Everything Is Awful Forever

Everything is awful forever both in life, and podcast. An update about our hiatusi and our future

As autumn draws to a close and the chill creeps in, follow Jess and Philippa into the cold and dark as they look at the misadventures of Floyd Collins.

It's been a bit of a hiatus, but nothing is going to stop Jess and Philippa from crawling out of their graves on Halloween. Join us around the table as we listen to the rappings of spirits, and look at the tricks of the trade in the (not so) otherworldly lives of Victorian spirit mediums. 

Sources:
TBA

We wanted to do an Easter-themed episode but have already covered Mary Toft, the woman who gave birth to rabbits. May we interest you in some Easter...floods? Grab your water wings and hope they'll keep you afload as Jess and Philippa dive into the very non-watery substances that have plagued humankind. 

Join Jess and Philippa as they set sail off the west coast of Ireland with Grace O'Malley, or Granuaile, a woman whose piratical journey would take her from the Irish seas to the throne of Queen Elizabeth Tudor.

Why do so many monarchs get stuck with the nickname of "...the Mad"? It can't possible be because they're...oh...nevermind. Welcome to the return of the Mad Monarchs series. Join Jess and Philippa as they look into the lives of four teen rulers who should never have been allowed to rule.

 Content warning for brief mentions of sexual assault in the episode. 

Let's talk about sects. Join Jess and Philippa for another episode on the Wickedest Man in the World, Aleister Crowley. Magical societies, demonic battles, and newspaper scandals: just another regular day in the life of Britain's most famous dark wizard.

Sources:

 Churton, T. (2011) Aleister Crowley: The Biography. London: Watkins.   

Lachman, G. (2014) Aleister Crowley: Magick, Rock and Roll, and the Wickedest Man in the World. New York: Tarcher 

Known to history since for over 4000 years, and it's only recently that we've begun to understand it. In the meantime, people had to endure some "cures" that may have been worse than the disorder - especially since most of them did very little help in the first place. Join Jess and Philippa as they look into the confusion surrounding epileptic seizures, and how it was dealt with in the ancient world and medieval period. 

Sources:

Sugg, R. (2011) Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires: The History of Corpse Medicine from the Renaissance to the Victorians. London and New York: Routledge.

Temkin, O. (1945) The Falling Sickness: A History of Epilepsy from the Greeks to the Beginnings of Modern Neurology. Baltimore and London: John Hopkins University Press.

CW: Animal experimentation

We know what you're thinking: when will Jess and Philippa release their next episode?! January 1st was more than three weeks ago! If you want to know how we read your minds, join us as we delve into the Russian search for the psi particle and the secrets of Project Stargate. 

Knock knock
Who's there?
Jess
Jess who?
Jester jokes are difficult to ad lib when you're Jess and Philippa. Join us as we prance along the bell-strewn history of jesters and joculators, and find out that the life of a joker wasn't all shits and giggles.

Join Jess and Philippa as they accompany Crowley up to the heights of his greatest accomplishments as well as down to the depths of failure and despair.

Sources:

 Churton, T. (2011) Aleister Crowley: The Biography. London: Watkins.   

Crowley, A. (1909) The Book of the Law
Originally published  as part of ΘΕΛΗΜΑ in London by the  A∴A∴

Lachman, G. (2014) Aleister Crowley: Magick, Rock and Roll, and the Wickedest Man in the World. New York: Tarcher 

As we approach Black Friday, join Jess and Philippa as we dive into one of the many ways in which labour has been exploited in the name of profit. It's time at last to work out what they really did in the Victorian workhouse.

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CW: Violence against children, child death

Good childcare is notoriously difficult to find - and expensive when you do come across it. And if children are really the future, the Victorians were having none of it. Join Jess and Philippa as they look into the grim options available to many a late-Victorian mother and the money-hungry killers that preyed on their children.

They were your childhood friends. You played with them every day. You told them all your secrets. And while you grew up, they stayed the same. And when you left home, they...waited. This Halloween, join Jess and Philippa as they look into two of the most famous dolls to haunt your nightmares. 

Sources:

Brittle, G. (1981) The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed + Lorraine Warren. New York: Maymalkin Media.
Ocker, J. W. (2020) Cursed Objects: Strange but True Stories of the World's Most Infamous Items. Philadelphia: Quirk Books.    

Robert the Doll Official Website: http://robertthedoll.org
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/story-behind-robert-the-doll
https://allthatsinteresting.com/annabelle-doll

This week we look at the greatest mountaineer, poet, chessmaster, spy, and wizard of all time: Aleister Crowley. Join Jess and Philippa as they look into his humble beginnings from a cupboard under the stairs (sort of kind of not really), his initiation into the Golden Dawn, and his role in the most epic wizard battle to ever shake the streets of London.

Sources:

 Churton, T. (2011) Aleister Crowley: The Biography. London: Watkins.   

Crowley, A. (2021) The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography Part I-III. Houston Texas: The Winged Globe Libary.
Originally published by Mandrake Press as The Spirit of Solitude in 1929.

Lachman, G. (2014) Aleister Crowley: Magick, Rock and Roll, and the Wickedest Man in the World. New York: Tarcher

Join Jess and Philippa for a quintessential Awful Forever episode. Witches! Boats! Henry VIII! Murder most foul, and maybe a little murder most pleasant - if you're a king on the hunt for witches.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/story/acts-of-union-uniting-the-united-kingdom https://www.scotlandmag.com/james-vi-and-witch-trials/
https://www.historyextra.com/period/stuart/king-james-vi-i-hunted-witches-hunter-devilry-daemonologie/

If you're having trouble getting started with your week, Jess and Philippa are ready to help you get over those Monday morning blues by getting into the (fashion) details of Victorian mourning rituals. Wilde may have thought "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months" but Victorian women could be confined to black bombazine for two years at a time.

 Sources:

 Arnold, C. (2006) Necropolis: London and its Dead. London: Simon & Schuster.  

Sometimes you throw in your lot with rogues who convince you to board their ramshackle vessel and go die in the Arctic. Sure, you might perish in the frozen darkness - but what happened to the person who abandoned you there? Join Jess and Philippa as they see what Vilhjalmur Stefansson, leader of the doomed Karluk and the  Canadian Arctic Expedition, got up to after he left his previous crew to die.

What do you do when your graveyards are at capacity and everyone's simply dying to get in? Join Jess and Philippa as they confront burial reform in Victorian London and the corpse-ridden scandals that shook the city.

Sources:

 Arnold, C. (2006) Necropolis: London and its Dead. London: Simon & Schuster. 

Jackson, L. (2014) Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Walker, George. (1839) Gatherings from Graveyards.
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/y95wwnen

It's a Monday and we're all feeling a little down. Sickly, even. But you can always join Jess and Philippa for a small pick-me-up and some sound advice about achieving a healthy glow that is literally radiant.