American historian and author (1912-1989)
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Todd Rose, co-founder and CEO of Populace and author of books including "Collective Illusions" and "The End of Average," joins the show to discuss the science behind collective illusions and their impact on society. We explore why so many Americans self-silence, the dangers of conformity, and how one person can spark change. Todd and I are simpatico on… pretty much everything! So this was a fun one. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that's interesting!,” check out our Substack. Important Links: Website Twitter Collective Illusions The End of Average Show Notes: Are We Living in the Truman Show? The Danger of Self-Silencing How to Know What People REALLY Think Why We Are Suckers For Groupthink Social Media: Why Bots Are Everywhere Why Persuasion is the Wrong Strategy for Fighting Collective Illusions There is More Social Trust in America Than You Think How We Can Fight Collective Illusions The Human Need to Be Understood Steelmanning & the Popperian Solution The Role of Fiction The Dawn of a New Era? Todd as World Emperor Books Mentioned: Collective Illusions; by Todd Rose The End of Average; by Todd Rose The Power of the Powerless (essay); by Václav Havel Troubled; by Rob Henderson The Idea Factory; by Jon Gertner Theory of Moral Sentiments; by Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations; by Adam Smith White Mirror; by Tinkered Thinking The Guns of August; by Barbara Tuchman
Historiansplaining: A historian tells you why everything you know is wrong
Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only: We review the diplomatic landscape of Europe on the eve of war in the summer of 1914—and then trace the dizzying cascade of events that followed after the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. We get a handle on the ensuing crisis that ricocheted through embassies, banquet halls, and barracks all across Europe, and plunged all the great powers of the continent into a war that soon spread around the world. Suggested further reading: Christopher Clark, “The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914”; Margaret MacMillan, “The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914”; Barbara Tuchman, “The Guns of August.” Image: Photograph of nine kings (George V of Britain seated, center; Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany standing, in red), at Windsor, for funeral of Edward VII of Britain, May, 1910. Please sign up to hear all patron-only lectures, including recent series on the Dead Sea Scrolls & the Epic of Gilgamesh: https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632
En el programa de hoy, se abordó extensamente el concepto de destrucción mutua asegurada (MAD) como doctrina nuclear dominante durante la Guerra Fría, explicando sus fundamentos estratégicos, como la tríada nuclear de Estados Unidos y la capacidad de segundo ataque. Se discutieron sus supuestos clave —racionalidad de los actores, imposibilidad de defensa total, y la existencia de solo dos contendientes— y cómo estos se han debilitado con la proliferación nuclear, la irrupción de nuevos actores estatales y no estatales, y el avance tecnológico. También se repasaron episodios históricos donde el mundo estuvo al borde de una guerra nuclear, como la crisis de los misiles en Cuba y el incidente del submarino ruso B-59, destacando el papel decisivo de individuos racionales en evitar la catástrofe. Se concluyó reflexionando sobre la fragilidad de la racionalidad humana en contextos extremos, ilustrándolo con ejemplos históricos y con el libro “La marcha de la locura” de Barbara Tuchman. Para acceder al programa sin interrupción de comerciales, suscríbete a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/elvillegas 00:00:00 - Doctrina de destrucción mutua 00:02:12 - La tríada nuclear y sus componentes 00:12:12 - Supuestos de la doctrina MAD y su crisis 00:22:26 - Efectos de una explosión nuclear 00:28:02 - Crisis y eventos al borde de guerra nuclear 00:40:06 - Proliferación nuclear y pérdida de racionalidad
Former Gambino family mobster Lou Ferrante joined us for an episode about his three volumes of research on the Mafia. He spoke of the alleged role of the Mob in the JFK assassination just as the files were about to be opened and he and Michael Krasny explored the ethos of the Mob -- the law of Omerta and the past frequency of so called "whackings," as well as the perks of being a mobster and such Cosa Nostra figures as John Gotti, Henry Hill and Joey Gallo. They spoke of politicians and the Mob and how the mob is portrayed in film and television and they exchanged humorous narratives as Ferrante told a funny personal tale and Krasny told a joke. Ferrante spoke of his prison experiences and how he became a writer while incarcerated, including the influence on him of historian Barbara Tuchman. Krasny asked Ferrante of analogies he made in print between the Kennedys and the Medicis and the episode concluded with Krasny drawing out a humorous story from Ferrante about Cuba, President John F Kennedy, Ian Fleming and the CIA's Allen Dulles, and asking Ferrante about the ultimate fate of Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa and what drives and inspires Ferrante to write.
For this episode of the Global Exchange podcast, Colin Robertson talks with Canada's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Hon. Bob Rae. // Participants' bios - Bob Rae was elected to the House of Commons in 1978 and would be elected ten more times to either the national or Ontario parliaments. He served as Ontario's 21st Premier from 1990 to 1995 and as Interim Federal Leader of the Liberal Party from 2011- 2013. He took up his appointment as Canadian ambassador to the United Nations in 2020. // Host bio: Colin Robertson is a former diplomat and Senior Advisor to the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, www.cgai.ca/colin_robertson // // Reading Recommendations: - Books by Barbara Tuchman: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/31515/barbara-w-tuchman/ // Recording Date: November 1, 2024.
Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code WHATIFALTHIST at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: http://incogni.com/whatifalthist Link to my second podcast on world history and interviews: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0NCSdGglnmdWg-qHALhu1w Link to my cancellation insurance: https://becomepluribus.com/creators/20 Link to my Twitter - https://x.com/whatifalthist Link to my Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rudyardwlynch/?hl=en Bibliography: The Great Wave by David Hackett Fischer Secular Cycles by Peter Turchin Ages of Discord by Peter Turchin The Economics of Discontent by Jean Michel Paul The Identity of France by Fernand Braudel The History of Civilizations by Fernand Braudel The Mediterranean at the time of Philip 2nd by Fernand Braudel The Structures of Every day life by Fernand Braudel Leviathan and Its Enemies by Sam Francis The Global Crisis by Geoffrey Parker On Hero Worship by Thomas Carlyl Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer Long Cycles by Goldstein The Rise and Fall of Great Powers by Paul Kennedy Generations by Strauss and Howe Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler The Coming Caesars by Amaury de riencourt Rise of the West by William McNeil The Pursuit of Power by William McNeil Tragedy and Hope by Caroll Quiggley The Great Leveler by Walter Schedule Capital by Thomas Picketty The History of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell The Middle Ages by Sidney Painter The Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman
Season 4 of Business Books & Co. was comprised of nine highly regarded books, three author interviews, and one special guest. Join us as we look back at the highs and lows of the past season of the show. And we won't hold back—we'll tell you the books we loved, but also the ones we didn't. Plus we'll tell you what we're planning for season 5! We want to hear from you! Please fill out the feedback form linked below. Show Notes Season 4 Feedback Form via Google Forms Thinking Fast & Slow by Daniel Kahneman via Amazon (our first book of Season 5) Wrestling with Life by George Reinitz via Amazon (David K's pick) The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman via Amazon (David S's pick) Devolution by Max Brooks via Amazon (Kevin's pick) Business Books & Co. on YouTube Follow us on X @BusinessBooksCo and join our Amazon book club. Edited by Giacomo Guatteri Find out more at http://businessbooksandco.comRead transcript
Nella fase finale del grande scontro a est di Parigi, l'ago della bilancia comincia a pendere dalla parte degli Alleati. Quanto ottenuto dai comandanti francesi anche nei settori di Verdun e della Lorena ripaga lo sforzo organizzativo di Joffre, che costringe l'intera linea tedesca alla ritirata e alla sconfitta. Purtroppo, un nuovo tipo di guerra è all'orizzonte.Seguimi su Instagram: @laguerragrande_podcastSe vuoi contribuire con una donazione sul conto PayPal: podcastlaguerragrande@gmail.comScritto e condotto da Andrea BassoMontaggio e audio: Andrea BassoCon la partecipazione di Valeria IncandelaFonti dell'episodio:Mildred Aldrich, A hilltop on the Marne, 1916 Robert B. Asprey, L'Alto comando tedesco, Rizzoli, 1993 Winston Churchill, The World Crisis, 1911–1918, Free Press, 2005 Peter Hart, La grande storia della Prima Guerra Mondiale, Newton & Compton, 2013 Holger Herwig, The Marne, 1914, Ransom House paperback, 2011 Le taxi de la Marne, Musée de l'Armée Marc Michel, L'Afrique dans l'engrenage de la Grande Guerre, 1914–1918, Karthala, 2013 Gijs Mom, Atlantic Automobilism: Emergence and Persistence of the Car, 1895-1940, Berghahn Books, 2014 Ian Sumner, The first battle of the Marne 1914, Osprey publishing, 2010 Sewell Tyng, The Campaign of the Marne 1914, Longmans, 2007 Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August, 1962 Alexander Watson, Ring of steel, Penguin, 2014 Larissa Wegner, Occupation during the war (Belgium and France), 1914-1918 Online, 2014 Terence Zuber, Inventing the Schlieffen Plan. Oxford University Press, 2002In copertina: soldati francesi in marcia verso il fronte della Marna
I ett av Historiepoddens längsta avsnitt någonsin går vi igenom det amerikanska frihetskrigets utveckling från 1779 till belägringen av Yorktown 1781. Det blir franska flottor, holländska saluter, engelska generaler med skiftande temperament och entusiasm, amerikanska penningproblem och påflugna diplomater. De södra kolonierna blir den nya krigsarenan när britterna försöker övervinna dessa till sin sida, men när även framgångarna liknar motgångar börjar man få problem.Läslista:“Den första saluten” - Barbara Tuchman“USA:s historia” - Lennart Pehrson“Amerikanska historier” - Ulla Britta Ramklint“Amerikansk gryning” - Jöran Mjöberg “Amerikas saga” - Jens Sisgaard“15 avgörande slag” - Hans-Dieter OttoVärldens Historia 5/2023 Lyssna på våra avsnitt fritt från reklam: https://plus.acast.com/s/historiepodden. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
L'armata tedesca di Von Kluck è ormai a pochi km da Parigi, ma le carte in regola per una riscossa francese ci sono tutte. Toccherà ai generali Joffre e Gallieni prendere la decisione che influenzerà l'intera storia del '900.Seguimi su Instagram: @laguerragrande_podcastSe vuoi contribuire con una donazione sul conto PayPal: podcastlaguerragrande@gmail.comScritto e condotto da Andrea BassoMontaggio e audio: Andrea BassoCon la partecipazione di Anna Biagini, Valerio Bioglio, Zeno Du Ban e Matteo RibolliFonti dell'episodio:Mildred Aldrich, A hilltop on the Marne, 1916 Mildred Aldrich, Autobiography, 1926 Chapter 7: Declaration of the Triple Entente, The American Journal of International Law, Official Documents (Apr. - Jul., 1915), 9, 2, Cambridge University Press Michael Duffy, Primary Documents - The Abandonment of Paris by the French Government, 3 September 1914, firstworldwar.com, 2009 Philippe Nivet, Refugees (France), 1914-1918 Online, 2014 Edward Spears, Liaison 1914, Eyre & Spottiswood, 1999 Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August, 1962 H. P. Willmott, La Prima Guerra Mondiale, DK, 2006In copertina: immagine creata con AI
Pamparam! Det har varit mycket intressant att dyka ner på djupet i de här händelserna och det är med stor stolthet vi presenterar del 1 av 4 i 2024 års sommarföljetong, Amerikanska revolutionen! När det stundar ett amerikanskt val i höst kan det vara intressant att se hur allt började. I det här avsnittet börjar vi nysta i hur relationen mellan kolonierna och moderlandet England trasslas till efter sjuårskriget på 1750-talet. Det blir en massaker och "tebjudning" i Boston innan kriget bryter ut på riktigt med slagen vid Lexington och Concord i slutet av avsnittet. Läslista:“Den första saluten” - Barbara Tuchman“A history of the United States” - Philip Jenkins“USA:s historia” - Lennart Pehrson“Amerikanska historier” - Ulla Britta Ramklint“Amerikanska mardrömmar” - Per Leander“Amerikansk gryning” - Jöran Mjöberg “Amerikas saga” - Jens Sisgaard“15 avgörande slag” - Hans-Dieter OttoVärldens Historia 5/2023 Lyssna på våra avsnitt fritt från reklam: https://plus.acast.com/s/historiepodden. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mentre Joffre conduce le ultime fasi della grande ritirata degli Alleati dopo la battaglia delle frontiere, il generale Von Kluck, comandante della 1a armata tedesca, compie una scelta che causerà una reazione a catena che plasmerà il mondo in cui viviamo.Seguimi su Instagram: @laguerragrande_podcastSe vuoi contribuire con una donazione sul conto PayPal: podcastlaguerragrande@gmail.comScritto e condotto da Andrea BassoMontaggio e audio: Andrea BassoCon la partecipazione di Valerio Bioglio, Zeno Du Ban, Fabio Cassanelli e Matteo RibolliFonti dell'episodio:Alfred Fierro, Histoire et dictionnaire de Paris, 1996 Peter Hart, La grande storia della Prima Guerra Mondiale, Newton & Compton, 2013 Didier Lodier, Les grandes battailes de la grand guerre. La bataille et le siège de Maubeuge: 27 août - 8 septembre 1914, Historiques de Régiments 14/18, 2004 C. Sweeting, The five o' clock Taube: first air raids on Paris, Historynet.com, 2020 Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August, 1962In copertina: il generale Von Kluck in posa "napoleonica" fotografato nel 1916.
This month Angus, Chris and Jessica discuss Jessica's professorial inaugural lecture, 'No (Wo)man's Land: writing history at the intersection of gender and First World War studies'. Along the way we consider the problem of masculinity as an empty analytic category, the importance of the centenary for the study of the First World War and what Jessica might have done if she hadn't gone in to academia. There is also a sneak preview of exciting forthcoming and future projects from all three of us. References: Jessica Meyer, ‘On Being a Woman and a War Historian' Jessica Meyer, Men of War: Masculinity and the First World War in Britain (2008) Jessica Meyer, Equal Burden: The Men of the Royal Army Medical Corps in the First World War (2019) Kate Adie, Fighting on the Home Front: The Legacy of Women in World War One (2013) Kate Adie, ‘Don't write first world war women out of history', The Guardian, 23rd September, 2013 Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August (1962) Deborah Thom, Nice Girls and Rude Girls: Women Workers in World War 1 (1998) Tammy Proctor, Female Intelligence: Women and Espionage in the First World War (2003) Margaret MacMillan, Peacemakers (2001) Adrian Gregory, The Last Great War (2008) Jeremy Paxman, Great Britain's Great War (2013) John Tosh and Michael Roper (eds), Manful Assertions: Masculinities in Britain Since 1800 (1991) Denise Riley, Am I That Name?: Feminism and the Category of ‘Women' (1988) R.W. Connell, Masculinities (1993) Joan W. Scott, ‘Rewriting History' in Margaret R. Higonnet, et. al. (eds), Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars (2008) Branden Little (ed), Humanitarianism in the Era of the First World War, special issue ofFirst World War Studies, vol.5, no.1 (2014) Heather Perry, Recycling the Disabled: Army, Medicine, and Modernity in World War I Germany (2014) Michele Moyd, Violent Intermediaries: African Soldiers, Conquest, and Everyday Colonialism in German East Africa (2014) Susan Grayzel, Women and the First World War (2002) Alexander Mayhew, Making Sense of the Great War: Crisis, Englishness and Morale on the Western Front (2024) Alice Winn, In Memoriam (2023), https://ohwhatalovelypodcast.co.uk/podcast/in-memoriam/ Sam Mendes, 1917 (2019), https://ohwhatalovelypodcast.co.uk/podcast/sam-mendes-1917-and-the-landscape/ Peter Mandler, ‘The Problem with Cultural History', Cultural and Social History, vol.1, no.1 (2004), 94-117. Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (1975) Robert Graves, Good-bye to All That (1929) Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) Rosa Maria Bracco, Merchants of Hope: British Middlebrow Writers and the First World War (1993) Pat Barker, Regeneration (1991) Sebastian Faulks, Birdsong (1993) Alison Light, Forever England: Femininity, Literature, and Conservatism Between the Wars (1991) Jessica Meyer, Chris Kempshall and Markus Pöhlman, ‘Life and Death of Soldiers', 1914-18 Online, 7th February, 2022 Chris Kempshall, The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire (2024) Katherine Arden, The Warm Hands of Ghosts (2024)
Il BEF di John French subisce una pesantissima sconfitta nel corso dello scontro di retroguardia a Le Cateau. Nel frattempo, Joffre chiede a Lanzerac e alla sua 5a armata un sacrificio enorme: attaccare frontalmente i Tedeschi fra St. Quentin e Guise per rallentarli e dare il tempo all'esercito francese di riorganizzarsi.ERRATA CORRIGE:A 3:37 ovviamente volevo dire "ingiustamente", non "giustamente".Seguimi su Instagram: @laguerragrande_podcastSe vuoi contribuire con una donazione sul conto PayPal: podcastlaguerragrande@gmail.comScritto e condotto da Andrea BassoMontaggio e audio: Andrea BassoCon la partecipazione di Valerio Bioglio e Matteo RibolliFonti dell'episodio:Battle of Landrecies, britishbattles.com Ian Beckett, Steven Corvi, Haig's Generals, 2006 Anthony Bird, Gentlemen, We Will Stand and Fight: Le Cateau 1914, The Crowood Press, 2008 J. S. Corbett, Naval Operations. History of the Great War based on Official Documents, Longmans 2009 R. A. Doughty, Pyrrhic victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War. Belknap Press, 2005 Richard Holmes, The Little Field Marshal: A Life of Sir John French, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004 Didier Lodier, Les grandes battailes de la grand guerre. La bataille et le siège de Maubeuge: 27 août - 8 septembre 1914, Historiques de Régiments 14/18, 2004 Dan Snow, Mark Pottle, The Confusion of Command, The War Memoirs of Lieutenant General Sir Thomas D'Oyly Snow, 1914–1915, Frontline Books, 2011 John Terraine, Mons, The Retreat to Victory, Wordsworth Military Library, 1960 Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August, 1962 Terence Zuber, The Mons Myth, The History Press. 2010In copertina: "Goodbye, Old Man" (Addio, vecchio mio), illustrazione di Fortunino Matania, 1916. L'illustrazione rappresenta un artigliere britannico che da un ultimo saluto al suo cavallo morente, sotto il fuoco nemico, durante la ritirata seguita alla battaglia di Le Cateau. Un compagno sullo sfondo lo richiama, mentre il treno d'artiglieria è pronto a partire. Si tratta di una delle illustrazioni più note di Matania, artista napoletano, famoso per moltissime scene ambientate durante la Grande Guerra.
(ATTENZIONE! NELLA REGISTRAZIONE DELL'EPISODIO CI SONO ALCUNI PROBLEMI AUDIO DOVUTI A CONDIZIONI DI REGISTRAZIONE NON OTTIMALI, CHIEDO SCUSA IN ANTICIPO)In questo episodio ci riacclimatiamo al fronte occidentale, cercando di riassumere un po' cosa successo nel corso della battaglia delle frontiere. Scopriremo anche che cosa pensassero le persone comuni del primo mese di guerra tra Francia e Germania. Nell'ultima parte dell'episodio, il brutale sacco di Lovanio compromette definitivamente l'immagine dell'Impero Tedesco di fronte al mondo.Seguimi su Instagram: @laguerragrande_podcastScritto e condotto da Andrea BassoMontaggio e audio: Andrea BassoCon la partecipazione di Zeno Du Ban, Elia Giuliani, Daniele Lisjak, Federico Menis, Alberto Pisano, Giulia Ribolli, Matteo Ribolli e Andrea Scalise.Fonti dell'episodio:Maartje Abbenhuis, The Art of Staying Neutral. The Netherlands in the First World War, 1914–1918, Amsterdam University Press, 2006 Jean-Jacques Becker, Willingly to War. Public Response to the Outbreak of War, 1914-1918-online, 2015 Irvin S. Cobb, The Grapes of Wrath, Saturday Evening Post, 1914 James Edmonds, Military Operations France and Belgium, 1914: Mons, the Retreat to the Seine, the Marne and the Aisne August–October 1914, Macmillan, 1926 Cees Fasseur, Wilhelmina. De Jonge Koningin, Balans, 1998 Gertrud Köbner, Drei Monate kriegsgefangen. Erlebnisse einer Deutschen in Frankreich, Kronen Verlag, 1915 Alan Kramer, Dynamic of Destruction: Culture and Mass Killing in the First World War, Oxford University Press, 2007 Hélène Leclerc, Diaries of Women in Captivity. The Internment of German and Austrian Civilians during the First World War as Depicted in the Testimonies of Gertrud Köbner, Helene Schaarschmidt and Helene Fürnkranz, Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire, 2020 Paul Moeyes, Buiten schot: Nederland tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog: 1914-1918, De Arbeiderspers, 2001 Indy Neidell, Armed Neutrality - The Netherlands In WW1, The Great War, 2016 Edwin Ruis, Spynest. British and German Espionage from Neutral Holland 1914–1918, The History Press, 2016 Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August, 1962 S. Van den Bossche, Jan van Nijlen: Biografie, Lannoo, 2005 John Williams, The Flames of Louvain: Total War and the Destruction of European High Culture in Belgium by German Occupying Forces in August 1914, The Great War in Belgium and the Netherlands: Beyond Flanders Fields, Macmillan, 2018In copertina: soldati belgi aiutano un loro commilitone ferito nei dintorni di Anversa, settembre 1914. Ricolorizzazione di Doug (DBColour).
Historiansplaining: A historian tells you why everything you know is wrong
We review the diplomatic landscape of Europe on the eve of war in the summer of 1914—and then follow the dizzying cascade of events that followed after the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. We trace on the ensuing crisis that ricocheted through embassies, banquet halls, and barracks all across Europe, and plunged all the great powers of the continent into a war that soon spread around the world. Suggested further reading: Christopher Clark, “The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914”; Margaret MacMillan, “The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914”; Barbara Tuchman, “The Guns of August.” Image: Photograph of nine kings (George V of Britain seated, center; Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany standing, in red), at Windsor, for funeral of Edward VII of Britain, May, 1910. Sign up here to listen to the entire lecture, as well as lectures on Germany, Japan, and Bosnia & the Assassination: https://www.patreon.com/posts/105028218
Historiansplaining: A historian tells you why everything you know is wrong
We examine the prophetic warnings from scholars and bureaucrats that a great-power war in the twentieth century would lead to bloody stalemate, mass destruction, and a wave of revolutions; and we trace how war strategists and generals reacted to the prophets of doom, formulating new war plans, from Russia's blundering steamroll, to Germany's precarious and ill-fated Schlieffen plan, to Britain's devious and mercurial scheme of economic warfare. Suggested further reading: Barbara Tuchman, “The Guns of August”; Nicholas Lambert, “Planning Armageddon” Nicholas Lambert's discussion of Britain's hope of economic warfare, “The Short War Assumption” -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp7jJ-POo90&pp=ygUQbmljaG9sYXMgbGFtYmVydA%3D%3D Margaret MacMillan's lecture on war planning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RUFHkal6Jk&pp=ygUbbWFyZ2FyZXQgbWFjbWlsbGFuIHBsYW5uaW5n Image: Cartoon of the dispute over Alsace-Lorraine as a medieval romance, Puck Magazine, 1898 Please sign up as a patron to support this podcast, and hear recent posts on Germany and Japan in the lead-up to World War I -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632
In questo episodio tireremo le somme della battaglia di Tannenberg, ma sopratutto esploreremo una delle più interessanti e sconosciute regioni d'Europa, la Galizia. Questa sarà il teatro di uno dei più grandi scontri del 1914. La prima schermaglia di una certa consistenza fra Austriaci e Russi avverrà in circostanze improbabili e inaspettate.Seguimi su Instagram: @laguerragrande_podcastScritto e condotto da Andrea BassoMontaggio e audio: Andrea BassoFonti dell'episodio:1914. Fight at Yaroslavitsy, Hussar, 2016 Robert B. Asprey, L'Alto comando tedesco, Rizzoli, 1993 Cavalry General, Knight of St. George Fedor Arturovich Keller, Military Review, 2015 François Fejtő, Requiem per un Impero defunto. La dissoluzione del mondo austro-ungarico, Mondadori, 1990 Alison Frank, Galician California, Galician Hell: The Peril and Promise of Oil Production in Austria-Hungary, Office of Science and Technology Austria, 2006 Alison Frank, The Petroleum War of 1910: Standard Oil, Austria, and the Limits of the Multinational Corporation, The American Historical Review 114, 1, 2009 Galizia, Treccani Keller, G.; Generalmajor, Keller, Paul Wolfgang Merkelschen Familienstiftung Nürnberg Ross Kennedy, Peace Initiatives, 1914-1918 Online, 2018 Peter Hart, La grande storia della Prima Guerra Mondiale, Newton & Compton, 2013 Neil Hollander, Elusive Dove: The Search for Peace During World War I, McFarland, 2013 John Losher, The Bolsheviks: Twilight of the Romanov Dynasty. Author House, 2009 Paul Robert Magocsi, A History of Ukraine, University of Toronto Press, 2010 Rachel Manekin, Galicia, YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, 2010 Chris McNab, Il grande orso in guerra, LEG, 2022 Basil Paneyko, Galicia and the Polish-Ukrainian Problem, The Slavonic and East European Review 9, 27, 1931 Paolo Rumiz, Come cavalli che dormono in piedi, Feltrinelli, 2014 Valeria Schatzker, Claudia Erdheim e Alexander Sharontitle, Petroleum in Galicia, 2012 Norman Stone, The Eastern Front 1914-1917, Penguin Global, 2004 Michael Stürmer, L'impero inquieto, Il Mulino, 1993 Barbara Tuchman, Guns of August, 1962 Stephen Turnbull, La battaglia di Tannenberg 1410. La disfatta dei cavalieri teutonici, LEG, 2013 Zenon Von Yaworskyi, The Eclipse of the Sun in August 1914, and a three-phase Russian Austrian Cavalry Battle, 2016 Alexander Watson, “Unheard-of Brutality”: Russian Atrocities against Civilians in East Prussia, 1914–1915, Journal of Modern History 84, 4, 2014 Larry Wolff, The Idea of Galicia: History and Fantasy in Habsburg Political Culture, The Slavonic and East European Review 90, 3, 2012In copertina: musicisti klezmer (klezmorim), Rohatyn (oggi in Ucraina), 1912. Si tratta della famiglia Faust, una piccola orchestra a conduzione familiare.
Il piano messo a punto da Hoffman, Ludendorff e Von Hindenburg è pronto a partire. Nel corso di cinque giorni di battaglia, Tedeschi e Russi si affronteranno in una delle più grandi e decisive battaglie della Prima Guerra Mondiale. Sebbene a livello di numero di uomini impiegati lo scontro fu più piccolo rispetto alla battaglia delle frontiere, il tributo in sangue e distruzione pagato dallo sconfitto fu in proporzione quattro volte maggiore alla media di un singolo scontro del fronte occidentale.Scritto e condotto da Andrea BassoMontaggio e audio: Andrea BassoCon la partecipazione di Zeno Du Ban, Federico Menis e Matteo RibolliFonti dell'episodio:Robert B. Asprey, L'Alto comando tedesco, Rizzoli, 1993 Prit Buttar, Collision of Empires, The War on the Eastern Front in 1914, Osprey, 2016 Francesco Fadini, Caporetto dalla parte del vincitore, Mursia, 1998 Peter Hart, La grande storia della Prima Guerra Mondiale, Newton & Compton, 2013 Holger Herwig, The Marne, 1914: The Opening of World War I and the Battle that Changed the World, Random House, 2009 Indro Montanelli, Mario Cervi, Due secoli di guerre VII, Editoriale Nuova, 1982 G. Shavelsky, Memorie dell'ultimo protopresbitero dell'esercito e della marina russa Aleksandr Solženitsyn, Agosto 1914, Mondadori, 1972 Barbara Tuchman, Guns of August, 1962 H. P. Willmott, La Prima Guerra Mondiale, DK, 2006In copertina: Fanteria russa all'attacco, rappresentata dai reenactors in occasione della rievocazione storica della battaglia di Tannenberg tenutasi in occasione del centenario del 2014.
