Podcasts about Tammany Hall

Our French correspondent joins us to talk about the SLAP heard 'round the world. We also get some updates on Melanchon's US tour, discuss Hasan Piker's detainment, death with dignity, the abundance agenda, Zohran, Robert Moses vs. Tammany Hall, the 5 year anniversary of the George Floyd Uprising.Subscribe at http://patreon.com/theantifada for the fun half, in which we listen to some clips from Jordan Peterson's debate with 20 Reddit Athiests, and talk about what the "radical left" means.Check out https://newintermag.com/ and subscribe for updates.articles mentioned: https://newintermag.com/assisted-suicide-or-social-murder/https://newintermag.com/the-defeat-of-biopolitics/https://newintermag.com/abundance-big-techs-bid-for-the-democratic-party/song: Ludacris - Slap

Rogers Hornsby won seven batting titles, hit .358 in his 23-year Major League career and remains the all-time batting average leader both among right handed hitters and in the National League. He managed the 1926 St. Louis Cardinals to franchise's first World Series title only to be traded two months later in a salary dispute. Hornsby's career and personal life were marked by conflict, antagonism, lawsuits, acrimony and bitterness. But the man could hit. This week we return to our series, Texans in the Hall to discuss the life and time of the enigmatic Rogers Hornsby.Also this week, our favorite albums from the first quarter 2025.Craig - Lonely People With Power, by Deafheaven (Roadrunner)Rex - Year of the Four Emperors by Ex Deo (Reigning Phoenix Music)Episodes referenced this week: No. 172, "They Were Two People Desperate to Stay in the Game w/ Bob LeMoine." (https://tinyurl.com/hooks172)Errata: Two of the top 13 career batting average leaders were right handed hitters. Hornsby hit .424 in 1924, not .427. Alienation of affections is a gender-neutral offense.Sources:Alexander, Charles C., "Rogers Hornsby: A Biography" (Henry Holt & Co. 1995).Fimrite, Ron, "The Raging Rajah Rogers Hornsby, One of This Century's Best Ballplayers, Was Also One of its Biggest Boors," Sports Illustrated (October 2, 1995) (accessed online April 2025).Rogers III, C. Paul , "Rogers Hornsby," www.sabr.org, accessed March, April 2025."Rogers Hornsby" at www.baseball-reference.com, accessed March, April 2025.Dozens of contemporary newspapers articles from around the country.Hooks & Runs will return with its next episode on June 5.You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including books featured in this episode (if any were), through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns Hooks & Runs - https://hooksandruns.buzzsprout.com/ Email: hooksandruns@protonmail.com Craig on Bluesky (@craigest.bsky.social)Rex (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ Hosts Emeriti:Andrew Eckhoff on Tik TokEric on FacebookMusic: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (via Premium Beat)     This podcast and this episode are copyright Craig Estlinbaum, 2025.  

In this episode of

In this episode, Victor Davis Hanson and cohost Jack Fowler make a deep dive into the issues plaguing the Democrats: CNN poll show alienated popular classes, agricultural labor is mechanized, Biden decline the biggest cover up since Watergate, James Clyburn and the Tammany Hall nomination, military resignations, DEI companies on language, Middle East donations to universities, the Bradley Prize, and Okinawa in WWII.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

After we finished up The Power Broker, a bunch of people were asking us what other books we'd been reading. A group of us got together and presented some of our recent favorites, and the choices were so good and surprising and charming, we're now sharing it widely.Here are the books covered in this episode:Lasha's book: Usha's Pickle Digest by Usha R PrabakaranChris's books: What It Takes by Richard Ben Cramer (and The Power Broker by Robert Caro

