Ciaran Conliffe

Sequels are always a tricky prospect, especially to a film that was as much of a pop culture phenomenon as The Matrix. The Wachowski siblings had come, seemingly out of nowhere, with a bold thinker’s action movie; a film that combined the…

If you thought we were done talking about Syphilis, you were WRONG! Ciaran Conliffe told us this incredible story that we just couldn't not share with our listeners. Warning: this story contains some really upsetting themes around race…

This month we have HeadStuff history columnist, Ciaran Conliffe to tell us about how Syphilis has shaped the Western world for the past 500 years. And we play a game called "Who in History has had Syphilis?" Spoiler alert: a LOT of them!…

Only one Vice President of the USA ever killed a man while in office. Only one ex-Vice President of the USA was ever tried for treason. Aaron Burr was so divisive a figure that after his vice presidency was ended the rules were changed…

John Romulus Brinkley was born on July 8th 1885 of somewhat complicated parentage. His father was John Richard, a former medic in the Confederate army. His mother was Sarah Burnett, the niece of John Richard’s fourth wife, Sally. Brinkley’s…

“The most famous secret agent in history” is somewhat of a contradiction in terms. If someone is famous, they’re hardly that secret. Sidney Reilly avoids this contradiction by being impossible to pin down. His real name, his place of birth…

The “class system” in British society grew out of the feudal system that Britain never officially abandoned (unlike most other European countries afflicted with that particular social disease). The transition was largely gradual - the…

Lee Christmas was born on a plantation in Louisiana in 1863. His first job was as a pilot on the local tugboats, but by the time he was 16 he was working on the railroad in Mississippi. For the next twelve years he works on railroads across…

Phineas Taylor Barnum was born in 1810 in the town of Bethel, Connecticut. His family had deep roots thereabouts - he was named for his mother’s father, a local judge. His own father was, according to PT Barnum’s obituary, “ever on the…

History is rarely as clear-cut as it appears on the surface. Everybody knows that the druids were the educated priestly classes of the Celts, for example, but our sole source for that knowledge is the writings of non-Celts looking in from…