American Shadows

2,136
History #60

American Shadows is a bi-weekly podcast from iHeartRadio and Aaron Mahnke’s Grim & Mild. The show focuses on the darker stories from American history: the people, places, and things that are hidden and forgotten in the shadows. From better-known tales like the conspiracy to steal Lincoln’s body, to less-known stories, like the rainmaker who flooded San Diego. Join host Lauren Vogelbaum as she spans two centuries of omitted lore from our country’s history books.

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Recent Reviews
  • Jeff & Amy
    Lavender Haze
    Pure LGBTQAIP2+ blah, blah, blah propaganda
  • JJMADTZ
    Aloha
    Mahalo for sharing the tragic story of Hawai’i in its true from.
  • AstroCandy79
    I can’t explain
    I can’t explain it, but her voice stirs so much emotion in me. I don’t think I’ve ever cried because of a podcast, but she managed to pull ALL the emotion from these tragedies that happened decades ago. If I could give this 10 stars I would. I cried all the way through “Under The Weather”. My cat looked at me like I was insane. I looked at me like I was insane. I hope Willis Moore is living the eternity he deserves. 👏🏻🙅🏻‍♀️🔥
  • dedhed8
    Very interesting
    Lauren’s voice is perfect for historical storytelling. Great podcast.
  • eb ramírez
    Hope to hear more of your work
    I want to thank you for your hard work. Very sad to hear the show will not continue. I truly enjoy all of the topics you covered 😍😍
  • Viviana 7777
    Not the worst, not the best.
    Focuses too much on biases instead of actually telling the story. Vocal phrasing is negatively distracting so I had to finally stop listening.
  • kat_mitch
    So interesting
    American Shadows is one of my favorite podcasts! I love the stories that happened between the 1800s to early 1900s. This show has introduced incidents that I had never known about before. N
  • steamfitter76
    Awesome!
    Good show these other reviews are by a bunch of knit- wits who don’t k ow what they are listening too.
  • rootedwomon
    Just a thought
    Just wanted to tell y’all that ‘queer ‘ is a very charged word in the LGB and TQIA+ communities. The TQIA+ side mostly embrace it. Us LGB folks of a certain age generally don’t but SOME of the younger folks do— it really depends. So if you mean Gay, say Gay. Otherwise it’s borderline insulting and definitely confusing. Thank you for the podcast!
  • Podcatjunkie2019
    Another podcast to make us miserable
    My first time listening and I chose the horrific story about Coney Island and the terrible abuse suffered by the baby elephant Topsy. I could not listen to the end because you can’t un-hear things. Im sure the baby elephant dies a slow cooked agonizing death after a lifetime of fear and loneliness. I can’t get my hour of life back but I can make sure I don’t add to the host thinking these are good topics to talk about. And her vocal fry is unbearable. Please get a voice coach.
  • Glitzc212223
    Sad it ended
    Really enjoyed listening and learning new things with each episode. Sorry to hear that it won’t be continuing. Thank you for your work and time to make this show!
  • Whyte Baer
    Queer
    As a lesbian of a certain age, I find it highly insulting to be referred to as queer. I don’t care if the “meaning” has changed it still stings. Plus please don’t lump us all together, for instance, trans people don’t belong with the LGB, they aren’t gay, but are a group of marginalized people, other than that there’s nothing in common. Queer is a slur! Otherwise I enjoy the content of grim and milds various podcasts however if I'm going to be further insulted by the use of the queer slur, I may have to find other podcasts to listen to.
  • shop door
    Dhgy and the other guys were going
    Mai bay is the place for a qua cod restaurant and a restaurant in a great place for the place to eat
  • gold st
    Interesting
    Like the topics but the host’s vocal fry is difficult to overlook. Kept trying to ignore it but couldn’t. I know it’s not her fault, I have it too.
  • Audreymarie97
    Sad it ended!
    Loved this show! Wishing the creators all the best!
  • JanesMeditation
    Sad
    I’ll miss this show. It was well written and well produced. Wishing the entire production team the best luck on their next endeavor.
  • RoCkInG HoT Grl
    Nooooooo!
