Podcast appearances and mentions of Daniel Okrent

I made the cover thinking we were going to talk about spring ball and safety rotation. We just talked hoops. Things Discussed: Craig stopped being a Cleveland fan when they traded Rocky Colavito and says nobody will get that reference, Seth goes: "I like hamburger!" Aside: If you ever see a copy of Baseball Anecdotes by Daniel Okrent and Steve Wulf, I highly recommend you pick it up. Dusty May is able to multitask, unlike Tom Izzo. Realities of building a roster in 2024-25. Cadeau vs Donaldson: Michigan lost its top two shot creators in their two bigs so they needed creation. Concern is you need to put shooting around that PnR game, and Gayle/Cason a bit questionable as knockdown spacers. We're in a weird transitional period where House hasn't been approved yet and people are trying to get all their deals done—"Mad dash to hand people cash"—before this clearinghouse is checking NIL deals to make sure they're "fair market value." Dusty May listened to Dusty May saying "we need to get tougher." Morez Johnson: 100% chance Craig Ross is going to call him a "brute." Love the Pippi Longstocking pigtails. Dusty's mindset: I'm going after the best players in the country. Aday Mara: could be an awesome pickup. 7'3" finisher who had norovirus and lost some conditioning in the middle of last year, but when UCLA made their run he was playing up to 31 minutes. Would be a great one-two punch with Johnson, in that you've got the big motor guy and the extremely tall/long rim protector, who both serve the same role in the offense so you're keeping your offense the same, but need to be defended differently. Bigs have a slower progression. We can beat 2nd round money. Chances of getting NBA fours back: 5% for Wolf since he's projected to the 1st round. 20% for Yax. Izzo is not allowed to retire until he's had ten years of Paternoing. Better yet: MSU basketball should be U.Chicago football: ride your legendary coach into total irrelevance. Honestly though: developing players is a very good strategy, so long as they can do it. Izzo's mix of tryhad bigs, athletic guards, and lots of defense and rebounding has a ceiling. Trey McKenney scouting report: super strong dribbler, creates his own shot and makes it, can score in the mid-range. Question whether he's got that explosiveness—can he jump, can he move his feet well enough to be a great defender? Won't be a guy who guards quickness but he can help you with the Lu'Cye Patterson bullies, which you're going to see more of in the Big Ten than the super-quick guards. Like Trey in an offense with Cadeau because if you switch on the PnR you're creating bad matchups. Projecting development: it doesn't just "happen." It's about what these guys put in their workouts and hours of exercises and shot development that we never see. Hard for us to project what that is.

Pocos experimentos sociales han sido tan peculiares y aleccionadores como la denominada Ley Seca de Estados Unidos. Aplicada durante trece años, entre 1920 y 1933, consistió en la prohibición prácticamente total para la elaboración, importación, distribución y venta de bebidas alcohólicas. Su objetivo era reducir el crimen, la pobreza y los problemas sociales asociados al consumo de vino, cerveza y licores, pero su resultado fue muy negativo. No sólo siguió bebiendo quien quiso hacerlo, sino que la ley creo un poderoso acicate para que la mafia ganase mucho dinero convirtiendo las principales ciudades en paraísos para el hampa. El origen de la Ley Seca se remonta al siglo XIX, cuando los conocidos como movimientos a favor de la templanza fueron poco a poco ganando fuerza. Grupos religiosos y reformistas, como la Unión Cristiana de Mujeres por la Templanza, argüían que el alcohol era la raíz de muchos males sociales como la violencia doméstica y la miseria económica. Esta presión culminó en la aprobación de la Decimoctava Enmienda a la Constitución en 1919, que prohibía la elaboración, venta y transporte de bebidas alcohólicas. La Ley Volstead, promulgada poco después, concretó los detalles de su aplicación y entró en vigor el 17 de enero de 1920. Al principio los promotores de la ley vieron resultados positivos. El consumo de alcohol per cápita disminuyó en los primeros años, y los arrestos por embriaguez pública cayeron en ciertas zonas del país. Pero la prohibición pronto reveló su verdadera cara. La demanda de alcohol no desapareció, simplemente se trasladó a un floreciente mercado negro. Los "speakeasies", bares clandestinos disfrazados de tiendas o casas particulares, se multiplicaron en ciudades como Nueva York y Chicago. Se estima que en Nueva York había más de 30.000 locales de este tipo durante los años 20, es decir, el doble de los bares legales antes de la prohibición. El comercio ilegal de alcohol dio paso al auge del crimen organizado. Figuras como Al Capone en Chicago aprovecharon la oportunidad y amasaron auténticas fortunas mediante el contrabando de alcohol. Las ganancias eran enormes. Capone generaba unos 60 millones de dólares al año (equivalentes a cientos de millones hoy). Las bandas rivalizaban por tan lucrativo negocio y libraron guerras sangrientas por el control del mercado. Eso elevó la tasa de homicidios y fomentó la corrupción. Policías y políticos, sobornados con facilidad, a menudo hacían la vista gorda, lo que erosionaba la confianza en las instituciones. La creatividad también floreció bajo la Ley Seca. Los contrabandistas, conocidos como "bootleggers", idearon métodos ingeniosos para evadir a los agentes de la prohibición. Desde esconder licor en libros huecos hasta transportarlo en barcos desde Canadá, México y el Caribe. La gente del común destilaba licores en casa como "moonshine" o ginebra de bañera, a menudo con devastadores efectos para la salud. El alcohol adulterado causó miles de muertes por intoxicación, un coste humano que los defensores de la prohibición no habían previsto. Con el tiempo, la opinión pública se fue volviendo contra la Ley Seca. La Gran Depresión, iniciada en 1929, intensificó el deseo de derogarla, pues legalizar el alcohol prometía empleos y recaudación fiscal. En 1933, la Vigésimoprimera Enmienda derogó la Decimoctava, poniendo fin a los años de la prohibición. Los bares reabrieron, y la industria del alcohol volvió a la legalidad, aunque el crimen organizado ya había echado raíces y se pasó al negocio de las drogas. La Ley Seca, en definitiva, fracasó en su objetivo de eliminar el consumo de alcohol, expuso los límites del legislador para moldear la moralidad a su antojo y reveló cómo las políticas bien intencionadas provocan a menudo consecuencias imprevistas. En El ContraSello: 0:00 Introducción 4:25 La ley seca 1:23:39 Historia de los gitanos 1:38:34 ¿Y si la República hubiese ganado la guerra civil? Bibliografía “La Ley Seca y la Prohibición en los Estados Unidos” de Gustavo Vázquez Lozano - https://amzn.to/41yvnHT “Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition” de Daniel Okrent - https://amzn.to/4kfXPFX “Prohibition: A Very Short Introduction” de W.J. Rorabaugh - https://amzn.to/4gWqRY9 · Canal de Telegram: https://t.me/lacontracronica · “Contra la Revolución Francesa”… https://amzn.to/4aF0LpZ · “Hispanos. Breve historia de los pueblos de habla hispana”… https://amzn.to/428js1G · “La ContraHistoria de España. 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Send us a text Do you ever take a moment to think about the fact that Americans, the people of the land of the free, spent 13 years under Prohibition? Did you know that Americans used to seriously “drink like a fish”? And no, I'm not talking about fraternity men in college. I'm talking about everyone, everywhere, from George Washington's parties to lunchtimes in the manufacturing factories (until Henry Ford put a stop to it, you know, for efficiency purposes). Then Prohibition happened. What were the forces that drove Prohibition into existence? Our first and only constitutional amendment to be repealed, what was so severe about America under prohibition that it only lasted 13 years? How did a guy smuggle whiskey into America in an egg carton? All that and more on this episode with Wabash College Professor Nicholas Snow. Tune in! Want to explore more?Read John Alcorn's 2019 series on prohibition of all kinds at EconLog.Daniel Okrent on Prohibition and his Book, Last Call, an EconTalk podcast.Lysander Spooner, Vices are Not Crimes. A Vindication of Moral Liberty, at the Online Library of Liberty.Randy Simmons on Public Choice, a Great Antidote podcast.Sandra Peart on Ethical Quandaries and Politics Without Romance, a Great Antidote podcast.Never miss another AdamSmithWorks update.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Cheers to Professor Jackson's post Prohibition conversation with distinguished author Daniel Okrent! Dan is the the author of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, winner of the American Historical Association's prize for the year's best book of American History when it was published in 2011. Last Call was a go-to book in the HTDS bibliography for episodes 157-160 as we researched and selected the stories to tell in these four podcast episodes we've just completed. Dan was also the first Public Editor of The New York Times, where he was charged with being the public's advocate for accurate and objective journalism by the paper. So Prof. Jackson couldn't resist the opportunity to get his perspective on the state of news reporting today which, as astute HTDS listeners know, is often called the first draft of history. Spoiler alert: they both agree one must be a critical thinker when it comes to the potential bias of the news media one consumes – helpful tool here from AdFontes. Dan Okrent is also author of The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America, and Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center, a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in history.  Before his tenure at the Times, Okrent spent 13 years at Time Inc., where he was successively editor of Life magazine; corporate editor of new media; and corporate editor-at-large. Earlier in his career, he worked extensively in book and magazine publishing in various editorial and executive positions. He has held fellowships at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard (where he was, in addition, the Edward R. Murrow Visiting Lecturer in 2009-2010). ____ Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations join discussions in our Facebook community get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette  come see a live show get HTDS merch or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks. HTDS is part of the Airwave Media Network.  Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Email us at advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest is historian, author, and former public editor of the New York Times, Daniel Okrent. We have pizza headlines. And the pizza topic is: “THE REAL STORY (AND RECIPE) BEHIND CHICAGO DEEP-DISH” with pizza historian Peter Regas.Publisher's weekly has called our guest, Daniel Okrent, “one of our most interesting and eclectic writers of nonfiction over the past 25 years.” Daniel is a writer, author, and editor. He served as the first public editor of The New York Times. He is the author of several books including; 2003's “Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center”, 2010's “Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition”, and 2019's “The Guarded Gate”. Daniel has been featured in Ken Burns' Baseball and Prohibition documentaries as well.Daniel discusses; fantasy baseball and pizza, Detroit style pizza, the state of journalism, getting pizza in a news room. Peter Regas is a financial statistician and pizza historian. He is quoted numerous times in Eric Kim's New York Times' piece “The Most Surprising Thing About Deep Dish Pizza? It's Not That Deep.” Separately, you can see his deep dish pizza recipe in Chicago Magazine as well.Peter discusses the secret history he uncovered about the real inventor of Chicago deep dish pizza. This podcast is brought to you by Ooni Pizza Ovens. Go to Ooni.com for more information.Follow us for more information!Instagram: @pizzapodparty @NYCBestPizza @AlfredSchulz4Twitter: @PizzaPodParty @ArthurBovino @AlfredSchulzTikTok: @thepizzapodpartyThreads: @pizzapodparty @NYCBestPizza @AlfredSchulz4

