🎙️ Episode Title: Moon Bats, Unicorns, and the Greatest Newspaper Prank of All Time
Podcast: That’s So Historical
Episode #: 2
Release Date: July 28 2025
🎧 Episode Summary:
What do you get when you mix Victorian science, flying bat-people, unicorns, and a newspaper desperate for sales?
You get The Great Moon Hoax of 1835 — one of history’s most bizarre (and hilarious) cases of fake news.
In this episode, we explore how the New York Sun duped thousands into believing the moon was home to a thriving fantasyland, complete with rivers, jungles, and amethyst palaces. We also track how this outrageous fiction nearly fooled Yale scientists — and how it all ended with a shrug and a laugh. Plus: how JFK later made the moon a real goal, minus the beavers.
📌 Fun Fact:
The moon was supposedly home to 4.2 billion people, according to a reverend who’d clearly never read a census.
🧠 Great For Fans Of:
- History’s weirdest hoaxes
- Vintage sci-fi
- Satire & media literacy
- People who once believed Pluto was a planet and a vacation home
🎨 Cover Art by: AI & Vintage Sci-Fi Posters, 1835 meets Twilight Zone
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