It’s the winter solstice this weekend. We have a few months of frosty weather to deal with. But it’s amazing to consider how folks dealt with mountains of snow when there were no plows, nobody whose job it was to clear the streets and sidewalks . . and no central heat. Imagine giant cylinders being pulled through the streets to compact the snow!

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It’s the holiday season, a time that brings out our desire to please those we love, particularly the kids in our lives. There’s a red hot toy every year, but what happens when that toy puts dollar signs in the eyes of grownups? This is about one toy that caused a lot of folks financial ruin and divorce, while it made a billionaire out of the guy who created it.

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Every invention begins with a spark—a moment when imagination lights up with the thought of . . possibility. Problem is . . the line between that spark . . and an explosive outcome can be thinner than you think. This is about when death comes at the hands of your own invention.
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A combination of fever dreams and cocaine led to one of the greatest horror stories of all time. Robert Louis Stevenson was dying of tuberculosis when he wrote “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” He almost trashed it, but after nine days of frantic writing he had defined the gothic novel and given us a metaphor for people with split personalities: Jekyll and Hyde.

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What Happens When Your Star Doesn’t Burn as Bright as Your Passion? Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding faced that question . . and is now on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List as an international drug lord. It’s about ambition without brakes and what happens when the skills that make you great — focus, risk tolerance, hunger for status — get redirected into a market where the rules are written in blood. This is Wedding’s descent from the mountaintops to the depths of drug dealing and murder.

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50 years ago, Friday nights were all about going to the movie theater. Starting in the 1980s, the weekend plan involved heading to Blockbuster to pick up a movie and watching it at home. Today, we just stay home and watch Netflix. So, how did it all evolve? This is about two guys who asked . . and answered . . one simple question.

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Many of us see Thanksgiving, most importantly, as a day to express gratitude. But gratitude is a universal expression of appreciation for our lives and our experiences. What’s amazing is how many Native Americans also celebrate gratitude on that day . . even though for them, it’s also a National Day of Mourning. But . . they still believe everyday is a day to give thanks. This is a peek into another perspective.

This story was suggested by Backstory listener Mark Chambers from Midlothian Virginia. Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.

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Thanksgiving is… the best. Whether you celebrate with family, friends, or even on your own… what makes it the best is the focus on gratitude. At least a dozen countries celebrate with a day or days of gratitude. But… what about all those traditions? Did a few big-time influencers impact when we celebrate, how we celebrate, what we eat, and in our parts… even the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? Where did all those traditions come from and how have they evolved?

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