In this episode, Herb speaks to acclaimed author, Daniel Okrent, about his book Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition.  Daniel served as the first public editor of the New York Times and invented Rotisserie League Baseball.  His book, Last Call, served as a major source for the 2011 Ken Burns/Lynn Novick miniseries Prohibition.  His most recent book is The Guarded Gate:Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America.In this episode's Licensee Highlight, Herb speaks with Sheldon Anderson, CEO of Public Flower Dispensary, in Buffalo, NY.  Sheldon thoughtfully reflects on growing up around cannabis and the opportunity that led to recently as he was awarded a NYS Conditional Adult Use Retail Dispensary License. Joint Session: Diverse Voices in NYS Cannabis is produced by Herb Barbot, with additional production and engineering by Matt Patterson, with Rebecca Malpica producing our digital marketing/social media.  In addition, thank you to Cannabis Wire for contributing our cannabis news. Please contact us at herb.jointsession@gmail.com if you have any questions or comments, including topics to cover. Follow the show on Instagram at jointsession.pod, and on LinkedIn at Joint Session Podcast. If you're enjoying the show, leave us a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps new listeners find the show.

With the Independence Day holiday coming up fast, it seemed like a good time to talk about some of the best movies with a patriotic theme of all time, along with a handful of television shows sprinkled in for good measure. There are classics like "Born on the Fourth of July," "Patton" and "Saving Private Ryan." Don't forget comedies and sports movies such as "Private Benjamin" and "Miracle." Actions films like the "Top Gun" and "National Treasure" films are patriotic. And of course, you can't beat a good film about the space race with the Soviet Union with "The Right Stuff" and "Apollo 13." There are also a number of classic limited series on TV, such as "Band of Brothers," "From the Earth to the Moon" and just about anything from Ken Burns including "The Civil War" and "Baseball." With the holiday week, we'll be taking a little extra time off before coming back on July 11 with an episode that discusses the upcoming fifth season of "What We Do in the Shadows." Co-host Bruce Miller also has interviews with members of the cast. About the show Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin. Episode transcript Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:   Welcome everyone to another episode of Streamed and Screened and Entertainment podcasts about movies and TV from Lee Enterprises. I'm Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer at Lee and co-host of the program with The Patriot of the Cinema, Bruce Miller, editor of the Sioux City Journal and the long time entertainment reporter. Bruce. That is so good. I can I have that as a calling in cards or anything? Yep. Get them printed up. Patriot of the Cinema. I think that that's a good thing. You know, it's funny because during war years, patriotic movies do really well. People love that kind of stuff. And then in non patriotic times, good luck. Good luck. World War II, build with that. Now we're fighting aliens. That seems to be the the common enemy. But it is interesting how they will touch a vein. You're in there. We have one that that has some ties to Iowa. Saving Private Ryan. Oh, yeah. Is based on a family. And I mean, there's there. It's not. It's not one for one. It is not a biography of that at all. But you can relate to it. And then you see. Yeah, you know what? I can I can get this. I understand this, but there are a lot of you'll see them now when you watch on TV, especially on those channels where they're trying to push the stuff, you're going to see a ton of them that they bring out 1776, which is unwatchable. Basically comes out all the time this time of year because they think, Oh, you're in the mood for a patriotic film. Let's look at those old declaration of the Independence guys. And it's slow. It wasn't even a hit when it was out. So the idea that you would go back to that, but one that you probably have watched in recent years that is fun in this way is the live taping of Amell Ted Deutch from odd Wait. And that, I think, is a great patriotic film to watch because it really does point out that these are fallible men and women, that they can make mistakes and we shouldn't look at them like they're statues or pictures on the back of money. Yeah. So I think Hamilton is a good one If you're going to look for one this time of year to look at. Go back to it, because that's the gold standard for those kind of Broadway capture films. They did a beautiful job with that. Yeah. And that was a really good introduction for me because obviously I knew about the performance, but I hadn't seen it to that point. So to see it on Disney Plus and my kids, we watched it with the kids and the kids loved it. There's still they still play the soundtrack all the time. And we took them to see the the touring version of Hamilton about a year ago. You know, with the the TV version, it has the subtitles that you can then read along with if you think the rapping is too fast. And I think sometimes when you see it again in a theater, you miss some of the raps because either the sound isn't all that good or they're going too quickly. And at least when you go back to the the Disney Plus version, you can read it if you need to. It's great for old people, which is amazing in my crowd. So there you are. Yep. So at the 4th of July holiday, we're going to go through here and just talk about some of our favorite patriotic films. And what else do you have? All right. Top Gun one and Top Gun two. Oh, absolutely. Right. Yep. It's a good I'm I'm on my list, Both of them. Those are. I don't even know which one I like better, because Top Gun two is one of the rare instances where where the sequel might be better than the original, I think. Well, but you know what? You needed the one to understand the two. Right. We wouldn't it Val Kilmer out. How kind of vibrant he is in the first one. And then you see him near death in the second one. You kind of need to know both. So I don't know that Maverick stands alone, but I'd watch him together as a double feature. Yeah, they're great. And I think what makes those films especially good is when you watch the original, they don't really say that you know, it's the Russians or the Soviets or anything, but, you know, and it's kind of the same thing with Maverick where they don't tell you who it is. But, you know, and it kind of makes it timeless, too, because you're not necessarily pinning it on any one nation. So it could be just whatever you watch a 30 years from now. And whoever, whoever the villain of the time is in world politics, you can just say it's them. They're the ones that were fighting. Well, okay, so then we're in the mode of Tom Cruise. What about Born on the 4th of July? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's a classic. Born on the 4th of July. He was one of those two that Oliver Stone, because he he had also done Platoon. So staying within that theme of of the Vietnam War and just kind of different perspectives of course so. Absolutely fabulous movie. Yeah and hey Tom Cruise does a great job He's very good and very believable. You know, we don't just see him as a gung ho kind of military man in this one. He's also an activist. And you can see other sides of things. The Vietnam War had so many sides to it, so many angles to it that to call a movie the Vietnam movie, is just impossible. And we'll still be dissecting that for years to come now, because it isn't just a one shot thing. And I think that's where a lot of people get kind of, oh, wait a minute here now, aren't we patriotic? What's wrong with us? It's because during World War Two, they were gung ho on the American effort and all of those films had to have some kind of, if you will, a supportive statement that that guided it and deservedly so. When you look at the Vietnam War, people were questioning it all the time and wondering, should we really be there and what's the point of all this? So it's a different war, a different kind of a situation, but I think it is a good one to look at. What about a a war movie, but a little bit more on the fictional side, like a Red Dawn from the 1980s. Red Dawn is BOND Yeah. And that that skews to a younger audience, too. Gives you a chance to see you know and look at just even last year where we saw all quiet on the western front how really young we realized those kids were in that situation. And that's why Red Dawn does, too, is it shows you that sometimes we're sending children off to war. I remember that movie, too, and I loved it at the time. It's been a while since I've seen it. I should go back and watch it. But at the time it really it kind of scared me too, because it felt so real. Because, you know, at the time you know, I never really thought the Russians or the Soviets would invade us, but it wasn't completely out of mind either. I mean, that's certainly within the realm of possible loyalty. And I think that added some reality to it. And on top of it, it didn't necessarily have a happy ending, like some of our heroes from the movie didn't make it to the end. And these are kids. And it was you know, it was a tough movie to watch at times. Yeah, it was. Had a lot of adventure, too, depending on where you are in that in your life, you see it in different ways. You know, as an older person, you start like, those are my kids. These are like, they could be my children. You know, as a kid, you're like, That could be me. So it's a different perspective. Okay, what's on your list? Let's hear some more. You mentioned Saving Private Ryan, which was on my list, but now I know we're talking mostly about films, but I do want to tie in here with Saving Private Ryan and the brothers and the brothers in the Pacific. Now, the Pacific, I didn't find as good as Band of Brothers, but Band of Brothers is maybe one of the best limited series ever. I mean, is there anything better than that about World War Two? The people who were in it were nobody's, you know, the at the time. Yeah. And now you can just go through and go, Oh my God, that's old Mike. Oh, look who's there. They're there. There's a bunch of them in it. And so if you go back for a second view now, it is long. It is. I did ten parts. 12 parts. It's a lot. And we don't see that anymore because we're so used to six parts and out or eight in and out. But it's worth it. It's worth the, the set. I think it's a good a good film. And Tommy was involved in Tom Hanks is involved. And it was it was really good. Now, related to Tom Hanks is another arc that I'm going to throw at you. And it starts with the right stuff, which is, of course, a look at. Yep. And then Apollo 13 starring Tom Hanks. And then, of course, Tom Hanks parlayed Apollo 13 into From the Earth to the Moon on HBO, gets that series. And then even more recently, even though it's completely fictional for all mankind on Apple TV. Plus, I love those space movies. And for me, from a from a patriotic stance, it's the rivalry between us and the Soviets to get to the moon, to get into space. It's just a really great story. As in Hidden Figures, Many women played a part in this and was kind of like not a subplot any of those. So there are lots. The space race was clearly the Sixties story to tell, and I think when the Cold War was on, this was the way that we were fighting those battles. We'd be first. You know, we'd haven't mentioned a comedy at all. A comedy? I would give a Benjamin, Sir. Private Benjamin That's a really cool look at how a spoiler woman, for lack of a better term, is thrown into this situation and becomes much better as a result of it and comes out of it and yet you can laugh along with her and you see her grow and you see that she's doing it in service to our country along the lines of comedy. Would you throw stripes into that mix also? You could, but I don't know that that would out as patriotic. It's just more fun. Yeah. If if you want to do a military comedy, there you go. It might work a little bit better. Well, and then if you look at other ones, Clint Eastwood, he had a whole raft of patriotic like films that he did. And he did the two parter thing where he showed one side and then he showed the other side flags of our fathers and the letters from Iwo Jima. Right. So he has his kind of, if you will, patriotic theme is like Spielberg has his. Yep. You can you can kind of trigger these Oliver Stone they're they all the almost behind that as a way to at least identify their filmmaking skills or to highlight them. I don't know. What about some of the historical Lincoln like oh yeah Lincoln is one of my all time favorites because Daniel Day-Lewis always always dug in and would become the character. And honestly, after you see that, you think, I can't imagine anybody else as Lincoln. And we've had so many Lincolns over the years. But man is Lincoln is the way I want him to be, not to take this too far off topic, but is Daniel Day-Lewis the greatest actor ever? The man retired because he he just couldn't do it anymore. The way he throws himself into it, he may not be the greatest, but he was the most selective. And he knew that if he was going to choose to do something, he was going all in and he didn't do. You know, you don't see some crap films on his resume where you go, Oh, that was a dog. He shouldn't have done that. He waited. Yeah. And that I think that the real hard part for some of these actors today is they think that, you have three in your out, you know, you can have three flops and then if you don't have a good hit after that, you're down doing something that you don't want to go and you never did that. And so I think the idea that he retired was maybe a great move. It's like Johnny Carson. He left and didn't do anything after that that you would say, Oh my God, look what happened to him. He looks so old or He doesn't quite have it anymore. But I know Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the treasures of the American cinema and not three Oscars. Not at right. If you look at somebody like Jack Nicholson, Jack Nicholson has a very stellar career. But Jack Nicholson was playing Jack Nicholson a lot of those times. He did disappear in the character like Daniel Day-Lewis did. Sure. If that means anything. Okay, Peyton. Okay. What