Introducing: Our Ancestors Were Messy

Nobody Should Believe Me

True Story Media

True Crime, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Our Ancestors Were Messy, is a show about the ancestors and all their drama. On each episode, host Nichole Hill and her guests unpack the ancestors’ historical schemes, feuds, and quests to examine how their relationships with one another shaped who we are today. Before the 1960s nearly every major city in the nation had a newspaper written for, by, and about Black Americans. During their “Golden Era” between the 1930s-50s, there were over ten thousand newspapers with an estimated subscriber count of over 1 million. The editors, reporters, and columnists for these papers included legends like Ida B. Wells, Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, W.E.B. DuBois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Zora Neale Hurston, and James Weldon Johnson. They reported on local, national, and international news from the Black perspective. They also kept track of what everyone was up to in their segregated neighborhoods and spoiler alert: there was never a dull moment! *** Listen to Our Ancestors Were Messy: https://thesecretadventuresofblackpeople.com/our-ancestors-were-messy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	True Story Media.
0:05.4	Hello, it's Andrea, and I have a special treat for you today.
0:16.9	The first episode of my absolute favorite new podcast, Our Ancestors Were Messy, from the
0:24.2	incredible Nicole Hill, who was also our story editor for season five. This new show covers the
0:31.6	gossip, scandals, and pop culture that made headlines in the black newspapers of segregated
0:36.7	communities in pre-Civil
0:38.2	Rights America. It is a history show but told as gossip with all of the juiciest bits.
0:44.7	Who was beefing, who was canoodling, who was posting saucy love letters. It's so fun and fascinating
0:51.8	and just makes history come alive.
0:58.3	I'm telling you, I only want history in the form of gossip going forward.
1:06.7	Our Ancestors Were Messy was an official selection at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival, and I just really think you will love it.
1:12.0	You can find the show wherever you listen to podcasts, so go check it out, and we will include a link in our show notes. Enjoy.
1:16.9	Well, friends, it's 2025. It's here. This year is going to be, well, one thing it won't be
1:25.4	is boring, and that's about the only prediction I'm going to make right now.
1:29.4	But one piece of news that I am excited to share is that the wait for my new book, The Mother Next Door, is almost over.
1:36.9	It is coming at you on February 4th from St. Martin's Press.
1:41.1	So soon!
1:42.6	I co-authored this book with friend and beloved contributor of this show,
1:47.0	Detective Mike Weber, about three of the most impactful cases of his career. Even if you are one of
1:53.4	the OGist of OG listeners to this show, I promise you are going to learn so many new and shocking
1:59.1	details about the three cases we cover.
2:01.7	We just go into so much more depth on these stories.
	...

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