Civics & Coffee: A History Podcast
Civics & Coffee delivers bite-sized U.S. history with clear, engaging storytelling — all in the time it takes to drink your morning cup of coffee. Host Alycia brings America’s past to life with well-researched episodes that are approachable, human, and impossible to forget.
In 2026, Civics & Coffee dives into the Gilded Age - a transformative era of booming industry, powerful presidents, labor uprisings, immigration waves, inequality, and social reformers. From national crises like the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 to personal stories of figures such as Rutherford B. Hayes, Lucy Webb Hayes, and the Exodusters, each episode uncovers the people, tensions, and turning points that shaped modern America.
Whether you’re a longtime history lover or just history-curious, Civics & Coffee offers context without the homework and storytelling without the fluff. Grab your mug and join the conversation, one cup at a time.
Civics & Coffee: A History Podcast
Before Jack the Ripper: The Savage Crimes of the Servant Girl Annihilator
What if America’s first serial killer wasn’t H.H. Holmes—but someone far more brutal and completely forgotten?
In this episode, I unravel the chilling mystery of the Servant Girl Annihilator, a violent and elusive murderer who stalked Austin, Texas from 1884 to 1885—years before Holmes ever claimed a victim. Eight people were slaughtered in their homes, yet this case remains buried beneath history’s more famous headlines. Who was this killer? Why were the crimes so quickly forgotten? And could this American predator have crossed the Atlantic to become the infamous Jack the Ripper?
Step into the shadows of Reconstruction-era Texas, where fear gripped a city, justice was elusive, and a killer vanished into legend.