most about Peyton? I remember that big flag that he stands in front of. Yeah, right. It's been a while. Oh, yeah. The flag. That was what George See, Scott played Peyton, Correct. I the personality. I think he was just more of the personality for, for, for me. I mean, it's been a really long time since I've seen Peyton, but it was one of those that it would just keep on showing up on either cable and I would just every time would come on, I would have to watch it because I just I was sucked in by the performance and how intense he was as a general. Again, it's one of those things where you think I want the character to be like that because then it explains a lot of things. And maybe George C Scott was just doing his version of it, and Peyton wasn't like that at all, but it certainly plays well and it made the movie this huge hit. It was a big hit at the time it came out and people were, look at that. It was like there was a 1970. Yeah, it's the Vietnam era, basically. And we're seeing a military film and we're saying, Oh my God, it's so great. That really took something that took some work to make that pass through all that all of that time, and then let you see what it's like behind the scenes. So he has Peyton is a real good one. Great one. There's a lot of patriotism in sports to miracle. Yeah. Do you count that as one? Yes. I could get the I get the Olympic kind of thing. But I think with Miracle, because you're talking about the 1988 Olympics, which was, of course, around the time of the boycotts, because the U.S. boycotted the the Summer Games and then ultimately the Eastern Bloc boycotted the 84 Summer Games in L.A. You look, there was a time before professional athletes before like Western professional athletes went to the Olympics. So it was about amateurism. And it was this one opportunity where a bunch of amateurs in a sport that the US doesn't even dominate in. I mean, we've got a lot of of great American hockey players, but they don't stand up with the Canadians or the Europeans or the Soviets or anything like that. So to be able to go out on your home ice and and to be able to beat the Soviets during the height of communism and all of that, I think that's a highly patriotic movie. You know, though, isn't it funny how they've tried so many times to use that that kind of formula in another in another setting, you know, and and bring it around and it it doesn't work as well as that. You imagine Olympic films and Bud Greenspan would do an Olympic film every time there was an Olympic year. Mm. 16 days of glory. I mean you throw them out there and those are always and it was a tough day for so-and-so and you know, and, and you do get that kind of moment where you think, Oh my God, this is bigger than what we think it is. It's not just somebody out there running as fast as he can. There's more on the line now. TBS borrowed that concept and does these little kind of vignettes. It drives me crazy when they do it with American Idol, where everybody is supposed to have a story and our we're judging you on your story, not necessarily on your talent, but they've done that now. That was kind of what drove all of his documentaries, is that it was the story. You didn't know about this. You know, it could be a runner who's able, but nobody's going to say anything because they don't want to spoil the day. And he gets out there on the day and he's running like a lightning bolt and he wins and then they tell you all the trouble that goes into that. Those are fascinating films to watch because you really don't know what's going on until they spell it out for you. And he did a he had a very successful run of those kinds of films. And largely there were a lot of Americans that were featured because it's financed by American resources. So, yeah, Olympics are always good, always good for that kind of stir of patriotism that we feel. And come on, don't you don't you cheer for the Americans when you see the Olympics on? Of course. Of course. Yeah. I'm you know, I'm I'm the kind of a yell out foul ball when it's not an American. So get out what else you have on your list and the others glory with Oh, yeah, with Denzel. I thought that was great. I have Gettysburg and I have a national treasure. Yes, that's on my list, too. That's an interesting one, because you hit on what's come on. It's a mystery kind of, you know, Da Vinci Code ish kind of thing. But the idea that you get to visit some of those spots are what make it kind of fun to see. I really enjoyed those. Is a history buff, too. And my kids like them. And I've kind of used that as a gateway to introduce them to Indiana Jones. Also, which I don't think it's quite as patriotic, no national treasure, but it's the same idea of like an archeologist kind of person who's into relics. So it's just from from a as a gateway into Indy for my kids. The National Treasure Series, I think is good and it's pretty low key. It's pretty kid friendly one I do not like. Are you up for that? Sure. The Patriot. Okay. With Mel Gibson? Yeah. I think it's really heavy handed. And I think after I don't need this, you know, Liz and I. Yeah, I didn't blow it out for you. Yeah, I. I'd have to go back to my review because at the time I remember going we are they ever trying to manipulate us And frankly that's what all political ads are now is a manipulation. So whenever you see any of these ones, who's got the bigger flag? That's what they're looking for. Who can who can sound like the bigger patriot and you know what? Patriotism is not something that you can put on. It's something that's in you does make sense. It does not sound like I'm reading from Bartlett's Familiar Quotations or something deep thoughts that nobody is running to see. I see that so much with with politicians where they try to out patriot each other and like I am behind America more than you are, and I will salute more than you will. And no, and you know what? I remember the VFW and the American Legion man would walk in a parade on the 4th of July and they would salute. And you felt every bit of their pride and the effort that they put into their country. And I don't know that that's at all what politicians are selling. You sound I'm against this this sponsored by the Adria. It's for Miller campaign. That's right. That's right. You know, it is it is really different. And I think we have not yet seen that great 4th of July movie, a 4th of July movie where maybe it's a small town that they're putting together, a small town celebration. And you get a sense of what it means to be that kind of America and how it how it shuffles down. I mean, look it now, I said earlier, it's aliens were fighting and you'll see the Independence Day and you'll see all those kinds of, you know, I special effects kind of films where is that really it? I don't think that's it. I don't think it's ahead Independence Day on my list for no other reason than it was. I don't know if it was a patriotic as much as just we're trying to save the world, but and it's titled Independence Day. So it's one day if you just kind of bring out for Independence Day. It's interesting and we'll see a lot of it. Yeah, it'll be run like crazy over the 4th of July holiday, especially since now the 4th of July falls close to the middle of the week. Right. We'll have a whole weekend full of these. You know, they're going to be showing them wall to wall from Friday until Tuesday. So we'll see what happens. But, you know, we talked a little bit about, you know, World War two movies, Vietnam movies we're starting to see in the last decade or so movies with their more modern kind of wars, post-9-11 films like The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark 30, American Sniper. Any thoughts on those? They're hard to watch because they are so real for us because we experienced a lot of it on the news. You know, we'd see these kinds of things and the whole bit with Taliban and all that. Are we are we through it? I don't know. And all of the 911 films that come about, you know, I think a lot of that is real, very difficult for those of us who've lived through it, to really sit and see it as something other than and, you know, one I'd like to push out there if you really want to look at a sense of history. Ken Burns does such incredible documentaries about just every aspect of American life and the ones that, you know, he just did one about the Holocaust his last year, the U.S. in the Holocaust, and he's done the Civil War, he's done baseball, he's done Nashville, he's done, you name it. And he he touches on various aspects of our lives. And I think inherent in all of that is a sense of patriotism. Yeah, he is a real proponent of, you know, who we are and what we learn. And where does this lead us? What what will we get from this? And that old line about how don't ignore history because you're doomed to repeat it. You know, I think he's reminding us, pay attention to your history. Learn what happened so that then you don't make the mistakes again. I really wasn't thinking too closely about those Ken Burns documentaries because I was more in movie mode. But when you bring it at the Civil War, baseball, the one about country music, even though there are three separate subjects, they are very much intertwined in a sense, because it is about, you're right, patriotism, the fabric. You know, baseball is is being like the fabric of America and one of those things. So, yeah, no, I love all those. You dropped me in front of a Ken Burns ten part documentary, and I'll see you in a week and then you're you're waiting. Well, wait a minute. I got to hear that voice because there are certain voices that always have to be in on these. Wait a minute. Does he have them? And it's a very predictable kind of format, but he always has interesting tidbits that you never knew when he did. Ben Franklin, the Roosevelts. I mean, things that you go, Oh, really? I didn't know that. How come I have a knowing this all these years? And I think it's a matter of just digging in and finding this stuff and putting it in perspective. What does this mean for the world at that time? Baseball is a real good one. With that, where he talks all about the players and what their place was and how important they were to, you know, maintaining morale in our country, black baseball players and what their struggle was like. There's a lot lot there to to unpack. But I think Ken Burns, if we're going with somebody who can really capture our times and our people and he doesn't like to do anything that's that current. So you asking like, well, what would you do? It's about Trump. What kind of a Trump document he said is too close? We can't that we need to have perspective to be able to look back on these things and then see what we learn from that. That's yeah, that's fascinating. Maybe that's why some of these newer war movies should have been fewer of them to begin with. But you just we haven't gotten enough time in between. And and we are seeing even now like a return to, you know, World War One and some of those earlier ones which we had kind of moved away from those early war. But we've we're kind of moving back almost to those just a little bit. You know, one fascinating thing, too, that you bring up with Ken Burns and those documentaries, if you remember in the baseball documentary, one of the guests, one of the figures talking about the history of the game was somebody that was I think he's always wearing a red sweater. I don't know if you remember that guy in he kind of became known as like that red sweater guy in baseball. His name is Daniel Okrent. Right. He's an editor. I think they listed him in his he's an editor. He actually invented fantasy baseball. Oh, my gosh. He's the guy him in some friends of his created this thing called like they had a Rotisserie League Baseball thing. That was the genesis to all of modern sports. So if you like, even if you're getting into some NFL fantasy football thing, you know, during the football season, it can all get traced back to that guy that was on Ken Burns Baseball. Did he make a dime of it? I don't know. No, I don't think so. I made those best ideas yet. Know where. Right, Exactly. Exactly. Any other any other films you want to touch on before we head out? There are I mean, a number of just just Google patriotic films you like. I say, the World War two ones are fascinating because you'll find a story about a wife who's at home and what she has to deal with and the struggles and the pressures. And that is very fascinating to see how they played that out or somebody going off to war, even something as simple as White Christmas. If you go back and look at White Christmas, where they're going to help this this fellow soldier there, their commanding officer, give him a better life. And you see that tie that something like the military does bring where you go white Christmas patriotic. And it is it is a patriotic bill. So look at that kind of that period and look at those kinds of things they did. Even though they're singing and dancing, it could be a patriotic film. All right. Well, on that note, I think we'll sign off. Yep. Salute you all. Enjoy the 4th of July holiday. Throw some burgers and dogs on the grill, grab a cold one. Fireworks. I love fireworks. It's the best thing ever. And you know they're not Eric. And I know. And a little trivia for you, Bruce. It will be my 15th wedding anniversary. Oh, my fourth. My wife and I got married in the 4th of July. We got married on the 4th of July. So 15 years this year. Oh, yeah. So how do you celebrate? We usually go see fireworks. Okay, so we do that. But yeah, no, it's. We got married. We we had our ceremony, we had a reception, and then we. We drove out and watch fireworks. My wife, I was still in my tux. My wife is still in her wedding dress. Little girl comes up to her. Did you get married today? And it was. It was fun. Oh, wow. But, you know, you can never forget it. So I've maybe that was that was that her choice? She said, let's get married on the 4th of July. It was my choice so I could never forget. So I was a kid. Well, you can always say these fireworks are just for you. That's right. Exactly. Well, happy nursery and have a great 4th of July. We'll be back next week and we'll be talking to the cast of what we do in the Shadows. If you're a fan of the vampire show on Fox, we've got scoops for you about the next season and you are going to be surprised about what's coming.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

