Podcasts about Prohibition

The outlawing of the consumption, sale, production etc. of alcohol

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Latest podcast episodes about Prohibition

Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness
What Power Does the U.S. Constitution Really Give WE THE PEOPLE? — w/ Strict Scrutiny co-host, Melissa Murray

Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 1, 2026 42:43


The U.S. Constitution can feel intimidating—but what if understanding it is one of the most empowering things you can do? This week, JVN sits down with constitutional law professor, legal scholar, and Strict Scrutiny co-host Melissa Murray to unpack what the Constitution actually says, how it's evolved over time, and what it does to shape our daily lives here in the U.S. Together, they break down the myths, the amendments, and the big debates that continue to define U.S. democracy. From the origins of Prohibition to the long fight for women's rights, Melissa explains why the Constitution was designed to change—and why “We the People” have always been central to that process. They also explore what rights the Constitution does (and doesn't) guarantee, how constitutional amendments come to be, and what power ordinary people have to shape the country's future. Get your copy of THE U.S. CONSTITUTION: AN ANNOTATED GUIDE FOR THE MODERN READER here Catch Strict Scrutiny wherever you get your podcasts! .  Wanna see JVN on stage? Get tix to the Hot & Healed Comedy Tour here.  Full Video Episodes now available on YouTube.  Follow Melissa Murray on Instagram @profmmurray   Follow Strict Scrutiny on Instagram @stricscrutinypodcast  Follow us on Instagram @gettingbetterwithjvn Follow Jonathan on Instagram @jvn Executive  Producer, Chris McClure Producer, Editor & Engineer is Nathanael McClure Production support from: Chad Hall Our theme music is also composed by Nathanael McClure. Curious about bringing your brand to life on the show? Email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Seven Deadly Sinners
287: The King of Hell's Kitchen - Owney Madden

Seven Deadly Sinners

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 30, 2026 38:45


Long before Las Vegas, one man built an empire on violence, bootlegging, and bribery. This week, Rachael dives into the extraordinary life of Owney Madden—the Hell's Kitchen street thug who survived multiple assassination attempts, became one of the most powerful figures in organized crime during Prohibition, and quietly transformed himself into a respected businessman.From brutal gang wars in New York to controlling a vast liquor empire, Madden's fingerprints were all over some of the most infamous chapters in American crime history. But despite his reputation, he managed to evade the fate that claimed so many of his rivals, living out his final years far from the streets that made him a legend.How did one of the deadliest gangsters of the 20th century escape prison, outlive his enemies, and rewrite his own story? Pour yourself a stiff drink—this is the unbelievable rise of the man they called "The Killer".

Into the Impossible
Nobel Economist: The Market That Lets People Die

Into the Impossible

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 30, 2026 81:47


A Nobel laureate in economics argues the bans we pass to protect our morals are quietly killing people and the data backs him up. Why the line between a market we allow and one we forbid is mostly an accident of disgust. Subscribe if you want science with evidence, not speculation. My guest won the 2012 Nobel Prize for designing the systems that match kidney donors to patients who would otherwise die waiting. We cover why it's easy to buy heroin but hard to hire a hitman, what surrogacy bans actually do to the babies they're meant to protect, why paying kidney donors could end a shortage that kills thousands a year, and the trade-off statement he wants every lawmaker to say out loud. He has been called an organ trafficker. He explains why that's the point. What you'll hear: Why banning something that people want often makes it more dangerous The kidney market America won't build and what that silence costs What the hitman vs. heroin ban asymmetry tells us about effective prohibition The McCormick statement: the trade-off acknowledgment most policy debates refuse to make How prediction markets are eroding the boundary between public and private information Whether Milton Friedman was right to be embarrassed by the economics Nobel There's no such thing as a solution. There are only trade-offs. CHAPTERS 00:00  Who gets called an organ trafficker? 02:26  What makes a transaction repugnant? 03:14  Why bans without support create black markets 03:36  Heroin is easy. Hitmen are not. Why? 04:44  Prohibition, NASCAR, and moonshine 07:26  Surrogacy: legal here, criminal in Europe 12:30  When money turns something legal into a crime 14:28  Can religion corrupt a market? 15:56  Who actually pays for college? 21:38  The Enhanced Games: drugs as a marketing platform 25:30  Adderall, Erd0151s, and the science of getting sharper 30:58  Why AI makes market congestion worse before better 35:00  100,000 kidney failures a year. 30,000 transplants. 36:44  Portland decriminalized heroin. It failed. 39:22  The trade-off statement politicians refuse to make 41:14  Can you legalize sex work and shrink trafficking? 47:42  Kahneman chose to die. Who should decide? 48:30  Should we put GLP-1 drugs in the water? 56:12  America is the Saudi Arabia of blood plasma 01:00:54  Prediction markets and inside information 01:01:34  Sports gambling is more addictive than it looks 01:11:40  Peter Nobel called economics a marketing stunt 01:13:32  Is economics a real science? Get the transcript, fascinating bonus content, and my Monday M.A.G.I.C. Message: https://briankeating.com/yt Have a .edu email and live in the USA? You automatically win a meteorite: https://BrianKeating.com/edu Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 Support Into the Impossible on Patreon, get my weekly M.A.G.I.C. Message, unfiltered bonus content, and live monthly Office Hours with me: https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeating Join this channel for perks, monthly Office Hours, and your name in the Member Roster at the end of every episode: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join Get your three free gifts when you join my Multiverse of Minds: https://BrianKeating.com/cosmic Featured Guest: Alvin Roth website: https://web.stanford.edu/~alroth/ Moral Economics (book): https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Economics-Prostitution-Controversial-Transactions/dp/1541702018 My books: Losing the Nobel Prize (memoir): http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U Galileo's Dialogue (first-ever audiobook): https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un Twitter/X: https://x.com/BrianKeating Substack: https://briankeating.substack.com Blog: https://briankeating.com/blog Audio-only: https://briankeating.com/podcast #intotheimpossible #briankeating #economics #NobelPrize #AlvinRoth #marketdesign #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Savor
Tequila: Just One More Round, Friends

Savor

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2026 60:56 Transcription Available


This liquor made with (mostly) blue agave has a complex set of rules and regulations – and a near-mythical history. In the final episode of the series, Anney and Lauren say ‘salud’ with the science and stories behind tequila.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Assorted Calibers Podcast
Assorted Calibers Podcast Ep 398: Second String to the Rescue

Assorted Calibers Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2026 94:53


In This Episode Erin is taking a mental health day, and again Weer'd is joined by Daivid to discuss: the DOJ suing the Philadelphia police for their "Good Cause" restrictions on carry permits; the successful lawsuit by the Gun Owners Foundation against the ATF's "Engaging in the Business" rule; a Democrat candidate for the Texas Senate gives lip service to the Second Amendment, but does he mean it? and the Virgin Islands are being sued by the DOJ for Second Amendment violations. Tiny talks about the equipment in his photography 'go bag'; Paul talks about brewing beer and wine at home; and Oddball discusses handgun safeties. Did you know that we have a Patreon? Join now for the low, low cost of $4/month (that's $1/podcast) and you'll get to listen to our podcast on Friday instead of Mondays, as well as patron-only content like mag dump episodes, our hilarious blooper reels and film tracks. Main Topic DOJ Opens Second Amendment Investigation into Philadelphia Police ATF Engaged in the Business Rule Texas Senate Candidate Talarico Says He'd Break with Democrats on Guns, Offers No Specifics Virgin Island on Collision Course With DOJ After Approving Slew of Gun Control Laws Tiny's Rocks and Cows Platypod delta   Platypod  handle Platypod Traveler   Phone cage Phone monitor Expert raw Open camera Halide Lights Tripod  Window mount Kentfaith filter: 67mm Star Filters 3pcs Set 4+6+8 Points Cross Screen Starburst Filter Special Effect Camera Lens Kentfaith filter: 67mm MCUV+CPL+ND2-400 (1-9 Stops) Lens Filter Kit Neewer Lense Filter Tiny- Dam Tiny Lake Lunar Eclipse Barn at Night Milky Way Waterfall Paul's Unnamed Segment Homebrew Statutes  The U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition.  

Bourbon Lens
Rolling Fork's REWCO Rye Review: Can It Match the Hype of Bourbon de Luxe? | Five Minute Fridays

Bourbon Lens

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 19, 2026 5:27


Can the blending masters at Rolling Fork Spirits pull off the exact same magic with a historic rye whiskey that they did with their massive Bourbon de Luxe revival?On this episode of Five Minute Fridays, Jake Lewellen cracks open and reviews the highly anticipated REWCO 6-Year Cask Strength Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey. Clocking in at 109.4 proof and priced at an approachable $59.99 MSRP, this bottle carries some serious historical weight.Named after R. E. Wathen (Richard E. Wathen), president of American Medicinal Spirits during Prohibition, REWCO is a brand resurrected straight out of the Wathen family's 200-year distilling legacy. But how does it actually drink today?Jake breaks down the incredibly unique, hybrid flavor profile of this small batch. Blending three barrels of traditional 74% rye with two barrels of high-spice 95% rye, this pour delivers an unexpected wave of sweet corn, baking spices, citrus zest, and grilled peaches on the nose, followed by a deeply complex tropical fruit sweetness on the palate.Is this Pre-Prohibition revival "The Zenith of Possibility in Whiskey Quality," or does it get lost in a crowded rye market? Find out in under five minutes!⏱️ Timestamps:00:00 - The Ultimate Test: Can REWCO Rye beat Bourbon de Luxe?00:40 - The History of R.E. Wathen & American Medicinal Spirits01:10 - First Impressions: Bottle design and visual aesthetic02:35 - Tasting Notes: Diving into a nose of baking spices and grilled peaches02:55 - Flavor Profile: Unpacking the tropical fruit sweetness and citrus zest03:32 - Palate Experience: How the 109.4 cask strength proof holds up03:58 - Mouthfeel & Smoothness: Textural breakdown of the hybrid mashbill04:27 - The Finish: Subtlety, persistence, and lingering rye spice05:22 - Final Verdict: Is this $60 limited release worth the hunt?05:49 - Celebration ideas, future batch potential, and closing thoughts

On Humans
The Why of War and the How of Peace, Part I: Lessons from the Modern World ~ Douglas P. Fry

On Humans

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 19, 2026 47:30


History is full of wars. Why? Is war driven by fear? Greed? Revenge? Ambitious leaders? Is it rooted deep in human nature—or does it emerge only under particular social conditions? And what do we learn if we change the angle from wars to non-wars? What lessons emerge from a study of all the periods and regions where war did not take place? My guest in this two-part mini-series is Douglas P. Fry, an anthropologist who has spent decades studying these questions. He is also a returning guest, and one of the first scholars ever to appear on this podcast.In Part II of our conversation, we will return to the topic of our episode from years back: the origins of war in prehistory. In this first part, however, we take a very different approach. We discuss lessons from modernity, with our topics ranging from the quest for peace after WWII to the societies in the Brazilian Amazon and Indigenous North America.What makes former enemies trust one another? What roles are played by equality, trade, or a new shared enemy? And how can cycles of fear, retaliation, and revenge be reversed without simply surrendering to aggression?At a time when war once again dominates the news, these questions could hardly be more urgent. But they also point towards a part of the human story that is too easily forgotten: our capacity not only to make war, but to understand it—and to build peace that lasts.Enjoy!FACT-CHECKINGMy wording on Ukraine giving up its nuclear arsenal in exchange for "security guarantees" is slightly stronger than the formal language of the Budapest Memorandum, which talked of “security assurances” rather than legally binding security guarantees.If you notice a factual error in this conversation, please get in touch via Substack or the form below. LINKSFry's 2026 book: Advanced Introduction to Conflict ResolutionSupport: ⁠Patreon.com/OnHumans⁠Articles & newsletter: ⁠OnHumans.Substack.com⁠Get in touch: ⁠https://forms.gle/h5wcmefuwvD6asos8⁠Music credit: Aleksey Chistilin (Lexin_Music) via Pixabay.NAMES MENTIONEDDouglas P. Fry | Geneviève Souillac | Jean Monnet | Konrad Adenauer | Mahatma Gandhi | Edward Westermarck | Charles E. Osgood | Brian Ferguson | Eleanor Roosevelt | Vladimir Putin KEY WORDSDouglas P. Fry | peace studies | conflict studies | war studies | peace and conflict studies | anthropology of war | anthropology of peace | war and peace | causes of war | origins of war | human nature and war | peacebuilding | conflict resolution | peace systems | lasting peace | international cooperation | nonviolence | revenge | reciprocity | negative reciprocity | deterrence | security dilemma | arms race | nuclear weapons | nuclear disarmament | Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons | TPNW | Budapest Memorandum | United Nations | UN peacekeeping | Blue Helmets | UN Security Council | international law | global governance | World War II | Second World War | post-war peace | European integration | Jean Monnet | European Coal and Steel Community | Switzerland | Nordic peace | Åland Islands dispute | League of Nations | Upper Xingu peace system | Indigenous peace systems | Haudenosaunee Confederacy | Iroquois Confederacy | Great League of Peace | GRIT strategy | Graduated Reciprocation in Tension Reduction | Charles E. Osgood | Edward Westermarck | Ukraine war | Russia–Ukraine war

OsazuwaAkonedo
Edo To Set Up Spl Court, Sign, Execute Cultist, Kidnapper's Deaths Speedily

OsazuwaAkonedo

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 19, 2026 18:01 Transcription Available


Edo To Set Up Spl Court, Sign, Execute Cultist, Kidnapper's Deaths Speedily https://osazuwaakonedo.news/edo-to-set-up-spl-court-sign-execute-cultist-kidnappers-deaths-speedily/ #Amnesty #ANEEJ #Benin #Edo #Oshiomhole #Kano #Obaseki #Okpebholo #Police Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo has said the state government will set up special court for criminal proceedings inline with the existing laws for suspected secret cult members and kidnappers to be conducted within 2 or 3 weeks maximum, and if anyone is found guilty and sentenced to death accordingly, he will sign the death warrant and bring the condemned criminal or criminals to popular Ring Road area in Benin City for public execution so that such action will serve as deterrent to others, the Governor who probably have a good working relationship with one of the former governors of the state that started the recent execution of condemned criminals, Adams Oshiomhole made this known on Thursday when he visited the Headquarters of the Edo State Command of the Nigeria Police Force wherein some suspected kidnappers allegedly behind the shooting and abduction of a woman at a popular Vegetable market along Airport road in Benin City last Sunday were paraded before the governor and the Press, according to the Governor; "I will set up a special court to try cultists and kidnappers within 2 or 3 weeks and if found guilty, I would have no regret to sign their warrants, they would be executed at the Ring Road for others to learn a lesson, don't take my simplicity for granted”, for the record, the last time death warrant was signed and condemned criminals executed in Edo State, took place around 6:00am on December 23, 2016, few weeks after the then-Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki took over power and was then still in good working relationship with ex governor Adams Oshiomhole, three death row inmates were executed by hanging, namely: Ogbomoro Omoregie, Apostle Igene, and Mark Omosowhota and the execution took place at the Oko Prison of the Nigerian Correctional Service, the inmates had originally been sentenced to death by military tribunals under the Robbery and Firearms Decree during the era of  military rule in Nigeria, Godwin Obaseki carried out the executions despite condemnation from Human rights groups, such as the Legal Defence and Assistance Project, LEDAP, who thus petitioned the governor for a stay of execution, saying, "These earmarked prisoners were sentenced by military tribunals under the Robbery and Firearms, Special Provisions, Decree 1971 as amended, in which there was no right of appeal, we have filed an appeal pending at the Court of Lagos seeking order that these prisoners have right of appeal under the 1999 Constitution, Death penalty is not universally prohibited but the second optional protocol to the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on Prohibition of the use of the death penalty ask state parties to amend their laws to abolish death as sentence for crime, not all states have ratified the protocol, to sign a treaty does not bind the state until it is ratified, Nigeria has not signed it”, it would be recalled that before the 2016 last execution of condemned criminals in the state, the immediate past and first execution in Edo State since Nigeria returned to Democratic rule in 1999 occurred on June 24, 2013, when former Governor Adams Oshiomhole signed the warrants to hang four inmates—Chima Ejiofor, Daniel Nsofor, Osarenmwinda Aiguokhan, and Richard Igagu—at the Benin City Custodial Centre along Sapele road, the execution was the first in Nigeria since the last incident in 2006 after the then Kano State Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau approved and carried out the execution of seven condemned criminals, Oshiomhole's action faced a lot of backlash from human rights community; Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ reiterated that the death penalty is an inhumane form of punishment and continued to advocate that Nigeria's laws should be amended to replace capital punishment with life imprisonment, even for high-level offences like corruption, while Amnesty International declared the executions "a truly dark day for human rights in Nigeria" and criticised Oshiomhole for ignoring the pending judicial appeal processes, this, other human rights organizations filed appeals and public campaigns, urging the Edo State government to halt the execution of the inmates because their legal options were not fully exhausted, but all to no avail as the condemened criminals were still executed, defending his action, the then-governor Oshiomhole said "I have no apologies because I did not sentence them to death, I am not the one who accused them; they were accused by those they harassed, they have been tried, they have taken advantage  #OsazuwaAkonedoBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/osazuwaakonedo--4980924/support.Kindly support us for more productivity and efficiency in news delivery.Visit our donation page: DonateYou can also use our Mobile app for more news in different formats: CLICK TO DOWNDLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY STORE 

GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Care Podcast
Why you should care about the shakeup at NIH: Sean Morrison, Ken Covinsky, Stacy Fischer

GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Care Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 18, 2026 47:21


Emergency Podcast! Our guests Sean Morrison, Ken Covinsky, and Stacy Fischer believe that you should care deeply about the proposed shakeup at the National Institutes of Health.  Major proposed rules changes at the Office of Management and Budget, would affect a huge range of government grants, from Headstart to Transportation to the National Science Foundation, as well as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the subject of today's podcast. You dear listeners should all care.  You should care because you care for older adults, or you're a researcher who studies palliative care, or you're a chaplain who visited with the family of a patient who died today.  You should care because these rule changes are so sweeping that they would remove standard components of the scientific review process and instead put them in the hands of political appointees. You should care because if rules like this were in place in the 1980s, we might not have developed treatments to stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic.  You should care because if these rules go into effect we will not be able to work with researchers in other countries studying outbreaks of Ebola or Hauntavirus.  You should care because these rules silence federal research into groups of people we care for daily. And if you're not a researcher, your voice is even more important here.  As Sean says, researchers who protest these proposed rule changes might come across as self-serving.  Clinicians who are not researchers -  who can say that these rules will negatively impact the science that improves care of older adults living with chronic conditions and their families - your voices may resonate even more. What can you do? Most of these rule changes are open for public comment here until July 13, 2026.  Every comment will be read and requires a response.  It's ok to respond anonymously.  Personalized stories matter more than form responses. Tips: 1: Say (or just describe to keep anonymous) who you are and why you are qualified to comment. Telling the story of how patients and families you care for or study is enough.  Get your partner and parents to respond too.  Simply being a concerned citizen is perfectly fine. 2: List the exact provision #s that concern you, and explain what they would do. You do not need to quote the rule directly. Just explain what you understand it to mean in plain terms. Political Appointees Take Control of Grant Awards (§200.205); Peer Review Is No Longer Binding (§200.205(d)); Active Grants Can Be Terminated at Any Time, for Any Reason (§200.340);  DEI, Gender Research, and Related Topics Banned as Grant Conditions (§200.300);  Prohibition on International Scientific Collaboration (§200.220);  Conference Attendance Now Requires Express Agency Pre-Approval (§200.432);  Publication Costs and Open Access Fees Presumptively Unallowable (§200.461) 3: Explain the concrete harm. What would happen to your patients and their families if this provision takes effect? 4: Closing: State clearly what you want OMB to do. This can be as simple as: "I urge OMB to withdraw these specific provisions: §200.340, §200.202, §200.205." or "I urge OMB not to finalize this rule." Submit your comment in opposition here: The deadline is July 13, 2026.  You can also email your congressperson or senator.   Times they are a changin'.  

Tiki and Tierney
Inside NYC's Secret Tunnels and Canal Street's Counterfeit Ring

Tiki and Tierney

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 18, 2026 26:59


They workshop designs for a 'Just the Tip' hoodie before reflecting on the wild sights and counterfeit gear found at the Knicks championship parade. One speaker recounts a tense encounter with a gang leader in a massive underground warehouse filled with designer knockoffs near Canal Street. The conversation transitions into the history of New York's Prohibition-era tunnels and a plan for a city-wide dumpling tour. 01:44 - Workshopping Hoodie Designs 07:31 - Knicks Parade Sights 10:36 - Canal Street Gang Encounter 16:37 - New York's Secret Tunnels 23:31 - Isaiah Hartenstein Debate

Weird Darkness: Stories of the Paranormal, Supernatural, Legends, Lore, Mysterious, Macabre, Unsolved
The SS Morro Castle Disaster Was No Accident | A Liner Fire That Hid a Serial Killer in Plain Sight

Weird Darkness: Stories of the Paranormal, Supernatural, Legends, Lore, Mysterious, Macabre, Unsolved

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2026 125:26


When the luxury liner SS Morro Castle erupted in flames off the New Jersey coast in 1934, it left behind 137 dead, a captain's corpse that vanished before it could be examined, and a heroic radio operator whose criminal past suggested he may have started the fire himself. | #WDRadio June 14, 2026==========HOUR ONE: Jeannie Saffin already had a tough life, being born with a birth defect that stunted her mental growth, leaving her with the mind of a child, never getting married and having kids, never dating… but that all pales in comparison to how she died: bursting into flames for no apparent reason. Was Jeannie Saffin the victim of spontaneous human combustion? (The Spontaneous Combustion of Jeannie Saffin) *** Sometimes it's easy to get a girl to go out with you – just be polite and ask. Some men resort to cheesy pickup lines thinking it will help their chances. But one man chose to call upon a woman in a very unusual way… by purchasing a gravestone. (Pitching Woo With a Tombstone) *** If a man demands his girlfriend give up the baby they conceived, otherwise he would no longer be with the woman – what is that newborn's mother to do? Sadly, Emily Dunn made the wrong decision – with tragic results. (The Durbin Baby Murder) *** The transplanting of an organ is almost a routine procedure now in the 21st century – even doing a transplant of an arm or a leg isn't uncommon. But when you talk about transplanting a living head onto a dead body – that's when things get tricky. But Robert White thought it could be done – and even tried doing it. (The Man Who Wanted To Do a Head Transplant) *** Imagine getting onto a plane and once in the air finding out that the pilot wasn't qualified to fly that kind of plane – and that he was only there because the original pilot wasn't available due to being dead. That's what happened in 1934 on the boat, the SS Morro Castle. And it was the beginning of tragedy after tragedy. (Mystery, Mismanagement, and Mayhem on the SS Morro Castle)==========HOUR TWO: In June of 2009 a man calling himself Peter Bergmann checked in to a hotel in Sligo Town. Five days later his body was found on Rosses Point Beach. But Peter Bergmann was not Peter Bergmann – so who was he? (The Peter Bergmann Mystery) *** Sharing stories from people who are frightened by a bump in the night or a strange shadow on the wall in their bedroom is one thing, but when you get professional ghost hunters telling of the scariest experiences they've had, you know it has to be some freaky stuff. (Scariest Experiences of Ghost Hunters) ==========SUDDEN DEATH OVERTIME: More of the scariest experiences of ghost hunters! *** I'll tell you about that time when a dam failed – and because of it, people were legally allowed to marry the dead. And still do to this day. (That Time A Failed Dam Led to Marrying Corpses) *** Personal experiences of those who have stayed at the Wolf Creek Inn, plus some hard evidence, seems to indicate that spirits who haunt the place are not only benign in nature, but even protect the guests and owners from other malevolent spirits which roam there as well. (Haunts at Wolf Creek Inn)==========SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM TONIGHT'S SHOW:“Mystery, Mismanagement, and Mayhem on the SS Morro Castle” by Brent Swancer for Mysterious Universe:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/56jb9c7j“The Man Who Wanted To Do a Head Transplant” by Gary Krist for the Washington Post: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/39d2k9pw“The Durbin Baby Murder” posted at Murders In History: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/c96z9kst“Pitching Woo With a Tombstone” from the New York Journal, posted at The Victorian Book of the Dead website:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/utw6vh45“The Spontaneous Combustion of Jeannie Saffin” by Brent Swancer for Mysterious Universe:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/e6as67fn“That Time A Failed Dam Led to Marrying Corpses” by Kaushik Patowary for Amusing Planet: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/zyrxx43k“Scariest Experiences of Ghost Hunters” by Amanda Ashley for Graveyard Shift:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/y7tx3a2t“Haunts at Wolf Creek Inn” posted at HauntedHouses.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yadzm4ae“The Peter Bergmann Mystery” by Rosita Boland for Irish Times: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/9b44kfs==========(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for material I use whenever possible. If I have overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it immediately. Some links may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)=========="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46==========WeirdDarkness®, WeirdDarkness© 2026==========To become a Weird Darkness Radio Show affiliate, contact Radio America at mailto:affiliates@radioamerica.com, or call 800-807-4703 (press 2 or dial ext 250).==========https://weirddarkness.com/WDR20260614This episode of Weird Darkness moves from a burning luxury liner off the New Jersey coast to a fire-scarred kitchen in London, a body on an Irish beach, a drowned infant in Illinois, a collapsed French dam that legalized marrying the dead, and a haunted stagecoach inn in Oregon — with a head-transplant surgeon and a tombstone-shopping widower along the way.It opens with the SS Morro Castle, the 508-foot American ocean liner that ferried wealthy passengers between New York and Havana during Prohibition until September 8, 1934, when its captain, Robert Wilmott, dropped dead the night before departure and a fire of unknown origin erupted in a B Deck storage locker on the voyage home. Replacement captain William Warms steered into gale-force winds and waited 38 minutes to send a distress call, paint-gummed lifeboats refused to lower, untrained passengers broke their necks jumping in faulty life jackets, and at least 137 of the 549 aboard died before the charred hulk ran aground at Asbury Park, New Jersey, where souvenir stands sprang up around the wreck. Suspicion later fell on chief radio operator George White Rogers, the disaster's celebrated hero, whose hidden history of arson convictions, an aquarium-heater bomb built to maim a police lieutenant asking too many questions, and a double murder ended with his sudden death in Trenton State Prison — and the disappearance of his prison records.From there the episode lightens briefly with a pair of newspaper accounts of courtship by gravestone: an 1896 story from the Cincinnati Enquirer about a widower who finally bought a $50 monument for his wife of five years past — not out of grief, but to impress a wealthy widow who had called him too cheap to mark the grave — and a 1924 item from the Kansas City Star about a Kansas woman who married a widower precisely because he kept his first wife's grave so well.Next comes Dr. Robert J. White, the Cleveland neurosurgeon who watched the first successful human kidney transplant in Boston in 1954 and spent the rest of his life pursuing something far stranger: transplanting a living human head onto a donor body. In March 1970 he performed the operation on monkeys, moving one animal's head onto another's decapitated body in an 18-hour surgery; the hybrid lived nine days. White, a devout Catholic who sparred publicly with journalist Oriana Fallaci and animal rights activist Ingrid Newkirk, came close to attempting the procedure on a quadriplegic human volunteer through Russia's medical system before he died in 2010, leaving behind questions about consciousness, identity, and death that medicine has yet to answer.The hour then turns to Jeannie Saffin, a 61-year-old London woman with the mental capacity of a child who, on September 15, 1982, burst into flames while sitting calmly at her father's kitchen table in Edmonton with her hands in her lap. Her father Jack and brother-in-law Don Carroll doused the fire, but Jeannie — burned to the subcutaneous fat on her face, hands, and abdomen — never screamed, slipped into a coma, and died eight days later. The chair she sat in was unmarked, the nearest flame was a shielded pilot light five feet away, and a police constable concluded it was spontaneous human combustion, a verdict the coroner rejected. Skeptic Joe Nickell's pipe-ember theory accounts for some details, but not how a human body ignited so completely in under two minutes while burning nothing around it.Then the mystery of Peter Bergmann: the tall, gray-haired man with an Austrian accent who arrived in Sligo, Ireland by bus on June 12, 2009, checked into the Sligo City Hotel under a false name and a fabricated Vienna address, and over three days left the hotel thirteen times carrying a full purple plastic bag — returning empty-handed each time, never once caught by CCTV disposing of anything. He bought ten international stamps, cut the labels from his clothes, folded them neatly on a rock at Rosses Point Beach, and was found dead at the water's edge the next morning near Dead Man's Point. The autopsy revealed terminal prostate cancer he could not have been unaware of, yet he died of cardiac arrest, not dr

The Infamous Podcast
Episode 521 – I Haaaave the Poooooower!

The Infamous Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 12, 2026


Grayskull, Gumshoes, and Global Spy Nonsense This week on the podcast, Brian and Darryl have the power… allegedly. The guys dig into Citadel Season 2 episodes 3 and 4, continue down the black-and-white rabbit hole with Spider-Noir episodes 3 and 4, and then head back to Eternia for the 2026 live-action Masters of the Universe movie. It's spies, spiders, swords, Skeletor, and probably way too much yelling about whether He-Man should ever be self-aware. Episode Index Intro: 0:07 The Citadel Season 2 (eps 3-4): 4:56 Spider-Noir (eps 3-4): 19:54 Masters of the Universe (2026): 32:02 The Citadel (Amazon Prime) Series: Citadel Season: 2 Network: Prime Video Season 2 Release Date: May 6, 2026 Season 2 Episode Count: 7 episodes Starring: Richard Madden, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Stanley Tucci, Lesley Manville, Matt Berry, Michael Trucco, Rahul Kohli, Merle Dandridge, and Jack Reynor Citadel Season 2 released all seven episodes on Prime Video on May 6, 2026, with episode 3 titled “Chinos” and episode 4 titled “Unreasonable.” Prime Video describes the season as a globe-spanning spy thriller following Mason Kane, Nadia Sinh, and Bernard Orlick as Citadel operatives caught in a conspiracy where “anyone could be friend or foe.” Episode 3: “Chinos” Director: Joe Russo Writers: Gursimran Sandhu and David J. Rosen Original Air Date: May 6, 2026 Summary: As Paulo's plan escalates, Mason and Nadia are forced into an uneasy alliance. Bernard, Hutch, Celine, and Frank Sharpe join the mission as the team tries to uncover the identity of a mysterious hacker before the threat spins further out of control. Episode 4: “Unreasonable” Director: Joe Russo Writers: Tori Sampson, David Weil, and David J. Rosen Original Air Date: May 6, 2026 Summary: After pulling the truth about Edison's identity, the team shifts focus to a high-profile gala where their target is expected to appear. Mason and Nadia's tensions keep rising, enemies close in from every angle, and one dishonest move threatens to blow up the entire mission. Rating out of 10, What do the Italians Have Against Cereal Brian: 7/10 Darryl: 7.3/10 Spider-Noir (Amazon Prime) Series: Spider-Noir Season: 1 Network: MGM+ / Prime Video Season 1 Release: May 25, 2026 on MGM+ in the U.S.; May 27, 2026 on Prime Video Episode Count: 8 episodes Runtime: About 45 minutes per episode Starring: Nicolas Cage, Lamorne Morris, Li Jun Li, Karen Rodriguez, Abraham Popoola, Jack Huston, and Brendan Gleeson Spider-Noir follows a struggling private investigator in 1930s New York who is forced back into his past life as the city's lone superhero. The series stars Nicolas Cage as Ben “The Spider” Reilly, with Lamorne Morris as Robbie Robertson, Li Jun Li as Cat Hardy, Jack Huston as Flint Marko, and Brendan Gleeson as Silvermane. Episode 3: “Double Cross” Director: Nzingha Stewart Writers: Megan Liao and Steve Lightfoot Original Air Date: May 25, 2026 on MGM+ / May 27, 2026 on Prime Video Summary: Ben is hired by Silvermane to find who leaked his liquor transfer. At the hospital, he learns injured officers were tipped off by Morris. Robbie goes to a poor neighborhood to question Lincoln but witnesses a raid ordered by Morris, forcing Marko and Lincoln to use their powers against the cops. Janet discovers Addison, Lincoln, and Marko were former prisoners of war. Ben also finds out Carmedy lied about being Cat’s husband to gather evidence on Morris and that Cat arranged the meeting. He concludes Cat leaked the transfer and hired Addison to burn down Silvermane’s mansion. Ben breaks into Silvermane’s vault to pay Vera to leave town before she exposes Cat. Marko briefly considers escaping with Cat, but abandons the idea due to his symptoms worsening further. Ben later confronts Cat at Penn Station as she tries to flee, but Winston captures them. After tracing marked payments from Silvermane, Ben frames Winston by using his money to pay Vera. Silvermane shoots and kills Winston. Episode 4: “A Mistake I'll Never Make Again” Director: Nzingha Stewart Writer: Tori Sampson Original Air Date: May 25, 2026 on MGM+ / May 27, 2026 on Prime Video Summary: Cat reveals to Ben she hired Addison to kill Silvermane so she could settle down with Marko after Silvermane murdered her first fiancé. Marko eavesdrops on their discussion. Feeling betrayed, he decides to work for Silvermane again. Robbie and Janet interview Lincoln at the office. Silvermane uses Marko to intimidate Morris into backing off on his campaign ending Prohibition. Ben and Cat spend the night at his place, where he divulges on how Ruby died from a criminal he caught seeking revenge. They both leave after hearing a metahuman is attacking the Diamond District, presuming it to be Marko. The metahuman is a man named Dirk Leyden, a criminal with the ability to absorb and release electricity. The Spider defeats him by shutting off the power in the area to prevent Leyden from storing any more electricity, and Morris uses his victory to boost his campaign. Cat returns to Ben’s apartment and deduces that he is the Spider before kissing him. Rating out of 10, A Very Electric Spier-Noir Brian: 6.5/10 Darryl: 7.4/10 Masters of the Universe (2026) Release Date: June 5, 2026 Director: Travis Knight Screenplay: Chris Butler, Aaron Nee, Adam Nee, and Dave Callaham Distributor: Amazon MGM Studios in the U.S.; Sony Pictures International Releasing internationally Rating: PG-13 Runtime: 2 hours, 20 minutes Genre: Adventure, Action, Fantasy Starring: Nicholas Galitzine, Jared Leto, Idris Elba, Camila Mendes, Kristen Wiig, Alison Brie, James Purefoy, Morena Baccarin, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, and Charlotte Riley In the 2026 live-action Masters of the Universe, Prince Adam returns to Eternia after being separated from his home for 15 years. With Skeletor ruling over a shattered world, Adam must reunite with Teela and Duncan/Man-At-Arms, accept his destiny, and become He-Man. The cast includes Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Adam/He-Man, Jared Leto as Skeletor, Idris Elba as Duncan/Man-At-Arms, Camila Mendes as Teela, Kristen Wiig as the voice of Roboto, Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn, James Purefoy as King Randor, Morena Baccarin as the Sorceress, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson as Malcolm/Fisto, and Charlotte Riley as Queen Marlena. Summary: After losing Eternia to Skeletor as a child, Prince Adam is sent to Earth with the Sword of Power, only to lose it during his escape. Fifteen years later, Adam has built a normal life in Oklahoma City while obsessively searching for the sword and proof that Eternia was real. When he finally recovers it, Teela brings him back home to a ruined kingdom under Skeletor's control. Dismissed at first as unworthy, Adam reconnects with Teela, Duncan, Roboto, and Eternia's remaining warriors as they rally against Skeletor's forces. After discovering his parents are still alive, Adam leads a rescue mission to Snake Mountain, where King Randor is killed and Skeletor attempts to unlock the Sword of Power's magic through Castle Grayskull. In the final battle, Adam learns that the power of Grayskull was never truly in the sword, but within himself. He reclaims his destiny, defeats Skeletor, and helps restore Eternia. Six months later, Queen Marlena rules Eternos, Adam is celebrated as a hero, and he finally chooses his legendary name: He-Man. Rating Out of 10, Shinny Dangling… Participles (Clean up your dirty minds) Brian: 8.3/10 Darryl: 8.45/10 Contact Us The Infamous Podcast can be found wherever podcasts are found on the Interwebs, feel free to subscribe and follow along on social media. And don't be shy about helping out the show with a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help us move up in the ratings. @infamouspodcast facebook/infamouspodcast instagram/infamouspodcast stitcher Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Play iHeart Radio contact@infamouspodcast.com Our theme music is ‘Skate Beat’ provided by Michael Henry, with additional music provided by Michael Henry. Find more at MeetMichaelHenry.com. The Infamous Podcast is hosted by Brian Tudor and Darryl Jasper, is recorded in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show is produced and edited by Brian Tudor. Subscribe today!

