In this Naked History: Debrief, we head back behind the barricades of the Paris Commune for the strange, messy, and politically flammable leftovers from the main episode.

Dyllan digs into the pieces that didn’t quite fit the first time around: why the cannons of Montmartre were more than just cannons, how Louise Michel became one of the Commune’s most defiant icons, why the myth of the pétroleuse turned revolutionary women into propaganda monsters, and what everyday life looked like when Paris tried to govern itself under siege.

Then, in This Week in History, we cover April 20–26 — from Earth Day and Shakespeare to Hubble, Chernobyl, and the Library of Congress.

Finally, we open up Myth-Taken to ask: was the Paris Commune really just a violent mob, or was it something more complicated, more hopeful, and much harder to dismiss?

Hope, fear, bad government decisions, and just enough revolutionary soot to ruin the carpet.

Music Credits:

• "Our Story Begins" Kevin MacLeod (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠incompetech.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• Music track: lavender by massobeats Source: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://freetouse.com/music ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Royalty Free Music for Video (Safe)

In 1871, after war, siege, starvation, and political collapse, the people of Paris tried something extraordinary: they took over their own city.

In this episode of Naked History, Dyllan Gasaway dives into the story of the Paris Commune — the seventy-two-day uprising that terrified Europe and became one of the most powerful symbols of revolution in modern history. What began as anger at government failure became a radical experiment in democracy, worker power, secular reform, and local control. For a brief moment, Paris imagined a different world.

But the Commune’s story is not just one of hope. It is also a story of fear, civil war, fire in the streets, and a brutal repression that left thousands dead.

This is the story of barricades, red flags, revolutionary women, political panic, and the violent end of a dream that still echoes through history.

Music Credit:

• "In The West" Kevin MacLeod (⁠⁠⁠incompetech.com⁠⁠⁠)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License⁠⁠⁠http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/⁠⁠

• Music track: lavender by massobeats Source: ⁠⁠⁠https://freetouse.com/music ⁠⁠⁠Royalty Free Music for Video (Safe)

After the jump comes the fallout.

In this week’s Naked History: Debrief, Dyllan Gasaway digs into the details, oddities, and lingering questions that make the D. B. Cooper case so hard to shake. From the ransom demands and parachutes to the tie left behind on the plane, this companion episode explores the strange little pieces that kept the mystery alive long after the hijacker vanished into the night.

Then in This Week in History, we move through a late-November stretch packed with world-shaping moments, from Darwin’s On the Origin of Species to the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

And for this week’s third segment, Conspiracies & Curious Claims, we ask the question that has haunted the case for decades: who was Cooper, and why does America seem so determined to keep him a legend?

A briefcase.
A bourbon.
A parachute.
And a mystery that still refuses to land.

Music Credits:

• "Our Story Begins" Kevin MacLeod (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠incompetech.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• Music track: lavender by massobeats Source: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://freetouse.com/music ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Royalty Free Music for Video (Safe)

In 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper boarded a plane, asked for $200,000, strapped on a parachute, and vanished into the night.

No body. No confirmed identity. No clear ending.

Just a briefcase, a bourbon and soda, a clip-on tie, and one of the most famous unsolved mysteries in American history.

In this episode of Naked History, Dyllan Gasaway dives into the story of D. B. Cooper, the quiet hijacker who pulled off the only unsolved skyjacking in FBI history. We follow the case from the moment he boarded Northwest Orient Flight 305 to the frantic investigation that followed, the suspects who have come and gone, and the myth that took on a life of its own.

Was he a trained professional? A lucky amateur? Or a man who disappeared into American legend the moment he stepped off the edge of that plane?

Buckle up. This one falls fast.

Music Credit:

• "In The West" Kevin MacLeod (⁠⁠⁠incompetech.com⁠⁠⁠)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License⁠⁠⁠http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/⁠⁠

• Music track: lavender by massobeats Source: ⁠⁠⁠https://freetouse.com/music ⁠⁠⁠Royalty Free Music for Video (Safe)

What makes a con actually work?

In this week’s Naked History: Debrief, Dyllan Gasaway follows up the Victor Lustig episode by digging into the psychology behind the scam. Why do people fall for frauds that seem so absurd in hindsight? Why does status, secrecy, and the promise of insider access override common sense so easily? And why does Victor Lustig still feel so strangely modern?

