Meet the show
Cass rattles off four "facts" everyone knows. Pip has bad news about all of them. Ninety seconds and you'll know exactly how this works.
A history podcast for 9 to 13 year olds
The Truth
Is Weirder
*than the story you were told
"You sure about that?"
The history show that checks the story. Cass tells the story everyone knows. Pip checks what actually happened. Famous myths, real evidence, and the one question worth teaching a kid: how do we actually know that?
Cheeky. A proper argument, not a lecture.
Curious. Every myth goes on trial.
Trustworthy. Checked against the real record.
Season one
Ten myths. On trial.
Four episodes and the trailer land on day one, then a new myth gets busted every week. About 12 minutes each: car-trip sized.
Frozen in Time? (Pompeii)
Everyone "knows" the people of Pompeii were frozen solid mid-bite when Vesuvius blew. Cass is certain. Pip has a letter from a teenager who watched it happen, and a scribble on a wall that broke a fact every book repeated for two thousand years.
Put the Horns Away (Viking Helmets)
Close your eyes, picture a Viking, and you'll see the horns. The problem: in centuries of digging, not one horned war helmet has come out of a Viking grave. Pip traces the most famous hat in history to an opera costume from 1876.
Little Boney: Was Napoleon Actually Tiny?
The furious little emperor barely tall enough to see over a table. Pip wants to know one thing: whose ruler measured him? The most famous short man in history is a maths mistake wearing a coat.
The Pharaoh's Curse: Who Actually Died?
A boy king's tomb and a curse that "killed everyone who went in". The man who opened it lived another sixteen years. Follow the mosquito bite and the headlines to the trick for busting any curse.
Thumbs Down: Did It Really Mean "Kill Him"?
Everyone knows a thumbs-down meant a gladiator was finished. But which Roman wrote that down? A gap in the record you could drive a chariot through.
Can You Really See the Great Wall From Space?
It's long, sure. It's also skinny, and the exact colour of the dirt. A "fact" that was famous before anyone could actually check it.
The Flat-Earth Prank: Who Really Made It Up?
People had known the Earth was round for two thousand years. The flat-Earth tale was invented by a spooky-story writer three hundred years too late.
The Great Unwashed: Did Nobody in the Middle Ages Wash?
Pip counts the public bathhouses and the soap guilds, then asks one awkward question: which century is that scary quote actually from?
Even Einstein Flunked: The Nicest Lie in School
The kindest thing a teacher can say after a bad mark, and completely wrong. The report card, the flipped grading scale, and Einstein denying the whole thing.
Wrong Fire: The Salem Witches Weren't Burned
The stake, the pile of wood, the picture everyone has. It's in the wrong place entirely. The 1692 court records, a hill outside town, and why getting it right matters.
The hosts
Meet Cass and Pip
Cass
The confident one
Tells history the way everyone "knows" it: full of drama, films, and total certainty. Warm, funny, commits hard to the bit, and is genuinely delighted when she turns out to be wrong. Which is often.
Pip
The one who wants proof
Dry, deadpan, and curious to a fault. When Cass gets too sure, Pip's "hang on a minute" stops her mid-myth. She carries the receipts: the letter, the dig, the court record. Wrong sometimes too, which keeps it a friendship, not a lecture.
For grown-ups (and suspicious kids)
How we know
Every episode runs the same quiet method under the jokes. It's the show's real payload: media literacy, disguised as an argument.
The myth goes on trial
Cass states the famous version with total confidence, exactly the way you half-remember it.
Pip asks the question
"How do we actually know that?" Who saw it, who wrote it down, and how far from the event were they standing?
The record gets checked
A real primary source lands: an eyewitness letter, a dig report, a court record, a report card. Named in the episode, not vaguely gestured at.
An honest verdict
Busted, confirmed, or "nobody actually knows", and we say which. The truth is reliably stranger than the myth.
The fact-check promise. Every episode is checked against primary sources before it's recorded, and when historians genuinely disagree, the show says so on air. If we ever get something wrong, we correct it in the next episode and in the show notes. That's the whole deal.
For parents
Get the launch, not the spam
One short email when new episodes land, plus the occasional "how we know" extra for grown-ups. Written for the adult in the house.
Adults only, please: this list is for parents and carers. We never collect kids' details, we don't run tracking pixels, and one click unsubscribes you.
The boring-but-important bit
Kids-safe, by design
Privacy, in kid-readable English
This website doesn't collect anything about you. No accounts, no cookies that follow you around, no ads that watch you. If you're a kid: brilliant, enjoy the show, and you never need to type anything here. The email list is for grown-ups only.
For the adults
The Truth Is Weirder is made for listeners aged 9 to 13 and built COPPA-aware: no data collection from children, no behavioural advertising, no comments on kids' surfaces. Episodes are fact-checked against primary sources and handled with care on sensitive history. Questions? Email [email protected].