Episodes

Introducing Based on a True Story This Week, a fun new way to learn about movies that portray events that happened this week in history and the true story behind them. Learn more https://links.boatspodcast.com/thisweek Support the show to get ad-free episodes https://links.boatspodcast.com/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today we're learning about the 1960 movie Spartacus that was directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier and Jean Simmons. We'll learn about the real history from Barry Strauss, author of The Spartacus War, an authoritative account of the true story. Learn more about the true story Get The Spartacus War: https://links.boatspodcast.com/221book Follow Barry's podcast: https://links.boatspodcast.com/221podcast See all of Barry's work: https://links.boatspodcast.com/221...

Today we're replaying an episode of Based on a True Story from 2018 about the 2017 movie The Man Who Invented Christmas. The story the movie tells the tale of Charles Dickens as he struggles to write A Christmas Carol. Learn more about the true story Read the book the movie is based on: https://links.boatspodcast.com/220book Did you enjoy this episode? Leave a comment: https://links.boatspodcast.com/comment Find the transcript and full show notes: https://links.boatspodcast.com/220 Support ou...

Today we'll learn about the World War One armistice from our friends at the History Daily podcast. Learn more about History Daily: https://links.boatspodcast.com/219guest Did you enjoy this episode? Leave a comment: https://links.boatspodcast.com/comment Find the transcript and full show notes: https://links.boatspodcast.com/219 Support our sponsors: https://links.boatspodcast.com/advertisers Remove the ads by supporting the show: https://links.boatspodcast.com/support Learn more about your ...

All Quiet on the Western Front has been adapted to the screen multiple times since World War I veteran Erich Maria Remarque published his novel of the same name in 1929. Today we'll learn about the newest adaptation that was released on Netflix on October 28, 2022. Helping us separate fact from fiction in the movie is Dr. Christopher Warren, who is the Vice President of Collections and Senior Curator at the National World War I Museum and Memorial. Learn more about the true story Visit the Nati...

Dahmer was watched for 865 million hours in the first 28 days, making it one of the most popular Netflix originals of all time. Today we'll dive into the true story behind the series with Robyn Maharaj, who wrote the book Grilling Dahmer: The Interrogation of "the Milwaukee Cannibal" with Patrick Kennedy, the detective in charge of interrogating Jeffrey Dahmer after his capture. Learn more about the true story Get Robyn's book Grilling Dahmer: https://links.boatspodcast.com/217book Follow Roby...

Disney has released five movies in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and while they're clearly fictional movies they pull from and have influenced our views of what the real pirates of history were like. New York Times Bestselling and Pulitzer Prize Finalist author Colin Woodard has a fantastic book called The Republic of Pirates and today he'll help us separate fact from fiction in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Learn more about the true story Get Colin's book The Republic of P...

The 2021 Amazon Original Movie Being the Ricardos tells us the story behind the scenes of the husband/wife team behind I Love Lucy, Dezi Arnaz (Javier Bardem) and Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman). To help us separate fact from fiction in the movie, we'll learn from Michael Karol, author of the book Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia. Learn more about the true story Get Michael's book Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia: https://links.boatspodcast.com/215book Find more of Michael's b...

This is part 2 of 'A Nightmare Before Halloween' with 16 spooky stories to help you get into the Halloween spirit! Find the podcasts in this episode True Crime Island: https://links.boatspodcast.com/214truecrimeisland Based on a True Story: https://links.boatspodcast.com/214boats The Asian Madness Podcast: https://links.boatspodcast.com/214theasianmadnesspodcast Sistas Who Kill: https://links.boatspodcast.com/214sistaswhokill Hometown History: https://links.boatspodcast.com/214hometownhistory ...

This Halloween season, enter the woods for a unique and truly epic podcast experience! Around the campfire, Shane Waters will introduce 31 crime podcast hosts, including Based on a True Story. Each host brings a new, nerve-wracking true story to the circle. It’s an extra special, two-part, five-hour, Halloween event, but before hitting play you might want to ask yourself…can you really handle this much murder and mayhem? Find the podcasts in this episode Foul Play: Crime Series: https://links....

Released in 2001, Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor is often criticized as being entirely inaccurate as it attempts to tell the story of the surprise attack on December 7th, 1941 that led to the United States entering World War II. Today we'll be joined by historian and author Marty Morgan to take a deep dive into what details the movie got right and what it got wrong. Learn more about the true story Watch Marty's documentary about the Oberg color film footage: https://links.boatspodcast.com/212oberg...

The classic TV series The X-Files is fiction, but there are some true stories and UFO cases that inspired episodes of the series. To help us learn more about them, we'll chat with UFO researcher and host of Our Strange Skies, Rob Kristoffersen. Learn more about the true story Listen to the episode Rob recommended: https://links.boatspodcast.com/211raechelseyes Follow the Our Strange Skies podcast: https://links.boatspodcast.com/211guest Did you enjoy this episode? Leave a comment: https://ga...

Dolemite Is My Name is the 2019 biopic about Rudy Ray Moore, the comedian, singer, actor, and film producer who has often been given the nickname the "godfather of rap." We'll chat with Mark Jason Murray, who was the Research Consultant on the film and author of Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself: The Authorized Biography Of Rudy Ray Moore Aka Dolemite. Learn more about the true story Get Mark's book: https://links.boatspodcast.com/210book Learn more about Rudy Ray Moore: https://links.boatspo...