In 2025, the United States experienced a rarity... a nonconsecutive U.S. President took office and the nation was shook by just how nonconsecutive it was after more than 100 years of unmitigated consecutiveness. But, this wasn't the first time a President failed to continue being President only to unfail that same continuation four years later. On this episode, we explore the First Nonconsecutive U.S. Presidency and delve into a man far less Muppety than his name. Oh, and we defy gravity in the MouthGarf Report, and play another charming round of I See What You Did There.Sources:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Clevelandhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/grover-cleveland/https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/opinion/columns/2025/01/11/rooks-non-consecutive-presidents-couldnt-be-more-different/77580670007/https://reason.com/2025/01/10/we-could-use-a-man-like-grover-cleveland-again/Please give us a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts! Want to ask us a question? Talk to us! Email debutbuddies@gmail.comListen to Kelly and Chelsea's awesome horror movie podcast, Never Show the Monster.Get some sci-fi from Spaceboy Books.Get down with Michael J. O'Connor's music!Next time: First Time Life Mysteries of the Unknown Book

Our 10x10 is underway and it's going. It's just going. Listen to Max, Kenny, and Doolin as we chat about Anachrony, Arcs, Blood on the Clocktower, Cthulhu: Death May Die, Earthborne Rangers, Arkham Horror, MIND MGMT, Ra, Star Wars: Shatterpoint, Tammany Hall, TRICKTAKERs, and MORE! —————

Now on the Patreon: Franklin Roosevelt Takes on Jimmy Walker In the sweltering summer of 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt found himself ensnared in a political web spun by the most notorious machine in New York politics—Tammany Hall. As governor of New York, Roosevelt was well aware of the rampant corruption within the city's government, but his position as the Democratic nominee for president made any decisive action perilous. Removing New York City's charismatic, scandal-plagued mayor, Jimmy Walker, would mean war with the political bosses whose support he needed. Yet ignoring Walker's misdeeds would undermine Roosevelt's image as a reformer and threaten his appeal to progressives across the nation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Kyle, Kenny, Doolin, and Max as we draft the best board games and movies of 2015! But before we get into that, we have a board meeting, discuss the potential end of our friendship at the hands of Tammany Hall, and more. Join the Discord and let us know who won the draft! —————

This week Craig and Rex begin a two-part series on the Miracle Braves of 1914.The early 20th Century was not kind to the Boston Braves (previously, the Beaneaters, the Doves and the Rustlers). Mired in the second division for years with frequent ownership changes, an outdated ballpark and few prospects, Boston entered the 1914 season with second year manager George Stallings, some promising new ballplayers and faint hopes to crack the National League's first division. However, after being swept in July 4th double header, the Braves were back in familiar territory - deep in last place, 15 games behind the mighty New York Giants.What happened next resulted in baseball's greatest come from behind story ever. The Braves caught fire and made a mockery of the National League West, wining by 10 games over the Giants, the league's three-time defending champions. Part One of this two-part series looks at the Braves remarkable season and sets the stage for the World Series against the American League powerhouse Philadelphia Athletics.You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com Email: hooksandruns@protonmail.com Hooks & Runs on TwitterCraig on Bluesky (@craigest.bsky.social)Rex (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ Hosts Emeriti:Andrew Eckhoff on Tik TokEric on FacebookMusic: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (via Premium Beat)     This podcast and this episode are copyright Craig Estlinbaum, 2025. 

On this edition of Parallax Views, we continue our post-mortem of the 2024 election with two separate and distinguished guests. In the first segment, Stephen Semler of the date-based political blog Polygraph joins the show to discuss his articles "A couple charts to explain a Harris loss" and the facetiously titled "'The economy is fine'". Stephen delves into how the economy played a role in this election, and addresses criticisms by some pundits that economic anxieties could not have played a role in the election because the economy is doing well by some metrics and statistics (for example: low unemployment, a booming stock market, etc.). We'll delve into the difference between the economy and average American's economic well-being, and we'll look at two graphs from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Census Bureau that deal with food insecurity and poverty to further elucidate Stephen's analysis. We'll also delve into Biden's Build Back Better and American Rescue Plans and how certain elements of Bidenomics in spring of 2022 got sidelined in a way that may have led to economic whiplash for American voters. In the second segment of the show, Daniel Bessner, known for his work at the Quincy Institute and Jacobin as well as co-hosting the left-leaning foreign policy/international relations podcast American Prestige, returns to the program to give his own analysis of the 2024 election's outcome and what he expects from a 2nd Trump Presidency. We'll discuss the feeling that there's been a more muted response to this election that in 2016, the question of Trump and fascism and why Danny prefers to discuss Trump as a reactionary populist with authoritarian inclinations, Trump as a PT Barnum-esque carny barker character mixed with shades of Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall, Trump and his promises of mass deportation, what Trump means for climate change, populism and anti-establishment backlash in the 2024 election, what Danny expects out of Trump's foreign policy (with regards to Ukraine and Russia, China, Iran, and Israel/Palestine), and, most significantly, the crisis of liberalism. In regard to the crisis of liberalism we'll mention Francis Fukuyama's "End of History" hypothesis, the decline of civic institutions since the 1960s (and maybe even before), Clinton-era liberalism (colored by the primacy of Third Way neoliberalism in the Democratic Party) vs. FDR's New Deal liberalism, the liberal international order and great power politics, and much, much more.