    This podcast is so wonderful! Please don’t leave us! It’s in my top ten favorites. How can we go on with out you Lauren!?!
  • WSWPDX
    American Shadows, where have you gone?!?
    American Shadows was my favorite podcast. It seems to have drifted into the abyss. What a disappointment. Lauren Vogelbaum was excellent and I loved listening to her and the dark tinged stories she told. I will miss it dearly.
  • dlwinfrey
    Sad it’s gone
    I loved American Shadows. The history lessons were so interesting and fascinating. I hope it comes back.
  • Lalearning23
    This show is awesome! Please don’t go!
    I love this show!!! Please don’t stop producing this show! I can hardly wait two weeks before another episode comes out- and now it’s going away?! Please, no! This show is so interesting and informative. I love learning about history and have loved the marriage between history and true crime! I have shared so many stories from this podcast with family and friends. Please keep the episodes coming!
  • Missmalice_
    I will miss you!
    Your podcast is amazing, I learned so much from the beautiful work you created. Thank you so much for getting me through some rough few years. I look forward to you future works if gifted another podcast. Best of luck and light for all your endeavors.
  • KJW83
    Will miss this!
    Hate to see this podcast go. Love this
  • Chunky buttface
    Hope you come back with new host!
    Sad to see this show go… I loved the topics. Didn’t love the host though. Her cadence, weird breaths and beginnings every word with “uh” was so distracting. Hope you come back with someone new and I’ll definitely be listening!
  • akj8408
    No Please Don’t Go!!!
    Your show has it all, suspense, irony, humor, the dark, and the light, and on top of all of that it’s true history! I have enjoyed and looked forward to listening to the show since day one, and you will be sorely missed! I am heartbroken to see you go. Wishing you much success on your next venture.
  • KatMc1228
    Nooooo it can’t be the end!
    Lauren’s goodbye just made me teary. I gasped out loud when she said this would be the last episode. This has been one of my favorite podcasts for the past year. I hope it continues in the future. Wonderful work, thank you to everyone.
  • swimgurl19
    Favorite podcast
    This is my favorite podcast! I am so sorry to have it ending! You guys are the best! I will miss hearing these stories!
  • Rlarson589
    Sad way to end
    Went from a great history podcast to political beliefs shoved down us until we begin spouting the same nonsense. Stick to what you were good at. Probably time for this to end.
  • Kevinr5
    I need more episodes
    More history content the better
  • BrianMichaels69
    Narration is really annoying.
    Narrator is trying to come across as suave and professional. But her CONSTANT gasping for air is really irritating and unprofessional. Does she not listen to the playbacks?
  • gwendojfchu
    Host’s Voice is so Annoying
    Content is good, but the host is trying so hard to sound like Phoebe Judge from ‘Criminal’ that it’s almost unlistenable. Please just use your natural speaking voice! From the breathiness to the intonation, to the pronunciation of certain words, this awful voice impression of Phoebe ruins the whole podcast. So irritating.
  • Edesius
    Wanted history
    Really enjoy this podcast usually but started to listen to the recent episode and instead got a lecture on modern gender theory. Stupid. Stick to stories, not lecturing. If I want to hear how absurd the idea of basing gender in biological realities like DNA is I’ll find an absurd podcast about that. Come on.
  • DetailDevil
    Also struggling with cadence and pronunciation
    The concept is good and I keep listening, but as others have pointed out, fact checking is needed. Part of fact checking is checking for correct pronunciation. This is an issue across Grim and Mild podcasts but this one is pretty egregious. I think the host could have a great voice for a podcast if she didn’t sound so forced. For example, when saying the word “but” to transition, she says, “uhbut.” I doubt she naturally speaks this way. A more conversational and natural cadence would be preferred. All these things are pretty distracting. However, the people complaining about politics are disappointing. Who knew historical facts about some groups of people being marginalized was political? Pretending this stuff didn’t happen does nobody any good.
  • ParisCPRE
    Editing change?!
    This is one of my favorite podcasts to listen to before I sleep. In the last two episodes they’ve forgotten to cut out the little breathy inhales so every 1-2 sentences you hear “hah”. It’s unlistenable. Please fix!!
