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iHeartPodcasts and Grim & Mild


Author Dana Schwartz explores the stories of some of history’s most fascinating royals: the tyrants and the tragic, the murderers and the murdered, and everyone in between. Because when you’re wearing a crown, mistakes often mean blood.


Noble Blood

When Martha Ray was 18, she met the Earl of Sandwich. The married Earl took Martha as his mistress, and they spent years living together as husband and wife. But their arrangement wasn't without friction, and in the end, their story would be a tragedy neither could have imagined.
 
Support Noble Blood:
— Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon
— Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An Earl, a Priest, and Martha Ray

When Baron von Steuben arrived at Valley Forge, he was met with a dismal sight. The soldiers were starving, undisciplined, and freezing. The Baron had a daunting task ahead of him: give them a fighting chance against the British.
 
Support Noble Blood:
 
— Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon
— Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Drillmaster of Valley Forge

Virginia Woolf compared her to a giant cucumber plant. Had she read that, Margaret Cavendish might have thought it a compliment. 

Support Noble Blood:
— Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon
— Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Who's Afraid of the Duchess of Newcastle (Part Two)

For a few tense hours in October 2009, the entire world watched as a homemade aircraft purportedly carrying a 6-year-old boy drifted in mid-air on live television. When the balloon landed, there was no boy inside.
 
Sources: Wife Swap Season 5, Episode 1: “Heene/Martell”
Wife Swap Season 5, Episode 18: “Heene/Silver”
 
The video that I showed Dana of the YourShakeDown invention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xAX2Y8-g4g
 
Compilation of news coverage from the time of the story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAlwBcvb9RA
 
Internet Historian video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWhUvm8SunY&t=1s
 
Richard Heene’s response: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axgyj7g5XZY
 
The gawker essay: https://www.gawkerarchives.com/5383858/exclusive-i-helped-richard-heene-plan-a-balloon-hoax
 
Transcripts from 911 and CNN: https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/ng/date/2009-10-21/segment/01
 
The Denver magazine that cracked the case: https://www.5280.com/the-balloon-boy-hoax-solved/
 
More reporting:
 
https://people.com/human-interest/10-years-later-balloon-boy-dad-insists-saga-no-hoax/
 
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2345497/Four-years-Balloon-Boy-aged-10-finally-set-worlds-youngest-heavy-metal-band-brothers.html
 
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/us/19balloon.html
 
https://nypost.com/2025/02/22/us-news/infamous-balloon-boy-starts-tiny-home-building-business-in-florida/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hoax! | E2 | Balloon Boy

Eighty years ago this summer, a young John F. Kennedy took a job as a journalist for Hearst newspapers, filing dispatches in the final days of World War II. Even the most seasoned JFK scholars often overlook this chapter.
 
Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Fred Logevall and legendary director Rob Reiner join Dana Schwartz to explore the forgotten summer that helped shape Kennedy's worldview. 
 
*
 
If you liked this episode, check out the Very Special Episodes feed for more! 
 
*
 
Check out Fred Logevall's excellent book: JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century.
 
Listen to Who Killed JFK? from Rob Reiner and Soledad O'Brien wherever you get your podcasts. And go see Spinal Tap II: The End Continues in theaters this September!
 
And thanks to our JFK voice actor, Tom Antonellis, for nailing another role. 
 
*
 
Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
Written by Joe Pompeo
Produced by Josh Fisher
Editing and Sound Design by Jonathan Washington and Josh Fisher
Additional Editing by Mary Dooe
Mixing and Mastering by Josh Fisher
Research and Fact-Checking by Joe Pompeo and Austin Thompson
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Very Special Episodes: JFK's Forgotten Summer as a Journalist (with Rob Reiner)

In 'A Room of One's Own,' Virginia Woolf writes of Margaret Cavendish's reputation: "Evidentally the crazy Duchess became a bogey to frighten clever girls with." Dismisses as mad in her own time, and untalented later, Cavendish remains something of an enigma, a strange proto-feminist, proto-science fiction writer who remained entirely untamed. 
 
Support Noble Blood:
 
— Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon
— Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'
 
 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Who's Afraid of the Duchess of Newcastle (Part One)

King Arthur is arguably the most famous monarch in British history, the subject of countless films and books of both non-fiction and fantasy. But there's one tiny, but important question worth asking: did he even exist?
 
Support Noble Blood:
 
— Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon
— Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Real King Arthur

King Juan Carlos I had an astonishingly eventful life and ruled as King of Spain for nearly four decades. But a tragic event when he was a teenager maybe have been the defining incident of his life. 
 
Support Noble Blood:
 
— Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon
— Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Smoking Gun in the Spanish Royal Family

Beethoven wrote an effusive, romantic letter, to a woman identified only as his "Immortal Beloved." Her (or his!) identity remains a matter of debate, but it turns out Beethoven had some other "beloveds" as well...
 
Support Noble Blood:
 
— Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon
— Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beethoven's Immortal Beloved, Part 2

After Beethoven died, his secretary published an effusively romantic letter the composer had written to someone identified only as his "Immortal Beloved." Beethoven had a type -- namely: noble, and unavailable. But the true identity of the letter's intended recepient has mystified music historians.
 
Support Noble Blood:
 
— Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon
— Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An Earl, a Priest, and Martha Ray

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