Ödeläggelse i North Carolina, New Yorks borgmästare Eric Adams är i hett vatten, och lite historia om Tammany Hall apropå korruption i New York

Ödeläggelse i North Carolina, New Yorks borgmästare Eric Adams är i hett vatten, och lite historia om Tammany Hall apropå korruption i New York.LÄNKAR OCH KÄLLOR Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As tough times persist, several dangers lie ahead for dreams, fortunes, and more importantly life itself.May – June 1933, many struggle as Prohibition and the Great Depression continues. Evalyn Walsh McLean attempts to sell the Hope Diamond and buy back the Washington Post. Doris Duke and other heiresses are under threat of kidnapping in Newport. Cobina Wright's new attempt to rebuild her fortune comes with some shady business connections and other troubles.Other people and subjects include: Barbara Hutton, Nanaline Duke, William May Wright aka “Bill,” Lil' Cobina Wright, Jr., James HR Cromwell aka “Jimmy,” James “Henry” Van Alen aka Jimmy, Jenny Renaud, Edward McLean, Countess Gladys Vanderbilt Szechenyi, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, Alice-Leon Moats, No Nice Girl Swears etiquette book, armed bodyguards, armed limousine, Lindbergh baby kidnapping, crime of the century, gold certificates, fraud, hoax, ransom, press, Gaston Means, John F. Condon, Cemetery John, J.J. Faulkner, Florence Nightingale Graham – Mrs. Thomas J. Lewis – Elizabeth Arden, cosmetics pioneer, operation, recovery, Primo Carnera, Jack Sharkey, John Factor, General Pershing, Admiral Cone, Barney Barusch, Jay “Rye” Ryland, Sam Rosoff, Mr. Dimples, amorous English gentlemen, Prince Kadhar, Alice Roosevelt Longfellow, Kermit Roosevelt, President Theodore Roosevelt, President Franklin Roosevelt, Eugene Meyer, William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies, Rosemary “Rose” Douras Davies, Emily Post, Mahatma Gandhi, Tammany Hall, Hope Diamond, Kohinoor, Star of India, souvenirs, replicas, cursed gem, unlucky charm, bad luck, bankruptcy, pawn, 1933 booklet, multi-level exhibition, diamond mine, huts, shacks, Amsterdam diamond cutters, gold mining, Prohibition, repeals, beer, tax evasion, prison sentence, the Great Depression, monkeys, baboons, cruise lines, ocean liner Leviathan – SS Vaterland, Waldorf-Astoria hotels, Brearley, Fermata, convent in Rome, Rough Point, Maine Chance Farms, Madison Square Gardens, Yankee Stadium, Roosevelt hospital, Chicago's World Fair, “A Century of Progress” exhibition, Newport, New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, the Rockies, Saratoga, horse races, Cobina Wright's autobiography I Never Grew Up, Max Baer, Max Schmeling, Murray Humphreys, Chicago underworld, FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigation, tapped phone conversations, Al Capone, prison baseball team, prison riot, jail time, making connections, World War I, World War II, refurbishment, scrap, Mahatma Gandhi hunger strike, Jewish writers, concentration camps, struggles, tv series, fashion designers, Hulu's Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, Netflix's Halston, Apple TV's The New Look, Christian Dior, Coco Chanel, Yves St. Laurent, Pierre Balmain, Thierry Mugler, Cristobal Balenciaga, Jean Patou, artistic and creative endeavors, rejection, setbacks, prey, predator, hedonism, chaos, multiple issues at once, Chris Williamson, Modern Wisdom podcast, Jimmy Carr, jealousy quote, blocks, happiness…--Extra Notes / Call to Action:New York Adventure Club www.nyadventureclub.comFriday, November 1st, 2024 5:30pm EST / 2:30pm PST – Waldorf Astoria Hotel Part 1: A New Standard of Luxury (pre-1929), Come learn more about the Astor family dispute behind the famous hotel and its construction as well as the hotel's influence on luxury travel and fine dining. Connections to the Titanic as well as other events and famous people will also be explored. But all good things come to and end.https://www.nyadventureclub.com/event/the-waldorf-astoria-hotel-part-1-a-new-standard-of-luxury-webinar-registration-1021721385167/Friday, November 8th, 2024 5:30pm EST / 2:30pm PST – Waldorf Astoria Hotel New York Part 2: Manhattan's Grandest Hotel (1931-present), The second version of this fine luxury hotel comes during the dawn of new era which will bring new challenges and excitement. A lingering Astor family connection adds to the saga until a new family the Hilton dynasty rises and takes over. More celebrities and events will add to allure of this hotel. Finally, updates reveal the recent renovations, an auction, and the future for the third incarnation.https://www.nyadventureclub.com/event/the-waldorf-astoria-hotel-part-2-manhattans-grandest-hotel-webinar-registration-1021721475437/ Share, like, subscribe --Archival Music provided by Past Perfect Vintage Music, www.pastperfect.com.Opening Music: My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance BandsSection 1 Music: Lost In A Fog by Coleman Hawkins & His Orchestra, Album Nightfall – Sophisticated Jazz ClassicsSection 2 Music: These Foolish Things by Benny Carter, Album Perfect BluesSection 3 Music: Just A Mood by Benny Carter & His Orchestra, Album Nightfall – Sophisticated Jazz ClassicsEnd Music: My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands--https://asthemoneyburns.com/X / TW / IG – @asthemoneyburnsX / Twitter – https://twitter.com/asthemoneyburnsInstagram – https://www.instagram.com/asthemoneyburns/Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/asthemoneyburns/

