A.J. Jacobs learned the hard way that donning a tricorne hat and marching around Manhattan with a 1700s musket will earn you a lot of strange looks. In the wake of several controversial rulings by the Supreme Court and the on-going debate about how the Constitution should be interpreted, Jacobs set out to understand what it means to live by the Constitution.

In The Year of Living Constitutionally, A.J. Jacobs tries to get inside the minds of the Founding Fathers by living as closely as possible to the original meaning of the Constitution. He asserts his right to free speech by writing his opinions on parchment with a quill and handing them out to strangers in Times Square. He consents to quartering a soldier, as is his Third Amendment right. He turns his home into a traditional 1790s household by lighting candles instead of using electricity, boiling mutton, and—because women were not allowed to sign contracts— feebly attempting to take over his wife’s day job, which involves a lot of contract negotiations.

Ever look up at the night sky and wonder what else is really out there? Or, like me, do you watch shows like Resident Alien with Alan Tudyk and realize you might actually be the extra-terrestrial (I mean, it would SO much sense). Seriously, though, do we just laugh off the X-files and move on? Note: we did have X-files producer Frank Spotnitz on our first season). Are UFOs hogwash? We have all been prepared to say so, at one time or another. Then, After decades of cover-ups and denials, in a June 2021 report, the US government finally admitted that UFOs are real. WHAT? Little green men? Not quite! It’s exactly what hey stand for: flying things that we cannot identify. If you hope for a way to sift through the fact and fiction of outer-space possibilities… you’re in luck. I can’t think of any higher praise that being labeled “one of America’s leading connoisseurs of the bizarre” but that’s all in a day’s work for Marc Hartzmann, who returns to MBC with his latest: WE ARE NOT ALONE. Are their alien abductions really? Is Area 51 hiding something? Life might be out there—and it probably won’t be anything like we expect.

Episode was recorded live May 9, 2024.

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Grave yard. Cemetery. These are some of my favorite things! But walking through graveyards isn’t just about getting your goth on. Cemeteries tell our human history—and they tell national history, too. Take central park for instance. In 1857, it was Seneca Village, a “rare haven of Black ownership” stretching from West 82nd to 89th Streets. NY took it over, seizing it for a park. And that means part of the park is also a burial ground, and tells the story of how black people were treated even in the supposedly free north. And that’s just one little tidbit from a book that is sure to be near and dear to our Peculiar family: Over my Dead Body by Greg Melville. The chapters take us on a journey, via cemeteries, around the country, from the mass graves at Colonial Jamestown to Brooklyn’s Green-Wood cemetery, the racially segregated Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah, Ga., Hollywood Forever and even a digital graveyard, i.e., Facebook. Aptly put by the NYT, the book is a social history: “What does the act of memorializing, who is remembered and who is left out, tell us about how people lived, what they valued, and the way we live now?” Also… did I mention there are cemeteries? Join us live to chat with Greg through our YouTube livestream—I can promise you a themed cocktail! Only on the PBC.

Episode was recorded live April 25, 2024.

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