For decades, American families gathered in their backyards to throw giant metal spikes through the air and called it wholesome fun. What could possibly go wrong?

In this episode of Cursed...ish, Daniel and Angela trace the astonishing history of lawn darts, better known by the popular brand name Jarts. Beginning with a 1957 patent for a projectile that combined an indoor dart with a javelin, lawn darts were marketed as cheerful outdoor entertainment for the entire family. Millions of sets were sold, even as the supposedly harmless backyard game caused devastating head injuries, permanent disabilities, and the deaths of children.

Along the way, they examine the classic Saturday Night Live “Bag O’ Glass” sketch, the cheerful vintage advertising that described Jarts as a “missile game,” early attempts by the FDA to regulate them, and the manufacturers who insisted that consumers simply needed to play more carefully. Then they tell the heartbreaking story of seven-year-old and her father whose tireless campaign finally pushed the Consumer Product Safety Commission and Congress to ban sharp-pointed lawn darts decades after they first landed on the market and began their reign of terror..

Were lawn darts a cursed object, or simply the inevitable result of reckless design, corporate self-interest, weak regulation, and an American marketplace willing to sell almost anything?

Maybe cursed. Maybe not. Definitely a terrible idea.

Questions, comments, or your own accursed tales to share? Send us a hex at uhoh@cursedish.com.

The hosts of Cursed...ish are not responsible for any misfortunes that may befall you while listening to this podcast. By listening to Cursed...ish, you assume all risk of bad luck, ill omens, and unexplained catastrophes.

*Terms and conditions may be upheld by unknown forces.

In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompeii and Herculaneum beneath ash, pumice, and deadly pyroclastic flows, preserving the final moments of two ancient Roman cities in horrifying detail. But was that the end of Pompeii’s misfortune, or did something cursed remain beneath the ruins?

Fresh from visiting Pompeii and Herculaneum, Angela takes Daniel through the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the remarkably preserved streets and homes of Pompeii, and the eyewitness account of Pliny the Younger. Along the way, they examine exploding skulls, plaster casts, ancient brothels, good-luck penises, and the surprisingly ordinary details of Roman life frozen in time.

Then they uncover the modern Curse of Pompeii, an urban legend claiming that tourists who steal rocks, tiles, mosaics, and other artifacts from the archaeological site are rewarded with illness, financial ruin, and relentless bad luck. More than 100 visitors have reportedly returned stolen souvenirs, often accompanied by letters begging Pompeii, and perhaps its dead, for forgiveness.

Is Pompeii truly cursed, or is the legend simply doing the useful work of frightening tourists into keeping their hands to themselves?

Maybe cursed. Maybe not. Definitely cursed...ish.

Questions, comments, or your own accursed tales to share? Send us a hex at uhoh@cursedish.com.

The hosts of Cursed...ish are not responsible for any misfortunes that may befall you while listening to this podcast. By listening to Cursed...ish, you assume all risk of bad luck, ill omens, and unexplained catastrophes.

*Terms and conditions may be upheld by unknown forces.

Yosemite National Park is one of the most beautiful places in America, with towering granite cliffs, roaring waterfalls, Half Dome, El Capitan, and a valley so stunning it helped inspire the entire national park system. But tucked into that landscape is Tenaya Canyon, a dangerous stretch of wilderness sometimes called the “Bermuda Triangle of Yosemite,” where hikers, climbers, park employees, and even John Muir, America’s great wilderness evangelist and the man often called the father of the national parks himself, have been injured, stranded, or killed while exploring this infamous canyon.

In this episode of Cursed...ish, Daniel and Angela investigate the alleged Curse of Tenaya Canyon: the story of Chief Tenaya, the Ahwahneechee people, the Mariposa Battalion, and the violent removal of Indigenous people from Yosemite Valley during the California Gold Rush. From the killing of Chief Tenaya’s son to the renaming of Tenaya Lake, Tenaya Creek, and Tenaya Canyon, we look at how a history of displacement became attached to one of Yosemite’s most dangerous landscapes.

Along the way, we dig into deadly falls, flash floods, Half Dome lightning strikes, strange disappearances, rescue missions, and the unsettling question at the center of the legend: is Tenaya Canyon cursed, or is “the curse” a way of turning stolen land and human tragedy into spooky tourist folklore?