It's an EmMajority Report Thursday! Emma speaks with Noah Kulwin and Brendan James to discuss the most recent season of the Blowback podcast. Then, she speaks with Ross Barkan, contributing writer at New York Magazine and columnist at Crain's New York, to discuss his recent piece published in The Nation entitled "Is Eric Adams's Luck About to Run Out?" First, Emma runs through updates on Israel's attacks on civilians in Lebanon, the UN General Assembly's overwhelming vote to end Israel's military presence in Gaza and the West Bank, reporting on Biden's weapons transfers, the uncommitted movement, the teamsters' lack of a presidential endorsement, swing state polling, New York State's Democratic Party problem, the Fed, Russian offensives in Ukraine, Beshear's conversion therapy ban, and dropping overdose rates in the US, before parsing a little more thoroughly through the developing story of Israel's en-masse attack of Lebanese citizens (Hezbollah or not) via the use of rigged communications technologies. Emma is then joined by Noah Kulwin and Brendan James as they outline why they chose Cambodia for the focus of the fifth season of Blowback, unpacking its role as a central (and emblematic) node in the constellation of US intervention in Southeast Asia during the Cold War. Expanding on this, Kulwin and James dive into the complex cast of characters that dominate this season, first tackling the Nixon-Kissinger paring that set the blueprint for the entire thing, first sabotaging Vietnam peace negotiations in 1968 to help ensure a GOP victory, before centering a strategy of “Peace with Honor,” by which Nixon meant a shift to more expansive bombing campaigns, and immediately expanding said campaign by pushing Cambodian Royal Norodom Sihanouk to embrace a US carpet bombing campaign on his country (not war, totally not war), all while hiding the entire campaign behind a dual reporting system, separate books, and direct, behind-the-scenes communications between the White House and relevant parties. Shifting focus to Cambodia, Noah and Brendan parse through the Khmer Rouge's origins as an auxiliary, socialist-aligned force with the North Vietnamese (the basis for Nixon's carpet bombing), only to help launch a full-scale Civil War in the wake of the US-backed deposition of Sihanouk by South Vietnam in 1970, resulting in years of bloodshed (increased by ongoing US bombings) that saw the Khmer Rouge gain more and more territory and power, until the formerly-small-guerilla movement successfully sacked the capital city of Phnom Penh, launching five years of forced labor, full-scale genocide and the extermination of ethnic minorities, refugee crises, mass executions and more under the rule of Pol Pot. Continuing, James and Kulwin move into the breakdown of Cambodian society under the brutal regime of Pol Pot and expanding conflict as the Khmer Rouge turned against the North Vietnamese government that had supported them (in part due to the Khmer Rouge's budding relationship with the US and the West), resulting in said government launching a full-scale invasion of Cambodia, getting rid of Pol Pot and establishing a friendly regime, all to the condemnation of the West that had been peacefully watching Cambodians die for nearly a decade. After briefly expanding on the mythology tying the Khmer Rouge's rule to the greater Soviet movement and the obvious failures of said narrative when you look into who was actually supporting the regime, Emma, Brendan and Noah jump to the modern period, unpacking the symbiotic nature of a fully-capitalist Cold War between the US and China, and what that has meant for Cambodian development over the last decade, wrapping up the interview by running through the final figures on the mass deaths from US carpet bombing (100-150k), the US-backed Civil War (300-500k), and the following Cambodian Genocide (1.7m). Ross Barkan and Emma then dive right into the overwhelming cloud of corruption around NYC Mayor Eric Adams, including FOUR federal investigations ranging from domestic to foreign corruption, and the correlating complete incompetence of his governance, with Barkan comparing his administration to a Tammany Hall that didn't actually deliver anything to the people. After briefly expanding on the role an overwhelmingly unpopular New York Democratic Party is having on races up and down the ballot, Ross and Emma tackle the particulars of Adams' corrupt relationship with the NYPD and its deadly impact. And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Brandon Sutton and Matt Binder as they unpack North Carolina GOP Gubernatorial Nominee Mark Robinson's odd sermon on the ability to take and make life with one's genitalia, JD Vance's continuing commitment to racist conspiracy, and Ryan Grim's cathartic shutdown of Matt Walsh's absurd anti-Haitian bigotry. Kimmy from Kentucky on the misconceptions about her state and the value of people without college degrees, and M from Florida on Tim Pool, plus, your calls and IMs!   