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Last time we spoke about the beginning of the Pacific War. In late 1941, the Second Battle of Changsha ended with Chinese forces claiming victory despite suffering nearly 100,000 casualties against roughly 1,670 Japanese losses. Chiang Kai-shek's government launched an aggressive propaganda campaign, flooding international press with fabricated triumph narratives to sustain national morale. Behind closed doors, Chiang was furious at his generals' tactical failures, executing commanders and dismantling units. Meanwhile, geopolitical forces threatened China's survival. Japan's 1939 defeat at Nomonhan crushed hopes for a Soviet alliance against Tokyo. Germany's pact with the Soviet Union left China isolated, while Western powers remained reluctant to commit meaningful support. Britain offered little; the US provided only modest loans. By 1941, facing potential collapse, Chiang desperately searched for allies while Wang Jingwei's Japanese-backed rival government beckoned as an alternative. China's exhausted people endured horror—including a 1941 bombing massacre in Chongqing that killed over 400 trapped civilians. Then Japan unleashed a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.   #215 An Implosion in the East Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War.   In the early morning of December 7, 1941, the US Pacific Fleet was anchored at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Two waves of Japanese bomber aircraft, launched from six aircraft carriers, attacked the vessels and their sleeping crews, destroying the battleship Arizona outright and damaging seventeen others, as well as most of the military aircraft parked nearby. Some 2,400 Americans died, and another 1,100 were wounded. Within a day Japanese invasion forces had attacked Siam, Malaya, and the Philippines. Chiang Kai-shek heard the news at one o'clock in the morning and immediately dictated a letter of support to President Roosevelt, pledging commitment to a new "common battle." The news reached Zhou Fohai in Shanghai as well. On December 8 across the international date line from Hawaii he had heard the sounds of firing as the Japanese took over the rest of the city, and then received reports that Japan had declared war on the Western powers. "I heard they'd bombed Honolulu, Manila, Singapore, and Hong Kong. From now on, the Pacific becomes a killing ground."   When Japanese carrier planes descended on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, they were executing far more than a tactical strike. They were unleashing the culmination of a strategic vision that had shaped Japanese military planning since the 1920s: the Nanshin-ron, or "Southern Advance" doctrine.    The Nanshin-ron represented a critical strategic choice that emerged from internal Japanese debates during the 1920s and 1930s. Japan faced an inescapable vulnerability: it was an island nation with virtually no natural resources of its own. The nation's population had doubled since the Meiji Restoration, growing to over 70 million by 1941. An industrial economy of tremendous sophistication, capable of producing world-class warships, aircraft, and military equipment, depended entirely on imported raw materials. Oil, rubber, tin, iron ore, bauxite, copper, and manganese all had to be acquired through foreign trade or conquest. This resource dependency was not a luxury problem; it was an existential one. A nation that could not feed itself or fuel its economy was a nation vulnerable to strangulation by enemies who controlled the resources it needed. Japanese strategic thinkers divided into two camps on how to resolve this vulnerability. The Hokushin-ron advocates, primarily within the Army, pushed for expansion northward into Siberia and Mongolia, seeking to conquer Soviet territory and resources. The Soviet Union possessed vast tracts of land, mineral wealth, timber, and agricultural output. From a purely materialist perspective, the Northern Advance made geographic sense—it was contiguous with Manchuria, which Japan had already secured in 1931. Yet by the late 1930s, the Hokushin-ron strategy had suffered a catastrophic blow. In 1938 and 1939, Japanese and Soviet forces clashed at Khalkhin Gol in Mongolia in what the Japanese called the Nomonhan Incident. The battles revealed a terrifying truth: the Soviet Red Army, under General Georgy Zhukov, was far more formidable than Japanese military planners had anticipated. Soviet armor, air power, and coordinated tactics annihilated Japanese forces. Japan suffered over 60,000 casualties while inflicting perhaps 10,000 on the Soviets. The defeat was concealed from the Japanese public, but it was unmistakable to military planners. A direct clash with Soviet power could end catastrophically. The Northern Advance, it became clear, would almost certainly provoke war with a nation capable of destroying the Japanese Army. This strategic defeat tilted the balance decisively toward the Nanshin-ron. If Japan could not safely expand northward, it must expand southward, toward Southeast Asia, the Dutch East Indies, Indochina, and the western Pacific. The appeal of the Nanshin-ron was immediately apparent to the Navy, which had always been more oriented toward maritime commerce and expansion across the ocean. The territories to the south were not militarily formidable. The colonial powers, Britain, the Netherlands, France, were either already defeated in 1940 or distracted by their own desperate struggles leaving Britain fighting alone against Germany. The United States, though potentially a formidable adversary, was not yet at war, and there was a chance, however slender, that a decisive blow against American naval power might convince America to negotiate rather than fight. But beyond strategic opportunity, the Nanshin-ron offered something that the Hokushin-ron did not: it offered resources of staggering abundance. The Dutch East Indies possessed oil reserves that could dwarf Japan's consumption for years. Malaya produced the world's rubber. Thailand offered agricultural bounty and geographic position. Burma's timber and agricultural products could feed Japan's growing empire. The Philippines possessed harbors, airfields, and economic output. These were not marginal additions to Japan's economy—they were transformative. Together, they would convert Japan from a resource-hungry island nation into the master of an imperial domain encompassing hundreds of millions of people and containing most of the strategic materials necessary for sustained industrial warfare. In the last episode I explained the western sanctions and embargoes that drained Japan's military of the resources they required to continue the China War. By 1941, Japan faced a civilization crisis. Japan imported roughly 90 percent of its petroleum, and the bulk of that came from the Dutch East Indies and the United States. Suddenly, the American supply was cut off entirely. Reserves would last perhaps 18 months if Japan's military and industrial consumption continued at existing rates. After that, the military machine would sputter and die. The industrial economy would collapse. Even civilian life would become impossible to sustain. Japan was facing not merely economic inconvenience but literal strangulation by the Western powers.   Yet it would be a mistake to reduce Japanese motivation to just materialism. Japanese military leaders wrapped their conquests in an ideological framework, one that many of them genuinely believed, or wanted to believe, served a higher historical purpose. The concept of the Daitoa Kyoeiken, the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," posited a new regional order in which Japan would play the leading role in liberating Asian peoples from Western colonial domination and creating an Asian-centered political and economic system. This ideology drew on genuine anti-colonial sentiment. For a century, Western powers had dominated Asia, treating Asian peoples and nations as subordinate, colonized territories existing to serve Western economic interests. Japan, which had modernized and Westernized enough to avoid colonization, saw itself as the natural leader of an Asian renaissance—a civilizing force that would restore Asian dignity and independence even as it established Japanese hegemony. Of course, this was propagandistic. Japanese conquest represented a substitution of one imperial master for another, and often a harsher and more brutal one at that. But for understanding Japanese decision-making, the ideology mattered profoundly. It provided Japanese leaders with a moral narrative for conquest. It allowed them to understand themselves as liberators rather than mere conquerors. It provided a rationale for extracting resources from occupied territories and for mobilizing subject populations to support the Japanese war effort. And it resonated with anti-Western sentiment throughout Asia, making Japanese occupation seem, in some quarters, preferable to continued Western colonial rule. The slogan Hakko ichiu—"eight corners under one roof", captured this ideological vision: a unified Asia and eventually world under Japanese guidance. Whether Japanese leaders truly believed this vision or cynically deployed it as propaganda, it shaped how they understood their actions and justified them to their subjects. Now I know this is a podcast dedicated to the century of humiliation, ie: China's experience. But I thought it was necessary just to have one episode explain what Dan Carlin titled "a supernova in the east" and I have titled an implosion in the east. I won't go into depth into the campaigns as some of them have a lot of Chinese involvement and we will be covering them in depth, but rather I will explain the rationale for Japan's numerous invasions following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.   Japan's assault on Malaya began within hours of the Pearl Harbor attack, indeed, Japanese troops were already landing on the Kota Bharu beachhead on the Malaysian peninsula before dawn on December 8, 1941 local time. Malaya was one of the world's largest rubber producers, and Singapore, at the tip of the peninsula, was the linchpin of British naval power in the Far East.The Japanese interest in Malaya was straightforward but crucial: rubber. The Japanese military consumed vast quantities of rubber for tires, gaskets, hoses, and countless other applications. American and Dutch rubber supplies were now cut off by embargo. Malaya's rubber plantations represented perhaps the world's richest reservoir of this strategic material. Beyond rubber, Malaya and the surrounding region were major tin producers—essential for alloys and manufacturing. For Japan to conduct prolonged warfare, Malaya was not a luxury target; it was a necessity. Singapore represented something different: a symbol of Western power in Asia and a strategic chokepoint. As the major British naval base in the region, Singapore served as the anchor of British imperial authority across the South China Sea. By seizing Singapore, Japan would not only capture crucial resources and port facilities but would also deliver a psychological blow to the entire edifice of Western dominance in Asia. The fortress city that the British considered nearly impregnable fell within seventy days, a stunning demonstration of Japanese military capability and the vulnerability of overextended Western empires. If Malaya was critical for rubber, the Dutch East Indies was essential for oil. The region, comprising present-day Indonesia, was the world's third-largest oil producer and had reserves that could sustain Japanese military operations for years. This was the jewel of the resource-conquest strategy. Japanese planners had long eyed the East Indies, but direct conquest had seemed risky while Britain and America remained neutral or opposed. With both now at war, the window of opportunity had opened. Japan needed the oil so desperately that when the Dutch East Indies Petroleum Company initially agreed to some Japanese oil purchases before the war, Tokyo was already planning its takeover. The conquest of the Dutch East Indies would provide not just oil but also tin, nickel, bauxite, and other materials essential to an industrial war machine. The islands would also provide air and naval bases from which Japan could defend its new empire and potentially threaten Australia. The Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies, which began in late December 1941 and accelerated through January and February 1942, was methodical and comprehensive. Various island groups were targeted systematically: Java, Borneo, Celebes, and the Moluccas. Dutch military forces, though brave, were overwhelmed. By March 1942, Japan had secured the entire archipelago,a stunning logistical and military achievement that delivered vast resources into Japanese hands. Thailand presented a fundamentally different case from Japan's other targets. Rather than conquest, Japan pursued alliance with military strongman Plaek Phibunsongkhram, who had seized power in a 1938 coup as a nationalist ideologue determined to reassert Thai sovereignty and recover territory lost to French colonialism in the nineteenth century. Thailand was the last independent state in mainland Southeast Asia, hemmed in by British-controlled Burma and Malaya to the west, and French Indochina to the east. For a century, Thailand had survived by playing European imperial powers against each other. But by the late 1930s, this strategy was becoming obsolete. Europe was distracted by Hitler's Germany. Colonial powers were weakening. Japanese power was visibly ascending. Phibunsongkhram recognized both danger and opportunity. He could resist Japan and invite invasion, or he could ally with Japan and profit from rising Asian power. Japanese diplomats approached Thailand with sophistication: they offered military alliance and support for Thai territorial expansion at French expense. This addressed Thailand's deepest national wound, the humiliation of nineteenth-century territorial losses to France. The Franco-Thai War of 1940-1941 became transformative. With Japan providing military support, advisors, tanks, aircraft, Thai forces defeated the French for the first time in history. By May 1941, Thailand had recovered 54,000 square kilometers of Cambodian territory and portions of Laos. For Phibunsongkhram, this was extraordinary: he had achieved what Thai leaders could not in a century, reclaiming territory from a Western imperial power. Domestically, his position was dramatically strengthened. The parallel to China's century of humiliation—the foundation of your podcast is striking: Thailand too was reversing colonial diminishment through association with rising Asian power. The Thai-Japanese relationship was unique. Unlike the Philippines, Malaya, or the Dutch East Indies, Thailand would retain nominal independence. Phibunsongkhram remained in power. Japanese occupation was light. Thai forces maintained their own command structure. Most importantly, Thailand's territorial gains from the Franco-Thai War were recognized and secured. Japan valued Thai cooperation more than conquest. Burma, controlled by the British, was the next target in Japan's southwestward advance. Japanese planners had multiple motivations for invading Burma. First, it was strategically positioned on India's eastern frontier, and Japan harbored ambitions of eventually striking toward India and linking up with Germany in the Middle East or at least destabilizing the British position in South Asia. Second, Burma was a significant producer of timber and agricultural products. Third, and perhaps most importantly, the invasion of Burma was meant to cut the Burma Road, the crucial supply line that allowed American aid to reach Nationalist China. The invasion of Burma began in late 1941 and accelerated through early 1942.  The invasion of the Philippines, which began on December 10, 1941, just days after Pearl Harbor, served multiple strategic purposes. Like the assault on Pearl Harbor itself, it was meant to neutralize American military power in the region, in this case, the American garrison under General Douglas MacArthur and the American colonial administration. But the Philippines were also valuable in their own right. The islands sat directly in the path of what Japan envisioned as its defensive perimeter. By controlling the Philippines, Japan would make it extraordinarily difficult for American forces to project power westward into Southeast Asia. The territory would provide naval and air bases critical to defending Japan's new empire. Additionally, the Philippines possessed some agricultural and industrial resources valuable to the war effort, and their conquest delivered a psychological victory, defeating American forces and ending American colonial rule in Asia, which appealed to anti-Western sentiment that Japan tried to cultivate. Beyond Southeast Asia and the Philippines, Japan rapidly invaded Guam and Wake island to extend Japan's defensive perimeter further into the Pacific and eliminate American air and naval bases that could threaten Japanese operations. Guam, seized on December 10, 1941, fell within two days, the American garrison was small and the island's strategic value lay primarily in denying the United States a forward staging ground for any counteroffensive. Wake Island, attacked the same day and finally captured on December 23 after a brief but heroic American defense, served similar purposes: cutting off American reconnaissance and interdicting potential supply lines to the Philippines.  Now I believe that's enough of the implosion in the east, let's get back to the situation in China. After Chiang Kai-shek sent his letter of support to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, pledging Chinese commitment to what he termed a new "common battle." he did something most revealing about his mood towards the global war. He played "Ave Maria" on his gramophone, celebrating with an almost spiritual gratitude the implications of what had just transpired in the American Pacific. This moment crystallized the profound difference Pearl Harbor would mean to different members of the emerging Allied coalition. For the United States, the attack was pure shock, a violation of the sanctity of American soil and the complacency of American isolationism. For Britain, it was like the pricking of a large, painful blister—painful but perhaps not entirely unexpected given Japan's regional ambitions. But for China, the relief that surged through the government and the consciousness of the Chinese people surpassed even Britain's response. For four long years, China had fought Japan almost alone, watching as Western nations remained neutral or limited their commitment to rhetorical support and modest material assistance. Now, suddenly, the trajectory of the entire conflict had shifted with breathtaking speed. Chiang's emotional state at this moment could scarcely be contained, and those close to him understood that beneath his carefully maintained Confucian composure burned an intoxicating sensation of vindication. These Western powers who had been so impatient with Chinese strategy, who had mocked the retreats of the Nationalist Army and spoken scornfully of Japanese capabilities, were now themselves in headlong retreat from those very islanders. In Hong Kong, Singapore, and Manila, British and American forces would be fighting desperately for their lives against the Japanese military that China had been contending with for years. Chiang could not have failed to perceive the irony: the Japanese had conquered vast stretches of China through relentless campaigns, yet Westerners had dismissed Chinese resistance as inadequate. Now the Japanese were proving that they posed a formidable challenge to Western military power as well. There was a bitter satisfaction in this vindication, even as Chiang understood that the strategic implications of American entry far outweighed any emotional satisfaction. What was pragmatic and strategically clear to Chiang, however, was far more important than any emotional satisfaction. The United States was now at war, and it was on China's side. This represented the transformation for which Chiang had labored for years, bringing the full weight of American industrial capacity and military might to bear against the Japanese enemy. The diplomatic foundations for this alliance had already been laid in the months preceding Pearl Harbor. Beginning in the spring of 1941, the United States had begun to commit significant resources to supporting China. In April 1941, following the conclusion of the Soviet-Japanese neutrality agreement, which had devastated Chinese morale by suggesting that Japan might attack the Soviet Union rather than move southward, the Roosevelt administration had determined to provide $45 million worth of militarily useful commodities to China as an immediate gesture of support. Then, on May 6, 1941, President Roosevelt had made a more formal commitment by announcing that the munitions provisions of the Lend-Lease Act applied to China, declaring a phrase that captured the strategic logic of American assistance: "defending China is the key to defending America." This declaration represented a significant shift in American policy, elevating China from a regional concern to a central element of American grand strategy in Asia. Subsequently, in July 1941, Roosevelt had sent Owen Lattimore to China to serve as political adviser to the Chinese government, a position that signaled deepening American engagement with Chinese affairs. In August, the administration appointed John Magruder as military attaché and head of the American Military Mission to China (AMMISCA), with the primary responsibility of overseeing the delivery of Lend-Lease material to the Chinese armed forces. On the diplomatic front, Chiang moved with remarkable alacrity. He had already severed relations with Germany on July 2, 1941, the very day after Hitler had formally recognized the Wang Jingwei puppet government in an attempt to appease Japan and encourage it to finally implement the Southern Advance. Now, on December 8, 1941, just one day after the Pearl Harbor attack, Chiang took the decisive step of formally declaring war against the Axis powers, Germany, Italy, and Japan. This declaration transformed China's position from a beleaguered nation fighting a war of survival into a formal member of the Allied coalition. Chiang had seized the opportunity that Pearl Harbor presented to ally China with a genuinely strong power against Japan, a gambit that fundamentally altered the diplomatic weight and international legitimacy of both the Chinese government and the Chinese cause. From a strategic perspective, the Japanese had committed what Chiang and others immediately recognized as a catastrophic blunder. On the operational level, Pearl Harbor was indeed a devastating tactical success, the American Pacific Fleet was crippled, and Japanese forces now enjoyed temporary naval superiority throughout much of the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Yet strategically, Pearl Harbor represented a failure of epic proportions, a miscalculation rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of the intangibles of warfare: what motivated the Chinese people and what motivated the Americans. The Chinese had understood, through four years of brutal conflict, that warfare was about more than territorial conquest and resource acquisition. It was about will, about endurance, about the capacity to absorb punishment and continue fighting. The Japanese had learned this lesson imperfectly in China, where despite overwhelming military advantages they had been unable to force a decisive conclusion or compel Chinese surrender. The Americans would teach the Japanese this lesson even more emphatically. The attack on American sailors in Hawaii instantly galvanized the American population to prosecute an unlimited war, with Tokyo itself as the ultimate destination of American counterattack. While Americans would remember the "date that will live in infamy" primarily because of the assault on Pearl Harbor itself, the strategic consequence was that Japanese actions in Hawaii had introduced numerous new adversaries into the Pacific conflict: not only the United States, but also Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. These additions transformed what had been, from the Japanese perspective, a regional conflict with manageable parameters into a global war that Japan could not possibly win through any conceivable means. What made this particularly disastrous for Japan was the context in which the new theater had been opened. Japan was already deeply mired in a quagmire in China—a "malignant quagmire," as one observer would later characterize it, that had consumed vast resources, inflicted enormous casualties, and failed to produce decisive victory. In military strategy, it is sometimes wise to open a new theater in order to attack an enemy from an additional and unexpected direction, thereby dispersing their forces and creating new challenges for them to manage. But opening a new theater that introduces an entirely new, powerful adversary, and doing so when one is already overextended in an existing theater is a prescription for strategic catastrophe. This was precisely what Japan had done at Pearl Harbor. Chiang Kai-shek understood the magnitude of Japan's miscalculation with crystalline clarity. He understood that whatever the military complexities that lay ahead, whatever the challenges of coordinating with Western allies, and whatever the limitations of Western military assistance to China might be, the fundamental equation had changed. The United States would ultimately defeat Japan. The Chinese did not need to defeat Japan by themselves; they merely needed to survive long enough for American industrial and military capacity to grind the Japanese military into defeat. In the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Chinese and American officials moved swiftly to formalize the alliance and establish the mechanisms of wartime cooperation. Roosevelt asked Chiang Kai-shek to serve as commander in chief of the Allied forces in the China theater, a designation that recognized China's central role in the Pacific War and elevated Chiang's international standing to something he had long sought: a position as an equal partner in the Allied coalition, a seat at the "top table of global decision-making" alongside Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. To support this expanded role and to ensure effective coordination of the military effort, Roosevelt dispatched Lieutenant General Joseph W. Stilwell to China. Stilwell was not chosen randomly; he brought fifteen years of experience in China, a deep familiarity with the country, its military, and its complexities that few American officers possessed. Stilwell was appointed to serve simultaneously as the U.S. government's military representative in China, as chief of staff of the China Theater, and as commander in chief of the American forces in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater. This appointment established the framework for joint Chinese-American military cooperation and represented an American commitment to the Asian theater that, while never receiving the resources devoted to the European theater, nonetheless signified recognition of China's strategic importance. Trust me, going forward we will be having a lot of time dedicated to the hilarious bromance / bro hatred of Vinegar Joe and Peanut.  Yet the formation of an alliance and the establishment of command structures was easier than the practical implementation of military cooperation. The fundamental challenge that would plague Chinese-American relations throughout the war emerged almost immediately: the problem of delivering military assistance to China. Before Pearl Harbor, the United States and China had reached agreement on three major points regarding military assistance. First, the United States would provide training and technical support to assist China in establishing a modern air force. Second, the United States would provide training and equipment for a ground army consisting of thirty divisions. Third, the United States would assist China in constructing railways and highways from Yunnan to Burma, along with the provision of rolling stock and vehicles to support these new transportation routes. These were ambitious plans, reflecting the extent of Chinese need and American willingness to support the Chinese war effort. However, the outbreak of the Pacific War threw American plans into disarray. The fundamental strategic doctrine guiding American policy was the "Europe first" strategy, which meant that the European theater and the defeat of Nazi Germany received priority over the Pacific theater. Additionally, China's geography made it extraordinarily difficult to supply. China could only be reached through supply lines of extraordinary length and complexity, either through the port of Rangoon in Burma and then overland via the treacherous Yunnan-Burma Road, or through the port of Hong Kong, which immediately fell into Japanese hands after Pearl Harbor. The first Sino-American loan agreement had specified that the United States would deliver commodities worth $45 million to China in 1941. However, shipping shortages meant that only $26 million worth of commodities actually left the United States. These commodities were shipped to the transit port of Rangoon, where a massive traffic jam developed as supplies accumulated faster than they could be distributed onward to China. Along the Yunnan-Burma Road, that "much-contested life line" as it came to be known, conditions were chaotic. The road had always been a source of trouble: it was long, extraordinarily difficult to keep in repair, fantastically dangerous to travel, and too narrow to permit much volume of traffic at any one time. Due to mismanagement and pilfering, the commodities that were shipped out of Burma suffered heavy losses in transit, and only one-third of them eventually arrived in Chongqing. Yet the United States had already established one valuable asset in China that could be deployed relatively quickly: an air force nucleus. Just before Pearl Harbor, a group of American aviators had been formally organized in Chongqing who worked on volunteer status for China under the command of Colonel Claire Chennault, an American aviation officer who served as instructor at the Chinese Air Force Cadet School. Some of these men had been flying in China since the Kuomintang first began purchasing American aircraft, having come to demonstrate the aircraft and remaining to pilot and teach. Others had hurried to China after being released from their volunteer service in Spain, where they had gained combat experience during the Spanish Civil War. It was a familiar joke that pilots from both sides of the Spanish conflict were likely to meet and work side by side in China, but political convictions proved immaterial to these professional aviators, they got on well enough with each other, mercenaries of the twentieth century united by their expertise and their willingness to fight. When American traffic on the Burma Road swelled in volume and became chaotic, with cargo lost to pilfering and trucks breaking down from mishandling, the air freight service into Chongqing became increasingly vital to maintaining Chinese military capabilities. The backbone of this organization was American, and it had been in operation for months before the Japanese attack. Halfway down the Burma Road, over the border in Burma, was a plane factory backed by American and Chinese capital, providing some degree of repair and maintenance capacity for the aircraft operating out of China. Recognizing the strategic value of these experienced aviators and the need to formalize and expand their operations, American and Chinese officials moved quickly to incorporate this volunteer group, formally known as the American Volunteer Group or "Flying Tigers," into the U.S. Army Air Force. This transformation of volunteer aviators into official American military personnel represented a commitment to providing air support to Chinese operations, recognizing that air power could compensate to some degree for Chinese numerical disadvantages in ground combat. In Chongqing, it was clear that among the United Nations fighting Japan, America was the only one taking China seriously, the only one prepared to invest significant resources in Chinese military capabilities and the Chinese war effort. Yet Pearl Harbor brought consequences that extended far beyond the strategic and diplomatic spheres. For Western civilians living in China,missionaries, teachers, doctors, businessmen, and journalists, the attack represented a catastrophic change in their status and their fate. Until December 8, 1941, Westerners residing in China had maintained a curious protected status as foreign neutrals, even in areas nominally controlled by the Japanese. This status had provided them with a measure of distance from, and protection against, the grinding reality of the war that had devastated Chinese populations. For a century, Americans had been part of an imperial presence in China, sometimes benevolent, sometimes violent, but always ultimately under Western control. That world came to an abrupt end on December 8, 1941. All across eastern China, Americans and Britons were rounded up and interned. The International Settlement of Shanghai—that remarkable oasis of neutrality that had persisted in the midst of a war-torn city—was now reunified under Japanese control. Thousands of foreigners with Allied nationality were sent to holding camps scattered throughout occupied China. Some, like the eleven-year-old British boy Jim Ballard, would remain imprisoned for the remainder of the war, enduring hunger, cold, and disease in camps like Longhua, which housed approximately 2,000 detainees. Forty years later, as the novelist J. G. Ballard, he would memorialized this experience in his semi-autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun. For missionaries like Velva Brown, the evacuation process was degrading and final. The missionary staff were permitted to pack no more than three suitcases with their belongings. As they prepared to leave, Japanese and Taiwanese "sightseeing" parties arrived to decide which houses they might want to occupy. The journey home aboard crowded Japanese ships offered no concessions to status or dignity; ambassadors, consuls, merchants, and missionaries alike were given "bed-sized strips of Chinese matting which we spread side by side on the iron floor of the hold," as Brown recorded. The humiliation was compounded by the finality of it all. For many, their decades-long presence in China was ending not in orderly retreat but in hasty evacuation, leaving behind "servants, many of whom had been with us for fifteen or twenty years." Despite these immediate human tragedies, the strategic transformation that Pearl Harbor wrought for China was undeniable. Chiang Kai-shek now embarked on an entirely new sort of life, heavily involved with the leaders and generals of the Western powers. He held diplomatic discussions with the leaders of the United Nations and military planning sessions with Western generals. In these unfamiliar circumstances, he did his best to live up to the Confucian ideal of the gentleman, seldom permitting the mask to slip—though the pressure of these new responsibilities and the intoxicating combination of vindication and anxiety would occasionally prove too much even for his considerable self-control. Within weeks of Pearl Harbor, Chiang demonstrated the value he could bring to the new alliance. He visited India and spoke with the leaders of the Indian independence struggle as an ally and friend, as a fellow non-European speaking to others seeking to escape from colonialism and imperial domination. He joined the Allies in their first joint campaign, not in China but in the jungles of neighboring Burma, committing Chinese forces to operations outside China's borders in support of the broader Allied military strategy. Yet the price that Chiang would pay for China's belated entry into the global alliance against the Axis powers would prove to be a heavy one. Chiang desperately needed his new American and British partners, but accepting this alliance would unleash forces within Chinese society that would threaten the very basis of his political control. The complexities of this bargain would become most visible in the four-year struggle between Chiang and General Joseph Warren Stilwell, the American officer who would become simultaneously his chief of staff and the administrator of American military assistance to China. This relationship, shaped by mutual suspicion, different strategic visions, and incompatible political agendas, would define Chinese-American military cooperation during the Pacific War and would have profound implications extending far beyond the battlefields of Asia. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Pearl Harbor's shock reverberated through Asia. Japan's assault on Hawaii, combined with invasions of Burma, the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island, inadvertently transformed regional conflict into global war. Chiang Kai-shek, vindicated after four years of isolation fighting Japan, embraced American alliance with profound relief. The U.S. committed military aid, appointed General Stilwell as chief of staff, and recognized China as a co-belligerent. For Chiang, this partnership brought diplomatic status but also internal tensions that would define the Pacific War's final chapter.