KPL Podcast
KPL Podcast June 2026 Week 2 with Special Guest Ruta Sepetys

KPL Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 12, 2026 51:17


This week on the KPL podcast we spoke with bestselling author Ruta Sepetys about her latest novel, A Fortune of Sand. Set in 1920s Detroit, about Marjorie Lennox, the youngest daughter of a wealthy automotive family, who joins a mysterious arts program and uncovers dark secrets about her family and the program itself, inspired by real events.Author ReadsWhistler by Ann PatchettScar Island by Dan Gemeinhart

Liquor and Liqueur Connoisseur
Episode 122: Amer Picon

Liquor and Liqueur Connoisseur

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 12, 2026 18:37


Episode 122 features Amer Picon. Bottled in 1L at 21% ABV, or 42 proof and it retails for about 25 t0 30€.Enjoy this episode as you like.Amer Picon's official website: https://www.piconaperitif.com/Brief Historical Timeline:1830 - The brand's namesake founder Gaétan Picon enlisted in the French military and was stationed in Algeria.1837 - Picon founds a distillery in the Algerian city of Skikda, also known as Philipeville.1872 - Picon left Algeria and opened a distillery in Marseille, France, the spirit becomes known as "Amer Picon" from then on.1909 - Picon's son and five son-in-laws are running the business with eight total distilleries.1937 - For the brand's centennial an illustration is commissioned showing a man on horseback with a woman and a bottle of Amer Picon. See it here!1960s - Amer Picon is no longer available in the United States due to a banned ingredient, Calamus root.1970s - The ABV is stepped down to the current 21% from the original 39%.1995 - Diageo acquires the brand.2022 - Campari Group purchases Picon and owns the brand as of this recording.Key Cocktails:Amer Picon is featured in pre-Prohibition cocktails, so you if you get a bottle you may want to try it in the Brooklyn Cocktail. But it also has a knack for making beer more drinkable.References:Wikipedia Article on Amer PiconGood Beer Hunting Article on Amer PiconSaveur Article on Amer PiconDiffords Guide Article on Amer PiconWashington Examiner Article on Amer PiconPress Release on Campari Group Buying PiconLink to Historic Poster Showing the Woman Behind the Man on the HorseDrinking French by David Lebovitz (pages 98-99) - BookOxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails - BookContact Information:Official show website is: www.liquorandliqueurconnoisseur.comJoin my mailing list: http://eepurl.com/hfyhHfFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/liquorandliqueurconnoisseurInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/LiquorandLiqueurConnoisseur/

The Incredible Journey
Al Capone – American Gangster

The Incredible Journey

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 12, 2026 28:30


Al Capone, a name that still echoes through the annals of American crime history, was one of the most notorious gangsters of all time. Born in 1899 to Italian immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York, Alphonse Gabriel Capone rose from humble beginnings to become the kingpin of organised crime in Chicago during the Prohibition era. Known for his charismatic personality and ruthless tactics, Capone built an empire based on bootlegging, prostitution, and gambling. He cultivated a Robin Hood-like image, opening soup kitchens during the Great Depression while simultaneously orchestrating brutal acts of violence and murder against rival gangs. This was Capone's Chicago—a city where every shadow held a secret, every handshake could be a deal with the devil, and at the centre of it all, pulling the strings, stood the undisputed king of America's criminal underworld.His story continues to serve as a powerful reminder of the consequences of the misuse of power.

Daily Mitzvah (Audio) - by Mendel Kaplan
Daily Mitzvah, Day 130: Prohibition of a A ‘Profaned' Woman to Eat Holy Foods

Daily Mitzvah (Audio) - by Mendel Kaplan

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 12, 2026 19:07


Study the daily lesson of Sefer HaMitzvos for day 130 with Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, where he teaches the mitzvah in-depth with added insight and detail.

woman holy study foods prohibition sefer hamitzvos daily mitzvah
Daily Mitzvah (Video)
Daily Mitzvah, Day 130: Prohibition of a A ‘Profaned' Woman to Eat Holy Foods

Daily Mitzvah (Video)

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 12, 2026 19:06


Study the daily lesson of Sefer HaMitzvos for day 130 with Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, where he teaches the mitzvah in-depth with added insight and detail.

woman holy study foods prohibition sefer hamitzvos daily mitzvah
North County News
San Diego's Oldest Winery, California's First Dick's House of Sport, & Snoop Dogg | Episode 284

North County News

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2026 61:44


This week on the Livin' in San Diego Podcast, we recap a weekend that included youth soccer in Temecula, a stay at South Coast Winery, Bare Knuckle Brewing, and a Snoop Dogg concert at the brand-new Long Beach Amphitheater.We also discuss California's first Dick's House of Sport coming to Mission Valley, the return of Gaslamp Urban Pickleball, and the decision to eliminate paid parking in Balboa Park.For our San Diego Story of the Week, we dive into the history of Bernardo Winery, the oldest continuously operating winery in Southern California, and how it survived Prohibition and more than a century of change in San Diego County.Plus, we talk Padres baseball, the upcoming World Cup, and whether San Diego still delivers the lifestyle people move here for.Brought to you by the Livin' in San Diego real estate crew. Thinking about making a move in San Diego County? Reach out through the link below.Buying - https://www.livininsandiego.com/buySelling - https://www.livininsandiego.com/sell

Daily Mitzvah (Audio) - by Mendel Kaplan
Daily Mitzvah, Day 129: Prohibition of a Uncircumcised or Impure Jew to Eat the Priestly Tithe

Daily Mitzvah (Audio) - by Mendel Kaplan

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2026 26:15


Study the daily lesson of Sefer HaMitzvos for day 129 with Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, where he teaches the mitzvah in-depth with added insight and detail.

Daily Mitzvah (Video)
Daily Mitzvah, Day 129: Prohibition of a Uncircumcised or Impure Jew to Eat the Priestly Tithe

Daily Mitzvah (Video)

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2026 26:11


Study the daily lesson of Sefer HaMitzvos for day 129 with Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, where he teaches the mitzvah in-depth with added insight and detail.

Thecuriousmanspodcast
Phyliss Karas Interview Episode 682

Thecuriousmanspodcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 10, 2026 45:32


Family stories are often built on cherished memories, treasured photographs, and carefully preserved traditions. But sometimes, buried beneath those stories are secrets, tragedies, and wounds that ripple across generations. In this episode, I'm joined by Phyllis Karas, New York Times bestselling author, professor of journalism at Boston University, and longtime journalist, to discuss her powerful book Curse of the Blumenthals. Part true crime investigation, part family memoir, and part exploration of generational trauma, the book traces the extraordinary saga of the Blumenthal family—from immigration and Prohibition-era bootlegging to devastating tragedy, murder, family estrangement, and ultimately the search for healing. This is a conversation about family secrets, memory, resilience, journalism, and how understanding the past can help us break cycles that span generations.

Daily Mitzvah (Audio) - by Mendel Kaplan
Daily Mitzvah, Day 128: Prohibition of a Non-Priest to Eat the Priestly Tithe

Daily Mitzvah (Audio) - by Mendel Kaplan

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 10, 2026 20:47


Study the daily lesson of Sefer HaMitzvos for day 128 with Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, where he teaches the mitzvah in-depth with added insight and detail.

study prohibition tithe priestly sefer hamitzvos daily mitzvah
Daily Mitzvah (Video)
Daily Mitzvah, Day 128: Prohibition of a Non-Priest to Eat the Priestly Tithe

Daily Mitzvah (Video)

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 10, 2026 20:48


Study the daily lesson of Sefer HaMitzvos for day 128 with Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, where he teaches the mitzvah in-depth with added insight and detail.

study prohibition tithe priestly sefer hamitzvos daily mitzvah
THE LONG BLUE LEADERSHIP PODCAST
Choose Your Hard - Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jannell MacAulay '98, Ph.D.

