During the darkest hours of World War II in Poland, a Polish countess risks her life time and again to stand against the Nazis who run a nearby extermination camp, freeing thousands of prisoners and feeding thousands more in the process – right under the nose of the Final Solution. However, she hides a deep secret that will doom her immediately should it be found out by those she faces daily. The story of the remarkable Countess Janina Sucholdolska.

The sieging of walled cities by invading armies is a dismal tale as old as history. However, one siege stands out from them all – as if it had been scripted by Hollywood screenwriters for its surreal origin, bizarre dramatics, and jaw-dropping ending. This episode tells the hard-to-believe story of the 1683 Siege of Vienna.

Though he is considered the greatest and most influential English language writer of all time, William Shakespeare’s authorship of the plays that bear his name has been doubted for at least two centuries. How did these theories arise? Is there any credence to them? Well, the iron simplicity of the answers might surprise you.

Faced with certain death from the guns and bayonets of attacking French troops, a young woman supplying water to Spanish soldiers should have joined the defenders in fleeing the battle. However, her immense courage would not allow retreat; her deep patriotism would not abide surrender. So she stayed, and a legend was born. This episode tells the astounding story of Augustina of Aragon.

When a mass death event strikes a remote region of Africa in 1986, the initial facts are so freakishly weird that even those most skeptical of anything supernatural pause to reconsider with the question, “What in the world just happened here?” As scientists doggedly unravel the truth, the baffling story becomes no less troubling. This episode tells the story of the nearly forgotten mystery of the Nyos disaster.

Graced with a stunning face that could launch a thousand ships, Hedwig Kiesler ricocheted repeatedly between fame and scandal. But while no one was looking, she created an innovation so startling that it literally changed the world – an invention that is likely affecting you at the very moment you are reading this. The astonishing story of Hedy Lamarr.

During the darkest days of The Great Depression, three men plot to kill a local drunk, make it look like an accident, and collect insurance money on the corpse. However, the plan goes comically awry when the target of the murder scheme simply refuses to die. The astonishing tale of Iron Mike Malloy and the men who wished him dead.

Two sticky technological problems give way to nearly miraculous inventions. However, the miracles come with an unexpected price: the possible future of humanity. This episode tells the twisted story of a pair of seemingly harmless 20th-century inventions that nearly ended us all.