268 - The Dark History of Nursery Rhymes

Timesuck with Dan Cummins

Who put the rock-a-bye-baby up in the tree branch, and why? Seems irresponsible. When it was raining and pouring, why didn't the old man get out of bed after bumping his head? Did he die? What is Ring Around the Rosie really about? The bubonic plague? Why are we singing to small children about cutting the tails off of three blind mice? Who wrote all the strange, often dark, mostly weird old nursery rhymes kids have been memorizing for centuries? We look into all of this and more today. Such a fun topic! We examine why nursery rhymes often appear dark and why that may have helped keep them popular. We look into the lore that surrounds a lot of popular old rhymes to try to separate origin fact from origin fiction. Comedic theory, mnemonic devices such as acoustic encoding, and more - all explored as I get both scientific and silly today, finally getting to know many classic nursery rhymes many of us have memorized but few actually understand.

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