Part One: Priest Holes: How to Hide People From the Authorities (in Medieval England)
Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff
Cool Zone Media and iHeartPodcasts
4.7 • 902 Ratings
🗓️ 22 December 2025
⏱️ 51 minutes
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Summary
Margaret talks to Chelsey Weber-Smith about the saint who built hidden compartments to hide priests during the persecution of Catholics in England.
Sources:
https://ewtn.co.uk/article-st-nicholas-owen-builder-of-secret-hiding-places-for-priests/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/herefordandworcester/content/articles/2005/11/02/hindlip_gunpowder_plot_feature.shtml
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/harvington-hall
https://www.ancientpages.com/2017/12/05/nicholas-owen-little-john-paid-highest-price-ingenious-camouflaged-places-hide/
https://fellowshipandfairydust.com/2022/02/18/st-nicholas-owen/
https://www.historyskills.com/classroom/year-8/mary-i-reading/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_monasteries
https://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/why-was-anne-boleyn-executed/
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/beyond-the-pale.html
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/15/9/1055
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26845784?read-now=1&seq=4#page_scan_tab_contents
https://www.advocate.com/history/king-james-bible-queer
https://www.worldhistory.org/Gunpowder_Plot/
https://www.catholicpamphlets.net/files/pamphlets/mary%20tudor%20and%20the%20protestants.pdf
https://catholic.heritage-history.com/site/hclass/saints_heroes/reformation/php/martyrs.php
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/gunpowder_hutton_01.shtml
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:06.0 | CoolZone Media. |
| 0:09.4 | Hello, and welcome to cool people who did cool stuff. |
| 0:11.7 | Your weekly reminder that actually secretly most podcasters record out of their closets. |
| 0:15.8 | I am your host, Margaret Kiljoy, and this week, not only am I in a closet, but my guest, Chelsea |
| 0:23.4 | Weber Smith, host of American Astoria, appears to be, and I don't want to make any assumptions, |
| 0:29.2 | in a closet. Hi, how are you? Hi, Margaret. I am in a closet, and it is the only place in my |
| 0:36.3 | home that isn't too echoy to record. |
| 0:38.3 | And yeah, I think it's important for people to know that the glamour you think that we live in, it's not true. |
| 0:44.3 | We're all in the closet. |
| 0:46.3 | Especially as you move up more towards professional podcasting, where you have like higher needs in terms of echoes and all of that. |
| 0:53.3 | Yes, uh-huh, exactly. And some people who do video are in those cool studios, but for those of us who haven't made that demonic jump into video content, we're stuck in the closet. |
| 1:06.3 | I remember when my producer, not Sophie, hi Sophie. Hi. Hey, Sophie. |
| 1:11.3 | When my producer Ian was like, Margaret, I hate to tell you this. |
| 1:16.2 | You have to go back in the closet. |
| 1:20.0 | That's cute. |
| 1:20.6 | That's my closet joke. |
| 1:21.8 | But it's also true. |
| 1:22.7 | It's a moment that happened. |
| 1:24.0 | It was really hard for me not to make an in the closet-closet joke just now, but I really, I physically |
| 1:28.8 | restrained myself because it just felt so easy. It was too easy. You could make these jokes. |
| 1:36.7 | It's totally fine. No one will be upset by them. No one is sensitive about these things. That's what's so |
... |
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