La sconfitta patita dai Tedeschi a Gumbinnen scuote fino alle fondamenta l'alto comando del Reich. Da una parte cadranno delle teste, mentre dall'altra emergerà un duo destinato a prendere in mano le redini del destino di una nazione.Seguimi su Instagram: @laguerragrande_podcastScritto e condotto da Andrea BassoMontaggio e audio: Andrea BassoFonti dell'episodio:Peter Hart, La grande storia della Prima Guerra Mondiale, Newton & Compton, 2013 Roger Parkinson, Tormented Warrior. Ludendorff and the supreme command, Hodder and Stoughton, 1978 Barbara Tuchman, Guns of August, 1962 Paul Von Hindenburg, Dalla mia vita, 1921 Aleksandr Solženitsyn, Agosto 1914, Mondadori, 1972 Alexander Watson, “Unheard-of Brutality”: Russian Atrocities against Civilians in East Prussia, 1914–1915, Journal of Modern History 84, 4, 2014 H. P. Willmott, La Prima Guerra Mondiale, DK, 2006In copertina: i generali Erich Ludendorff (a destra) e Paul Von Hindenburg (a sinistra) fotografati assieme in una stazione ferroviaria nel 1918.
Russi e Tedeschi si affrontano per la prima volta in pieno stile in due battaglie in appena tre giorni. L'esito dell'ultimo dei due scontri farà scattare una successione di eventi che cambierà veramente la storia.Seguimi su Instagram: @laguerragrande_podcastScritto e condotto da Andrea BassoMontaggio e audio: Andrea BassoCon la partecipazione di Federico MenisFonti dell'episodio:A New War With Old Generals – Carnage on the Western Front, di Indy Neidell, 2014 Prit Buttar, Collision of Empires, The War on the Eastern Front in 1914, Osprey, 2016 Hermann Cron, Imperial German Army 1914-18: Organisation, Structure, Orders-of-Battle, Helion, 2002 Wilhelm F. Flicke, The Early Development of Communications Intelligence, 1993 (postumo) Frederick Jackson, Tannenberg: the first use of signals intelligence in modern warfare, U. S. Army War College, 2002 Theo Schwarzmüller, Zwischen Kaiser und "Führer". Generalfeldmarschall August von Mackensen. Eine politische biographie, Deutsche Taschenbuch Verlag, 1995 Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August, 1962 Milos Vestsik, Tannenberg 1914, Wydawnictwo Militaria, 2005 Von Francois, Hermann, Encyclopaedia Britannica Günter Wegner, Stellenbesetzung der Deutschen Heere 1815-1939, Biblio Verlag, 1993 H. P. Willmott, La Prima Guerra Mondiale, DK, 2006In copertina: La cavalleria russa travolge i Tedeschi durante la battaglia di Gumbinnen del 20 agosto 1914. Illustrazione di Seán Ó Brógáin.
La mobilitazione dell'esercito imperiale russo sul fronte orientale è stata molto più veloce di quanto i Tedeschi e gli Austriaci si aspettassero. In base agli accordi presi con i Francesi, i Russi sono pronti a iniziare l'invasione della provincia più lontana del Reich, la Prussia Orientale.Seguimi su Instagram: @laguerragrande_podcastScritto e condotto da Andrea BassoMontaggio e audio: Andrea BassoFonti dell'episodio:Leszek Belzyt, Sprachliche Minderheiten im preussischen Staat: 1815 – 1914, Herder, 1998 Jeff Leser, Von Rennenkampf, Pavel-Georges Karlovich, The russo-japanese war research society, 2003 Basil Liddell Hart, La prima guerra mondiale, Rizzoli, 2006 Peter Hart, La grande storia della Prima Guerra Mondiale, Newton & Compton, 2013 Elio Migliorini, Prussia orientale, Treccani, 1935 Rennenkampf, Paul, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1922 Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August, 1962 Alexander Watson, “Unheard-of Brutality”: Russian Atrocities against Civilians in East Prussia, 1914–1915, Journal of Modern History 84, 4, 2014In copertina: immagine di copertina del romanzo "Die Kosaken kommen!" (Arrivano i Cosacchi!), dello scrittore tedesco Albert Benary, pubblicato nel 1935. Il romanzo è ambientato durante l'invasione russa della Prussia Orientale e la sua copertina riprende il tema dei contadini in fuga che incendiano le proprie fattorie per segnalare la direzione dell'avanzata zarista.
„The Zimmermann – Telegram“ von Barbara W. Tuchman – rausgefischt & vorgestellt von Marcus Weible und Gabi Leucht "Rausgefischt & Vorgestellt" (Hördauer ca. 21 Minuten) Wir besprechen in loser Reihenfolge Bücher, die wir beim Entrümpeln unserer Regale entdeckt, wieder gefunden oder erneut gelesen haben. "Ein wahrhaft beeindruckender Thriller, eine großartige Geschichte über offene und geheime Schachzüge im Krieg und auf dem Feld der Diplomatie. Indem sie die Dramatik einer kreativen Schriftstellerin mit der Faktenkenntnis des Wissenschaftlers vereint, hat Mrs. Tuchman ein Meisterwerk geschaffen. (The New York Times) Barbara Tuchman wurde 1912 in New York geboren. Sie studierte am Radcliffe College, wurde dann Korrespondentin der 'Nation'. Für zwei ihrer Werke wurde sie mit dem Pulitzer-Preis ausgezeichnet: 1963 für 'August 1914' und 1972 für 'Sand gegen den Wind'. Barbara Tuchman ist 1989 verstorben. Marcus Weible, geboren 1968 in München. Nach Abitur und Bundeswehr habe ich Geschichte und Rechtswissenschaften in Erlangen und Würzburg studiert. Ich war 15 Jahre als Rechtsanwalt und juristischer Repetitor bei Kern – Nordbayern tätig. In dieser Zeit bereitete ich bundesweit zahlreiche Studenten und Referendare auf das Erste und Zweite Juristische Staatsexamen vor. Mittlerweile lebe ich in Regensburg und gehe dort dem Anwaltsberuf mit Schwerpunkt im Verwaltungsrecht nach. Neben meinem Hobby Geschichte, sind und waren SF und Fantasy meine große Leidenschaft. Ich bin Mitglied des Münchner Fankreises „Die Phantasten“ und betätige mich auf mehreren Literaturseiten als Autor und Rezensent.” Gabriele Leucht, geboren: 1981 in München, Ausbildung: von den alten Sprachen bis zur Avocatessa der Juristerei in Rosenheim, Birmingham, Maryland, Neapel, Straßburg und München. Interessen: Kunst, je abstrakter desto lieber, Literatur, besonders Romane und Dramen, Opern-Musik, fürs Herz italienisch, für den Rest auch alles andere, Politik: Grundgesetz-Fanatikerin, Antirassistin u.v.m., Sport: nicht ohne meine Berge. Sollte Ihnen dieser Beitrag gefallen haben, interessiert Sie dies hier vielleicht auch. oder auch dies. Komm doch mal zu unseren Live-Sendungen in Schwabing oder im Gasteig. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hoerbahn/message
Pre Silicon Valley - Claude Shannon & Bell Labs w/ Jimmy Soni AZ TRT S04 EP49 (212) 12-10-2023 Revisit the Show w/ Clips From: PayPal Mafia - The Founders Story & Their Battle w/ EBAY w/ Jimmy Soni - BRT S03 EP36 (135) 8-7-2022 Full Show: HERE What We Learned This Week PayPal Mafia – alumni created or involved many other co's – Tesla, SpaceX, Palantir, Yelp, Yammer, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube & more PayPal had may contributors & a real long shot to happen during the DOTCOM Crash of 2000 Claude Shannon – creator of Information Theory, predecessor to the modern computer age, & algorithms Bell Labs was a classic Tech Incubator like Fairfield Semiconductor, Xerox Parc, Menlo Park – Edison / GE, Manhattan Project, Tuxedo Park PayPal sold to EBAY in 2002 for $1.5 Billion, prior to this, the two companies were rivals as EBAY wanted a different payment system Full Show: HERE Guest: Jimmy Soni, Author https://jimmysoni.com/ https://twitter.com/jimmyasoni https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmysoni/ My books are passion projects. My topics come because I look for a book to buy on the subject and can't find one. I know it's supposed to be fancier than that, or that there must be some grand theory of my work, but there isn't one. That said, my readers seem to enjoy what I've written, so maybe it's fine? I am inspired by my literary heroes, including Robert Caro, Laura Hillenbrand, Candice Millard, Daniel James Brown, and Barbara Tuchman, among many others. They are all rigorous researchers—but reading their books doesn't feel like doing homework. That's what I'm going for, and hopefully I hit the mark a few times. For me, books are all-consuming projects, leaving little other time for the things that should populate this section like hobbies, interests, and even the ability to remain in basic touch with people. I enjoy obsessing over a subject for years, and my goal is to find as much information as possible and then make the material readable for a general audience. When not writing or reading, I spend time with my daughter in Brooklyn, NY. If you'd like to connect, please drop me a line at hello [@] jimmysoni.com. https://jimmysoni.com/books/ The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley A definitive, deeply reported look at the origin of PayPal and its founding team, including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, Max Levchin, and others whose stories have never before been told. They defined the modern world. This experience defined them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia Paypal Mafia Elon Musk – Tesla, Space X, Boring Co. Peter Thiel – 1st FB Investor, AirBnB Investor, Founders Fund, Palantir Reid Hoffman – LinkedIn (sold to Microsoft) Max Levchin – Affirm, Investor in Yelp David O. Sacks – Geni.com & Yammer Chad Hurley – YouTube Russel Simmons – Yelp https://fintechboomer.com/guide-evaluate-the-founders-the-story-of-paypal-and-the-entrepreneurs-who-formed-silicon-valley/ https://www.pressreader.com/india/the-hindu-business-line/20220620/281758452959411 https://twitter.com/jimmyasoni/status/1488992532268732419 A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age In this elegantly written, exhaustively researched biography, Soni and Goodman reveal Claude Shannon's full story for the first time. With unique access to Shannon's family and friends, A Mind at Play brings this singular innovator and always playful genius to life. https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-claude-shannons-information-theory-invented-the-future-20201222/ QUANTIZED COLUMNS How Claude Shannon Invented the Future Today's information age is only possible thanks to the groundbreaking work of a lone genius. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9hfWiQKhcs&t=2s A Mind at Play | Jimmy Soni & Rob Goodman | Talks at Google Life in Code and Digits: When Shannon met ... - ScienceOpen Shannon is credited with the invention of signal-flow graphs, in 1942. He discovered the topological gain formula while investigating the functional operation of an analog computer. For two months early in 1943, Shannon came into contact with the leading British mathematician Alan Turing. Ed Thorp, Claude Shannon and the World's First ... - Winton https://www.winton.com › technology › 2018/07 › ed-t... Jul 13, 2018 — Thorp, 85, is a former American mathematics professor and hedge fund manager, who became a New York Times bestselling author in 1962 with his ... https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15Battier-t.html The No-Stats All-Star Notes: Claude Shannon Bio – A Mind at Play (2017) Claude Shannon – mathematician & MIT professor created Father of Information Theory – How do you make info transferrable, & secure in wartime? Friend of Alan Turing (British Mathematician), both worked on coding in WW2, German code breaking scientists became celebrities in WW2 and raised funding The science behind compressing info, digitizing info and MP3 files, transfer data Mathematics Theory of Communication, Shannon's paper and theory considered the Magna Carta of information age. Great paper theoretically and practically. Shannon created algorithm called sigsally. Imitation Game – WW2 bio movie about Alan Turing Shannon's work used for Gun torrents on Navy ships, target projectiles Bell Labs – math group that Shannon was a part of Famous Groups of Genius - Menlo Park – Edison/GE, Manhattan Project – Built the A Bomb Fairfield Semiconductor – predecessor to Intel and other Silicon Valley tech co's Bell Labs had money and started as R&D Dept. in Bell Telephone Bell Telephone ran all land lines in America, had a Fed guaranteed monopoly on the phone system Bell invented touch tone dialing, transistor, satellite tech, cell tech, communication networks We are all affected by Bell tech and inventions, modern age owes a solid to Bell Had big group of talent and could afford all of it, leading scientists of the time. During WW2 many major U.S. corporations – Bell, Ford were recruited by the US Government. War effort created urgency – math used to shoot down the enemy. The Founders – story of PayPal (2022) Dot Com burst created urgency to Pay Pal, bleeding money, had to survive. Dotcom crash – companies started 1 day, & BK out of business next day. Rise like a rocket and crash in 2 years Next Gen of Genius Teams - Xerox Parc, Microsoft, Apple Music Producer – Brian Eno coined the term “scenious” Scene meets genius - Clusters of talent American Revolution – Hamilton, Jefferson, Washington, Adams, Franklin all together for 1 cause Inklings, Fugitive Poets, 1960's British Music scene, Bill Walsh 49ers Coaching staff of the 1980s Paypal is the story of many – Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Reed Hoffman Alumni of Fairchild Semi led to Intel, Atari and Xerox Parc led to Apple. Post WW2 Bell Labs pressure decreased compared to PayPal. Bell Labs allowed free wheeling, could work on a project for 10 years. PayPal Mafia - The Founders Story & Their Battle w/ EBAY w/ Jimmy Soni - BRT S03 EP36 (135) 8-7-2022 Full Show: HERE More on Bell Labs: 'The Idea Factory': How Bell Labs invented the future – Article HERE Bell Labs: The research center behind the transistor, and so much more – Article HERE Best of Biotech from AZ Bio & Life Sciences to Jellatech: HERE Biotech Shows: HERE AZ Tech Council Shows: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/size/5/?search=az+tech+council *Includes Best of AZ Tech Council show from 2/12/2023 ‘Best Of' Topic: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Best+of+BRT Thanks for Listening. Please Subscribe to the BRT Podcast. AZ Tech Roundtable 2.0 with Matt Battaglia The show where Entrepreneurs, Top Executives, Founders, and Investors come to share insights about the future of business. AZ TRT 2.0 looks at the new trends in business, & how classic industries are evolving. Common Topics Discussed: Startups, Founders, Funds & Venture Capital, Business, Entrepreneurship, Biotech, Blockchain / Crypto, Executive Comp, Investing, Stocks, Real Estate + Alternative Investments, and more… AZ TRT Podcast Home Page: http://aztrtshow.com/ ‘Best Of' AZ TRT Podcast: Click Here Podcast on Google: Click Here Podcast on Spotify: Click Here More Info: https://www.economicknight.com/azpodcast/ KFNX Info: https://1100kfnx.com/weekend-featured-shows/ Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the Hosts, Guests and Speakers, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent (or affiliates, members, managers, employees or partners), or any Station, Podcast Platform, Website or Social Media that this show may air on. All information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes. Nothing said on this program should be considered advice or recommendations in: business, legal, real estate, crypto, tax accounting, investment, etc. Always seek the advice of a professional in all business ventures, including but not limited to: investments, tax, loans, legal, accounting, real estate, crypto, contracts, sales, marketing, other business arrangements, etc.
Shane Leary joins Miles Yu to discuss the major takeaways from Biden's meeting with Xi Jinping on the sidelines of APEC. They then turn to Xi's efforts to curry favor with US-business executives, and whether this could stem the tide of decoupling. Finally, they discuss the curious republishing of a 1972 Foreign Affairs article by Barbara Tuchman entitled, “If Mao Had Come to Washington,” and what this reveals about enduring misconceptions of China among the US foreign policy elite.
John O'Farrell and Angela Barnes take a not-so-serious look at the most captivating and bizarre moments in history. This time Angela tells John how in 1917, the German Foreign Minister, Arthur Zimmerman sent a telegram to his man in Washington. Sounds dull? It isn't; this telegraph was probably responsible for changing the course of WW1. What could a telegram possibly say that would make peace loving US President Woodrow Wilson take his country into the bloodiest conflict? Recommended reading: The Zimmerman Telegram by Barbara Tuchman. Cryptologic Quarterly, National Security Agency - The Zimmermann Telegram. Get all episodes a week early – when you support We Are History on Patreon: https://patreon.com/WeAreHistory Angela Barnes is on tour with her critically acclaimed, sold out Edinburgh Fringe show ‘Hot Mess'. Tickets are available here https://www.angelabarnescomedy.co.uk We Are History is written and presented by Angela Barnes and John O'Farrell. Audio production by Simon Williams and artwork by James Parrett. Lead Producer is Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor is Andrew Harrison. We Are History is a Podmasters Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
As Canadians depend more and more on an electrified grid, safety and reliability are at the core of the conversation. How are we improving the grid's resilience to climate change and extreme weather? How are we accommodating increased capacity as more people electrify their lives? In episode 99 of thinkenergy, we discuss future proofing the grid and what exactly that means with Guillaume Paradis, Chief Electricity Distribution Officer at Hydro Ottawa. Related links Guillaume Paradis, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaume-paradis-30a47721/ Power outage safety: https://www.hydroottawa.com/en/outages-safety/outage-centre/outage-safety Energy saving resources: https://www.hydroottawa.com/en/save-energy To subscribe using Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405 To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/user/hydroottawalimited Check out our cool pics on https://www.instagram.com/hydroottawa More to Learn on https://www.facebook.com/HydroOttawa Keep up with the Tweets at https://twitter.com/thinkenergypod ________________________________________________________________________________ Transcript: Dan Seguin 00:06 This is thinkenergy, the podcast that helps you better understand the fast changing world of energy through conversations with game changers, industry leaders, and influencers. So join me, Dan Seguin, as I explore both traditional and unconventional facets of the energy industry. Dan Seguin 00:28 Hey, everyone, welcome back. There's a great analogy I read recently that compared future proofing the electricity grid to Wayne Gretzky. And since this is our 99th episode, woohoo, it just seems fitting that we make our reference to the great one. What made Wayne Gretzky, the greatest hockey player of all time, was not his speed or the uncanny accuracy of his shots, but rather his ability to predict where the puck was going to be an instant before it arrived. utilities like Wayne Gretzky have the ability to anticipate events and predict patterns that can make them more prepared for extreme weather events as a utility, planning and predicting the future is part of our DNA. And as we all prepare to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets set by the feds, provincial and municipal governments, we are seeing a lot of future planning happening to make the electricity system as clean and as resilient as possible. And part of that is predicting what the future will look like, from what energy sources will power our electricity supply, but also what kind of challenges like electrification and threats like extreme weather we will face? So here's today's big question. How can utilities earn customer confidence as they transition towards an electrified grid that can also withstand unpredictable weather to safely and reliably deliver energy. Today's guest is Guillaume packaging. As the chief electricity distribution officer at hydro Ottawa, Guillaume is responsible for planning, design, operations, constructions and maintenance of our nation's capitol electrical power distribution system. In his role, Guillaume leads a team directly accountable for ensuring the safe, efficient and reliable delivery of electricity to hydro Ottawa customers. Guillaume has over a decade of industry experience in progressive leadership roles ranging from research program management, to distribution planning, asset management, design, and construction. Thanks for joining us on the show today. Guillaume Paradis 02:56 Thanks for having me. Dan Seguin 02:57 You've been in the industry for more than a decade now, what's been the biggest change or shift you've witnessed? Guillaume Paradis 03:05 So what I'd say has been the most significant change over that time period is that we've actually gone from talking about very exciting things and future focus opportunities. So we've gone from talking about them to actually getting to implement them. So some of the things that were on the horizon 10 years ago, and 15 years ago, in fact, were related to electric vehicles, the proliferation of battery storage technology, the development of the smart grid, and over that period of time, through those conversations, we've actually been able to shift the industry to a place where we're actually delivering on some of those promises. So that's very, very exciting. It's a massive challenge for everyone involved, but unlocks a whole series of possibilities, that when I started my career, we were only talking and thinking about, Dan Seguin 04:08 Okay, what does future proofing the electricity grid really mean? What kind of plans and predictions are you making to help the grid withstand climate change? Guillaume Paradis 04:20 So future proofing is an interesting one, because, you know, ultimately, all of your success depends on your ability to forecast and forecasting. Currently, with the changing landscape with the pace at which policy is being updated, refreshed, and modified, it is quite challenging. So we've gone from an environment where you could look at decade's worth of data, use a little bit of economic information, and forecasts and combine those things into what would turn out to be a pretty useful and fairly accurate prediction of what your system would be required to deliver. So we've gone from that to an environment where in a matter of, you know, sometimes months, you know, the underlying basis for your predictions as totally been changed. And you have, or you're having to revisit your assumptions from, frankly, a quarter to the next. So, future proofing right now, in my mind is about, you know, keeping an eye out for what's coming. So being able to anticipate what's ahead, being able to stay abreast of all the trends, making, what I would call incremental adjustments to our practices today that ensure that if, and when the future, you know, more specifically crystallizes, we can take advantage of the opportunities, and we're not having to redo too much work, but also without betting too much on one outcome, where we may not have the certainty of what's ahead. So, you know, that's true when you look at the full landscape. And specifically, when we're looking at the predictions around climate change, it's about at a minimum, being very responsive to the more recent events. So using that to update your predictions. And recently, unfortunately, with respect to climate, you know, we've seen what would have been deemed, you know, one in 1000, or one in 100 year events occur at a frequency that far exceeds, you know, what predictions would have called for. And we have to recognize that as being the new trend, despite not having the benefit of 100 years of events in that new paradigm that we find ourselves in. So, you know, from a climate standpoint, I think we have to be a little farther out, and expect that recent data points actually represent the new reality, as opposed to relying on the longer trend that we would like to count on, which is 50-100 years or beyond. So from a climate standpoint, at this point, our assumption is, you know, what's happened recently looks a lot more like what's expected to happen to us in the next few years. And in fact, you know, we're looking to build a little bit of contingency or buffer into our predictions, assuming that it might get a little worse. Dan Seguin 07:40 Now, why does future proofing the grid go hand in hand with electrification, and clean energy, Guillaume Paradis 07:48 So electrification and clean energy come down to, in my view, increasing our society's resilience, resilience and dependence on our electricity infrastructure. So, you know, for many years now, many decades, the electricity system has been the underpinning of our modern society. But even more so as we move more of our energy use to the electricity system, it becomes paramount ensure that the infrastructure we have is able to support and maintain with a high level of redundancy, you know, that modern lifestyle where more of what we do is electrified, clean energy, in its various forms, you know, supports our ability to electrify more of our activities, but also from a planning standpoint introduces a bit of a new challenge, in terms of intermittency. And so our ability to have an underlying asset base distribution system or transmission system that is highly redundant and highly secure, to enable and support the use of renewable energy is critical. And so that's where future proofing is really about, you know, ensuring that the bet we're making as a society, which is electrifying to improve the outlook on our climate change objectives, is actually possible going forward. Dan Seguin 09:29 Don't I've got a follow up question here. What does a self healing grid mean? Guillaume Paradis 09:35 You know, in a nutshell, self healing is about leveraging technology and automation to ensure that when an issue occurs, whether it be a failure, or an externality, like a tree, you know, impacting our infrastructure. We use that technology that automation to most rapidly re structure and rearrange our distribution system to minimize the impact of those events. So it's really about leveraging automation, you know, rapid communication, we now have access to using the computational power that is also available to us. And letting those tools make the preliminary decision on how best to restore power, before there's a human interaction that comes in to take care of the final steps. So really, if you think about it, and how far we've come in the last 20 years with computer power and communication tools, it's really bringing the latest and the best of those technologies to bear on how we restore power to our customers. Dan Seguin 10:45 After the May Dereocho, a lot of people were asking why utilities don't bury all overhead lines? What's your answer to that Gil? Guillaume Paradis 10:55 So yeah, it comes up every time there's a storm, and it's, it's perfectly understandable. And I think there's a couple things that come into play when we think about, you know, what is best to deliver power to our customers. Certainly, you know, we've been talking about redundancy in an underground system, when it comes to certain types of climate related events, like large storms, or wind storms, you know, introduce a certain level of security that exceeds what is possible with an overhead system. But the other very important element as we think about electrification going forward, is the element of cost, and affordability of power. And, you know, just from a comparison standpoint, the basic math, you know, when evaluating underground alternatives to overhead systems, is about a 10 to one cost ratio. So certainly when we look at, you know, where best to invest dollars, and how best to bring power to communities, that cost component is factored in and becomes a consideration, particularly when you look at lower density areas, or farther away areas from production centers, it becomes a costly proposition. Now, what we're looking to do going forward is we see undergrounding as a strategic tool in improving our climate resilience. And so we're going to look at certain corridors, perhaps, or certain targeted investments to underground infrastructure, to try to get the most value possible for our customers as we plan for, you know, an elevated climate challenge in the future. But that consideration around costs is significant. And finally, what I'd say as well is, you know, your ability to restore power when there's a problem with overhead infrastructure is far greater than it is when an underground system fails. And so in addition to that cost component, the ability to restore power quickly, when there is a problem is higher with an overhead infrastructure. Dan Seguin 13:10 At the beginning of the last century, it was the Industrial Revolution. This century is shaping up to be an electrical revolution. How confident are you about the grid's capacity, as more and more people electrify their cars, and eventually, their homes? Guillaume Paradis 13:32 So how confident I would say very confident. And that's not to minimize the scale of the challenge ahead of us. You're correct, we're now proposing to essentially, you know, completely shift the dynamics around electricity. In a matter of, you know, I would like to say decades, but it's essentially a decade at this point. And so it's a very complex challenge from an engineering standpoint and a planning standpoint. But I've seen how the conversation and the thinking has evolved over the last 1015 years in our industry, I've seen the technologies that are being brought forward as tools to be leveraged to enable that transition to a more electric future. And, you know, the significant load growth, I will come with that. So I think we have the tools, we need to maintain a high level of awareness and adaptability in, you know, facing what's ahead of us. We can't fall back on old habits or, you know, make excuses when we have solutions we want to implement and we know we need to implement to enable that electrified future, but I think We will get there. And I've seen all sorts of signs pointing to that possibility. And it's going to come down to once again making the most of all the tools we have. So we talked about technology earlier, we're going to have to leverage technology to manage how electric vehicles are charged, and when, and in what parts of the city and how best to leverage the existing infrastructure to do that, because we know, we can just build or double the size of our electric infrastructure to accommodate that growth. So we're going to have to be more refined, we're going to have to leverage all the tools available to us, including distributed energy resources, but I think we will get there and I like what I'm seeing from all the stakeholders across the industry, and thinking and adapting to that new reality. Dan Seguin 15:50 Here's another follow up question. What would you say to those who are worried about reliability and power outages? Guillaume Paradis 15:59 I would say that's our main focus. And so it's completely normal to have some concerns in a context where more of our lives become dependent on the electricity system. And but, you know, on our end, from an electricity industry standpoint, reliability has been forever, essentially, you know, the focus of our energy and our attention. And now we all understand that, we need to elevate the reliability standards that have been developed over the last decades. And so we have, once again, certain tools we can leverage to do that. So again, not to say it's not significant, we have to go from, you know, what has been a 99.998% availability to something even closer to 100%. Because we know our customers depend on our infrastructure more than ever. But we're working on that. And we're going to bring in some tools that will help us support that outcome. And certainly, you know, we talked about automation, but things like battery storage, becoming more prevalent, you know, within the landscape, including the batteries of electric vehicles, over time, will be one of those examples of new tools that we can try to leverage to deliver, deliver that elevated level of reliability that our customers will expect in our society will need. Dan Seguin 17:33 Okay, thanks. Yeah, there will be power outages, we can't avoid that. Knowing that, what are some of the things customers could or should consider doing to be better prepared? Guillaume Paradis 17:46 Yeah. So that's another interesting question with respect to what we've seen in the last few years. So even just through some of the climate related events that we've experienced, you know, longer duration outages related to tornadoes are due to Russia more recently, one of the basic things that everyone is encouraged to do and we try to promote is, you know, developing a plan for the household, right, or for, you know, your business if you're a commercial customer, but think about what things look like, from your perspective. In the event of an outage of various durations that like, you know, the basic exercise would be to think about something of short duration, say two hours of less or less than looking at something a bit more prolonged like six hours, and then going to the next step of saying, what happens if it's more than 24 hours. And you know, if you go to our website, and the website of, you know, many of our peer utilities, most offer a set of resources around how to build a toolkit to be able to remain safe and function