The movie's title W.E. stands for Wallis and Edward. Was the movie correct to suggest King Edward VIII's reason for abdicating the throne in 1936 was so he could marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson? We'll chat with author Andrew Lownie about the true story to find out more. Learn more about the true story Get Andrew's book, Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke & Duchess of Windsor: https://links.boatspodcast.com/209book Learn more about Andrew's work: https://links.boatspodcas...

Zero Dark Thirty shows the decade-long search for Osama bin Laden. Peter Bergen is the author of The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden and he joins us today to dig into the true story behind the movie. Learn more about the true story Get Peter's book, The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden: https://links.boatspodcast.com/208book Also mentioned on this episode, Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad: https://links.boatspodcast.com/208manhunt Learn more about Peter's wor...

This episode was originally released on August 28, 2017. This is a remastered version of that interview. Matt Bondurant joins us today episode as we compare what really happened with the movie Lawless. Matt's grandfather, Jack, and two grand-uncles that were the inspiration for his book that the movie is based on, The Wettest County in the World. Learn more about the true story Get Matt's new book, Oleander City: https://links.boatspodcast.com/207newbook Pick up The Wettest County in the World...

Jack Horner was the Paleontology Consultant on all six of the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World movies. He joins Based on a True Story to chat about the real dinosaurs we saw in the franchise. Learn more about dinosaurs! Follow Jack's work at https://links.boatspodcast.com/206guest How to Build a Dinosaur: https://links.boatspodcast.com/206book Did you enjoy this episode? Leave a comment: https://galas.fm/episode/e652d905-dec0-414d-ab59-9a37b681c3d0 Find the transcript and full show notes: https...

Not all movies try to be historically accurate, and yet they still depict moments in history. To help us extract history from the satirical comedy, we’ll be chatting with professor, scholar, and author of Jesus of Hollywood and Bible and Cinema, Adele Reinhartz. Learn more about the true story Get Adele's books: Jesus of Hollywood: https://links.boatspodcast.com/205book Bible and Cinema: https://links.boatspodcast.com/205bibleandcinema Did you enjoy this episode? Leave a comment: https://ga...

Operation Dynamo, also known as the Miracle at Dunkirk, was an event that many believe kept Britain in World War II before the United States even joined the fight as it took place between May 26 - June 4, 1940. Today we'll be chatting with Joshua Levine, who was the historical consultant on the 2017 movie from director Christopher Nolan that depicts the event. Learn more about the true story Get Joshua's book Dunkirk: The History Behind the Major Motion Picture: https://links.boatspodcast.com/...

Today we'll be talking about the 1956 movie The Conqueror with author Ryan Uytdewilligen. Learn more about the true story Get Ryan's book, Killing John Wayne: https://links.boatspodcast.com/203book Find all of Ryan's work: https://links.boatspodcast.com/203guest Did you enjoy this episode? Leave a comment: https://galas.fm/episode/de72a04c-52ab-4e67-9769-bf5d33de1e2d Find the transcript and full show notes: https://links.boatspodcast.com/203 Support our sponsors: https://links.boatspodcast.c...

We're joined by author Sheila Myers to learn about the real character of Thomas 'Doc' Durant in AMC's Hell on Wheels. Want to hear more stories of the Durant family? Imaginary Brightness: a Durant Family Saga - A Novel: https://links.boatspodcast.com/202book Or pick up Sheila's new book The Truth of Who You Are: https://links.boatspodcast.com/202newbook Find all of Sheila's books: https://links.boatspodcast.com/202guest Did you enjoy this episode? Leave a comment: https://galas.fm/episode/3a...

Author Richard Munson joins the podcast to discuss the historical accuracy of the 2020 movie 'Tesla.' Dig deeper into the true story Pick up Richard's book called Tesla: Inventor of the Modern: https://links.boatspodcast.com/201book Find more of Richard's work: https://links.boatspodcast.com/201guest Did you enjoy this episode? Leave a comment: https://galas.fm/episode/a270e11a-86be-47b9-ada7-ae0bd4245191 Find the transcript and full show notes: https://links.boatspodcast.com/201 Support our...

The 2020 movie Worth shows how Kenneth Feinberg (played by Michael Keaton) and Camille Biros (played by Amy Ryan) tackled the impossible task of determining the worth of life to help families affected by the September 11th attacks. Kenneth and Camille join us today to chat about what the movie got right, what it got wrong and a peek into the true story. Dig deeper into the true story Read Kenneth's book that the movie was based on called What Is Life Worth?: The Unprecedented Effort to Compensa...

Dr. Brian Dirck is a Professor of History at Anderson University and author of multiple books on President Lincoln. He joins us today to chat about the real history behind the fantasy/horror movie Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Learn more about the true story with Brian's books The Black Heavens: Abraham Lincoln and Death: https://links.boatspodcast.com/199blackheavens Lincoln and the Constitution: https://links.boatspodcast.com/199constitution Lincoln the Lawyer: https://links.boatspodcas...