He was the Great Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, the Colossus of Clout. Baseball historian Daniel Okrent said of Babe Ruth “he was Beethoven and Cezanne.” He was the original Natural. And while Babe Ruth influenced people everywhere, but who influenced him?

Disputing the outcome of the 2020 presidential election continues to play a major role in GOP politics. This begs the question: how have election disputes been handled in our history? Are we progressing at election dispute resolution in the march of our history? Or are we regressing? Intertwined with those questions is the quagmire of election disputes themselves. Has our Constitution created a working system for us? This one is a trick question for two reasons. First, our electoral college system now is not the same one that our founders envisaged. Second, the election system that we think we have is not what we actually have in practice. In one particular aspect, our founders wanted majority winners in our elections, specifically with respect to presidential elections. But under our current system, a candidate can win the White House with a minority of the national and state popular votes. My guest, Professor Edward Foley, analyzes all of this for us, gives us models from history on how election disputes should be resolved, and then shares anecdotes of election-related violence, and one frightening election that almost caused a second civil war. Professor Foley is the author of Presidential Elections and Majority Rule, and also Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States, which was named a Finalist for the David J. Langum Prize in American Legal History and listed as one of 100 “must-read books about law and social justice”. He holds the Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law at The Ohio State University, where he also directs its election law program. He is a contributing opinion columnist for the Washington Post, and for the 2020 election season, he served as an NBC News election law analyst. And here is the link to my conversation with Daniel Okrent about Prohibition and the 1920 census (S2E24), which I also discuss in this podcast episode. I hope you enjoy these two episodes, Adel Host of the History Behind News podcast HIGHLIGHTS: get podcast highlights in your inbox. SUPPORT: please click here and join our other supporters in the news peeler community. Thank you.

The forgotten story of what happened to the 1920 Census! The 1910s was a big decade in U.S. history. Here are some highlights from that decade. judge for yourself: (1) WWI, (2) the Spanish flu pandemic, (3) the income tax Constitutional amendment, (4) U.S. senators' popular election Constitutional amendment, (5) women's right to vote Constitutional amendment, and (6) the alcohol ban Constitutional amendment. Also, in 1920 Congress and the White House turned red - meaning Republicans won. Then came the 1920s! Along with Prohibition, in the Roaring '20s, there was another story that has remained unnoticed by most historians. It's a shocking story of an egregious violation of the U.S Constitution by the U.S. Congress. And behind it all were the determined forces of a minority of Americans. To learn more about this story, we spoke with Daniel Okrent, author of the Last Call, The Rise And Fall of Prohibition, which won the Albert J. Beveridge prize, awarded by the American Historical Association to the year's best book of American history, and was used as a major source for the PBS miniseries Prohibition directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. In the last segment of our conversation, Mr. Okrent draws parallels between the Prohibition forces a century ago and Pro-Life forces now. They both represent the will of a minority of Americans Yet, they both won. Note though, Prohibition was eventually repealed, which can be attributed to our guest's concluding statement - that we cannot legislate against human desire. I wonder if there are lessons here for our time? For the abortion fight that is tearing our country apart. Mr. Okrent served as the first public editor of The New York Times newspaper, and he has also been the editor of other publications, such as Alfred A. Knopf, Harcourt, Esquire Magazine, New England Monthly and Life Managzine. He also served on the board of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery for 12 years, including a four-year term as chairman, and remains a board member of the Skyscraper Museum and the Authors Guild. To learn more about Mr. Okrent, please visit his homepage. I hope you enjoy this episode. Adel Host of the History Behind News podcast S1E31: History of the Spanish flu Pandemic SUPPORT: please click here and join our other supporters in the news peeler community. Thank you.

