Overview of Behind the Scenes Minis: Martian Skulls
In this behind-the-scenes minisode of Stuff You Missed in History Class, Tracy and Holly revisit two Halloween-season topics: Sarah Weiss’s Mars-related spiritualist book and the “screaming skull” stories from a recent episode. The conversation mixes research notes, historical speculation, and the hosts’ reactions to odd Victorian-era beliefs, questionable interpretations of evidence, and the cultural afterlives of these strange stories.
Sarah Weiss, Mars, and the Spirit Band
Questions raised by Weiss’s book
- The hosts discuss Sarah Weiss, whose book described journeys to Mars and featured a “spirit band” of famous figures.
- A major point of curiosity was how Weiss appeared to know so much about:
- 19th-century scholars and naturalists
- writers and thinkers like Giordano Bruno
- Earth-based details woven into her Martian narrative
- Tracy and Holly note they do not think she was receiving psychic communications from dead people on Mars, but they remain curious about what influenced her writing and where her apparent knowledge came from.
The role of her husband, Adolf
- Holly suggests that the idea that Weiss was “not widely read” may have come largely from her husband’s framing of her.
- The hosts speculate that some of the mystery around her intellect may reflect the way her life and work were presented, rather than a reliable account of her actual reading or education.
Correspondence with psychical investigator Hyslop
- They also discuss the back-and-forth letters between Adolf Weiss and psychical researcher Hyslop.
- Tracy compares the exchange to someone repeatedly asking follow-up questions after each answer, which she found a little irritating in written form.
- The hosts note that the same conversation might have felt totally normal if it had happened face-to-face rather than through letters.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s Occult and Proto-Sci-Fi Connection
Why he may have been included in the spirit band
- The hosts revisit Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who had come up before mainly as a terrible husband.
- Here, they speculate that his inclusion in the spirit band probably had less to do with his politics or personal life and more to do with his fiction’s themes.
His relevant works
- The Haunted and the Haunters; or, The House and the Brain
- A horror story with supernatural elements
- A Strange Story
- Features mesmerism and may have influenced Dracula
- Vril: The Power of the Coming Race
- A subterranean civilization story that may have influenced Theosophy
- Holly notes it may also contain racist tropes
Broader impact
- The hosts see Bulwer-Lytton as a kind of bridge figure:
- part Gothic horror
- part early speculative fiction
- part spiritualist-adjacent literary influence
Cultural Echoes and Personal Connections
Elvis Costello reference
- Tracy mentions that the Mars discussion put Elvis Costello’s “Beyond Belief” in her head, especially the line about “the canals of Mars.”
- Holly responds with appreciation, showing how the episode’s imagery triggered an unrelated but beloved song association.
Kurt Vonnegut comparison
- Holly says a passage involving “Von Humboldt” and human responsibility sounded to her like something Kurt Vonnegut might have written.
- She connects the tone to:
- Vonnegut’s humanistic style
- Slaughterhouse-Five
- Tralfamadore / Tralfamadorian references
- Tracy agrees that the resemblance seems plausible, though they don’t know whether it was a documented influence.
Reflections on the Book’s Reception
- Holly says the book was 600 pages long, which likely did not help its success.
- She suggests that if the book had been shorter and less ponderous, it might have found a bigger audience given:
- public fascination with Mars
- interest in spiritualism
- the era’s appetite for unusual speculative material
- Still, they doubt it was ever a truly massive bestseller.
Screaming Skulls, Race, and Pseudoscience
A creepy but amusing folklore episode
- The hosts revisit the “screaming skull” topic and talk about how weirdly charming and eerie these stories are.
- Holly notes that the idea of a skull “not liking to be handled” felt almost pet-like in its behavior lore.
The Brome family story
- Holly brings up another Brome family example from English history:
- Nicholas Brome reportedly requested burial beneath a church floor so people would literally walk over him as penance.
- She wonders whether bizarre burial instructions were a family tradition.
Concerns about racist interpretation
- They discuss the second skull from the episode and how historical observers made claims about its traits in a way that felt racially loaded and unscientific.
- Holly strongly pushes back on the idea that one can determine a person’s race from a skull in this context.
- They point out that older “scientific” practices like phrenology often fueled racist assumptions and bad conclusions.
- The hosts stress that much of the story is built on:
- confirmation bias
- made-up lore
- shaky or unverifiable claims
Final Thoughts and Seasonal Sign-Off
- The episode closes with general Halloween-season energy: more spooky, odd, and fun stories are coming.
- Tracy and Holly share their hopes that listeners:
- get rest if they can
- take care of themselves
- make space for quiet or restorative time
- They remind listeners to be kind and tease that the show will return soon with another new episode and a classic replay.