Episodes

In this episode of "Is This The Norm?", hosts Heather, Rebecca, and Lora explore the real history behind the world's most famous vampire. Heather traces the story of Vlad III of Wallachia — better known as Vlad the Impaler — from his childhood as a political hostage in the Ottoman court to his brutal reign of terror, including the mass impalements that earned him his infamy. The discussion covers how Bram Stoker borrowed Vlad's name and aura of darkness for his 1897 Gothic novel, the evolution o...

Sisters Rebecca, Lora (lead host), and Heather explain and explore experiences during the "witching hour" between 3 and 4 AM historically associated with paranormal activity, ghosts, and demons.

This episode of the podcast "Is This the Norm?" — hosted by sisters Heather, Rebecca, and Lora — explores the history and mythology surrounding the Book of Thoth across three distinct incarnations. Rebecca leads the discussion by first recounting the original ancient Egyptian legend (from the Papyrus Cairo CG 30646) about Prince Setne Khamwas, who discovers the magical book written by the god Thoth in the tomb of Naneferkaptah, only to learn — through a cautionary tale of betrayal, death, and a ...

This is an episode of the podcast "Is This the Norm?", hosted by three sisters (Lora, Rebecca, and Heather), in which Heather presents a deep-dive on William the Conqueror — covering his illegitimate birth and precarious youth as Duke of Normandy, his 1066 conquest of England after defeating King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings, his brutal "Harrying of the North" campaign that devastated the population, his legacy of castle-building across England, and his eventual death and division of his ...

Rebecca, Heather, and Lora share a legendary story with you today, where Lora leads the episode, telling the story of Calamity Jane a Wild West frontierswoman. The hosts also go off-topic discussing ticks, chiggers, tumbleweeds, essential oil bug spray, and their grandfather's deathbed comment about Native Americans enduring pain without modern medicine.

This episode of "Is This the Norm?" has hosts Heather, Lora, and Rebecca covering the Battle of Megiddo, the earliest recorded battle in history, fought around 1457 BC between Egypt and a rebel alliance of Levantine city-states led by the Princes of Kadesh and Megiddo; Rebecca walks through the Thutmose dynasty's rise, Thutmose III's bold gamble to attack via the risky Aruna Pass, Egypt's decisive victory (documented in detail on the walls of Karnak), and the battle's lasting legacy as the names...

This is an episode of the podcast "Is This the Norm?" hosted by three sisters — Lora, Rebecca, and Heather. Heather presents the history of the "Black Dinner," a 1440 assassination of two young Douglas clan brothers at Edinburgh Castle orchestrated by rival Scottish regents, with the sisters riffing on parallels to Game of Thrones' Red Wedding along the way. They close with a preview of their next episode on Egyptian royalty. References: ‘The Black Dinner’ https://www.atlasobscura.com/article...

This episode of "Is This the Norm?" has hosts Lora, Heather, and Rebecca telling the story of Captain William Kidd — a respected Scottish-born sea captain who became a privateer for England in the 1690s, hunting pirates and French ships. After 18 months without a single legitimate prize, his desperate crew pushed him toward outright piracy, including killing a mutinous gunner and seizing the Quedagh Merchant, a richly laden ship flying a French flag but actually owned by Indian merchants. This a...

This is an episode of the podcast "Is This the Norm?" hosted by three sisters — Rebecca, Heather, and Lora. The episode explores the history of diet culture and dangerous weight loss methods.

This is an episode of the podcast "Is This the Norm?" hosted by Heather, Laura, and Rebecca. In it, Rebecca leads an educational deep-dive into the history and science of meteorites, beginning by clarifying the distinctions between asteroids, meteors, meteoroids, and meteorites, and explaining how these space rocks have profoundly shaped Earth's history — from forming the Moon via a massive ancient impact, to delivering the phosphorus and organic compounds necessary for life, to wiping out the d...

This episode, "Why Are We Afraid of Spiders?", features hosts Lora, Rebecca, and Heather exploring whether fear of spiders is biological or learned. They review research on infant pupil dilation studies (and their flaws), compare spider vs. snake danger statistics, and discuss how culture shapes fear — noting spiders are viewed positively in places like China and Hopi/Navajo mythology, but linked to the plague in medieval Europe. The conversation weaves in personal stories (teaching kids not to ...

Come to listen to Lora, Heather and Rebecca talk about the history of tobacco/nicotine marketing and the current trend of using nicotine patches for health benefits.The hosts draw a parallel between today's "healthy nicotine" buzz and the dubious doctor-endorsed cigarette ads of the past — urging skepticism and medical guidance before using any nicotine products.