Check out Blowback here: https://blowback.show/ Check out Ross' piece in The Nation here: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/eric-adams-corruption-challenges/ TICKETS FOR MAJORITY REPORT ELECTION NIGHT LIVE SHOW HERE!: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-majority-report-with-sam-seder-election-night-coverage-live-show-tickets-1010883639177 Call your Senators at 202-224-3121 and urge them to tell Sen. Schumer NOT to bring Sen. bill 4127 to the floor! Go to https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ and, in the space to contact the Vice President, voice support for FTC Chair Lina Khan and for Palestine! Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Follow us on TikTok here!: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here!: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here!: https://rumble.com/user/majorityrep ort Check out our alt YouTube channel here!: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Join Sam on the Nation Magazine Cruise! 7 days in December 2024!!: https://nationcruise.com/mr/ Check out StrikeAid here!; https://strikeaid.com/ Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: http://majority.fm/app Check out today's sponsors: Article: Article is offering you 50 dollars off your first purchase of 100 dollars or more.  To claim, visit https://Article.com/majority and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout.  That's https://Article.com/majority for 50 dollars off your first purchase of 100 dollars or more. Delete Me: Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for DeleteMe. Now at a special discount for our listeners. Today get 20% off your DeleteMe plan by texting MAJORITY to 64000. That's MAJORITY to 64000.  Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech @BradKAlsop Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Episode 14 of Fragile Juggernaut is the first of our trio of regional episodes. It dials into New York City, the seat of the country's largest manufacturing base, but one composed of a vast constellation of small and diverse shops; and also host to the nation's largest port, transport system, white collar and cultural complex, and more. With the eminent historian Joshua Freeman, Gabe and Ben talk about worker organizing outside the CIO cast–public transit workers, teachers, laundry workers and domestics–as well as what made New York City, a non-fordist city in the age of Ford, so exemplary compared to other parts of the country. The episode features James Baldwin and Truman Capote; Irish dance halls and cruising on the piers; burial societies, Tammany Hall, and clandestine organizations; the origins of bodegas and how the mob got rackets into organized labor; the trade union origins of “Strange Fruit”; Ella Baker and Esther Cooper Jackson; the IRA and Broadway musicals; how transit workers built their union campaigning against big squeegees; the hybrid combinations of craft and industrial unionism; and the limits to workplace organization in a city defined by tremendous ethnic, religious, and neighborhood segmentation. Featured music: “I Ain't Got Nobody” by Count Basie; “It's Better With A Union Man” by Pins and Needles Orchestra; “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday; “The Boys of the Lough” by Michael Coleman; “Talking Sailor” by Woody Guthrie; “One Big Union for Two” by the Pins and Needles Orchestra; “New York Town” by Woody Guthrie.Archival audio credits: Esther Cooper Jackson discusses domestic work research; Mike Quill debates Rep. Fred Hartley on ABC news; longshoreman and sailor Stan Weir describes conservatizing effects of the racket on the docks. Fragile Juggernaut is a Haymarket Originals podcast exploring the history, politics, and strategic lessons of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the rank and file insurgency that produced it. Support Fragile Juggernaut on Patreon and receive our exclusive bimonthly newsletter, full of additional insights, reading recommendations, and archival materials we've amassed along the way. Buy Organized Labor and the Black Worker, 20% Off: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/991-organized-labor-and-the-black-worker-1619-1981