  • ksuzanders
    Love!!!
    I love to hear the history and Lauren’s voice is so very soothing.
  • Decoolz
    Very well done
    Excellent retelling of what happened on Smuttynose Island. Always impressed with the story telling on this podcast but as a person from that area hearing such a well written and researched telling of a local “ghost story” is nice.
  • BaconMathColorado
    Thanks for opening my eyes!
    I appreciate that this podcast doesn’t shy away from providing listeners with historical facts that extremists are trying to white-wash out of education. And, that the writing contains no judgement or bias one direction or another is commendable! I just wish that podcasts and episodes rated “clean” didn’t have restricted advertising. While listening to one episode, I heard one ad for a liquor store and another for a gun shop. My opinion on those are, in order, gross and my aim filled my freezer in years back, but I no longer want guns in my house.
  • ccTownes
    LGBTQ
    Extremely heavy with pushing sexual preference. Not friendly for younger ages.
  • Coomdaddy#1
    Dropping my five star rating
    Please keep the LGBTQ+ agenda off the podcast. All of Grim and Mild’s productions would be better served leaving the political slants to the political podcasts.
  • SP1T F1R3
    Haters will always hate
    If you don’t love this, you don’t love yourself.
  • freakazoid4807
    Awesome
    This this the best podcast Grimm and Mild has imo. I love the stories and narration
  • madison hartzell
    Love it
    I don’t know why other people say they hate the narration. I love it. I love the information and the way it is presented. When I’m trying to wind down on my break at work I’ll make a comfy spot and stop whatever I’m listening to and I throw American shadows on. Keep them coming please!
  • RosieN01
    All Time Favorite
    This is my all time favorite podcast. I wish it was weekly release because I’m constantly looking forward to the next episode. I tell everyone about it, such great stories and perspectives. Thank you for creating this!
  • magaoingo
    So Not Woke
    Had to give five stars after some idiot called it communist.
  • Jonesy8888
    Woke
    Just as annoying as his initial podcast. No cure for communist programming, impossible to take seriously.
  • Loganfool
    Hi
    Sound quality has gone down considerably. “ Stranger Than Fiction” fluctuations make it impossible to listen to. It’s too bad that the narrator is a disgrace to feminism. The content is excellent but the cutesy wootsie voice is far too grating to listen to. Could you possibly hire a professional? Sounds like porn. I’m embarrassed to listen to this where other people can hear it. It’s actually getting much worse as time goes on. And it’s just terrible that the information is so good and the narrator is so bad and you guys just don’t do anything about it. To have this narrator cover 911 is a disgrace to this country!
  • missdillinger
    Great stories read terribly
    I've heard Lauren speak normally, so I wonder why for this podcast she chooses to sound like Vanessa Bayer's Saturday Night Live kid actor character. It's distracting and silly.
  • AWAM86
    Narration is awful
    The information would be interesting if it wasn’t read in a feigned NPR-like, holier-than-Thou tone. Aaron Mahnke’s other podcasts are well-produced and presented, for the most part. I find myself having to stop halfway through these episodes because I can’t stand the pretension. It’s not engaging. It doesn’t serve to make the information any clearer. I waffle back and forth on giving it a chance again every few months and I simply can’t do it. Which is a shame—the subject matter is interesting and I would love to hear more.
  • xtina621
    So interesting
    One of my favorite podcasts! The stories are so interesting. I love how they are woven together.
  • Merg401
    Content good, narrator difficult
    The content is great, but the narrator is hard to listen too, too soft and with too much of a sing song voice, and with added vocal raising and falling that it is really distracting.
  • jbird9193
    Episode 66
    Normally, I love this podcast. The writing, the stories, and the music are all very good. However, one part of the first story of episode 66 was highly overlooked. They said that President Kennedy had signed a bill in 1964. Not likely since he died in November 1963. I’m sure it had to have been a typo in the editing. There are a lot of people listed at the end of each episode, as far as who wrote the story, who produced the episode, and who directed the episode, etc. Nobody caught this before the episode aired??? Try harder next time because you have a lot of old baby boomers like myself that listen to your podcast.
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