The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope cover art

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

By: David White
Listen for free

About this listen

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to sharing strange stories and amazing facts. No topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll do an episode about it.© 2019-2024 The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope. All rights reserved. World
Episodes
  • #116: The Marshal is Missing! [the heist of Marshal Pétain's remains] presented by #42 (Alex Baumans)
    Jul 21 2025

    In February 1973, French right wingers broke into the grave of of fascist dictator Philippe Pétain and made off with his mortal remains. This is the tragicomic story of what led them to that moment... and what happened afterwards.

    https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/the-marshal-is-missing/

    Key sources for this episode include Jean-Yves La Naour’s On a volé le Maréchal; Michel Dumas’ La permission du Maréchal; Hugo Coniez’s La mort de la IIIe Republique; and Julian Jackson’s France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Petain.

    Presented by #42 (Alex Baumans). Alex is pathologically interested in anything unusual and obscure. He’s a closet goth, armchair general and amateur theologian. His favorite animals are ducks, octopodes and pigs. You will also find him surprisingly knowledgable about K-Pop girl groups.

    The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it!

    Email: jackalope@order-of-the-jackalope.com
    Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com
    Discord: https://discord.gg/Mbap3UQyCB
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@orderjackalope
    Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/orderjackalope
    YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

    Show More Show Less
    35 mins
  • #115: Fluffy Raffles Comes To Town [who?]
    Jun 30 2025

    She was the meandering metropolitan mystery, the famous will-o'-the-wisp of the continent, who fooled police and the public from Abilene to Akron. Who was this mysterious and alluring woman, and why did she love bread so much?

    https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/fluffy-raffles-comes-to-town

    Thanks to the initiates who contributed their voices to this episode, including Dorothy Sibole (#7), Eric Leslie, and Jenn Thorson!

    Jenn Thorson: https://jennthorson.com/
    Little Lake Theater Company: https://www.littlelake.org/

    Key sources for this episode include contemporary newspaper report and that's about it. (You may find this hard to believe, not a lot of people are out there writing about this.) So let me recommend Rebeca Rego Barry's The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells, where she does some literary detective work to track down this vanished author, and Bill Peschel's Sherlock Holmes: Great War Parodies and Pastiches, an anthology of Sherlockian oddities.

    The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it!

    Email: jackalope@order-of-the-jackalope.com
    Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com
    Discord: https://discord.gg/Mbap3UQyCB
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@orderjackalope
    Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/orderjackalope
    YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

    Show More Show Less
    29 mins
  • #114: Unhuman Animals [Pennsylvania's anti-cartoon bills of 1903]
    Jun 9 2025

    In 1903 Pennsylvania found the recipe for disaster: two of the greatest political cartoonists of the day, and an easily caricatured governor with no sense of humor. Their battle went to some...u unexpected places.

    https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/unhuman-animals

    Key sources for this episode include... Stephen Piott's "The Right of the Cartoonist: Samuel Pennypacker and the Freedom of the Press," contemporary newspaper reports... and that's it. Almost every other source I found either did not go into any detail about the act, or got the specifics so very wrong (like confusing the Pusey and Salus-Grady bills) to the point where I had to doubt everything else it had to say.

    The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it!

    • Email: jackalope@order-of-the-jackalope.com
    • Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com
    • Discord: https://discord.gg/Mbap3UQyCB
    • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@orderjackalope
    • Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/orderjackalope
    • YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope
    Show More Show Less
    28 mins
No reviews yet