This is a story about Yosemite, wilderness danger, Indigenous history, settler violence, respect for nature, and the uncomfortable line between a supernatural warning and a history that refuses to stay buried.

https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/origin_of_word_yosemite.html

https://npshistory.com/nature_notes/yose/v20n7-1977.pdf

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/56042/56042-h/56042-h.htm#i_236

https://www.sfgate.com/california-parks/article/tenaya-canyon-in-yosemites-cursed-history-18121807.php

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/yosemite-hiking-accidents-kill-two-3136339.php

https://tahoequarterly.com/best-of-tahoe-2017/tempting-curse-chief-tenaya

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/yosemite-hiking-accidents-kill-two-3136339.php

https://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/746/Yosemite_rock_fall_database_narratives_1857-2011.pdf

https://mymotherlode.com/news/local/106197/yosemite-officials-believe-body-may-be-that-of-missing-foreign-exchange-student.html

https://www.nps.gov/yose/blogs/stranded-hikers-rescued-from-tenaya-canyon.htm

https://www.nps.gov/yose/blogs/lost-and-unprepared-in-tenaya-canyon.htm

Questions, comments, or your own accursed tales to share? Send us a hex at uhoh@cursedish.com.

The hosts of Cursed...ish are not responsible for any misfortunes that may befall you while listening to this podcast. By listening to Cursed...ish, you assume all risk of bad luck, ill omens, and unexplained catastrophes.

*Terms and conditions may be upheld by unknown forces.

The Hope Diamond is one of the most famous jewels in the world, but is it also one of the most cursed?

In this episode of Cursed...ish, we follow the allegedly-cursed Hope Diamond from its origins as the Tavernier Blue to the French royal court, through revolution, scandal, suspiciously dramatic deaths, and eventually into its current home at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Along the way, we dig into the science behind the diamond’s impossible blue color, the legend that it was stolen from a Hindu idol, the French Blue’s connection to Louis XIV, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the chaos of the French Revolution, plus the tragic story of a Washington socialite who owned the diamond before it became a museum icon.

We also ask the important questions. Did the Hope Diamond really leave ruin in its wake? Was Pierre Cartier helped by one of the greatest curse-marketing campaigns of all time? Did they tempt fate by mailing the diamond to the Smithsonian for $2.44 in postage? And most importantly, was this blue little menace actually cursed, or did centuries of wealth, power, colonial plunder, tabloid storytelling, and human disaster just happen to sparkle in the same direction?

From royal necks to a Great Dane named Mike, from Versailles to the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, this is the story of the Hope Diamond curse: part history, part folklore, part luxury-object crime scene.

Maybe cursed. Maybe not. Definitely dramatic.

Questions, comments, or your own accursed tales to share? Send us a hex at uhoh@cursedish.com.

The hosts of Cursed...ish are not responsible for any misfortunes that may befall you while listening to this podcast. By listening to Cursed...ish, you assume all risk of bad luck, ill omens, and unexplained catastrophes.

*Terms and conditions may be upheld by unknown forces.

A warning for delicate ears: this episode contains explicit language. We hope you’ll pardon us; when the topic is cursed words, some of those words do insist on showing up and being heard.

On the 13th episode of Cursed…ish, Daniel and Angela investigate curses of a more etymological persuasion: curse words. Why do certain sounds become dangerous, filthy, or forbidden? Why did ancient speakers stop saying the original word for the beast they feared the most out of a suspicion that uttering its name might summon one forth? How did damn go from a terrifying sentence of eternal condemnation to one of our mildest swear words? And where did the word fuck actually come from, and why has it become the undisputed king of English profanity?

Along the way, we unpack the strange history of taboo language, from Bronze Age euphemisms and divine damnation to medieval court records featuring the curious case of Roger Fuck-By-The-Navel. Because curse words are more than just dirty language. They reveal what people fear, what they revere, what they repress, and why sometimes only a well-placed “fuck” will do.

https://www.medievalists.net/2023/08/earliest-use-f-word/

https://sslh.org.uk/2023/06/07/i-dont-know-where-he-gets-his-fucking-language-from/

Questions, comments, or your own accursed tales to share? Send us a hex at uhoh@cursedish.com.

The hosts of Cursed...ish are not responsible for any misfortunes that may befall you while listening to this podcast. By listening to Cursed...ish, you assume all risk of bad luck, ill omens, and unexplained catastrophes.

*Terms and conditions may be upheld by unknown forces.

