Clint and Destry sit between two giant weiner dog statues and talk to the historical figures history nearly forgot. Surrounded, always, by a small pack of very good boys in very small hats.
Every other Thursday, Clint and Destry drive out to the little concrete-and-fiberglass shrine they had installed behind their house — two twelve-foot dachshunds facing each other across a modest gap — and set up a folding table between them. Then they turn on a microphone. Then they hold hands. Then they talk.
The guest is always someone history nearly forgot. A chemist whose name got erased from her own paper. A marshal whose warrant record vanishes from every civics textbook. A composer who was fencing champion of Europe and also probably wrote a symphony that got misfiled as anonymous.
Clint asks. Destry researches. The dogs listen. Nobody wears a hat except the dogs, and every dog wears a hat.
Episodes run about forty-five minutes. There is no advertising. There is a small pack of dachshunds. This is the entire premise.
Together for eleven years. Married for eight. Podcasting for six. Owned by dachshunds for approximately their entire adult lives.
Clint asks the questions. He grew up in Sanpete County and holds strong opinions about pocketknife maintenance, the correct temperature for a shop, and the moral weight of doing the reading. He believes almost every guest deserved better.
Destry does the reading. He keeps a filing cabinet of index cards organized by century, cross-referenced by field, and color-coded by "how badly this person got screwed by their contemporaries." His introductions are how you know an episode is going to be good.
"We started this podcast because we couldn't stop having these conversations at breakfast."
— Clint, Episode 1
She developed the first effective injectable treatment for leprosy at 23, then died before publishing. Her lab supervisor took the credit for six decades. Destry cried three times during recording.
Escaped enslavement, deputized as a US Marshal in Indian Territory, arrested more than 3,000 outlaws, spoke five languages, was almost certainly the historical basis for the Lone Ranger. Clint wore a bolo tie for this one.
Mapped the entire ocean floor, discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, essentially proved plate tectonics — from a desk, because women weren't allowed on the research vessels. Her boss called it "girl talk" for a decade.
Best fencer in France. Colonel of the first all-Black regiment in Europe. Composer whose symphonies Mozart may have quietly borrowed from. Napoleon had his music suppressed. Destry has been waiting six months to record this one.
Six dachshunds. Six hats. Each one attends every recording. None of them have ever left early.
Eldest. Owns three top hats. Only wears the middle one.
Intellectual. Named for a black bean. Prefers French pressed water.
Middle-aged. Birthday is every day, per her.
Cream-colored. Believes she is Victorian. She is not.
Youngest. Clint's favorite. Clint denies this.
Wears glasses. Is not a doctor. Was named optimistically.