Weird Things in History and Why the Heck They Happened Vol. 3

I’ll admit, I side-eyed the ‘virtual voice’ narration at first—no human performer could match the chaos of, say, a 16th-century ‘dancing plague’—but the delivery grows on you. The AI narrator nails the book’s tone: deadpan enough to let the material breathe, but with just enough inflection to sell lines like, *“Yes, medieval doctors *did* think smelling farts could cure the Black Death.”* The pacing is brisk, almost podcast-like, which works for most segments, though a few deeper dives (like the economics of the ‘Tulip Mania’ crash) could’ve used a beat more emphasis to land their punchlines. Standout moments? The section on ‘accidental inventions’ (including a war machine repurposed as a *pasta maker*) had me pausing to text friends, and the ‘cursed artifacts’ chapter is a masterclass in building dread with historical receipts. My only gripe: the audio production occasionally flattens the humor—some jokes rely on *how* they’re told, and a human narrator might’ve leaned harder into the absurdity. Still, for a sub-$10, ad-free dive into history’s WTF files, it’s a steal. Just don’t listen while eating; the ‘medical horrors’ segment includes *graphic* descriptions of ‘cures’ involving live eels.