through certain duration outages. And then, of course, if you want to go beyond that for certain critical customers, and that conversation is ongoing, and everyone's minds already been turned to that, but looking at other alternatives, like on site generation, energy storage, generators, of course, being the traditional option, but looking to secure some critical processes with on site generation where possible. So building resilience is something that we've worked on, you know, for decades, through our infrastructure investments, of course, but working with customers, and more so than ever again, as we electrify many more aspects of our lives. We need to ensure that everyone appreciates and recognizes what may be required if power was to for hopefully a very short amount of time not be available. Dan Seguin 20:03 Now, what kind of planning and predictions are you making for the short, mid and long term when it comes to electrification? Guillaume Paradis 20:13 So the short term is probably the most interesting element now, because it's been a little difficult to figure out exactly when things would land. So what we're seeing today, and that's ongoing now, is that, you know, certainly many customers are actively looking at reducing their impact in terms of carbon footprint. And they're looking at doing that through electrification. And so we're seeing a lot of activity where customers choose to switch to fuel, which would be essentially moving away from using carbon intensive energy resources for things like heating, and then leveraging our infrastructure to support that. So when that happens at a campus level, or for commercial customers, that can be a significant growth in the demand on the electricity system. So we're fairly able to project what that looks like. And it's been happening at a good pace. On the electric vehicle adoption side of things we've been monitoring for over a decade now, we've been, you know, doing some modeling, some predictions, we've worked with, you know, external stakeholders to put together studies that would help us understand the impact. The thing that has been challenging, certainly over the last two years is that there's now a clear gap between the market demand with or for electric vehicles, and what manufacturers and the supply chains are able to make available to that market. So figuring out the exact timing has become a little more challenging, where we would have expected to see, you know, a very steady growth, but a significant growth that would eventually turn into sort of a complete shift to electric vehicle purchases. Whereas it's taking a bit longer, I think, to occur than we would have, frankly, hoped for, but also expected, it's getting, it's gotten us or given us a bit more time as supposed to plan for it. But certainly from an electrification standpoint, and the predictions that we're making, we're seeing electric vehicles being sort of pervasive across our distribution system. It'll occur over a certain number of years, but we will have electric vehicle charging occur all over service territory. And certainly from a fleet standpoint, once again, as soon as some of the manufacturers manage to ramp up their capacity to produce vehicles, we're expecting to see more and more fleet operators move their entire operation to electric vehicles. And so we're preparing for that as well. Dan Seguin 22:58 Now, Guillaume, tell me, what keeps you up at night, then, talk to me about what gives you hope. Guillaume Paradis 23:06 So what still keeps me up at night. And I think that's just a virtue of the environment. And the industry that we're in is the safety of our team. And, frankly, anyone who interacts with our infrastructures, so that that's something that we easily forget in our society, considering how, you know, ubiquitous energy electricity is, it's just the sheer power that that electricity represents, and how close in proximity it comes to many people, certainly our workforce, you know, physically interacts with that infrastructure every day. And so ensuring that we remain safe at all times is critical. But it's the same for our customers and anyone who comes close to the electricity infrastructure. And so that's, that's first and foremost, I think it's just, you know, a reality of what we do, distributing electricity. But certainly just the general pace of change is interesting, I wouldn't say it keeps me up at night, because I'm worried it keeps me up at night because it's exciting. And there's so much possibilities that come with what's ahead to a degree that we've frankly, never seen in our industry. And so it's just a completely exciting time to be part of the electricity industry. We just got to make sure that we do everything we can to leverage what's coming for the benefit of our customers and to power our community. But you know, there are much worse things to be kept up at night by and I think it's just a lot of energy. Literally, I suppose, coming to all of us, you know around the organization in the industry. Well, hope is So we have, you know, so many bright colleagues, so many people looking at what's, you know, ahead and what's upon us, that we're uniquely positioned to help, you know, our, all societies across the globe, deliver on, you know, what is, you know, the generational challenge of climate change. So we're, you know, it's, it's not often that you're part of an industry that can have such a significant impact on such a large problem. And so to be right in the middle of it, and having a key role in enabling the aspiration of our entire society, is really exciting. And, you know, having the chance to take tangible and real concrete actions to get us all there is fantastic. So the hope comes from the energy of everyone involved, and the talent of everyone in Walt involved, and the passion that they bring to solving this massive, massive challenge that we have ahead of us. Dan Seguin 26:12 Moving on here, what role does hydro Ottawa or utilities in general have when it comes to delivering solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Guillaume Paradis 26:22 So that the, I think the unique perspective that we bring, so certainly, electrifying period, right, so we're, we're, you know, an alternative to dirtier sources, particularly here in Ontario, where we can still count on an electricity system that is very significantly, you know, supplied by renewable energy resources. So we're sort of a platform for greenhouse gas reduction, just by virtue of electrification. So that is a significant role. And even more importantly, we also have, you know, an opportunity to be direct partners with industries, stakeholders, businesses, commercial actors, who are actually trying to reduce their greenhouse gases, footprint and impact. And so we're, we're part of the conversation and what we do differently than other businesses is, we think and plan in decades, and, you know, in Windows of 25, and 50 years, and so we've been here 100 years, we're expecting to be here, you know, many 100 more. And so we have that long term perspective that we can bring to the table, when engaging with other stakeholders who maybe think more on a sort of business case level in terms of three and five year paybacks, we're actually able to bring in that long term perspective to inform their decision making. So it's pretty unique, frankly, and, and we're also in many, many cases, in a position where we're trusted advisors. So there has been that trust built over decades of being reliable and available. And so we're seen as or as almost impartial in the process of electrifying and reducing greenhouse gases. And so again, we can bring that perspective to bear when supporting our customers and making those decisions and enabling those objectives of more sustainable activities. Dan Seguin 28:43 Sorry about this Guillaume, but I've got a follow up question, what are some of the initiatives that hydro Auto is doing to help customers in this area? Guillaume Paradis 28:51 So we have essentially the full inventory of initiatives. So from a customer standpoint, we work with them at the facility level, we have, you know, our key account representatives, we're sort of their energy advisors on demand. And so, you know, that is a direct line between customers and all the portfolios and all the options that are available in the industry. So that's, that's big, because it's, it's almost working with them from the inception of their plans to try to bring them to, you know, that future of a lower carbon footprint. And so, you know, we're very active in that space. You know, from an energy standpoint and an energy system standpoint, we see our responsibility as being the local enabler of local renewable energy resources, and a more efficient use of energy, you know, in our community and in the communities that we serve. And so we're working with industry stakeholders, particularly regulatory agencies, and better informing their approach to enabling those resources to make sure that when customers approach us with their solar generation project, or with their battery storage project, we find the best way to make that investment work for them financially, but also for our community from a greenhouse gas standpoint. And so we have a very important role in sort of acting as an interface between, you know, our constituents, and the regulatory agencies that govern what we do. And that's fundamental to making that green future possible. Because we're essentially, you know, ending an entire regulatory framework, and an entire industry paradigm on the fly, as people make those decisions, to invest differently. And so that advisor role is critical, that advocacy role is critical. And you know, more specifically, we have a wide variety of programs, all available in great detail on our website, to help customers think through the decisions that they're making with respect to energy. Dan Seguin 31:21 Now, what are your thoughts on distributed energy resources, what kind of challenges or opportunities do they pose? Guillaume Paradis 31:32 Not only a great opportunity, but a necessary piece of that puzzle coming together with respect to electrifying and proceeding with that energy transition that we've all embarked on. And that going forward with the combination of a growing demand for electricity, and some of the challenges brought about by climate change, will need to be able to leverage energy resources closer to where the demand actually exists. And distributed energy resources are sort of the elementary building blocks that will allow us to do that where by having a generation closer to our customers within our community here in Ottawa, for example, and in Castleman, we'll be able to ensure that we're not reliant on power coming from, you know, hundreds of kilometers away somewhere across the province. And that under more scenarios, contingency or otherwise, we're able to leverage what's here to ensure that our customers stay power through whatever may come and so the D ers bolt in meeting capacity requirements going forward and meeting resilience expectations will be essential. And so once again, they in terms of scaling up to, you know, many 1000s within Ottawa, Ottawa, they represent a pretty significant engineering challenge in rethinking our control systems, our, you know, engineering decisions, but they're a necessary and important building block, and therefore much larger of an opportunity than they are a threat. And we just need to spend the next few years continuing to evolve our ability to leverage those in real time to meet our future objectives. Dan Seguin 33:30 Okay, yeah, we always end our interviews with some rapid fire questions. We've got a few for you. Are you ready? Guillaume Paradis 33:38 Okay,we'll give it a shot. Dan Seguin 33:40 Okay. What are you reading right now? Guillaume Paradis 33:43 So, I'm not sure if the timing of this conversation will matter. But certainly leading up to Remembrance Day, I sort of tend to go back to at least one book, you know, related to war, and the impacts of war. And so I've gotten back into reading August by Barbara Tuchman. So that's sort of one of my favorite books about the start of the First World War. Just very well written. And every time I go back to it, I'm just inspired by the quality of the storytelling, but I have this bad habit of reading multiple books at the same time, which typically takes me forever to get through them. I've started Dawn of everything or the dawn of everything, which is a complicated but very interesting reevaluation of how modern enlightenment thinking has evolved in Europe through the influence of some of the North American First Nations. It is a very interesting topic there. And also reading An old classic and letters from a stoic by Seneca when I managed to not fall asleep at 1230 Each night, but those are the three books that are on my night table right now. Dan Seguin 35:16 Now, what would you name your boat? If you have one? Or maybe do you have one? Guillaume Paradis 35:22 I do not. And I would let my kids name it. And so I expect it would be called something related to Paw Patrol, or the latest show that they're on these days. But I would certainly not shoulder that responsibility. And I would ask my kids to decide what the name should be, Dan Seguin 35:47 Who is someone that you admire, Guillaume? Guillaume Paradis 35:50 I'm going to stay on the same theme with that one. And I think I have to say, I admire my wife. And I do because I get to watch her in action every single day. And I see how she tackles problems. And she multitasks and makes problems go away that I couldn't quite wrap my head around. And so the relentless energy or determination that she applies to everything she does, is really a big inspiration for me. So, you know, surely there are others, you know, in our history or otherwise, that could be inspirations, but no one resonates in my life, quite to the degree that my wife does. Dan Seguin 36:35 Okay, what is the closest thing to real magic that you've witnessed? Guillaume Paradis 36:42 Fair, that's, that's a tricky one. I think, not the engineering type talking about science here. But I think just there's two extremes that are either dead technologies that we've managed to develop. And one of the ones I think of occasionally, is them, computers and the chips and the microprocessors we've been to develop, able to develop and just the sheer scale, and the complexity that we've been able to create there. Otherwise, things like CRISPR, for genetic splicing, I just still can't quite wrap my head around how that's possible. But we're able to do things with DNA now that are just, you know, stuff of science fiction 20 years ago, anything to do with space exploration, and deploying, you know, telescopes in space or launching probes to Mars, I still don't understand how we managed to do that, without something failing more often than it does. And otherwise, the other extreme, I would say is, is just nature, right. And that's exactly what we're all working on today, across the globe, is recognizing that what we have, you know, around us, our planet is just beyond amazing, and, you know, almost incomprehensible in complexity. And we have a responsibility to take care of that. But I think, you know, whenever we have, I have the chance of stepping out of the city and just looking around at nature for a few minutes, you have to kind of be reminded of how unlikely it all seems that something so complex, so beautiful, would come together. And so I think, you know, in the real world, those things are as close as we can get to magic, really. Dan Seguin 38:38 Okay, this is an interesting one, Guillaume. What has been the biggest challenge to you personally, since the pandemic began? Guillaume Paradis 38:46 That's a tricky one to think through. Because there's been so much that seems to have happened over the last 24 months - and now 30 months of the pandemic, I would say just having to constantly adapt without what seemed for a while a real frame of reference, right. So if you take yourself back to the early days of the pandemic, in particular, it just seemed like every other week, we would, we would be learning new things about how the pandemic would work and how forecasts look as to how we might get out of that situation. And so, you know, I'm someone who loves change in general. But even for me, in those early days, it just seemed a little bit unsettling to feel like every other week, you had to rethink a lot of your decisions, a lot of your planning a lot of the ways in which you thought you could protect yourself, your colleagues in your family, and so just having to do that on an ongoing basis for an extended period of time. Like that was very, very challenging. And so I'd probably put that as the biggest challenge. But obviously, you know, everything else that flowed from there was back to our society or friends and family or colleagues. That was just a very, very unique situation to work through in general, right? Dan Seguin 40:11 We've all been watching a lot more Netflix and TV lately, what is your favorite movie or your favorite show? Guillaume Paradis 40:19 So I watch just about anything that comes up, that I can sort of sit through for more than 15 minutes that sort of detest now. We've all watched so much TV over the last few years that if something can capture your attention for 15 minutes, that's probably a good sign. I always, and that might be a boring answer. But I always end up going back to, you know, one of the classics and Seinfeld. So, you know, you look at what's available. And, you know, sometimes you just don't have the energy to start something new. And I just go back to it, I found it's aged fairly well, some of the humor in there is quite timeless. And so it's sort of like a comforting blanket almost at this point, they just go back to a couple old Seinfeld episodes. Dan Seguin 41:12 Lastly, sir, what's exciting you about your industry right now? Guillaume Paradis 41:18 I mean, I've said it a few times already. But just the opportunity to be in the middle of all that change. Like, it's such an important time in our societies evolution, I would not want to be on the sidelines of watching that unfold. And I think, you know, being so centrally positioned to help us all achieve those really big aspirations we have with respect to climate and the environment. I think that's great, right? And we have the tools, we have the energy we have, you know, everyone is willing, and so we just have to do it. So I think, you know, it's such a source of inspiration and energy. That, you know, I couldn't ask for more frankly, electricity was always important. And I was always something that made our industry very intriguing, and, you know, interesting, but that has been taken to a whole new level in the last little while. And for the foreseeable future, that, you know, there's going to be an endless supply of energy for all of us to solve those big problems. Dan Seguin 42:31 Well, Guillaume, we've reached the end of another episode of The think energy podcast. If our listeners wanted to learn more about you, and our organization, how could they connect? Guillaume Paradis 42:45 So certainly, you know, go to our website, we've just launched a brand new website for a group of companies, I believe. It's under the name of power as one.com. Otherwise, our hydro auto website, of course, I wouldn't encourage you to find out more about me, I'm not that important. But check out the resources we have on our website. Our organization in particular is doing all sorts of novel and cool things, whether it be across Portage power, and vari Hebrew networks, or hydro Ottawa limited. So check out what we have there and reach out, you'll see all sorts of channels on there that you can use to engage with us. We're actively looking for everyone's input as we think about the future of energy. And so please come forward with whatever creative solutions you have. And I assure you, we'll consider them. Dan Seguin 43:46 Again, Guillaume, merci beaucoup, thank you so much for joining us today. I hope you had a lot of fun. Guillaume Paradis 43:52 Cheers. And it was great. Thank you, Dan, for having me. Dan Seguin 43:55 Thanks for tuning in to another episode of The Think Energy podcast. And don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review wherever you're listening. And to find out more about today's guests, or previous episodes, visit think energy podcast.com. I hope you'll join us again next time as we spark even more conversations about the energy of tomorrow.
Aside from being John's (younger, suaver and beardier) brother, what has the inimitable David Plotz done lately? Only hosted “The Slate Political Gabfest“, written two books (“The Genius Factory” and “The Good Book“) and left Atlas Obscura to found City Cast. So, when John called him up in April 2020 for the Books in Dark Times series, what was his Pandemic reading? The fully absorbing “other worlds” of Dickens and Mark Twain tempt David, but he goes another direction. He picks one book that shows humanity at its worst, heading towards world war. And another that shows how well we can behave towards one another (and even how happy we can be…) at “moments of super liquidity” when everything melts and can be rebuilt. He also guiltily admits a yen for Austen, Rowling, and Pullman–and gratuitously disses LOTR. John and David bond about their love for lonnnnnnng-form cultural history in the mold of Common Ground. Finally the brothers enthuse over their favorite book about Gettysburg, and reveal an embarrassing reenactment of the charge down Little Round Top. Mentioned in this episode: Charles Dickens, “David Copperfield“ J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Hobbit“ Mark Twain, “Huckleberry Finn” (1884) Barbara Tuchman, “The Guns of August” (1962, but about 1914) Emily St. John Mandel, “Station Eleven” (2014) Jon Moallem, “This is Chance” (March 2020; on the great Alaska earthquake) Isabel Wilkerson,. “The Warmth of Other Suns” (2010) (David delightedly discovers it on his bookshelf..) J Anthony Lukas, “Common Ground” (1986) (the mothership of the long-form cultural history that DP and JP both adore) Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice” (1813) J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter series Michael Shaara, “The Killer Angels” (1974) Read the transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aside from being John's (younger, suaver and beardier) brother, what has the inimitable David Plotz done lately? Only hosted “The Slate Political Gabfest“, written two books (“The Genius Factory” and “The Good Book“) and left Atlas Obscura to found City Cast. So, when John called him up in April 2020 for the Books in Dark Times series, what was his Pandemic reading? The fully absorbing “other worlds” of Dickens and Mark Twain tempt David, but he goes another direction. He picks one book that shows humanity at its worst, heading towards world war. And another that shows how well we can behave towards one another (and even how happy we can be…) at “moments of super liquidity” when everything melts and can be rebuilt. He also guiltily admits a yen for Austen, Rowling, and Pullman–and gratuitously disses LOTR. John and David bond about their love for lonnnnnnng-form cultural history in the mold of Common Ground. Finally the brothers enthuse over their favorite book about Gettysburg, and reveal an embarrassing reenactment of the charge down Little Round Top. Mentioned in this episode: Charles Dickens, “David Copperfield“ J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Hobbit“ Mark Twain, “Huckleberry Finn” (1884) Barbara Tuchman, “The Guns of August” (1962, but about 1914) Emily St. John Mandel, “Station Eleven” (2014) Jon Moallem, “This is Chance” (March 2020; on the great Alaska earthquake) Isabel Wilkerson,. “The Warmth of Other Suns” (2010) (David delightedly discovers it on his bookshelf..) J Anthony Lukas, “Common Ground” (1986) (the mothership of the long-form cultural history that DP and JP both adore) Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice” (1813) J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter series Michael Shaara, “The Killer Angels” (1974) Read the transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies
Aside from being John's (younger, suaver and beardier) brother, what has the inimitable David Plotz done lately? Only hosted “The Slate Political Gabfest“, written two books (“The Genius Factory” and “The Good Book“) and left Atlas Obscura to found City Cast. So, when John called him up in April 2020 for the Books in Dark Times series, what was his Pandemic reading? The fully absorbing “other worlds” of Dickens and Mark Twain tempt David, but he goes another direction. He picks one book that shows humanity at its worst, heading towards world war. And another that shows how well we can behave towards one another (and even how happy we can be…) at “moments of super liquidity” when everything melts and can be rebuilt. He also guiltily admits a yen for Austen, Rowling, and Pullman–and gratuitously disses LOTR. John and David bond about their love for lonnnnnnng-form cultural history in the mold of Common Ground. Finally the brothers enthuse over their favorite book about Gettysburg, and reveal an embarrassing reenactment of the charge down Little Round Top. Mentioned in this episode: Charles Dickens, “David Copperfield“ J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Hobbit“ Mark Twain, “Huckleberry Finn” (1884) Barbara Tuchman, “The Guns of August” (1962, but about 1914) Emily St. John Mandel, “Station Eleven” (2014) Jon Moallem, “This is Chance” (March 2020; on the great Alaska earthquake) Isabel Wilkerson,. “The Warmth of Other Suns” (2010) (David delightedly discovers it on his bookshelf..) J Anthony Lukas, “Common Ground” (1986) (the mothership of the long-form cultural history that DP and JP both adore) Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice” (1813) J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter series Michael Shaara, “The Killer Angels” (1974) Read the transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Aside from being John's (younger, suaver and beardier) brother, what has the inimitable David Plotz done lately? Only hosted “The Slate Political Gabfest“, written two books (“The Genius Factory” and “The Good Book“) and left Atlas Obscura to found City Cast. So, when John called him up in April 2020 for the Books in Dark Times series, what was his Pandemic reading? The fully absorbing “other worlds” of Dickens and Mark Twain tempt David, but he goes another direction. He picks one book that shows humanity at its worst, heading towards world war. And another that shows how well we can behave towards one another (and even how happy we can be…) at “moments of super liquidity” when everything melts and can be rebuilt. He also guiltily admits a yen for Austen, Rowling, and Pullman–and gratuitously disses LOTR. John and David bond about their love for lonnnnnnng-form cultural history in the mold of Common Ground. Finally the brothers enthuse over their favorite book about Gettysburg, and reveal an embarrassing reenactment of the charge down Little Round Top. Mentioned in this episode: Charles Dickens, “David Copperfield“ J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Hobbit“ Mark Twain, “Huckleberry Finn” (1884) Barbara Tuchman, “The Guns of August” (1962, but about 1914) Emily St. John Mandel, “Station Eleven” (2014) Jon Moallem, “This is Chance” (March 2020; on the great Alaska earthquake) Isabel Wilkerson,. “The Warmth of Other Suns” (2010) (David delightedly discovers it on his bookshelf..) J Anthony Lukas, “Common Ground” (1986) (the mothership of the long-form cultural history that DP and JP both adore) Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice” (1813) J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter series Michael Shaara, “The Killer Angels” (1974) Read the transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/journalism
Proyecto para una inteligencia. Conversaciones desde el Panóptico
La guerra se ha considerado una de las grandes desdichas de la humanidad. ¿Por qué no hemos sido capaces de acabar con ellas? ¿Por qué en vez de considerarla irracional y repulsiva, hemos tendido a glorificarla, ensalzarla, mitificarla, incluso a hablar de “guerras santas”? ¿Por qué los gobernantes pueden querer la guerra? Barbara Tuchman, una brillante historiadora, ha identificado cuatro razones de la “demencia política”: la tiranía, la ambición excesiva, la incompetencia y la insensatez. En Biografía de la Inhumanidad Marina describe la “ebriedad de la misión”. La historia de la atrocidad está llena de personas que se creyeron investidas de una misión, por la que fueron capaces de sacrificarlo todo y de sacrificar a todos. La insensibilidad provocada por esas “guerras iluminadas”, las que se hacen en nombre de valores considerados superiores, como la gloria de la nación, o la implantación de una religión, es bien conocida. La voluntad de poder -al igual que la ambición o la codicia- no tienen sistemas de frenado. Llegan hasta donde pueden. Putin también. Respecto a la incompetencia o insensatez, en el caso de la guerra de Ucrania se ha manifestado en la torpeza de los cálculos de Putin. Pensó en una guerra rápida, sin gran desgaste, que humillara a Occidente. Tal como suceden las cosas, parece que todo depende de la decisión que tome Xi Jinping. Puede optar por atraer a Rusia a su órbita, prestándole la financiación que el resto del mundo le niega, dejándole que se debilite con la guerra y mostrando que Rusia no es una potencia global, o puede expandir su ideología política convirtiéndose en el mediador de la paz, frenando a Putin y poniendo en práctica la tianxia.
Não há razão, ou sensibilidade, que convença o presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) a desistir de atacar o Banco Central (BC).O que começou como uma bravata eleitoreira caminha para uma crise institucional de desfecho imprevisível, à medida que Lula não cede terreno ao diálogo e não parece ter compreensão do custo de esvaziar a credibilidade da autoridade monetária.A escalada chegou ao ponto do petista questionar a lealdade dos ministros Fernando Haddad (PT) e Simone Tebet (MDB) na relação com o BC e, para completar, incitar o Congresso a responsabilizar Roberto Campos Neto, presidente da autarquia, pelos problemas do país.No vácuo da institucionalidade, Aloizio Mercadante (PT) surpreendeu ao anunciar que ele mesmo, presidente do BNDES, vai apresentar uma proposta para a nova regra fiscal, um mês antes do prazo assumido por Haddad -- o ministro formulador de política econômica do governo.Esse atropelo entre as cadeiras e as atribuições começa muito cedo em um governo que chegou há menos de quarenta dias.Em meio a tanto burburinho, um ex-integrante de equipes econômicas de governos passados disse à âncora do CNN Money, Thais Herédia: é a "marcha da insensatez".A expressão também nomeia um livro da historiadora Barbara Tuchman, que trata da insistência de governantes em adotar políticas contrárias a seus próprios interesses -- que parece ser o caso agora.No episódio desta quarta-feira (8), o CNN Money fala também das metas de inflação, que, nesse contexto de disputa entre Lula e BC, gera a pergunta: ela deve, ou não, ser alterada?Apresentado por Thais Herédia, o CNN Money apresenta um balanço dos assuntos do noticiário que influenciam os mercados, as finanças e os rumos da sociedade e das dinâmicas de poder no Brasil e no mundo.
Não há razão, ou sensibilidade, que convença o presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) a desistir de atacar o Banco Central (BC).O que começou como uma bravata eleitoreira caminha para uma crise institucional de desfecho imprevisível, à medida que Lula não cede terreno ao diálogo e não parece ter compreensão do custo de esvaziar a credibilidade da autoridade monetária.A escalada chegou ao ponto do petista questionar a lealdade dos ministros Fernando Haddad (PT) e Simone Tebet (MDB) na relação com o BC e, para completar, incitar o Congresso a responsabilizar Roberto Campos Neto, presidente da autarquia, pelos problemas do país.No vácuo da institucionalidade, Aloizio Mercadante (PT) surpreendeu ao anunciar que ele mesmo, presidente do BNDES, vai apresentar uma proposta para a nova regra fiscal, um mês antes do prazo assumido por Haddad -- o ministro formulador de política econômica do governo.Esse atropelo entre as cadeiras e as atribuições começa muito cedo em um governo que chegou há menos de quarenta dias.Em meio a tanto burburinho, um ex-integrante de equipes econômicas de governos passados disse à âncora do CNN Money, Thais Herédia: é a "marcha da insensatez".A expressão também nomeia um livro da historiadora Barbara Tuchman, que trata da insistência de governantes em adotar políticas contrárias a seus próprios interesses -- que parece ser o caso agora.No episódio desta quarta-feira (8), o CNN Money fala também das metas de inflação, que, nesse contexto de disputa entre Lula e BC, gera a pergunta: ela deve, ou não, ser alterada?Apresentado por Thais Herédia, o CNN Money apresenta um balanço dos assuntos do noticiário que influenciam os mercados, as finanças e os rumos da sociedade e das dinâmicas de poder no Brasil e no mundo.
