After the launch of Sputnik, the U.S. needed a response to show they had not fallen behind the Soviets during the Cold War. The Air Force put together a top-secret, very real plan under the name Project A119 to detonate a nuclear bomb on the surface of the moon for the rest of the world to see. Carl Sagan was brought in to do calculations on the blast radius and the Space Race almost went atomic.

Subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠the Softcore History Patreon⁠⁠⁠ for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, listener voicemails, movie watch-alongs, and weekly bonus episodes. 

Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to ⁠Quince.com/SOFTCORE⁠ for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too.

Rob Fox⁠⁠ ⁠

⁠https://www.instagram.com/robfoxthree/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/RobFoxThree ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@robfoxthree ⁠⁠

Dan Regester

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/danregester/ 

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The recent release of the UFO Files left out arguably the most exciting human vs. extraterrestrial encounter in American history: when a group of backwoods Kentucky rednecks spent an August night in 1955 fighting off a dozen goblin-like aliens with a shotgun and a rifle from inside their humble farmhouse. This is the story of The Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter aka the Hopkinsville Goblins.

Subscribe to ⁠⁠the Softcore History Patreon⁠⁠ for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, listener voicemails, movie watch-alongs, and weekly bonus episodes. 

Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to Quince.com/SOFTCORE for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too.

Rob Fox⁠

https://www.instagram.com/robfoxthree/ ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/RobFoxThree ⁠⁠

https://www.tiktok.com/@robfoxthree ⁠

Dan Regester

⁠https://www.instagram.com/danregester/ 

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Zhu Houzhao took over the Ming Dynasty at just 14. He was more interested in women, drinking, and pretending to be a soldier than actually running China. He left his royal court in the hands of his eunuch friends as he hung out in his "Leopard Quarter" all day getting wasted with his exotic animals and prostitutes.

Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to Quince. com/SOFTCORE for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too.

Subscribe to ⁠the Softcore History Patreon⁠ for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, listener voicemails, movie watch-alongs, and weekly bonus episodes. 

Rob Fox

⁠https://www.instagram.com/robfoxthree/ ⁠⁠

https://twitter.com/RobFoxThree ⁠⁠

https://www.tiktok.com/@robfoxthree 

⁠

Dan Regester

⁠https://www.instagram.com/danregester/ ⁠⁠

https://twitter.com/dan_regester⁠

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The Assyrian queen Semiramis is one of the most notorious rulers in ancient history. Not just because she was a woman ruling a violent, male-dominated society. And not because she competently ruled the massive empire for years. Mostly, it turns out, because there were some WILD stories about her, um, dating life.

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Rob Fox
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Dan Regester
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Lewis Charles Levin was a 19th century Jewish American politician, newspaper editor, and conspiracy theorist who believed that Irish immigrants were soldiers of the Catholic Church sent by the Pope to cause division in our nation. He became a congressman for the state of Pennsylvania and was a major voice in the nativist movement.

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Rob Fox
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Dan Regester
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https://twitter.com/dan_regester

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As American soldiers liberated France, they had one thing on their mind: Boning. It turns out that the GIs who were landing in Normandy and fighting in the hedgerows were at least partly motivated by the fact that they were convinced Francewas going to be their own personal Panama City Beach circa Spring Break 2003. Between the famous brothels in Paris, the French having a reputation for... being French, and American propaganda that all but assured our soldiers that they'd be getting laid constantly once they got to Paris, our grandfathers marched through France with pretty much full erections. What followed was a two-year sex party that altered Franco-American relations forever. 

Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, listener voicemails, movie watch-alongs, and weekly bonus episodes. 

Download thePrizePicks app today and use code SOFTCORE to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! That’s code SOFTCORE to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! PrizePicks. It’s good to be right.

Rob Fox
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Dan Regester
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In 1919, rumors were swirling that a naval base in Newport, Rhode Island, was rife with immoral (gay) behavior. In response, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt commissioned a sting operation. Send fresh, young sailors into the base to honeytrap men into having sex with them. What followed was one of the biggest scandals in U.S. Navy history.

Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, listener voicemails, movie watch-alongs, and weekly bonus episodes. 

Download thePrizePicks app today and use code SOFTCORE to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! That’s code SOFTCORE to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! PrizePicks. It’s good to be right.

Rob Fox
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Dan Regester
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We put together a 68 person March Madness bracket of some of the most evil and despicable humans to ever grace this planet and decide who is the worst of all time.

Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, listener voicemails, movie watch-alongs, and weekly bonus episodes. 

Download thePrizePicks app today and use code SOFTCORE to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! That’s code SOFTCORE to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! PrizePicks. It’s good to be right.

Rob Fox
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Dan Regester
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When you think about prostitutes and serial killers, you generally assume the former is being killed by the latter. But in the case of Bridget Fury, the former IS the latter. Fury was infamous in antebellum New Orleans for killing Johns who didn't pay, mutilating rival ladies of the night, and all other manner of horrific crimes. 

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Head to factormeals.com/softcore50off and use code softcore50off to get 50 percent off and free breakfast for a year. 

Rob Fox
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Dan Regester
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With the MLB season about to start we pick our starting nine for Hell’s baseball team — the most talented and least moral person at every position in MLB history, dead players only. We also pick the All-Heaven starting nine and decide who would win between the two. 

Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, listener voicemails, movie watch-alongs, and weekly bonus episodes. 

Download thePrizePicks app today and use code SOFTCORE to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! That’s code SOFTCORE to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! PrizePicks. It’s good to be right.

Head to factormeals.com/softcore50off and use code softcore50off to get 50 percent off and free breakfast for a year. 

Rob Fox
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Dan Regester
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King Xerxes launched a second invasion of Greece in 480 BC to avenge his father's failures a decade before. The massive Persian army of over 100,000 men was met by Leonidas and his force of 300 Spartans (and roughly 7,000 other soldiers) at a pass in Thermopylae. This three day stand turned the Spartans into martyrs and a rallying cry for the Greek city states. 

Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, listener voicemails, movie watch-alongs, and weekly bonus episodes. 

Download thePrizePicks app today and use code SOFTCORE to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! That’s code SOFTCORE to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! PrizePicks. It’s good to be right.

Rob Fox
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Dan Regester
https://www.instagram.com/danregester/
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