Mobituaries with Mo Rocca

Death of a Name | Reviving a Mobit

What do you think will be the top baby names of 2025? Will "Mildred" make a comeback? What’s in a name…that makes it popular to one generation, and downright ugly to the

Marlene Dietrich Goes To War | Reviving a Mobit

We’re celebrating the birthday month of the iconic Marlene Deitrich by revisiting a special episode from the "Mobituaries" audiobook. Marlene Dietrich cemented her status

Sammy Davis Jr.: Death of the Entertainer | Reviving a Mobit

This week, we’re celebrating the birthday of the legendary Sammy Davis Jr. by revisiting a special Mobit. From the age of three Sammy Davis, Jr. did it all better than an

Wishbone: Death of a Working Dog | Reviving a Mobit

This week marks 8 years since the finale of the beloved series "Wishbone". In the 1990s, PBS introduced young audiences to a canine star like none other: a Jack Russell t

Neanderthals: Death of a Human Species | Reviving a Mobit

Did you know November 9 is National Neanderthal Appreciation Day? Reivist this episode where Mo welcomes his friend Michael Ian Black – comedian, author, podcaster, and,

Sitcom Deaths and Disappearances | Reviving a Mobit

In honor of the anniversary of the first-ever sitcom broadcast on a U.S. television network (fun fact: it was "Mary Kay and Johnny" back in November 1947), we're revisiti

Literary Frontierswoman: Laura Ingalls Wilder

This special episode comes from the audiobook edition of ROCTOGENARIANS, a brand-new collection of stories from Mo Rocca that celebrates the triumphs of people who made t

LaWanda Page: Death of a Comedy Queen

Long before her turn as the sermonizing Aunt Esther on "Sanford and Son," LaWanda Page was dazzling Black nightclub audiences - first as the flame-swallowing “Bronze Godd

Revisiting the Orphan Train: An American Odyssey

Between 1854 and 1929, 250,000 orphans and abandoned children were placed on East Coast city trains and sent west to live with new families. A desperate solution to a des

Death of a Sports Team: Satchel Paige and Los Dragones

There’s no shortage of sports teams that change cities or names over the course of their franchise history. But what about the teams that just cease to exist? Perhaps no

Death of the Very Special Episode

If you were a kid watching TV in the 1980s and 1990s, you probably saw a fair number of “Very Special Episodes,” when the usual blissful bubble of the sitcom world was pu

Mobits Extra: How Norman Lear Changed Television

Starting in the early 1970s, Norman Lear changed the face of television, fusing comedy with social commentary. Lear died on December 5th at the great old age of 101. Mo r

The Habsburg Jaw: Death of a Dynasty

For centuries European royals married only each other. It was believed to be the best way of consolidating power. But rampant royal inbreeding had increasingly negative c

Death of a Nepo Baby

“Nepo Baby” is a term popularly used to describe the celebrity children of celebrity parents. But family connections affect every field of work, and always have. And wher

JFK Impersonator Vaughn Meader: Death of a Career

November 22, 2023, marks 60 years since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the end of one of the era's biggest comedy acts. During Kennedy's term, Vaughn

Charlie McCarthy: Death of a Dummy

When Candice Bergen describes her childhood as weird and eccentric, she isn’t exaggerating. She grew up with a world-famous sibling, who met presidents and movie stars. H

Things I Wish Would Die

On this podcast we’ve honored some of our past’s most outstanding and underappreciated people and things. May they live on in memory. But let’s face it, some things deser

Death of an Accent

Have you ever wondered about that old timey accent so many actors used in black and white movies? Hollywood stars like Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis and Orson Welles, wh

Jim Thorpe: Death of an All-American

When gold medalist Jim Thorpe was dubbed "the world's greatest athlete" at the 1912 Olympics, it wasn't hype. Football, baseball, lacrosse, even ballroom dancing ... Thor

Peggy Lee: Death of Cool

There were so many different Peggy Lees: The woman who defined cool in the 1950s with songs like "Fever." The songwriter of hits including the score to "Lady and the Tram