THE LONG BLUE LEADERSHIP PODCAST

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 9, 2026 59:21


A devastating injury nearly ended her dreams of becoming a pilot. SUMMARY Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jannell MacAulay '98, Ph.D., says the accident was merely the first chapter in a career defined by perseverance, service and leadership. Listen to this inspiring story on Long Blue Leadership.   SHARE THIS EPISODE FACEBOOK  |  LINKEDIN DR. MACAULAY'S TOP 10 LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS 1. Choose your hard: You don't escape difficulty in life or leadership, you intentionally pick the hard path that aligns with who you want to become. 2. Let vision — not other people's verdicts — define you by holding a clear internal picture of your future that outvotes external “no's.” 3. Train your mind to eliminate the noise — unhelpful thoughts, doubts and narratives — to stay focused on what truly serves your goals. 4. Aim to harmonize your roles (leader, parent, partner, professional) across seasons of life rather than chasing a perfect work-life balance. 5. Be the calm in the storm by regulating your own stress response so your presence stabilizes your team instead of amplifying chaos. 6. Stop glorifying exhaustion and competitive stress and instead model healthy, high performance built on sleep, focus and quality over quantity. 7. Use simple daily mental skills — like mindfulness reps, the waterfall technique and a mindful minute at transitions — to protect clarity and compassion. 8. Replace “How are you doing?” with “What's going well for you today?” to surface real insight, build hope and better detect those sliding toward hopelessness. 9. Practice present, personalized recognition, because small, intentional gestures of appreciation can forge lifelong trust and loyalty. 10. When you hit a crucible moment and feel unsure you're ready, choose to commit and let the challenge grow you rather than hesitate.   CHAPTERS 00:00:00 – Introduction, Jannell's Academy injury, broken femur, and redefining “no” as possibility 00:05:54 – Her father's influence, early visions of command and flight, and limitless expectations 00:09:26 – “Choose your hard,” setting vision, eliminating noise, and turning barriers into options 00:12:22 – Air Force career breadth, strategy path, and introduction to the Syria chemical weapons mission 00:16:31 – Saying yes to Syria as a mother, family conversations, and the weight of the mission 00:19:00 – Syria as a crucible moment, inner critic vs external “no,” and committing through discomfort 00:22:17 – Identity beyond the uniform, family strain, rare eye disease, and pivot to mental performance work 00:27:06 – What stress really is, burnout, competitive stress culture, and leaders as calm vs storm 00:36:35 – Mindful leadership in action: no-email Fridays, recognition calls, and the “waterfall” technique 00:52:16 – “Breathless,” stories of Syrian mothers, legacy, and final advice to young leaders   ABOUT DR. MACAULAY BIO Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jannell MacAulay, Ph.D. '98, is a combat veteran who served 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, as a pilot, commander, special operations consultant, international diplomat and professionalism instructor. With her innovative leadership style, she was the first leader to introduce mindfulness as a proactive performance strategy within the United States military. Throughout her career she gained experience leading and building teams, designing and implementing complex organizational change, and creating innovative solutions to optimize the human weapon system when operating in rugged and high-stress environments. With over 3,000 flying hours in the C-21, C-130 and KC-10, and extensive education in performance and wellness, she specializes in high-performance under stress with a holistic approach. Dr. MacAulay currently serves as a leadership and human performance consultant for the Department of War, government sector and corporate America. She is the co-founder of Warrior's Edge, a high-performance mindset training program she developed with Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks and high-performance sports psychologist, Dr. Michael Gervais. Dr. MacAulay is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, has a master's degree in kinesiology from Pennsylvania State University, and a Ph.D. with work in the field of strategic health and human performance. She is a certified wellness educator, yoga instructor and holds a certificate in plant-based nutrition. Dr. MacAulay is a TEDx speaker, military spouse and mother of two.     CONNECT WITH JANNELL LINKEDIN  |  WEBSITE   CONNECT WITH THE LONG BLUE LINE PODCAST NETWORK TEAM Ted Robertson | Producer and Editor:  Ted.Robertson@USAFA.org Send your feedback or nominate a guest: socialmedia@usafa.org   Ryan Hall | Director:  Ryan.Hall@USAFA.org  Bryan Grossman | Copy Editor:  Bryan.Grossman@USAFA.org Wyatt Hornsby | Executive Producer:  Wyatt.Hornsby@USAFA.org     ALL PAST LBL EPISODES  |  ALL LBLPN PRODUCTIONS AVAILABLE AT USAFA.ORG/LONGBLUELEADERSHIP AND ON ALL MAJOR PODCAST PLATFORMS     FULL TRANSCRIPT Guest, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jannell MacAulay, Ph.D. '98  |  Host, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz '99    Lt. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 0:00 Leadership begins the moment someone tells you what you can't do, and you decide they don't get to write the rest of your story. Lt. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 0:00 I'm Naviere Walkewicz, Class of '99. Long Blue Leadership starts now. Well, Dr. Janelle McCauley, Class of '98 welcome to Long Blue Leadership. This is an amazing time for us. Excited to have you.   Lt. Col. Jannell MacAulay 0:19 Thank you so much for having me. I know this has been a long time coming, so I'm excited to be here with you to start a conversation.   Lt. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 0:24 Absolutely, you know, I do want to highlight some of the things you've done. It's probably true that the list is shorter for me to say what you haven't done, but pilot, combat veteran, you're a leadership strategist, you're a mother, a wife, author — we'll talk about that later. You know, also really getting into the space of a human performance specialist, a commander, all of these things that you've done and, gosh, 20 years in the Air Force, and now having been out, so excited to talk today. Lt. Col. Jannell MacAulay 0:51 Thank you so much for that amazing introduction. I don't know if I could live up to even what you just said, in some ways. But yeah, I just would love to share with your listeners how amazing the Air Force Academy can be for the potential and the possibilities for someone's future. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 1:07 Absolutely, so let's actually jump into a time early in your cadet days, so we'll tie it right to the Air Force Academy. There was a moment in time where you literally broke your femur. I'm curious, did it break your dreams too, of being a cadet at the time? Col. Jannell MacAulay 1:21 It almost did. And there's a story to that, so I'll go into that a little bit. So, during basic training, I developed a stress fracture. You know, running in combat boots, especially the old black version that we used to run in. Lt. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 1:35 Yes, I remember.   Col. Jannell MacAulay 1:36 Not a good thing for your body. And so I had developed this pain in my right quad to the point where I could not even stand on my right leg to put my left pant leg on, during, you know, as you're rushing to — banging on the doors, we'll be dressed, like, “Open the doors, you will be dressed,” yeah, and I would be, you know, Welcome to the Jungleplaying —   Lt. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 1:55 I remember that.   Col. Jannell MacAulay 1:56 I'm putting up my pants and I'm in pain, and my roommate's like, “What is happening?” Like, “You need to go to the doctor,” and I refused to, at first, of course, right? Push through it, right? And then when I finally went, they were like, “Here's the Ace bandage and some vitamin M, you know, Motrin. And, of course, I didn't know anything different, so I kept going. And then it was three days after basic training had finished, and I was at cheerleading practice, and I was doing a back flip, and my femur, like, literally snapped in half. It sounded like a tree branch. It was — I just collapsed to the floor, and this was before we had cell phones, right? So, if you can imagine, I'm 17 years old, so I hadn't turned 18 yet, and so they couldn't give me any pain medication, you know. The emergency — the ambulances rushing into the emergency room at the Academy hospital, which was not equipped to deal with what just happened to me. So, they sent me up to the Army hospital in Denver at the time, was Fitzsimmons. They couldn't understand why a 17-year-old's femur would just snap, and no one wanted to really address the fact that maybe it was a stress fracture at the time, so they actually told me I had cancer. So, they did — a bone type, a bone type of cancer, and so they did a biopsy on the bone. I lived in traction for 10 days while all my classmates were continuing on with their freshman year. So I was about — they eventually determined that this was not cancer, this was actually stress fracture, and so the two choices they gave me was a cast from my hip to my toe for about six months, or they were going to put a rod and four screws. So a rod the length of my femur, two screws of screws on my knee, two screws in my hip. And then the doctor said, “Either way, you're never flying airplanes,”   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 3:36 And that was your dream?   Col. Jannell MacAulay 3:38 That was my dream. Yes, my uncle had flown Marine 1 for President Reagan, so I grew up watching him fly helicopters in the Marine Corps, fly the President, and just he was the coolest person ever, and I wanted to be just like him. He took me to the air shows, so yes, it was a crushing moment. You know, it was something where I thought I could either let what people were telling me, the doctor saying, “You're never gonna bend your leg like this, you're never gonna be a runner, you're never gonna be a pilot,” and I could let that define me, or I could choose to define myself and what I was going to be capable of, and what the possibilities would be for me in the future. And so it was very hard for 17-, 18-year-olds to process all of this, but my dad used to give, tell me a quote, and it was, “Vision is the art of seeing the invisible,” and he would always tell me, “If you could see it for yourself, you can make it happen,” and so when it came time for being pilot qualified, I actually chose to get all of the metal removed out of my leg, just so that there was no reason for them to not allow me to go to pilot training. And so I went through that, which was — Col. Naviere Walkewicz 4:49 Another surgery, wow. Col. Jannell MacAulay 4:50 Yes. So through all of that, I have learned that was the first experience where I learned a lot about myself and what I was, what I could focus on, how I could set a vision for myself in the future, and how I could start to eliminate the noise — that's what I call it now. I didn't have language for it at the time, but it's eliminate the noise that does not serve us in pursuit of our passions, in pursuit of our dreams. And that was what I had started to do, which it's kind of full circle that that is now my career, to help other people do it. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 5:26 I want to peel that back a little bit. There's so many things. I mean, your dad's quote: “Vision is when you can see the invisible. I think I paraphrased that a bit. One more time.   Col. Jannell MacAulay 5:33 It's actually a Jonathan Swift quote, and that “vision is the art of seeing the invisible.” Col. Naviere Walkewicz 5:39 OK, so were you always that way growing up because you had, you know, your dad in your life sharing that kind of thought with you, or has it been a series of experiences that you've had that have kind of really made you that way? Col. Jannell MacAulay 5:54 So, my dad has always been a very positive role model in the sense of eliminating barriers and dreaming big. So, when I was 7 years old, and I was a ballerina, he used to tell anyone that — and I distinctly remember this as a little girl — he would tell anyone that would listen that I was going to grow up to be a submarine warfare commander or a combat pilot. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 6:16 Oh, wow, not a swan, no ballerina, you know — Col. Jannell MacAulay 6:18 And I would literally be in my tutu, and he would tell strangers at the grocery store, right, “This is my daughter, Jannell, she's gonna grow up and do these amazing things.” And in the '80s, women couldn't do it, right? We weren't there yet, right? We were not allowed to — and so I didn't know that. I didn't grow up thinking that there were barriers on what I could become, and I think that's a, we have this role as parents to help our children see what's possible, because you know they can either be told where the limits are or they could be told where the possibilities exist, and I think my dad did a lot of that for me, and so that I think is a lot of my story is, like, journeying through challenge and trauma to figure out that I didn't have to listen to that voice. I could create a new one, and my dad taught me how to do that, and then I've kind of developed, what I think, are skills and training, because it's hard. It is very hard to do, and so I like that's been what my Ph.D. work and my research has been focused on, is how can I help other people who don't have maybe that those resources or their parents in their life that have taught them those things. How can I give them those tools?   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 7:27 So you were a cadet when you made the decision that you still wanted to be a pilot, and you didn't want there to be anything that said you couldn't, so you made the decision to have the metal removed from your body. As we think about decisions that we have to make in life, that could be dream-opening decisions or dream-closing decisions. How did you come to that decision? And you know what would you share to someone who's at a similar crossroads in their life? Like, how do you navigate? That's a tough decision you made.   Col. Jannell MacAulay 7:54 It was a huge decision. I think part of it is understanding what are you passionate about? Who do you want to become? And not just about what you want to do, what type of person you are. That's a lot of what I think mental skills work is as well, is like, who's the person underneath, because once you figure that out, then the doing follows, right? Like, you could do anything, and I was the type of person underneath it all that did not like to be told no, right? Or I loved it when someone would say, “You can't do that,” right? It's like the challenge is what inspires me and motivates me, and so when they were saying you will not be a pilot, it was like, OK, well, then how do I get to yes? And part of that path was I had to have the metal removed. Now, there were some arguments, like, “Maybe you'll be fine.” I don't want to take the risk, right? I was like, “Nope, I don't want to give anyone an excuse to take something away from me.” That was kind of the mindset at the time. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 9:00 So, I think that really dives into this idea of, you can, when you said yourself: The no in front of you is kind of like, “How do I turn that into a yes?” You know, clear out the noise. How did that play into your life as an Air Force officer? Because I'm sure that you came across a lot of what we're seemingly no's. What did that look like? Col. Jannell MacAulay 9:22 So, here's, but, and this goes back to the Academy as well. I tell young people today, my greatest gift is to tell them, “Choose your hard.”   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 9:34 Choose your hard.   Col. Jannell MacAulay 9:35 Choose your hard, right. Anytime I'm asked to speak to a college, you know, high school audience, like, I do mental skills, but a lot of times the theme is “choose your hard,” because I think people are — young people are always in pursuit of the easy button, and then when they encounter hard, like, “Oh, there's got to be a better way.” The lesson is, it's all hard, right? It's all hard. So, determine what you want to do, or who you want to be more, and how you're going to get there, set the vision, and then navigate through the hard. And I would argue you need to equip yourself with the mental skills to do that, and in pursuit of that, there is going to be no right, there are going to be challenges, and part of it is accepting the challenges instead of being afraid of them, because it is through those challenges that we're actually going to accomplish great things, and we're going to get to reach our dreams and our goals. And I think that that is something I struggled with, but I found a way and a path through it. So, I think that there's always going to be no in your life, and I like to create opportunities, so then I have, I get the choice instead of just having to default to someone else telling me no, like even when I left the Academy, I applied for pilot training for grad school, for physical therapy school. Because I wanted to have opportunities, so then I got to choose which path I wanted in the future, which hard I was going to choose for myself in that moment.   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 11:03 I just — I'm thinking about you, went into the Air Force as a pilot, and you talk about choosing your hard, and you also are a mother. Let's talk about that piece. I think just navigating the and in being a mother and a leader and an Air Force officer and a combat veteran, a pilot, etc. I mean, that's a lot.   Col. Jannell MacAulay 11:23 It is a lot, but I think underneath it all, the person that I am is one who not balances my life but harmonizes it and all the roles that I get to play. I think that's the greatest thing about the Air Force. You list all those things that I've done. I was watching the cadets yesterday, I was one of them, with just a bright future and so much possibility. And under one organization, I got to fly multiple airplanes, I got to go back to school numerous times, study a lot of interesting topics, from my degree in exercise physiology, from Penn State to my Ph.D. in strategy. So I got to study all these different things. I got to work in chemical weapons, which I know we're going to talk about later. I got to fly around the world, I got to lead people all under one team, right, one organization, and that is the greatest thing I think the Air Force can give people if they take those opportunities that are in front of them. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 12:23 Yes. Well, let's, let's jump into a time — you actually brought up Syria. And so let's go there, because I think I would like to hear more about the story, and how it kind of unfolded around the chemical weapons there. Col. Jannell MacAulay 12:36 So, I got sent to — it's post… So I went to the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies — SAASS time, and my husband and I were actually the first married couple to go through SAASS together. And stayed married at the end. There was one other married concept that it were exactly that. There was one other married couple with us at the time, which is really unique, but I took — you know, through SAASS, you get a strategy focus, and you have to go do a strategy job somewhere for your staff to work. OK, and so my husband really wanted to go work at the Pentagon, so he was on the joint staff working on the Israel-Palestine desk for the chairman, and I was like, “What else can I do in DC to keep my family together, that would be interesting?” And there was this job at this little organization called the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and DTRA, as they're known, is the brain trust for everything weapons of mass destruction, so chemical, biological, nuclear weapons, planning, research, execution of mission, that is all run out of DTRA, and so I was like, “That sounds interesting, I've never done anything in any of this space, but it'll be an easy job,” is what I thought, because I was about to have my second baby, and every time I call them, no one ever answered, like, past 3 o'clock so I'm like, “Great job.” Exactly. Like, I got my staff tour done, and I get to do something new. But I was a fish out of water, you know, like former pilots, like going into this situation, the WMDs. They gave me that job also, because no one wanted it, it was almost asking people who are experienced in the world of chemical weapons to do an impossible task, right, to handle an impossible problem. And so, at the time, nobody really wanted to put their name to it, because there was a no-win. We don't have diplomatic relations with Syria, like this — a bad civil war was happening there with an evil dictator, right? Like, how were we going to solve that problem without any type of relations? And then, you know their proxy of Russia, right? So then it's like we don't even have — we didn't have the greatest relations with them. So when August of 2013 occurred, and Assad used chemical weapons against a civilian population, 1,400 people died almost instantaneously from sarin gas. Sarin gas is one of the most awful chemicals, immediately, right? It's like paralysis. It makes your eyes water, like you become — it's a horrific way to die. And when that happened, my life changed, because all of a sudden it was like, “Oh my gosh, this is real. And, “Who's been studying this problem?” And at the time, it was you and your team. And so we kind of got thrust — I got — I went to London almost immediately to start briefing our international partners on what we had been building and studying, and luckily we had been, for the better part of six months, working on this problem. And then shortly after that, I went to the Hague, because Syria did turn over their chemical weapons to the international community, and there's a whole story behind that. Obviously, we got the Russians to help with that. And then I got sent to the Hague to work at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons — the OPCW is who has all the inspectors and the teams who helped destroy and inspect the status of these chemical weapons — and so I got sent there to work with them and negotiate directly with the Syrians and the Russians to build the plan. And I remember my boss was like, “You have to go, and I don't know when you're coming back, we need someone over there to be running point on this mission,” and yeah, he sent me, and he said I didn't have to go writing my little kids, Andrew just turned 1, but he said, you know, “We need you, and this is what I picked you for, this mission, and this is what it's for.” So, yeah. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 16:31 Wow, what did you — what went through your mind when you were asked to go, and you had the opportunity to make that decision? What do you mind besides the fact that you have young children? Col. Jannell MacAulay 16:44 Well, of course, like, I think, like most mothers, you never are like, “I still want to leave my kids,” right? I want to go, but I knew it was the right thing to do, because I had the ability to make an impact and a difference, because I knew the mission inside and out. I was the right person at the right time, and I was ready. I distinctly remember I went home to talk to my children. Well, Ally, she was 6 at the time, and I remember talking to her, and I said, 'Mommy has to go away to handle this mission. And what I'm going to do while I'm away is there's some really bad stuff that some really bad people have, and I'm going to work to take that stuff away from them, so that they cannot hurt anyone anymore, and she looks up, and she's, you know, crying. We're both crying, and she said, “Mommy, like a superhero?” And, I just, like, kind of nodded, and she's like, “You can go, Mommy,” like, “You can go.” And it was in that moment that I realized, like, that's why we do these jobs. It was to protect her, to model to her that, like, I can be a mom, I can be a strong mom, and I can also go do things in the service of my country and the service of my nation and it was important for me to go, and then — so that was a driving force, like knowing that my family was going to be OK and supportive, but the other driving force was thinking about the mothers in Syria who lost their children, and thinking, here I was holding mine and they will never get to hold their children anymore. I mean, hundreds of children died and were put in mass graves after this, and mothers didn't get to say goodbye, mothers didn't get to hold their children, and they suffered immensely in those moments. And so I kept thinking about the Syrian mothers, and how if I could do anything to help prevent something like that from happening again, then I had to go, right, I had to do that for them. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 18:44 Would you say that that mission, or that part, that time in your career, was something that was so impactful in your life it changed you, or it maybe shifted your focus on things you were going to do later, or was it just at that time, this is where I need to be doing and making an impact? Col. Jannell MacAulay 19:01 There's a whole story behind it, where we were dismissed, and we came up with the innovative idea of how to solve this problem by destroying these chemical weapons on a boat, ship — sorry, Navy — on a ship in the middle of the Mediterranean. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 19:12 Was that because you were told it couldn't be done that way? Col. Jannell MacAulay 19:14 Yeah, exactly. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 19:15 Oh, interesting. Col. Jannell MacAulay 19:17 We had to actually start a whisper campaign within the Pentagon, and the State Department and the National Security Council to get our idea heard. And eventually, it was. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 19:28 So I'd like to take a little bit of time in that space of when you recognize that need to keep pushing for, right, the choosing your hard. How do you navigate that? What would you recommend to somebody who has been no, no, no, no, no, no, no. How do you work your way through that? Col. Jannell MacAulay 19:45 Well, I would first ask, where is the no coming from? Because if the no is coming from your inner critic, right, I know how to get rid of that and eliminate that, and that is actually what most people — like, that is what prevents most people from doing great things. I like to say that we all have these crucible moments in our life, a moment where we're asked to do something that we really don't think we could do, right? Like, we're kind of like, “Oh my God, deep down you're like, “Oh, I don't think I'm gonna do this. Can I do this?” And in that moment, we have the opportunity to either hesitate or commit. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 20:24 Was Syria your yes? Col. Jannell MacAulay 20:26 It was very much a crucible moment. You could either hesitate and say, “Oh no, I can't do this, it's too big for me,” like, “I can't take this responsibility,” or “I can't make this decision,” or “I can't believe in my idea,” because the voice in your head says so. But sometimes it could even be real people telling you and dismissing you and saying, like, “You can't do this.” So, “Where does the no come from?” is always the first question. And if it's an internal no, you can train your mind to eliminate that noise. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 20:54 Yes. OK, I like that, because then you — it opened up your eyes to the possibilities of who you might connect with that can then help navigate through some of that challenge. Col. Jannell MacAulay 21:03 And here's the reason why we, as humans, love this: What happens when you step into discomfort, right? You're at that moment, that crucible moment, and then you decide to commit, and you step into discomfort, and you navigate through it, and you get to the other side. How does that feel? Col. Naviere Walkewicz 21:18 Amazing. Col. Jannell MacAulay 21:18 Right? You throw your arms up in the air: “I'm a badass! Look at what I just did.” And even you're like, I didn't think I could do that, and I did it. That is what we live for as humans. I don't think people realize that, right? Like, we want those moments, but we don't want the discomfort that comes in getting them. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 21:35 We want to be at the other end, right?   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 21:37 We just want to be at the other end of that, because we love that moment where you throw — so you're not gonna throw your hands up if you're like, “Oh yeah, that was so easy.” Col. Naviere Walkewicz 21:43 That's a good point. Col. Jannell MacAulay 21:44 Right. You wouldn't be like, “I feel so good about it.” I'll come—   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 21:45 We wouldn't share with people if everybody could do it. Col. Jannell MacAulay 21:47 Right? Exactly, so we do love those moments as humans, and I think that is part of what — I teach people how to not be afraid of discomfort, to get more opportunity and more times, more reps of those throw your hands up in the air and be a badass. Right? Like, and that's really what I think it's about, is being ready for that moment, and the more often you're ready for that moment, the more often you step into discomfort, the more throw your hands up in the moments you get.. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 22:18 So, if humans are chasing that, and that feeling of, like, you know, commit, raise your hand, get through it, and you know, kind of bask in like that, that moment, because you loved it so much. There's probably a desire to seek more of those opportunities. How did you navigate your career after that? I know you served 20 years. Was there a point where you're like, “It's time for me to move into this space,” or did you just happen to really decide to commit to this new world of mental performance and toughness? Col. Jannell MacAulay 22:49 So, I, like, most military members, I went through a phase where I got really caught up in my identity as an Air Force officer, Air Force pilot, and it can be scary to leave that identity with the one you've always known, the one that you've been comfortable with, and even though I'm successful in — and even though I do enjoy challenge and discomfort, it was scary, right? It is scary, and I think that, well, first, part of my story was, I don't know that I was necessarily completely ready to leave, but the Air Force was making it really difficult for my family. My husband and I, he was a maintenance officer, pilot, you would think maintenance and pilot, very like cohesive, compatible. We would be able to be stationed together. We spent six years apart, and two of the last three that I was in the Air Force, we did not live together. OK, and that was hard. Our kids are getting older, and I distinctly remember I was in New Jersey, commanding a squadron. My husband was in New Mexico, commanding a group. Note to the Air Force: New Mexico and New Jersey are only close in the alphabet, right? These are not close locations, not at all. And full disclosure, I had the kids with me and an au pair, because I couldn't have done it otherwise. And I remember my husband flew home, you know? He thought he would get in at like 2 a.m. on Friday night and have sleep for 10 a.m. on Sunday morning, right? Get back. I remember we woke up our son, he was four at the time, and he looks up and he goes, “Mom, Dad, you're together,” and I was like, “No, this is not OK.” Like I don't want my children to just wake up or just be grateful when their parents are in the same room, like, that's not what I want for their childhood experience. And so I actually gave up my command six months early, and that was one of the hardest things I've ever done, because I loved being a commander, but I was at a point in my life where I realized my squadron will get another commander who cares so much about them, just like I do, but my kids only have like one mom, yeah, and they had one dad, and they needed us together. And so that was a hard decision, but it did set me like on a trajectory to think about retirement, to think about, you know, what I could do on the outside, and actually it was like divine intervention, I actually lost my pilot qualification. I have a rare eye disease, and so I've gone very blind to my central vision, like 80% blind to my right eye. So I was going to get my pilot qualification taken from me, and so I think that was God's way of saying, “It's time, this is not your path anymore. You have a different gift,” right? Flying was a great gift, leading in the Air Force was a great gift. “There's a different path for you.” And so that's when I retired, and then kind of realized there were so many people that wanted to hear this information. There were so many people that were struggling with this idea of “How do I perform? How do I manage stress? How do I get those badass, like, throw my hands up in air moments?” And I started by working with high-performing teams, the military, first responders, hospital workers, you know. Then COVID hit, and I realized everybody, everybody needs it, stress, like psychological disorders, like they're on the rise, anxiety, and if I knew how to help people, why would I keep that to myself, right? Like, it's just became something I'd be passionate about. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 26:29 Goodness, that's probably something that people don't know just by looking at you, that you actually have an eye disease that you battle through, and I'm curious on when you started into this work, like you said, COVID hit, and you realize everybody needed this. It almost is a bit of, maybe reinvention is not the right word, but you literally change your trajectory completely, even though you had all that schooling. So, my question is, how did you actually, how do you determine who you work with, because the land is so vast of who needs it, you know? I mean, how do you actually do that? Col. Jannell MacAulay 27:06 There's only one of me. It has been hard. My tribe is always the military, and even though I do spend a lot of time in the private sector working with, you know, companies from Amazon, NBC Universal, like, hotel chains, different industries — which I love — anytime a military commander reaches out and says, “We need help,” whether it's burnout, whether it's just not optimizing performance, whether it's stress-management, because if you look at the majority of DOCS today, people are burnout and stressed out, and—   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 27:47 Oh, the organizational climate service.   Col. Jannell MacAulay 27:49 Yes, yes, the climate service. And so most of the time, how do you, how do you manage that as a commander? Because, and here's the thing about stress and burnout: Stress is a perceived emotion. People don't think about it, but the actual what stress is, is your perception as to whether you have the mental resources to meet the demands of a given moment. So, your brain, when you're faced with a stressor, something comes at you, and it's a stimulant, right? And your environment, whether it was like a contentious conversation, traffic, it was like a big decision, like flying a plane in combat, right, whatever that is coming at you, your brain does a like split-second calculation as to whether you have the mental resources to meet the demands of that moment, and if your brain says, “Oh hell no,” it becomes overwhelming, it becomes stress, it be it sends you into this like spiral of like anxiety, which is like — what anxiety actually is, it's your mind's creation of what you think is going to happen in the future. It actually hasn't happened to you. Anxiety is a complete creation of the mind, right? It is. Our minds are fantastic at mental time travel. They will take us in catastrophizing about the future. I like to tell people, the majority of the catastrophes you will experience in your lifetime, they will only happen inside your head, right? They will feel very real, because our minds are fantastic at this time travel. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 29:11 Then it turns physical. Col. Jannell MacAulay 29:12 Yes, then it becomes like part of our physiology. So that's what this is, what leads to chronic stress. It leads to preventive illness that sets in, because we live our lives in this chronic state of stress, and stress again is a perception. So you could also be stimulated by that stressor, and instead of getting overwhelmed, you could say, “Bring it on.” Like, this is a challenge and I've got the resources to meet this moment. It's a choice. Again, I get people, “It's not as simple as that.” It is as simple as that, but it's hard in practice, and most of that is because we have spent 20, 30, 40 years training and wiring our brains for one direction, which is to strat for stress and survival, right. And so when I do ask people to flip it, you can't just flip it over, but these are not soft skills. This is why what I teach is very hard, because you're rewiring your brain. The good news is it's called neuroplasticity. We can rewire our brains, but it does take work and deliberate commitment, and that's why, you know, I see this all the time with spouses. They're like, “I don't see what is the big deal. My wife is freaking out,” or vice versa, like in a cockpit. Like, I'm calm, and I'm like, “Why is my co-pilot freaking out?” It's that perception, and how our brain deals stressors. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 30:27 So, we have a lot of listeners that are leading people. How do you navigate their ability to help others through that, or is it really more dependent on the individual themselves? Like, do you need the individual to do with the work with you, or can you work with the leader and help them navigate that with their folks? Col. Jannell MacAulay 30:46 You can absolutely work with the leader, and as a leader, you can role model the behaviors. So, there's some real science behind this. For example, how often is a leader creating a storm instead of being the calm in the storm, right?   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 31:02 More often than people realize.   Col. Jannell MacAulay 31:03 Right, it really is, and it's almost one of those things where later can be the calm in the storm, right? But when they're not, they embody the stress that then pervades through the organization, right? Like they create that culture, and so if you have a boss that comes in every day stressed out, you have a boss that's not sleeping. I absolutely, this is what drives you crazy about leaders in the Air Force, who will say things like, “I only sleep three, four hours a night,” and like, you are bragging your suboptimal, right, from someone who studies performance and psychology, and like, you are literally telling people, “I am not ready to make decisions on your behalf or be your leader today.” Col. Naviere Walkewicz 31:42 I like how you said that: “You are bragging your suboptimal.” That is right, there, those words, that's fantastic. Col. Jannell MacAuley 31:48 Right, but we — it's part of our culture, right, to even kind of be like proud of it. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 31:51 How much did I actually, you know, keep myself up to get more done? Col. Jannell MacAulay 31:55 Yes, yes. And so here's another example. I'll tell a quick story. I was a commander, sat down Monday morning meeting with my peers, and one guy says, “Oh, I worked all day Sunday on performance reports, like, I have a sick kid at home, so I only got like two hours of sleep, like barely had time to grab coffee, you know, but I'm here to be a badass.” And then the next guy goes, “Well, let me tell you something. I worked Saturday and Sunday on all my performance reports, and, oh, by the way, two sick kids at home, so I didn't sleep last night.” Wow, you know, “I didn't have time to grab coffee, but like, I'm here to be a badass.” And then they turned to me, like, expecting me to one up them on my stress. It's a culture of competitive stress that we live in. And instead, I said, “Well, my husband doesn't live with me. I had to get all my work done last week, so I can spend the weekend with my kids,” but mind you, I had the OSS, the flying squadron, so I had triple the size squadron, “but I got all my work done last week because I was more focused in my work. Then I hung out with my kids, everyone slept great, like no one's sick, we're all good. I've got my yummy green smoothie to start the day,” and instead of anyone at that table saying, “Oh my gosh, how do you do that?” The sentiment was, “Well, she's obviously not working hard now.” That's our culture, like our culture is one of, if you're not stressed, if you're not showing how busy you are, you're not valued, and actually that is not the path to performance. The path to performance is quality over quantity, it's sleeping, it's demonstrating to stay calm, it's making good decisions, it's, you know, so we as leaders can either set that tone that we're in this competitive stress, which then makes our captains not want to be us, like that's a huge problem, right? But if you're the type of leader who stays calm, if you're the type of leader that they see, “Oh, they go home every night on time, they do spend — they do leave early sometimes to go to their kids' soccer game.” That could, should be OK, but it never — I never didn't perform my job right, I was still working hard and doing the things I needed to do every day, I just was more efficient. Here's the stat: We mind-wander half our waking moments. Do you know what that means? Like, we've all read a page in the book, back to the bottom. Yep, don't know what I read. Drove in your car someplace, don't know how I got there. Yep,   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 34:06 Yep, autopilot   Col. Jannell MacAulay 34:06 That's when you have an off-task thought, your brain, your attention system goes off task during an ongoing task or activity. I'm telling my brain to pay attention to driving or reading, it goes elsewhere. It's unintentional, and when our brain does that. t mind-wanders towards stressors, worries, catastrophes, Col. Naviere Walkewicz 39:41 To-do lists.   Col. Jannell MacAulay 34:22 To-do lists, exactly. All of those horrible things that then make you more angry and distraught and unhappy, right? So, what if we could get control of that, stop spending so much time in that distraction and be more focused? Well, you do that by not having your phone all the time, you do that by looking at people and actually listening, because this is where leadership comes in. If we're having a conversation and I'm telling you something important, you're my, you're my commander, and I look at you and I'm like, “She's looking at me but not listening.” You can feel that as you can see. And so leaders can be mindful and focused and pay attention. It doesn't take that much, but it takes awareness. That's really what we're training when we train our minds. We are training our awareness. I'm not saying that I am perfect at being focused, I am not perfect at staying calm. The difference is, is when I start to get out of control, I recognize it quickly, and I redirect. When I notice myself not paying attention to our conversation, I redirect very quickly. That's the skill, and that's what we're not teaching enough leaders, I don't think. We're getting there, because I think leaders can set the talent, leaders can set the example, and when I was a commander, I collected data, and we found that, you know, 60, over 60% of the leaders I was interacting with on a daily basis changing their life based on the things I was teaching them, based on the way I was modeling behaviors, and then a greater squadron, it was like 35% and that's — I didn't even teach them anything, I just demonstrated an example. So imagine once you start teaching people how much more those stats will grow and how people's lives will change. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 36:04 Right. well, one of my favorite stories, I think, that you know, and I'm thinking about our leaders that are listening in here as they, as they think about how they can be better leaders. One of the stories you shared previously was actually recognizing someone by calling someone important in their life to share their good news, and it took like two minutes. I think what a wonderful lesson, like being a great leader and championing someone does not have to take a long time, but the impact lasts — could be forever. Do you mind sharing that story? Because I just think that's such a wonderful one. Col. Jannell MacAulay 36:35 I love that story. So, I had an airman who got below-the-zone senior airman, and I used to do a thing where, you know, whether it was a coin or whether it was an award or whether it was just a job all done, and we wanted to celebrate someone in the squadron, you know, you could send someone an email. I hate email, which I did — also as a commander, No- Email Friday. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 36:56 Really?!   Col. Jannell MacAulay 36:56 Did not check my emails on Fridays because I wanted one day where I wasn't chained to my desk, like I was like, in fact, you know how my wing commander found out I was doing No-email Friday? Col. Naviere Walkewicz 37:06 Because they emailed and you didn't email back? Col. Jannell MacAulay 37:08 He got my out-of-office response. Welcome to No-email Friday. “I'm not checking my email today. If you really need to get a hold of me, call me. There's my phone number.”   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 37:15 I love that.   Col. Jannell MacAulay 37:16 So I did that to ensure that I could spend more time with, like, how do you lead people if you don't know them?   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 37:23 Right, you can't.   Col. Jannell MacAulay 37:24 And if you're sitting behind your desk or you're checking emails, like, you can't know people. So I would spend Friday down and about, and we used to do this thing where I would call someone special first for someone, if maybe they had a big event or whatever we were celebrating. So one day, this gentleman got below the zone, and I asked him to pull out his phone, because I used to call people, and people don't answer strange numbers anymore. So that stopped working. I was like, “You pick — pull out your phone, let's call someone special that you pick, and because everyone's gonna answer their kids, right? And I actually talked to, like, spouses, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, like brothers, sisters of people, yeah, over the course of my commands, and I asked him to pull out his phone, called his dad. I got to brag on him a little bit, saying, like, “Hey, this is what your son is doing,” and most of the time kids don't even tell their parents what they're doing in the Air Force, so it was an opportunity for that. At the end of the conversation, I remember it just like it was yesterday. The dad said, “I'm so proud of you, I love you, son.” And I looked up, and my airman just had tears streaming down his face, and I was getting choked up, and my airman said, my dad has never said that to me before. So we're busy as leaders, like we are, go, go, go, we are in a competitive stress environment, whether we want to be or not, and I'm just asking leaders to pause, right, and it doesn't have to take a lot of time, right, just pause. Those types of interactions you have with an airman, the next time you need them to work late, the next time you need them to take the hill, the next time you need them to go deploy, or whatever it is, you've built a level of trust that only happens when you're paying attention, and that's what the future fight is about. The future fight is about connecting as human beings and focusing when we're doing those hard and challenging things, and the way we do both of those is by training our attention system. You know, we have to pay attention to each other, and we have to pay attention to our job, so that we can be high performing when it's hard.   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 39:25 This has been excellent. I didn't — wow. Got me… Tears. Eyes are sweating here in the studio. No, this is wonderful. I'm curious, with all the work that you do in helping others, what is something you're doing every day to stay sharp yourself in this space to be better as a leader, what's something you do?   Col. Jannell MacAulay 39:46 I am really big on continuously challenging myself, like I always want to have a goal or something hard in my future, like I think that that, especially as we get older, I think it's really important. And so, on a personal front, I just signed up to run 50 miles.   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 40:04 Oh my goodness.   Col. Jannell MacAulay 40:04 I got five friends to do it with me, so I'm like excited. Yeah, it's not all in one day, it's like you run a 5k, 10k, half-marathon, marathon over the course of four days. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 40:14 And so the longest race at the end. Wow. Col. Jannell MacAulay 40:16 At the end. Yes, that's why it's a big challenge. And so that's my next one. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 40:22 When is that?   Col. Jannell MacAulay 40:23 That is in January. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 40:24 Oh my goodness, so yeah.   Col. Jannell MacAulay 40:25 Just about. And again, for someone who was told you will never be a runner, I think that's also why I want to do it, you know, just to prove to myself that I can, so that's kind of a personal challenge, but on the leadership front, you know, I challenge myself every day. Writing a book was scary, right? You know, when I go and work with each team, whether it's someone in the, you know, like a company or whether it's a military unit, I try to take my time to like customize exactly what they need. It's not just going to be like cookie cutter for everyone, and so that's like my continuous challenge is, can I go into an environment and lead and instruct and educate and train in a way that's meaningful to that group, and that's, you know, what I would, I do for my job, but most importantly, I love this sentiment that you can be everything to someone or you can be someone to everyone. Sometimes in my job I get on a stage, I talk to thousands of people, and I'm someone to a lot of people, right? I can give them a little piece of what I teach, but I also have two young people in my life, my children, that my role to be everything to them is also very important, and so I try to harmonize that the best I can, because it's easy. They get caught up in, like, I'm just gonna go out there and keep sharing this message and forget that there's people closest to me. You know, leadership is about influence, right? Your 3-foot circle, which one of my classmates at the academy, Ronnie Buller, taught me, right? Your 3-foot circle is who you interact with, whether it's your family, your team, your neighbors, your community, and so you have the ability to continuously lead, and that's I want to continuously lead by example and teach people that we need to train their minds. It's not a whoo whoo thing, it's a hard thing that requires deliberate and consistent practice, and it will pay dividends if you give it the focus and time it deserves. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 42:28 I appreciate that you use the word that you like to harmonize things in your life versus balance. I think that's a very distinct difference. It's really impressive. If you could go back in time and talk to Janelle, young Janelle, or maybe it's even just talking to your daughter once you're young girl. What advice would you give her in the space of leadership? Col. Jannell MacAulay 42:48 Well, I would say to choose your hard, and I wish somebody would have imparted that a little bit more on me. I had that sentiment, and I had a lot of grit, and I had a lot of determination, and that's why I did accomplish a lot when I was younger, but it was more difficult than it needed to be. I'm not here to say, like, it makes it easy, it can be easier when correspondingly, like, you're, you're, you have great, you have determination, you're repetitively challenging yourself, that builds mental strength. But if I had known that I could also train my mind in a deliberate way, in parallel, just to make it a little bit easier, and to also find the joy in the journey. There's a picture of me when I got back from a KC-10 deployment, and I'm holding my daughter. She was 15 months, so it was like the first time I had deployed when she was young, and that was a hard deployment. And I remember, like, I look at that picture, and I can see in my face and in my eyes, that I was always already worried about the next thing. Like, instead of being joyful that I was holding my daughter, I was like, in this great moment—   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 44:04 That's what I was expecting you to actually explain, that's crazy. Col. Jannell MacAulay 44:07 I wasn't there, like, my mind was already like, “OK, gotta go again,” like, “When's the next thing?” like, “When is was my next three-week trip that I have to leave her, when is the next thing that I'm gonna miss in her life?” And, you know, we spend a lot of time living our lives, stressful moments, a stressful moment to stressful moment, and I wish that I could have learned earlier to embrace the moments in between, to see them, right? I mind-wandered through many of them, I was just worried, I was catastrophizing. I mean, how many of us spend time in the military? As soon as you get to your first, your next assignment, you're already worried about what your next one is, right? You're like, OK, what do I need to do? Like, like, yes. And you're for me as a joint-spouse couple, there was no protections for us back then. Like, I love that they're finally gone, and I better know, yes, right? I'm so grateful for that, because we did not have those protections. It was like, here's where he's going, here's where you're going, and unless you had a commander or a leader that cared enough to make a phone call, you're going separate ways. And so I wish that somebody would have told me then to stop worrying so much about the next thing and just live more in the moment, I would have saved myself a lot of extra stress, a lot of extra angst, and I would have had more joy. And so that's really what I want for this generation, and that's why I work so hard, and I'm so passionate about this, is because if I could do it again, that's what I would want to remember.   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 45:31 So, with so many listening and watching, this is your opportunity to be, you know, something for many. What is the thing that they might do? A small thing they could do, just in their lives, to be a little bit better in their mental space and their mental capacity or performance.   Col. Jannell MacAulay 45:48 Gosh, I have, like, an 8-hour course.   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 45:51 I know. That's why I was like, “Here's a nugget everybody, pay attention.”   Col. Jannell MacAulay 45:56 OK, I'm going to give you — can I give you three? Which ones to pick? The first one is to start practicing mindfulness, to start doing mental pushups. You cannot layer in productive thinking, you cannot pivot your mind unless you eliminate the noise. Like, that's the first thing you have to do. You have to be able to see the thoughts inside your head and make a conscious choice not to follow them. Because a lot of them are not providing value to you, right? And the skill set that does that is mental pushups, is mindfulness, and it's this idea of the definition of mindfulness is being in the present moment without any emotional reactivity or judgment. Like, just be here now without judgment, that's what it means. And it's a deliberate practice of continuously being here now without judgment, so that when you are in a moment with lots of judgment, you can filter right, and especially that's where greatness comes from. It's not because of a great moment, it's because of what you do in the moments you're given. Second thing is, for leaders, stop asking people, “How are you doing?” I want them to rephrase that question and ask, “What's going well for you today?” And the reason we do that is for those two reasons: The first one is when you ask someone how they're doing, you're gonna get — most people are just gonna give you like, “Busy,” right? “Good,” “Fine,” “Liiving the dream,” whatever, right? But did I, as a leader, get any information from you when you say any of those in response? No. And then what we do as leaders? We get, “How are you doing?” “How are you doing?” “How are you doing?” And then we—   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 47:36 Check the box, check the box, check the box.   Col. Jannell MacAulay 47:37 Yes. And if you happen to have someone who's like, "Oh my gosh, let me tell you,” you're almost like, “Oh my God, good for you.” I didn't mean for you guys to tell me, because that's our cluster again, right? So I want leaders to start asking people what's going well for you, and that does two things. Now I'm going to get information from you based on your answer, and that information is also going to start training your mind and your psychological framework toward optimism and hope, because do you know the biggest problem for leaders today? I think is missing the hopeless people. We think that there's this binary of optimism and pessimism, and so the optimistic people, we can find them easy, and the pessimistic people, we can find them easy too, right? They're usually, I'm usually focused on the pessimism, because they're noisy and they're loud and they're annoying and they're bothering us and they're bothering the whole unit, right? And sometimes we're like, “Oh my gosh, Bob is so negative and angry,” like, “We should worry about Bob.” But the thing is, is that actually Bob's not your worry, because people who are pessimistic understand they're on a sliding scale. A pessimist thinks that there's a genuine belief that things could get worse, but if you believe things can get worse, you know they can also get better, right? Which is what optimism is. I genuinely believe things will get better. So, a pessimist — it's not binary. I want people at leaders to open up the aperture. There's optimism, pessimism, and then there's hopelessness and hope. That's the second thing. And then the last thing is leaders suffer from what I call compassion fatigue. OK, it's a very real thing. How many of us spend all day at work — it's kind of a combination of decision fatigue and compassion fat. You spend all day at work making decisions for other people, you make, you spend all day at work taking other people's problems, and if you're an empathetic person, like you take it on, right? You're like, “Oh my god, feel so bad, like airmen that are struggling with all these things.” Then you go home and someone at home says, “What's for dinner,” and you flip out about what's for dinner, right? And it's like, oh my gosh, where did that come from? Like, I didn't mean to snap, or someone in your — it's very important to you, and your whole life comes to you and needs you, needs your attention, and you're like, I have no more attention to give you, I have no more compassion to offer, because I am done, like I am burnt, so it's a very real thing, and it's not an excuse, I might have given people a label for what's happening, like it's this thing—   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 49:57 I have compassion fatigue. Col. Jannell MacAulay 49:59 Which is very true, and it's a very real thing, and I'm not giving you an excuse, I'm telling you, you need to fix it, and here's how you need to every time, like the whole time you're at work during the day, you need to shed all the mental distress that happens. You need to shed the empathy, right? Your empathetic, the empathy that you use when you're in an interaction with someone builds like extra stress into your. It's actually in your like body, yes? Right? Like, exactly. you take on those physical, and it becomes a physical manifestation. You need to shed that. So, what I have is called a waterfall technique.   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 50:36 Waterfall?   Col. Jannell MacAulay 50:38 So when you're, yeah, yep, so when you're engaging with people, remember we don't want to be distracted and not paying attention. So, put your phone away once you invite someone in your office. I don't have it. It distracts you by 20% if you have it on your body or in your view, right? Just have it put away. So now you're more attentive. Then I'm going to listen to you when you tell me whatever's going on in your life, and I'm going to envision we're at the top of the waterfall. Visualization is very powerful for our minds, so we're going to visualize that waterfall, and I'm talking to you, we're having a conversation, I'm fully present. You might have some stuff going on in your life, like I might have to take a note, I might be OK, follow up, I might give you some mentorship, but when we're done, your problems go down the waterfall, right? Like, we want to feel, “Oh, I'm  their commander.” No, it's still not your problem, right? The problem goes down the waterfall, so then the next person can come in. Now you're at the top of the waterfall again. I'm fully present with my next person that's coming in. I'm paying attention, I'm not thinking about the other conversation. Then when we're done, your problems get to go down the waterfall. It will protect your energy, it will protect your compassion, and so that when you go home, it'll just offer, you know. And then the other technique is before you walk in the door, do a mindful, mindful minute. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 51:48 Mindful minute right there. Col. Jannell MacAulay 51:49 Right. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 51:49 Well, I'm glad you shared three, because I think you know, I think that's what it's about when you're on your leadership journey, and I think leadership is a lifelong journey, and I think anything we can do better, not only to help others but to help ourselves as well, is really important. So, thank you for sharing that. Well, I want, before we close, I want to go into this moment, because you said yourself is a little bit vulnerable, you've written a book. Let's talk about Breathless, and this journey you've now undertaken. Col. Jannell MacAulay 52:17 So, Breathless is the story of mothers, and it's my story. And one of the women that worked on my Syria team with me, she was an Army officer, and we were both mothers of very young children at the time, and we also have two mothers in Syria that are sharing their stories with us, and they lost their children in a chemical attack. And so it's a story of mothers persevering through unimaginable odds, us working breathlessly to solve this problem, and basically having kind of this weight of the world on us to come up with a solution that would work and solve the problem, and then these mothers living in this horrible genocide, right, in this horrible time of a civil war, and under a ruthless dictator, and so they, the only reason why we're able to share their stories is because Assad, right, the liberation happened. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 53:16 I was like, I was going to say they're actually featured in your book. Gotcha. Col. Jannell MacAulay 53:20 Yes, and we originally started writing this book without their stories, and then once Assad fell, like we reached out and we got two mothers to share their story, and one of the mothers, her children were just slightly older than my children, and she lost both of them. The other mother lost her daughter, and her daughter was in prison during the Arab Spring. Her son traded out with her daughter because she was afraid of the conditions and what was going to happen to her daughter in prison. So the brother traded out with his sister, and the mother didn't find out until — her name is Amsaeed — she did not find out that her son Saeed had died, executed with 25 other prisoners before Assad left the country, so she didn't find that out till after liberation, so she lost a son, she lost a daughter, this other mother had two children taken from her, and so the story is about both of our struggles. Sarin literally takes her breath away, and we were working breathlessly, you know, to help them, and just the story of what it means to be a mother, like what a mother's love, what a mother's heart will do. And I just talked to Amsaeed last week, we coordinated a Zoom together, and I got to hear her story firsthand. She got to meet me and understand my story, and it was very evident to me that she said something that was very pertinent. She , “The world has a short memory, and people have probably already forgotten about Syria,” right? Like, oh yeah, something with chemical weapons, bad dictator, like it's another part of the world. And so part of writing this book also is to keep her story alive, to not let the awful things that happened to these women, I mean, to the whole community of Syrians, right, civilians, but especially the mothers who had to not even get to bury their children, and to help their stories surviv