Joe is once again joined by the show's producer Nate to talk about how in the middle of a stagnated war, two teams of knights got together to kill each other out of boredom as a crowd of spectators watched on. support the show: https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys sources: Barbara Tuchman. A Distant Mirror https://web.archive.org/web/20121105020628/http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/history/muhlberger/chroniqu/texts/AINSWORT.HTM Steven Muhlberger. The Combat of the Thirty, Deeds of Arms Series, vol. 2
The Founders – How Tech Impacts All Areas of Business from Clean Energy to Smartwatches, E Bikes, Data & Investing - BRT Best of Tech 2022 Part 2 BRT S03 EP61 (162) 12-25-2022 Clips from Previous BRT Tech Shows in 2022 Part 2 Things We Learned This Week PayPal Mafia– alumni created or involved many other co's – Tesla, SpaceX, Palantir, Yelp, Yammer, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube & more Delfast E Bikes – smart bike, connects to E Bike, range of 220 miles on 1 charge, & speed of 50 mph, can drive on all different terrain Clean Energy - many AZ Tech Co's working on zero emission plan Agile + Intelligence = Agilence, bringing great data analysis to companies Savvy Trader allows you to share your portfolio GoX Labs & ‘Pre-care' – preventive care can save lives, prevent injuries + save $ billions Array Technologies is a global leader advancing the future of clean energy. With over 30 years of innovations that have powered the solar industry Notes: Clips from Previous BRT Tech Shows in the 2nd Half of 2022 Clip from 8/7/2022 - w/ Jimmy Soni on the start of PayPal and their battle w/ EBAY From Seg. 3 - FULL SHOW: HERE Guest: Jimmy Soni, Author https://jimmysoni.com/ https://twitter.com/jimmyasoni https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmysoni/ My books are passion projects. My topics come because I look for a book to buy on the subject and can't find one. I know it's supposed to be fancier than that, or that there must be some grand theory of my work, but there isn't one. That said, my readers seem to enjoy what I've written, so maybe it's fine? I am inspired by my literary heroes, including Robert Caro, Laura Hillenbrand, Candice Millard, Daniel James Brown, and Barbara Tuchman, among many others. They are all rigorous researchers—but reading their books doesn't feel like doing homework. That's what I'm going for, and hopefully I hit the mark a few times. The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley A definitive, deeply reported look at the origin of PayPal and its founding team, including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, Max Levchin, and others whose stories have never before been told. They defined the modern world. This experience defined them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia Clip from 9/18/2022 – w/ Daniel Tonkopiy, CEO, Delfast Bikes Replay Seg. 4 – on VC Funding and competition FULL SHOW: HERE Guest: Daniel Tonkopiy, CEO, Founder, Chairman Delfast Bikes https://us.delfastbikes.com/ Daniel Tonkopiy is founder and chief executive officer of Delfast, Inc. Daniel is a serial entrepreneur with more than 20 years of successful business experience. His previous entrepreneurial endeavors include best.ua, a Ukrainian business reviews service; X-Rift, an augmented reality mobile game; and Million Dollar Startup, a Kyiv-based startup school. In 2014, Daniel set out to transform the future of transportation and combat climate change with Delfast's innovative E-bikes. He has since grown the company into a disruptive global e-bike leader that holds a Guinness World Record for greatest distance (228 miles) traveled on a single charge. In addition to Delfast, Daniel also serves as a business and entrepreneurial mentor for MiniBoss School, Startup Ukraine, and the Central Asia FLEX business program. He is an author, a former radio host, and is a dynamic and sought-after speaker inspiring entrepreneurs and sustainability enthusiasts globally at more than 50 conferences to date. Daniel holds a Bachelor's degree in International Economic Relations from Kazakh Economic University. Delfast Bikes ECO-FRIENDLY - No air emissions and subsequently ― negative impact on environment. SIGNIFICANT RANGE - In-house developed Battery Management System allows to travel up to 370 km on a single charge. RELATIVELY CHEAP - We help to save your money for expensive fuel and insurance. LESS STRESS, MORE FREE TIME - Delfast bike is the best choice to avoid annoying traffic jams. CONVENIENCE - You can easily switch on bicycle mode and do sports when you want; and use e-bike mode when you are tired. Clip from 10/30/2022 – w/ Steve Zylstra, President / CEO AZ Tech Council Replay Seg. 4 – on Clean Energy and tech FULL SHOW: HERE Guest: Steve Zylstra, President / CEO AZ Tech Council https://www.aztechcouncil.org/ https://www.aztechcouncil.org/kfnx_july2021/ Steve Zylstra of AZ Tech Council joins BRT to talk all things technology in the Valley. The Arizona Technology Council is one of the largest technology-driven trade associations in North America, with over 850 members and growing, the only organization specifically serving technology companies statewide. They protect innovators and truly believe that technology moves all of us forward; and are dedicated to the future of Arizona. Steve Zylstra advocates for AZ tech, as well as his recurring writing about the industry. Steve, and the Council are a major source for updates on technology, business growth, and what legislation is being drafted. Clip from 11/13/2022 – w/ Russ Hawkins, CEO Agilence Replay Seg. 3 – on how CEOs run companies & use the data FULL SHOW: HERE Guest: Russ Hawkins, CEO Agilence https://www.agilenceinc.com/ Agilence is the leader in data analytics and reporting in the retail, restaurant, grocery, convenience, and pharmacy industries. We develop intelligent data analytics and reporting technology that enables organizations to easily connect the dots within their stores or restaurants by automatically collecting and summarizing data to identify anomalies and trends that can improve operations, measure enterprise-wide performance, and boost profits. Agilence provides users with a complete view of their business, empowering them to make informed decisions faster and improving efficiency across the enterprise. Bio: Russ Hawkins is the President and CEO of the leading data technology company, Agilence. Russ has spent over 35-years in the technology industry, helping established organizations and small start-ups reach their full potential by driving change from the "inside." Russ is responsible for developing the overall strategy and leading the growth of SAAS Analytics & Reporting company Agilence, which helps retailers, grocers, and restaurants improve their operational effectiveness and uncover preventable losses using the data already in their hands. Before Agilence, he transformed two early-stage technology companies into successful businesses by leading go-to-market strategies focused on product development, re-brands, and customer profile analysis resulting in exponential growth and success. Clip from 11/20/2022 – w/ Hamid Shojaee Savvy Trader Replay Seg. 2 – on sharing your trading playbook FULL SHOW: HERE Guests: Hamid Shojaee AZ Tech Beat https://aztechbeat.com/ https://azdisruptors.com/ https://www.azcowork.com/ Hamid talks all thing AZ tech, Startups and what the world of an Angel Investor really looks like. His 2 decades + of experience is laid out, from starting and running software companies, plus exited the industry to now an Angel Investor mentoring the next generation of Startups. Hamid (Founder of Axosoft and Pure Chat) has always had a passion in helping Arizona's up-and-coming tech talent. Since 2010, Hamid has been involved with various AZ tech initiatives, including bringing tech founder and CEOs together, investing in startups and helping push the #YesPHX community forward. Axosoft – software tools for software development PureChat – live chat software for websites https://savvytrader.com/ What is Savvy Trader? Create Create a virtual portfolio of your stocks and crypto. Buy or sell your investments at any time to keep your portfolio up to date. Share Share your portfolio for free, or set a price, for your followers to get access to your portfolio and notified about your trades. Notify Notify your subscribers when you make a trade. Savvy Trader will send a text or email to everyone subscribed to your portfolio. Savvy Trader is on a mission to make investment information more accessible. Learning about stocks and crypto can be intimidating and overwhelming with incredibly high levels of noise and very little signal. Clip from 12/4/2022 – w/ Joseph Hitt, PhD & Co-Founder of GoX Labs Replay Seg. 3 – on who pays the bill in workplace injuries FULL SHOW: HERE Guests: Joseph Hitt, PhD & Co-Founder of GoX Labs https://www.goxlabs.com/ https://www.fitt-sci.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-hitt-ph-d-70933752 https://www.fitt-sci.net/copy-of-bio-page-bruce-floersheim Dr. Joe Hitt served 25+ years on Active Duty in the US Army, culminating his career as a DARPA program manager. He has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, with a focus in robotics. He started and managed the largest government funded wearable robotics R&D program - Warrior Web. He formulated the strategy for Squad-X, a current DARPA program designed to link human, autonomous and semi autonomous ‘members' of a small unit together in a seamless fashion for tactical operations. He is also a co-founder and current Chief Executive Officer for GoX Labs (www.goxlabs.com ) GoX Labs: Protect your team from the top three workplace injuries using Boost's AI and machine learning. Clip from 12/18/2022 – w/ Erica Brinker of Array Technologies Replay Seg. 3 – on Solar and Clean Energy FULL SHOW: HERE What is the Future of Solar Energy w/ Erica Brinker of Array Technologies - BRT S03 EP62 (161) 12-18-2022 https://arraytechinc.com/ Who We Are Array Technologies is a global leader advancing the future of clean energy. With over 30 years of innovations that have powered the solar industry, Array is uniquely positioned to deliver renewable energy solutions for customers seeking clean energy adoption in markets around the globe. While our strength lies in building the world's most reliable and efficient utility-scale solar trackers, our expertise, capabilities, and resources position us to extend into additional renewable energy solutions. As pioneers, innovators, and visionaries, we are committed to generating energy with integrity for a sustainable world. https://arraytechinc.com/executive-team/ https://arraytechinc.com/team-member/erica-brinker/ erica.brinker@arraytechinc.com Erica Brinker Chief Commercial Officer A technology and data-driven executive with over 20 years of diverse marketing, brand management, corporate communications and business development experience, Brinker joins Array from Honeywell International, where she served most recently as CMO, Vice President Marketing & Sales Excellence. Brinker also led business development for the Services, Software and Connectivity business of Honeywell Aerospace. Prior to joining Honeywell in 2011, Brinker held various leadership roles within software, technology, industrial, healthcare, aerospace, retail and hospitality companies with brands including Polo Ralph Lauren, Tiffany & Company and Kate Spade. Brinker earned a Bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University and earned her MBA in International Business from the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. Tech Topic: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Tech-Startup-VC-Cybersecurity-Energy-Science Best of Tech: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/size/5/?search=best+of+tech Investing Topic: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Investing-Stocks-Bonds-Retirement ‘Best Of' Topic: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Best+of+BRT Thanks for Listening. Please Subscribe to the BRT Podcast. Business Roundtable with Matt Battaglia The show where Entrepreneurs, High Level Executives, Business Owners, and Investors come to share insight and ideas about the future of business. BRT 2.0 looks at the new trends in business, and how classic industries are evolving. Common Topics Discussed: Business, Entrepreneurship, Investing, Stocks, Cannabis, Tech, Blockchain / Crypto, Real Estate, Legal, Sales, Charity, and more… BRT Podcast Home Page: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/ ‘Best Of' BRT Podcast: Click Here BRT Podcast on Google: Click Here BRT Podcast on Spotify: Click Here More Info: https://www.economicknight.com/podcast-brt-home/ KFNX Info: https://1100kfnx.com/weekend-featured-shows/ Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the Hosts, Guests and Speakers, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent (or affiliates, members, managers, employees or partners), or any Station, Podcast Platform, Website or Social Media that this show may air on. All information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes. Nothing said on this program should be considered advice or recommendations in: business, legal, real estate, crypto, tax accounting, investment, etc. Always seek the advice of a professional in all business ventures, including but not limited to: investments, tax, loans, legal, accounting, real estate, crypto, contracts, sales, marketing, other business arrangements, etc.
As Canadians depend more and more on an electrified grid, safety and reliability are at the core of the conversation. How are we improving the grid's resilience to climate change and extreme weather? How are we accommodating increased capacity as more people electrify their lives? In episode 99 of thinkenergy, we discuss future proofing the grid and what exactly that means with Guillaume Paradis, Chief Electricity Distribution Officer at Hydro Ottawa. Related links Guillaume Paradis, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaume-paradis-30a47721/ Power outage safety: https://www.hydroottawa.com/en/outages-safety/outage-centre/outage-safety Energy saving resources: https://www.hydroottawa.com/en/save-energy To subscribe using Apple Podcasts: To subscribe using Spotify To subscribe on Libsyn --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: YouTube Check out our cool pics on Instagram More to Learn on Facebook Keep up with the Tweets on Twitter Transcript: Dan Seguin 00:06 This is thinkenergy, the podcast that helps you better understand the fast changing world of energy through conversations with game changers, industry leaders, and influencers. So join me, Dan Seguin, as I explore both traditional and unconventional facets of the energy industry. Dan Seguin 00:28 Hey, everyone, welcome back. There's a great analogy I read recently that compared future proofing the electricity grid to Wayne Gretzky. And since this is our 99th episode, woohoo, it just seems fitting that we make our reference to the great one. What made Wayne Gretzky, the greatest hockey player of all time, was not his speed or the uncanny accuracy of his shots, but rather his ability to predict where the puck was going to be an instant before it arrived. utilities like Wayne Gretzky have the ability to anticipate events and predict patterns that can make them more prepared for extreme weather events as a utility, planning and predicting the future is part of our DNA. And as we all prepare to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets set by the feds, provincial and municipal governments, we are seeing a lot of future planning happening to make the electricity system as clean and as resilient as possible. And part of that is predicting what the future will look like, from what energy sources will power our electricity supply, but also what kind of challenges like electrification and threats like extreme weather we will face? So here's today's big question. How can utilities earn customer confidence as they transition towards an electrified grid that can also withstand unpredictable weather to safely and reliably deliver energy. Today's guest is Guillaume packaging. As the chief electricity distribution officer at hydro Ottawa, Guillaume is responsible for planning, design, operations, constructions and maintenance of our nation's capitol electrical power distribution system. In his role, Guillaume leads a team directly accountable for ensuring the safe, efficient and reliable delivery of electricity to hydro Ottawa customers. Guillaume has over a decade of industry experience in progressive leadership roles ranging from research program management, to distribution planning, asset management, design, and construction. Thanks for joining us on the show today. Guillaume Paradis 02:56 Thanks for having me. Dan Seguin 02:57 You've been in the industry for more than a decade now, what's been the biggest change or shift you've witnessed? Guillaume Paradis 03:05 So what I'd say has been the most significant change over that time period is that we've actually gone from talking about very exciting things and future focus opportunities. So we've gone from talking about them to actually getting to implement them. So some of the things that were on the horizon 10 years ago, and 15 years ago, in fact, were related to electric vehicles, the proliferation of battery storage technology, the development of the smart grid, and over that period of time, through those conversations, we've actually been able to shift the industry to a place where we're actually delivering on some of those promises. So that's very, very exciting. It's a massive challenge for everyone involved, but unlocks a whole series of possibilities, that when I started my career, we were only talking and thinking about, Dan Seguin 04:08 Okay, what does future proofing the electricity grid really mean? What kind of plans and predictions are you making to help the grid withstand climate change? Guillaume Paradis 04:20 So future proofing is an interesting one, because, you know, ultimately, all of your success depends on your ability to forecast and forecasting. Currently, with the changing landscape with the pace at which policy is being updated, refreshed, and modified, it is quite challenging. So we've gone from an environment where you could look at decade's worth of data, use a little bit of economic information, and forecasts and combine those things into what would turn out to be a pretty useful and fairly accurate prediction of what your system would be required to deliver. So we've gone from that to an environment where in a matter of, you know, sometimes months, you know, the underlying basis for your predictions as totally been changed. And you have, or you're having to revisit your assumptions from, frankly, a quarter to the next. So, future proofing right now, in my mind is about, you know, keeping an eye out for what's coming. So being able to anticipate what's ahead, being able to stay abreast of all the trends, making, what I would call incremental adjustments to our practices today that ensure that if, and when the future, you know, more specifically crystallizes, we can take advantage of the opportunities, and we're not having to redo too much work, but also without betting too much on one outcome, where we may not have the certainty of what's ahead. So, you know, that's true when you look at the full landscape. And specifically, when we're looking at the predictions around climate change, it's about at a minimum, being very responsive to the more recent events. So using that to update your predictions. And recently, unfortunately, with respect to climate, you know, we've seen what would have been deemed, you know, one in 1000, or one in 100 year events occur at a frequency that far exceeds, you know, what predictions would have called for. And we have to recognize that as being the new trend, despite not having the benefit of 100 years of events in that new paradigm that we find ourselves in. So, you know, from a climate standpoint, I think we have to be a little farther out, and expect that recent data points actually represent the new reality, as opposed to relying on the longer trend that we would like to count on, which is 50-100 years or beyond. So from a climate standpoint, at this point, our assumption is, you know, what's happened recently looks a lot more like what's expected to happen to us in the next few years. And in fact, you know, we're looking to build a little bit of contingency or buffer into our predictions, assuming that it might get a little worse. Dan Seguin 07:40 Now, why does future proofing the grid go hand in hand with electrification, and clean energy, Guillaume Paradis 07:48 So electrification and clean energy come down to, in my view, increasing our society's resilience, resilience and dependence on our electricity infrastructure. So, you know, for many years now, many decades, the electricity system has been the underpinning of our modern society. But even more so as we move more of our energy use to the electricity system, it becomes paramount ensure that the infrastructure we have is able to support and maintain with a high level of redundancy, you know, that modern lifestyle where more of what we do is electrified, clean energy, in its various forms, you know, supports our ability to electrify more of our activities, but also from a planning standpoint introduces a bit of a new challenge, in terms of intermittency. And so our ability to have an underlying asset base distribution system or transmission system that is highly redundant and highly secure, to enable and support the use of renewable energy is critical. And so that's where future proofing is really about, you know, ensuring that the bet we're making as a society, which is electrifying to improve the outlook on our climate change objectives, is actually possible going forward. Dan Seguin 09:29 Don't I've got a follow up question here. What does a self healing grid mean? Guillaume Paradis 09:35 You know, in a nutshell, self healing is about leveraging technology and automation to ensure that when an issue occurs, whether it be a failure, or an externality, like a tree, you know, impacting our infrastructure. We use that technology that automation to most rapidly re structure and rearrange our distribution system to minimize the impact of those events. So it's really about leveraging automation, you know, rapid communication, we now have access to using the computational power that is also available to us. And letting those tools make the preliminary decision on how best to restore power, before there's a human interaction that comes in to take care of the final steps. So really, if you think about it, and how far we've come in the last 20 years with computer power and communication tools, it's really bringing the latest and the best of those technologies to bear on how we restore power to our customers. Dan Seguin 10:45 After the May Dereocho, a lot of people were asking why utilities don't bury all overhead lines? What's your answer to that Gil? Guillaume Paradis 10:55 So yeah, it comes up every time there's a storm, and it's, it's perfectly understandable. And I think there's a couple things that come into play when we think about, you know, what is best to deliver power to our customers. Certainly, you know, we've been talking about redundancy in an underground system, when it comes to certain types of climate related events, like large storms, or wind storms, you know, introduce a certain level of security that exceeds what is possible with an overhead system. But the other very important element as we think about electrification going forward, is the element of cost, and affordability of power. And, you know, just from a comparison standpoint, the basic math, you know, when evaluating underground alternatives to overhead systems, is about a 10 to one cost ratio. So certainly when we look at, you know, where best to invest dollars, and how best to bring power to communities, that cost component is factored in and becomes a consideration, particularly when you look at lower density areas, or farther away areas from production centers, it becomes a costly proposition. Now, what we're looking to do going forward is we see undergrounding as a strategic tool in improving our climate resilience. And so we're going to look at certain corridors, perhaps, or certain targeted investments to underground infrastructure, to try to get the most value possible for our customers as we plan for, you know, an elevated climate challenge in the future. But that consideration around costs is significant. And finally, what I'd say as well is, you know, your ability to restore power when there's a problem with overhead infrastructure is far greater than it is when an underground system fails. And so in addition to that cost component, the ability to restore power quickly, when there is a problem is higher with an overhead infrastructure. Dan Seguin 13:10 At the beginning of the last century, it was the Industrial Revolution. This century is shaping up to be an electrical revolution. How confident are you about the grid's capacity, as more and more people electrify their cars, and eventually, their homes? Guillaume Paradis 13:32 So how confident I would say very confident. And that's not to minimize the scale of the challenge ahead of us. You're correct, we're now proposing to essentially, you know, completely shift the dynamics around electricity. In a matter of, you know, I would like to say decades, but it's essentially a decade at this point. And so it's a very complex challenge from an engineering standpoint and a planning standpoint. But I've seen how the conversation and the thinking has evolved over the last 1015 years in our industry, I've seen the technologies that are being brought forward as tools to be leveraged to enable that transition to a more electric future. And, you know, the significant load growth, I will come with that. So I think we have the tools, we need to maintain a high level of awareness and adaptability in, you know, facing what's ahead of us. We can't fall back on old habits or, you know, make excuses when we have solutions we want to implement and we know we need to implement to enable that electrified future, but I think We will get there. And I've seen all sorts of signs pointing to that possibility. And it's going to come down to once again making the most of all the tools we have. So we talked about technology earlier, we're going to have to leverage technology to manage how electric vehicles are charged, and when, and in what parts of the city and how best to leverage the existing infrastructure to do that, because we know, we can just build or double the size of our electric infrastructure to accommodate that growth. So we're going to have to be more refined, we're going to have to leverage all the tools available to us, including distributed energy resources, but I think we will get there and I like what I'm seeing from all the stakeholders across the industry, and thinking and adapting to that new reality. Dan Seguin 15:50 Here's another follow up question. What would you say to those who are worried about reliability and power outages? Guillaume Paradis 15:59 I would say that's our main focus. And so it's completely normal to have some concerns in a context where more of our lives become dependent on the electricity system. And but, you know, on our end, from an electricity industry standpoint, reliability has been forever, essentially, you know, the focus of our energy and our attention. And now we all understand that, we need to elevate the reliability standards that have been developed over the last decades. And so we have, once again, certain tools we can leverage to do that. So again, not to say it's not significant, we have to go from, you know, what has been a 99.998% availability to something even closer to 100%. Because we know our customers depend on our infrastructure more than ever. But we're working on that. And we're going to bring in some tools that will help us support that outcome. And certainly, you know, we talked about automation, but things like battery storage, becoming more prevalent, you know, within the landscape, including the batteries of electric vehicles, over time, will be one of those examples of new tools that we can try to leverage to deliver, deliver that elevated level of reliability that our customers will expect in our society will need. Dan Seguin 17:33 Okay, thanks. Yeah, there will be power outages, we can't avoid that. Knowing that, what are some of the things customers could or should consider doing to be better prepared? Guillaume Paradis 17:46 Yeah. So that's another interesting question with respect to what we've seen in the last few years. So even just through some of the climate related events that we've experienced, you know, longer duration outages related to tornadoes are due to Russia more recently, one of the basic things that everyone is encouraged to do and we try to promote is, you know, developing a plan for the household, right, or for, you know, your business if you're a commercial customer, but think about what things look like, from your perspective. In the event of an outage of various durations that like, you know, the basic exercise would be to think about something of short duration, say two hours of less or less than looking at something a bit more prolonged like six hours, and then going to the next step of saying, what happens if it's more than 24 hours. And you know, if you go to our website, and the website of, you know, many of our peer utilities, most offer a set of resources around how to build a toolkit to be able to remain safe and function through certain duration outages. And then, of course, if you want to go beyond that for certain critical customers, and that conversation is ongoing, and everyone's minds already been turned to that, but looking at other alternatives, like on site generation, energy storage, generators, of course, being the traditional option, but looking to secure some critical processes with on site generation where possible. So building resilience is something that we've worked on, you know, for decades, through our infrastructure investments, of course, but working with customers, and more so than ever again, as we electrify many more aspects of our lives. We need to ensure that everyone appreciates and recognizes what may be required if power was to for hopefully a very short amount of time not be available. Dan Seguin 20:03 Now, what kind of planning and predictions are you making for the short, mid and long term when it comes to electrification? Guillaume Paradis 20:13 So the short term is probably the most interesting element now, because it's been a little difficult to figure out exactly when things would land. So what we're seeing today, and that's ongoing now, is that, you know, certainly many customers are actively looking at reducing their impact in terms of carbon footprint. And they're looking at doing that through electrification. And so we're seeing a lot of activity where customers choose to switch to fuel, which would be essentially moving away from using carbon intensive energy resources for things like heating, and then leveraging our infrastructure to support that. So when that happens at a campus level, or for commercial customers, that can be a significant growth in the demand on the electricity system. So we're fairly able to project what that looks like. And it's been happening at a good pace. On the electric vehicle adoption side of things we've been monitoring for over a decade now, we've been, you know, doing some modeling, some predictions, we've worked with, you know, external stakeholders to put together studies that would help us understand the impact. The thing that has been challenging, certainly over the last two years is that there's now a clear gap between the market demand with or for electric vehicles, and what manufacturers and the supply chains are able to make available to that market. So figuring out the exact timing has become a little more challenging, where we would have expected to see, you know, a very steady growth, but a significant growth that would eventually turn into sort of a complete shift to electric vehicle purchases. Whereas it's taking a bit longer, I think, to occur than we would have, frankly, hoped for, but also expected, it's getting, it's gotten us or given us a bit more time as supposed to plan for it. But certainly from an electrification standpoint, and the predictions that we're making, we're seeing electric vehicles being sort of pervasive across our distribution system. It'll occur over a certain number of years, but we will have electric vehicle charging occur all over service territory. And certainly from a fleet standpoint, once again, as soon as some of the manufacturers manage to ramp up their capacity to produce vehicles, we're expecting to see more and more fleet operators move their entire operation to electric vehicles. And so we're preparing for that as well. Dan Seguin 22:58 Now, Guillaume, tell me, what keeps you up at night, then, talk to me about what gives you hope. Guillaume Paradis 23:06 So what still keeps me up at night. And I think that's just a virtue of the environment. And the industry that we're in is the safety of our team. And, frankly, anyone who interacts with our infrastructures, so that that's something that we easily forget in our society, considering how, you know, ubiquitous energy electricity is, it's just the sheer power that that electricity represents, and how close in proximity it comes to many people, certainly our workforce, you know, physically interacts with that infrastructure every day. And so ensuring that we remain safe at all times is critical. But it's the same for our customers and anyone who comes close to the electricity infrastructure. And so that's, that's first and foremost, I think it's just, you know, a reality of what we do, distributing electricity. But certainly just the general pace of change is interesting, I wouldn't say it keeps me up at night, because I'm worried it keeps me up at night because it's exciting. And there's so much possibilities that come with what's ahead to a degree that we've frankly, never seen in our industry. And so it's just a completely exciting time to be part of the electricity industry. We just got to make sure that we do everything we can to leverage what's coming for the benefit of our customers and to power our community. But you know, there are much worse things to be kept up at night by and I think it's just a lot of energy. Literally, I suppose, coming to all of us, you know around the organization in the industry. Well, hope is So we have, you know, so many bright colleagues, so many people looking at what's, you know, ahead and what's upon us, that we're uniquely positioned to help, you know, our, all societies across the globe, deliver on, you know, what is, you know, the generational challenge of climate change. So we're, you know, it's, it's not often that you're part of an industry that can have such a significant impact on such a large problem. And so to be right in the middle of it, and having a key role in enabling the aspiration of our entire society, is really exciting. And, you know, having the chance to take tangible and real concrete actions to get us all there is fantastic. So the hope comes from the energy of everyone involved, and the talent of everyone in Walt involved, and the passion that they bring to solving this massive, massive challenge that we have ahead of us. Dan Seguin 26:12 Moving on here, what role does hydro Ottawa or utilities in general have when it comes to delivering solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Guillaume Paradis 26:22 So that the, I think the unique perspective that we bring, so certainly, electrifying period, right, so we're, we're, you know, an alternative to dirtier sources, particularly here in Ontario, where we can still count on an electricity system that is very significantly, you know, supplied by renewable energy resources. So we're sort of a platform for greenhouse gas reduction, just by virtue of electrification. So that is a significant role. And even more importantly, we also have, you know, an opportunity to be direct partners with industries, stakeholders, businesses, commercial actors, who are actually trying to reduce their greenhouse gases, footprint and impact. And so we're, we're part of the conversation and what we do differently than other businesses is, we think and plan in decades, and, you know, in Windows of 25, and 50 years, and so we've been here 100 years, we're expecting to be here, you know, many 100 more. And so we have that long term perspective that we can bring to the table, when engaging with other stakeholders who maybe think more on a sort of business case level in terms of three and five year paybacks, we're actually able to bring in that long term perspective to inform their decision making. So it's pretty unique, frankly, and, and we're also in many, many cases, in a position where we're trusted advisors. So there has been that trust built over decades of being reliable and available. And so we're seen as or as almost impartial in the process of electrifying and reducing greenhouse gases. And so again, we can bring that perspective to bear when supporting our customers and making those decisions and enabling those objectives of more sustainable activities. Dan Seguin 28:43 Sorry about this Guillaume, but I've got a follow up question, what are some of the initiatives that hydro Auto is doing to help customers in this area? Guillaume Paradis 28:51 So we have essentially the full inventory of initiatives. So from a customer standpoint, we work with them at the facility level, we have, you know, our key account representatives, we're sort of their energy advisors on demand. And so, you know, that is a direct line between customers and all the portfolios and all the options that are available in the industry. So that's, that's big, because it's, it's almost working with them from the inception of their plans to try to bring them to, you know, that future of a lower carbon footprint. And so, you know, we're very active in that space. You know, from an energy standpoint and an energy system standpoint, we see our responsibility as being the local enabler of local renewable energy resources, and a more efficient use of energy, you know, in our community and in the communities that we serve. And so we're working with industry stakeholders, particularly regulatory agencies, and better informing their approach to enabling those resources to make sure that when customers approach us with their solar generation project, or with their battery storage project, we find the best way to make that investment work for them financially, but also for our community from a greenhouse gas standpoint. And so we have a very important role in sort of acting as an interface between, you know, our constituents, and the regulatory agencies that govern what we do. And that's fundamental to making that green future possible. Because we're essentially, you know, ending an entire regulatory framework, and an entire industry paradigm on the fly, as people make those decisions, to invest differently. And so that advisor role is critical, that advocacy role is critical. And you know, more specifically, we have a wide variety of programs, all available in great detail on our website, to help customers think through the decisions that they're making with respect to energy. Dan Seguin 31:21 Now, what are your thoughts on distributed energy resources, what kind of challenges or opportunities do they pose? Guillaume Paradis 31:32 Not only a great opportunity, but a necessary piece of that puzzle coming together with respect to electrifying and proceeding with that energy transition that we've all embarked on. And that going forward with the combination of a growing demand for electricity, and some of the challenges brought about by climate change, will need to be able to leverage energy resources closer to where the demand actually exists. And distributed energy resources are sort of the elementary building blocks that will allow us to do that where by having a generation closer to our customers within our community here in Ottawa, for example, and in Castleman, we'll be able to ensure that we're not reliant on power coming from, you know, hundreds of kilometers away somewhere across the province. And that under more scenarios, contingency or otherwise, we're able to leverage what's here to ensure that our customers stay power through whatever may come and so the D ers bolt in meeting capacity requirements going forward and meeting resilience expectations will be essential. And so once again, they in terms of scaling up to, you know, many 1000s within Ottawa, Ottawa, they represent a pretty significant engineering challenge in rethinking our control systems, our, you know, engineering decisions, but they're a necessary and important building block, and therefore much larger of an opportunity than they are a threat. And we just need to spend the next few years continuing to evolve our ability to leverage those in real time to meet our future objectives. Dan Seguin 33:30 Okay, yeah, we always end our interviews with some rapid fire questions. We've got a few for you. Are you ready? Guillaume Paradis 33:38 Okay,we'll give it a shot. Dan Seguin 33:40 Okay. What are you reading right now? Guillaume Paradis 33:43 So, I'm not sure if the timing of this conversation will matter. But certainly leading up to Remembrance Day, I sort of tend to go back to at least one book, you know, related to war, and the impacts of war. And so I've gotten back into reading August by Barbara Tuchman. So that's sort of one of my favorite books about the start of the First World War. Just very well written. And every time I go back to it, I'm just inspired by the quality of the storytelling, but I have this bad habit of reading multiple books at the same time, which typically takes me forever to get through them. I've started Dawn of everything or the dawn of everything, which is a complicated but very interesting reevaluation of how modern enlightenment thinking has evolved in Europe through the influence of some of the North American First Nations. It is a very interesting topic there. And also reading An old classic and letters from a stoic by Seneca when I managed to not fall asleep at 1230 Each night, but those are the three books that are on my night table right now. Dan Seguin 35:16 Now, what would you name your boat? If you have one? Or maybe do you have one? Guillaume Paradis 35:22 I do not. And I would let my kids name it. And so I expect it would be called something related to Paw Patrol, or the latest show that they're on these days. But I would certainly not shoulder that responsibility. And I would ask my kids to decide what the name should be, Dan Seguin 35:47 Who is someone that you admire, Guillaume? Dan Seguin 35:50 I'm going to stay on the same theme with that one. And I think I have to say, I admire my wife. And I do because I get to watch her in action every single day. And I see how she tackles problems. And she multitasks and makes problems go away that I couldn't quite wrap my head around. And so the relentless energy or determination that she applies to everything she does, is really a big inspiration for me. So, you know, surely there are others, you know, in our history or otherwise, that could be inspirations, but no one resonates in my life, quite to the degree that my wife does. Dan Seguin 36:35 Okay, what is the closest thing to real magic that you've witnessed? Guillaume Paradis 36:42 Fair, that's, that's a tricky one. I think, not the engineering type talking about science here. But I think just there's two extremes that are either dead technologies that we've managed to develop. And one of the ones I think of occasionally, is them, computers and the chips and the microprocessors we've been to develop, able to develop and just the sheer scale, and the complexity that we've been able to create there. Otherwise, things like CRISPR, for genetic splicing, I just still can't quite wrap my head around how that's possible. But we're able to do things with DNA now that are just, you know, stuff of science fiction 20 years ago, anything to do with space exploration, and deploying, you know, telescopes in space or launching probes to Mars, I still don't understand how we managed to do that, without something failing more often than it does. And otherwise, the other extreme, I would say is, is just nature, right. And that's exactly what we're all working on today, across the globe, is recognizing that what we have, you know, around us, our planet is just beyond amazing, and, you know, almost incomprehensible in complexity. And we have a responsibility to take care of that. But I think, you know, whenever we have, I have the chance of stepping out of the city and just looking around at nature for a few minutes, you have to kind of be reminded of how unlikely it all seems that something so complex, so beautiful, would come together. And so I think, you know, in the real world, those things are as close as we can get to magic, really. Dan Seguin 38:38 Okay, this is an interesting one, Guillaume. What has been the biggest challenge to you personally, since the pandemic began? Guillaume Paradis 38:46 That's a tricky one to think through. Because there's been so much that seems to have happened over the last 24 months - and now 30 months of the pandemic, I would say just having to constantly adapt without what seemed for a while a real frame of reference, right. So if you take yourself back to the early days of the pandemic, in particular, it just seemed like every other week, we would, we would be learning new things about how the pandemic would work and how forecasts look as to how we might get out of that situation. And so, you know, I'm someone who loves change in general. But even for me, in those early days, it just seemed a little bit unsettling to feel like every other week, you had to rethink a lot of your decisions, a lot of your planning a lot of the ways in which you thought you could protect yourself, your colleagues in your family, and so just having to do that on an ongoing basis for an extended period of time. Like that was very, very challenging. And so I'd probably put that as the biggest challenge. But obviously, you know, everything else that flowed from there was back to our society or friends and family or colleagues. That was just a very, very unique situation to work through in general, right? Dan Seguin 40:11 We've all been watching a lot more Netflix and TV lately, what is your favorite movie or your favorite show? Guillaume Paradis 40:19 So I watch just about anything that comes up, that I can sort of sit through for more than 15 minutes that sort of detest now. We've all watched so much TV over the last few years that if something can capture your attention for 15 minutes, that's probably a good sign. I always, and that might be a boring answer. But I always end up going back to, you know, one of the classics and Seinfeld. So, you know, you look at what's available. And, you know, sometimes you just don't have the energy to start something new. And I just go back to it, I found it's aged fairly well, some of the humor in there is quite timeless. And so it's sort of like a comforting blanket almost at this point, they just go back to a couple old Seinfeld episodes. Dan Seguin 41:12 Lastly, sir, what's exciting you about your industry right now? Guillaume Paradis 41:18 I mean, I've said it a few times already. But just the opportunity to be in the middle of all that change. Like, it's such an important time in our societies evolution, I would not want to be on the sidelines of watching that unfold. And I think, you know, being so centrally positioned to help us all achieve those really big aspirations we have with respect to climate and the environment. I think that's great, right? And we have the tools, we have the energy we have, you know, everyone is willing, and so we just have to do it. So I think, you know, it's such a source of inspiration and energy. That, you know, I couldn't ask for more frankly, electricity was always important. And I was always something that made our industry very intriguing, and, you know, interesting, but that has been taken to a whole new level in the last little while. And for the foreseeable future, that, you know, there's going to be an endless supply of energy for all of us to solve those big problems. Dan Seguin 42:31 Well, Guillaume, we've reached the end of another episode of The think energy podcast. If our listeners wanted to learn more about you, and our organization, how could they connect? Guillaume Paradis 42:45 So certainly, you know, go to our website, we've just launched a brand new website for a group of companies, I believe. It's under the name of power as one.com. Otherwise, our hydro auto website, of course, I wouldn't encourage you to find out more about me, I'm not that important. But check out the resources we have on our website. Our organization in particular is doing all sorts of novel and cool things, whether it be across Portage power, and vari Hebrew networks, or hydro Ottawa limited. So check out what we have there and reach out, you'll see all sorts of channels on there that you can use to engage with us. We're actively looking for everyone's input as we think about the future of energy. And so please come forward with whatever creative solutions you have. And I assure you, we'll consider them. Dan Seguin 43:46 Again, Guillaume, merci beaucoup, thank you so much for joining us today. I hope you had a lot of fun. Guillaume Paradis 43:52 Cheers. And it was great. Thank you, Dan, for having me. Dan Seguin 43:55 Thanks for tuning in to another episode of The Think Energy podcast. And don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review wherever you're listening. And to find out more about today's guests, or previous episodes, visit think energy podcast.com. I hope you'll join us again next time as we spark even more conversations about the energy of tomorrow.
