidence? Show Notes: Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard https://amzn.to/4guN4hX "Death by Lightning" Netflix Series: https://www.netflix.com/title/81438325?source=35&fromWatch=true Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert Todd Lincoln by Jason Emerson https://amzn.to/4ire5oW
#7
August 18 · 25 min
Episode 7: The Great Cabbage Patch Kids War of Christmas 1983
In Christmas 1983, one toy turned otherwise reasonable parents into a nationwide army of determined shoppers. Cabbage Patch Kids were oddly named, a little funny-looking, and almost impossible to find in stores. And yet, somehow, every child in America seemed to want one desperately. In this episode of Actually, we revisit the Great Cabbage Patch Craze of 1983, explore the forgotten folk artist whose handmade "Doll Babies" helped inspire the phenomenon — and who later sued for a million dollars over it — and ask the question that still lingers forty years later: how did a funny-faced fabric doll nearly start riots in retail stores across America?
#6
August 11 · 20 min
Episode 6: Before Dallas: The Forgotten Plot to Kill JFK
Three years before Dallas, a 73-year-old retired postal worker sat in a dynamite-rigged Buick, waiting for President-elect Kennedy's car to pass by in Palm Beach — and came closer to changing American history than almost anyone remembers. Richard Pavlick had driven over a thousand miles convinced Kennedy family money had bought the election. He had the explosives, the plan, and the opportunity. What happened next got buried by history — and by a tragedy that hit the headlines just one day later. This is the forgotten near-miss that could have erased Camelot, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Dallas itself before any of it happened. Show Notes: Featured Book: The JFK Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Kennedy and Why it Failed by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch https://amzn.to/4fVL9m4
#5
August 4 · 25 min
Episode 5: The Million Dollar Corner: What Was Hiding Behind Macy's Famous Giant Shopping Bag?
For more than sixty years, a giant red Macy’s shopping bag wrapped around the corner of the company’s Herald Square flagship. But when it came down in July 2026, it revealed something most people never knew was there: a separate five-story building that Macy’s has never owned. In this episode of Actually..., we uncover the story of New York’s “Million Dollar Corner” - a tiny parcel of land tied to an elaborate department store rivalry, an extraordinarily expensive act of corporate spite, and more than a century of real estate drama. From Siegel-Cooper and Gimbels to a lawsuit involving a potential Amazon billboard, this forgotten corner of Herald Square has stubbornly outlasted nearly everyone who fought over it. Now that the famous bag is gone, what happens next—and what exactly has been hiding upstairs all these years? Show Notes: Real Estate Lease Listing for 1313 Broadway: https://www.nycretailleasing.com/retail-leasings/1313-broadway-2/ Photos from the Gothamist’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DbYeoHmFAu7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ== Video from Secret NYC’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1JZbnRudA5/ Close up Photos from New York City Photos on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19KSFVebbz/
#4
July 28 · 21 min
Episode 4: A Complicated Man - Emily Wilson and the Translation that Changed The Odyssey
In November 2017, Emily Wilson published something unprecedented in more than four hundred years of English literature: the first complete English translation of Homer’s Odyssey by a woman. But the real story isn’t simply who translated it - it’s how. In the very first line, one deceptively simple phrase: “A complicated man,” rather than the more familiar “man of twists and turns” reopened an ancient question: What kind of hero was Odysseus, really? And what had generations of translators softened, embellished, or left out along the way? This episode explores Wilson’s five-year, line-for-line translation of Homer’s 12,110-line epic; why everybody is suddenly talking about the Greek word “polytropos”; and how one revealing choice in Book Twenty-Two challenged generations of assumptions about the women in Odysseus’s household. And with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey currently dominating the box office, this three-thousand-year-old story is suddenly part of the cultural conversation again. Nolan has cited Wilson’s description of Odysseus as “a complicated man” as an inspiration - proof that one translation choice can reshape a character we thought we already understood.
S1 · E2
July 21 · 39 min
Episode 2: Go Ask Alice — The Fake Diary That Fooled America for 50+ Years
In 1971, a "real diary" from an anonymous, drug-addicted teenage girl hit bookshelves — and terrified a generation. Except the girl never existed. "Go Ask Alice" was invented by Beatrice Sparks, a struggling writer with no real diary, no credentials, and no shortage of ambition. This week on Actually..., we trace how Sparks turned a fabricated hoax into a publishing empire, exploited a grieving mother's trust to fictionalize her son into a Satanist for "Jay's Journal," helped ignite the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, and somehow kept the con running for over five decades — right up to her death in 2012, still maintaining every word was true. Show Notes: Referenced in this episode: Unmask Alice by Rick Emerson — the definitive investigation into Beatrice Sparks and the "Go Ask Alice" hoax.
S3 · E3
July 21 · 34 min
Episode 3: Whatever Happened to D.B. Cooper’s Money? —The Perfect Crime’s Imperfect Ending
In 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked a plane, collected $200,000 in ransom, and vanished into a storm over the Pacific Northwest — parachute, cash, and all. Nine years later, an eight-year-old boy digging in the sand along the Columbia River found $5,800 of it, badly deteriorated but still rubber-banded together. It's the only physical trace ever recovered — and it raises more questions than it answers. This week on Actually..., we follow the money: the diatom analysis that upended the leading theory of how it got there, the FBI's surprisingly short-lived search for the marked bills, a clip-on tie that's become the center of a decades-long DNA fight, and the family that's spent fifty years wondering if their own father was Cooper. Plus, where the case actually stands as of the FBI's quiet, unexplained move in December 2025.
S1 · E1
July 21 · 27 min
Episode 1: Project Acoustic Kitty — The CIA’s Most PURR-Posterous Idea
In 1966, the CIA spent five years and roughly $20 million (in today's money) turning a house cat into a surveillance device — implanting a microphone in its ear canal, a transmitter at the base of its skull, a battery in its abdomen, and threading an antenna wire down its spine and out through its tail. The mission to eavesdrop on Soviet agents outside their embassy in Washington, D.C. lasted less than 30 seconds before it ended in the street. This week on Actually..., we dig into the real, declassified story behind Project Acoustic Kitty — the surgeries, the training that never stood a chance, the conflicting insider accounts of what actually happened when those van doors opened, and how one of the strangest chapters in Cold War espionage still echoes in intelligence work today.

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