The multi-billion dollar industry that is fantasy sports was created by a group of magazine editors & writers (friends) Daniel Okrent, Lee Eisenberg, Valerie Salembier, Glen Waggoner, Peter Gethers, & Bruce McCall: The Rotisserie Baseball League.LINKS/SOURCES:ESPN 30 for 30: "Silly Little Game" on Disney+http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/fantasy-life/201503/rotisseries-fantasy-baseball-creators-remember-beginningFOLLOW US:Brian Wohl:Twitter: http://twitter.com/brianwohlInstagram: http://instagram.com/brianwohlFacebook: http://facebook.com/brianwohlMarc Muszynski:Twitter: http://twitter.com/marcmuszynskiInstagram: http://instagram.com/marcmuszynskiFacebook: http://facebook.com/marcmuszynskiMy Favorite Friendship:Facebook: http://facebook.com/myfavoritefriendshipInstagram: http://instagram.com/myfavoritefriendshipTwitter: http://twitter.com/myfavfriendship

Welcome to Jo's Boys, a podcast for little women, little men, and everyone in between! We'll be reading through "Little Women" chapter by chapter, pulling out queer and trans threads as we go. Your host is Peyton Thomas, author of the Kirkus-starred novel "Both Sides Now" and a freelance journalist with bylines in Pitchfork, Billboard, and Vanity Fair. This week, we're joined for our very first Scrap Bag episode by special guest Daniel Okrent, former public editor of the New York Times and author of the book The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America. We dive into the complex history of anti-Italian bigotry in New England and the struggles that Laurie would have faced in the world of the Boston Brahmins. Our cover art is by Allison Hoffman. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. Our theme music is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major.

For thirteen years from 1920, the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic drinks was banned in the USA. The age of prohibition was a rowdy time: enlivened by jazz and wild parties; darkened by violence and lawlessness. But how did it come about? Who were its heroes and villains? And how did it change the face of the country it sought to purify? This is a Short History of Prohibition. Written by Danny Marshall. With thanks to Daniel Okrent, author of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#382. (Recorded July 23, 2020) Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent

#382. (Recorded July 23, 2020) Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent

Additional Reading (cocktails):David Wondrich, Imbibe: From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, a Salute in Stories and Drinks to "Professor" Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar (2015).Philip Greene, To Have and Have Another Revised Edition: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion (2015).Wayne Curtis, And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails (2007).Daniel Okrent, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition (2011).Adam Elmegirab, Book of Bitters (2017).Iain Gately, Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol (2009).William Grimes, Straight Up or On the Rocks: The Story of the American Cocktail (2002).Brad Thomas Parsons, Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All (2011).Charles Schumann, The American Bar: The Artistry of Mixing Drinks (2018).Additional Reading (Gilded Age & Progressive Era history):Cecelia Tichi, Civic Passions: Seven Who Launched Progressive America (2011).Sean Cashman, America in the Gilded Age (1993).Charles Morris, The Tycoons (2005).Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex (2001).Lila and Arthur Weinberg, The Muckrakers (2002). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Note: This is an encore edition of our program. The original episode aired in July 2020.

Daniel Okrent is the prize-winning author of six books, most recently The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America. He was also the corporate Editor-at-Large at Time Inc., and was the first public editor of The New York Times. Daniel's latest book covers the false science of eugenics, a set of practices aimed to “improve” the genetic quality of the human population. “It seems to me that we as a species need somebody to look down on. I don't know why that's the case.” Daniel also discusses the blanket term “whiteness” and how its expansion seems to be based on familiarity with a race or culture. ————————————————————————— To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit *salt.org/talks* ( http://salt.org/talks ) Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci.

With the passage of the Immigration Act in 1924, the United States closed the door at Ellis Island. We went from allowing more or less unlimited immigration to a harsh country-by-country quota drastically cutting the number of Jews, Italians, Greeks, and Eastern Europeans that could enter the country and banned East Asian immigration completely for the next 40 years. Our guest. Daniel Okrent, says it was the end of a decades long campaign eugenics movement using a junk science that claimed certain races and ethnicities were morally and genetically superior to others — all to keep America from being overrun by nonwhite people. Sound familiar?   Click to get more information and to order his book: https://www.amazon.com/Guarded-Gate-Eugenics-Generations-Immigrants/dp/1476798036/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=THE+GUARDED+GATE%3A+Patricians%2C+Eugenicists%2C+and+the+Crusade+to+Keep+Jews%2C+Italians%2C+and+Other+Immigrants+Out+of+America&qid=1615858643&s=books&sr=1-1 (THE GUARDED GATE: Patricians, Eugenicists, and the Crusade to Keep Jews, Italians, and Other Immigrants Out of America)

Discussion topics in this episode: The events that occurred at the Capitol in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021. The reality of true grievances warped by social media and an old foe of liberty and democracy: the lost cause. A total layman aside on the nature of our consciousness and placing faith where at the edge of science. Your hosts: Michael Piscitelli and Raymond Wong Jr. More info This episode was inspired by the spirit of trying something different. We will return to our prior format next week and only do these periodically.  Let us know what you think about hearing the behind the scenes version by reaching out through our Contact Us page. If you're interested in learning more about how Italians and other later arrivals were discriminated against, check out The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America, by Daniel Okrent. Regarding the whole rant on dark energy, no I don't consider it the end-all-be-all of the "me" that's suspended in our heads. It is interesting however, the deeper we peer into our atoms, the less we find. All matter appears to be built upon nothing more than a weak energy field. Plus, we only call dark matter and energy those things simply because we have no idea what they are... or if they even exist at all. So far we only have hypothesis to test and no real knowledge as of yet. Learn more and reach out Head to Citizens Prerogative for additional information and log in or sign up to leave a comment. Don't forget to join our free newsletter and get 10% off at our shop! Go the extra mile by supporting us through Patreon. Please contact us with any questions or suggestions. Special thanks Our ongoing supporters, thank you! Our sponsor CitizenDoGood.com. Graphic design by SergeShop.com. Intro music sampled from “Okay Class” by Ozzy Jock under creative commons license through freemusicarchive.org. Other music provided royalty-free through Fesliyan Studios Inc. 

Episode Notes Jason Cochran, Zac Thompson and Pauline Frommer talk about the places Gloria Steinem, David Sedaris, Daniel Okrent, Jodi Picoult, and other big literary names chose for this annual, but now reimagined, Frommer's tradition