The United States Department of Nerds Podcast
C.E. Massari - The Mafia vs. The Klan, Family History & Historical Noir

The United States Department of Nerds Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 9, 2026 117:22 Transcription Available


Writer and creator C.E. Massari joins The Chairman on the USDN Podcast to discuss his upcoming 120-page original graphic novel, The Mafia vs. The Klan, coming from Source Point Press.Described as John Wick meets The Godfather, The Mafia vs. The Klan is a historical revenge noir inspired by real family history, Prohibition-era violence, and the question of what happens when justice fails.In this conversation, we talk about the real story behind the book, the legacy of Augustina Massari, turning family tragedy into fiction, writing about the Klan without glorifying hate, the moral complexity of revenge, the Mafia as a storytelling force, and why comics were the right medium for this project.We also discuss Source Point Press' relaunch, the upcoming Kickstarter pre-sale campaign, the black-and-white noir visual style, working with artist Martin Gimenez, and the realities of indie comics, crowdfunding, professionalism, and creator relationships.Guest Links: C.E. Massari Substack: https://cemassari.substack.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/c.e.massari/ Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cemassari/the-mafia-vs-the-klan?ref=profile_created&category_id=252Watch / Subscribe to USDN: https://www.youtube.com/@USDN_PodcastBusiness / Media Inquiries: thechairman@usdnpodcast.comBCW Supplies Affiliate Linkhttps://www.bcwsupplies.com/?acc=usdnUse code USDN at checkout.Affiliate Disclosure: USDN may earn a small commission if you use our affiliate link or code. This helps support the show at no extra cost to you.The USDN Podcast - Where Indie Comics Come to Life.

Whiskey Lore

When it comes to the stories of whiskey brands, the tale is often told of passionate distillers, willing markets, and a quick and easy rise built off of a quality product and reputation. But foundation stories are rarely that simple. In the case of Four Roses, an American brand with some mythic qualities, a deeper investigation shows a brand that wasn't entirely embraced by the family that originated it. At times it was the odd man out. But eventually it became one of the most popular whiskies in America. Join me as we travel through the years after the founders passed, to see how the next generation handled the family's legacy. Along the way, we'll hear of struggles with overproduction, a fist thrown when the company's integrity was challenged, the creative ways the brand survived Prohibition, and the company executive that may have set the table for the way whiskey was made for the next 80 years. Enjoy this second episode in a series of three on the history of Four Roses.

Anarchist Essays
Essay #123: Michael Grooff, ‘Sympathy as the Engine of Mutual Aid'

Anarchist Essays

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 8, 2026 14:57


In this essay, Michael Grooff argues for a bipartite reading of Kropotkin's account of sympathy, the mechanism behind the evolutionary mutual aid principle. Incorporating both simulation as well as perception in our analysis solves the problem of animal sympathy and provides a better account of sympathy as the basis of anarchist morality. Michael Grooff is a PhD researcher in fundamental and practical philosophy at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. Grooff's most recent publications are Sympathy as the Engine of Mutual Aid: Reading Kropotkin's Bipartite Account of Sympathy and Freedom of Recreation: A Critique of the Prohibition, Decriminalization, and Legal Regulation of Psychedelics for Recreational Use. Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Bluesky @anarchismresgroup.bsky.social Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Artwork by Sam G.  

Movie Mastery
Movie Mastery - Bloodrunners (2017)

Movie Mastery

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 5, 2026 93:06


Prohibition era vampires running bootleg blood using a speakeasy as a cover is a great idea but unfortunately this movie was made for None Dollars that all went into hiring Ice-T Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bookreporter Talks To
Ruta Sepetys: A Fortune of Sand

Bookreporter Talks To

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 5, 2026 44:12


Ruta Sepetys talks about her ninth book and first adult novel, A FORTUNE OF SAND, with Carol Fitzgerald. Set in 1920s Detroit during the Prohibition era, the story is centered on the wealthy Lennox automotive dynasty behaving badly and accumulating power. The youngest daughter, Marjorie, uncovers a web of family secrets. The book is rooted in deep historical research, and explores themes of power, impermanence, control, and the fragility of constructed legacies in Detroit during this time period. Ruta discusses the control exerted over women during the era, often framed as "safeguarding" but functioning as suppression of creative and personal autonomy. She and Carol have a longstanding professional relationship dating back to her debut YA novel, BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY. Ruta notes that the cover design — Honolulu Blue and silver — is a nod to Detroit. She also shares that the "Dear Coco" interstitial letters throughout were part of the original manuscript and come together meaningfully at the end. Our Latest "Bookreporter Talks To" Interviews: Kathryn Stockett: https://youtu.be/-mNe-Y9CctQ Susan Patterson: https://youtu.be/jvZjwDq_dUw Jane Harper: https://youtu.be/PTqqPXbbX8A Devi S. Laskar: https://youtu.be/FR-6fGxBUS4 Allison Pataki: https://youtu.be/5I4q_OFCiTg Patricia Finn: https://youtu.be/QhZagqICgU4 Sadeqa Johnson: https://youtu.be/ED0LOkAarVE Wendy Walker: https://youtu.be/y-2G5AC9heU Ashley Elston: https://youtu.be/Yb_ig0leaQA Our Latest "Bookaccino Live" Book Group Events: Wally Lamb: https://youtu.be/-eMtMznKoVE Laura Dave: https://youtu.be/RRWrSjdxyrc Lisa Ridzén: https://youtu.be/dleYdLoh0bY Patrick Ryan: https://youtu.be/keazeWK1lto Lily King: https://youtu.be/_yo2x2ZA0B0 Allen Levi: https://youtu.be/tELDtaqsD7g Sign up for newsletters from Bookreporter and Reading Group Guides here: https://tbrnetwork.com/newsletters/ FOLLOW US on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bookreporter Website: https://www.bookreporter.com Art Credit: Tom Fitzgerald Edited by Jordan Redd Productions

WTFinance
The Powerful Elites Driving Hyperinflation, Gold Sounding the Alarm | Dr Mark Thornton

WTFinance

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 5, 2026 49:23


Interview recorded - 3rd of June, 2026On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming on Dr Mark Thornton. Dr Mark Thornton is a Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute and a leading voice of the Austrian School of economics, author of The Skyscraper Curse. He is one of the few economists to have warned about the housing bubble well before 2008.During our conversation we spoke about his current view on the economy, Austrian Economic Theory, the FED's betrayal, what would fix the current situation, which assets to perform and more. I hope you enjoy!0:00 - Introduction2:06 - Current view of economy6:22 - Austrian Economic Theory11:50 - Wages going up?16:11 - Recent inflation23:00 - Kevin Warsh balance sheet28:36 - Solution35:30 - Which assets to perform?42:40 - One message to takeawayMark Thornton is a Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute, and was the Peterson-Luddy Chair in Austrian Economics from 2021-2023. He hosts two podcasts, Minor Issues and Unanimity, and serves as the Book Review Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. His publications include The Economics of Prohibition (1991), Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War (2004), The Quotable Mises (2005), The Bastiat Collection (2007), An Essay on Economic Theory (2010), The Bastiat Reader (2014), and The Skyscraper Curse and How Austrian Economists Predicted Every Major Crisis of the Last Century (2018). [high-res photo]Dr. Thornton served as the editor of the Austrian Economics Newsletter and was a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Libertarian Studies and several other academic journals. He has served as a member of the graduate faculties of Auburn University and Columbus State University. He has also taught economics at Auburn University at Montgomery and Trinity University in Texas. Mark served as Assistant Superintendent of Banking and economic adviser to Governor Fob James of Alabama (1997-1999), and he was awarded the University Research Award at Columbus State University in 2002. He is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and received his PhD in economics from Auburn University. In 2014, he debated in opposition to the “War on Drugs” at Oxford Union.Dr. Thornton has been featured in American Spectator, Barron's, Bloomberg, Christian Science Monitor, The Economist, Forbes, Investors' Business Daily, Le Monde, New York Post, New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Economic Times (India), Financial Times (Norway), and Tejarat-e-Farda (Iran). He has also had regular multiple appearances on Russia Today and Press TVHis editorials and interviews have appeared in the following leading regional newspapers: Apple Daily (Hong Kong), Atlanta Constitution, Birmingham News, Business Alabama, Chicago Sun-Times, Houston Chronicle, Mobile Press Register, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, Montgomery Advertiser, New York Post, Orange County Register, Richmond Times Dispatch, Tampa Tribune, and the Washington TimesHis commentary appears regularly in the Mises Daily and the Mises Wire. He also appears regularly on Boom-Bust, RT, Butler on Business, Tom Woods Show, Thom Hartmann Show, Scott Horton Show, Press TV and Freedom Works.Dr Mark Thornton - Misses Institute - https://mises.org/X - https://x.com/DrMarkThorntonWTFinance -Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfniTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

The Scotchy Bourbon Boys
Homemade Old Fashioned Versus Bottled And Barrel-Aged with Our Scotchy Bourbon Boy Mixoligist CT!