PayPal Mafia - The Founders Story & Their Battle w/ EBAY w/ Jimmy Soni - BRT S03 EP36 (135) 8-7-2022 What We Learned This Week PayPal Mafia – alumni created or involved many other co's – Tesla, SpaceX, Palantir, Yelp, Yammer, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube & more PayPal had may contributors & a real long shot to happen during the DOTCOM Crash of 2000 Claude Shannon – creator of Information Theory, predecessor to the modern computer age, & algorithms Bell Labs was a classic Tech Incubator like Fairfield Semiconductor, Xerox Parc, Menlo Park – Edison / GE, Manhattan Project, Tuxedo Park PayPal sold to EBAY in 2002 for $1.5 Billion, prior to this, the two companies were rivals as EBAY wanted a different payment system Guest: Jimmy Soni, Author https://jimmysoni.com/ https://twitter.com/jimmyasoni https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmysoni/ My books are passion projects. My topics come because I look for a book to buy on the subject and can't find one. I know it's supposed to be fancier than that, or that there must be some grand theory of my work, but there isn't one. That said, my readers seem to enjoy what I've written, so maybe it's fine? I am inspired by my literary heroes, including Robert Caro, Laura Hillenbrand, Candice Millard, Daniel James Brown, and Barbara Tuchman, among many others. They are all rigorous researchers—but reading their books doesn't feel like doing homework. That's what I'm going for, and hopefully I hit the mark a few times. For me, books are all-consuming projects, leaving little other time for the things that should populate this section like hobbies, interests, and even the ability to remain in basic touch with people. I enjoy obsessing over a subject for years, and my goal is to find as much information as possible and then make the material readable for a general audience. When not writing or reading, I spend time with my daughter in Brooklyn, NY. If you'd like to connect, please drop me a line at hello [@] jimmysoni.com. https://jimmysoni.com/books/ The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley A definitive, deeply reported look at the origin of PayPal and its founding team, including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, Max Levchin, and others whose stories have never before been told. They defined the modern world. This experience defined them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia Paypal Mafia Elon Musk – Tesla, Space X, Boring Co. Peter Thiel – 1st FB Investor, AirBnB Investor, Founders Fund, Palantir Reid Hoffman – LinkedIn (sold to Microsoft) Max Levchin – Affirm, Investor in Yelp David O. Sacks – Geni.com & Yammer Chad Hurley – YouTube Russel Simmons – Yelp https://fintechboomer.com/guide-evaluate-the-founders-the-story-of-paypal-and-the-entrepreneurs-who-formed-silicon-valley/ https://www.pressreader.com/india/the-hindu-business-line/20220620/281758452959411 https://twitter.com/jimmyasoni/status/1488992532268732419 A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age In this elegantly written, exhaustively researched biography, Soni and Goodman reveal Claude Shannon's full story for the first time. With unique access to Shannon's family and friends, A Mind at Play brings this singular innovator and always playful genius to life. https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-claude-shannons-information-theory-invented-the-future-20201222/ QUANTIZED COLUMNS How Claude Shannon Invented the Future Today's information age is only possible thanks to the groundbreaking work of a lone genius. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9hfWiQKhcs&t=2s A Mind at Play | Jimmy Soni & Rob Goodman | Talks at Google Life in Code and Digits: When Shannon met ... - ScienceOpen Shannon is credited with the invention of signal-flow graphs, in 1942. He discovered the topological gain formula while investigating the functional operation of an analog computer. For two months early in 1943, Shannon came into contact with the leading British mathematician Alan Turing. Ed Thorp, Claude Shannon and the World's First ... - Winton https://www.winton.com › technology › 2018/07 › ed-t... Jul 13, 2018 — Thorp, 85, is a former American mathematics professor and hedge fund manager, who became a New York Times bestselling author in 1962 with his ... https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15Battier-t.html The No-Stats All-Star Notes: Claude Shannon Bio – A Mind at Play (2017) Claude Shannon – mathematician & MIT professor created Father of Information Theory – How do you make info transferrable, & secure in wartime? Friend of Alan Turing (British Mathematician), both worked on coding in WW2, German code breaking scientists became celebrities in WW2 and raised funding The science behind compressing info, digitizing info and MP3 files, transfer data Mathematics Theory of Communication, Shannon's paper and theory considered the Magna Carta of information age. Great paper theoretically and practically. Shannon created algorithm called sigsally. Imitation Game – WW2 bio movie about Alan Turing Shannon's work used for Gun torrents on Navy ships, target projectiles Bell Labs – math group that Shannon was a part of Famous Groups of Genius - Menlo Park – Edison/GE, Manhattan Project – Built the A Bomb Fairfield Semiconductor – predecessor to Intel and other Silicon Valley tech co's Bell Labs had money and started as R&D Dept. in Bell Telephone Bell Telephone ran all land lines in America, had a Fed guaranteed monopoly on the phone system Bell invented touch tone dialing, transistor, satellite tech, cell tech, communication networks We are all affected by Bell tech and inventions, modern age owes a solid to Bell Had big group of talent and could afford all of it, leading scientists of the time. During WW2 many major U.S. corporations – Bell, Ford were recruited by the US Government. War effort created urgency – math used to shoot down the enemy. The Founders – story of PayPal (2022) Dot Com burst created urgency to Pay Pal, bleeding money, had to survive. Dotcom crash – companies started 1 day, & BK out of business next day. Rise like a rocket and crash in 2 years Next Gen of Genius Teams - Xerox Parc, Microsoft, Apple Music Producer – Brian Eno coined the term “scenious” Scene meets genius - Clusters of talent American Revolution – Hamilton, Jefferson, Washington, Adams, Franklin all together for 1 cause Inklings, Fugitive Poets, 1960's British Music scene, Bill Walsh 49ers Coaching staff of the 1980s Paypal is the story of many – Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Reed Hoffman Alumni of Fairchild Semi led to Intel, Atari and Xerox Parc led to Apple. Post WW2 Bell Labs pressure decreased compared to PayPal. Bell Labs allowed free wheeling, could work on a project for 10 years. PayPal “mafia” Alumni – Yammer, YouTube, Slide, Yelp, Palantir, Tesla, Space X, LinkedIn, investers in FB Ghostbusters – safe jobs at universities vs real world, they want ‘results' Pet.com star of 2000, went BK end of 2000 with Superbowl Ad David Sachs – Palo Alto was “Killing Fields” of tech co's when, Dot coms go bust NASDAQ lost 80% of value in 2000 crash, Crypto Winter of 2022 is analogy Dotcom bust forced PayPal to create a real business and profitable transfer user to paying clients This in a time of infant internet, AOL mailed internet CD to potential customers PayPal doing credit card payments online 20 years ago with dial up internet MB recap of PayPal, 100 to 1 odds. Four year crazy time for PayPal and internet companies. Paypal survives, goes public IPO (2001) and is acquired by EBAY for $1.5 billion 2002. Still top payment system 20 years later, even owns Venmo, another big payment platform Spun off from EBAY (2015) as of 2022 - EBAY market cap $26 billion, PayPal market cap $112 billion Paypal grew email payments and reconcile payments, EBAY did not want to handle payments, clunky. Meg Whitman, (of HP) was running EBAY in 2002. Paypal lived in fear of her. No playbook to build Paypal or EBAY Raising funding, running business, recruiting talent is all hard, start business from scratch. Online payments was revolutionary Reid Hoffman – Dad and firefighter of PayPal had to broker EBAY / PayPal deal Max Levchin – engineer of PayPal – heart of company. Classic immigrant story – ambition and interest. Have to determine appropriate balance of user growth and fraud to keep business going David Sachs – cop, person who brings discipline to product design, Dr. No, must add value. Peter Thiel is a biz guy, raised money and ran PayPal Really smart people in the room, how to settle conflict when they disagree, often happened at PayPal Sales vs legal battle is a classic fued in business Internet was ‘wild west' in 2002, five years old with Section 230 David Sachs was the user ally, user experience ‘conscious' of PayPal Sachs appreciated the user experience and design just like Steve Jobs of Apple Elon Musk ran for X.com – was merged with Confinity (Thiel / Levchin) to be called PayPal (2000), both were trying to create online payments. PayPal was a product of Confinity. Reid Hoffman “Dad/Fireman' of PayPal, had to be the adult and fix problems Book process for Jimmy - 270 interviews over 6 ½ years to create and write book on PayPal. Lesson – Email a ton of people, many will respond So many people made significant contributions to PayPal. Huge cast of characters at the water cooler. Book is about business, tech, personalities. Sign up for EBAY, set up bank account, get 2 small deposits of 2 cents and code. Called Random Deposit system, micro deposits, created by Sanjay Bhargava Julie Anderson – X.com alum, came with Musk. Created Omaha customer service hub for PayPal, she was from Omaha, NE. PayPal still a large employer in NE Jack Selby – raised financing worldwide from Europe, Japan etc. Jack Malloy – early investor and VC in PayPal. Thiel raised $100 million right before DOTCOM bubble burst. PayPal paying money people to use PayPal and get users, cash burn rate Amy Kleiment – unsung hero of PayPal, she understands the Full Picture - resolves conflicts – saw how design went with Ops – Amy was Part Ops – historian – therapist Analogy of Shane Battier – Michael Lewis article (No Stats All Star) on former Duke player, whatever NBA Team he goes to, they win, Battier is the glue of the team. Big strategic decisions matter and that's what is written about. The Interesting problem solving and execution to start and grow a company is often not done by CEO (who gets credit), but by unsung hero no one knows about. Lots of people are involved to build a business. Jimmy does not have tech background. Wrote a history of PayPal and the stories Greg Kouri created Zip2 with Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal Musk, their first company sold for $307 million in 1999 to Compaq database/software company. Musk reinvested the $ in X.com Epilogue – PayPal Mafia affected and inspired tech startups worldwide Chris Wilson taught PayPal story in prison with Stephen Edwards in prison for murder in Baltimore, MD (think The Wire). They taught inspirational story of the entrepreneur. No ceiling on success, past does matter if you add value to others. 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Common Topics Discussed: Business, Entrepreneurship, Investing, Stocks, Cannabis, Tech, Blockchain / Crypto, Real Estate, Legal, Sales, Charity, and more… BRT Podcast Home Page: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/ ‘Best Of' BRT Podcast: Click Here BRT Podcast on Google: Click Here BRT Podcast on Spotify: Click Here More Info: https://www.economicknight.com/podcast-brt-home/ KFNX Info: https://1100kfnx.com/weekend-featured-shows/ Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the Hosts, Guests and Speakers, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent (or affiliates, members, managers, employees or partners), or any Station, Podcast Platform, Website or Social Media that this show may air on. All information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes. 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Two storied Jesuit institutions, the College of Holy Cross and Fordham Universities, have their first lay presidents. But Vincent Rougeau and Tania Tetlow are also both trained lawyers and each one respectively is the first Black president and first woman president to lead their institutions. Michael and Jeff welcome Vince and Tania to the podcast.Relevant Links:The future(s) of public higher education: How state universities can survive–and thrive–in a new eraChoosing College: How to Make Better Learning Decisions Throughout Your Life by Michael B. Horn and Bob MoestaHearts Touched with Fire: How Great Leaders are Made by David GergenThe March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam by Barbara Tuchman
Jimmy Soni is a speaker, speechwriter, and the author of books like The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley, Rome's Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, A Mind at Play, Mortal Enemy of Caesar, and Jane's Carousel: The story of one woman's remarkable 25-year odyssey to restore the beloved carousel at Brooklyn Bridge Park. He is also the Creative Director of Clout Public Affairs, and has previously worked for the New York Observer, Washington Examiner, and The Huffington Post. At their core, Jimmy's books are passion projects. Jimmy chooses topics because he wants to read about them but can't find a book to buy on the subject. He is inspired by his literary heroes, including Robert Caro, Laura Hillenbrand, Candice Millard, Daniel James Brown, and Barbara Tuchman. Like these acclaimed authors, Jimmy combines rigorous research with readability - he doesn't want his books to feel like doing homework. He enjoys obsessing over a subject for years and aims to find as much information as possible, and then make the material readable for a general audience. jimmysoni.com. Read the show notes here: https://bwmissions.com/one-away-podcast/
Photo: Drawing of Greek newspaper PATRIS, about Serbia' s bouble attack (from Bulgaria and German Empire) at World War I. 1915 @Batchelorshow 2/2: The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918, by Nick Lloyd . Hardcover – March 30, 2021 https://www.amazon.com/Western-Front-History-Great-1914-1918/dp/1631497944 A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, the acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches, where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II―soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals―lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from being a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies―machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers―were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences. 35 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps
Photo: German Army in destroyed Polish locality during World War I. @Batchelorshow 1/2: The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918, by Nick Lloyd. Hardcover – March 30, 2021 https://www.amazon.com/Western-Front-History-Great-1914-1918/dp/1631497944 A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, the acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches, where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II―soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals―lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from being a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies―machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers―were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences. 35 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps
Peace activist Koohan Paik-Mander joins Marc Eliot Stein to talk about the crisis of military escalation in Europe and the specter of superpower proxy wars in Ukraine, Taiwan, Iran, Venezuela. Koohan talks about her life's work as an environmental and antiwar activist, and how a significant protest movement to stop the construction of a US military base in Korea's Jeju Island revealed to her the deep power of solidarity. We also talk about biodeiversity, anarcho-pacifism, white nationalism in US military and police forces, Xi Jinping's appearance at Davos, massive whale deaths in the Pacific ocean from military actions, the place of technology and social media in the lives of activists, the parallels between today's Ukraine/Russia buildup and Europe's collapse into the first world war in 1914, and what must be remembered from Barbara Tuchman's history book “The Guns of August”. Musical excerpt: Youn Sun Nah.
This week on Lady History: It is our party and we will cry if we want to! Hear the stories of ladies who share each of our hosts' birthdays! Meet Lexi's lady George Eliot, Haley's heroine Agathe Uwilingiyimana, Alana's academic Barbara Tuchman. A huge thank you to all of our listeners who have made this past year amazing. We are so proud of how far we have come in 50 episodes, and hope you will join us for the next 50... and beyond. Logo by: Alexia Ibarra Editing by: Haley Khosrowshahi Music by: Alana Stolnitz A full text transcript of the this show, as well as merch, sources, attributions, and further readings, can be found at ladyhistorypod.com Support us on Patreon for just $1: www.patreon.com/ladyhistorypod Follow us on Twitter, TikTok & Instagram: @ladyhistorypod Have a question? A business inquiry? Contact: ladyhistorypod@gmail.com Leave us an audio message for a chance to be featured in the show: anchor.fm/ladyhistory/messages Special thanks to anchor.fm for sponsoring our podcast.
Photo: No known restrictions on publication. CBS Eyes on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Nick Lloyd #Unbound. The complete, eighty-minute interview. June 5, 2021. Nick Lloyd, The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918 – March 30, 2021. Hardcover. A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, the acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches, where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II―soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals―lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from being a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies―machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers―were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences. 35 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps
Photo: Amsterdam, Netherlands: Promise of marriage to the Führer - Trouwbetuiging aan den Führer - Fotodienst der NSB - NIOD - 156216 CBS Eyes on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Nick Lloyd #Unbound. The complete, eighty-minute interview. June 5, 2021. Nick Lloyd, The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918 – March 30, 2021. Hardcover. A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, the acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches, where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II―soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals―lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from being a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies―machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers―were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences. 35 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps
Photo: LOC caption : "At close grips with the Hun, we bomb the corkshaffer's, etc." Two United States soldiers run past the remains of two German soldiers toward a bunker. Still image from The Battle of the Somme showing a wounded soldier being carried through a trench. The accompanying title frame read: :British Tommies rescuing a comrade under shell fire. (This man died 30 minutes after reaching the trenches.) CBS Eyes on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Nick Lloyd #Unbound. The complete, eighty-minute interview. June 5, 2021. Nick Lloyd, The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918 – March 30, 2021. Hardcover. A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, the acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches, where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II―soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals―lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from being a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies―machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers―were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences. 35 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps .. .. .. Permissions For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Factual corrections and alternative descriptions are encouraged separately from the original description. Additionally errors can be reported at this page to inform the Bundesarchiv. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Western_Front_(World_War_I)_2.jpg At_close_grips2.jpg: H.D. Gridwood The_Battle_of_the_Somme_film_image2.jpg: Geoffrey Malins Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-R05148,_Westfront,_deutscher_Soldat.jpg: Unknown FT-17-argonne-1918.gif: Unknow (U.S. Army soldier or employee) Royal_Irish_Rifles_ration_party_Somme_July_1916.jpg: Royal Engineers No 1 Printing Company. Gotha_G_IV_Flug.jpg: Unknown author derivative work: Rupertsciamenna (talk) .. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unportedlicense. | You are free:to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work - to remix – to adapt the workUnder the following conditions: - attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
Photo: i was there with the yanks on the western front. CBS Eyes on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Nick Lloyd #Unbound. The complete, eighty-minute interview. June 5, 2021. Nick Lloyd, The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918 – March 30, 2021. Hardcover. A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, the acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches, where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II―soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals―lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from being a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies―machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers―were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences. 35 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps
Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower famously said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Additionally, in Barbara Tuchman's book, The Guns of August, she illustrates the importance of building flexibility into a plan. In this episode of Office Call, Nesta Garner and John Forbes conduct an after action report to evaluate how the 90 Day Command Plan survived the first contact. They discuss what went well, what did not go so well, and what changes to make for the next plan.
Photo: he British Advance in the West. Huge mountain of empty shell casings. CBS Eyes on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Nick Lloyd #Unbound. The complete, eighty-minute interview. June 5, 2021. Nick Lloyd, The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918 – March 30, 2021. Hardcover. A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, the acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches, where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II―soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals―lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from being a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies―machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers―were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences. 35 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps
The finale of my review of THE PROUD TOWER by Barbara Tuchman also finishes off our look at this mid-century American historian.
Photo: No known restrictions on publication. CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Nick Lloyd #Unbound. The complete eighty-minute interview. June 5, 2021. Nick Lloyd, The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918 – March 30, 2021. Hardcover. A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, the acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches, where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II―soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals―lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from being a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies―machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers―were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences. 35 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps
As we move on in Barbara Tuchman's THE PROUD TOWER we explore chapters devoted to the Hague Conventions on peace with their successes and failures, as well German culture. The later chapter deals almost exclusively with the career of Richard Strauss, the composer.
Photo: British and German wounded, Bernafay Wood, 19 July 1916. Photo by Ernest Brooks.. CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Nick Lloyd #Unbound. The complete eighty-minute interview. June 5, 2021. Nick Lloyd, The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918 – March 30, 2021. Hardcover. A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, the acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches, where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II―soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals―lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from being a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies―machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers―were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences. 35 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps
In chapters 3-4 of THE PROUD TOWER by Barbara Tuchman we examine the emergence of a new phase of American imperialism and the Dreyfus Affair in France. These two chapters are not very related, but the entire book is quite fragmented.
Photo: The Council of Four (from left to right): David Lloyd George, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson in Versailles, 1919 7/8 Nick Lloyd, The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918 – March 30, 2021. Hardcover. A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, the acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches, where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II―soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals―lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from being a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies―machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers―were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences.35 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps
Photo: 6/8 Nick Lloyd, The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918 – March 30, 2021. Hardcover. A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, the acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches, where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II―soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals―lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from being a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies―machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers―were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences.35 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps
Photo: 5/8 Nick Lloyd, The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918 – March 30, 2021. Hardcover. A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, the acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches, where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II―soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals―lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from being a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies―machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers―were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences.35 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps
Photo: 4/8 Nick Lloyd, The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918 – March 30, 2021. Hardcover. A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, the acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches, where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II―soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals―lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from being a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies―machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers―were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences.35 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps
Photo: 8/8 Nick Lloyd, The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918 – March 30, 2021. Hardcover. A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, the acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches, where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II―soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals―lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from being a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies―machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers―were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences.35 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps
Photo: 2/8 Nick Lloyd, The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918 – March 30, 2021. Hardcover. A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, the acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches, where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II―soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals―lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from being a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies―machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers―were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences.35 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps
Photo: The Entente Powers were a coalition of countries led by France, Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan and the United States against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria and their colonies during the First World War (1914–1918). Here: 1914 Russian poster depicting the Triple Entente.. .. .. 1/8 Nick Lloyd, The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918 – March 30, 2021. Hardcover. A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, the acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches, where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II―soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals―lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from being a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies―machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers―were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences.35 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps
Photo: 3/8 Nick Lloyd, The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918 – March 30, 2021. Hardcover. A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, the acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches, where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II―soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals―lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from being a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies―machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers―were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences.35 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps
I kick off my four-part look at THE PROUD TOWER by Barbara Tuchman. The first two chapters of this book look at pre-Great War British aristocracy and anarchism. Two topics that do not see to meld, within a book that does either.
The finale of my review of THE GUNS OF AUGUST by Barabara Tuchman. I give my overall feelings of this text along with a look at the last chapters and Tuchman's conclusion.
