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History is loaded with "bad" / "dumb" ideas. And this includes those made by high-ranking officials and government agencies. Looking at the various schemes and plots left on the drawing board one wonders how anyone took them seruously. But most of today's useful inventions were deemed absurd at the time. This tells us that we need to have a lot of bad ideas to land on good ones, and if that's true, then we should be more concerned with taking the shots, then landing the shots.Suggested Reading Related to Intro ExampleNuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board by Vince HoughtonEpisode Music for Intro ExampleSneaky by Oleg KyrylkovvSupport the show
Today, Justin sits down with Vince Houghton. Vince is a veteran of the U.S. Army and served in the Balkans. He went on to receive a Master's Degree and PhD in Diplomatic and Military history from the University of Maryland. He spent more than six years as the historian and curator for the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, and is now the director of the National Cryptologic Museum located on the National Security Agency campus at Fort Meade, Maryland. This week Vince discusses Nuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board. As you can already surmise from that title, it's a close look at some of the most incredible plans never put into action spanning the 20th century and beyond. Connect with Vince:Twitter: @IntelHistorianCheck out Nuking the Moon here.https://www.amazon.com/Nuking-Moon-Intelligence-Schemes-Military/dp/0525505172Connect with Spycraft 101:Check out Justin's latest release, Covert Arms, here.spycraft101.comIG: @spycraft101Shop: spycraft-101.myshopify.comPatreon: Spycraft 101Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.Support the show
Vince Houghton is the historian and curator of the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. He is also the host and creative director of the Museum's podcast, SpyCast. His new book is Nuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board. Houghton explains how the Cold War spawned fantastical science fiction-like weapons programs and plans by the United States government and the Pentagon such as atomic bomb-powered spacecraft, nuking the moon, psychic soldiers with the powers of telekinesis and mind control, and cyborg cats and other animals. Houghton also shares his thoughts on Russia's new “wonder weapons” such as doomsday submarine drones and hypersonic nuclear-powered cruise missiles. And it appears that Donald Trump was not so crazy in his suggestion about using nuclear weapons to deflect or perhaps even neutralize hurricanes. Chauncey DeVega reflects on another crazy week in TrumpWorld which saw the Republicans declare Trump a king in the Senate, and his deranged State of the Union Speech which was an amazing and great television spectacle. Chauncey also shares some new public opinion and other data which shows, again, that Donald Trump will likely win again in 2020 and that the Democratic Party and its supporters are profoundly horrible at politics and winning. And Chauncey shares a story about his perilous, harrowing, horrible recent trip on the city bus and how it symbolizes America's broken and sick society in the Age of Trump. SELECTED LINKS OF INTEREST FOR THIS EPISODE OF THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW Republicans and Democrats live in “nearly inverse news media environments,” Pew finds Trump has highest economic approval rating of any president in the last 20 years: new poll Trump Job Approval at Personal Best 49% January jobs report: Economy adds 225,000 payrolls, unemployment rate ticks up to 3.6% New High of 90% of Americans Satisfied With Personal Life New survey shows Americans are unhappier than they've been in years What the economy tells us about Trump's reelection odds “We're losing our damn minds”: James Carville unloads on the Democratic Party WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com Leave a voicemail for The Chauncey DeVega Show: (262) 864-0154 HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW? Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thechaunceydevegashow Please subscribe to and follow my new podcast The Truth Report https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-truth-report-with-chauncey-devega/id1465522298 http://thetruthreportwithchaunceydevega.libsyn.com/ Music at the end of this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show is by JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound. You can listen to some of their great music on Spotify.
On The Gist, the metal straw incident. In the interview, Vince Houghton is a historian and the curator of the International Spy Museum and he’s here to talk about his new book Nuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board. Why did we want to drop goat poop on Germans? Can a cat be trained for espionage? In the Spiel, the citizenship question. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On The Gist, the metal straw incident. In the interview, Vince Houghton is a historian and the curator of the International Spy Museum and he’s here to talk about his new book Nuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board. Why did we want to drop goat poop on Germans? Can a cat be trained for espionage? In the Spiel, the citizenship question. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Vince Houghton, director of the International Spy Museum, returns to take me on a wild tour of missions and schemes that almost happened, but were ultimately deemed too dangerous, expensive, ahead of their time, or insane. These include weaponing animals such as eavesdropping cats, spooky glow in the dark foxes, and one plan to strap incendiary bombs to bats! He reveals some of the CIA’s wackier attempts to take out Castro, the nazi scientist who tried to build a sun gun, and the Florida meteorologist who thought it would be a good idea to use a nuclear weapons to blow up hurricanes. But just when you think it couldn’t get any crazier, Vince discusses the project that inspired the title of his new book - the U.S. military plan to nuke the moon! Order Vince Houghton's book Nuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board on Amazon, Audible, and in bookstores. Today's podcast was sponsored by The Skimm and AncestryDNA.
