S5 Ep9: The Strange Double Life of Clarence King

Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan

True Crime, Society & Culture, Science

4.1 • 10K Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the mid-1800s, some Black people managed to “pass themselves off” as white folk to reap the privilege not afforded to Black folk. But Clarence King, a white Yale-educated, celebrated geographer, did it the other way around.

"Strange and Unexplained" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab & Three Goose Entertainment and is a journey into the uncomfortable and the unknowable that will leave you both laughing and sleeping with the lights on. You can get early and ad-free episodes on the Grab Bag Patreon page.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, strangers, before we jump into today's episode, just a note to let you know that my new
0:05.8	contract with my ad seller requires four ad breaks per episode now. I am doing my best to make the
0:11.8	episodes longer to accommodate. I know no one loves ads, but them's the breaks in capitalism.
0:17.1	Remember, there are a few options if you want to skip the ads. You can always do it manually,
0:21.5	or you can now subscribe through Apple Podcasts and become a casual stranger where you'll get
0:27.1	early and ad-free regular episodes, plus the new Strange News Weekly Addendum. Or you can sign up on
0:33.8	Patreon at patreon.com slash grab bag collab, where for just eight bucks a month, you'll get
0:40.1	early and ad-free strange, plus all the other amazing content at Grabbag, all ad-free. We have three
0:46.8	regular weekly shows and a whole handful of quarterly miniseries and bi-weekly shows, all for just
0:52.2	eight bucks a month. See you there and enjoy.
0:59.2	What is identity? What makes us who we are? Is it the color of our skin? The people we come from?
1:07.3	The people we love? What might drive a person to shed one identity for another?
1:15.9	Welcome to strange and unexplained with me, Daisy Egan. I am what we like to call a mutt. Growing up,
1:22.8	I thought I was Irish and Russian. It wasn't until I was in my 20s that I realized that not only was that
1:28.9	reductive, it was also just plain wrong. Despite Russia's best efforts, Ukraine is not indeed Russia.
1:36.3	I am no more Russian than I am Canadian. But even these two nationalities ignore the veritable
1:42.1	smorgasbord of other countries from which my ancestors migrated.
1:46.6	To say that I am Ukrainian and Irish completely erases the matrilineal lines on both sides.
1:53.4	I am, according to my DNA, 1% Sardinian, but I would never go around claiming to be Italian,
2:00.2	though frankly most Sardinians wouldn't claim
2:02.3	to be Italian either, but that's beside the point. The only time I claim my Italian heritage is when I put
2:08.0	my fingers together and say something like, I make it a meatball. But bad comedy aside, unless I have some
	...

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