Trailer: Why “That’s So Macaroni” Means History With Flavor

What happens when a history teacher with a World War II obsession teams up with a genetics nerd who works in a hospital lab? You get a show that treats untaught events, odd inventions, and overlooked people like a treasure hunt—with jokes, receipts, and plenty of curiosity. Our origin story doubles as a promise: we’ll make the past feel fresh, human, and sometimes uncomfortably real, and we’ll do it in a way that keeps you listening.

We introduce the heart of our format: deep dives into wars and pivotal moments you probably never tackled in school, paired with biographies that reveal the messy, brilliant people behind breakthroughs. Expect crisp timelines, context you can actually remember, and connections between battlefield medicine, lab innovations, and cultural shifts that ripple into today. Along the way, we unpack the strange path of our title—how “macaroni” traveled from 1700s fashion slang to Yankee Doodle—and use it as a lens for how language smuggles history into everyday life.

We don’t shy away from dark corners. Because our topics include war, death, and sometimes sexual assault, we add clear, timely content warnings so you can choose what to hear in detail. We also keep the humor alive without flattening the stakes, sometimes inviting a spirited “guest” via Ghost Tube to remind us that the past is crowded with voices. If explicit language is a concern, headphones are your friend. By the end, our hope is simple: you leave with at least one new fact, one sharper question, and a sense that history isn’t dusty—it’s immediate.

Subscribe, share with a curious friend, and leave a quick review to help others find the show. Tell us the strangest historical rabbit hole you want us to explore next.

Transcript

Who We Are

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey friends, my name is Kelsey. And my name is Sarah. And we are the hosts of the new podcast, That's So Macaroni. We take deep dives into historical events, people and scientific inventions that you never learned about in school.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Speaking of school, I'm a teacher. With a master's degree in education and with the emphasis in history education or social studies, my preferred area of study is usually World War II and anything late modern to contemporary history. The 1700s until now-ish. Although I will find you more interesting if you're dead.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Happened for a while.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Yeah, yeah. That makes sense to me. And I have a degree in biology with a focus in genetics, and I currently work as a medical technologist at our local hospital in our town. Um, me and Kelsey met in college, and I forced her to be my best friend. And 15 years later, here we are.

What We’ll Cover

The Macaroni Name Story

SPEAKER_00 1:00

We've been planning on making a podcast for years at this point, uh, and we're finally in the same city and working out our schedule, so it's like finally happening. I'll be covering wars and specific historical events that I can guarantee you have not heard about in history class, uh, or you may have forgotten, or it hasn't been in this much fun detail. And Sarah likes to read biographies, I almost said biologies. I like that too. Yeah, she and biologies. Uh so she'll be covering important people during these times, and of course any sort of scientific related things, biologies, you know, along the way. You may be asking yourself, why are they called that some macaroni if they're a history podcast? Or you might not have thought about it, or you don't care about the answer. But I'm here to tell you anyways. Yep, she will. We here in America, you'll find I do that a lot. We here in America all pretty much know the song Yankee Doodle Dandy, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:52

He stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni, right?

Ghost Tube And Guest From Beyond

SPEAKER_00 1:55

He did indeed. He did. It was macaroni. So back in the 1700s, some posh British boys went to Italy um as their coming-of-age thing, as w a rich boy is wont to do back in the 1700s. That must be nice. It would be nice. And they were introduced to a pasta called macaroni. They were so enamored, just so tickled with the word macaroni that they started to use it to mean cool or sick or whatever the kids say nowadays. They were saying macaroni back when the song was written. And we wanted to incorporate our love of history with our comedic outlook, and thus we combined a mean girls quote and the word macaroni. Because we're gonna make some macaroni things happen. Oh, we so will.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

We are super excited to bring you new information in a fun way that we hope keeps everyone's attention. Because honestly, at the end of the show, if you have learned at least one new fact, we will be the happiest little history goblins in the entire world. Um, speaking of goblins, uh, we will also sometimes have Kelsey's Ghost Tube app on her phone so that my dad can chime in during the episodes from the afterlife because he is the OG history nerd.

Content And Language Warnings

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Indeed. He comes in every so often, sometimes we just turn him off because he's rude. Yeah, he's just rude. So we also wanted to put, while we're here, a blanket trigger warning out. Um, because a lot of our subject matter is about war. Um is about, you know, people who are dead, and sometimes it includes how they get that way, which might mean gruesome death, murder, suicide. There's also mention sometimes of SA or sexual assault. So we will say just a trigger warning before those parts. Um, we're getting better at it, so you can skip forward. Um, but this is just kind of like a blanket warning that you know not all topics might be appropriate. Listener discretion is advised.

unknown 3:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

And also, um, if you're trying to listen this with your children around, we do not monitor how much we cuss. We don't care. Um, so if you don't want your children to hear that, put some headphones in.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Yes, because we have potty mouths.

Thanks And Hopes For Listeners

SPEAKER_01 4:12

We sure do. Um, but we want to thank you guys for taking the time to listen to our show and we hope that you laugh and enjoy. And hopefully learn something. Yes, especially that part.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Okay, bye. Bye.