4 Hours and 39 MinutesPG-13Thomas777 is a revisionist historian and a fiction writer.This is the complete audio of a short series Thomas777 did on the Spanish Civil War.Thomas' SubstackRadio Free Chicago - T777 and J BurdenThomas777 MerchandiseThomas' Book "Steelstorm Pt. 1"Thomas' Book "Steelstorm Pt. 2"Thomas on TwitterThomas' CashApp - $7homas777Pete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

3 Hours and 53 MinutesPG-13Karl Dahl is an author specializing in the Spanish Civil War and historical "fiction."Karl and Pete did a brief series that provides a summary of the events leading up to, during, and following the Spanish Civil War. This includes the recent Livestream Q&A.Faction: With the CrusadersKarl's SubstackKarl's MerchPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

7 Hours and 53 MinutesPG-13These are the episodes concentrating on specific aspects of the Spanish Civil War plus the episode reading chapter 7 of The Last Crusdae.Correcting the Narrative on the Spanish Civil WarRight-Wing Factional Unity in the Spanish Civil WarThe Weaponry of the Spanish Civil WarPete Reads Warren H Carroll's 'The Last Crusade' Part 7The 'Left' Factions of the Spanish Civil War Faction: With the CrusadersKarl's SubstackKarl's MerchPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

4 Hours and 52 MinutesPG-13These are continuing episodes concentrating on specific aspects of the Spanish Civil War.Episode 1286: Learning from the Martyrdom of José Calvo Sotelo w/ Karl DahlEpisode 1291: Women in the Spanish Civil War w/ Karl DahlEpisode 1322 and 1323: The Spanish Civil War - Radicalizing a Moderate Socialist w/ Karl Dahl and MorghurFaction: With the CrusadersKarl's SubstackKarl's MerchPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link!A 500-foot granite cross rises north of Madrid, and underneath it lies a story most of us were never taught to see straight. The Spanish Civil War is usually packaged as a clash between fascist generals and a democratic republic, with Hemingway and Orwell standing in for the whole moral picture. Today I walk through historian Warren Carroll's counterclaim from The Last Crusade: that the core conflict is faith against revolution, and that once you follow the evidence, the familiar narrative starts to invert.We trace the five-year runway to 1936: church burnings, anti-Catholic laws, and the Popular Front's own revolutionary promises, followed by a country slipping into open political violence. Then we hit the moment that makes “normal politics” feel impossible: the murder of opposition leader José Calvo Sotelo by state security forces. From there the focus shifts to Navarre's Carlists and the religious framing that turns a rising into what Carroll calls a crusade, complete with confession, Communion, hymns, and the Sacred Heart.The hardest section is the one Carroll says the modern world prefers to minimize: the systematic persecution of the Catholic Church in Republican zones, the disappearance of public Mass, and the martyr stories, including Barbastro. We also look at the siege of the Alcazar of Toledo and why symbolic promises can outweigh tactical advantage, then follow Carroll's documentation of Soviet influence, the NKVD presence, and Spain's gold shipped to the Soviet Union. Finally, I deal directly with Nationalist abuses and Carroll's argument about judging a war's original cause versus the sins committed within it.If you care about Spanish Civil War history, Catholic persecution in Spain, Franco-era memory, or how propaganda shapes what becomes “common knowledge,” this one will stick with you. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend who thinks they already know this war, and leave a review with the question you can't stop turning over.Support the showGet 10% off an amazing Black Monk Rosary by going to https://www.blackmonkrosaries.com/?ref=AVOIDINGBABYLON and using code AVOIDINGBABYLON at checkout!Check out our sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order!Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1https://www.avoidingbabylon.comMerchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.comLocals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.comFull Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribeRSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

Peter Stansky, Professor of History, Emeritus at Stanford University and author of The Socialist Patriot: George Orwell and War, explores the life and political evolution of George Orwell (born Eric Blair). Born in India in 1903 to a family in the "official classes," Orwell's early identity was shaped by the British Empire and his education at St Cyprian's and Eton. Stansky argues that Orwell's experiences during World War I fostered an intense patriotism, which he distinguished from nationalism as a love for one's country without the desire to impose its will on others. Orwell's career shifted from serving as an imperial police officer in Burma to living in poverty in London and Paris to understand class dynamics. A defining moment occurred during the Spanish Civil War, where he was wounded while fighting for the POUM. This experience transformed him into a convinced democratic socialist while simultaneously making him a fierce anti-communist after witnessing Soviet-backed betrayals. During World War II, Orwell worked for the BBC and wrote The Lion and the Unicorn, arguing that England must become socialist to win the war. His final years were marked by personal tragedy and failing health as he wrote his most famous works, Animal Farm and 1984. Stansky concludes that these masterpieces were not anti-socialist, but rather warnings about the corrupting nature of power and the betrayal of revolutionary ideals by leaders who prioritize maintaining control over the welfare of the people. (1)1940 GEORGE (ERIC BLAIR) ORWELL

A hand-held fan donated to the Museum of Vancouver tells the story of Canadian workers who volunteered to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War. Its wooden struts bear the signatures of loggers, miners, and trade unionists from British Columbia who traveled thousands of miles to defend Spain's democratically elected government. From the On the Line: Stories of BC Workers podcast, historian David York explores the lives behind those names and the labor movement's long tradition of international solidarity. At a time when authoritarian movements are once again on the rise, their story is a powerful reminder that the fight for democracy and workers' rights knows no borders. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory  

This week on Labor Radio/Podcast Weekly, Boiling Point explores hospitality-worker organizing in Cincinnati and celebrates its 100th episode; Blue Collar News launches a new series on Native workers in Montana's skilled trades; Wealthy Ironworker decodes construction contracts; and Re:Work follows an Indian auto-rickshaw driver who became a union leader. Plus, On the Line tells the story of Canadian volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, while The Workers' Mic covers the Ashland Specialty Chemicals strike and the fight against wage theft. Plus more Shows You Should Know. Subscribe, listen, and follow us at laborradionetwork.org #LaborRadioPod #1u #UnionStrong #WorkersVoices #SolidarityMedia @AFLCIO Help us build sonic solidarity by clicking on the share button below. Highlights from labor radio and podcast shows around the country, part of the national Labor Radio Podcast Network of shows focusing on working people's issues and concerns. Produced by Chris Garlock, Patrick Dixon and Harold Phillips.

*This a preview of the newest episode of our Patreon show, Film's Cool* This month we're discussing The Devil's Backbone. A 2001 Spanish-language gothic horror film directed by Guillermo del Toro, and written by del Toro, David Muñoz, and Antonio Trashorras. After Carlos, a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War, arrives at an ominous boys' orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets which he must uncover.Links for more info on the discussed poem, “In Memoriam A.H.H.,” by Alfred Lord Tennyson:https://amberinkwell.tumblr.com/post/76613264379/be-near-me-when-my-light-is-lowhttps://poets.org/poem/memoriam-h-hJoin our Patreon and get access to our Patreon exclusive show "Films Cool!" for as little as $3 a month!https://www.patreon.com/twodustyboysEmail us at twodustyboys@gmail.comDon't forget to rate, review, and leave a comment for us on the platform of your choice. Thanks! We love you!Content warning: Not Safe for work or children... unless they're coolSupport the show

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.This week, we mark 90 years since the start of the Spanish Civil War. Our guest is historian Professor Sir Paul Preston, who explains how the conflict transformed Spain and paved the way for the rise of General Francisco Franco. We hear the story of a young refugee who fled the fighting but later returned home while the war was still under way.We then travel to the Canadian Arctic, where the Inuit fought for greater control over their land and way of life. Their campaign would eventually lead to the creation of Nunavut, Canada's newest and largest territory.We also hear the story behind ‘The Kiss of Life', the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph that captured a life-saving rescue.From Turkey, we hear memories of the failed military coup of July 2016, a night of violence that left hundreds dead. Plus, the story of the Birkin bag, the oversized handbag created in the 1980s that became one of the world's most coveted fashion accessories.And from Sporting Witness, why do thousands of sports fans around the world suddenly stand up, throw their arms into the air and sit down again? We discover the origins of the Mexican wave and how it became a global sporting tradition.Contributors: Professor Sir Paul Preston – historian, author and professor at London School of Economics Paul Quassa- Inuit politician and activist JD Thompson- American lineman in ‘The Kiss of Life' photograph Can Cumhurcu - Mukhtar of Çengelköy, Istanbul Jane Birkin – creator of the Birkin bag in interviews from BBC Archive Krazy George Henderson – creator of the Mexican Wave(Photo: Spanish Civil War in September 1936. Credit: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

During the Spanish Civil War, the fascist dictator Francisco Franco rose to power.Around half a million people fled the fighting, but some chose to return even as the conflict continued.One of them was eight-year-old Felisa Umbon San Vicente. In 1937, her mother brought the family back from France to their village near Bilbao, in Spain's northern Basque Country, close to the French border.Felisa tells Ivana Davidovic about starting school and growing up during the war, as her region fell to Franco's forces.Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines' life and Omar Sharif's legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives' ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.(Photo: Felisa with her mother. Credit: Felisa Umbon San Vicente)

Splinter Parties and the Global Shadow Guest: David Pietrusza Book Title: Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR's 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal Beyond populist insurgents, Roosevelt had to contend with the Socialistand Communist parties, which held significant sway in urban centers. The Socialists, led by Norman Thomas, appealed to the intellectual "proto-faction" in New York City, drawing hundreds of thousands of votes. More complex was the role of the Communist Party USA, led by Earl Browder, who was hand-picked by Stalin for his compliance. Under Stalin's"Popular Front" strategy to combat Hitler, the Communists shifted from attacking Roosevelt as a "tool of Wall Street" to offering a deceptive endorsement. Browder realized an open endorsement would be the "kiss of death," so the party ran its own campaign while focusing its firepower on Roosevelt's opponents. This radicalism extended to the Midwest with the Farmer-Labor Party, led by figures like Minnesota Governor Floyd Olson. Olson, a radical agrarian who also harbored presidential ambitions for 1940, presided over a volatile political climate where political violence was not uncommon. These movements reflected a "different political geography" where radical agrarianism and urban socialism threatened to peel away parts of the Democratic electorate. Roosevelt remained wary of these factions, particularly in New York and California, where they were most active. Internationally, the brewing Spanish Civil War and the rise of European dictators added urgency to the domestic political landscape, as the Communists sought to keep Roosevelt in power as a potential ally against fascism. (4)

This week marks 90 years since the start of the Spanish Civil War. In July 1936, a rebel general, Francisco Franco, led a military coup against Spain's Republican government. It triggered a conflict that tore the country apart, drew in fighters and writers from across the world and claimed half a million lives. William Crawley explores how Spain remembers, and how it still argues about, its bloodiest modern chapter.  And he'll ask why Pope Leo's visit to the Sagrada Família last month passed over the war in silence. Presenter: William Crawley Producer on location: Dan Tierney Sound engineer on location: Ash Jones Production Co-ordinator: Hattie Valentine Studio producers: Catherine Murray & James Leesley Editor: Chloe Walker Studio Managers: Nat Stokes & Ben Houghton

Greg Jenner is joined in medieval Spain by historian Professor Nora Berend and comedian Toussaint Douglass to learn about the colourful life and afterlife of the warrior known as El Cid.El Cid – real name Rodrigo Díaz – was a mercenary in eleventh-century Spain who fought for both Christian kings and Muslim rulers before setting himself up as ruler of Valencia. This episode explores his dramatic life in the period before religious divisions were key on the Iberian Peninsula, and an ambitious warrior might fight for whoever would pay him. It then traces the legend that grew up around him after his death, taking in the medieval romances written about El Cid, the surprising role his bones played in the Napoleonic wars, his appropriation by General Franco after the Spanish Civil War, and even the classic Hollywood film starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren.This is a radio edit of the original podcast episode. For the full-length version, please look further back in the feed.Hosted by: Greg Jenner Research by: Adam Simcox Written by: Adam Simcox, Dr Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Dr Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner Produced by: Dr Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner Audio Producer: Steve Hankey Production Coordinator: Gill Huggett Senior Producer: Dr Emma Nagouse Executive Editor: Philip Sellars

4 Hours and 39 MinutesPG-13Thomas777 is a revisionist historian and a fiction writer.This is the complete audio of a short series Thomas777 did on the Spanish Civil War.Thomas' SubstackRadio Free Chicago - T777 and J BurdenThomas777 MerchandiseThomas' Book "Steelstorm Pt. 1"Thomas' Book "Steelstorm Pt. 2"Thomas on TwitterThomas' CashApp - $7homas777Pete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

Martial Art Skills of Oscar Wilde, White Good Supremacist, Free Sausage Breakfast, Screaming Plugins - Yellify, Whisper War, The Jerking Off the Balls Revelation - What You See Isn't Real in Videos, Ready to Find Out Recycling Is the Worst Thing for the Environment, Wet Sand Is the Arse of the World You Can Slap, Which Countries We're Fighting in the Spanish Civil War, Head Widening Trend, Hunting Giraffes Is Like Shooting Clowns, Hunting Tigers Execution Style, Woman-Made Climate ChangeYou can purchase A Listener hats by emailing twointhethinktank@gmail.comCatch up on the 500th episode hereCheck out the sketch spreadsheet by Will Runt hereAnd visit the Think Tank Institute website:Check out our comics on instagram with Peader Thomas at Pants IllustratedOrder Gustav & Henri from Andy and Pete's very own online shopYou can support the pod by chipping in to our patreon here (thank you!)Join the other TITTT scholars on the TITTT discord server hereHey, why not listen to Al's meditation/comedy podcast ShusherAlasdair Tremblay-Birchall: @alasdairtb and instaAnd you can find us on the Facebook right here(Oh, and we love you) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How does the Solera system give every glass of sherry centuries of history? How does Sherry's "second terroir" shape the wine just as much as the vineyard itself? Why should every great wine cellar have mature, dry Sherry? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Ben Howkins, who has just published a new book on Sherry. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Giveaway Two of you are going to win a copy of Ben Howkin's terrific book, Sherry: Maligned, Misunderstood, Magnificent! To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you've posted a review of the podcast. I'll choose two people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights How did Ben win one of the wine world's most prestigious scholarships with a single word? Why does Ben still remember his very first glass of Fino Sherry more than 60 years later? What makes the Solera system one of the most remarkable ageing methods in the wine world? How can every bottle of Sherry contain traces of wines made generations ago? Can the position of a single barrel inside a bodega really change the taste of the wine? What makes old Amontillado sherry such a thrilling wine to taste? Why do the chalky white soils of Jerez have so much in common with Champagne and southern England? What are the key differences between the fortified wines Port and Sherry? How did the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War shape Ben's first impressions of Jerez? What might you be surprised to discover about the world's greatest Sherries? What does "en rama" mean, and why are Sherry lovers so excited whenever they see it on a bottle? Why is Palo Cortado considered the most mysterious style of Sherry?   About Ben Howkins Ben Howkins is widely regarded as the UK's leading writer and expert on port and sherry. In 1963, he became the youngest recipient of the Vintners Scholarship, an experience that took him across Europe's vineyards and helped shape his lifelong passion for wine education, particularly fortified and dessert wines. A prolific author, he has written extensively for both consumer and trade publications. His books include Rich, Rare & Red, Real Men Drink Port… and Ladies Do Too!, Sherry and Adventures in the Wine Trade. He is a member of the Vintners' Company and has lectured for the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, where he also served as a Trustee. An international wine judge and public speaker, he has led vineyard tours across Europe and South America and promoted wine globally, including in the USA and China. He is co-founder of the Royal Tokaji Wine Company and a key figure in reviving Tokaji Aszú's global reputation.         To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/397.