As the Trump administration is stupidly considering going to war with Iran, Nicole Sandler brings some insight into other stupid military projects our government has proposed by talking with Vince Houghton, historian/curator of the International Spy Museum and author of the new book, Nuking the Moon And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board . Plus the latest news from Alabama and beyond Gilead.
This week Alice and Kim talk about Soviet spy cats, French history, and Harper Lee and a murder trial. This episode is sponsored by Kawaii Craft Life by Sosae Caetano and Dennis Caetano and Book Riot’s TBR. Check out Book Riot Insiders for the inside scoop! Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher. For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura. New Books Rough Magic: Riding the World’s Loneliest Horse Race by Lara Prior-Palmer Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings The Unspeakable Mind: Stories of Trauma and Healing from the Frontlines of PTSD Science by Shaili Jain Nuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board by Vince Houghton Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep The Theft of a Decade: How the Baby Boomers Stole the Millennials’ Economic Future by Joseph C. Sternberg The Endeavour: The Ship That Changed the World by Peter Moore The Shadow King: The Life and Death of Henry VI by Lauren Johnson No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Synder The Castle on Sunset by Shawn Levy Nonfiction About France KIM: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss La Belle France: A Short History by Alistair Horne The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It by Tilar J Mazzeo Veuve Clicquot Podcast The Little Pleasures of Paris by Leslie Jonath Reading Now KIM: Becoming by Michelle Obama (audiobook) ALICE: Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies by Ross King CONCLUSION You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork on Twitter RATE AND REVIEW on ITUNES so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.
This week, Liberty and Rebecca discuss The Bride Test, Somewhere Only We Know, Furious Hours, and more great books. This episode was sponsored by Amazon Kindle Unlimited, Always Smile by Alice Kuipers from KCP Loft, and The Invited by Jennifer McMahon. Pick up an All the Books! 200th episode commemorative item here. Subscribe to All the Books! using RSS or iTunes and never miss a beat book. Sign up for the weekly New Books! newsletter for even more new book news. Books discussed on the show: The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna: A Novel by Juliet Grames Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo The Bride Test by Helen Hoang The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday by Rob Walker Soon the Light Will Be Perfect: A Novel by Dave Patterson Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House by Ben Rhodes Rough Magic: Riding the World's Loneliest Horse Race by Lara Prior-Palmer What we're reading: A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma's Table by Rick Bragg More books out this week: Beautiful Revolutionary by Laura Elizabeth Woollett Such a Perfect Wife: A Novel (Bailey Weggins Mysteries) by Kate White The East End by Jason Allen Jaclyn Hyde by Annabeth Bondor-Stone and Connor White Only Ever Her by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen Monsieur Mediocre: One American Learns the High Art of Being Everyday French by John von Sothen The Death of Noah Glass by Gail Jones Exiles of Eden by Ladan Ali Osman The Missing of Clairdelune: Book Two of The Mirror Visitor Quartet by Christelle Dabos and Hildegarde Serle How We Disappeared: A Novel by Jing-Jing Lee Shouting at the Rain by Lynda Mullaly Hunt Original Prin by Randy Boyagoda New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent by Margaret Busby Just South of Home by Karen Strong Riding the Elephant: A Memoir of Altercations, Humiliations, Hallucinations, and Observations by Craig Ferguson Hurricane Season by Nicole Melleby Outside the Gates of Eden by Lewis Shiner The Lingering by Sji Holliday The Last Time I Saw You: A Novel by Liv Constantine Stop Doing That Sh*t: End Self-Sabotage and Demand Your Life Back by Gary John Bishop The Yankee Widow by Linda Lael Miller The Woman in the Blue Cloak by Deon Meyer How It Feels to Float by Helena Fox Finale: A Caraval Novel by Stephanie Garber Loudermilk: Or, The Real Poet; Or, The Origin of the World by Lucy Ives Finding Orion by John David Anderson Nocturna by Maya Motayne The Guest Book: A Novel by Sarah Blake No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us by Rachel Louise Snyder The Body in the Wake: A Faith Fairchild Mystery by Katherine Hall Page The Unpassing: A Novel by Chia-Chia Lin Cinderella Liberator by Rebecca Solnit and Arthur