An attempt to get to the bottom of steroid abuse in Major League Baseball spun out so badly that one of the lawyers involved ended up in prison. But why is punishing people for the misuse of regulated drugs in sports left up to private organizations in the first place? And wouldn’t baseball be so much more fun if everyone was still injecting meth and goat testicle juice?
The target: The British Museum of Natural History. The payload: A suitcase full of dead birds. The criminal: A flute player obsessed with the rare art of Victorian fly tying.
We’re tackling one of our most confusing legal systems yet in a case so complicated no one could even figure out which jurisdiction covered it. Because there was no law covering criminal negligence, the accidental sinking of the warship Chishima was tried in a civil court–but Japan’s bizarre treaty system forced the emperor of Japan to personally take his suit to a British court on Chinese soil.
We’re closing out Pride month with a look at a country where Pride demonstrations are banned. How did Russia go from relative tolerance to extreme repression? Why did so much Soviet propaganda feature men kissing? And how did a law about kids’ media turn into a human rights violation?
Can you break the law by reincarnating in the wrong body?
Get ready for more discussion of of glory holes than you’ve ever heard in a civics lesson before.
This secret society of criminals had a fake leader, but their grievances were very real.
When did we lose the right to cross the street wherever and whenever we wanted?
One of the most important trials in recorded history might not have happened.
It’s time to take to the sea in style. Why did a gentleman abandon a life of luxury to become a pirate? And how did one of the most incompetent ship captains in history end up sailing with Blackbeard himself?