3 Hours and 53 MinutesPG-13Karl Dahl is an author specializing in the Spanish Civil War and historical "fiction."Karl and Pete did a brief series that provides a summary of the events leading up to, during, and following the Spanish Civil War. This includes the recent Livestream Q&A.Faction: With the CrusadersKarl's SubstackKarl's MerchPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

7 Hours and 53 MinutesPG-13These are the episodes concentrating on specific aspects of the Spanish Civil War plus the episode reading chapter 7 of The Last Crusdae.Correcting the Narrative on the Spanish Civil WarRight-Wing Factional Unity in the Spanish Civil WarThe Weaponry of the Spanish Civil WarPete Reads Warren H Carroll's 'The Last Crusade' Part 7The 'Left' Factions of the Spanish Civil War Faction: With the CrusadersKarl's SubstackKarl's MerchPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

4 Hours and 52 MinutesPG-13These are continuing episodes concentrating on specific aspects of the Spanish Civil War.Episode 1286: Learning from the Martyrdom of José Calvo Sotelo w/ Karl DahlEpisode 1291: Women in the Spanish Civil War w/ Karl DahlEpisode 1322 and 1323: The Spanish Civil War - Radicalizing a Moderate Socialist w/ Karl Dahl and MorghurFaction: With the CrusadersKarl's SubstackKarl's MerchPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

Today's Mystery: After returning to New York following years of imprisonment during the Spanish Civil War, John McKittrick learns that a close friend has died under suspicious circumstances. As he investigates, he finds himself caught in a dangerous web of espionage, murder, and betrayal connected to secrets from his wartime past.Original Radio Broadcast Date: February 14, 1944Originating from HollywoodStarred: Robert Young as John McKittrick, Maureen O'Hara as Elma Don, and Walter Slezak as Dr. Scoss.Also featuring Charles Seal, Charlotte Treadway, Ed Emerson, George Sorel, Griff Barnett, Howard McNear, Jay Novello, John McIntire, Norman Field, and Rene Gussaire.Produced by Cecil B. DeMille.Support the show monthly at patreon.greatdetectives.netPatreon Supporter of the Day: Jeff, Patreon supporter since December 2015.Support the show on a one-time basis at support.greatdetectives.netMail a donation to: Adam Graham, PO Box 15913, Boise, Idaho 83715Take the listener survey at survey.greatdetectives.netGive us a call 208-991-4783Become one of our friends on Facebook at facebook.com/radiodetectivesFollow us on Instagram at instagram.com/greatdetectivesFollow us on Twitter/X at twitter.com/radiodetectivesJoin us again tomorrow for another detective drama from the Golden Age of Radio.

Today's Mystery: After returning to New York following years of imprisonment during the Spanish Civil War, John McKittrick learns that a close friend has died under suspicious circumstances. As he investigates, he finds himself caught in a dangerous web of espionage, murder, and betrayal connected to secrets from his wartime past.Original Radio Broadcast Date: February 14, 1944Originating from HollywoodStarred: Robert Young as John McKittrick, Maureen O'Hara as Elma Don, and Walter Slezak as Dr. Scoss.Also featuring Charles Seal, Charlotte Treadway, Ed Emerson, George Sorel, Griff Barnett, Howard McNear, Jay Novello, John McIntire, Norman Field, and Rene Gussaire.Produced by Cecil B. DeMille.Support the show monthly at patreon.greatdetectives.netPatreon Supporter of the Day: Jeff, Patreon supporter since December 2015.Support the show on a one-time basis at support.greatdetectives.netMail a donation to: Adam Graham, PO Box 15913, Boise, Idaho 83715Take the listener survey at survey.greatdetectives.netGive us a call 208-991-4783Become one of our friends on Facebook at facebook.com/radiodetectivesFollow us on Instagram at instagram.com/greatdetectivesFollow us on Twitter/X at twitter.com/radiodetectives

Reflecting on the year 1860, Germanicus characterizes the American Civil War as an authoritarian suppression of the South by rigid abolitionists who sought to replace southern institutions with a utopian vision. He draws a direct parallel between those nineteenth-century radicals and modern "woke progressives," claiming both share an authoritarian mindset that views their opponents as "evil" rather than merely disagreeable. Germanicus warns that this drive to "transform" the nation through force and the refusal to seek true reconciliation mirrors the unresolved tensions of the Spanish Civil War. He concludes that by using the past to ensure control of the future rather than learning its lessons, the nation risks entering a cycle of "endless strife" and permanent internal conflict. (3)2808 BOSTON

4 Hours and 39 MinutesPG-13Thomas777 is a revisionist historian and a fiction writer.This is the complete audio of a short series Thomas777 did on the Spanish Civil War.Thomas' SubstackRadio Free Chicago - T777 and J BurdenThomas777 MerchandiseThomas' Book "Steelstorm Pt. 1"Thomas' Book "Steelstorm Pt. 2"Thomas on TwitterThomas' CashApp - $7homas777Pete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

