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POLL: Pick the Next Extra History Series! "Weird and Wonderous"
🕑 Added 2021-02-28 00:40:30 +0000 UTCWait, I hear you ask, isn't it fairly late in February for a poll? And you are correct! We noticed that the polls and topic suggestions were beginning to outpace the production schedule, so this poll will run through February AND March. More time for you to agonize over these four very good topics.
Olympics!: Passing the Torch
The Olympiad. Pride of the world. A circle of champions. And... actually a hot mess. In this series we'll look at the ancient Olympics—what they meant to Greece, their sacred nature, and the ideals of national competition without (too much) death. After all, there's always the wrestler who pulled his opponent's intestines out Mortal Kombat-style, or the guy who won even though he was dead. From there we'll jump to the Olympic revival in the modern period, and all the strange growing pains that entailed. This will include a whole episode on the 1904 Marathon in St. Louis, where only 14 out of 32 entrants finished the race, there were multiple near-fatalities, and entrants had to contend with dehydration, passing cars, doses of strychnine, packs of feral dogs, and one runner secretly completing part of the race in a car.
The Great Emu War
It's 1932, and thousands of demobilized Australian WWI soldiers have moved onto hardscrabble farmland in Western Australia. They're scratching a living from the soil, an act made harder by the Depression—AND THEN THE EMUS COME. Seriously. Twenty thousand native emu birds, each six feet tall, weighing over 100 pounds and able to run 30 miles an hour. They break fences and eat crops... and the farmers call in the Australian military. Enter Major Meredith of the Royal Australian Artillery, who brings two Lewis guns designed for butchering soldiers in the trenches. Things do not go well for him. Amid a media frenzy, arguments in congress, and a frankly embarrassing inability to kill emus, the cull becomes a political nightmare that lives in infamy to this day.
Gregor MacGregor: The Greatest Con
Would you like to buy some government bonds from the nation of Poyais? Don't worry if you've never heard of it. It's new. And in Central America. And led by General Gregor MacGregor, a highly prestigious veteran of the Peninsular War and Venezuelan War of Independence. For his heroism, he claims, a Honduran king has made him the leader of a new nation—and it's looking for immigrants. Those that return from the "colony," however, tell a different story. One of a harsh and undeveloped land where half the new "settlers" died. (Not because of their beloved General MacGregor, though—he is faultless.) Watch as one of the most brazen confidence tricks in history unfolds, and ask yourself... how much bigger can this go?
Grigori Rasputin: The Siberian Enigma
You've heard the story of Rasputin, or at least, you think you have. Because when you start to dig into his life, you start to find out that what we know about him often comes from rumor and attempts at character assassination. When we dive into his life, we find something unexpected: a man who's part of a larger spiritual movement of people turning away from traditional Christianity toward alternatives such as Spiritualism and the occult. Likewise his murder—so often sensationalized—comes of more as a drunken botch job than any kind of supernatural resiliance. Yet at its heart, we still have an enigma. Who was Grigori Rasputin, really? What did be believe, and was he guilty of the many crimes his enemies accused him of?
What series would you like us to air on Extra History? Cast your vote(s) below and let us know!
Friendly reminder: You can vote for as many choices as you want! This style of voting helps us see what people are most interested in without having to make tough decisions between a couple of close favorites. The poll will end at 11:59 PM PT on Sunday, March 7th.
Current Schedule: Jewish Pirates --> Thirty Years War --> Vlad the Impaler --> Your Vote!
Comments
Bjorn de Echte
This is the first time I feel my vote really mattered
Seaver Lyddane
Russian love machine
Martin Verran
Absolutely, me too.
Adil N
I would love to see a future series about the Mexican Revolution.
Adil N
Wow. This poll was extremely close. 1 vote!!
Frank Mitchell
The subtlety of emu strategy stands in stark contrast to the simple and brutal guerilla tactics of Australia's rabbits and cane toads.
Frank Mitchell
In high school I did a report on Rasputin and the vast gulf between his daughter's biography and the propagandists' even more incredible stories is ... interesting.
l'historien chipoteur
Hi ! I'm new to this patreon. When can we suggest topics ? Is there a special moment during the year ?
BlueFanfictionInc
They may do a 4 episodes, with the first episode being a look at what the hell happened to lead to this event, then an episode about the different plans for these emus, episode 3 the actual attempts at the emus, and episode 4 the aftermath and basically how it was a complete disaster.
Colin
Maybe you should do preferential voting for these polls. I think it would be interesting to see how the results would end up!
Adil N
Topics that I would love to see in future: The Mexican Revolution, and Shah Jahan and the story of the Taj Mahal.
Carlos Henderson
Spoiler the Russian Empire ends...
The Rogue Chief
Rah Rah Rasputin!
Bradley Zakany
The Olympics is the weakest option in my opinion. I am curious about the con job, but I love hearing about the Emu War and I listen to the Rasputin song way too much to not want to learn more about him.
Bradley Zakany
Spoiler. (I know the story and it is always a good laugh when I go through it again. So many layers of stupidity to add to the comedy)
Pyrian
The emus won.
Calvin McClory
I've seen two maybe three. The scatter patterns of emus did come up. "Just remember kids. Dont crowd fund. Crowd sorce." Exceptions apply Ofcourse.
Blake
Admit it, you haven't seen any *other* YouTube history series cover emu military strategies.
Calvin McClory
how are they going to make three to five videos of the emu war? Is there really enough interesting details to fill 30 min of content? Either way, I'm voting to find out!
Chelsea Fakkuza
i'm sorry, the great WHAT?? LOL
Nathalie
Ra-ra-Rasputin :D
Emily Travis
FYI for the Emu War, Australia does not use the term 'congress', it would be parliament.
Martin Verran
I take it Emus are a horrifying military force among the bird world? Mind you Rasputin would be right up my alley.
Jetstream
Madness. the clear "right" choice is the Emu War :D
Robert Bevill
I'm rooting for Emu War here.
Chidumebi Njoku-Browne
Yay, my Olympic suggestion got picked
William Milhans
I am enraptured with the Olympics every couple of years; I would adore an Extra History series about the way they came about.
BlueFanfictionInc
Rasputin please, I have wanted a real video after the amazing prank from last year.
BlueFanfictionInc
Check out Biographics video on Macgregor, it is pretty good. Also, after last years Rasputin april fools video, the fans have been waiting for the actual history episode.
Ziad Seifo
This channel never did a history of sports (unless you count the boxer one) so i would love to see the Olympics!
Øyvind Wallentinsen
All of them. But when I saw "the Emu war" I dropped everything and voted only for that xD.
Matthew Bamford
Will the Olympics series include the Paralympic Games? TBH I feel like that could be a separate companion series.
Forever Bulking
Ooooh! I heard the story of Gregor MacGregor on Behind the Bastards! It’s a tale of terrible, horrible things being done to some good people and some people who deserved it. But seriously, where’s the “All of the above!” option?!
Kyle E Johnson
Can we just vote "yes" and have this be the next 4 series? This is a near-impossible choice
Steven Attewell
This was one of the hardest ones of these to pick.
Bryce Pruitt
Dang. This is a great poll. I’d personally love to hear about all of these at one point. Definitely want you to do one on the Emu War, just because it’s so flipping hilarious.