Rackham Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki, Rosemary Valero-O'Connell (Illustrator) Love from A to Z by S. K. Ali China Dream by Ma Jian and Flora Drew Above the Ether by Eric Barnes The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience by Lee McIntyre Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis by Jared Diamond Juliet the Maniac: A Novel by Juliet Escoria With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo Middlegame by Seanan McGuire The Absence of Sparrows by Kurt Kirchmeier Last Things by Jacqueline West Black Mountain (An Isaiah Coleridge Novel) by Laird Barron Light from Other Stars by Erika Swyler Gather at the River: Twenty-Five Authors on Fishing by David Joy and Eric Rickstad Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors: A Novel by Sonali Dev Is, Is Not: Poems by Tess Gallagher The Archive of Alternate Endings: Stories by Lindsey Drager Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins The Daughter's Tale: A Novel by Armando Lucas Correa Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale by Lauren Myracle and Isaac Goodhart The Farm: A Novel by Joanne Ramos Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens by Tanya Boteju Hope and Other Punchlines by Julie Buxbaum Westside by W.M. Akers The Charmer in Chaps by Julia London The Cowboy and His Baby by Jessica Clare HUMANS: A Brief History of How We Fcked It All Up by Tom Phillips Million Mile Road Trip by Rudy Rucker The Flight Portfolio by Julie Orringer A Devil Comes to Town by Paolo Maurensig, Anne Milano Appel Nightingale by Paisley Rekdal Again, but Better: A Novel by Christine Riccio Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff A Craftsman’s Legacy: Why Working with Our Hands Gives Us Meaning by Eric Gorges and Jon Sternfeld The Laws of the Skies by Grégoire Courtois and Rhonda Mullins Sleepless Night by Margriet de Moor and David Doherty Scott Pilgrim Color Collection Box Set by Bryan Lee O'Malley Nuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board by Vince Houghton Queer Heroes by Arabelle Sicardi and Sarah Tanat-Jones Angel Bones by Ilyse Kusnetz The Unspeakable Mind: Stories of Trauma and Healing from the Frontlines of PTSD Science by Shaili Jain A Job You Mostly Won't Know How to Do: A Novel by Pete Fromm No Walls and the Recurring Dream: A Memoir by Ani DiFranco Atomic Frenchie, Vol. 2 by Tom Sniegoski and Tom McWeeney All the Rage: Mothers, Fathers, and the Myth of Equal Partnership by Darcy Lockman The Man They Wanted Me to Be: Toxic Masculinity and a Crisis of Our Own Making by Jared Yates Sexton After the Party: A Novel by Cressida Connolly A Life in Movies: Stories from 50 Years in Hollywood by Irwin Winkler Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage by Bette Howland The Unquiet Heart by Kaite Welsh State of the Union: A Marriage in Ten Parts by Nick Hornby The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators with the FBI's Original Mindhunter by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker Rabbits for Food by Binnie Kirshenbaum The Paris Diversion: A Novel by Chris Pavone At Home with Muhammad Ali by Hana Ali Llama Destroys the World by Jonathan Stutzman, Heather Fox (Illustrator) The Conviction of Cora Burns by Carolyn Kirby Electric Forest by Tanith Lee Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings The Latte Factor: Why You Don't Have to Be Rich to Live Rich by David Bach and John David Mann Black Death at the Golden Gate: The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague by David K. Randall Queer X Design: 50 Years of Signs, Symbols, Banners, Logos, and Graphic Art of LGBTQ by Andy Campbell When Darkness Loves Us (Paperbacks from Hell) by Elizabeth Engstrom Folded Wisdom: Notes from Dad on Life, Love, and Growing Up by Joanna Guest The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek: A Novel by Kim Michele Richardson The Shadow King: The Life and Death of Henry VI by Lauren Johnson The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art, and Scandal at Hollywood's Chateau Marmont by Shawn Levy
Guest-host, Jefferson Smith explores the disturbing escalation of the far right with David Neiwert author of Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump. - Igor Volsky, Executive Director of Guns Down America considers what we've learned in the year since the Parkland shooting murders. - Jefferson engages with Noah Smith, author and opinion columnist at Bloomberg News on the practicality of the Green New Deal. - Thom Hartmann Book Club: Thom's reading from Nuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board – by Vince Houghton - Continuation of interview with Noah Smith. - Talk Media News - Bob Ney, fluent speaker of Farsi and expert on Iran, is our guide on the 'Highway to Hell' as Trump and Netanyahu appear to be orchestrating a possible lead up to war with Iran.