Elena Poniatowska, Mexico's most celebrated journalist and one of the most significant literary voices in the Spanish-speaking world, argues in this conversation that the crisis of contemporary journalism is inseparable from the collapse of critical reading—and that both are symptoms of a deeper cultural abandonment. Born in Paris in 1932 to a French-Polish father and Mexican mother, Poniatowska contends that her formation as a writer was shaped by displacement, by learning to listen to those rendered voiceless by history, and by understanding that journalism must be an act of solidarity before it is anything else. Widely credited with helping to establish the genre of testimonio in Latin American letters, she transformed the voices of the marginalised into literature that forced an entire nation to confront its own silence. She maintains that her landmark work La Noche de Tlatelolco was not a journalistic achievement but a moral obligation, and reflects on her decision to refuse the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize, asking who would award the dead. Poniatowska insists that the greatest threat to literature and journalism today is not artificial intelligence but the disappearance of patience—the willingness to sit with a text, a story, or a life long enough for meaning to emerge. At 94, she affirms her belief in the innate goodness of human beings as not a sentiment but a necessity.Elena Poniatowska, la periodista más célebre de México y una de las voces literarias más significativas del mundo hispanohablante, sostiene en esta conversación que la crisis del periodismo contemporáneo es inseparable del colapso de la lectura crítica—y que ambos son síntomas de un abandono cultural más profundo. Nacida en París en 1932 de padre franco-polaco y madre mexicana, Poniatowska afirma que su formación como escritora estuvo marcada por el desplazamiento, por aprender a escuchar a quienes la historia había silenciado, y por comprender que el periodismo debe ser ante todo un acto de solidaridad. Ampliamente reconocida por haber contribuido a establecer el género del testimonio en las letras latinoamericanas, transformó las voces de los marginados en literatura que obligó a una nación entera a confrontar su propio silencio. Sostiene que su obra emblemática La Noche de Tlatelolco no fue un logro periodístico sino una obligación moral, y reflexiona sobre su decisión de rechazar el Premio Xavier Villaurrutia, preguntando quién iba a premiar a los muertos. Poniatowska insiste en que la mayor amenaza para la literatura y el periodismo hoy no es la inteligencia artificial sino la desaparición de la paciencia—la disposición a permanecer con un texto, una historia o una vida el tiempo suficiente para que emerja el significado. A los 94 años, reafirma su creencia en la bondad innata de los seres humanos no como un sentimiento sino como una necesidad.English transcript:SAVAGE MINDS — Elena PoniatowskaJulian Vigo (00:00:15):Welcome to Savage Minds.Julian Vigo (00:00:26):I am your host, Julian Vigo.Julian Vigo (00:00:30):Today's guest is Elena Poniatowska Amor,Julian Vigo (00:00:33):daughter of a French father of Polish origin, Jean E.Julian Vigo (00:00:37):Poniatowski, and Mexican mother Paula Amor.Julian Vigo (00:00:41):She was born in Paris in 1932.Julian Vigo (00:00:46):She has practiced journalism since 1953 at the newspapers El Día, Excélsior, Novedades, and La Jornada.Julian Vigo (00:00:57):She is the first woman to receive the National Journalism Prize.Julian Vigo (00:01:02):Among her works is La Noche de Tlatelolco,Julian Vigo (00:01:05):a classic since its publication, for which she was awarded the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize,Julian Vigo (00:01:12):which she refused, asking who was going to award the dead.Julian Vigo (00:01:17):Her novels and stories include La Flor de Lis,Julian Vigo (00:01:20):De Noche Vienes and Tlapalería,Julian Vigo (00:01:24):Paseo de la Reforma,Julian Vigo (00:01:26):Hasta No Verte Jesús Mío,Julian Vigo (00:01:28):The Life of a Mexican Soldadera,Julian Vigo (00:01:31):Querido Diego Te Abraza Quiela, Tinísima, winner of the Mazatlán Prize in 1992, La Piel del Cielo,Julian Vigo (00:01:40):winner of the Alfaguara Novel Prize in 2001, and El Tren Pasa Primero,Julian Vigo (00:01:48):about the lives of Mexican railway workers,Julian Vigo (00:01:52):winner of the Rómulo Gallegos International Novel Prize in 2007. Leonora won the Premio Biblioteca Breve Seix Barral in 2011. El Universo o Nada (2013) is the biography ofJulian Vigo (00:02:07):astrophysicist Guillermo Haro. Ondas de la Niña Mala is her first poetry collection, andJulian Vigo (00:02:14):her children's books include Boda en Chimalistac, La Vendedora de Nubes,Julian Vigo (00:02:20):El Burro que Metió la Pata, Sansimonsi, illustrated by Rafael Barajas el Fisgón, and ElJulian Vigo (00:02:27):Niño Estrellero by Fernando Robles, and El Charito Cantor by Osvaldo Hernández.Julian Vigo (00:02:34):Her most recent novel, El Amante Polaco, portrays the last king of Poland, Stanisław AugustJulian Vigo (00:02:41):Poniatowski. Translated into 20 languages. Gabi Brimmer and Las Mil y Una, the story ofJulian Vigo (00:02:48):Paulina,Julian Vigo (00:02:49):address social issues.Julian Vigo (00:02:52):After receiving honorary doctorates from UNAM and UAM,Julian Vigo (00:02:57):she was awarded them from the University of Puebla,Julian Vigo (00:03:01):Sonora, Estado de México,Julian Vigo (00:03:04):Guerrero,Julian Vigo (00:03:06):Chiapas, and Puerto Rico.Julian Vigo (00:03:09):She also received honorary degrees from the New School for Social Research in New York,Julian Vigo (00:03:13):Manhattanville College, and Florida Atlantic University in the United States, and fromJulian Vigo (00:03:19):Paris 8,Julian Vigo (00:03:19):La Sorbonne, and Pau-Pyrénées, as well as the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for Journalism atJulian Vigo (00:03:27):Columbia University, New York, in 2004, and from the Universidad Complutense, Madrid, inJulian Vigo (00:03:32):2015.Julian Vigo (00:03:34):She received the French Legion of Honour at the rank of Officer, the Gabriela Mistral Prize from Chile, and inJulian Vigo (00:03:41):2006, the Courage Award from the International Women's Media Foundation.Julian Vigo (00:03:43):In 2013 she was awardedJulian Vigo (00:03:49):the Miguel de Cervantes Prize for literature in the Spanish language, and she received theJulian Vigo (00:03:55):Belisario Domínguez Medal in 2022.Julian Vigo (00:03:58):This is the highest honour granted by the Senate of the Mexican Republic, along with theJulian Vigo (00:04:05):Carlos Fuentes International Prize for Literary Creation in the Spanish Language in 2023.(00:04:12):I welcome Elena Poniatowska to Savage Minds.Julian Vigo (00:04:19):I wanted to begin with a memory I have of you.Julian Vigo (00:04:22):In 1993,Julian Vigo (00:04:25):I think,Julian Vigo (00:04:27):or 94 —Julian Vigo (00:04:28):one of those two years —Julian Vigo (00:04:29):I was in Puebla,Julian Vigo (00:04:31):Cholula,Julian Vigo (00:04:32):teaching at the Universidad de las Américas.Julian Vigo (00:04:35):Yes.Julian Vigo (00:04:36):And you came to give a talk at an observatory — I believe it was Tonantzintla.Elena Poniatowska (00:04:44):Yes, of course.Elena Poniatowska (00:04:46):Yes, I remember it, andJulian Vigo (00:04:49):you made a great impression on me that day. But I must confess that your entire life's work made a great impression on me — not only on me. I wanted to begin with your formation, your life, because you were born in France andJulian Vigo (00:05:12):how do you remember your childhood in France, and what elements of that world did you bring with you when you arrived in Mexico in 1942?Elena Poniatowska (00:05:21):Well, thank you very much for your interest.Elena Poniatowska (00:05:29):I can tell you that I was born in 1932 in Paris, France, because my mother Paula Amor marriedElena Poniatowska (00:05:42):Juan Poniatowski, who held a noble title — that of prince —Elena Poniatowska (00:05:54):because the last king of Poland was Stanisław Poniatowski, who was, I believe, one ofElena Poniatowska (00:06:07):the lovers —Elena Poniatowska (00:06:09):one of the younger lovers of the Empress of Russia, Catherine the Great.Elena Poniatowska (00:06:21):My mother was a woman born also in Paris, of Mexican origin, who leftElena Poniatowska (00:06:32):France because of the Mexican RevolutionElena Poniatowska (00:06:36):and went to live with her parents — Pablo Amor and Elena Iturbe de Amor — inElena Poniatowska (00:06:49):Biarritz, and they later moved to Paris. My mother always spoke Spanish with a French accent. She had two sisters who also lived in France for a long time,Elena Poniatowska (00:07:07):and they were rather Frenchified. She met my father Jean Poniatowski in Paris andElena Poniatowska (00:07:20):married him, and I was born in 1932 in Paris.Elena Poniatowska (00:07:25):I would like to knowJulian Vigo (00:07:31):more about this experience, because as you probably know — especially Americans and Canadians — they think everyone wants to come to their countries. But something they don't know until they travel is that in Mexico, Honduras, and all of Latin America there is a great deal of immigration, people from every country in the world. Why not?Elena Poniatowska (00:08:01):Her mother was in France; my mother was Mexican, born in France. Her family — she had a grandmother, my mother's great-grandmother, who was Russian, and in general her father was educated in England, so they wereElena Poniatowska (00:08:29):Mexicans — Amor is a Mexican surname — but they were very closely tied to Europe. For my mother, living in Europe was very natural becauseElena Poniatowska (00:08:49):she first attended a boarding school in Switzerland, in Lausanne,Elena Poniatowska (00:08:56):and then was in Paris. At a Rothschild ball she met my father JuanElena Poniatowska (00:09:07):Poniatowski and married him in 1931,Elena Poniatowska (00:09:17):or perhaps at the beginning of 1932, because I was born on the 19th of May 1932.Elena Poniatowska (00:09:29):My sister was born in 1933.Julian Vigo (00:09:34):As a child who spoke French and had to learn Spanish, in what way did language become your first tool for survival?Elena Poniatowska (00:09:47):Well, I also know English and French. Language, for me — learning Spanish in Mexico — was obviously about communicating with people in the streetElena Poniatowska (00:09:56):and with friends at school. But French remained my mother tongue, andElena Poniatowska (00:10:03):later I dedicated myself to speaking Spanish with the people at home, with the MexicansElena Poniatowska (00:10:14):I met at school.Elena Poniatowska (00:10:23):Curiously, I attended an English school called the Windsor School, but I learned SpanishJulian Vigo (00:10:38):in the street — one always learns Spanish better in the street. You learn so much from people in Mexico. I found people very warm and open. On the other hand, for Mexicans in my country, it's not the same at all.Julian Vigo (00:10:59):What was the first moment you felt that writing was the only possible way to understand the Mexico around you?Elena Poniatowska (00:11:11):Well, I would never say it was the only possible way.Elena Poniatowska (00:11:17):I think that at twenty,Elena Poniatowska (00:11:22):twenty-one years old, returning from studying at a convent of nuns, I had theElena Poniatowska (00:11:30):good fortune to be able to start writing at a newspaper called, at that time,Elena Poniatowska (00:11:42):Excelsior.Elena Poniatowska (00:11:43):They asked me to submit a daily article,Elena Poniatowska (00:11:48):an interview,Elena Poniatowska (00:11:51):a chronicle, and I did so with enormous enthusiasm and great pleasure, because it allowed meElena Poniatowska (00:12:00):to know Mexico much better, and also to meet great figures of Mexico such asElena Poniatowska (00:12:09):Diego Rivera,Elena Poniatowska (00:12:11):José Clemente Orozco, actresses like Dolores del Río and María Félix, architects likeElena Poniatowska (00:12:20):Luis Barragán, and writers — even writers of my own generation, or slightlyElena Poniatowska (00:12:31):older than me — such as Juan Rulfo,Elena Poniatowska (00:12:38):Rosario Castellanos, Carlos Fuentes, and of course Octavio Paz.Julian Vigo (00:12:46):What a rich life! María Félix — what a figure!Julian Vigo (00:12:52):How was your experience beginning in journalism in the early 1950s in a predominantly male environment?Elena Poniatowska (00:13:05):Well, I was truly very lucky, because people were very kind andElena Poniatowska (00:13:14):even affectionate towards me. No one ever refused me an interview. I was able to reach Alfonso Reyes, Octavio Paz,Elena Poniatowska (00:13:25):the great architect Luis Barragán, José Vasconcelos the philosopher, and all were veryElena Poniatowska (00:13:40):kind and cordial with me, as were important actors like Ignacio LópezElena Poniatowska (00:13:51):Tarso,Elena Poniatowska (00:13:52):and of course those I already mentioned — Dolores del Río, María Félix — and singers, and also many visitors who came from Europe, the United States, or Latin America to perform in Mexico.Elena Poniatowska (00:14:20):Did you know El Indio Fernández?Elena Poniatowska (00:14:23):Yes,Elena Poniatowska (00:14:24):of course —Elena Poniatowska (00:14:25):I interviewed him,Elena Poniatowska (00:14:26):I knew El Indio Fernández, who by ten in the morning was already offering me a tequila, whichElena Poniatowska (00:14:35):I did not drink, as I'm not accustomed to drinking. And also many otherElena Poniatowska (00:14:47):famous actors of that era, like the comedian Cantinflas, whoseJulian Vigo (00:14:56):real name was Mario Moreno. Cantinflas — I know his work. Wow. And you were in Mexico during the same period as Luis Buñuel?Elena Poniatowska (00:15:06):Yes, I ended up with Luis Buñuel — yes, we had a great friendshipElena Poniatowska (00:15:15):because out of affection he came to have lunch at my house several times, so I saw him on manyElena Poniatowska (00:15:24):occasions. We even went together to the prison of Lecumberri to visit, for example, aElena Poniatowska (00:15:33):Colombian who had committed an offence and was imprisoned — his name wasElena Poniatowska (00:15:42):Álvaro Mutis.Julian Vigo (00:15:45):And you have lived through and narrated great social transformations.Julian Vigo (00:15:51):Do you think that today's digital democratisation of public opinion helps social justice, or does it rather dilute real struggles into mere narratives of identity and likes?Elena Poniatowska (00:16:08):Well, I think the Mexican Revolution,Elena Poniatowska (00:16:15):led by a man like Emiliano Zapata, was extraordinary in redistributing the lands and haciendas of Mexico and in giving all MexicansElena Poniatowska (00:16:32):access to better education, better formation, a better life. I consider thatElena Poniatowska (00:16:46):Emiliano Zapata was one of the great heroes of Mexico, even though he personally took away the haciendas of my grandparents, the Amors and the Iturbes.Julian Vigo (00:17:06):What did you learn from the great intellectuals of your youth?Julian Vigo (00:17:08):You mentioned Juan Rulfo, Alfonso Reyes, and many others.Julian Vigo (00:17:15):What influenced your decision to dedicate your life to letters?Elena Poniatowska (00:17:20):No, they did not influence my decision to dedicate myself to letters.Elena Poniatowska (00:17:26):I met them later.Elena Poniatowska (00:17:30):I began as a journalist, a modest journalist, at the newspaper Excelsior in 1953 —Elena Poniatowska (00:17:42):I think 1952 or 1953. Very young. I had come from an education at a convent of nuns inElena Poniatowska (00:17:53):Philadelphia, and I decidedElena Poniatowska (00:17:57):to write chronicles and interviews to get to know Mexico better. I came to know those figures through my work as a journalist, and because I could question themElena Poniatowska (00:18:14):in the language I knew and had learned as a child — at ten years old — which is Spanish. My other languages until then had beenElena Poniatowska (00:18:22):English,Elena Poniatowska (00:18:27):and French, which is my mother tongue.Julian Vigo (00:18:32):You are known for the testimonio.Julian Vigo (00:18:36):At what exact point did you feel that traditional fiction was not sufficient to capture Mexican reality?Elena Poniatowska (00:18:47):As I mentioned, I began by engaging with many valuable MexicansElena Poniatowska (00:18:54):who received me in their homes, gave me their opinions. At the same time as I received what they wished to give me,Elena Poniatowska (00:19:04):I observed how their homes were, how they treated the people around them — their wives, their children, their servants — and all of that helped meElena Poniatowska (00:19:22):to know Mexico better. I also spent a great deal of time in the streets — that is, with the poorest people, whom I was able to reachElena Poniatowska (00:19:34):through my own nature and also with the help of a great Mexican illustrator, Alberto Beltrán. In the street he made sketches of everything the Mexicans did — the newspaper vendors,Elena Poniatowska (00:19:59):the taco sellers,Elena Poniatowska (00:20:03):the women making corn tortillas by hand,Elena Poniatowska (00:20:12):the bakeries, and then the hardware stores where everything was sold — from nails toElena Poniatowska (00:20:22):cleaning cloths — and all of that was a very vital andElena Poniatowska (00:20:32):generous apprenticeship in learning to see the lives of working Mexicans.Julian Vigo (00:20:40):But it is an art — to be able to listen to people, to their voices.Julian Vigo (00:20:53):How did you learn to listen to the voice of the other?Elena Poniatowska (00:20:58):Well, I think it is a natural inclination.Elena Poniatowska (00:21:03):It is not learned.Elena Poniatowska (00:21:05):It is not forced.Elena Poniatowska (00:21:06):It is a way of being.Elena Poniatowska (00:21:10):I am far more interestedElena Poniatowska (00:21:11):in speaking of what others do, how they do it, and who they are, than in speaking of myself, my sensations, my emotions. And I have done this from a very young age, so it has become a habit — it is part of my daily life.Julian Vigo (00:21:36):Do you believe that the testimonio is essentially an act of political resistance?Elena Poniatowska (00:21:44):I think so.Elena Poniatowska (00:21:45):It helps enormously to know the thinking of those who have no power, who are not in power, who do not consider themselves political, who are not leaders — although I did have the great privilege of interviewing leaders and very important figures in Mexico,Elena Poniatowska (00:22:14):such as, for example, the Spanish refugee of the Civil War, Luis Buñuel.Julian Vigo (00:22:26):And how was the process of gathering the voice of Jesusa Palancares?Julian Vigo (00:22:32):How long did it take you to absorb her story?Elena Poniatowska (00:22:38):Well, it was a privilege. I heard her — she was doing laundry in a popular building, a building where many Mexicans lived who had noElena Poniatowska (00:22:56):economic resources. Everything she said caught my attention enormously. I approached her and asked if I could visit her at her home,Elena Poniatowska (00:23:13):which was a very poor house, obviously far from the area where I lived. And so I went toElena Poniatowska (00:23:26):see her once a week. We became friends, and she began telling me her life. And that is howElena Poniatowska (00:23:36):the novel Hasta No Verte Jesús Mío came about. When it was published,Elena Poniatowska (00:23:43):she asked me to give her ten copies to give to her friends —Elena Poniatowska (00:23:52):the bricklayers or the people she had worked with.Julian Vigo (00:24:00):And why did she choose the testimonial genre for Hasta No Verte Jesús Mío?Julian Vigo (00:24:09):It is one of the testimonial novels because —Elena Poniatowska (00:24:16):She didn't really choose it — she didn't. It was I who gathered her words andElena Poniatowska (00:24:27):assembled them in the best way I could. But she did not choose it.Elena Poniatowska (00:24:34):She could not read or write. She did not know how to read or write. But she asked for the books, and I — the cover of the book, what goes on the outside, is the Santo Niño de Atocha, a small Christ child that she liked.Julian Vigo (00:25:08):And I saw it in the street, and so I put it there so she would be happy. But I was asking you about the testimonial genre — in 1969 it was not a common thing in literature.Julian Vigo (00:25:26):How was this novel received?Julian Vigo (00:25:30):I wonder if people were confused.Julian Vigo (00:25:32):Is it a true story or is it fiction?Elena Poniatowska (00:25:35):No, it was very well received. The book was greatly liked.Elena Poniatowska (00:25:41):Immediately many editions came out and it was translated into English and French.Julian Vigo (00:25:51):And I wonder if at that time — less so today — people were confused because they did not know if it was a completely real story or partly real. Because the novel Hasta No Verte Jesús Mío was categorised as a novel.Elena Poniatowska (00:26:16):Yes, that's right, that is what it was.Elena Poniatowska (00:26:19):It is a novel based on a character — a woman who was in the Mexican Revolution, the life of a soldadera. To what extent is Jesusa an invented character or a real woman? I have said it, I have written it many times: Jesusa is a real character. After that I wroteElena Poniatowska (00:26:49):other books about other women who were also real characters. I had the joy of knowing Jesusa in person, but for example Tina Modotti, the main character ofElena Poniatowska (00:27:08):the novel Tinísima, I did not know. And other novels about other women and other characters I also did not know.Julian Vigo (00:27:22):What lessons about the resilience of Mexican women did you learn from Jesusa that remain relevant today?Elena Poniatowska (00:27:31):All the women in Mexico whom I see and engage with and encounter in the streetElena Poniatowska (00:27:41):and who come to my house — they are women who have known how to struggle and continue to struggle. For example, one woman, Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, whose son was disappeared, and who searched all of Mexico — she is obviously one of the heroines who has most caught my attention.Julian Vigo (00:28:10):And especially in recent years — almost thirty years — the femicides and the disappearances of men and women. You are still fighting for your society, and I think literary words have the power to carry reality forward. I am thinking of La Noche de Tlatelolco — that was the first book of yours I read. It is incredible. I have no words. Thank you. It is one of the best books of the twentieth century, and I teach it. It is astonishing. Can you speak about why you began that work, and also for those listening now who do not know the history of what happened in Mexico?Elena Poniatowska (00:29:03):Well, in general I can tell you that I received letters from a prisoner in the jail — Jesús Sánchez García — and I began going to Lecumberri, which was called the Black Palace of Lecumberri. It was no palace — it was a prison with bars and cells. I asked permission from the prison director — I believe his name was Martín del Campo — and he gave it to me. That is how I went to gather life stories from men, and later, at the women's prison, from women who had nothing to do with my own life, who bore no resemblance to what I hadElena Poniatowska (00:30:03):lived or what I would go on to live.Elena Poniatowska (00:30:16):That was an enormous enrichment for me, and a knowledge of an unknown Mexico that also helped me understand MexicoElena Poniatowska (00:30:31):— a Mexico to which I owe a great deal.Elena Poniatowska (00:30:35):I think that everything I am I owe to the voice, and to the gift of their voice, that the poorest Mexicans gave me — those I was able to approach over years and years,Elena Poniatowska (00:30:52):going to the prison and sometimes going to their own very poor homes, called vecindades, which were located in the very neighbourhoods where the prisons were.Julian Vigo (00:31:11):How did you manage the pain and trauma of the testimonies you heard while assembling the book?Elena Poniatowska (00:31:22):Pain is not managed. To manage something is to seek something. Pain is simply assumed and lived. So the pain is in the words written in the book.Julian Vigo (00:31:46):And why did you choose the technique of a collage of voices rather than a linear, chronological narrative for this book?Elena Poniatowska (00:31:57):I have many other books that speak even of personal stories — books that contain much of biography.Julian Vigo (00:32:13):Yes, but it is very interesting how you wove those narratives together in this book. It is very beautiful, in fact.Julian Vigo (00:32:24):Was there any moment during the writing of La Noche de Tlatelolco when you felt fear or censorship?Elena Poniatowska (00:32:33):Well, there was always the dread of entering terrain unknown to me.Elena Poniatowska (00:32:40):Ultimately, I was educated —Elena Poniatowska (00:32:45):I spent time in the United States at a convent to be educated, not to become a nun — it was called the Sacred Heart Convent.Elena Poniatowska (00:33:03):When I came out I was speaking English. My mother tongue is French. And when I left there, my strongest desire was truly to know Mexico — the country I had arrived in at the age of ten, but in which I had received an educationElena Poniatowska (00:33:30):in both English and French, not in Spanish.Julian Vigo (00:33:36):More than fifty years later, what impact do you think that book has on the collective memory of young Mexicans today?Elena Poniatowska (00:33:48):Well, I think that is a question that should be put to them.Elena Poniatowska (00:33:55):What I can say is that I have receivedElena Poniatowska (00:33:59):a great deal of affection from young people — many come to find me at my home, and I give lectures and talks with some frequency. Remember that I am already 94 years old and have lost the use of my left eye, which prevents me from seeing well. So within my limitations,Elena Poniatowska (00:34:27):I remain in contact with the people who want to see me, which for me produces great enthusiasm and which I experience as great support.Julian Vigo (00:34:42):The book you wrote is something very specific — evidently about Mexico — but it is still a book with which everyone can identify. If we look around today, where there are acts of political repression in almost every country in the world in one form or another — and I know your books are translated into many languages — I wonder whether the power of La Noche de Tlatelolco came from the form of the narration itself, not only from the fact that you confronted the government, the police, and justice. You narrated a story of the people seeking justice, yes, but literature itself was also seeking truth within its pages. There are wars everywhere, there is too much sadness. After the lockdown — which was less bad in Mexico than here in Italy — we are living through a very difficult moment. Do you sometimes think of this book as a model for dialogue, for collaboration, for moving forward together, the people united?Elena Poniatowska (00:36:09):Well, what I love about this book is that it has so many voices — many voices gathered from mothers of families, from children of political prisoners. For me it was a great learning experience to go to the prison in Mexico and see a world I did not know, to be accepted in that world, to go frequently to hear and gather the voices of political prisoners and of young people whoElena Poniatowska (00:36:52):didn't even have strong political ideas but were imprisoned because they had stolen something in a market. It meant entering a world I was completely unfamiliar with,Elena Poniatowska (00:37:13):to which I did not belong. And it was an enormous lesson — a very generous lesson — in how the lives of others can be. That is what I have dedicated myself to over many years, because I remain a journalist and continue writing about disasters such asElena Poniatowska (00:37:39):not only the massacre of the 2nd of October, but what the earthquake of 1985 meant for Mexico and the loss, for many Mexicans, of their families and their homes.Julian Vigo (00:37:59):Yes. You documented the earthquake of ‘85 — a moment when the Mexican government was completely paralysed and it was civil society that took control to rescue the city.Julian Vigo (00:38:15):Do you believe that peoples are still alone in the face of tragedy, or is that organic solidarity you described an invincible force?Elena Poniatowska (00:38:29):Yes,Elena Poniatowska (00:38:29):of course.Elena Poniatowska (00:38:30):I believe — that is why I believe in the invincible force of Mexicans, who help and support each other, who run to answer a cry for help. They are the ones who save themselves by saving others. I believe in that truth. It is a truth I lived, that I witnessed,Elena Poniatowska (00:38:57):and for me it is a lesson, a way of life.Julian Vigo (00:39:03):Does it reflect the structural abandonment of the seamstresses, the inhabitants, those who live in vecindades, and the poorest?Julian Vigo (00:39:13):How did you manage, in the midst of the chaos, the dust, and the mourning of those days, to earn the trust of people so that they would share their most painful and raw testimonies?Elena Poniatowska (00:39:30):Well, I have two physical advantages.Elena Poniatowska (00:39:32):I am small in stature. I frighten no one. No one is afraid of me. I can go anywhere. I am not someone who imposes anything at all, and I know how to listen. So by listening to others' voices, I gather them, I keep them, I memorise them,Elena Poniatowska (00:40:03):and then I put them on paper.Elena Poniatowska (00:40:06):That is the most solitary and difficult moment — writing about what happens to others,Elena Poniatowska (00:40:21):their sorrows,Elena Poniatowska (00:40:22):their joys,Elena Poniatowska (00:40:24):their defeats and also their triumphs —Elena Poniatowska (00:40:28):and making books and articles from them. Because I am also a journalist sinceElena Poniatowska (00:40:38):1953. I am now 94 years old.Julian Vigo (00:40:47):You're listening to Savage Minds.Julian Vigo (00:40:49):If you're enjoying the show, take a second to subscribe at savageminds.co.Julian Vigo (00:40:54):Feel free to comment below or drop us a line to share your thoughts.Julian Vigo (00:40:59):Support independent media today.Julian Vigo (00:41:01):Now, let's get back to it.Julian Vigo (00:41:15):Many consider that the earthquake of ‘85 not only brought down buildings but also toppled the myth of the Mexican State's absolute control — marking the true birth of modern citizenship in the country.Julian Vigo (00:41:33):From your perspective as a chronicler —Elena Poniatowska (00:41:40):I think Mexicans have always had enormous character and enormous capacity to defend themselvesElena Poniatowska (00:41:49):in spite of their own poverty, or in spite of the total absence of outside help.Elena Poniatowska (00:42:02):There was in Mexico a Mexican Revolution,Elena Poniatowska (00:42:08):a country conquered by very cruel conquerors, and yet the country has continued to forge ahead and has continued to demonstrate its bravery and courage in allElena Poniatowska (00:42:28):circumstances — one of which was, for example, the earthquake, in which the neighbours themselvesElena Poniatowska (00:42:37):helped each other before the State or the so-called government did anything.Elena Poniatowska (00:42:46):So I think it is a country with many very brave men, women, and children who save themselves, who know how to look after themselves.Elena Poniatowska (00:43:03):Of course there are people who don't know how to do it, and there are people who sometimes end upElena Poniatowska (00:43:12):in prison or in hospital. But in general Mexico is a country of very solidary people, people who help each other and defend themselves.Julian Vigo (00:43:31):What I love about your books in general is that you give voice — you shed light on the lives that are forgotten.Julian Vigo (00:43:42):Do you feel that in this book, for example, or in Nadie Me Verá Llorar, the author's voice becomes more present or closer to her characters than in your earlier works?Elena Poniatowska (00:43:56):No,Elena Poniatowska (00:43:57):I think that element is present in all my works — in Hasta No Verte Jesús Mío, in the book about the 2nd of October, in the earthquake — and it is always present in everything I still do at the newspaper where I work. I am in a certain way a chronicler and aElena Poniatowska (00:44:21):participant in the lives of other Mexicans.Julian Vigo (00:44:27):And I also notice that many of your works are about women — Tinísima, the life of Tina Modotti, a woman who lived so many lives in one. Leonora. And I wanted to ask — before we get to those books — about Querido Diego Te Abraza Quiela. Why did you choose that subject? Not only Diego Rivera but his first wife.Elena Poniatowska (00:44:59):I was moved to learn that in Paris, Angelina Beloff had gone to Mexico to seeElena Poniatowska (00:45:12):Diego Rivera, whom she had supported in Paris. He had lived with her and had livedElena Poniatowska (00:45:22):off her, because she was the one with a salary. He was a very young painter withoutElena Poniatowska (00:45:33):money, without resources. She helped him. And when she went to Mexico, she had also hadElena Poniatowska (00:45:42):the only male child that Diego Rivera ever had, who died of cold in Paris. And when she decided to go to Mexico — in a sense, to get to know the country of her lover — she decided to go to the Palacio de Bellas Artes because she knew that heElena Poniatowska (00:46:11):would be there. And he walked right past her — past the seat, one of those red velvet seats in the Palacio de Bellas Artes, called butacas, in which she was sitting — he walked past and did not even recognise her.Elena Poniatowska (00:46:40):That story struck me deeply, and that is why I decided to write the small book —Elena Poniatowska (00:46:55):it is not a very long book —Elena Poniatowska (00:46:58):called Querido Diego, Te Abraza Quiela.Julian Vigo (00:47:00):In Tinísima, what was it that drew you to the life of Tina Modotti?Elena Poniatowska (00:47:08):In reality it came from a request to make a film. The cinematographerElena Poniatowska (00:47:17):Gabriel Figueroa told me that a film was going to be made about Tina Modotti, the Italian woman who had been in Mexico. So I began interviewing all the people who had knownElena Poniatowska (00:47:38):Tina Modotti. And even when I was invited to France for a conference, I had theElena Poniatowska (00:47:47):opportunity to go to Udine in Italy to meet and get to know the siblings of Tina Modotti —Elena Poniatowska (00:48:00):to see them, interview them, speak with them.Elena Poniatowska (00:48:05):Then when I was told that the film about Tina Modotti in Mexico was no longer going to be made because there was no money, I — who had gone at my own expense to that conference in France and another writers' conference inElena Poniatowska (00:48:37):Italy — decided to launch into writing the novel called Tinísima, because I hadElena Poniatowska (00:48:48):interviewed many old communists whom I had gone to visitElena Poniatowska (00:48:56):in their various homes — generally very modest, very poor homes.Elena Poniatowska (00:49:03):I did not want to let them down, and so the novel Tinísima was published.Julian Vigo (00:49:10):And to what extent does Tina Modotti represent the struggle of the woman artist in the twentieth century?Elena Poniatowska (00:49:19):To the extent that she commits herself —Elena Poniatowska (00:49:23):she takes photographs of Mexico alongside Edward Weston, and then goes alongsideElena Poniatowska (00:49:33):Commander Carlos of the Fifth Regiment to Spain — she goes to the Spanish Civil War and becomes a nurse, caring evenElena Poniatowska (00:49:52):on the ground for the bodies that had fallen on the earth before taking them to the Red Cross — giving them first aid and dedicating herself to saving lives,Elena Poniatowska (00:50:08):or helping to save lives. I believe that many soldiers did not die thanks to the care of this womanElena Poniatowska (00:50:19):who was in the trench following the doctors.Julian Vigo (00:50:25):You have said that the writer must be a bridge.Julian Vigo (00:50:29):Between what worlds do you think it is most necessary to build bridges — or should we be breaking bridges today?Elena Poniatowska (00:50:38):No, I think one should never break a bridge, for anything.Elena Poniatowska (00:50:42):I think one mustElena Poniatowska (00:50:45):communicate — that the most important thing in the life of any human being is dialogue. Peoples too must dialogue with others in order to know each other. I think Mexico must have a dialogue with the United States, and that many Mexicans who have returned fromElena Poniatowska (00:51:09):the United States because TrumpElena Poniatowska (00:51:12):did not want to receive them, has rejected them — well, they nevertheless had, with another nation or with the inhabitants of another nation, knowledge and dialogue.Elena Poniatowska (00:51:28):And that I believe is what is called,Elena Poniatowska (00:51:34):within Catholicism if you like, or within any religion by whatever name it may be called — that is human fraternity. The otherElena Poniatowska (00:51:50):is the one who exists and who awaits you and whom you must help, because perhapsElena Poniatowska (00:51:58):one day you will need him to extend a hand to you.Julian Vigo (00:52:05):Trump is certainly a character, but I see the situation as too tragic for Americans — the United States, still my country — because the reality is that a large part of the Western world has absolutely no idea of the immense cultural, intellectual, and spiritual richness of Mexico.Julian Vigo (00:52:30):For me, it's not only Trump —Julian Vigo (00:52:32):but Americans, Canadians, etc.Julian Vigo (00:52:35):know nothing about the sharpest chroniclers of this country. If you had to open the eyes of an international audience completely unaware of Mexico's depth, what would you say is the most valuable treasure of Mexican identity that the rest of the world is missing?Elena Poniatowska (00:53:01):Well, I must say that many North Americans have come and written about Mexico — anthropologists and sociologists. We have Oscar LewisElena Poniatowska (00:53:17):and many others who have written about the poorest Mexicans, starting in Tepoztlán, a city near Mexico City, following them to the vecindades in the city where they took refuge and found very modest work. So yes, there have been North AmericansElena Poniatowska (00:53:44):who have written about the richness and beauty of Mexico, and their books areElena Poniatowska (00:53:53):translated into Spanish and are admired and appreciated by Mexicans who are grateful that attention is paid to them. So one cannot say that no one who has come from outside has cared about Mexico — in archaeology, in anthropology, as well as figures like Frances Toor, who was a North American woman who created a magazineElena Poniatowska (00:54:39):called Mexico Today and wrote extensively about Mexican customs and lived in Taxco.Elena Poniatowska (00:54:41):For example, a certain William Spratling enriched himself personally but helped many Mexicans inElena Poniatowska (00:54:51):Taxco to learn how to work silver and sell silver. And still today many foreigners and tourists go to buy silver objectsElena Poniatowska (00:55:10):that come from a mine discovered by foreigners — and clearly alsoElena Poniatowska (00:55:20):plundered, one might say, by foreigners.Julian Vigo (00:55:30):Because not everything is entirely good or entirely bad. But I was referring to the fact that — as you know, having been in the United States and many other countries — Trump and far too many people insufficiently educated about Mexico think that all Mexicans want to invade the United States. But the reality is otherwise. In Mexico there was a great cinematic tradition, for example. Mexican cinema has greatly influenced Hollywood — not only today but throughout history. The Oscar statuette itself was modelled on the body of El Indio Fernández. People do not know the depth of Mexican philosophy. I am thinking of Sor Juana, who contributed so much to poetry, theatre, even science — if we think of her letter to Sor Filotea, who was actually Manuel Fernández de Puebla. That dialogue was very important. Western feminists know nothing of these exchanges between those two figures. But for me Mexico has an enormous and very important force in the history of philosophy, science, and feminism. And I am thinking of Octavio Paz's book on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, called Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, or The Traps of Faith. You knew Paz closely. Did you have conversations with him about his perspective on this book — especially regarding the power dynamics of the Church and the silencing she suffered as an intellectual woman?Elena Poniatowska (00:58:09):No, but I think you are mixing very many topics into one question, and it isElena Poniatowska (00:58:18):difficult to answer you because you are speaking of very diverse things that evenElena Poniatowska (00:58:27):happened in different centuries.Elena Poniatowska (00:58:30):Sor Juana — there have always been in Mexico,Elena Poniatowska (00:58:34):before Octavio Paz, people who dedicated themselves to reading,Elena Poniatowska (00:58:40):studying, and getting to know Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.Elena Poniatowska (00:58:45):I will not add more names to those you mentioned, but there are many studies and many Sor Juana scholars in Mexico, as well as at the University of SantaElena Poniatowska (00:59:01):Barbara, California, in Paris, in France —Elena Poniatowska (00:59:04):there are many studies on the great figures of Mexico — not only The Traps of Faith by the Mexican poet Octavio Paz. So these are studies that will continue and do continue. In California, for example, Sara Poot HerreraElena Poniatowska (00:59:32):is dedicated to studying Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, along with many other scholars — I don't know if she is still living — whose name was Rivers. All of these are studies that have been carried out in Mexico and outside Mexico.Julian Vigo (00:59:55):No, I was asking specifically about Paz's book because you knew him and —Elena Poniatowska (01:00:03):I knew him,Elena Poniatowska (01:00:04):I admired him, and I also wrote about him. I have a book about him. I admired him,Elena Poniatowska (01:00:12):I knew him, his poetry dazzled me. And he is a man whom I have admired since getting to know him, and whom I also hold with affection.Julian Vigo (01:00:29):I asked about your relationship with him because sometimes it happens to me too — with other writers — one asks or someone asks me, “Why did you do that?” It is a dialogue. Because that book, The Traps of Faith, had something very important — not only for Mexico but it placed the image of Sor Juana before the world. Many people began to ask who this nun was because it is very important. I was asking about the presentation Paz gave of her — whether you had any dialogues with Paz from your own perspective.Elena Poniatowska (01:01:20):Well, yes, of course. But there were others who also spoke at great length about Sor Juana de la Cruz — other Mexicans before Octavio Paz, other Mexicans who, for example, also concerned themselves with indigenous peoples, such as a priest — Ángel María Garibay — who was also a Sor Juana scholar. So there are many studies on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and there are Sor Juana scholars in Santa Bárbara, for example, such as Doctor Sara Poot Herrera and others — a woman by the name of Rivers and many more.Julian Vigo (01:02:16):You have dedicated your life to listening and giving voice to those who have none, through the chronicle and literature.Julian Vigo (01:02:26):Today,Julian Vigo (01:02:27):with social media,Julian Vigo (01:02:28):it seems that everyone has a platform for opinions.Julian Vigo (01:02:32):But are we really listening?Julian Vigo (01:02:36):What happens to the power of the word when it becomes a constant noise, as in social media?Elena Poniatowska (01:02:45):I don't know.Elena Poniatowska (01:02:46):I suppose it loses efficacy.Elena Poniatowska (01:02:49):But that depends on the activity of each human being.Elena Poniatowska (01:02:58):There are people — elderly people, for example, people already old — for whom life,Elena Poniatowska (01:03:08):even in institutions, in care homes, means turning the television on from morning until night and being entertained — that is, entertained without making the least effort of criticism or thought in front ofElena Poniatowska (01:03:29):the television.Elena Poniatowska (01:03:31):I have seen that this has been very important in keeping the elderly calm andElena Poniatowska (01:03:41):allowing them to die little by little in institutions called health facilities, where they have thisElena Poniatowska (01:03:52):constant and rather sad entertainment. ButElena Poniatowska (01:03:59):as they say in Mexico: no hay de otra — there is no other option, or no other option has been found, or there are not enough people willing to dedicate themselves to attending to and caring for others. So I see it as an end of lifeElena Poniatowska (01:04:28):for an individual who was once a thinking individual, who knew how to act,Elena Poniatowska (01:04:37):who knew how to elevate himself,Elena Poniatowska (01:04:41):to become a better human being. And I find it sad.Julian Vigo (01:04:46):Today, and for twenty years now, I have noticed as a university professor that students are reading less and less. Today, with so-called artificial intelligence — so-called because intelligence it is not — students are not reading. How can literature or journalism restore the true value and depth of words when we are in a world full of social media, opinions, and videos of a cat doing something funny?Elena Poniatowska (01:05:31):Your question is very difficult because I don't have the answer.Elena Poniatowska (01:05:37):What I can say is that ultimately it depends on the teachers.Elena Poniatowska (01:05:44):It depends on students having a good teacher,Elena Poniatowska (01:05:49):because even I have seen in classes —Elena Poniatowska (01:05:54):in different classes —Elena Poniatowska (01:05:57):that many young people continue looking at their phones while the teacher is writing onElena Poniatowska (01:06:07):the board, or speaking, or giving a class.Elena Poniatowska (01:06:13):So we shall see whether the destiny of young people will depend on what theyElena Poniatowska (01:06:21):learn from their phone. I don't have a phone —Elena Poniatowska (01:06:27):I never bought one,Elena Poniatowska (01:06:28):never got one. Or whether they will be able to go beyond themselvesElena Poniatowska (01:06:37):and beyond above all what the phone wants to give you or teach you or not teach youElena Poniatowska (01:06:46):or distract you from — because ultimately it is a distraction. Yes.Julian Vigo (01:06:53):Writing something to share — in quotation marks — they are sharing nothing in the end. I have noticed that many people are sharing articles they have not read. Young people are embracing identity politics and cancel cultureJulian Vigo (01:07:16):in the absence of any engagement with material reality today.Julian Vigo (01:07:21):That is my fear —Julian Vigo (01:07:23):that the millennials,Julian Vigo (01:07:26):this generation of thirty-year-olds,Julian Vigo (01:07:31):are fixated on pronounsJulian Vigo (01:07:36):but do nothing to help their neighbour.Julian Vigo (01:07:41):They do nothing to fight for living wages.Elena Poniatowska (01:07:46):Well, not all of them.Elena Poniatowska (01:07:49):It's a generalisation, of course.Elena Poniatowska (01:07:54):But I think you are right.Elena Poniatowska (01:07:58):It is a generalisation, because in any case there are human beings who live for others.Julian Vigo (01:08:08):We are in two camps today, because during the lockdown I noticed that many people — even on the right — were fighting for the poor in the United States, where I published. I could not publish a single article questioning the lockdown. That is when I started Savage Minds, because I was asking: what is happening? I no longer recognise this world in which the left is pushing people not to speak. We weren't talking about the lockdown, and the right was speaking very openly. And I see that politically, left and right — there is no longer that dichotomy, so to speak.Elena Poniatowska (01:09:02):Yes,Elena Poniatowska (01:09:03):I thank you greatly for your interest and I thank you enormously for this conversation. I feel animated,Elena Poniatowska (01:09:11):I feel glad to hear what you are saying.Elena Poniatowska (01:09:19):But I do feel that,Elena Poniatowska (01:09:22):as you say,Elena Poniatowska (01:09:23):the speed,Elena Poniatowska (01:09:26):the pace of all events,Elena Poniatowska (01:09:29):the television —Elena Poniatowska (01:09:32):it sets critical thinking and reflection on events to one side,Elena Poniatowska (01:09:41):because everything must be immediate, mustn't it?Elena Poniatowska (01:09:46):That is to say, everything ends in a second. Even the deepest interests sometimes last onlyElena Poniatowska (01:09:56):a few — one might even think, as we say in Mexico,Elena Poniatowska (01:10:01):un ratito — just a little while. There is no continuity in ideas orElena Poniatowska (01:10:12):even in purposes. There is something we all know called habit, and each personElena Poniatowska (01:10:21):lives according to the habits they have established in order to keep going —Elena Poniatowska (01:10:28):to keep existing, if you will. To make it to night, fall asleep, and know that you will wake the following day. Or perhaps you won't wake, because — well, for example, IElena Poniatowska (01:10:45):am a person of 94 years old and I have no certainty that I will see the following morning. ButElena Poniatowska (01:10:55):what I do believe is thatElena Poniatowska (01:10:58):I believe in the innate goodness of every human being.Elena Poniatowska (01:11:03):I have to believe in it, because I need that hope.(01:12:02): Get full access to Savage Minds at www.savageminds.co/subscribe