Un nuevo programa vivero en el que hablamos de muchas novedades recientes, algunas de ellas que están próximas a ser publicadas y que pueden ser algunos de los grandes éxitos de la temporada. Ahí os va el menú: (0:03:26) Life in Reterra (0:14:46) Terminus (0:34:35) Río de Oro (0:45:45) Quest (1:00:25) Tammany Hall (1:13:59) El Señor de los Anillos: Duelo por la Tierra Media (1:34:35) Four Humours (1:45:53) Flatiron

In 1850, an impoverished twenty-five-year-old named Fredericka Mandelbaum came to New York in steerage and worked as a peddler on the streets of Lower Manhattan. By the 1870s she was a fixture of high society and an admired philanthropist. How was she able to ascend from tenement poverty to vast wealth?In the intervening years, “Marm” Mandelbaum had become the country's most notorious “fence”—a receiver of stolen goods—and a criminal mastermind. By the mid-1880s as much as $10 million worth of purloined luxury goods (nearly $300 million today) had passed through her Lower East Side shop. Called “the nucleus and center of the whole organization of crime,” she planned robberies of cash, gold and diamonds throughout the country.But Mandelbaum wasn't just a successful crook: She was a business visionary—one of the first entrepreneurs in America to systemize the scattershot enterprise of property crime. Handpicking a cadre of the finest bank robbers, housebreakers and shoplifters, she handled logistics and organized supply chains—turning theft into a viable, scalable business.To discuss this story is today's guest, Margalit Fox, author of The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum. We look at a colorful fixture of Gilded Age New York—a city teeming with nefarious rogues, capitalist power brokers and Tammany Hall bigwigs, all straddling the line between underworld enterprise and “legitimate” commerce.

