Two Screaming Skulls
Stuff You Missed in History Class

Two Screaming Skulls

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 7, 202633 min
  • History

Screaming skull lore is something that is unique to Britain, though specific skull lore varies. The first episode has roots in the English Civil war, and the second is tied to colonialism in the Caribbean and the slave trade. Research: Berry, Helen. “Exclusion Crisis: Challenging James II’s Right to Rule.” History Today. May 5, 2026. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/feature/exclusion-crisis-challenging-james-iis-right-rule “The Bettiscombe Skull – Pinney Family.” Bridport and Lyme Regis News. March 25, 1904. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1325106358/?match=18&terms=Azariah%20Pinney%20&search-id=f74cfd16-6d86-49a4-a9db-d190c38e3250&search-rank=1 Collinson, John. “The history and ant...

Play episode

Opens the player: the full transcript, every word clickable, with translation and flashcards.

Try it: tap any word

Real sentences from the start of this episode. Every word is marked with its level.

Sentence 9 of 12 · 1:06

episode we did last year because we're going to talk about Screaming Skulls.

,

lore varies.

Tap a word to see its meaning in your language.

Do you know these words?

8 harder words from this episode. Tap one to see what it means, then mark it.

Mark a few words and we'll tell you how this episode fits your level.

Is this episode right for you?

B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 28%A2 32%B1 22%B2 16%C1 2%
  • 82% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 222 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 195 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.

0:00

This is an iHeart Podcast, guaranteed human. Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry.

0:49

And I'm Tracy B. Wilson. It's Halloween time, so we're continuing some of our Halloween-y topics. This one, this one I suppose could be considered a sequel to the Ghost of the British Isles episode we did last year because we're going to talk about Screaming Skulls.

1:06

And Screaming Skull lore is something that is unique to Britain, although specific skull lore varies. That's not to say that no other culture has ever thought a skull was haunted or had things. It just, there is a very specific flavor of it that is very British.

That was the opening. The rest of the episode (32 min) is in the player: every word clickable, with translation, saved words and flashcards.

Continue in the player

Automatically generated from the audio. May contain errors. Audio belongs to its publisher and is played from their feed. Rights holders can request removal — copyright & takedown policy