7 Hours and 53 MinutesPG-13These are the episodes concentrating on specific aspects of the Spanish Civil War plus the episode reading chapter 7 of The Last Crusdae.Correcting the Narrative on the Spanish Civil WarRight-Wing Factional Unity in the Spanish Civil WarThe Weaponry of the Spanish Civil WarPete Reads Warren H Carroll's 'The Last Crusade' Part 7The 'Left' Factions of the Spanish Civil War Faction: With the CrusadersKarl's SubstackKarl's MerchPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

4 Hours and 52 MinutesPG-13These are continuing episodes concentrating on specific aspects of the Spanish Civil War.Episode 1286: Learning from the Martyrdom of José Calvo Sotelo w/ Karl DahlEpisode 1291: Women in the Spanish Civil War w/ Karl DahlEpisode 1322 and 1323: The Spanish Civil War - Radicalizing a Moderate Socialist w/ Karl Dahl and MorghurFaction: With the CrusadersKarl's SubstackKarl's MerchPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

3 Hours and 53 MinutesPG-13Karl Dahl is an author specializing in the Spanish Civil War and historical "fiction."Karl and Pete did a brief series that provides a summary of the events leading up to, during, and following the Spanish Civil War. This includes the recent Livestream Q&A.Faction: With the CrusadersKarl's SubstackKarl's MerchPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

You are not an algorithm. You are not a data point. You are a son of God and no machine can replicate that. The Pope just put the full weight of the Church behind that statement, and this week's good news is stacked.Five stories. Five reasons to walk into your weekend fired up.On Pentecost Sunday, Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical: Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity). Forty-two thousand words. The Church's first major teaching document on artificial intelligence. He signed it on the 135th anniversary of Rerum Novarum. Now he is addressing the machines again. Eighty martyrs of the Spanish Civil War killed between 1936 and 1937 for no reason other than their faith, are officially on the path to beatification. They died forgiving their executioners. Meet Pedro Ballester, born in Manchester in 1996, chemical engineering student at Imperial College London, Opus Dei member, diagnosed with advanced bone cancer at 18, dead at 21, and the Diocese of Salford just formally opened his cause for canonization. Pope Leo launches a new catechesis series on Vatican II's constitution on the sacred liturgy, and invites the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church to St. Peter's Square as a sign of unity and a prayer toward full communion.

Although Russia claims to be waging a war against the so-called West, no other country has officially deployed its military to fight alongside Ukraine. Instead, thousands of individuals from across the globe have made the personal choice to join the Ukrainian defense. Who are these foreign volunteers risking their lives to fight the Russian invasion? What motivates them? What challenges do they face, both on the front lines and back home? How can international military cooperation be improved? You are listening to the Explaining Ukraine podcast. *** Explaining Ukraine is a podcast by UkraineWorld, an English-language media outlet run by Internews Ukraine. Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, chief editor of UkraineWorld, and president of PEN Ukraine. Guest: Colin Freeman, freelance foreign affairs reporter for the Daily Telegraph. Colin has reported widely on British fighters in Ukraine. *** Listen on various platforms: https://li.sten.to/explaining-ukraine UkraineWorld: https://ukraineworld.org/en *** SUPPORT: You can support our work on https://www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld Your help is crucial, as we rely heavily on crowdfunding. You can also contribute to our volunteer missions to frontline areas in Ukraine, where we deliver aid to both soldiers and civilians. Donations are welcome via PayPal at: ukraine.resisting@gmail.com. *** CONTENTS: 00:03 Intro. The topic of the episode 01:43 Why studying the involvement of foreign soldiers in the Russian-Ukrainian war? 04:11 How many foreign soldiers are estimated to have fought for Ukraine, and why is it so difficult to get exact figures? 06:23 Do European governments encourage their citizens to fight in Ukraine, and how does their stance compare to Russia's recruitment of foreign fighters? 08:56 What is the primary motivation of foreign volunteers for fighting given their modest salary? 09:47 What different types of foreign volunteers exist, from professional soldiers seeking combat experience to "war tourists," and how useful were they on the battlefield? 14:08 Was the initial attempt to integrate foreign fighters through the International Legion largely a success or failure - or both? 15:29 What specific bureaucratic and logistical problems did the Ukrainian army face in integrating foreign volunteers, including language barriers and lack of preparation? 20:11 Why are home governments, like the British, seemingly hesitant to tap into the combat experience of their citizens returning from Ukraine? 26:54 Does the current "blindness" of European governments to this unique combat experience echo historical parallels, like the Spanish Civil War, with potential cultural and military consequences? 30:18 If Ukraine needs more soldiers, how can it improve its recruitment and integration of foreign volunteers to avoid the mistakes of 2022? 34:43 What crucial lessons should European militaries and governments learn from the foreign fighters' experiences in Ukraine for future conflicts?

Josh Ireland recounts how the Mercader family, led by the radicalized Caridad, was recruited by the NKVD during the Spanish Civil War. Her son Ramon was trained as a ruthless agent capable of carrying out high-stakes assassinations. (5/16)1907

SCHEDULE THE JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW-5-25-2026.1789 NEW YORK.Guest Author Josh Ireland discusses his book The Death of Trotsky: The True Story of the Plot to Kill Stalin's Greatest Enemy. The Russian Revolution began with Bolshevik fanatics using violence to impose their will on the masses. Irelandexplains the emerging rivalry between Trotsky and Stalin amidst the brutal purge of original revolutionaries. (1/16)In The Death of Trotsky, Josh Ireland describes how the intellectual Trotsky and bureaucratic Stalin competed for power following Lenin's death. Stalin maneuvered patiently to isolate Trotsky, who missed Lenin's funeral while recovering from a mysterious and poorly timed illness. (2/16)Josh Ireland explains that Trotsky was expelled from the Politburo after labeling Stalin the "gravedigger of the revolution." He began a global exile, eventually finding sanctuary in Mexico at the invitation of muralist Diego Rivera. (3/16)Josh Ireland details how, in Mexico, Trotsky faced constant threats from Stalin's assassins. Despite the fortified walls of his compound, the NKVD relentlessly monitored his correspondence and successfully infiltrated his inner circle with undercover agents. (4/16)Josh Ireland recounts how the Mercader family, led by the radicalized Caridad, was recruited by the NKVD during the Spanish Civil War. Her son Ramon was trained as a ruthless agent capable of carrying out high-stakes assassinations. (5/16)Josh Ireland describes how Ramon Mercader seduced Sylvia Ageloff to penetrate Trotsky's inner circle under a false identity. Meanwhile, a chaotic machine-gun raid by Stalinist gunmen failed to kill Trotsky, leading to even tighter security measures. (6/16)Josh Ireland recounts how Ramon Mercader used a mountaineer's ice pick to fatally wound Trotsky inside his study. Captured by guards, Ramon maintained a web of lies to conceal his true role as a Soviet operative. (7/16)Josh Ireland explains that following Trotsky's death, Ramon served twenty years in a Mexican prison before returning to Moscow as a hero. Trotsky's wife, Natalia, lived a diminished final chapter after losing her entire family. (8/16)Guest Author Edward J. Larson discusses his book Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters. The unprovoked burning of Norfolk, Virginia, by the Royal Navy in January 1776 served as a catalyst for independence. This violence convinced many colonists that reconciliation with the British Crown was impossible. (9/16)In Declaring Independence, Edward J. Larson describes how Henry Knox executed a daring winter transport of heavy artillery from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston. This logistical feat allowed Washington to fortify Dorchester Heights, forcing the British to evacuate the city. (10/16)Edward J. Larson recounts how Washington attempted to defend New York against a massive British armada. The Howe brothers tried to negotiate a peace deal, but American commitment to independence remained firm despite the overwhelming force. (11/16)Edward J. Larson explains that George Mason drafted the Virginia Declaration of Rights while Washington realized he must preserve his army through retreat. The revolution shifted toward establishing independent state governments based on popular sovereignty. (12/16)Edward J. Larson details how, during a grueling retreat through New Jersey, Thomas Paine's The American Crisisrevitalized colonial spirits. British and Hessian atrocities against civilians further alienated the population and strengthened the resolve for independence. (13/16)Edward J. Larson recounts how Abigail Adams urged her husband to "remember the ladies" during the debates over independence. Revolutionary ideals of equality began to raise significant questions regarding the status of women and enslaved people. (14/16)Edward J. Larson describes how Washington led a desperate Christmas crossing of the Delaware River to surprise the Hessians at Trenton. The subsequent victory at Princeton provided the moral triumph needed to sustain the struggling Continental Army. (15/16)Edward J. Larson explains that the formal signing of the Declaration of Independence marked a permanent break with monarchy. New state constitutions prioritized popular sovereignty, establishing the rule of law as the foundation of the Republic. (16/16)

4 Hours and 39 MinutesPG-13Thomas777 is a revisionist historian and a fiction writer.This is the complete audio of a short series Thomas777 did on the Spanish Civil War.Thomas' SubstackRadio Free Chicago - T777 and J BurdenThomas777 MerchandiseThomas' Book "Steelstorm Pt. 1"Thomas' Book "Steelstorm Pt. 2"Thomas on TwitterThomas' CashApp - $7homas777Pete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

7 Hours and 53 MinutesPG-13These are the episodes concentrating on specific aspects of the Spanish Civil War plus the episode reading chapter 7 of The Last Crusdae.Correcting the Narrative on the Spanish Civil WarRight-Wing Factional Unity in the Spanish Civil WarThe Weaponry of the Spanish Civil WarPete Reads Warren H Carroll's 'The Last Crusade' Part 7The 'Left' Factions of the Spanish Civil War Faction: With the CrusadersKarl's SubstackKarl's MerchPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

3 Hours and 53 MinutesPG-13Karl Dahl is an author specializing in the Spanish Civil War and historical "fiction."Karl and Pete did a brief series that provides a summary of the events leading up to, during, and following the Spanish Civil War. This includes the recent Livestream Q&A.Faction: With the CrusadersKarl's SubstackKarl's MerchPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

4 Hours and 52 MinutesPG-13These are continuing episodes concentrating on specific aspects of the Spanish Civil War.Episode 1286: Learning from the Martyrdom of José Calvo Sotelo w/ Karl DahlEpisode 1291: Women in the Spanish Civil War w/ Karl DahlEpisode 1322 and 1323: The Spanish Civil War - Radicalizing a Moderate Socialist w/ Karl Dahl and MorghurFaction: With the CrusadersKarl's SubstackKarl's MerchPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

Jon Herold sits down with Adrian and Cristina of Rise Attire for one of the most unexpectedly moving episodes yet. What started as a desperate prayer into the internet void during the chaos of 2020 turned into a business, a marriage, and a movement. Adrian and Cristina share how they met across state lines, got deplatformed by both Shopify and GoFundMe in back to back gut punches, and turned a live DJ dance party on Pilled into a surprise on camera proposal and a crowdfunded comeback. They dig into the real cost of staying made in America, the advertising blackout that censors their brand across every major platform, and their expansion through Rise INTL. Plus, they share jaw dropping family histories rooted in surviving Soviet camps, Nazi concentration camps, and the Spanish Civil War, and two new film projects that are pushing the info war into a new creative frontier. This is the love story nobody expected.