New York Daily News columnist Harry Siegel joins co-host V.V. Ganeshananthan and guest co-host Matt Gallagher to talk about his recent piece about the Supreme Court's decision to permit what he has dubbed “after-the-fact bribery.” Siegel, who has covered corruption for years, explains how the legality of accepting gratuities, tips, and gifts has become so nuanced that it's now almost impossible to prosecute a politician who's been bought off, and details why the newest version of the law is “fundamentally incoherent.” Siegel also talks about the language, literature, and history around ducking the rules, including the origin of the word “scofflaw,” and reads from a recent New York Daily News article. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Harry Siegel “Supreme Court Legalizes After-the-Fact Bribery” New York Daily News | June 6, 2024 “Scofflaw Trump is a Defaming Menace to America” New York Daily News | January 27, 2024 The muckrackers and the gunslingers: What's in the balance as the Supreme Court gets ready to take up a legal challenge to New York's tough firearm laws” New York Daily News | February 1, 2019 Others: “English, loanword champion of the world” by Britt Peterson | The Boston Globe | June 29, 2014        Breaking Bad The Sopranos      Succession Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravations by Amman Shea Thomas Malthus Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis e.e. cummings Krazy Kat by George Harriman Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor Democracy by Joan Didion Democracy and American Novel by Henry Brooks Adams Primary Colors by Joe Klein Plunkitt of Tammany Hall by William R. Riordon The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan The Man in the Arena: Selected Writings of Theodore Roosevelt: A Reader by Theodore Roosevelt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Monday, July 22nd, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus Nigerian Fulani Muslims killed 12 Christians Tragedy struck in Nigeria on Sunday, July 14th as Fulani Muslim terrorists continued their reign of terror in a Christian community in the Benue State, murdering 12 people and wounding another 11, reports TruthNigeria.com. Andy Itodo, an eyewitness, said, “The terrorists, up to 20 in number, appeared from the forests of Egwuma on motorbikes, wielding automatic rifles, and started shooting indiscriminately. The carnage lasted for over 1 hour and 30 minutes. He added, “The worst part was that we were in our churches when the terrorists attacked us. We were not prepared.” Gideon Ehoda, another eyewitness, said, “They showed no mercy as they gunned down seven of our youths before they retreated to the bush.” Mary Otache, a 36-year-old eyewitness, said, “Even as they were shooting into the churches and people were running away, they were chanting Allahu Akbar and speaking in Fulani.” Augustus Adaji, age 28, said, “When they thought they had gotten the upper hand, we shot at them, and I know that I personally hit two of the terrorists. My colleagues shot many. Initially, they tried to resist us, but they broke up, and some fled on foot, leaving their bikes and guns.” Please pray that Amos 5:24 would come true in Nigeria. “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” According to Open Doors, Nigeria is the sixth most dangerous country worldwide in which to live for Christians. Biden withdraws and endorses Kamala Harris After nearly 31 House Democrats and five Democratic senators publicly called on President Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race, he withdrew on Sunday. In an open letter addressed to “My Fellow Americans,” he wrote, “While it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of the party and my country to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.” In a subsequent post, President Biden wrote, “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala [Harris] to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it's time to come together and beat Trump. Let's do this.” Democrat senator cried over Biden's withdrawal Appearing on CBS News, Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware – the co-chair of the Biden for President campaign, cried about Biden's withdrawal from the presidential race. COONS: “Joe Biden is grounded. He's grounded in his faith, in his family, and in our state. (Coons gets choked up and pauses) Excuse me. I'm sorry. This was a very difficult decision. And one that I think reflects the very best of who Joe Biden is. Someone who, as you put it Bob, comes home -- comes home because it's where his strength is. His strength is in his family. His strength is in our community. His strength is in his faith.” Democrat elite pushed Biden out Appearing with talk show host Charlie Kirk on Sunday,  "Just The News" founder John Solomon took issue with how the Democrat elite powerbrokers ran roughshod over the 14.5 million Democrat primary voters who selected Joe Biden to be the party's presidential nominee. SOLOMON: “We're back to the days of Tammany Hall. The Democrats no longer regard the 14.5 million people that voted for Joe Biden -- the power brokers, the Barack