In this episode of Thick & Thin, we’re going back in time to the 1920’s prohibition in America to uncover secrets and intriguing parallels found between that era and modern times. I also discuss underground parties, gangsters, risky alcohol allegedly made in bathtubs, and just how far people will go to maintain a sense of normalcy. // Follow me on IG: instagram.com/katybellotte /  SOURCES: https://www.thecut.com/2020/11/nyc-underground-nightlife-covid-19.html https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/unintended-consequences/  https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-should-know-about-prohibition “Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition" by Daniel Okrent (a book) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By 1914, the temperance movement had achieved significant gains in its goal to outlaw the sale of alcohol in the United States. But every push for nationwide prohibition had failed. Would the war--and the accompanying anti-German hysteria--give the Anti-Saloon League enough power to cross the finish line? Was a golden age of sobriety waiting on the other side? The Temperance Movement began in the 1840s and gained significant momentum through the rest of the century. Women were major leaders in the movement, with many pledging to never let the lips that touch liquor touch theirs. Unfortunately, this seemed to have little effect. In the second half of the 19th century, an influx of immigrants from beer-loving countries, including Germany and Ireland, dramatically increased the consumption of beer in the United States. German brewers arrived to meet the demand. The most successful among these brewers was Adolphus Busch. As owner of Anheuser-Busch, he built a massive, vertically integrated operation that controlled every aspect of beer production and distribution, from mining the coal that fueled the brewery to building the refrigerated railcars to deliver the beer to Anheuser-Busch owned saloons. Saloons were more than watering holes. They were hubs for the entire community and played important roles in the lives of patrons, especially when those patrons were recent immigrants. Pictured here is a saloon in Wisconsin. Notice the little boy sitting at the table with his own beer glass. Boys often accompanied their fathers to saloons. Women and girls, however, were not welcome, and a woman who stepped in a saloon ruined her reputation. Here's another saloon, this one from Michigan. In a saloon, men could meet friends, participate in local politics, eat a free lunch, take a bath, find a job, get his mail and pawn his watch. By 1900, most saloons were "tied houses." That is, they were tied to, if not actually owned by, breweries. In exchange for agreeing to sell only one brand of beer, a barkeeper would receive cash for his licensing fees, an inventory of glassware, and the furnishings for the saloon, including the pool tables and the mirrors on the walls. This photo shows a Miller bar in Chicago. Temperance activists believed saloons were evil through and through. This cartoon, probably from the mid- to late-19th century, shows children desperately calling for the father, who stands in his natty coat and top hat at the bar. The bartender is a grinning skull, and another skull atop crossed bottles decorates in the bar. In the background, a brawl has broken out. Clearly, nothing good happens at a saloon! Women's rights activists in particular believed that alcohol was the cause of domestic violence. In this illustration, a drunken man takes a swing at his wife as his children cling to his legs. Many woman suffragists believed that prohibition would stop violence in the home. The Anti-Saloon League became a force to be reckoned with by organizing all of the anti-alcohol groups. The League was led by Wayne Wheeler, a genial midwesterner that author Daniel Okrent noted resembled Ned Flanders. In fact, Wheeler was a passionate, focused organizer with a backbone of steel who could make or break political careers. Breweries tried reframe beer as a health-giving, nourishing beverage. The Saskatoon Brewing Company tried to sell their beer as "liquid bread." Knickerbocker Beer ran ads declaring "Beer is Food" and claiming that beer was not only "a wonderful aid to digestion" and a "valuable source of energy" but also "a mainstay of practical temperance." An Anti-Prohibition coalition produced this ad, showing a fat and happy baby drinking a stein of beer. No one was convinced by any of these campaigns. Once the United States entered World War I, a new argument began to be made against the alcohol industry: it wasted food and fuel. Americans were called upon to save food for the military, as well as for the British, French and Belgians. The Anti-Saloon League argued that the alcohol industry wasted tons of food and fuel. In this cartoon, Uncle Sam puts up posters calling to save food and fuel while the saloon tosses out barrels not only of goods but also of "wasted manhood." "Non-essential" was an insult during the war--anything non-essential to winning the war was useless and to be despised. Here a woman clad in an American flag hurls the word at a fat man identified as "Booze." In late 1917, riding the wave of anti-alcohol sentiment, the Dry alliance pushed the 18th Amendment through Congress. It went to the states for ratification. The Anti-Saloon League coordinated the ratification fight with an attack on the United States Brewers Association and an immigrant association it had long backed, the German American Alliance. The League convinced the Senate, and the American people, that the Alliance and the Brewers were under the control of the Kaiser and enemies of America. A Senate sub-committee investigated the charges and seemed to prove all sorts of underhanded dealings. It's true that the Brewers had played dirty by bribing politicians and and paying off newspapers, but their aim had been to stop Prohibition, not lost the war to Germany. No charges ever came out of the subcommittee, but it didn't matter. Americans had found the Alliance and the Brewers guilty in the court of public opinion. In this heady atmosphere, the 18th Amendment was rapidly ratified by all but two states on January 17, 1919. In one year, the amendment would go into effect. The most important job for Congress was to pass legislation defining the terms of the 18th Amendment (what constituted an "intoxicating beverage"?) and creating enforcement mechanisms. The man responsible for the bill was Andrew John Volstead, a man so strait-laced he did yardwork in a coat and tie. Volstead's bill passed in October, but then Wilson vetoed it. Americans were shocked. Wilson had never even committed on Prohibition. Congress, fed up with the president after the long and ugly League of Nations fight, overturned the veto two hours later. The Volstead Act called for the creation of a new Prohibition Unit to stamp out illegal alcohol. But the agents were to be paid measly salaries and the majority lacked any law enforcement training or experience. They were, inevitably, corrupt. Criminals also spent 1919 getting ready for Prohibition. Arnold Rothstein, who providing the funds to throw the 1919 World Series, organized a comprehensive smuggling operation to bring liquor from Europe to the United States. He was only one of many crooks and bootleggers getting their ducks in a row for the following year. Brewers had to find a way to make do. Anheuser-Busch sold malt extract, brewer's yeast, and Bevo, a soft drink. It was not a success. Companies also found creative ways to exploit loopholes in the Volstead Act. It was perfectly legal, for example, for wineries to condense grape juice down to semi-solid block known as a "grape brick." These bricks were sold along with careful instructions on how not to mix the juice with water to make wine. You wouldn't want people to accidentally break the law, now would you? Homebrew kits came with similar instructions. Moonshine operations sprang up across the country, with different regions developing their own recipes and reputations for quality or lack thereof. Pictured here are stills seized from moonshiners in Colorado. The metal was sold for scrap. It's likely by the time this photo was taken, the moonshiners had already begun their next batch. As the clock wound down to January 17, liquor stores began selling out their inventory. People stockpiled as much as they could afford--since, as far as they knew, alcohol would be illegal forever in the United States. Here a line extends out of the store as men line up to buy a last few bottles. It was going to be a long, dry time. Music from this Episode "The Lips that Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSmfpm_y39Y)" by Sam Booth and George T. Evans, sung by the Women's Choir at Concordia College on February 2016 as part of the exhibit "Wet and Dry" at the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County. "Under the Anheuser-Busch," (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOxrFGXQrzY), music by Harry von Tilzer, words by Andrew B. Serling, sung by Billy Murray. Charted at #2 in 1904. "Close Up the Booze Shop (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awHPcvRN-XA)," music by Charles H. Gabriel, words by Harry Edwards, sung by the Rose Ensemble on their 2014 album "A Toast to Prohibition: All-American Songs of Temperance & Temptation. "Molly and the Baby, Don't You Know, (https://archive.org/details/78_molly-and-the-baby-dont-you-know_homer-rodeheaver-h-s-taylor-j-b-herbert_gbia0028028a)" by H.S. Taylor and J.B. Herbert, sung by Homer Rodeheaver. Recorded in 1916. "Alcoholic Blue (https://archive.org/details/78_alcoholic-blues_billy-murray-edward-laska-albert-von-tilzer_gbia0095847a)s," by Edward Laska and Albert von Tilzer, sung by Billy Murray. Recorded in 1919. "How Are You Goin' to Wet Your Whistle? (When the Whole Darn World Goes Dry) (https://archive.org/details/78_how-are-you-goin-to-wet-your-whistle-when-the-whole-darn-world-goes-dry_billy-m_gbia0015508b)" by Francis Byrne, Frank McIntyre and Percy Wenrich, sung by Billy Murray. Recorded in 1919. "You Cannot Make Your Shimmy Shake on Tea (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XchfsEPqr-w)," music by Irving Berlin, words by Irving Berlin and Rennold Wolf. Sung by Ann Wilson with piano by Frederick Hodges at the Annual West Coast Ragtime Festival in Sacramento, California, 2008. "I'll See You in C-U-B-A, (https://archive.org/details/78_ill-see-you-in-c-u-b-a_jack-kaufman-berlin_gbia0002852b)" by Irving Berlin, sung by Jack Kaufman. Recorded in 1920. "A Toast to Prohibition (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiU72oJsNhc&app=desktop)," by Irving Berlin, sung by the Rose Ensemble on their 2014 album "A Toast to Prohibition: All-American Songs of Temperance & Temptation.

"He's also an interesting illustration, I think of this idea that...it's hard to get a good man elected President. It's hard to get a good person, somebody with this much integrity, because they stick to what they believe , and they aren't cynical, and they aren't going to change positions or acquiesce. And so you look at his background and his incredible popularity, and you go, 'How? How could someone so popular and so gifted, not be elected?'" It is week 2 of our Political Convention coverage at Tour Guide Tell All! For the second half of our series exploring the history of political party conventions and past presidential elections, we are covering William Jennings Bryan. Along with last week's subject, Bryan is the only other man to run unsuccessfully for President 3 times, and remains the youngest person ever to receive an electoral vote.Join us as we discuss prohibition, evolution and the Progressive Era, and find out what bothbimetallism and Grape Juice Diplomacy were and how they changed American history.Comments or Questions? Or have an idea for future episodes? Emailus tourguidetellall@gmail.comIf you’re interested in in more information, we find these sources helpful:State department Bio of Bryan Clip from the Cross of Gold SpeechNPR Story about the Scopes Monkey Trial The statue of Byran from the US Capitol has been removedBryans Nebraska home Fairview Full book length treatment of Prohibition that mentions Bryan frequently (and is a great readjust generally) is Last Call by Daniel Okrent  You’re Listening To: Rebecca Fachner and Becca GrawlThe Person Responsible for it Sounding Good: Dan KingTechnical & Admin Work Done During Toddler Naptime: Canden Arciniega Intro/Outro Music: Well-Seasoned from Audio Hero

Daniel Okrent’s The Guarded Gate tells the chilling story of how anti-immigration activists of the early twentieth century — most of them well-born, many of them progressives — used the bogus science of eugenics to justify closing the immigration door in 1924.

Gil Schneider has served as Shady Side Academy's Chief Financial Officer for the past seven years following a successful career in the corporate world with both Seagrams and Heinz. At the precipice of his retirement, Gil shares his wisdom, his perspectives, and wonderful stories of his journey and his past. While working in a role that is primarily about financial oversight, for Gil, it's all about the people and it's clear that he has touched the lives of many.  Show notes Food - Chocolate Song: The Battle Song from Patton, A Long and Winding Road by The Beatles Book - The Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, by Daniel Okrent  

Daniel Okrent, the first public editor of The New York Times newspaper and an writer, discusses the inspiration for and resulting research of his book "The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America"

Just in time for your New Year's resolution, host Jason Dressel talks about the history of America's failed prohibition experiment with author of "Last Call," Daniel Okrent, and Brand Manager of Brown-Forman, McCauley Adams. Company history comes alive with History Factory Plugged In. We look at the rich heritage of major organizations in this thought-provoking podcast. If you have any questions, comments, or ideas to share, please email us at pluggedin@historyfactory.com.

