#wwyat

[whywouldyouaskthatpod]

Ep 105: Great Molasses Flood

Molasses— sticky, sweet, and responsible for destroying a large part of Boston. On a hot summer's day, some people swear they still smell the remnants of the Great Molasses Flood of 1919. The substance oozed through town and wrought sugary destruction, destroying vehicles and buildings alike. In this episode, we talk about how it spilled and the difficulty of dealing with such an enormous amount of an incredibly strange accident. CW: War, Death, Animal Harm, Property Damage

You can listen to this episode on Spotify or any other podcast app, but I'll link Spotify here below. And if you want ad-free episode, we have a Supporter's Club where you can go here and pay just $2 a month to listen without ads.

[whywouldyouaskthatpod]

Silphium was a North African herb that came from the area around modern Libya that the Roman's really loved for a few reason, not least of which because it was supposedly a great form of birth control. Not just birth control, this cool little plant had some amazing resin that was used as a cure-all for nausea, fevers, chills, and more! People outside of Libya enjoyed it's contraceptive properties so much that the area exported so much Silphium that the city became one of the biggest economic powers at the time. That's how it ended up on this coin pictured above.

They used it so often, in fact, that the plant went extinct before the fall of the Roman Empire. However, it might not be extinct after all! According to a report from National Geographic, Mahmut Miski first discovered — or perhaps rediscovered — a blooming yellow plant in regions of Turkey back in 1983. If you're interested, read about the discovery here and find out the fate of the amazing plant!

You can hear us talk about it on this week's episode Heartfelt History: Symbol of Love!

Screen Reader text is in the image description.

[whywouldyouaskthatpod]

The Sacred Heart is a pretty well known symbol in the Catholic faith that symbolizes God's boundless and passionate love for mankind. It's generally depicted as a flaming heart shining with divine light, pierced by a lance, encircled by the crown of thorns, surmounted by a cross, and bleeding. For a long time, this symbol didn't exist visually, not until the 1200s when Lutgarde, a mystic and contemporary of Francis of Assisi, had a vision.

Supposedly, Christ came to her in a vision offering her whatever gift of grace she should desire, so she asked to understand Latin better so she could understand God's word better. But that didn't feel right to her, so she asked to give the gift back in exchange for Christ's heart. So he took her own heart, put it into his breast, and then gave her his heart. Several other women had visions like these until Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 1600s. Her vision just happened to be the most widely shared.

To hear us talk about this, you can listen to the latest episode Heartfelt History: Symbol of Love.

[whywouldyouaskthatpod]

Ep 28: Ghosts of Jell-O Past

CW: War, Poverty

"Even if you can’t cook, you can make a Jell-O dessert!” Ads promoting Jell-O in the early 1900s gladly declared the gelatin treat to be easy and quick, a delight! But things got weird in the 1950s when the jiggly food started to be introduced with a more savory profile… Join us this episode to talk about the history of gelatin desserts, the flavors, the inclusions, and the all-important Weird Food Culture that surrounded Jell-O!

If you prefer to listen on a podcast app instead of in video format, here's the embedded audio.

[whywouldyouaskthatpod]

Don't Scream Ep 2: DON'T LOOK

In part 2 of the Don't Scream saga, Karen finds the farmhouse and... nothing else! M, however, finds a cult of mannequins twerkin' it. This game truly is a little wild.

See all our available episodes and listen to episodes and teasers for our podcast Why Would You Ask That over on YouTube!

[whywouldyouaskthatpod]

For a while, it was popular for anything that could be made into heart shape to be made that way. Not only were there song books made in heart shapes, but there were literal pieces of music shaped like hearts. Let me introduce you to Belle, Bonne, Sage by Baude Cordier. He was a French composer of the later Medieval period, and we know almost nothing about his life. What we do know about him is that he was known for his unique and experimental notational methods, often with shapes relating to the subject matter.

You can see this in the above piece shaped like a heart which comes from a rondeau about love. His work is thought to have inspired later composers and he was one of the first to include performance instructions to explain how to use his specialized notations. To listen to this performed, you can go here.

To hear us talk about it, you can go listen to this week's episode Heartfelt History: Symbol of Love.

Screen Reader text is in the image description.

[whywouldyouaskthatpod]

Don't Scream Ep 1: THE KLAUSENING

We wanted to play games, so we started with Don't Scream, a haunted house/walking simulator! Please be aware that there are flashing images/lights in this game.

Introducing our new endeavor, a let's play over on YouTube called...

Why Would You Play That?!

If you click the above link, it'll take you to the page on our site where you can keep up with everything we're doing in the let's play space. And trust me, we do still have new things coming! We try to play a decent mix of games here from spooky to cozy, and we don't mind taking your suggestions!

[whywouldyouaskthatpod]

I just like this image of the original 1830 Book of Mormon. But then again, I just like old books. You can see this thing in person if you want to take a trip to the Logan Institute of Religion.

To hear us talk about the original text and everything that went into making it and reading it, tune into last week's episode. You can listen to it straight from our website if you like where you can also find resources.

Joseph Smith's Angels