In this episode, we discuss: *The role that Rick's father played in his son's interest in the US Army and military history *The role that Rick's time living in Germany had in his decision to write about World War II *Rick's interest in a career in the Army and his declined appointment to West Point *What led Rick to leave the Washington Post to pursue military history *What Rick means when he calls himself “a recovering journalist” *What led Rick to writing Crusade, his book on the Persian Gulf War, and some of the challenges he encountered in researching and writing along the way *Some of the surprises Rick learned while writing Crusade *How Rick came to write his third book, In the Company of Soldiers *The story behind how Rick got embedded with David Petraeus and the 101st Airborne Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom-1 *Rick's experiences of witnessing a full-scale invasion of another country *What it was like to watch Dave Petraeus command the 101st Airborne Division *Rick's observations of the Iraqi forces *What a military historian learns from embedding with a combat unit, and how this affected Rick's subsequent military history writing *The American and German ‘ways of war' in World War II *Rick's thoughts on the US 1st Infantry Division and 3rd Infantry Division in the war in Europe *Rick's take on US Army General Mark Clark *The contentious relationship between Eisenhower and Montgomery *Why Rick hasn't written on the Pacific Theater and some of the historical actors, battles, and topics from that theater that interest him *Rick's experience researching and writing The British Are Coming *George Washington as a tactical and operational commander *The similarities between Eisenhower and Washington *Washington as a kvetcher in his private correspondence *Where the phrase “win hearts and minds” comes from *Rick's process for starting a book *Rick's use of outlines *The cartographer for Rick's books *Rick's lack of writer's block *Rick's take on the state of military history today *Why some journalists turn to writing military history *Rick's thoughts on professional military education, especially as it pertains to junior leaders *Why all service members should know where their branch comes from *Rick's advice on getting started on professional military reading Links The British Are Coming by Rick Atkinson: https://www.amazon.com/British-Are-Coming-Lexington-Revolution/dp/1627790438 The Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson: http://liberationtrilogy.com In the Company of Soldiers by Rick Atkinson: https://www.amazon.com/Company-Soldiers-Chronicle-Combat/dp/0805077731 Crusade by Rick Atkinson: https://www.amazon.com/Crusade-Untold-Story-Persian-Gulf/dp/0395710839 The Long Gray Line by Rick Atkinson: https://www.amazon.com/Long-Gray-Line-American-Journey/dp/080509122X Errata Towards the end of the interview, while Rick and I discussed journalists who had turned to writing military history, Rick mentioned The Guns at Last Light when he meant to say Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August. I missed the slip as well. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/damien-oconnell/support
Toward the end of Barbara Tuchman's THE GUNS OF AUGUST we explore the battle of Tannenberg and the retreat of French armies toward Paris. Tuchman also analyzes the situation at sea and the position of the USA in the early days of the Great War.
Part three of a review of THE GUNS OF AUGUST by Barbara Tuchman. The logic of planning leading to entrenchment (military, institutional, and ideology) is explored in the middle chapters of this excellent study of the first days of the Great War.
In this episode, I explore the second part of THE GUNS OF AUGUST by Barbara Tuchman. In these chapters we see how the war plans set up by the Great Powers made conflict unavoidable and prevented military and political institutions from changing course.
So glad to be back with a volume of The Library of America. This episode will begin a one-month series exploring THE GUNS OF AUGUST and THE PROUD TOWER, beginning with the opening chapters of GUNS. The warnings of the Great War speak to the Cold War in rather direct ways.
Episode 71 includes a reading of "A Tough Tussle" written by Ambrose Bierce. Thank you to all veterans for your service to your country. Recommended Books this episode: - "The Guns of August" - by Barbara Tuchman - "The Black Count" - by Tom Reiss - "Hero of the Empire" - by Candice Millard - "Rubicon" - by Tom Holland "A Tough Tussle" starts at 7:40 Thanks for listening!
Plague, political upheaval, the looming prospect of another civil war... what century are we in? To retain historical perspective, and to find inspiration in how humanity has recovered from far greater upheavals in the past, we turn to Barbara Tuchman's classic work, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. What we find in the late Middle Ages is a vision of hell, along with overwhelming evidence that the best of humanity can endure the worst. To help support Context and access supporter-only episodes, head to patreon.com/context For more information visit bradharris.com
Tensions come to a head between Chiang Kai-shek, Wang Jingwei and General Kuibyshev, as a Soviet plot backfires spectacularly.Further Reading:C. Martin Wilbur and Julie Lien-ying How, Missionaries of Revolution: Soviet Advisers and Nationalist China, 1920-1927Wu Tien-wei, “Chiang Kai-shek's March Twentieth Coup d'Etat of 1926”Barbara Tuchman, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945Some names from this episode:Mikhail Borodin, Comintern agent and head of Soviet mission to aid the GuomindangWang Jingwei, Leader of Guomindang government in Guangdong in late 1925 and early 1926Dai Jitao, Right-wing Guomindang ideologueNikolay Kuibyshev, Soviet general and head of military mission in Guangdong in late 1925 and early 1926Victor Rogachev, Soviet general and adviser to Chiang Kai-shekLi Zhilong, Communist in Guomindang navyHu Hanmin, Leader of Guomindang right-wing, spent a period of exile in the USSRAndrei Bubnov, Headed Soviet military inspection mission to ChinaGeneral V. A. Stepanov, Headed Soviet military mission after Kuibyshev left and before Blyukher returnedVasily Blyukher, Soviet general whose return was requested by Chiang Kai-shekChen Duxiu, General Secretary of the Communist Party
It's time again for our Sunday Book Club discussion. Today we're wrapping up our look at Barbara Tuchman's classic work on the opening month of World War I, "The Guns of August." We also announce the next book we'll be reading. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/revisionisthistory/support
It's time again for our Sunday Book Club discussion. Today we're looking at the third section of Barbara Tuchman's classic work on the opening month of World War I, "The Guns of August." --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/revisionisthistory/support
This epsiode is the second installment of our new Sunday Book Club discussion. Today we're looking at the second section of Barbara Tuchman's classic work on the opening month of World War I, "The Guns of August." --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/revisionisthistory/support
This epsiode is the first installment of our new Sunday Book Club discussion. Today we're looking at the first section of Barbara Tuchman's classic work on the opening month of World War I, "The Guns of August." --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/revisionisthistory/support
Episode 61: Who let the Foss Out is live! Thomas Foss joins Jay as they discuss the latest news from Skull and Crown Strategem! https://soundcloud.com/user-989538417/ep-61-who-let-the-foss-out Follow Thomas on Twitter! @skullncrown Skull and Crown Blog! http://skullandcrown.blogspot.com/ Skull and Crown web store! https://www.skullncrown.com/ Skull and Crown on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/skullandcrown/ Cryptic Studios, Thomas's day job! https://crypticstudios.com/games A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman https://www.amazon.com/Distant-Mirror-Calamitous-14th-Century/dp/0345349571 Codex Manesse https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/cpg848 Peter Dennis Paper Figures https://peterspaperboys.com/ Junior General Carthagenians and Republican Romans https://juniorgeneral.org/index.php/figure/figureList/ancient Tom Meier's Darksword Miniatures https://www.darkswordminiatures.com/product-category/miniature-lines/ Strazza Veiled Virgin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Veiled_Virgin Drew Day Williams's Satyr Arts Studio https://satyrartstudio.ecwid.com/ Vox Cast with Jes Goodwin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg7JUtnUT6Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSs6Wx9_haA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwS0bQoZT1w Perry Minitaures https://www.perry-miniatures.com/ Foundry Early Imperial Romans https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/pages/imperial-romans Cadian Plasma Gunner http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/images/4/49/Cadian_plasma_gun.jpg Lansknechts on Campaign https://www.amazon.com/Landsknechts-Campaign-Geisbergs-Woodcuts-Selections/dp/0998597740 Recruits Convention http://recruitsconvention.com/ Diehard Miniatures https://diehardminiatures.com/ Conrad Kinch @aquestingvole https://anchor.fm/conrad-kinch Thomas Hoff @hoff1thomas CORRECTION: Thomas is the curator at Jefferson Barracks Historic Site. i apologize for the error. https://www.facebook.com/JeffersonBarracksHistoricSite Jonathan J. Reinhart @wargamingrecon https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcasts-wargaming-recon/id273121833 Legendary Noize Machine @legendarynoizemachine Copplestone Castings 15mm Fantasy https://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/list.php?cat=18&page=1 Shogun Miniatures steel bases http://shogunminiatures.com/ Edited with Audacity. Music courtesy of freemusicarchive.org. Copyright Jay Arnold 2020. Published under Creative Commons attribution no derivatives license. Make your town beautiful; get a haircut.
In today's episode I am announcing the start of The Revisionist History Podcast Book Club (we'll shorten the name later). We'll do one historical book a month, with episodes covering parts of it each Saturday, so we can know the real history of a subject to better combat the myths. Our first book is Barbara Tuchman's World War One classic "The Guns of August." I hope you'll join us. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/revisionisthistory/support
A special episode, an audio roundup/summary of the last year’s podcasts. I cover the 19 episodes I did starting in June last year. A year of thinking out loud.The inaugural episode riffing on the like-new ethos of the industrial age and the transience/aging based ethos of the digital age. June 21, 2019: A Wabi-Sabi Technological Age. On the problem of how to repeatedly break into technology scenes. July 5, 2019: Following the Scenius. Plotting vs. pantsing, and setting the stage for creative, generative work vs. planning to finish something. July 26, 2019: Planning to Start, Planning to Finish. An episode on how marketing is now a bottom-up process with 3 layers: memes, brands, and missions. August 2, 2019: Memes, Brands, and Missions.On why social media favors positive behaviors such as clicking like buttons, but not negative ones like mute and block. August 23, 2019: Towards Subtractive Social Media. Investing in the things that make you ordinary rather than special, such as being an early adopter. August 30, 2019: Investing in Your Ordinary Powers. Probably my favorite thread of the first year, building an analogy between charismatic megafauna and technologies, built around a 2x2 of non-marquee vs. marquee, and smoke-and-mirrors vs. WYSIWYG. September 6, 2019: Technological Charisma. Riffing on the problem of how injecting AI into a system breaks learning curves for humans. September 20, 2019: Like Riding an AI Bicycle. Next up, another episode based on a 2x2, this one has normal versus weird on the x axis, and timid vs. bold on the y axis. September 27, 2019: The Direction of Maximal Derangement. Picking up the thread on charismatic technologies from September 6, an episode about an idea to replace the concept of Net Neutrality, based on the end-to-end principle, with one based on end-to-end encryption. October 4, 2019: Charisma Neutrality. A reflection on the death of Alexey Leonov and the first spacewalk with two women, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir. October 18, 2019: Spacewalks and the Species.Putting together ideas from Alan Kay, William Gibson to think about how December 6, 2019: Inventing TimeNavigating time in ways that go beyond optimism and pessimism. February 21: Beyond Optimism and PessimismThe first pandemic episode. The word default has two meanings: failure to fulfill an obligation, and a preselected option. Both meanings became very salient with the pandemic. April 3, 2020: Defaults and Defaults.A riff on Marc Andreessen’s Time to Build essay which was doing the rounds then, based on a graphic I made up called the Builder’s Cone, comparing the relative rates at which you adapt versus society adapts. April 24, 2020. How, What, and Where to BuildOne of the things I’ve been doing with the pandemic is reading a lot of history that seems relevant. Through most of May and June, I was reading Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror. An episode inspired by that. May 8, 2020: The Medieval Future of Management.In May, we had the BLM protests and that seemed to bump the pandemic from the headlines. What was the significance of that? May 29, 2020. From Story to SettingConnecting the idea of big moods to emotional common knowledge, and a complementary concept I made up called little moods. June 19, 2020. Big Moods, Little Moods.Probably my most popular episode from the last year, a detailed look at the concepts of elites and elitism, how elites fail, and how to get better elites. July 10, The Next Experiments in Elitism. Get full access to Breaking Smart at breakingsmart.substack.com/subscribe
Hoy hablamos de una importante historiadora norteamericana, Bárbara Tuchman. Para acceder al programa sin interrupción de comerciales, suscríbete a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/elvillegas TAMBIÉN APÓYANOS EN FLOW: https://www.flow.cl/app/web/pagarBtnPago.php?token=0yq6qal COMPRA "Grandes Invitados" en Amazon: https://amzn.to/3ccAWPV AMAZON KINDLE https://amzn.to/2yYcuDy Encuentra a El Villegas en: Web: http://www.elvillegas.cl Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elvillegaschile Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/elvillegaschile Soundcloud: https://www.soundcloud.com/elvillegaspodcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7zQ3np197HvCmLF95wx99K Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elvillegaschile
My second deep dive pandemic read is Freedom’s Forge by Arthur Herman, covering the history of the United States’ industrial mobilization for World War 2. There is a good deal of resemb… https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2020/07/14/notes-freedoms-forge-by-arthur-herman/ Freedom’s Forgemy previous deep dive, on Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant MirrorJames Giammona William KnudsenHenry KaiserNye CommitteeBernard BaruchWar Industries BoardSix Companies Harold IckesReality has a surprising amount of detailWalter ReutherEliot JanewayHillmanRichmond shipyardsCincinnati Milling MachineBattle of Wake IslandphotosDon NelsonAndrew Jackson Higginsa big steel plant in CaliforniaCharles SorensenYour Business Goes to WarExecutive Order 8802On google booksbaby aircraft carriersSpruce GooseCurtis LeMayOrganization Man@jamesgiammona
I just finished the heaviest read so far in my pandemic reads list, Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror, about the 14th century, loosely an account of the European experience of the Black Deat… https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2020/07/06/notes-a-distant-mirror-by-barbara-tuchman/ Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirrorwhile live-tweeting itEnguerrand de Coucysumptuary lawsPhilip IVpapacy moving to AvignonSimony1320 PastoureauxBattle of CrécyHundred Years Warmiasma theoryflagellantsClement VI 1350 jubileemendicant ordersOrder of the GarterOrder of the StarThe Combat of the ThirtyCharles of NavarreBattle of Poitierscommerce vs guardian syndromesÉtienne MarcelGreat Ordinance of 1357JacquerieTreaty of BretignyEdward III Jean FroissartGeoffrey ChaucerIsabella Kardashian-HiltonHow the Black Death Gave Rise to British Pub Cultureknights vs archers, contemporaneous Indian editionVisconti family of ItalyWhite CompanyJohn HawkwoodGugler warJohn WycliffeseneschalBlack Princea whole bookBrethren of the Free SpiritNicholas OresmeCatherine of SienaPope Urban vs Pope Clement schismEustache DeschampsLouis 1, Duc d’OrleansGrand ButlerMahdia or Barbary CrusadeWenceslasdanse macabrethe new stylefuneral effigiesGuillaume de HersigyCharles VICrusade of Nicopolis
Barbara Tuchman, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of the WWI classic, “The Guns of August,” once observed, “The unrecorded past is none other than our old friend, the tree in the primeval forest which fell without being heard.” Not only must history be recorded, it must also be examined and retold. For most of us, who are not professional historians, we approach history through the curation and re-telling of the past, mainly via books and documentaries. Perhaps we are not so different from our ancestors, and their oral traditions. History may be written by the victors, but it’s kept alive through the story tellers. Today we are heading to London to meet with journalist and author, Wendy Moore. Like Tuchman, Wendy was also drawn to the period of “The Great War,” but in search of story many of you have likely never heard of. In a time when women in the UK, the US and most democratic nations were not even allowed to vote, there was a hospital called Endell Street. A hospital with women surgeons, women nurses, women administrators, and women staff. A hospital almost completely run by and run with women! A 573 bed hospital that performed over 7000 surgical operations and treated some 26,000 wounded soldiers, many with unprecedented battlefield trauma. A hospital led by two active suffragette doctors, one with a criminal record, having been sentenced to six weeks in prison for her protests. A hospital that also treated Spanish Flu patients before being shut down and nearly lost to history…until now.
In today’s episode, I want to talk about a new phase in the pandemic, marked by a shift in the role of the pandemic itself from foreground story, to background setting of other stories. I also have a couple of interesting announcements at the end.1/ So this week, several non-pandemic things are dominating the headlines, the big one in the US of course being the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police in Minneapolis. Now this is of course a familiar type of story by now, except that this one has very low ambiguity, and has had a much more violent response, including the burning of a police precinct building last night.2/ A couple of days ago as this was starting to unfold, a twitter user named Robert Evans voiced the opinion that the pandemic might not be the biggest story of 2020, to which another user named Mach0 replied with what I thought was a very astute comment: “I'm pretty sure now that coronavirus isn't the story. It's the setting.” 3/ Now that’s a very clever line, and is the inspiration for the title of today’s episode, From Story to Setting. I think the pandemic has entered a new phase, where it is no longer the front-page story, but it is definitely the background context for every story. For example, in this case, social distancing is an element in protests, and everybody involved is already on edge, so you get a more raw, high-tension version of the script playing out. The story is familiar, but it is playing out against a new kind of background.4/ I want to unpack what it means to for a big, all-subsuming condition to evolve from story to setting. In the case of the pandemic, we can detect 3 phases. Phase 0 was when it was just a story. A regular news story from China. Phase 1 was when it became both the story and the setting. We are now entering the third phase, when it is primarily the setting.5/ But this setting phase is not like other settings, which is why I don’t like the phrase “new normal.” There’s nothing normal about it. But it is definitely the background setting now, just not a normal or indefinitely sustainable one. But even unsustainable things can sometimes last a really long time, even decades.6/ When I think about what this setting is like, the main thing that strikes me is that between Phase 0 to Phase 2, we’ve gone from a setting that was very stable, reliable, and well-understood by people in the foreground stories, to a setting that is very unstable, unreliable, and very poorly understood. 7/ In Phase 0, our knowledge of the context of the stories was strong. You didn’t have to think about how Starbucks worked for example. In Phase 1, the context began unraveling, but because we were in emergency mode with limited goals, we didn’t notice as much. Our questions about the setting in Phase 1 were limited to things like “how do I pay rent” or “where do I get groceries?”8/ Phase 2 is different. We’ve sort of figured out band-aid responses to emergency concerns for the time being. The full force of our deep ignorance about this new context is just starting to hit us. How will new outbreaks happen? We don’t know. What happens to unemployed people when the emergency measures run out? We don’t know. How will we travel? We don’t know. How will geopolitics shift? We don’t know. 9/ Another way to think about it is in terms of the relationship of foreground and background knowledge. Story knowledge versus setting knowledge. In Phase 0, when things were normal, both were solid ground. You understood the story of your life and you understood the setting at about the same level. Your story knowledge was like a walled garden on solid land. 10/ In Phase 1, your story knowledge was still solid land, but your setting knowledge began turning into quicksand. Everything outside your immediate control became uncertain at a very basic level. The game that kids play in the US, the floor is lava, became a common metaphor for this.11/ In Phase 2, the setting knowledge has gone from quicksand or lava or water — whatever you want to call it — to a hardening vacuum. Now that immediate emergency concerns are taken care of, the sheer weight of what we don’t know is becoming clear.12/ So if the pandemic is a setting, we know what sort of setting it is: it is a vacuum-like setting. A vacuum of knowledge, where we just don’t know the answers to far too many questions we’re used to knowing the answers to. This is of course, not normal, so calling it a new normal is stupid.13/ So what can we expect in this Phase 2? I’ve been reading about 3 major historical precedent events to make sense of this question: the Black Death, the Spanish Flu, and the reconstruction in the lead up to and after World War 2. And unfortunately, the grim news is that our situation actually most resembles the Black Death.14/ So for those of you interested, the main books I’m reading about these three events are: Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror for the Black Death in Europe, which I’m halfway through, and live-tweeting, Laura Spinney’s Pale Rider for the Spanish Flu worldwide, which I’m just starting, and Arthur Herman’s Freedom’s Forge for World War 2 in the US, which I’ve almost finished. Today, I mainly want to compare our condition to the Black Death.15/ So obviously, in many ways, the Black Death is the worst precedent: it was almost 700 years ago, the technology was far more primitive, and the pandemic itself was far worse. Somewhere between a third to half of Europe’s population died then, whereas today, it’s probably going to land at less than even the Spanish Flu, which was about 2%.16/ But in many ways, the Black Death is the right precedent. It brought a bunch of strong historical forces, which had been building up pressure, to a crisis point. It ended a 500-year historical era, namely the European Middle Ages. It was followed by a century of chaos, when it felt like the world had ended, followed by an age of exploration and a very slow rebirth with the Renaissance. 17/ In the book, Tuchman spends only a couple of short chapters on the Black Death itself, where the main wave was 1348-1350, right in the middle of the 14th century. The big story arc of the book is the before/after. In the first half of the century, a lot of strong tensions and trends were developing. In 2 years, the Black Death accelerated those trends and brought them to a crisis point.18/ The second half of the century, and most of the book, is about the world carved out by the Black Death. There’s curiously little about the pandemic itself. But it was clearly the setting for everything else that happened. For example, pervasive labor shortages shaped the economy, and a pervasive sense of being abandoned by god shaped the collective psyche.19/ So before the Black Death, there were growing 3-way tensions among the three estates — clergy, nobility, and commoners. There was also tension within the third estate, as the new urban merchant class of bourgeoise was starting to separate from the general class of peasantry, including people in varying degrees of serfdom.20/ So what happened? Before the Black Death, things were going through a 14th century version of what I’ve called the Great Weirding in our time, the period from 2016-20. I just started that essay series in last week’s newsletter if you want to check that out, btw. But 1300 to 1350 were a Great Weirding period for Europe in the Middle Ages, culminating in the Black Death. It took them almost 50 years where it took us 5 years because it was a slower era.21/ Back then, Phase 0 was the early part of the Black Death when it was still confined to isolated parts of Italy. Phase 1 was when it had spread throughout Europe. Phase 2 started around 1350, and lasted the next fifty years. Hopefully, we’ll get done with our Phase 2 more quickly, but there’s no knowing.22/ Now here’s the thing about the Phase 2 of the Black Death: it’s clear that everything basically broke at a very deep level, which is a very strong statement coming from me. I don’t like to call complex systems broken very often. Usually when people say that, they are just complaining that the system is working for somebody else rather than for them. But when the system doesn’t work for any of its human individual or institutional parts, or even to preserve and perpetuate itself, I think it is safe to say it is actually broken.23/ The Black Death, arguably, broke the society of the European High Middle Ages. In the transition from high to late middle ages between 1350-1400 or so, it didn’t work for anybody very well. Not for clergy, with trust in the church falling apart, not for the nobility, with the culture of feudal chivalry unraveling into Hobbesian warfare and what we would today call a warlord condition, and certainly not for the bourgeoisie or peasantry of the third estate. And it didn’t even sustain itself. It was falling apart.24/ Now that’s what a Phase 2 condition is, and that’s why you can’t call it new normal because it neither sustains, nor leads up naturally to a true new normal. In the case of Europe after the Black Death, everything collapsed, but it took more than a century for a true new normal to emerge, what we recognize today as the Renaissance, by the early 16th century.25/ Historians apparently call this collapsed period the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages, which had 3 external triggers: a famine in 1315-16 as the prequel, the Black Death as the main event, and the start of what’s called the Little Ice Age towards the end. Socially and politically, this period was marked by the 100 years war, which was a straggling period of nearly continuous warfare rather than a single war.26/ If you map it to today, you get a similar Crisis of Late Modernity. Our 3 events are probably the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, Covid19, and climate change coming up. If the Black Death is a good precedent, we can expect at least a few decades of a broken world that doesn’t work for anybody in it, and can’t sustain itself either. That’s the worst case scenario. Hopefully we can do better than that.27/ Which brings me to the third part. Assuming a condition of pandemic-as-setting, where the setting is characterized by a vacuum of knowledge, what kind of life condition can you expect? The answer emerging is not pleasant. I think of it in terms of a disease I call meta-covid.28/ Meta-covid is a disease that has 3 key symptoms in Phase 1: An altered sense of time perception, which I wrote about in Pandemic Time (April 10), and a sense of things going brrrr, as in the meme, which I wrote about in life go brrrr… (March 27), and a weird sense of purpose, even in people who are not particularly purposeful, and actually prefer a playful, purposeless life. In Phase 2, the Phase 1 symptoms get altered and new Phase 2 symptoms appear. 29/ The altered time perception starts to acquire a non-specific waiting character. It’s not a waiting for normalcy or specific re-opening milestones. It’s a sort of generic waiting, like the Samuel Beckett play, Waiting for Godot, or like waiting for salvation or an afterlife in a highly religious time like the 14th century.30/ The life go brrr…. aspect also shifts, as the initial things going brrr… much of it which has a positive exhilarating feel, runs out of energy. But other things, much less positive, starts to spin up, and bad things start going brrr….We just saw an early example of a bad thing going brrr…. in Minneapolis last night.31/ The sense of purpose also transforms. Instead of being energizing, it now feels like a burden you cannot get rid of, like Frodo carrying the One Ring to Mordor. There was an article in HBR talking about this, where a lot of leaders are talking about a sense of clarity and purpose that the pandemic has given them. The article warns that this is an emergency response exhilaration, and it can give way to regression, which is described as: “Then the second phase hits: a regression phase, where people get tired, lose their sense of purpose, start fighting about the small stuff, and forget to do basic things like eat or drink — or they eat and drink too much.”32/ But maybe the biggest new thing in Phase 2 is two new symptoms. The first is that it becomes harder and harder to simply waste time. There is a sense of foreshortened future, where you cannot see past the unspecified thing you’re waiting for. So there’s a sense of time being limited, and a sense of pressure to get things done, and then do more things. It’s not guilt or responsibilities. You cannot get into the mood to waste time.33/ The second related thing is that it becomes harder and harder to have fun, make jokes, and in general relax. People certainly try. There is a certain desperate kind of hedonism that can often take root. This happened in the wake of the Black Death in the upper classes of Europe. But there’s an undercurrent of despair and hopelessness that makes it not truly fun. It’s like partying at the end of the world.34/ So that’s Phase 2: The pandemic has shifted from story to setting, it’s no longer dominating the headlines, but it has this sense of instability, ignorance, and uncertainty in the background contaminating all things. The system is breaking down, and failing to work for anybody, and not even sustaining itself. But a new thing seems very far away. Subjectively you have a meta-covid mental illness, characterized by an altered sense of time that’s like waiting for Godot, things going brrr… in bad ways, a weird sense of purpose giving way to a burdensome sense of responsibility, and increasing difficulty wasting time, or having fun.35/ Like it or not, that’s where I think we’re headed. The immediate emergency response is over. A gradual unraveling is starting. Problems are compounding. There are fewer good and fun things in the balance. Life is slowly shifting from a positive condition to one of general despair. And based on the the Black Death, this could last long past the actual pandemic, as we go into a very deep reconstruction phase of civilization. I guess this is what the idea of a Dark Age covers.36/ Maybe things won’t get that bad. Maybe there will be surprising positive things that pop up even as the negative things mount. Maybe the stories and setting both will turn more positive. But I think it’s important to mentally prepare for the worst case, even while you hope it doesn’t happen. So that’s it for the topic of this week, the pandemic shifting from story to setting, with a look at the precedent of the Black Death, and a look at this disease of meta-covid descending upon on all of us.Two AnnouncementsBefore I wrap up this episode, I have two announcements. First, I have a new eBook out, a compilation of the 32 best newsletters from 2015-19, in a sequenced and curated form. It’s called Breaking Smart Archives: Selected Newsletters, 2015-19. If you’re a subscriber, you already got free access to it a couple of weeks ago. If you’re not a subscriber, you can get it on the Kindle for $3.99 from Amazon. For those of you who joined recently, this eBook should be a good way to catch up on the first 5 years of this newsletter, before I switched formats recently and turned it into a subscription newsletter. It was really kinda interesting selecting and sequencing the pieces for this volume, and the eBook is a good view of how we got to where we are in sort of a live journal format. This is the raw material that I’m hoping to treat in a better theorized form in my Great Weirding essay series, but in some ways, this collection of raw in-the-moment newsletters from that period conveys a better sense of the transformation we’ve been going through than any post-hoc theory I could make up. Second announcement, for those of you who enjoy this short-form monologue podcast, and are interested in a more traditional conversational podcast, you may want to check out Scorpio Season, which is a conversation-format podcast I do with my friend Lisa. Episodes are weekly, and just over an hour typically, and our format is that each episode is based on a letter of the alphabet, and we make a list of topics that start with that letter and talk about them. We just recorded the 12th episode, for the letter L. You can find Scorpio Season on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google. Get full access to Breaking Smart at breakingsmart.substack.com/subscribe