Trial Phase of Impeachment Gets Underway (0:35)Guest: James Curry, Associate Professor, Political Science Department, University of UtahHouse Democrats have officially passed the impeachment hot potato to the US Senate where a trial on whether to remove President Donald Trump from office is expected to start, in earnest, next week. DNA Helps Identify Service Members Missing in Action from WWII to Today (20:32)Guest: Timothy McMahon, Director of DNA Operations, Department of DefenseThe Department of Defense has an entire office dedicated to DNA analysis that regularly brings closure to families of servicemembers missing in action all the way back to World War II. One project focused on the attack on Pearl Harbor has been able to identify 250 unaccounted-for service members from remains that were collected from sunken American warships.  Proprioception: Our Sixth Sense (32:41)Guest: Alexander Chesler, Principal Investigator, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, NIHTry this: Close your eyes and touch your finger to your nose. Pretty easy, right? You just engaged your sixth sense. It's called proprioception and it's what makes it possible for professional ice skaters to do triple axels and helps basketball players dunk a ball. Surprisingly, researchers have only recently started to understand how it works. Doomed From the Start: Prohibition at 100 (50:39)Guest: Daniel Okrent, Historian, Author of “Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition”100 years ago – on January 16, 1920 – intoxicating liquors became illegal to make, sell or transport in the United States. Prohibition had arrived. The unintended consequences began almost immediately, according to historian Daniel Okrent. His book, “Last Call” charts the rise and fall of Prohibition – the only Constitutional Amendment to later be repealed by another Constitutional Amendment. Over the span of just 13 years, the nation turned against the “dry cause” and the consequences of that whiplash linger today. Sobriety in a Society Filled With Booze (78:06)Guest: Laura McKowen, Speaker, Podcaster, Author of “We Are the Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life”In the 100 years since the US tried – and failed – to outlaw alcohol, it's become a normal, accepted part of everyday American life. It's for celebrating and coming of age and commiserating and coping. Even though alcohol is the most commonly abused substance in the country and the third leading preventable cause of death, most of American society doesn't think of it like that - not like cocaine or opioids, or even tobacco. And that makes it all the more difficult for people who do struggle with alcohol to stop.

James Curry, Univ of Utah, on impeachment politics. Timothy McMahon, Department of Defense, on identifying the remains of service members through DNA. Alexander Chesler, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, on the sixth sense proprioception. Daniel Okrent, author of “Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition," on prohibition 100 years later. Laura McKowen, author of “We Are the Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of Sober Life,” on her journey to sobriety.

In 1924, a new American law ended the wave of immigration to this country that had begun in the 19th century.  Hundreds of thousands of southern- and eastern-European immigrants had entered the United States each year before the law, but after 1924, those numbers were reduced to a trickle.  Daniel Okrent is the author of a remarkable history of the bigotry and sham science that lay at the heart of the Immigration Act of 1924. 

Starting with the Muslim ban, the Trump presidency has consistently unleashed a barrage of new policies designed to keep immigrants out of the country. But while these restrictions might seem unprecedented, anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies have deep roots in our country. Today’s guest is Daniel Okrent, the award-winning writer of The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians and Other European Immigrants Out of America. He discusses the political dynamics behind the anti-immigrant zeal of the early 20th century and the junk science that was used to justify it.

Eugenics is the science of improving the human species by selectively mating people with specific desirable hereditary traits. It aims to reduce human suffering by “breeding out” disease, disabilities and so-called undesirable characteristics from the human population. Early supporters of eugenics believed people inherited mental illness, criminal tendencies and even poverty, and that these conditions could be bred out of the gene pool. In the 19th century there was a great deal of support for eugenics, and the ones seen as the lesser beings were the European immigrants trying to get to America, particularly the Jews. Today, we have a conversation on the history of anti immigration policy and its connection to eugenics in the late 19th Century with Daniel Okrent.   Guest: Daniel Okrent was the first public editor of The New York Times, editor-at-large of Time, Inc., and managing editor of Life magazine. He worked in book publishing as an editor at Knopf and Viking, and was editor-in-chief of general books at Harcourt Brace. He has written several books including Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center, as well as his most recent and the topic of today, The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Laws That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America.   The post 19th-Century Eugenics Movement and its Relation to Immigration in America appeared first on KPFA.

Daniel Okrent joins the show to talk about his new book, The Guarded Gate, which tells the tells the story of the scientists who argued that certain nationalities were inherently inferior, providing the intellectual justification for the harshest immigration law in American history. Brandished by the upper class Bostonians and New Yorkers—many of them progressives—who led the anti-immigration movement, the eugenic arguments helped keep hundreds of thousands of Jews, Italians, and other unwanted groups out of the US for more than 40 years.What was the Chinese Restriction Act? What is eugenics? When was eugenics applied to certain racial groups? Who was Samuel Gompers? What scientific reasoning did eugenists use? Did the Nazi’s follow American scientists? What does eugenics and birth control have in common? Further Reading:The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other Europeans out of America, written by Daniel OkrentWhen the government used bad science to restrict immigration, written by David A. HollingerThe Passing Of The Great Race; Or, The Racial Basis Of European History, written by Grant MadisonRelated Content:Science vs. Politics: Vaping, Eugenics, and Other Policy Questions, written by Helen DaleIlliberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era, Free Thoughts PodcastGenetics, Encyclopedia of Libertarianism See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Times’s book critics talk about choosing the best 50 memoirs of the past 50 years, and Daniel Okrent discusses “The Guarded Gate.”

Immigration and the fear of outsiders is a deep strain in the American psyche. It didn’t start with Donald Trump. In fact, it hasn’t even reached its full flowering under this administration. When Trump talked of murderers and rapists coming to the border, of other nations not sending us their best, he was merely echoing a historical context that has actually played out in far worse ways in our history From the Chinese Exclusion Act through the highly restrictive immigration acts passed in the early 20th century, the white Christians have always felt under siege. To make matters even worse, in the early part of the 20th century the rhetoric and false science of eugenics was weaponized in the immigration battles. This is the story that my guest Daniel Okrent tell in The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America: My conversation with Daniel Okrent:

When the 18th Amendment was enacted in 1919, the fifth-largest industry in the United States became illegal. While many parts of the country (including, famously, many north-of-Chicago suburbs) were already legally “Dry,” Prohibition changed the political and moral landscape of the nation, introducing intrusive federal law enforcement, a new kind of organized crime, and the “scofflaw.” In this talk, Bill Savage will discuss how the politics of Temperance, and the battle between Wets and Drys, exposes rifts in American identity (and American food-and-drink culture) that still resonate today. Using George Ade’s The Old-Time Saloon as a guide, he will explore Prohibition historian Daniel Okrent’s not-so-rhetorical question: “How the Hell Did that Happen?” Bill Savage teaches American literature at Northwestern University and the Newberry Library of Chicago, with special emphasis on Chicago writers and the dynamics of urban spaces, including saloons then and now. He edited and annotated Ade’s The Old-Time Saloon (University of Chicago Press, 2016) and Chicago By Day and Night: a Pleasure Seeker’s Guide to the Paris of America (with Paul Durica, Northwestern University Press, 2013), a guide to night life during the 1893 World’s Fair. Books will be for sale, cash or check. This program is hosted by the Chicago Foodways Roundtable with the Highland Park Historical Society and Highwood Historical Society. Recorded at Santi's Garden on September 20, 2018.

Closing Time by Daniel Francis provides a good account of the border wars and smuggling across the northern border. Robert Rockaway’s article “The Notorious Purple Gang” details the gang’s origin as well as the Cleaners and Dyers War.For information about the link between Prohibition and organized crime in Chicago, Gus Russo’s The Outfit and Get Capone by Johnathan Eig are invaluable sources. Al Capone’s Beer Wars by John J. Binder is a fantastic re-assessment of the period that sorts out some of the fact from fiction, in a highly mythologized period. For more on the Increased Penalties Act, Michael Lerner’s Dry Manhattan, is a good resource used for this podcast, as is Daniel Okrent’s Last Call. Robin Room’s The Movies and the Wettening of America is the source for the section on Hollywood’s move away from temperance.Kenneth D. Rose’s American Women and the Repeal of Prohibition provided insight into Pauline Sabin’s work, as did David J. Hanson’s comprehensive resource, Alcohol Problems and Solutions. The Washington Post’s recap of The Man in the Green Hat exposé is available here. Support this show by supporting our sponsors!

When a German U-boat torpedoed the RMS Lusitania on Friday, May 7th, 1915, Americans found two new enemies: Germany and the beer it was so associated with. Anti-German sentiment grew, and with it hostility to the breweries founded in the 19th century by German immigrants. Soon, the war effort and the temperance movement were linked: it was patriotic to abstain, and Prohibition became law.How did America cope? They swapped their stool at the bar for a seat at the soda shop, listening to new radios and the first ever baseball broadcasts. But Americans’ thirst wasn’t ever fully quenched: they turned to family doctors who prescribed “medicinal alcohol,” and then finally to the bootleggers, moonshiners and rum-runners who made, smuggled and sold hooch of all types, from top-shelf French cognac to homemade swill that might just kill you.For more about the Lusitania, check out Dead Wake: The Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson.Daniel Okrent’s Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition has more information on medicinal alcohol and how it was prescribed by doctors. To learn more about medicinal beer, this article by Beverly Gage for The Smithsonian is excellent.The 1991 study “Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition” by Jeffrey A. Miron and Jeffrey Zwiebel, is considered the definitive study about how much people actually drank during the noble experiment. For more information on how Prohibition played out in the early days, check out Professor David J. Hanson’s, “Alcohol Problems and Solutions,” a comprehensive, interactive site that outlines all the various stakeholders in the Noble Experiment.To read more about Americans behaving badly in Cuba and other places during Prohibition, check out Wayne Curtis’s And A Bootle of Rum: A History of the World in Ten Cocktails, as well as Matthew Rowley’s Lost Recipes of Prohibition. And, to learn more about rum-runners, Daniel Francis’s book, Closing Time: Prohibition, Rum-Runners and Border Wars is an excellent reference.Further references can be found in America Walks Into a Bar: A Spirited History of Taverns and Saloons, Speakeasies and Grog Shops by Christine Sismondo.Support this show by supporting our sponsors!

