The Haunting of Henry VIII (ft Fetch the Smelling Salts)

Hampton Court Palace, 1522. Henry VIII is still married to Catherine of Aragon, but Anne Boleyn has just returned from France and is about to catch the king's wandering eye. Kim and Alice from the Fetch the Smelling Salts podcast have been sent back to save his wives — armed with a battery-powered smoke machine, a Halloween makeup palette, and their Catholic background. They didn't do any research. But they did write roast jokes about Henry VIII, and in PastMaster that's arguably more useful.

The plan is beautifully unhinged: infiltrate the palace, gain Queen Catherine's trust, then scare the living daylights out of Henry until he changes his ways. Think less diplomatic negotiation, more haunted house with fog effects. Kim wanted to just kill him outright, but Alice vetoed that. Their strategy for getting past palace staff relies on sheer audacity, and Game Master Claude's "charmingly optimistic" response to their rescue mission suggests it won't be making things easy. The challenge: deploying theatrical haunting techniques on a king who executed people for less, while navigating Tudor court politics as "an American and a Singaporean" with zero knowledge of the period.

Henry VIII's break with Rome reshaped England forever — dissolving monasteries, creating the Church of England, and costing two wives their heads. Now imagine two podcasters trying to prevent all of that with props from a party shop, knowledge of "Catholic shit," and absolutely no plan B.