1/ Today I want to talk about an idea I’ve been developing, which is that the future of the business world, post-Covid, and post software eating the world, looks surprisingly like the High Middle Ages, between about 1000 to 1250 AD, rather than like any more recent historical era. Which of course leads to the question, how do you operate in this world?2/ I also want to talk a little bit about the first ten decade of my life as an independent consultant, what I’m looking forward to in the next decade, and in that vein, I want to talk about a new initiative I helped start last month, called the Yak Collective.3/ Next year, in February, I will have completed 10 years as an independent consultant, 10 years since my first client in 2011. I’ve probably had like 50-60 clients since then. So at a personal level, I was already in a mood to pivot to a different mode coming out of my 9-month fellowship with the Berggruen Institute, which gave me a chance to cut back on the consulting work, take a step back, and think about my journey so far, and where I want to go to from here. 4/ This planned pivot has coincided with Covid19, which has radically accelerated a trend that has been a big part of my career — software eating the world. Almost all the consulting I’ve done is, in one way or another, about software eating the world. Software eating the world is going through an inflection point I thought wouldn’t arrive till 2030. The pandemic has accelerated the schedule by 10 years.5/ Previously, it was the margin to the industrial center, now the industrial world is the margin and the software world is the center. I don’t know about you, but I’m betting that this recovery will lead us to a world with software at the center sort of permanently, dominating not just the economy, but every aspect of our adapted way of life.6/ But… there’s something bigger going on here. I’ve been reading a lot of history, and I’ve concluded that it isn’t just the 20 year old software-eating-the-world trend that is accelerating and going through an inflection point. There are several other much longer cycles that are going through similar inflection points. We are experiencing a sort of resonance peak in several cycles which happen to coincide in phase right now.7/ For example, a 100 year culture of industrial synchronized clock-based time is shifting to post-industrial multi-temporality, based on subjective event-stream-based time. This is what I’ve been researching for the last year, and writing a book about, called the Clockless Clock, which I am serializing on this newsletter..8/ Then there is a 400-year old cycle of Westphalian nation states that seems to be swinging towards some sort of city-state and regional coalitional world, thanks to how and where the battle against Covid19 is actually being fought.9/ And going still further back, to before the Black Death, which I am reading about in a great book called A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman, I think an 800-year-old cycle of centralization is reversing and giving way to a kind of decentralized, horizontally organized world last seen in the High Middle Ages, when the feudal nobility was more powerful than the monarchy, the Church in Europe had unquestioned authority, and imperial states were weak.10/ Now if you’ve studied your history, you probably know that the Black Death, along with other factors like the rise of firearms, drove the world towards Great Powers and centralization, and weakened the feudal, manorial economy of barons and knights. I think Covid19 will drive us the other way, towards local and regional powers and decentralization. This is not an original thought. A lot of people have been saying that.11/ The part that interests me is the implications of this huge multi-cycle inflection point for organizations and management. Assumptions shifting now are older than the oldest modern businesses. They are older than even mercantilism, which was based on the Age of Sail, and emerged in the 15th century, after the Black Death had destroyed the manorial economy. 12/ If you want to think about organizations and management in the next decade, you have to go back far, really far, to before there were modern public or private sectors, or chartered corporations. To a time when the economy meant a manorial economy, and globalization meant Templar knights going on crusades. To a time when honor-based politics was on top and economics was strongly subservient to it.13/ Of course, the structural roles are played by different elements, and you can’t get too literal about this. You have a world awash in public debt, and likely, a wave of nationalization of large parts of the global business world. Instead of the church, you have the global liberal order. 14/ But the point of the loose historical analogy is that you can no longer rely on assumptions about business and corporations based on the last 50, 100, or even 400 years. The internet has been fundamentally undermining assumptions that were laid down as far back as 1000 AD. And Covid19 is accelerating the process of collapsing things built on those assumptions15/ If you want to rethink the nature of organizations, business, and the economy today, you have to rethink ideas going back as far back as the 13th century from first principles. This is something I’m doing in one of my other projects, the Great Weirding, but that’s at the level of essay writing. This is a kind of thinking I want to bring into my consulting work as well.16/ So to bring it back down to that, I’ve learned a lot in the last decades, and I think I’ve done more good than harm. There are even times I’ve felt like I added more value to a client in an hour than an entire McKinsey team in a year. This is not me bragging about my personal abilities, but a comment on just how much fresh intelligence there is to be mined from internet-first perspective, from a software-eating-the-world lens.17/ For example, just this morning, I was leading a study group on online community governance, and we were reading a section of The Tao of the IETF, which is a seminal document in internet governance, and it suddenly struck me that governing and managing online communities, which is something I’ve been doing for over 20 years now, is actually a much harder problem than governing organizations. 18/ And much of the reason I am able to add a weirdly leveraged kind of value as an independent consultant is due to the fact that my primary home is on the internet. Even my main consulting methodology, which I call “sparring” is a skill I think I’ve honed more through 20 years of online discussions and flame wars, than through traditional business meetings.19/ So here’s a weird way of looking at it: because the internet was something of a blank canvas in the 80s, and because the people creating its culture were not typical organization man types, they basically made up a playbook that seemed to work as they went along. And as it happens, a lot of the methods they discovered through trial and error look more like the culture of the 1300s than classic management texts from the 1970s. 20/ It’s not that Peter Drucker or Michael Porter are wrong; they were just working within organizational frameworks and mental models that are much younger, between 20 to 200 years old. And as it turns out, those frameworks and mental models are not as robust as we like to think. In fact, they’re pretty fragile, and are collapsing around us as we speak.21/ I’m not the only one making this argument. There was a very interesting book by Matthew Fraser, that came out in 2008. It was called Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom, and it argued exactly what I am arguing — that in a world where Facebook shapes reality, you can learn more from the history of Templar knights than you can from the biography of Jack Welch.22/ There are toxic aspects of this of course. I’ve written elsewhere about the Internet of Beefs, which is about the toxic world of culture wars. If you squint a bit, it resembles the culture of jousting and tournaments in the middle ages. But other aspects are much more positive. Good internet communities seem to have some of the features of good manorial economies for example. They have a whole-life sort of quality to them, instead of an artificial separation of work and life.23/ Which brings me to the something I want to put the spotlight on. As many of you know, I write another newsletter called the Art of Gig, which is about independent consulting, contractors, and the gig economy. About a month ago, we spun up a sort of open-source initiative with the idea of discovering more internet-native ways of developing and delivering consulting services. 24/ The group, which we call the Yak Collective, just launched publicly last week, and released its first report, called Don’t Waste the Reboot. It’s a collection of ideas about how organizations can emerge from Covid19 in a way that makes the next normal better than the last one. We’re going to be producing a lot more like that in the coming months, and you can keep up by following our work on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.25/ But what I want to highlight is not the content so much as the method by which we are trying to generate it. With the Yak Collective, we are trying to practice what I am preaching here, which is to take a really long, historical view of organizations and management going back to the 13th century, combining that with what we’ve learned from 30 years of online, internet culture, and working in new ways.26/ If you want to support us, you can do a couple of things. First, take a look at our first report, and get in touch with me or one of the other contributors if you think your organization can use some of the kinds of fresh thinking we think we can do that traditional sources of consulting cannot. Second, you can join us live as we do a lot of our thinking. The Discord community where we do our stuff is open to everybody, and you can just join it and hang out with us. Most of our meetings are also open.27/ And finally, to bring it back to a personal note, one reason I’m taking this on is of course, because I think people who are new to the indie economy could use some resources and support like this, and it’s a way for me to make my own second decade as an indie different from the first. Among other things, I want to try and distill some of the management and business knowledge I think I’ve learned in the last decade into teaching and writing output that others can use, and also by doing that, maybe level up myself to different challenges myself. 28/ As one piece of that, next week, I’ll be conducting my first workshop on my conversational sparring model of consulting for a few others in the Yak Collective interested in learning it. I am hoping to do more such things, and make it a new part of my consulting life. But in the meantime, of course, I have to continue my own consulting practice. Get full access to Breaking Smart at breakingsmart.substack.com/subscribe
As we turn the page to a new decade, we’ve made some New Year resolutions. John Mitchinson and Andy Miller of Backlisted Podcast join the Slightly Foxed Editors to bring new life to old books, leading us off the beaten track with wide-ranging reading recommendations. From Frank O’Connor’s letters, Selina Hastings’s lives and Barbara Tuchman’s histories to the poetry of John Berryman, Gayl Jones’s Corregidora and Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, they journey through genres to revive literary curiosity. And in this month’s reading from the magazine’s archives, Richard Platt makes a convincing case for The Quincunx by Charles Palliser, falling under its curse of sleepless nights. Please find links to books, articles, and further reading listed below. The digits in brackets following each listing refer to the minute and second they are mentioned. (Episode duration: 38 minutes; 49 seconds) Books Mentioned We may be able to get hold of second-hand copies of the out-of-print titles listed below. Please get in touch (mailto:anna@foxedquarterly.com) with Anna in the Slightly Foxed office for more information. - To War with Whitaker (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/to-war-with-whitaker-hermione-countess-of-ranfurly/) , Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly. Slightly Foxed Edition No. 50, published 1 March 2020 (1:21) - The Year of Reading Dangerously (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/andy-miller-the-year-of-reading-dangerously) , Andy Miller (3:32) - A Distant Mirror (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/barbara-tuchman-a-distant-mirror/) , Barbara Tuchman (6:05) - Who Dares Wins: Britain, 1979-1982 (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/dominic-sandbrook-who-dares-wins/) and The Great British Dream Factory (https://foxedquarterly.com/dominic-sandbrook-the-great-british-dream-factory) , Dominic Sandbrook (8:08) - Corregidora (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/gayl-jones-corregidora/) , Gayl Jones (9:33) - Independence Day (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/richard-ford-independence-day/) , Richard Ford (12:28) - The Happiness of Getting it Down Right: Letters of Frank O’Connor and William Maxwell is out of print (14:12) - A Tale of Love and Darkness (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/amos-oz-a-take-of-love-and-darkness/) , Amos Oz (16:34) - Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/jeanette-winterson-why-be-happy-when-you-could-be-normal) and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/jeanette-winterson-oranges-are-not-the-only-fruit) , Jeanette Winterson (18:45) - Selina Hastings has written biographies of Somerset Maugham, Nancy Mitford, Evelyn Waugh and Rosamond Lehmann (22:43) - 77 Dream Songs, John Berryman is out of print (25:32) - Diving into the Wreck (https://wwnorton.co.uk/books/9780393346015-diving-into-the-wreck) , Adrienne Rich (27:45) - The Quincunx (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/charles-palliser-quincunx/) , Charles Palliser (32:08) Related Slightly Foxed Articles - A World of Words (https://foxedquarterly.com/amos-oz-a-tale-of-love-and-darkness-literary-review/) , Annabel Walker on Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness in Issue 37 (16:34) - Grave Expectations (https://foxedquarterly.com/the-quincunx-charles-palliser-literary-review/) , Richard Platt on Charles Palliser, The Quincunx in Issue 60 (32:08) Other Links - The Slightly Foxed mug (now sold out) displayed the quote: ‘Charles Lamb once told Coleridge he was especially fond of books containing traces of buttered muffins.’ Please do get in touch with suggestions for a quote (up to 20 words) for a forthcoming mug design: office@foxedquarterly.com (mailto:office@foxedquarterly.com) (2:21) - Backlisted (https://www.backlisted.fm/) , the literary podcast giving new life to old books, presented by John Mitchinson and Andy Miller (3:22) Opening music: Preludio from Violin Partita No.3 in E Major by Bach Reading music: Songs Without Words - No.12 in F Sharp Minor, Op.30 (https://musopen.org/music/348-songs-without-words-op-30/) by Felix Mendelssohn The Slightly Foxed Podcast is hosted by Philippa Lamb and produced by Podcastable (https://www.podcastable.co.uk/)
Fr. Sibley's homily for the Solemnity of Christ the King which begins with a quote from the first chapter of Barbara Tuchman's "The Guns of August."
Tristan Palmgren has lots of thoughts, and they're *all* worth hearing. Author of The Unity series books, "Quietus" and "Terminus," Palmgren joined us this week on the podcast to shop talk such lightweight topics as time, feudalism, colonialism, and the function of genre in science fiction and fantasy. A thoughtful and wise human being, Palmgren takes the doors off of restrictive ways and means of thinking. And of course, we talk about "Star Trek"! We also talk about Carl Sagan's "Contact," Barbara Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century," as well as Kim Stanley Robinson's "Antarctica," "Aurora," and "The Martians," a story collection which comments on and even inverts some of the premises of Robinson's Mars trilogy. We talk about Padme's adventures in the Galactic Senate, storytelling shortcuts, and the appropriate way to segue. You can find out more about Tristan at https://www.tristanpalmgren.com. Tristan can also be found on Twitter with the handle @TristanPalmgren. Their feed is packed full of cutting social commentary, writerly feelings, and relatable snark. You can buy both books in The Unity series ("Quietus" and "Terminus") wherever good books are sold, and on Amazon. "Quietus" : https://www.amazon.com/Quietus-Unity-Tristan-Palmgren/dp/0857667432/ "Terminus" : https://www.amazon.com/Terminus-Unity-Tristan-Palmgren/dp/0857667580/ The Black Death! The Great Mortality! All the capitalized socioeconomic challenges of Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean! Interplanar anthropologists! A very confused A.I.! Lots of politlcal meddling! These are delightfully weird and wonderful books that you won't want to miss. More projects from Tristan are forthcoming! ... they just can't talk about them yet. Like our content? Our website is www.imaginaries.net, and you can drop us a line at imaginarypod@gmail.com or find us on Twitter at @imaginary_pod. You can listen to our episodes on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and SoundCloud, as well as find all of our back episodes on YouTube once they have shuffled off these other earthly coils. If you would like to help support our work, you can give us a rating or review on whatever platform you use to listen to your podcasts, and if you would like to offset the costs associated with our podcast, you can support us financially at www.ko-fi.com/imaginaries.
On today's episode of Bookish we have the weekly Sunday Ramble, and for the first time we have a co-host! We'll be talking about required reading in school, and the good and bad of that required reading. We'll also have our weekly book recommendation. Let's get Bookish. [Note: In the episode I refer to Barbara Tuchman as Margaret Tuchman...the error was mine]. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bookish/support
A second look at 1914, this time examining the evidence the Organization claims is there to support the belief that Jesus began ruling in the heavens in 1914. https://youtu.be/M0P2vrUL6Mo Video Transcript Hello, my name is Eric Wilson. This is the second video in our subset of 1914 videos. In the first one, we looked at the chronology of it, and now we're looking at the empirical proof. In other words, it's all well and good to say that Jesus was installed as king in the heavens invisibly in 1914, sitting on throne of David, ruling in the Messianic Kingdom, but we have no proof of that unless, of course, we find proof directly in the Bible; but that's what we're going to look at in the next video. Right now, we want to see if there is evidence in the world, in the events that surrounded that year, that would lead us to believe that something invisible in the heavens happened. Now the organization says that there is such proof. For example, in the June 1st 2003 Watchtower, on page 15, paragraph 12, we read: Bible chronology and world events coincide in pinpointing the year 1914 as a time when that war in heaven took place. Since then, world conditions have steadily worsened. Revelation 12:12 explains why saying: "On this account be glad you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the devil has come down, having great anger, knowing that he has a short period of time." Okay, so that indicates the 1914 was the year because of the events that happened, but exactly when did this happen? Exactly when was Jesus enthroned? Can we know that? I mean how much precision is there in understanding the date? Well, according to the July 15th 2014 Watchtower pages 30 and 31, paragraph 10 we read: "Modern day anointed Christians pointed in advance to October 1914 as a significant date. They based this on Daniel's prophecy about a large tree that was cut down and would go again after seven times. Jesus referred to this same period as "the appointed times of the nations" in his prophecy about his future presence and "the conclusion of the system of things." Ever since that marked year of 1914, the sign of Christ's presence as Earth's new king has become clear for all to see." So that definitely ties it down to the month of October. Now, the June 1st 2001 Watchtower, page 5, under the title “Whose Standards Can You Trust” says, "Woe for the earth came when World War 1 broke out in 1914 and brought to an end an era of standards very different from those of today. "The Great War of 1914 to 1918 lies like a band of scorched earth dividing that time from ours," observes historian Barbara Tuchman. Okay, so we know that it occurred in October, and we know that World War 1 is a result of the woes, so let's just go again through the chronology: Revelation 12 talks about the enthronement of Jesus Christ. So, we say Jesus Christ was enthroned as a Messianic King in October of 1914 based on the belief that in 607 BCE—October of that year—the Jews were exiled. So it's exactly, to the month, 2,520 years to get to October, 1914—possibly the fifth or sixth by some of the calculations you'll find in the publications, early October. Okay, what was the first thing Jesus did? Well, according to us, the first thing he did was to wage war with Satan and his demons, and he won that war of course and Satan and the demons were thrown down to the earth. Having great anger then, knowing that he has a short time, he brought woe to the earth. So the woe to the earth would have started in October at the earliest, because prior to that, Satan was still in the heavens, wasn't angry because he hadn't been thrown down. Okay. And it mentions that the great difference that happened between the pre-1914 world and the post-1914 world as stipulated by historian Barbara Tuchman as we've just seen in the latest, or the last of the quotes. I happen to have read Barbour Tuckman's book,
It is difficult to understand the Second World War without some concept of the First World War. Many of the seeds of what happened in 1939-1945 were planted in 1914-1918. Even some of the battles were fought on the same land by the same countries led by leaders who were in both wars. This episode provides a very broad outline of the major events of the First World War. For more details, my recommendation is Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August. You can get it as an audiobook and support this podcast at Audible.
WWI Centennial News SPECIAL This week and next week, we are going to break format as we present a 2-part special podcast version of “In Sacrifice for Liberty and Peace”. This two part special is an adaptation from a live staged event the Commission produced on the April 6, 2017 centennial of America’s entry into: The war that changed the world. Edward Bilous as the artistic director, and Chris Christopher as the US WW1 Centennial Commission’s executive producer pulled together an amazing group of artists, historians musician, actors, and others for a live performance staged outdoors at the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City to an audience of over 3,000 attendees. For this 2-part special we have excerpted key moments from the story that unfolds, the music that was performed and the readings from a cast of amazing actors, orators, musicians and other luminaries. Part 1 examines the great debate in America about getting into the war----more---- Talent Credits This podcast was adapted from the live event In Sacrifice for Liberty and Peace: Centennial Commemoration of the US entry into WWI Credits for the live event include: Edward Bilous Artistic Director John Rensenhouse Narrator Michelle DiBucci Music Director Sarah Outhwaite Video Designer Carlos Murillo Script and Adaptation Greg Kalember Music Producer, Mix Engineer, Sound Design Portia Kamons Executive Artistic Producer For Virtua Creative Shelby Rose Producer, Media and Special Events For Virtua Creative Dale Morehouse Speaker Carla Noack Speaker David Paul Pre-Recorded Speaker Janith English Principal Chief of the Wyandot Nation of Kansas Sergeant Debra Kay Mooney Choctaw Nation Col. Gerald York Grandson of Sergeant Alvin C. York Deborah York Great-Granddaughter of Sergeant Alvin C. York Noble Sissle Jr. Son of Noble Sissle Featuring Musical Performances by 1st Infantry Division Band Michael Baden John Brancy Francesco Centano Billy Cliff Peter Dugan Ramona Dunlap Lisa Fisher Samantha Gossard Adam Holthus Christopher T. McLaurin Chrisi Poland Aaron Redburn Reuben Allen Matt Rombaum Alan Schwartz Yang Thou Charles Yang Alla Wijnands Bram Wijnands Cast (In Alphabetical Order) Freddy Acevedo Yetunde Felix-Ukwu Jason Francescon Khalif Gillett Emilie Karas Chelsea Kisner Christopher Lyman Marianne McKenzie Victor Raider-Wexler Artillery Master Charles B. Wood MEDIA CREDITS National World War I Museum and Memorial: TheWorldWar.org Library of Congress: LOC.gov New York Public Library: DigitalCollections.nypl.org National Archives: Archives.gov National Historic Geographic Information System: NHGIS.org State Library of New South Wales: SL.nsw.gov.au Imperial War Museums: IWM.org.uk National Museum of African American History and Culture: NMAAHC.si.edu The Sergeant York Patriotic Foundation and the York Family: SgtYork.org Australian War Memorial: AWM.gov.au National Media Museum: NationalMediaMuseum.org.uk Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library Archive: WoodrowWilson.org Mathers Museum of World Culture: Mathers.indiana.edu Front Page Courtesy of The New York Times Company PODCAST THEO MAYER WW1 Centennial News is brought to YOU by the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission and the Pritzker Military Museum and Library. I’m Theo Mayer - the Chief Technologist for the Commission and your host. Before we get into the main part of the show - - Let me try to set this up: [SOUND EFFECT - WAYBACK MACHINE] We’ve gone back in time to June 28, 1914. Today, a 19 year-old radicalized teenage Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip guns down Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie - ON their wedding anniversary no less. So this was all kicked off by a misguided kid - after all - what does anybody know about consequences at 19, and gunning down celebrities - is - pretty dumb and definitely misguided. And the archduke was a celebrity - he was in line for the throne of the Austro-hungarian empire. Things are already pretty tense in Europe! Austria-Hungary, blames the Serbian government for the attack and sees this as great justification for settling the question of Slavic nationalism once and for all - with a little war action. BUT…. Russia supports Serbia, SO… Austria-Hungary asked Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm to back them in the event of a Russian intervention… An intervention that would probably suck in Russia’s ally, France, and maybe Britain too. So - Just a month later on July 28, 1914 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and a big burning match gets tossed on the very dry tinder of european tension… the tenuous peace between Europe’s big powers goes up in flames. Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia line up against the Austria-Hungary and Germany, and World War I begin. But remember - no one knows at the time that this is a global war. It’s just a little imperial action which Germany sees as a great opportunity - Remember - in German the word Kaiser means EMPEROR - so emperor Wilhelm thinks that this is a good time to expand German imperial holding with a rush west - across Belgium - to deliver a quick and decisive blow to France for an imperially profitable end to a simple, messy little conflict. BUT….at the First Battle of The Marne, 90 miles from Paris, the German plan falls apart and the Germans suffer a defeat at the hands of the Allies – over a million soldiers face off and fight over 6 days, and sadly more than 100,000 die. This is where we join up with the live production beginning with a quote from Barbara Tuchman from her book - The GUNS OF AUGUST: “After the Marne, the war grew and spread until it drew in the nations of both hemispheres and entangled them in a... world conflict no peace treaty could dissolve. The Battle of Marne was one of the decisive battles… not because it determined that Germany would ultimately lose or the Allies ultimately win the war, but because it determined that the war would go on…. The nations were caught in a trap… from which there was… no exit.” NARRATOR Even with the United States remaining resolutely neutral, many young Americans needed no persuasion to join the War effort. Mary Gladwin, a nurse from Akron, Ohio, was among the first American Red Cross nurses to go to Europe during the War, serving as the supervisor of nurses at the American Hospital in Belgrade. She wrote: MARY GLADWIN The cannonading lasted all the time. There was no time during twenty-four hours in the first six months that some of the guns were not fired. My room was a little whitewashed one. Every time one of the big French guns would fire.... It would illuminate all the wall and then... I would hear the boom of the guns. That kept up night after night, until the time came that we did not hear them any more… NARRATOR Eugene Bullard, the only African American pilot to fly in World War I, did so not for the United States, but for France. The son of a freed slave, Bullard stowed away to Europe in 1912, determined to escape racism in the US. After working as a boxer and vaudeville performer in England, Bullard settled in France. When hostilities broke out, he joined the infantry of the French Foreign Legion, earning the Croix de Guerre for bravery at the Battle of Verdun. After sustaining injuries and declared unfit for infantry service, Bullard earned his wings with the Aeronautique Militaire of France, and joined the Lafayette Flying Corps in 1916. His plane was decorated with the slogan” “All Blood Runs Red.” When the US entered the war, Bullard tried to enlist as a flyer for the Americans: BULLARD “I was more and more puzzled until it suddenly came to me that all my fellow countrymen who had transferred were white. Later, I learned that in World War I Negroes were not accepted as flyers in the United States Army. This hurt me, deeply.” THEO MAYER When hostilities broke out in Europe, thousands of Americans touring the continent descended on London hoping to find safe passage home, only to find themselves unable to obtain accommodations or tickets for the few ships sailing. A forty year old mining engineer and financier from Iowa by the name of Herbert Hoover was living in London in 1914. Hoover organized an American relief committee that provided food, shelter and financial assistance to over 100,000 Americans. Hoover’s leadership earned him the respect of the US Ambassador to Great Britain, Walter Hines Page. Ambassador Page tapped Hoover to lead a relief mission to Belgium. After the Battle of Marne, Belgium faced starvation. Germany had invaded, but refused to take responsibility for feeding the populace. On the other side, Britain’s Naval blockade prevented ships from entering Belgian ports. So in October of 1914, Herbert Hoover established an organization to procure and deliver food to the starving Belgian population, rescuing a nation from certain ruin. Herbert Hoover wrote: HERBERT HOOVER "...there was no former human experience to turn for guidance. It would require that we find the major food supply for a whole nation; raise the money to pay for it; get it past navies at sea and occupying armies on land; set up an agency for distribution of supplies for everybody justly; and see that the enemy took none of it. It was not ‘relief’ in any known sense. It was the feeding of a nation. THEO MAYER This will later earn Herbert Hoover the job of heading the united states food administration… and of course he also becomes the 31st President of the United State [SOUND EFFECT] Dateline May 8, 1915 Headline of the NY times reads: LUSITANIA SUNK BY SUBMARINE, PROBABLY 1,260 DEAD; TWICE TORPEDOED OFF IRISH COAST; SINKS IN 15 MINUTES; FROHMAN AND VANDERBILT MISSING; WASHINGTON BELIEVES THAT A GRAVE CRISIS IS AT HAND SONG: WHEN THE LUSITANIA WENT DOWN A thousand more, who sailed from our shore, Have gone to eternity. The Statue of Liberty high Must now have a tear in her eye. I think it's a shame-- Some one is to blame, But all we can do is just sigh! Chorus Some of us lost a true sweetheart; Some of us lost a dear dad; Some lost their mothers, sisters, and brothers; Some lost the best friends they had. It's time they were stopping this warfare If women and children must drown. Many brave hearts went to sleep in the deep When the Lusitania went down. Refrain Many brave hearts went to sleep in the deep When the Lusitania went down. THEO MAYER US neutrality faced numerous tests. Vying for control over shipping lanes across the Atlantic and through the North Sea, Germany and Britain both found themselves on a collision course with the United States. Britain, in their effort to blockade commerce from the US reaching Germany, seized American ships. Germany, in retaliation to US shipments, introduced a new weapon of war – the U-Boat – which could strike without warning. In 1915, German U-Boats sank over 90 ships. NARRATOR Leading up to the Election of 1916, many Americans favored the Allies in the War, yet embraced President Wilson’s urging to remain “impartial in thought as well as in action.” At the time, one third of US citizens were either born in Europe or were descendants of European immigrants. Sympathy for both countries on both sides of the conflict ran high. The descendants of German immigrants found themselves torn, on the one hand identifying firstly as Americans, yet on the other, sympathizing with their relatives abroad. When the US entered the War, German-Americans were labeled “alien enemies” and faced severe restrictions on their civil liberties. Irish Americans preferred neutrality as well, as the prospect of the U.S. entering the War on the side of the British was an anathema to Irish nationalist sentiment. The sinking of the Lusitania led many Americans to call for an immediate reprisal against Germany. Wilson proceeded with caution, demanding an apology, compensation for the victims and assurances that Germany would cease unrestricted submarine warfare. In a speech delivered at a Citizen Naturalization Ceremony on May 10, 1915, Wilson affirmed the anti-War US stance: WILSON “America must have this consciousness, that on all sides it touches elbows and touches hearts with all the nations of mankind. The example of America must be the example not merely of peace because it will not fight, but of peace because peace is the healing… influence of the world.... There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right.” NARRATOR Wilson’s measured response faced opposition from figures like former President Theodore Roosevelt, who believed Germany’s aggression warranted a strong military response: THEODORE ROOSEVELT “I am pretty well disgusted with our government and with the way our people acquiesce in and support it. I suppose, however, in a democracy like ours the people will always do well or ill largely in proportion to their leadership. If Lincoln had acted after the firing on Sumter in the way that Wilson did about the sinking of the Lusitania, in one month the North would have been saying they were so glad he kept them out of the war and… that at all hazards fratricidal war must be averted.” NARRATOR Theodore Roosevelt’s words were not mere bluster. He would eventually see three of his sons off to war. Two would return alive. His youngest son, Quentin, died when he was shot down over France in 1918. THEO MAYER The conflict about US neutrality didn't just rage in Washington, but was reflected throughout american society and culture - Here is the great debate playing out as musical counterpoint in two popular songs of the times sung from the hearts of two mothers. SONG MEDLEY: “I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier” - “America, Here’s My Boy” Verse 1 There’s a million mothers knocking at the nation’s door A million mothers, yes and they’ll be millions more, And while within each mother’s heart they pray Just hark what one brave mother has to say: Chorus America, I raised a boy for you America, you’ll find him staunch and true Place a gun upon his shoulder He is ready to die or do America, he is my only one; My hope, my pride and joy, But if