On January 17, 1920, the United States passed the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution, ushering in a 13-year dry spell known as Prohibition. But how did a country that loved to drink turn its back on alcohol? How did two-thirds of both the House and Senate and three-fourths of State legislatures all agree that going dry was the way to get the country going forward? It had always been a long, uphill battle for the temperance movement, but towards the end of the nineteenth century, certain forces aligned: fears of industrialization, urbanization and immigration. Traditional American life was changing - fast - and many people looked for a scapegoat: the saloon.For more information on how Prohibition came to be, check out Professor David J. Hanson’s, “Alcohol Problems and Solutions,” a comprehensive, interactive site that outlines all the various stakeholders in the Noble Experiment.Daniel Okrent’s Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition is a key text for learning more about Prohibition and how it came about. And, to narrow in on New York, itself, Michael Lerner’s Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City is a tremendous resource.The bootlegger character was based on a real story, A Bootlegger’s Story: How I Started, which ran in the New Yorker in 1926.For more on the Atlanta race riots and how they connect to Prohibition, check out this story on NPR, in which professor Cliff Kuhn describes his research. To learn more about the intersection between race and the policing of Prohibition, Lisa McGirr’s The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State is invaluable.Further references can be found in America Walks Into a Bar: A Spirited History of Taverns and Saloons, Speakeasies and Grog Shops by Christine Sismondo.Support us by supporting our sponsors!

In or Out Mischief Night - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mischief_Night It's a Jersey thing Halloween Stats https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/10/wait-americans-spend-how-much-on-halloween/381631/ Review-ish Halloween - From Pagan Ritual to Party Night by Nicholas Rogers, Oxford press, 2002. https://www.amazon.com/Halloween-Pagan-Ritual-Party-Night/dp/0195168968 Last call: The rise and fall of prohibition by Daniel Okrent, Scribner, 2010. https://www.amazon.com/Last-Call-Rise-Fall-Prohibition/dp/0743277023/ The Brazyn Life Morph collapsible foam roller on Shark Tank! http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank/episode-guide/season-09/6-episode-6

Daniel Okrent did not have a lot of fun as the first public editor for the New York Times. “I was like internal affairs in a police department,” said Okrent. “Nobody liked to see me coming.” That said, Okrent defends the role ombudsmen play at news organizations, and he thinks the Times messed up earlier this year when it axed the public editor position.  In the Spiel, there was no Labrador at the Trump-Putin meeting, so …  good sign?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Okrent did not have a lot of fun as the first public editor for the New York Times. “I was like internal affairs in a police department,” said Okrent. “Nobody liked to see me coming.” That said, Okrent defends the role ombudsmen play at news organizations, and he thinks the Times messed up earlier this year when it axed the public editor position.  In the Spiel, there was no Labrador at the Trump-Putin meeting, so …  good sign?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our first episode we talk about various aspects of law pertaining to alcohol, including home brewing and home distilling, minimum drinking ages, and legal liability issues both for licensed servers and private individuals serving alcohol to social guests. Notes:Last Call by Daniel OkrentHow Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione changed Delaware brewing lawsShea v. Matassa, 918 A.2d 1070 (Del. 2007) - the Delaware Supreme Court refuses to adopt a dram shop law4 Del. C. Section 706 - on liability for licensed server4 Del. C. Section 707 - on producing beer, wine and cider for personal consumption (non-commercial)

Gerry Kowarsky and guest host Mark Bretz review (1) THE WIZARD OF OZ, by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice, et al., at the Fox Theatre; (2) OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES, by Daniel Okrent & Peter Gethers, at the New Jewish Theatre; (3) BACHELORETTE, by Leslye Headland, at Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble; (4) ONE-HOUR TWILIGHT ZONE: LIVE!, at Magic Smoking Monkey Theatre; (5) THE NERD, by Larry Shue, at Dramatic License Productions; (6) 9 TO 5, by Dolly Parton & Patricia Resnick, at Kirkwood Theatre Guild; and (7) THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES, by John Guare, at the Theatre Guild of Webster Groves.

(Rebroadcast, Episode 217) If you're the type of person who gives your pet a name like "Chairman Meow," then you'll be right at home with this week's games. We'll combine highbrow folks (world leaders) with the lowest form of comedy (puns), spend a little time in Celebrity A-A, and hear Jonathan Coulton apply his mellow song stylings to the electric wizard, Jimi Hendrix. Plus, we have the inventor of fantasy baseball, Daniel Okrent, on the show to play a game about the sport's most hilarious oddities.

On November 14, Daniel Okrent delivered the 2012 Alexander W. Weddell Lecture entitled "Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition." The first annual Alexander W. Weddell Lecture took place in 1983 and was named in honor of Alexander Weddell, former president of the VHS. Ambassador Weddell and his wife, Virginia, bequeathed Virginia House and a generous endowment to the VHS. The Weddell Lecture takes place on the evening of the last board of trustees meeting of the year, usually the third Wednesday in November. Past Weddell Lecturers have included Gary W. Gallagher, Edward L. Ayers, Rick Atkinson, and Tony Horwitz. (Introduction by Paul Levengood) The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

If you're the type of person who gives your pet a name like "Chairman Meow," then you'll be right at home with this week's games. We'll combine highbrow folks (world leaders) with the lowest form of comedy (puns), spend a little time in Celebrity A-A, and find out what happens when house musician Jonathan Coulton applies his mellow song stylings to the electric wizard, Jimi Hendrix. Plus, we have the inventor of fantasy baseball, Daniel Okrent, on the show to play a game about the sport's most hilarious oddities.

On November 14, Daniel Okrent delivered the 2012 Alexander W. Weddell Lecture entitled "Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition." The first annual Alexander W. Weddell Lecture took place in 1983 and was named in honor of Alexander Weddell, former president of the VHS. Ambassador Weddell and his wife, Virginia, bequeathed Virginia House and a generous endowment to the VHS. The Weddell Lecture takes place on the evening of the last board of trustees meeting of the year, usually the third Wednesday in November. Past Weddell Lecturers have included Gary W. Gallagher, Edward L. Ayers, Rick Atkinson, and Tony Horwitz. (Introduction by Paul Levengood)

In the beginning, there were just old Jews telling jokes—you know, Uncle Buddy down in Boca or grandpa’s bawdy second wife Hettie. Then, in 2008, filmmaker Sam Hoffman had the idea of filming some of his favorite old Jews telling jokes. He created a website and posted a series of “Old Jews Telling Jokes” videos that soon attracted a devoted following. The most popular jokes (such as this one, about giving directions) have been viewed well over a million times. Now, at the initiative of Daniel Okrent—the first public editor for the New York Times—and writer and editor Peter Gethers, Old Jews Telling Jokes has been re-purposed as a theatrical production, complete with a narrative through-line and cabaret-style musical numbers. Currently in previews, it opens May 20 at the Westside Theater in... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Author historian Daniel Okrent, on his book; Last Call, The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, a major contributor to the Ken Burns PBS special.

Author historian Daniel Okrent, on his book; Last Call, The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, a major contributor to the Ken Burns PBS special.

  Edition #391 Not right, not fair and not justice   Act 1: Gary Johnson, Pro-pot activist - Colbert Report Song 1: Drug Ballad - Eminem Act 2: How the drug war hurts communities - Citizen Radio Song 2: Down on the corner - Creedence Clearwater Revival Act 3: Drug Czar toppled by drug Bolsheviks - The Onion Song 3: Because I got high -  Afroman Act 4: Daniel Okrent on prohibition - Daily Show Song 4: Drink the water - Jack Johnson Act 5: Police tortured confessions - On the Media Song 5: Behind bars - Felix "the Catt" and Baga Tricks Act 6: Cops taser family in their backyard - Young Turks Song 6: Paperwork - Opposite Day Act 7: Drugs and Taser war - Citizen Radio Song 7: New slang - The Shins Act 8: Police taser trail - Rachel Maddow   Bonus iPhone/iPod Touch App Content: Automatics for the People - Ilya Shapiro & Jackie Hilly - Colbert Report   Produced by: Jay!   Thanks for listening! Check out the Best of the Left iPhone/iPod Touch App in the App Store! Visit us at www.BestOfTheLeft.com Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Vote for us and leave comments at www.PodcastAlley.com or Review the show on iTunes.  

Daniel Okrent was the first public editor of The New York Times, editor-at-large of Time, Inc., and managing editor of Life magazine. He worked in book publishing as an editor at Knopf and Viking, and was editor-in-chief of general books at Harcourt ...