The story of Franco's rise to power and the painful, repressive regime he oversaw is fundamentally interlinked with that of the Spanish Civil War. A brutal three-year conflict that laid bare the ideological divisions of interwar Europe, it drew support from fascist governments across the continent. But it also inspired socialists from around the world to fight for the democratic, republican government, and to oppose the rising tide of fascism wherever and however they could.    What caused Spain's military to turn against the country's civilian government in 1936? Why did a national civil war attract such international attention? And what ramifications does the conflict still have in modern Spain? This is a Short History Of the Spanish Civil War. A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Peter Anderson, Professor of Twentieth-Century Spanish History at the University of Leeds. Written by Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Oliver Sanders | Assembly edit by Anisha Deva | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact Check: Sean Coleman Unlock the next two episodes of Short History Of… right now by subscribing to Noiser+. You'll also get ad-free listening and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network, including Real Survival Stories and Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed, or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to get started. ⁠A Short History of Ancient Rome⁠ - the debut book from the Noiser Network is out now! Discover the epic rise and fall of Rome like never before. Pick up your copy now at your local bookstore or visit ⁠⁠noiser.com/books⁠⁠ to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

4 Hours and 39 MinutesPG-13Thomas777 is a revisionist historian and a fiction writer.This is the complete audio of a short series Thomas777 did on the Spanish Civil War.Thomas' SubstackRadio Free Chicago - T777 and J BurdenThomas777 MerchandiseThomas' Book "Steelstorm Pt. 1"Thomas' Book "Steelstorm Pt. 2"Thomas on TwitterThomas' CashApp - $7homas777Pete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

Gaslit Nation presents an Instagram Live discussion recorded over the weekend with the acclaimed illustrator Brahm Revel, the artist of Mrs. Orwell. Brahm is based in Barcelona, where Eileen and Eric Blair (aka George Orwell), spent their honeymoon fighting fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Eileen was holed up in the Hotel Continental, which still exists, where Stalin's agents searched her hotel room, stealing Orwell's Spain diaries and other papers, which are believed to be somewhere in Moscow to this day. We're celebrating freedom fighters, past and present, tonight at Powerhouse Arena in DUMBO, Brooklyn at 7pm ET, for the launch of Mrs. Orwell. Patreon supporters get in free! Russian mafia expert Olga Lautman will be there, and so will the good folks of Razom for Ukraine and the Media and Democracy Project, co-sponsors of the event, because the Orwells would have been fans. So come and get a Mrs. Orwell tote bag, meet other Gaslit Nation listeners, and celebrate the defeat of Orban, MAGA, and the Kremlin in Hungary.  Enjoy this conversation with Brahm about the creative process that went into the making of Mrs. Orwell and why the story matters for us today, in an age that needs our own creativity and defiance. Today's Gaslit Nation Salon is still on for today at 4pm so join us via the link posted on Patreon.com/Gaslit!  Join our community of listeners and get bonus shows, ad free listening, group chats with other listeners, ways to shape the show, invites to exclusive events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Discounted annual memberships are available. Become a Democracy Defender at Patreon.com/Gaslit

To those who could not join our launch party for Mrs. Orwell tonight, we've made you a play list from the event. It opens with a British Pathé newsreel of what to do in an air raid; Edward R. Murrow reporting from London on the Blitz; a popular war-time show "Gert & Daisy";  Flanagan and Allen's "Run Rabbit Run," and "Ay Carmela!" one of the most popular songs of the Spanish Civil War, which Eileen and Eric Blair would have heard throughout their time in Spain. We're going to play this audio at the start of tonight's event, to connect the global war of fascism vs. democracy back then to today, as Ukraine faces the same daily bombardment as Europe did under Hitler.     

Greg Jenner is joined in medieval Spain by historian Professor Nora Berend and comedian Toussaint Douglass to learn about the colourful life and afterlife of the warrior known as El Cid. El Cid – real name Rodrigo Díaz – was a mercenary in eleventh-century Spain who fought for both Christian kings and Muslim rulers before setting himself up as ruler of Valencia. This episode explores his dramatic life in the period before religious divisions were key on the Iberian Peninsula, and an ambitious warrior might fight for whoever would pay him. It then traces the legend that grew up around him after his death, taking in the medieval romances written about El Cid, the surprising role his bones played in the Napoleonic wars, his appropriation by General Franco after the Spanish Civil War, and even the classic Hollywood film starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren.If you're a fan of legendary but mysterious figures from the past, medieval romances, and the use and misuse of history for political purposes, you'll love our episode on El Cid. If you want to learn more about other historical events mentioned in this episode, listen to our episodes on al-Andalus and Young Napoleon. And for more from Toussaint Douglass, check out our episodes on Frederick Douglass and the Causes of the British Civil Wars.You're Dead To Me is the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Every episode, Greg Jenner brings together the best names in history and comedy to learn and laugh about the past. Hosted by: Greg Jenner Research by: Adam Simcox Written by: Adam Simcox, Dr Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Dr Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner Produced by: Dr Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner Audio Producer: Steve Hankey Production Coordinator: Gill Huggett Senior Producer: Dr Emma Nagouse Executive Editor: Philip Sellars

3 Hours and 53 MinutesPG-13Karl Dahl is an author specializing in the Spanish Civil War and historical "fiction."Karl and Pete did a brief series that provides a summary of the events leading up to, during, and following the Spanish Civil War. This includes the recent Livestream Q&A.Faction: With the CrusadersKarl's SubstackKarl's MerchPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

7 Hours and 53 MinutesPG-13These are the episodes concentrating on specific aspects of the Spanish Civil War plus the episode reading chapter 7 of The Last Crusdae.Correcting the Narrative on the Spanish Civil WarRight-Wing Factional Unity in the Spanish Civil WarThe Weaponry of the Spanish Civil WarPete Reads Warren H Carroll's 'The Last Crusade' Part 7The 'Left' Factions of the Spanish Civil War Faction: With the CrusadersKarl's SubstackKarl's MerchPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

4 Hours and 52 MinutesPG-13These are continuing episodes concentrating on specific aspects of the Spanish Civil War.Episode 1286: Learning from the Martyrdom of José Calvo Sotelo w/ Karl DahlEpisode 1291: Women in the Spanish Civil War w/ Karl DahlEpisode 1322 and 1323: The Spanish Civil War - Radicalizing a Moderate Socialist w/ Karl Dahl and MorghurFaction: With the CrusadersKarl's SubstackKarl's MerchPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

9. The Revolutionary Background of the Mercader Family Guest: Josh Ireland Summary: Ireland details the radicalization of the Mercader family, led by the charismatic Caridad. He explains how her son Ramon was recruited by the NKVD during the Spanish Civil War for future espionage. (9)1921 MOSCOW RED GUARD

SHOW SCHEDULE JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW, 3-27-2026.1925 STALIN AND TROTSKY, MOSCOW1. Iran's Nuclear Status and the NPT Framework Guest: Henry Sokolski Summary: Sokolski analyzes Iranian hardliners' threats to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty. He explores the military risks of targeting nuclear sites like Dimona and the strategic complexities of attacking national electric grids. (1)2. Taiwanese Nuclear Policy and Barksdale Drone Incursions Guest: Henry Sokolski Summary: Taiwan considers restarting nuclear plants to mitigate energy desperation. Meanwhile, jam-resistant drone swarms at Barksdale Air Force Base suggest potential Chinese interference intended to delay American responses to nuclear-related operations. (2)3. The SAVE Act and the Debate Over Voter Eligibility Guest: Richard Epstein Summary: Epstein discusses the SAVE Act, which requires documentary proof of citizenship for voting. He weighs the balance between preventing election fraud and the potential burdens placed on legitimate voters by strict identification. (3)4. The Removal Dispute of Judge Pauline Newman Guest: Richard Epstein Summary: Epstein critiques the suspension of 98-year-old Judge Pauline Newman, arguing her colleagues lack cause for removal. He characterizes the move as "manipulative shenanigans" driven by internal politics rather than intellectual incompetence. (4)5. Gas Prices and the Start of Pennsylvania Trout Season Guest: Jim McTague Summary: McTague highlights rising fuel costs and a slowing retail economy in Lancaster County. He contrasts the "amateur hour" of opening day trout fishing with the tranquil, native-stocked streams of Central Pennsylvania. (5)6. Italian Soccer Pressure and Meloni's Cabinet Reshuffle Guest: Lorenzo Fiori Summary: Fiori previews the Azzurri's high-stakes match against Wales and explains Prime Minister Meloni's firing of controversial officials. He also stresses the importance of authentic Parmesan and the beauty of Sardinian heritage. (6)7. NASA Restructuring and the Pivot to a Moon Base Guest: Bob Zimmerman Summary: NASA's new administrator pauses the Lunar Gateway to focus on building a permanent lunar base by 2033. Zimmerman contrasts these government plans with the rapid commercial success and valuation of SpaceX. (7)8. Observing Comet Nuclei and the Outer Planets Guest: Bob Zimmerman Summary: Astronomers witness a rare reversal in a comet's rotation as its nucleus sublimates. Zimmerman reviews new imagery of Saturn and Neptune, arguing for more orbiters to explore the solar system's significant "gaps". (8)9. The Revolutionary Background of the Mercader Family Guest: Josh Ireland Summary: Ireland details the radicalization of the Mercader family, led by the charismatic Caridad. He explains how her son Ramon was recruited by the NKVD during the Spanish Civil War for future espionage. (9)10. Infiltrating Trotsky's Compound Through Seduction Guest: Josh Ireland Summary: Ramon Mercader seduces Sylvia Ageloff to penetrate Trotsky's fortress in Mexico City. Despite the heavy guard and fortifications, Ramon gains the trust of the household by posing as a politically disinterested playboy. (10)11. Planning the Assassination with a Mountaineer's Ice Pick Guest: Josh Ireland Summary: Following a failed armed raid, the NKVD tasks Ramon with murdering Trotsky. They select an ice pick for the attack to ensure a silent kill that carries a brutal, symbolic impact. (11)12. The Aftermath of Trotsky's Death and the Assassin's Legacy Guest: Josh Ireland Summary: Trotsky dies a day after the attack, while Ramon serves twenty years in a Mexican prison. Caridad lives her final years in bitter exile, and Stalin barely registers the mission's success. (12)13. Vegas Transformation: Sports, Tech, and Nuclear History Guest: Jeff Bliss Summary: Bliss explores the Las Vegas strip's evolution into a sports capital and the introduction of Zooks robo-taxis. He notes the area's grim history with atmospheric nuclear testing and resulting radiation claims. (13)14. Political Turmoil and the Homeless Crisis in Los Angeles Guest: Jeff Bliss Summary: Bliss reports on the visual horrors of homeless encampments and the political pressure on Mayor Karen Bass. He also examines the "jungle primary" system and stalled recovery in Pacific Palisades. (14)15. The Enlightenment Foundations of American Civic Education Guest: Jacob Howland Summary: Howland discusses Thomas Jefferson's focus on applied science and the role of liberal education in a republic. He emphasizes Eva Brann's belief that classroom seminars cultivate the habits necessary for civil debate. (15)16. The Crisis of Activism in Modern Higher Education Guest: Jacob Howland Summary: Howland critiques universities for prioritizing the training of social activists over traditional knowledge transmission. He argues that regarding the professorship as a political podium cheats students of a real, broad education. (16)

PREVIEW FOR LATER: Josh Ireland discusses Ramon, the ideological assassin of Leon Trotsky, whose worldview was forged during the Spanish Civil War. Influenced by Stalinist doctrine, Ramon viewed Trotskyists as dangerous as fascists. Despite his competence, his political naivety led him to become a dedicated Soviet tool abroad. (1)1937 MEXICO CITY

As we navigate a world of "alternative facts" and corporate-state surveillance, George Orwell's life, times, and pain, transformed into enduring art, like 1984, show us how to be defiant today. Resistance begins in the mind.  This week, we're joined by British critic Dorian Lynskey, author of The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell's 1984, to trace the biography of a nightmare. The Orwellian slogan "2+2=5" was taken from Soviet propaganda. Orwell reviewed Assignment in Utopia by Eugene Lyons, an American reporter who confesses in the chapter "The Press Corps Conceals a Famine," to joining with other influential foreign correspondents in Moscow to label Gareth Jones a liar in their articles in exchange for access to the Soviet regime. Lyons and Orwell are both characters in Andrea's film Mr. Jones.  The trauma of 1984 started during the Spanish Civil War, alongside his wife, Eileen Blair, the unsung hero who saved his life and helped him find his voice as an artist, to break through the lies. In Catalonia, Eileen and Eric Blair watched Stalin-backed communists turn a socialist revolution into a paranoid police state. It was here, nearly killed by the "Soviet myth," that they realized nowhere is immune: lies and conformity keep people complacent as the sadists consolidate power.  Orwell's message is clear for us today: in an era of state-sponsored lies, holding onto your humanity is the ultimate act of defiance. Join us to celebrate the power of art and defiance at the book launch of Mrs. Orwell, Andrea's inspiring new graphic novel, illustrated by the genius Brahm Revel. When: April 13 Where: PowerHouse Books Arena, DUMBO, Brooklyn Details here: https://powerhousearena.com/events/book-launch-mrs-orwell-by-andrea-chalupa-in-conversation-with-nomiki-konst/ Patreon Supporters: You and your guests get in free and receive a complimentary book! Just message us through Patreon to claim yours. Not a member yet? Join our community at Patreon.com/Gaslit. We couldn't make this show without you–see you there! Show Notes: Our opening song was "Ride at Dawn" by Deena Marie. Check out her GoFundMe here to help her produce her next album: https://gofund.me/623a9c9b1 IG: @deenamariedmt Spotify: Listen hereApple Music: Listen hereTikTok: @deenamariedmt YouTube: Watch here The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell's 1984  https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/580453/the-ministry-of-truth-by-dorian-lynskey/   33 Revolutions per Minute: A History of Protest Songs, from Billie Holiday to Green Day https://www.harpercollins.com/products/33-revolutions-per-minute-dorian-lynskey?variant=32210443141154  EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: New! There's now a California Signal Group for Gaslit Nation listeners to find each other and connect in that state. Join us on Patreon.com/Gaslit  The Gaslit Nation Outreach Committee discusses how to talk to the MAGA cult: Join us on Patreon.com/Gaslit  Minnesota Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other. Join us on Patreon.  Vermont Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other. Join us on Patreon.com/Gaslit  Arizona-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to connect. Join us on Patreon.com/Gaslit  Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join. Join us on Patreon.com/Gaslit  Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group. Join us on Patreon.com/Gaslit   Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community