The Scotchy Bourbon Boys

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 5, 2026 97:50 Transcription Available


Send us Fan MailWe put the Old Fashioned to the test by tasting bottled RTDs, pre-batched bar styles, and homemade builds to see where convenience truly holds up. We dig into history, ingredients, proof, and technique, then land on what we'd actually buy again and what we'd rather fix with our own bitters and syrup. • why the Old Fashioned stays the gold standard cocktail • whether higher proof RTDs taste closer to a true Old Fashioned • bitters that change everything, especially black walnut bitters • sweeteners that work best, from agave to barrel-aged maple syrup • the Yellowstone ready-to-serve pour and how citrus zest shifts balance • Penelope bottled Old Fashioneds and why the black walnut stands out • Prohibition's influence on muddled fruit and soda habits • the Wisconsin Old Fashioned style and the brandy versus bourbon debate • why barrel-aged Old Fashioneds feel more integrated and smooth • glassware and ice choices that improve texture and dilution • how sugar makes Old Fashioneds hit harder than neat whiskey • the bacon fat washed Old Fashioned build and why it works • our final ranking, including why Handy and Schiller holds up best www.scotchybourbonboys.com for all things scotchy bourbon boys. Check it out, Glenn Karen's t-shirts, and contact us. Also, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X along with Apple, iHeart, Spotify. Whether you listen to us or watch us, make sure you leave good feedback, become members, do super chats on the podcast, and you know, everything to support us, every single cent that we get goes right back into this. The Old Fashioned looks simple until you start comparing what's in the glass. We line up homemade builds, bottled ready-to-drink Old Fashioneds, and bar-style barrel-aged batches to answer a real question for bourbon fans: is the classic Old Fashioned still king, or have RTD cocktails finally gotten good enough to keep stocked year-round?  CT joins us as our resident mixologist and we get hands-on with what actually changes the drink: proof, dilution, bitters, sweeteners, citrus, cherries, ice, and even the weight of the rocks glass. We taste through popular options and talk straight about what works and what tastes like “every bad bar Old Fashioned,” including how to rescue an orange-heavy pour with lemon zest, or rebalance sweetness by cutting syrup and leaning into rye whiskey or higher proof bourbon.  We also dig into Old Fashioned history, from the 1806 cocktail definition to Prohibition-era muddled fruit, plus the Wisconsin Old Fashioned tradition with soda. Then we go full experiment mode with barrel-aged flavor, smoking tools, and a showstopper: a bacon fat washed Old Fashioned built with black walnut bitters, a touch of chocolate bitters, and barrel-aged maple syrup.  If you love bourbon cocktails, bitters, and practical home bartending tips, you'll want this one. Subscribe, share the episode with a whiskey friend, leave a review, and tell us your go-to Old Fashioned build: classic, Wisconsin-style, or something weird that somehow works?voice over Whiskey Thief If You Have Gohsts Support the showhttps://www.scotchybourbonboys.comThe Scotchy bourbon Boys are #3 in Feedspots Top 60 whiskey podcasts in the world    https://podcast.feedspot.com/whiskey_podcasts/

The Grave Talks | Haunted, Paranormal & Supernatural
The Bloody Legacy of the Ma Barker House, Part Two | Grave Talks CLASSIC

The Grave Talks | Haunted, Paranormal & Supernatural

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 3, 2026 20:09


This is a Grave Talks CLASSIC EPISODE! PART TWOThe Ma Barker House stands as one of America's darkest historic landmarks. Born out of the blood and chaos of the Depression and Prohibition era, the home is tied forever to the infamous Barker family—criminals who left a trail of fear, violence, and trauma across the country.The Barkers weren't petty thieves. They were a notorious gang responsible for bank robberies, kidnappings, and brutal crimes that shook law enforcement to its core. Their reign of terror spread across state lines, creating a criminal empire that refused to be stopped—until the FBI closed in.What happened next was nothing short of carnage. The Barker gang's final stand inside the quiet lakeside home in Florida turned into the largest FBI shootout in American history, a bloody standoff that remains unrivaled to this day. Bullets tore through the house, ending lives and cementing the Ma Barker home as both a crime scene and a legend.But the story doesn't end with the gunfire. Many believe the spirits of the Barkers never left. Visitors and paranormal investigators alike report strange activity—unexplained voices, ghostly apparitions, and the feeling that the infamous family still resides inside their old home.So what exactly happened within those walls? What is the true story of the Ma Barker House, and why do so many believe it remains haunted today?In this chilling conversation, we speak with Kristy Summer of SoulSistersParanormal.com to uncover the dark history, the shootout that shocked the nation, and the paranormal mysteries that still linger nearly a century later.#TrueGhostStory #Unexplained Voices #MaBarkerHouse #Hauntings #HauntedHouse #BarkerGang #ParanormalActivity #HauntedHistory #CrimeAndHaunting #TheGraveTalks #Apparitions #ParanormalInvestigationsLove real ghost stories? Want even more?Become a supporter and unlock exclusive extras, ad-free episodes, and advanced access:

The Grave Talks | Haunted, Paranormal & Supernatural
The Bloody Legacy of the Ma Barker House, Part One | Grave Talks CLASSIC

The Grave Talks | Haunted, Paranormal & Supernatural

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 3, 2026 34:10


This is a Grave Talks CLASSIC EPISODE!The Ma Barker House stands as one of America's darkest historic landmarks. Born out of the blood and chaos of the Depression and Prohibition era, the home is tied forever to the infamous Barker family—criminals who left a trail of fear, violence, and trauma across the country.The Barkers weren't petty thieves. They were a notorious gang responsible for bank robberies, kidnappings, and brutal crimes that shook law enforcement to its core. Their reign of terror spread across state lines, creating a criminal empire that refused to be stopped—until the FBI closed in.What happened next was nothing short of carnage. The Barker gang's final stand inside the quiet lakeside home in Florida turned into the largest FBI shootout in American history, a bloody standoff that remains unrivaled to this day. Bullets tore through the house, ending lives and cementing the Ma Barker home as both a crime scene and a legend.But the story doesn't end with the gunfire. Many believe the spirits of the Barkers never left. Visitors and paranormal investigators alike report strange activity—unexplained voices, ghostly apparitions, and the feeling that the infamous family still resides inside their old home.So what exactly happened within those walls? What is the true story of the Ma Barker House, and why do so many believe it remains haunted today?In this chilling conversation, we speak with Kristy Summer of SoulSistersParanormal.com to uncover the dark history, the shootout that shocked the nation, and the paranormal mysteries that still linger nearly a century later.#TrueGhostStory #Unexplained Voices #MaBarkerHouse #Hauntings #HauntedHouse #BarkerGang #ParanormalActivity #HauntedHistory #CrimeAndHaunting #TheGraveTalks #Apparitions #ParanormalInvestigationsLove real ghost stories? Want even more?Become a supporter and unlock exclusive extras, ad-free episodes, and advanced access:

The Bourbon Road
498. Spirits of Lawrenceburg: A Bourbon Legacy Forged Through Time

The Bourbon Road

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 3, 2026 68:19


Jim Shannon and Todd Ritter welcome listeners back to the Corner Rickhouse for a special episode centered around the upcoming documentary Spirits of Lawrenceburg: A Bourbon Legacy Forged Through Time. Joining them are Jerry Daniels of Stone Fences Tours — a Kentucky bourbon tourism expert and history enthusiast — and returning guest Bo Cumberland, the filmmaker behind the documentary. The conversation digs deep into the rich and often overlooked bourbon heritage of Lawrenceburg and Anderson County, Kentucky, tracing the families, distilleries, and waterways that made the region a powerhouse of American whiskey production from the early 1800s through Prohibition and beyond. On the Tasting Mat: - 1996 Dowling Deluxe 100 Proof: A dusty Heaven Hill-era bottling from 1996, this 100-proof bourbon pours an exceptionally dark amber. The nose opens with cherry pie and buttery pastry crust, with a light but present dusty funk characteristic of older Heaven Hill expressions. A beautiful example of pre-secondary-market-era bourbon in a plastic-capped bottle. *(00:02:29)* - Whiskey Barons Collection – W.B. Saffold (Wild Turkey): A blend of 6, 8, and 12-year Wild Turkey mashbill bourbons bottled at 107 proof as part of the limited Whiskey Barons series honoring legendary Anderson County distiller W.B. Saffold, once the yeast man at Cedar Brook Distillery. The nose and palate deliver classic Wild Turkey character: rich cherry, orange slice candy, toffee, and a subtle nuttiness reminiscent of almond shell. The finish is long, warm, and deeply satisfying. *(00:24:46)* - Frankfort Bourbon Society Single Barrel Four Roses OESQ, 9-Year 8-Month, Barrel Strength (123 Proof): Selected by the Frankfort Bourbon Society, this single barrel expression uses Four Roses' 20% rye mash bill with the Q yeast strain, aged 9 years and 8 months in barrel #85-5R (fifth tier rick). At a commanding 123 proof, it opens with brown sugar and sweet tea on the nose with delicate florality. The palate delivers a rich marriage of sweet oak, caramel, and deep barrel character, finishing with lingering sweet oak and brown spice. *(00:39:39)* - Old Commonwealth Kentucky Nectar Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (104 Proof): A limited 2,400-bottle release from Old Commonwealth Distillery — operating on the historic Old Hoffman Distillery site in Lawrenceburg — this 4-year-old bourbon is finished in honey casks at 104 proof. The nose is notably sweet with dark chocolate and amaretto-like qualities. The palate is rich and dessert-forward, with a warm honey-laced finish that lingers gently. *(00:36:44)* With the premiere of Spirits of Lawrenceburg set for July 25th on the grounds of the historic T.B. Rippey Mansion, this episode is both a love letter to Anderson County's bourbon past and a preview of what promises to be Bo Cumberland's most expansive documentary yet. From the Hawkins and Bond families of the 1810s to Mary Dowling's indomitable legacy, from the devastation of the Whiskey Trust and Prohibition to the modern revival underway at Old Commonwealth and Larrikin, the full story of Lawrenceburg bourbon is finally getting its screen debut. Tickets are limited to 100 guests for the outdoor premiere event — details on the Spirits of Lawrenceburg Facebook page and the Stone Fences Tours social channels.

Daily Mitzvah (Audio) - by Mendel Kaplan
Daily Mitzvah, Day 121: Prohibition of Interbreeding Animals & Working with Two Animal Species

Daily Mitzvah (Audio) - by Mendel Kaplan

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 3, 2026 26:26


Study the daily lesson of Sefer HaMitzvos for day 121 with Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, where he teaches the mitzvah in-depth with added insight and detail.

study animals species prohibition interbreeding sefer hamitzvos daily mitzvah
Ohio Mysteries
OM Backroads: Ep. 111. The origins of the Cleveland Mafia.

Ohio Mysteries

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 1, 2026 27:02


Hello Ohio Mysteries Backroads listeners. Before the bombings, power struggles, and notorious crime bosses that would make Cleveland infamous, there was a small but determined network of Italian immigrants building a criminal empire in the shadows. In this episode, we explore the origins of the Cleveland Mafia, tracing its roots from the late 19th and early 20th centuries as immigrant communities established themselves in Northeast Ohio. Discover how early organized crime figures Joe Leonard and Joe Morello leveraged gambling, bootlegging, extortion, and political connections to create the foundation of what would become one of America's most influential Mafia families. We'll uncover the key personalities, pivotal events, and social conditions that allowed the Cleveland crime syndicate to emerge and grow. From the challenges faced by immigrant neighborhoods to the rise of Prohibition-era opportunities, this episode reveals how the Cleveland underworld evolved from a loose collection of street gangs into a structured criminal organization that would shape the city's history for decades. Join us as we examine the origins of the Cleveland Mafia and the beginnings of a story that would leave a lasting mark on both organized crime and Cleveland itself. Tune in and found out! Check out our Facebook page!: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558042082494¬if_id=1717202186351620¬if_t=page_user_activity&ref=notif⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Please check other podcast episodes like this at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.ohiomysteries.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Dan hosts a Youtube Channel called: Ohio History and Haunts where he explores historical and dark places around Ohio: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj5x1eJjHhfyV8fomkaVzsA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sasquatch Odyssey
Patrick The Sasquatch Human Hybrid: Part Two

Sasquatch Odyssey

Play Episode Listen Later May 31, 2026 39:08 Transcription Available


This is part two of my conversation with author and researcher Norman Sollie, and this is where the rubber meets the road. In our first episode together on Friday, Norman walked us through more than four decades of his own personal encounters with Sasquatch across Washington, Illinois, Massachusetts, Colorado, and Alaska. If you missed it, go back and listen to that one first. You're going to want the foundation. In part two, we leave Norman's personal experiences behind and we dig into the work he's spent the last several years building. His brand-new book, Before Patty, Volume One: Patrick, the Sasquatch-Human Hybrid and Our Genetic Inheritance, lays out a case unlike anything I've seen in this field in close to forty years of paying attention.Norman walks me through the chain that brought him to the story in the first place, starting with a self-published Russian hominology book he picked up at the twenty nineteen International Bigfoot Conference in Kennewick, Washington, that pointed him toward an obscure American anthropologist named Dr. Ed Fusch and a nineteen ninety-two paper most of the Bigfoot community had never heard of.He walks me through how genealogist Heather Moser of Small Town Monsters cracked the trail open in forty-eight hours, and how Norman then spent the next two years personally tracking Patrick across the entire historical record, eventually surfacing a hundred and sixty documents that all point to the same man.The case Norman lays out is built on hard evidence. Birth records placing Patrick's birth in June of eighteen ninety-two, three months earlier than the family officially declared, with the strong implication that his mother was moved off-reservation to Chelan, Washington, to give birth in privacy.A land patent on a hundred and four acres of Colville Reservation ranch land, signed by President Woodrow Wilson in nineteen seventeen. Court filings and arrest records from Patrick's later years documenting his slide into Prohibition-era bootlegging and alcoholism. Mugshots from the front and the side that show a man whose anatomy does not fit a clean Homo sapiens profile. And a careful ink signature in Patrick's own hand, consistent across roughly twenty-five years of documents, that now sits on the cover of Norman's book.Norman gets into the comparative anatomy in detail. The steeply sloped forehead without compensating brow ridges. The brain case that extends back behind the ears in a way no typical Homo sapiens skull extends. The ears themselves, sitting noticeably below the line between the pupils and rotated backward by roughly twenty-two degrees. The completely missing chin, the absence of the bony mentum projection, a feature that lines up cleanly with what we know about Neanderthal jaw structure.The short compressed neck that mirrors Neanderthal cervical vertebrae. Norman ran comparative tracings against a Colville Indian contemporary and an Alaskan Native control, scaled to the same dimensions, and Patrick falls outside the human range on virtually every measurement that matters.We get into the strangeness of Patrick the man. The farmhand Louie, who worked for him through the late nineteen twenties, described him as a quiet gentle boss who was nearly impossible to play cards against because he always knew what everybody else was holding. We get into his eight children, including the three surviving daughters Mary Louise, Madeline, and Stella, and the inheritance that shows up in their faces and bodies in varying degrees.We get into Patrick's slow decline through the nineteen twenties and thirties, the loss of the ranch, the bootlegging arrests, the hops-picking years, and the death in a Seattle morning in nineteen sixty-two on the same day Norman himself first arrived in the United States as a small child.And we get to the bottom line. Norman makes the case, plainly, that Patrick was real. That his father was not a human father. That the abduction described in the Sinixt family memory was a real event, with a real consequence, and that the consequence walked the earth for seventy years and left a paper trail any researcher with the time and the patience can now verify.Norman's view, which I share, is that if Patrick is real, then at least some of what we are seeing out there in the woods is biologically close enough to us to interbreed and produce viable offspring.The implications of that are not small.You can pick up Norman's book at beforepatty.com, or through Amazon in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle. Better yet, ask for it through your local independent bookseller or Barnes and Noble. Norman has volume two on the way, making the broader evolutionary case for Sasquatch, with volume three to follow on what he calls the weird stuff. I'll have him back when those drop.Get Norman's BookEmail BrianGet Our FREE NewsletterVisit Our WebsiteBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sasquatch-odyssey--4839697/support.Have you had a Bigfoot encounter, Sasquatch sighting, Dogman experience, or other cryptid or paranormal encounter? We'd love to hear your story. Email brian@paranormalworldproductions.com to be featured on a future episode of Sasquatch Odyssey.Sasquatch Odyssey is a leading Bigfoot and cryptid podcast exploring real encounters, field research, and scientific analysis of the Sasquatch phenomenon.Follow the show and turn on automatic downloads so you never miss an episode.