Why do theater people refuse to say Macbeth inside a theater? This week on Cursed...ish, we step into the blood-soaked, witchy world of Shakespeare’s most allegedly-cursed play: Macbeth, also known by the superstitious as “The Scottish Play.”

Angela takes Daniel through the strange history behind the curse of Macbeth, from one king's weird, misplaced obsession with witchcraft and Shakespeare’s suspiciously well-researched trio of iconic witches, to the chilling discovery that real incantations may have been written into the very play itself. Did Shakespeare accidentally, or maybe not so accidentally, put actual magic onstage?

Then we follow the supposed victims of the Macbeth curse across centuries of theatrical disaster: an actor allegedly dying before opening night, the Great Storm of 1703, the deadly Astor Place Riot of 1849, falling stage weights, accidentally-sharp prop swords, mysterious production deaths, stage injuries, kerosene-soaked costumes, and one extremely unfortunate bike accident.

But is Macbeth truly cursed? Or is one of the most-performed plays in the English language simply old enough, popular enough, and chaotic enough to collect a long list of theatrical disasters?

This episode has witches, Shakespearean ass-kissing, toxic theater fandom, dead sheep carcasses, cursed stage traditions, and the eternal question: is it cursed, or just cursed...ish?

Questions, comments, or your own accursed tales to share? Send us a hex at uhoh@cursedish.com.

The hosts of Cursed...ish are not responsible for any misfortunes that may befall you while listening to this podcast. By listening to Cursed...ish, you assume all risk of bad luck, ill omens, and unexplained catastrophes.

*Terms and conditions may be upheld by unknown forces.

Is the Poltergeist curse real, or is it just one of Hollywood’s darkest tabloid legends? In this episode of Cursed...ish, we dig into the alleged Poltergeist movie curse, from Steven Spielberg and Tobe Hooper’s creation of the 1982 horror classic to the tragic deaths of Dominique Dunne and Heather O’Rourke, the eerie stories surrounding Poltergeist 2 and Poltergeist 3, and the infamous rumor that real human skeletons were used on set. Along the way, we trace how the “curse” narrative spread through tabloids, media frenzy, and horror lore, and ask the question at the heart of every Cursed...ish episode: is there really something supernatural going on here, or are people forcing a pattern onto tragedy? If you’ve ever wondered about the truth behind the Poltergeist curse, this is the story behind one of horror’s most infamous legends.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-03-21-ca-993-story.html

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/poltergeist-movie-curse-documentary-explore-830368/

https://www.avclub.com/a-new-documentary-about-the-poltergeist-curse-knows-w-1798285147

https://bloodygoodhorror.com/bgh/interviews/bgh-investigates-the-poltergeist-curse-with-craig-reardon

https://web.archive.org/web/20121105201058/http://articles.latimes.com/1988-02-03/news/mn-27226_1_poltergeist-iii

https://allthatsinteresting.com/dominique-dunne

https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3555052/poltergeist-getting-remade-captain-america-avengers-directors/

Questions, comments, or your own accursed tales to share? Send us a hex at uhoh@cursedish.com.

The hosts of Cursed...ish are not responsible for any misfortunes that may befall you while listening to this podcast. By listening to Cursed...ish, you assume all risk of bad luck, ill omens, and unexplained catastrophes.

*Terms and conditions may be upheld by unknown forces.

In this episode of Cursed...ish, Angela and Daniel dig into the Curse of Cassandra, the Greek myth of a woman who could literally predict disaster and still got treated like she was being dramatic. From Apollo’s extremely petty curse of a punishment to the Trojan Horse, the fall of Troy, and the brutal aftermath of war, they trace how Cassandra became mythology’s patron saint of I told you so. Along the way, they unpack the tragedy, misogyny, and cultural staying power of her story, plus why the Cassandra archetype still shows up everywhere from horror movies to modern pop culture, including Taylor Swift’s “Cassandra.” Because sometimes the real curse is not just bad luck, it’s being right while everybody around you insists on acting like an idiot.

Questions, comments, or your own accursed tales to share? Send us a hex at uhoh@cursedish.com.

The hosts of Cursed...ish are not responsible for any misfortunes that may befall you while listening to this podcast. By listening to Cursed...ish, you assume all risk of bad luck, ill omens, and unexplained catastrophes.

*Terms and conditions may be upheld by unknown forces.