I had another, He would march beside his brother; America here’s my boy Verse 2 There’s a million mothers waiting by the fireside bright A million mothers waiting for the call tonight And while within each heart there’ll be a tear She’ll watch her boy go marching with a cheer Chorus America, I raised a boy for you America, you’ll find him staunch and true Place a gun upon his shoulder He is ready to die o My hope, my pride and joy, But if I had another, He would march beside his brother; America here’s my boy. Verse 1 Ten million soldiers to the war have gone Who may never return again Ten million mothers’ hearts must break For the ones who died in vain Head bowed down in sorrow in her lonely years I heard a mother murmur thro’ her tears: Chorus: “I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier, I brought him up to be my pride and joy.” Who dares place a musket on his shoulder To shoot some other mother’s darling boy? Let nations arbitrate their future troubles, It’s time to lay the sword and gun away. There’d be no war today If mothers all would say: “I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier.” Verse 2 What victory can cheer a mother’s heart When she looks at her blighted home? What victory can bring her back All she cared to call her own? Let each mother answer in the years to be, Remember that my boy belongs to me! Chorus: “I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier, I brought him up to be my pride and joy.” Who dares place a musket on his shoulder To shoot some other mother’s darling boy? Let nations arbitrate their future troubles, It’s time to lay the sword and gun away. NARRATOR At the other end of the political spectrum, the editors of the conservative North American Review argued for U.S. participation: THE EDITORS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW We know now… what this war is. It is the last of the great battles for Freedom and Democracy. America fought the first a century and forty years ago. France followed through seas of blood and tears. But lately the Great Charter has passed… from the barons to the people of England. Japan has ceased to be a monarchy except in name. China as a Republic defies the power of might…. Can anyone doubt that the beginning of the end of absolutism is at hand….? NARRATOR Legendary newspaper reporter Walter Lippman offered this third-way assessment of the role America could play in the War: WALTER LIPPMANN In May 1916, the President made a speech which will be counted among the... decisive utterances of American foreign policy…. The speech was an announcement that American isolation was ended, and that we were prepared to join a League of Peace….. …it was intended to make clear to the world… that if America has to fight, it would fight for peace and the order of the world. It was a great portent in human history, but it was overshadowed at the time by the opening of the Presidential campaign.” THEO MAYER The United States, like Canada and the British Empire, absorbed a massive influx of immigrants from the end of the 19th Century through the war. Capitalizing on the idea that immigrants traveled to distant shores seeking freedom from tyranny, recruitment efforts in all three countries appealed to immigrants’ indebtedness – in exchange for their freedom, and their children’s freedom, they were urged to show their patriotism by enlisting in the fight. “THERE’S NO HYPHEN IN MY HEART” SONG Verse 1 To these broad shores my fathers came From lands beyond the sea They left their homes they left their friends To breathe an air more free To them an alien land it seemed With customs strange and new But my heart knows just one dear flag The Red, the White, the Blue Chorus: There is no hyphen in my heart It can’t be cut in two Oh flag of bars and silver stars I’ve given it all to you Verse 2 Columbia to me you’ve been A mother fond and true My heart’s best love and loyal trust I gladly offer you Let others sing of native lands Far o’er the ocean’s foam The spot where floats the stars and stripes Shall ever be my home Chorus: There is no hyphen in my heart It can’t be cut in two Oh flag of bars and silver stars I’ve given it all to you NARRATOR The 1916 election hinged on the question of America’s neutrality in the War. Wilson, running for a second term, built his candidacy around the idea that America ought to prepare for the possibility of war, yet the campaign slogans “He Kept Us Out of War” and “America First” persuaded the American public that a vote for the Republican candidate, Charles Evans Hughes, would be a vote for war. While many embraced the slogans, others criticized them. Teddy Roosevelt: TEDDY ROOSEVELT President Wilson’s ignoble shirking of responsibility has been mis-clothed in… the phrase of a coward, “He Kept Us Out of War.” In actual reality, war has been creeping nearer. . . and we face it without policy, plan, purpose, or preparation. NARRATOR In September 1916, Wilson accepted the Democratic nomination for President: WILSON “We have been neutral not only because it was the fixed and traditional policy of the United States to stand aloof from the politics of Europe… but also because it was manifestly our duty to prevent … the indefinite extension of the fires of hate and desolation kindled by that terrible conflict and seek to serve mankind by reserving our strength and our resources for the… difficult days of restoration and healing …, when peace will have to build its house anew.” NARRATOR The Debate reached every corner of American society. Voices for and against the US joining the war included not only politicians, but men who would likely be called to serve, women, African Americans and Native Americans fighting for an equal role in American Civic life. NARRATOR American Arthur Bullard, who had lived in war-time France and England, wrote in early 1917: ARTHUR BULLARD Whatever the diplomats may like to call it, this is War. And we do not know how to fight…. We have no American general who ever commanded an Army corps, not one of our naval officers ever fought against a Dreadnought, none of our artillery men ever fired a real shot at an enemy aircraft. We must learn…. The war is upon us and we... must decide what we are going to do about it… We who love peace ought to keep out of war as long as possible and when we are forced to go in – go in hard! NARRATOR For women, the prospect of war also provoked debate. Many nurses of the American Red Cross nurses had experienced the tribulations of War first hand. Jane Delano, founder of the American Red Cross Nursing Service, wrote in the winter of 1915: JANE DELANO We have learned that women can be mobilized without confusion; that their chances of illness when ... seem to be no greater than men’s; that they face danger with equanimity…. Out of this experience we should be…. able to guarantee a satisfactory nursing personnel not only for national relief in time of calamity, but for efficient service should our country be confronted with that greatest of all disasters – War. NARRATOR A year later, Bessie R. James of the National League for Women’s Service wrote: BESSIE R. JAMES On November 8, 1916, the foresight of the women… is something which cannot but arouse admiration. That anyone should organize to prepare half the populace of the country for war while a president was being put back into office because of a supposed peace policy would seem ridiculous. This however, was exactly what happened. NARRATOR The first years of the War coincided with the beginning of The Great Migration, a transformative period for African Americans who fled the entrenched racism of the south for better wages and living conditions in northern cities like Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit and New York. At the outbreak of war, many African Americans viewed service in the military as an opportunity to show their willingness to serve and improve on their standing as second-class citizens. Others were more skeptical. In a 1917 issue of The Messenger, Chandler Owen and A. Phillip Randolph challenged the hypocrisy of American democratic ideals in relation to African American struggle: OWEN & RANDOLPH; Patriotism has no appeal to us; justice has. Party has no weight with us; principle has. NARRATOR In his 1914 editorial, “World War and the Color Line,” W.E.B. Dubois drew connections between the crisis in Europe and the conditions experienced by African Americans at home: W.E.B. DUBOIS Many colored persons… may easily make the mistake of supposing that the present war is far removed from the color problem in America…. This attitude is a mistake. The present war in Europe is one of the great disasters due to race and color prejudice and it but foreshadows greater disasters in the future…. NARRATOR As the likelihood of war increased in early 1917, DuBois again unleashed his pen to reflect on the institution of segregated training camps: W.E.B. DUBOIS We must choose then between the insult of a separate camp and the irreparable injury of strengthening the present custom of putting no black men in positions of authority here is only one thing to do now, and that is to organize the colored people for leadership and service, if war should come. A thousand commissioned officers of colored blood is something to work for. NARRATOR Diplomat, lawyer, and official of the NAACP James Weldon Johnson called for an end to what he termed the “Excess Patriotism” which had led the world’s nations to war: JOHNSON It is this hot, high-tempered, foolish, bad-mannered patriotism that keeps farther away the day for which all lovers of humanity pray; the day when men shall not hate each other because of the boundaries of domain or the differences of race, but when universal brotherhood shall be established and a lasting peace shall reign. ARE THEY EQUAL IN THE EYES OF THE LAW SONG Verse 1 As they sit in consultation Seeking peace for the wide, wide world I wonder if their thought e’er turn to me. I was at the concentration of the troops that stopt the whirl Of the Kaiser in his dash to the sea. As I sit in meditation Seeking solace from on high I wonder if they see I stand in awe, As they plan the federation for the races far and nigh Are they equal in the eyes of the law? Chorus: Are they equal in the eyes of the law? The black man faced his death and cried, “Hurrah?” His soul was pure and white, He fought a manly fight, No more patriotic sons you ever saw Are they equal in the eyes of the law? The black man faced his death and cried, “Hurrah?” They were the same in no man’s land, Tell me how so they stand? Are they equal in the eyes of the law? Verse 3 God, the Father of creation, Hear, oh, hear my humble plea, As with contrite heart I call thy holy name. In this land of desolation, Where they lynch and torture me, Keep them, Father, from this life of sin and shame. Oh thou God of restitution, Though with vengeance in Thy hand, We pray Thee, Keep us from grim hatred’s mighty claw Show them, Lord, that retribution, Runs its course throughout the land, To make men equal in the eyes of the law. Chorus: Are they equal in the eyes of the law? The black man faced his death and cried, “Hurrah?” His soul was pure and white, He fought a manly fight, No more patriotic sons you ever saw Are they equal in the eyes of the law? The black man faced his death and cried, “Hurrah?” They were the same to the God of the hosts, Tell me in your Freedom’s boasts, Are they equal in the eyes of the law? NARRATOR America’s native peoples overwhelmingly supported the United States during the Great War, although a few leaders such as Dr. Carlos Montezuma, a Yavapai-Apache, objected. He wrote: CARLOS MONTEZUMA They are not citizens. They have fewer privileges than have foreigners. They are wards of the United States of America without their consent or the chance of protest on their part. NARRATOR But most Indian leaders saw the conflict as an opportunity to gain recognition and to affirm tribal sovereignty, as did the Onondaga and Oneida Nations that declared war on Germany. In 1917, Oglala Chief Red Fox, a nephew of Crazy Horse, went to Washington and urged Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, to offer the services of the Indians in the Great War: CHIEF RED FOX From all over the West, we now stand ready--fifty thousand Indians between the ages of seventeen and fifty-five. We beg of you, to give us the right to fight. We guarantee to you, sir, our hearts could be for no better cause than to fight for the land we love, and for the freedom we share. NARRATOR Chief Red Fox’s sentiments were echoed by the Seneca Arthur Parker, President of the Society of American Indians in 1917, who wrote: ARTHUR PARKER The American Indian has common cause with the Allies. The Indian fights because he loves freedom and because humanity needs the defense of the freedom loving man. The Indian fights because his country, his liberties, his ideals and his manhood are assailed by the brutal hypocrisy of Prussianism. Challenged, the Indian has... shown himself a citizen of the world, [and] an exponent of an ethical civilization wherein human liberty is assured. NARRATOR The outcome of the 1916 election reflected divisions in the country. Winning by a slim Electoral College margin, Wilson’s second term would soon face a series of crises that would determine the fate of his neutral position in the war. NARRATOR - ALL READERS While debate raged in America, the slaughter continued in Europe. Rapid advances in the technology of weapons of war led to vast devastation. For the first time in history the battlefield saw the use of tanks, chemical weapons, machine guns, long-range artillery and aircraft. Sixty five million men fought in the War from 40 countries. Twenty one million were wounded. Eight million died – roughly 3,000 every day. Six and a half million civilians were killed including two million in Russia alone. One hundred and ten thousand tons of poison gas was used, killing nearly half a million men. In Europe alone, approximately 10 million people were displaced by the war, including 1.8 million Armenians forcibly deported to the Syrian desert. 1.5 million Belgians were refugees from the Germans. In the Battle of Somme, fought between July and November of 1916, 1.2 million men perished for a meager Allied gain of 7.8 miles of territory. During the Battle of Somme, it is estimated that in the first week of fighting over one and one half million artillery shells were fired… almost three shells per second for 168 continuous hours. (NEED THIS STATISTIC!!) Never before had humankind unleashed terror on this scale and it’s effects permanently scarred the landscape and the souls of those who were there. THEO MAYER And that is the end of part 1 of “In Sacrifice for Liberty and Peace” Join us again next week for part II The US World War One Centennial Commission was created by Congress to honor, commemorate and educate about WW1. Our programs are to-- inspire a national conversation and awareness about WW1; Our podcast is a part of that endeavor We are bringing the lessons of the 100 years ago into today's classrooms; We are helping to restore WW1 memorials in communities of all sizes across our country; and of course we are building America’s National WW1 Memorial in Washington DC. If you like the work we are doing, please support it with a tax deductible donation at ww1cc.org/donate - all lower case Or if you are on your smart phone text the word: WW1 to 41444. that's the letters ww the number 1 texted to 41444. Any amount is appreciated. We want to thank commission’s founding sponsor the Pritzker Military Museum and Library for their support. The podcast can be found on our website at ww1cc.org/cn on iTunes and google play ww1 Centennial News. Our twitter and instagram handles are both @ww1cc and we are on facebook @ww1centennial. Thanks for listening to this special presentation of WW1 Centennial News… A full list of the many talented people who contributed to this production is in the podcast notes. [MUSIC] So long.
Dominion is findable at virtually any friendly, neighborhood game store. Go visit yours and you'll be good to go.Some books to read to get a much better appreciation of medieval Europe:Norman Cantor. "Inventing the Middle Ages."William Manchester. "A World Lit Only By Fire."Barbara Tuchman. "A Distant Mirror."On metacognition in education: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/metacognition-gift-that-keeps-giving-donna-wilson-marcus-conyershttps://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-pathways-metacognition-in-classroom-marilyn-price-mitchellFind us on Facebook.Jon Cassie is at joncassie at gmail dot com.Tracy Wazenegger is at tlwazenegger at gmail dot com.Cover image from: [https://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/392195/dominion?size=large]
A Way with Words — language, linguistics, and callers from all over
You may have heard the advice that to build your vocabulary you should read, read, and then read some more--and make sure to include a wide variety of publications. But what if you just don't have that kind of time? Martha and Grant show how to learn new words by making the most of the time you do have. Also, when new words are added to a dictionary, do others get removed to make room? Plus, words of encouragement, words of exasperation, and a polite Japanese way to say goodbye when a co-worker leaves at the end of the day. Also, you bet your boots, the worm has turned, raise hell and put a chunk under it, bread and butter, on tomorrow, a love letter to libraries and an apology to marmots. FULL DETAILS After inadvertently maligning marmots in an earlier discussion of the term whistle pig, Martha makes a formal apology to any marmots that might be listening. Uff-da! is an exclamation of disgust or annoyance. In Norwegian, it means roughly the same as Yiddish Oy vey!, and is now common in areas of the U.S. settled by Norwegians, particularly Wisconsin and Minnesota. The worm has turned suggests a reversal of fortune, particularly the kind of situation in which a meek person begins behaving more confidently or starts defending himself. In other words, even the lowliest of creatures will still strike back if sufficiently provoked, an idea Shakespeare used in Henry VI, Part 3, where Lord Clifford observes, "The smallest worm will turn being trodden on, and doves will peck in safeguard of their brood." Raise hell and put a chunk under it is simply an intensified version of the phrase raise hell, meaning "to cause trouble" or "create a noisy disturbance." The phrases You bet your boots! and You bet your britches! mean "without a doubt" and most likely originate from gambling culture, where you wouldn't want to bet your boots or trousers without being confident that you'd win. Quiz Guy John Chaneski takes us on a road trip, which means another round of the License Plate Game! A Chicago-area listener wonders: When dictionaries go from print to online, are any words removed? What's the best print dictionary to replace the old one on her dictionary stand? For more about dictionaries and their history, Grant recommends the Cordell Collection of Dictionaries at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana. When two people are walking side-by-side holding hands but briefly separate to go around an obstacle on opposite sites, they might say bread and butter. This phrase apparently stems from an old superstition that if the two people want to remain inseparable as bread and butter, they should invoke that kind of togetherness. There are several variations of this practice, including the worry that if they fail to utter the phrase, they'll soon quarrel. Another version appears early in an episode of the old TV series The Twilight Zone, featuring a very young William Shatner. John Webster's 1623 tragedy The Duchess of Malfi includes the memorable lines Glories, like glowworms, afar off shine bright, / But looked to near have neither heat nor light. Much later, Stephen Crane expressed a similar idea in his poem A Man Saw a Ball of Gold in the Sky. A woman in Monticello, Florida, is bothered by the phrase on tomorrow, and feels that the word on is redundant. However, this construction is a dialect feature, not a grammatical mistake. It has roots in the United Kingdom and probably derives from the phrase on the morrow. What phrases do you use to encourage others to pick themselves up and dust themselves off? move on? What words do you say to acknowledge someone's bad luck and encourage them to move on? In a discussion on our Facebook group, listeners offer lots of suggestions, including tough beans, tough darts, suck it up, tough nougies, and you knew it was a snake when you picked it up. A listener in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, requests advice about expanding her vocabulary as a writer, but admits she spends only about ten minutes a day reading. The hosts offer several suggestions: Make sure to stop and look up unfamiliar words; listen to podcasts, which will also introduce you to new words; check the etymology, which is sometimes a helpful memory aid; build vocabulary practice into your routine with a word-a-day calendar or a subscription to Anu Garg's A.Word.A.Day newsletter. A teacher in Oakley, Vermont, noted a curious construction among his students while teaching in Maine. They would say things like We're all going to the party, and so isn't he orI like to play basketball, and so doesn't he. Primarily heard in eastern New England, this locution has a kind of internal logic, explained in more detail at one of our favorite resources, The Yale Grammatical Diversity Project. A Jackson, Mississippi, woman who used to work in Japan says that each day as she left the office, her colleagues would say Otsukaresama desu, which means something along the lines of "Thank you for your hard work." Although its literal translation suggests that the hearer must be exhausted, it's simply understood as a polite, set phrase with no exact equivalent in English. Pulitzer-winning historian Barbara Tuchman has observed that her single most formative educational experience was exploring Harvard's Widener Library. She captured the feelings of many library lovers when she added that her own daughter couldn't enter that building "without feeling that she ought to carry a compass, a sandwich, and a whistle." To go at something bald-headed means "to rush at something head-on." The same idea informs the phrase to I'm going to pinch you bald-headed, which an exasperated parent might say to a misbehaving child. The more common version is snatch you bald-headed, a version of which Mark Twain used in his Letters from Hawaii. This episode is hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett. -- A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673 London +44 20 7193 2113 Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate Site: http://waywordradio.org/ Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/ Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/ Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/ Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2017, Wayword LLC.
A Way with Words — language, linguistics, and callers from all over
You may have heard the advice that to build your vocabulary you should read, read, and then read some more--and make sure to include a wide variety of publications. But what if you just don't have that kind of time? Martha and Grant show how to learn new words by making the most of the time you do have. Also, when new words are added to a dictionary, do others get removed to make room? Plus, words of encouragement, words of exasperation, and a polite Japanese way to say goodbye when a co-worker leaves at the end of the day. Also, you bet your boots, the worm has turned, raise hell and put a chunk under it, bread and butter, on tomorrow, a love letter to libraries and an apology to marmots. FULL DETAILS After inadvertently maligning marmots in an earlier discussion of the term whistle pig, Martha makes a formal apology to any marmots that might be listening. Uff-da! is an exclamation of disgust or annoyance. In Norwegian, it means roughly the same as Yiddish Oy vey!, and is now common in areas of the U.S. settled by Norwegians, particularly Wisconsin and Minnesota. The worm has turned suggests a reversal of fortune, particularly the kind of situation in which a meek person begins behaving more confidently or starts defending himself. In other words, even the lowliest of creatures will still strike back if sufficiently provoked, an idea Shakespeare used in Henry VI, Part 3, where Lord Clifford observes, "The smallest worm will turn being trodden on, and doves will peck in safeguard of their brood." Raise hell and put a chunk under it is simply an intensified version of the phrase raise hell, meaning "to cause trouble" or "create a noisy disturbance." The phrases You bet your boots! and You bet your britches! mean "without a doubt" and most likely originate from gambling culture, where you wouldn't want to bet your boots or trousers without being confident that you'd win. Quiz Guy John Chaneski takes us on a road trip, which means another round of the License Plate Game! A Chicago-area listener wonders: When dictionaries go from print to online, are any words removed? What's the best print dictionary to replace the old one on her dictionary stand? For more about dictionaries and their history, Grant recommends the Cordell Collection of Dictionaries at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana. When two people are walking side-by-side holding hands but briefly separate to go around an obstacle on opposite sites, they might say bread and butter. This phrase apparently stems from an old superstition that if the two people want to remain inseparable as bread and butter, they should invoke that kind of togetherness. There are several variations of this practice, including the worry that if they fail to utter the phrase, they'll soon quarrel. Another version appears early in an episode of the old TV series The Twilight Zone, featuring a very young William Shatner. John Webster's 1623 tragedy The Duchess of Malfi includes the memorable lines Glories, like glowworms, afar off shine bright, / But looked to near have neither heat nor light. Much later, Stephen Crane expressed a similar idea in his poem A Man Saw a Ball of Gold in the Sky. A woman in Monticello, Florida, is bothered by the phrase on tomorrow, and feels that the word on is redundant. However, this construction is a dialect feature, not a grammatical mistake. It has roots in the United Kingdom and probably derives from the phrase on the morrow. What phrases do you use to encourage others to pick themselves up and dust themselves off? move on? What words do you say to acknowledge someone's bad luck and encourage them to move on? In a discussion on our Facebook group, listeners offer lots of suggestions, including tough beans, tough darts, suck it up, tough nougies, and you knew it was a snake when you picked it up. A listener in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, requests advice about expanding her vocabulary as a writer, but admits she spends only about ten minutes a day reading. The hosts offer several suggestions: Make sure to stop and look up unfamiliar words; listen to podcasts, which will also introduce you to new words; check the etymology, which is sometimes a helpful memory aid; build vocabulary practice into your routine with a word-a-day calendar or a subscription to Anu Garg's A.Word.A.Day newsletter. A teacher in Oakley, Vermont, noted a curious construction among his students while teaching in Maine. They would say things like We're all going to the party, and so isn't he orI like to play basketball, and so doesn't he. Primarily heard in eastern New England, this locution has a kind of internal logic, explained in more detail at one of our favorite resources, The Yale Grammatical Diversity Project. A Jackson, Mississippi, woman who used to work in Japan says that each day as she left the office, her colleagues would say Otsukaresama desu, which means something along the lines of "Thank you for your hard work." Although its literal translation suggests that the hearer must be exhausted, it's simply understood as a polite, set phrase with no exact equivalent in English. Pulitzer-winning historian Barbara Tuchman has observed that her single most formative educational experience was exploring Harvard's Widener Library. She captured the feelings of many library lovers when she added that her own daughter couldn't enter that building "without feeling that she ought to carry a compass, a sandwich, and a whistle." To go at something bald-headed means "to rush at something head-on." The same idea informs the phrase to I'm going to pinch you bald-headed, which an exasperated parent might say to a misbehaving child. The more common version is snatch you bald-headed, a version of which Mark Twain used in his Letters from Hawaii. This episode is hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett. -- A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673 London +44 20 7193 2113 Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate Site: http://waywordradio.org/ Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/ Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/ Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/ Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2016, Wayword LLC.
On January 16, 1917, a coded German dispatch was intercepted by British Naval Intelligence. Over the next weeks, cryptographers in the innocuous sounding Room 40 began deciphering the message. What they found was shocking. Germany was proposing to bankroll Mexico in a war that would serve two purposes: 1. Keep the U.S. from aiding the Allies, 2. Allow Mexico to recover its lost territories of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The message also asked Mexico to lure Japan, one of the Allied nations in World War I, into the alliance. Desperate to add the fresh strength of neutral America to their cause, the British shared the telegram with the U.S. Government. The public release of the Zimmerman Telegram convinced many Americans that neutrality had failed. Few wanted war, but as Barbara Tuchman concluded in her study of the affair, the Zimmerman Telegram “killed the American illusion that we could go about our business happily separate from other nations.”
Timestamps (approximate) 8:37 - Ted Raicer interview 59:18 - Books & Films 1:12:30 - Games 1:32:11 - Visiting the battlefields I sort of did it to myself again, aspiring to play more games and learn more about the subject matter of this episode. I swear I'm getting calibrated on myself, though, and have big plans to think smaller next time. :) Historic anniversaries in wargaming are appealing to me, because the occasion often leads to the some of hobby community focusing on the same topic. It gets discussed online, good games are suggested, and sometimes there are even new books & documentaries that become available. That was certainly true for 2014's centennial of the start of World War 1. I jumped in, finally reading Barbara Tuchman's famous Guns of August (well, it was an unabridged audiobook), listening to podcasts, watching several dramatic films & documentaries, and playing several wargames. Plus, I was lucky enough to visit some of these battlegrounds on a vacation last summer, which I discuss at the end. When wargamers think of WW1, they probably think of designer Ted Raicer and his many games on the subject. Although Ted's games are typically much larger than the small ones I prefer personally, I still had to try at least one of Ted's games. Even better, Ted was willing to be interviewed for my podcast! We talk about the hobby, but what I really wanted from him was his insight as a historian about The Great War. I can't speak highly enough about The Guns of August. It's a Pulitzer-winning classic of history and literature for a reason. It's that good. I certainly thought so, anyway. It taught me a lot about this period in history. So did Joe Miranda's companion magazine article in Strategy & Tactics to his game, Reinforce the Right! I really appreciate the connection between wargame and history that is most exemplified in our hobby's magazine articles. Returning to something I first planned for this podcast, I tried to see a number of films that relate to the subject. Unlike with the games I played, here I was a bit looser about the particular period of the war depicted. Though my gaming focus was just on the western front in 1914, in films I took in the entire war, the "over the top" hellscapes of 1916-17, and even some theaters away from France. Some of these films are well-known, others less so. I was helped by a foreign film series put on by my local community college. I'm so glad that introduced me to La Grande Illusion, for example. (Less thrilled with Oh! What a Lovely War.) Besides the dramatic films, there were three outstanding documentaries I viewed, as well. The Guns of August was a doc I never knew existed as a companion to the book. The other two were outstanding works from BBC. As for the games I played, they're mostly smaller offerings. That's always my preference, and was easy to find more than enough games to choose from. Too many, in fact. Before and during my "research phase" I used a geeklist to list & comment on the games I played, or why I wasn't getting to some others. The games I played were Paths of Glory, 1914: Opening Moves, We Shall Fight on the Marne, La fleur au fusil, août 1914, Reinforce the Right!, France 1914, and Over the Top! Mons. Some of these games are lighter (some of them quite light/small), but not all of them. This is another aspect of the podcast I'm starting to figure out--just focusing on the games that are best for me. But how could I have skipped Paths of Glory?! I couldn't. (I forgot to discuss one more tiny wargame I tried, ATO's postcard game Fateful Days. It was too minimalist, even for me.) Finally I wrap up with some description of the WW1 sites I've been fortunate enough to visit. In 2012 I went to Verdun and the surrounding area, while in 2014 I went to the Marne and saw different sites. Both visits were very moving. Here are a few photos. (By the way, on the podcast I say that the best preserved/restored WW1 trenches are in Ypres, but I misspoke--they're at Vimy Ridge.) -Mark
"Remember, Remember" Recorded the day after Guy Fawkes day. It's now 2 years since we first conceptualized the podcast with a pad of paper at Free Times Cafe after the Queen's Park Remembrance Day ceremony in 2008. So we'll talk about World War One, which some people claim was "great". Usually we claim nobody was hurt, but in World War One, many people died. - Remembrance day, and the First World War: The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman - http://www.amazon.ca/Guns-August-Barbara-W-Tuchman/dp/0345476093 Vimy by Pierre Berton - http://www.amazon.ca/Vimy-Pierre-Berton/dp/0385658427 - XBox Live Arcade and the First World War: Toy Soldiers - the trial is great, the game's a slog Snoopy Flying Ace - just plain super duper great - Televised British Comedy and the First World War: Blackadder Goes Forth: Private Plane ft. Lord Flashheart and Moustaches - http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/blackadder/epguide/four_private.shtml - Board Games about Being a Flying Ace: Wings of War: Billy Bishop vs. the Red Baron! - how it works, how our game went, all that good stuff. - http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=24 (WARNING: LINK HAS ANNOYING MUSIC) Ilan's Recommendation: get "Burning Drachens", "Top Fighters" and "Dogfight" BILLY BISHOP GOES TO WAR: Wednesday Nov. 10th at 8pm, CBC - http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2010/11/08/billy-bishop.html - Movies it's okay... d'oh