Renovation Church Sermon Podcast
The Grace of Prohibition | Proverbs 3:13-35

Renovation Church Sermon Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 31, 2026 49:19


Will you accept the Blessing of God in his Wisdom for our lives?

I Remember Liking That Movie Podcast
The Untouchables (1987): Still The Best Gangster Movie Ever Made?

I Remember Liking That Movie Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 30, 2026 75:41


Remember The Untouchables from 1987 starring Kevin Costner & Sean Connery? We remember it being the bee's knees. A real hotsy-totsy gangster picture where every problem could be solved with a quick quip & a Tommy Gun. Every scene is packed with tough mugs, and enough lead flying around Chicago to start a scrap metal shortage. We remember Robert De Niro's Al Capone being one scary palooka, and our good guys trying to clean up the town one wise guy at a time. But is this Prohibition-era classic still the cat's pajamas, or has it gone the way of bathtub gin and twenty-cent cigars? So grab your fedora, tell the coppers to take a hike, and join us as we revisit The Untouchables to find out if this old-time gangster flick still packs a wallop.

Where the Weird Things Are
Episode 67 - Prohibition: Water Was Sketchy

Where the Weird Things Are

Play Episode Listen Later May 29, 2026 73:34


We're baaaaaackkkk. Bet you thought the gang was gone for good, but here we are! Thurlow has been waiting to give Brittany all the deets on the prohibition, so naturally, we had to share it with you! It's all going to keep getting weird from here on out.Music by Alena Smirnova: https://open.spotify.com/track/2qFfB2WYgJNvsTVLoo3ngF?si=305f46c547734686

The Members Only Podcast: A Mafia History Podcast
#49: History of the Pittsburgh Mob (Part Four): The Rise of the Monastero's

The Members Only Podcast: A Mafia History Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 29, 2026 126:36


In this episode of The Gangland History Podcast's ongoing History of the Pittsburgh Mob series, we explore the rise of the Monastero brothers—Stefano “Big Steve” Monastero, Salvatore “Sam” Monastero, and their older brother Loreto—as Pittsburgh's underworld transforms during the violent early years of Prohibition.At the center of the story are Stefano and Sam Monastero, two brothers who rise from immigrant beginnings to become the dominant force in Pittsburgh's bootlegging empire during the 1920s. While Pittsburgh's underworld fractures after the deaths of early leaders like Gregorio Conti and Martin M. Burke, Stefano and Sam quietly build something far more organized, powerful, and dangerous—an expanding criminal network rooted in bootlegging, extortion, violence, and control of the city's illicit liquor trade.But before the Monasteros become Pittsburgh's closest equivalent to Al Capone, their story begins decades earlier in Sicily and New Orleans. This episode traces the family's origins in Caccamo, Sicily, the infamous assassination of New Orleans Police Chief David C. Hennessy in 1890, and the shocking lynching of Stefano and Sam's father, Pietro Monastero, during the Parish Prison mob violence of 1891—one of the largest mass lynchings in American history.From there, we follow the Monastero family's journey to Pittsburgh, where the brothers become deeply connected to the city's growing Mafia networks through the fruit and produce trade, the Pittsburgh Fruit Exchange, and the rapidly expanding underground economy created by Prohibition.This episode also explores:The collapse of Pittsburgh's early Mafia leadership after Gregorio Conti's murderThe rise of Pittsburgh's Prohibition bootlegging economyThe Monasteros' connections to figures like Salvatore Catanzaro, Nicola Gentile, Salvatore Calderone, and Nicasio LandolinaThe growth of the Pittsburgh Fruit Exchange and the brothers' warehouse operations in the Strip DistrictThe mysterious 1920 bombing near the Monastero organizationLoreto Monastero's shocking murder case, asylum commitment, and escapeThe emergence of early Mafia hierarchy and initiation rituals in PittsburghThe rise of Stefano Monastero as Pittsburgh's dominant bootlegging bossThe violent murder of Luigi “The Big Gorilla” Lamendola and the growing underworld war surrounding the MonasterosBy the mid-1920s, Stefano and Sam Monastero are no longer simply participating in Pittsburgh's underworld—they are reshaping it. What emerges during this period is the foundation of the modern Pittsburgh Mafia.This episode is based on extensive research using immigration records, newspapers, census documents, court records, FBI files, historical archives, and firsthand family accounts to reconstruct one of the most important—and least understood—chapters in organized crime history.Subscribe to The Gangland History Podcast for more deep dives into Prohibition, La Cosa Nostra, Mafia history, and the forgotten underworld history of Pittsburgh.

Destination Terror
Hot Springs Arkansas: Haunted Bathhouses, Gangster Ghosts & The Ouachita River

Destination Terror

Play Episode Listen Later May 28, 2026 14:00


Join Carman Carrion on a haunted vacation to Hot Springs, Arkansas—America's original spa town with a dark and deadly past. In this episode of Destination Terror, Carman broadcasts from a cabin on the Ouachita River to explore the sinister history lurking beneath Hot Springs' healing waters. Discover why Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, and Bugsy Siegel made this mountain town their criminal headquarters during Prohibition. Hear the terrifying tales of the Lady in White at the Arlington Hotel, the ghostly woman who haunts the Fordyce Bathhouse, and the drowned spirits still calling for help from the depths of the Ouachita River. From the opulent Art Deco bathhouses of Bathhouse Row to the gangster-era gambling dens, from mysterious ghost lights hovering over dark waters to shadowy figures in speakeasy bars—Hot Springs is where healing and horror collide. Whether you're planning your own trip to Hot Springs National Park or just love a good ghost story, this episode reveals the haunted secrets of Arkansas's most beautiful—and most deadly—destination. Featured locations: Bathhouse Row, Fordyce Bathhouse, Quapaw Bathhouse, The Arlington Hotel, The Ohio Club, Ouachita River, Lake Hamilton Content warnings: References to organized crime violence, murder, drowning deaths Produced for Eeriecast Network EXPLORE MORE SPINE-CHILLING CONTENT: Freaky Folklore: https://www.eeriecast.com/podcasts/freaky-folklore Carman's Crypt (Original Horror): https://www.carman-carrion.com/ Deadly Intent (True Crime): https://www.carman-carrion.com/ Destination Terror: https://www.eeriecast.com/podcasts/destination-terror SUPPORT THE SHOW: Patreon (Ad-Free + Bonus Content): https://www.patreon.com/c/CarmanCarrion Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/carmancarrion CONNECT WITH CARMAN: Website: https://www.carman-carrion.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CarmanCarrion Twitter/X: https://x.com/CarmanCarrion Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carmancarrion/ SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0uiX155WEJnN7QVRfo3aQY iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/freaky-folklore/id1550361184 Your support helps bring you more terrifying tales. DISCOVER MORE HORROR: http://eeriecast.com/ https://www.carman-carrion.com/ THE CRYPT SHOP: https://the-crypt-shop-2.myshopify.com/ MUSIC CREDITS: Music and sound effects provided by: CO.AG, Myuu, Jinglepunks, Epidemic Sound, Kevin MacLeod, Dark Music, and Soundstripe.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Daily Mitzvah (Audio) - by Mendel Kaplan
Daily Mitzvah, Day 115: Prohibition of a Nazirite to Eat Grape Seeds and Peels & to Become Ritually Impure

Daily Mitzvah (Audio) - by Mendel Kaplan

Play Episode Listen Later May 28, 2026 22:51


Study the daily lesson of Sefer HaMitzvos for day 115 with Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, where he teaches the mitzvah in-depth with added insight and detail.

Kush & Crime: A True Crime Potcast
Episode 26: Michael Malloy: The Man with 9 Lives

Kush & Crime: A True Crime Potcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 27, 2026 34:44


Cats aren't the only ones with nine lives...meet Michael Malloy. It's 1932, Prohibition is in full swing, and a group of small time con men in a Bronx speakeasy have a plan; take out a life insurance policy on the local drunk, kill him quietly, and split the cash. Simple. Easy even. What could go wrong? Everything. This is one of the most bizarre true crime cases we have ever covered. So roll up a fatty of Lemon Cherry Gelato and join Sam and Briana for the latest episode of Kush and Crime: A True Crime Potcast.New episodes every Wednesday. Welcome back, bud and meat bags. Case Covered: Michael Malloy-New York City: 1932-1933Source: The Most Bizarre True Crime Stories Ever Told by Jack RosewoodAlso covered by: Morbid PodcastHave a case suggestion you think we should cover? We read every suggestion and more than a few episodes exist because a bud sent us something that caught our interest. Submit your case at: https://www.kushandcrime.com/case-suggestion

Daily Mitzvah (Audio) - by Mendel Kaplan
Daily Mitzvah, Day 114: Prohibition of a Nazirite to Drink Wine, Eat Grapes or Raisins

Daily Mitzvah (Audio) - by Mendel Kaplan

Play Episode Listen Later May 27, 2026 17:54


Study the daily lesson of Sefer HaMitzvos for day 114 with Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, where he teaches the mitzvah in-depth with added insight and detail.

XChateau - Navigating the Business of Wine
Implementing a luxury strategy w/ Matt Crafton, Chateau Montelena

XChateau - Navigating the Business of Wine

Play Episode Listen Later May 26, 2026 34:40


As one of the winners of the infamous 1976 Judgement of Paris, Chateau Montelena has a rich history to be proud of. To optimize that legacy, Montelena's President and Winemaker Matt Crafton has been embarking on more of a luxury strategy for the brand, reducing grocery and chain presence and working towards pricing growth over volume. With the 50th anniversary of the Judgement in Paris and the wine market in extreme flux, Montelena is doubling down on the values that made it victorious. Detailed Show Notes: Matt's background: wine production for 23 years, Economics degree, started at Montelena in 2008Chateau Montelena overviewFounded 1882 in Calistoga, NapaShut down during Prohibition, resurrected in 1972 by Barrett familyFamous for 1973 Chardonnay which won the 1976 Judgement of Paris tasting (50th anniversary in 2026)Mostly produces Cabernet Sauvignon and ChardonnayProduces ~35k cases/yearMajority of $ DTC, volume is wholesaleExport not big, focus of growth last 2-3 yearsA full-time sales team not viable, so moved to partnership with Wilson Daniels as national sales agent beginning Jan 2026Has a Director of National SalesDistributes to all 50 statesTraditionally skewed off-premise, moving more to on-premise; old agency went a lot of chain retailKPIs from 30-40% on-premise to 60-70% on-premise; get out of grocery and be allocated in chain retailWants to use wholesale to build status, get in the right accounts (not necessarily 3 Michelin star restaurants - they don't move many bottles)Found retail accounts not holding price which would make restaurants and DTC members not buy the winesJudgement of Paris story usageUse social media to get the story to end consumersDavid over Goliath story resonates with peopleNeed to discuss how Montelena still upkeeps the principles and values that led to the winKeeping the story fresh requires mapping today's actions (e.g. - large replant underway) to the original values (e.g. - curiosity, taking risk)Wine critic influence has waned over last 15-20 years, but scores still have a big impact to certain types of buyersImportant to understand the ripple effects of wholesale decisionsTools to navigate wholesale - pricing, mapping market allocations to market potentialManaging distributors - need to build direct relationships, get people out to the winery to see and feel the brandRelationships critical to navigating a challenging wine marketGoal is to grow through price, not volume Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cigar Dave Show
Memorial Day Observances, Cigar Industry Victory & Prohibition Hits the UK

Cigar Dave Show

Play Episode Listen Later May 24, 2026 60:53


Memorial Day Observance maneuvers. Major cigar industry court victory after a decade. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis fires up a cigar. Prohibition hits cigars in the UK, and absurd Beef prices.Cigar Selection: CAO America 250th Anniversary

Bourbon 'n BrownTown
Ep. 129 - Whiskey & Watching: "Life" (1999) ft. trina reynolds tyler & Maira Khwaja

Bourbon 'n BrownTown

Play Episode Listen Later May 22, 2026 77:41


BrownTown discusses "Life" (1999) with trina reynolds tyler & Maira Khwaja of TM Productions and the Invisible Institute. The double duo breakdown the cult classic's coverage of US incarceration through the decades, respectability politics within Black and Southern white culture, the guilty-innocent dichotomy through an abolitionist lens, and the relatability and timelessness of '90's buddy comedies. The comedy-drama follows two Black men, loudmouth Harlem grifter Ray and the no-nonsense Claude, during 1930's Prohibition era who are forced to team up on a bootlegging mission to Mississippi that could solve their money troubles with a New York gangster. But they run into more trouble when a crooked, racist white Sheriff hits them with a phony murder charge and they are given lifetime prison sentences. Originally recorded March 2026. -- GUESTStrina reynolds-tyler is the Data Director at the Invisible Institute, a Pulitzer Prize winning data journalist, and a native of the South Side Chicago. She leads Beneath the Surface, a project employing machine learning to identify gender based violence at the hands of Chicago police. trina works to document how communities unable to depend on the police are forced to create safety and accountability outside of the carceral state. As a data scientist, she centers the practice of narrative justice in her inquiries. trina is also an abolitionist and trained restorative justice practitioner, and on the Board of South Side Together; a community organization whose mission is to secure economic stability and advance human rights. Follow her on Instagram. Maira Khwaja is an educator and multimedia producer. At the Invisible Institute, she directs public impact strategy & outreach. Her work centers on the Youth / Police Project, which primarily builds conversations with young people (ages 16-22) on the South Side about their everyday encounters with policing. Maira was a 2021 Leaders for a New Chicago award winner. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter. trina and Maira are the co-founders of TM Productions! Follow them on Instagram and YouTube. Mentioned in episode: Skullcap Crew "Life" (1999) Trailer Scenes from the movie (1, 2) Dump Judge Matt Coghlan (2018)   CREDITS: Intro from "Life" (1999) trailer and outro music New Day by Wyclef Jean from the film's soundtrack. Episode photo from the film. Audio recorded by Kiera Battles and engineered by Kassandra Borah. -- Bourbon 'n BrownTownFacebook | Twitter | Instagram | Site | Linktree | Patreon SoapBox Productions and Organizing, 501(c)3Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Site | Linktree | Support

Gangland Wire
Jerry Catena and the New Jersey Genovese Empire

Gangland Wire

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2026


Retired Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit Detective Gary Jenkins sits down with returning guest Scott Deitch for a detailed exploration of one of the more understated yet influential figures in organized crime—Jerry Catena. Scott Deitch, known for his deep research and engaging storytelling, brings insight from his books Cigar City Mafia, Garden State Gangland, and his upcoming release Jersey Boss. The conversation moves from Tampa's mob history to the inner workings of the Genovese crime family, with a focus on Catena's calculated rise through the ranks.

Leaving Eden Podcast
Fundie Mental Gymnastics: Drinking and Alcohol

Leaving Eden Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 12, 2026 46:06


In this episode, we discuss the mental gymnastics Fundies perform to say that drinking alcohol is a sin, even though Jesus turned water into wine. We go into the history of where the fundie taboo around drinking came from, how a social taboo became integrated into a religious doctrine, and why this makes zero sense.In the Patreon extended edition, Sadie talks about her job working with at risk teens, and helping them identify abusive behaviors and how people can change abusive behaviors. https://www.patreon.com/posts/157928236Please send your pride stories to LeavingEdenPod@Gmail.Com so we can read them on an episode!00:00 - INTRO: 04:26 - Josh Duggar Emails 05:48 - SEND YOUR PRIDE STORIES TO US! 06:54 - Jesus' miracles 07:50 - Anti-Alcohol sentiment in Christianity 18:27 - Why did or didn't people drink alcohol in biblical times? 26:20 - Prohibition and the Scopes Monkey Trial 32:27 - Why are fundies stuck in the 1920s? 37:08 - Jesus turned water into... Grape Juice? 38:35 - He turned the water into Lean 39:35 - How the fundies convince themselves that Alcohol is badSubscribe to Leaving Eden Podcast on YouTube!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ4q94gAnsoW2jME4SvVrrQJoin our Patreon for extended, uncensored, and ad-free versions of most of our episodes, as well as other patron perks and bonus content!https://www.patreon.com/LeavingEdenPodcastJoin our Facebook group to join in the discussion with other fans!https://www.facebook.com/groups/edenexodusJoin our subreddit! Reddit.com/r/EdenExodusBluesky:@leavingedenpodcast.bsky.social@hellyeahsadie.bsky.social@gavihacohen.bsky.socialInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/leavingedenpodcast/https://www.instagram.com/sadiecarpentermusic/https://www.instagram.com/gavrielhacohen/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.