This is a podcast episode titled "Memory Wars" hosted by three sisters — Lora, Heather, and Rebecca. Rebecca leads a deep dive into the "memory wars" of the 1980s and '90s, a heated public debate between practicing therapists and research psychologists over the validity of recovered repressed memories. She walks through several high-profile cases where patients developed vivid but entirely false memories of abuse — often through hypnosis and other suggestive therapeutic techniques — which led to...

Join Rebecca, Lora, and Heather, where Heather discusses the neuroscience behind pedophilia, discussing research (notably by Dr. James Cantor) showing structural brain differences in offenders—particularly in the frontal lobe, right temporal lobe, and amygdala—that suggest the condition may be congenital rather than a choice, while also covering gender differences in offending, common psychiatric comorbidities, the effectiveness of treatment programs like Washington State's SOTAP (which lowered ...

This is a podcast episode hosted by Lora, Heather and Rebecca. Where they explore Alien abductions and UFO sightings asking if they are real or fabricated? Lora opens by stating she's personally skeptical of extraterrestrials visiting Earth, but finds the stories fascinating. Lora also traces alien sightings from ancient Egypt through 1947 — Kenneth Arnold's famous flying saucer sighting and the Roswell incident — and covers the US military's Project Blue Book and a few famous cases of extraterr...

Join Rebecca, Heather and Lora where Heather discusses the deadliest U.S. national parks, then focuses on Glacier National Park's history of fatal accidents, unsolved disappearances (like the 1969 Mount Cleveland avalanche and 1924 Whitehead brothers case), and bear/mountain lion attacks. With closing reassurances from the Three Sisters that hiking is safe if you're prepared. Resources: The Most Dangerous U.S. National Parks https://www.panish.law/nevada/deaths-in-us-national-parks/ Hungry H...

This is an episode focused on the history and reliability of lie detection. Rebecca leads a deep dive into humanity's long history of attempting to detect deception — from ancient methods like China's dry rice test, India's sacred donkey test, and medieval Europe's trials by fire and water, to the invention of the modern polygraph by John Larson in 1921. The episode covers how the polygraph works, why its results are highly unreliable and largely inadmissible in court, and the real-world consequ...

Hosts Lora, Heather, and Rebecca dive deep into the world of orca, also known as killer whales. Lora explains that orca are technically the largest members of the dolphin family, and breaks down the different ecotypes found in the Pacific (resident, transient, offshore) and Antarctic. She highlights the matriarch-led social structure of resident orca, their remarkable intelligence, specialized hunting techniques (including the dangerous beaching method), and their highly specific diets. The epi...

Join Rebecca, Lora and Heather, Where Heather covers PG&E's (Pacific Gas & Electric) long history of negligence and criminal conduct in California. Sources: Timeline: PG&E’s Disasters since 2010 By ABC 10 News https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/wildfire/timeline-pges-disasters/103-980fbb37- 2675-4cc5-a99f-62f1d2e837d4 https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/wildfire/run-to-failure-what-pge-knew-and- when/103-e4654585-1036-47bb-9078-137893ac242d https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGFh9...

In this episode, Rebecca dives into the Citrini Scenario — a macro research report by Citrini Research and economist Alap Shah titled The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis — which examines the possibility of an AI-driven economic collapse. Rebecca leads a detailed breakdown of the report, explaining how the rapid rise of agentic AI is poised to automate a large portion of white-collar work within years, threatening to eliminate far more jobs than any previous technological revolution while creatin...

Lora, Rebecca and Heather are cautiously open-minded — hopeful about the technology's potential but concerned about the FBS issue, safety unknowns, and whether lab-grown meat can replicate the taste of traditionally raised animals. The conversation drifts into food waste, preservatives, Impossible Meat, black bean burgers, and cooking habits.

Join Rebecca, Lora, and Heather, where Heather discusses how Coca-Cola and the broader beverage industry deliberately dismantled the environmentally superior refillable glass bottle system in favor of single-use plastic.  References: Why Coke Stopped Using Glass Bottles By Susan Messer Environmental historian Bart Elmore from Ohio State University. Story of Stuff website

Rebecca hosts the episode where the sisters talk about both historical and modern instances of grave robbing. Rebecca tells the story of the theft of Charlie Chaplin's body for ransom, William Cobbett's well-intentioned but misguided relocation of Thomas Paine's remains, two Pakistani brothers arrested for grave robbing and cannibalism, and a Pennsylvania man caught selling over 100 sets of human remains online. The conversation then broadens into discussions of archaeological grave robbing in t...

This episode with hosts Lora, Heather and Rebecca covers Artemis missions breakdown, recap and highlights, also Voyager 1 & 2 and future space missions to Mars. The hosts reflect on how space exploration unites humanity, drawing parallels to the turbulent 1960s. A post-recorded note confirms the Artemis II crew made it home safely.