From lion mascots to graduation ceremonies, DARE shaped childhoods across America. But behind the nostalgia is a story of failed drug policy, public-relations panic, and police branding aimed at kids. This episode traces how DARE spread, why it endured, and what it was really selling.

In December 2025, the U.S. government broke tradition by refusing to recognize World AIDS Day; echoing the deadly silence that fueled the early epidemic. This episode traces the history of AIDS stigma, activism, and policy failure, from Reagan to today, and honors the caretakers, communities, and cultural figures who fought to make survival possible. Take a human look at how prejudice reshapes public health and why remembering matters.

Mary Shelley did not crawl out of the fog one night holding Frankenstein; rather she was born into a political and philosophical pressure cooker. Her mother wanted to tear gender roles out by the roots, her father thought government was a rigged scam, and her childhood house was full of banned books, radical houseguests, and casual corpse reanimation talk over dinner. Out of bad husbands, laudanum summers, and a “waking dream” of a creator who refuses to love his creation, she built the monster that became the blueprint for modern sci fi.

This episode walks into the real laboratory behind Frankenstein and asks who the true monsters are: the Creature, or the brilliant people who made him and walked away.