Dime Library - Western History with Matthew Kerns

The name says it all: "For a dime, they gave you a legend. For the truth, you have to look deeper." Matthew Kerns is an award-winning author and historian who uses this podcast to strip away the mythologized versions of frontier figures and replace them with what actually happened. His work on Texas Jack Omohundro and frontier scouts gives him a level of archival expertise that most podcast hosts simply don't have. Episodes vary wildly in length -- some are quick 6-minute sketches, while others run past an hour when the subject demands it. That inconsistency might bother listeners who prefer a predictable format, but it also means Kerns lets the material dictate the episode length rather than padding or cutting to hit an arbitrary target. The 27-episode catalog includes a holiday special about Buffalo Bill's Christmas that shows the show's range. Kerns focuses heavily on separating dime-novel fiction from documented history. The dime novels of the late 1800s created many of the myths we still associate with the Wild West, and Kerns knows those source texts intimately. He'll explain exactly where a legend diverged from reality and why the fictional version stuck. The show has a perfect 5.0-star rating from a small but dedicated audience. It's a niche pick, best suited for listeners who already know the basics of frontier history and want the deeper, more accurate version.