From the performance of authority to the emotional mechanics of being “let in,” this Debrief looks at the deeper forces behind Lustig’s success, and why the man who sold the Eiffel Tower still has something to teach us about ego, ambition, and the power of a well-dressed lie.

Plus, This Week in History takes us through notable events from March 23rd through March 28th, from Patrick Henry’s famous call for liberty to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the Great Alaska Earthquake, and more.

Music Credits:

• "Our Story Begins" Kevin MacLeod (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠incompetech.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License ⁠⁠⁠http://⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• Music track: lavender by massobeats Source: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://freetouse.com/music ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Royalty Free Music for Video (Safe)

What kind of man looks at the Eiffel Tower and thinks, I could sell that?

In this episode of Naked History, Dyllan Gasaway dives into the unbelievable true story of Victor Lustig, the polished con artist who didn’t just scam people out of money — he sold them status, secrecy, and the illusion of power. With forged documents, a tailored suit, and an almost supernatural understanding of human ego, Lustig pulled off one of the most audacious frauds in modern history: convincing a businessman he could secretly buy the Eiffel Tower for scrap.

But that was only part of the legend.

From luxury liners and fake aristocratic titles to counterfeit money, criminal reinvention, and a story involving Al Capone, Victor Lustig built a life out of lies so elegant they often felt more believable than the truth. This episode explores how he did it, why people fell for him, and what his scams reveal about greed, class anxiety, corruption, and the dangerous power of performance.

Because Victor Lustig didn’t just steal money.

He exposed how badly people want to believe the right lie from the right person.

Music Credit:

• "In The West" Kevin MacLeod (⁠⁠⁠incompetech.com⁠⁠⁠)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License⁠⁠⁠http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/⁠⁠

• Music track: lavender by massobeats Source: ⁠⁠⁠https://freetouse.com/music ⁠⁠⁠Royalty Free Music for Video (Safe)

The main episode told the street-level nightmare. This Debrief goes under the floorboards.

In 1518 Strasbourg, people didn’t “party themselves to death.” They moved—compulsively—inside a pressure-cooker world of plague memory, famine cycles, religious dread, and institutions trying to keep order with the wrong map.

In this Debrief, Naked History: Debrief tightens the bolts on what we can and can’t prove, adds crucial context (St. Vitus, crisis conditions, and why the “bad bread” ergotism theory is so tempting), and connects the event to modern parallels: stress contagion, social reinforcement, and institutional misfires that accidentally amplify the very crisis they’re trying to contain.

Plus: This Week in History for the week of March 2, and a listener reflection prompt that hits close to home:
When was a time your body told the truth before your brain did?

Because sometimes history isn’t a museum.
It’s a mirror—with cobblestones.

Music Credits:

• "Our Story Begins" Kevin MacLeod (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠incompetech.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License ⁠⁠http://⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• Music track: lavender by massobeats Source: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://freetouse.com/music ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Royalty Free Music for Video (Safe)

In the summer of 1518, the streets of Strasbourg didn’t erupt in celebration.
They erupted in compulsion.

One person began to dance. Then another. Then dozens. Accounts describe bodies moving past exhaustion, past reason, past choice, until the city faced an impossible question:

How do you stop an outbreak that looks like joy from far away… but up close is suffering?

In this episode of Naked History, Dyllan Gasaway rips the fig leaf off one of history’s strangest crises and follows the collision that made it possible: famine and disease, economic strain, spiritual fear, cultural belief, and an institutional response that may have made everything worse.

We’ll meet the belief frameworks that shaped interpretation (saints, curses, “meaning” as medicine), walk through the council’s chilling “solution,” and weigh the leading theories, from ergotism to mass psychogenic illness to mixed-cause models that treat the plague as a perfect storm rather than a single culprit.

Because this wasn’t a medieval meme.
It was a society under pressure… and bodies becoming the message.

Music Credit:

• "In The West" Kevin MacLeod (⁠⁠⁠incompetech.com⁠⁠⁠)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License⁠⁠⁠http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/⁠⁠

• Music track: lavender by massobeats Source: ⁠⁠⁠https://freetouse.com/music ⁠⁠⁠Royalty Free Music for Video (Safe)