Obamas and the Nancy Pelosis and Chuck Schumers. They've decided who's going to be their nominee by forcing Joe Biden out. That is not going to play well in a party that often claims that ‘democracy' is being ruined. Well, they may have just contributed to that.” Kamala Harris funded bail for BLM rioters, a failure as Border Czar Solomon responded to the coronation of Vice President Kamala Harris as the replacement presidential nominee, saying she is further left politically than Biden. SOLOMON: “As for Kamala Harris, if she is the ‘Anointed One,' because it saves them $200 million in the bank that they don't have to fundraise, there is a lot of research that the American people need to become familiar with, with Kamala Harris. “What she did in California, the fact that her [Political Action Committee] bailed out [Black Lives Matter] rioters from prison in jail, the fact that she had only one job in the Biden administration to secure the border, and she failed miserably at that. It's going to be very easy to link Kamala Harris to all of the deaths, all of the mayhem, all of the frustration that Americans have with the border because that was her one job that Joe Biden gave her. “And Biden endorsed her today quickly, because he knew that there is not unanimity in the party for her being the nominee. So, he tried to force that unanimity with his endorsement.” Trump campaign released anti-Kamala Harris ad The Trump campaign released this anti-Kamala Harris ad. NARRATOR: “Kamala was in on it. She covered up Joe's obvious mental decline.” HARRIS: “Our president is in good shape, in good health, tireless, vibrant, and I have no doubt about the strength. of the work that we have done.” NARRATOR: “But Kamala knew Joe couldn't do the job. So, she did it. Look what she got done: a border invasion, runaway inflation, the American Dream dead. They created this mess. They know Kamala owns this failed record." Trump: “How did somebody get on that roof?” In their first joint interview, Donald Trump and his VP pick, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, talked to FOX News host Jesse Watters about the security breach that led to the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. WATERS:  “They were monitoring this guy for an hour beforehand.” TRUMP: “Yeah.” WATTERS: “No one told you not to take the stage?” TRUMP: “No, nobody mentioned it. Nobody said there was a problem. I would have waited for 15 [minutes]. They could have said, ‘Let's wait for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 5 minutes, something.  I think that was a mistake. “How did somebody get on that roof? And why wasn't he reported? Because people saw that he was on the roof. I mean you had Trumpers screaming, the woman in the red shirt, she was screaming, ‘There's a man on the roof!' And then other people, ‘There's is a man on the roof who's got a gun!' And that was quite a bit before I walked onto the stage. So, you would have thought somebody would have done something about it.” Pro-abort Democrat Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee died  Democrat Representative Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, has died at the age of 74 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, reports NBC News. Born in Queens, New York, she first won election to Congress from Houston, Texas in 1995.  She was known for her rabid support of abortion. Most recently, Congresswoman Lee: opposed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act to protect babies who are born alive after a botched abortion. opposed Rep. Chip Roy's amendment that prohibited Department of Defense funding for soldiers to travel to get an abortion. and opposed a resolution that condemned the violent attacks on pro-life groups. The life of the late Congresswoman Lee embodied Isaiah 59:7. It says, “Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. They pursue evil schemes; acts of violence mark their ways.” Global computer systems outage caused chaos here in America And finally, services from airlines to healthcare, shipping and finance were coming back online on Friday after a mistake in a security software update sparked hours-long global computer systems outages, reports Reuters. The incident highlighted the vulnerability of the world's interconnected technologies. More than 2,200 flights were canceled across the U.S., with nearly 7,000 delayed, as of 1:23 pm ET on Friday, according to data tracker FlightAware. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 377 points, the S&P 500 lost 39 points, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 144 points. George Kurtz, the founder and CEO of the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, explained on NBC's "Today Show" how their company took down millions of computers --including air travel, banks, and more -- around the world with a single faulty software update. KURTZ: “The system was sent an update. That update had a software bug in it and caused an issue with the Microsoft operating system.” Businesses face questions about how to avoid future blackouts triggered by technology meant to safeguard their systems. Close And that's The Worldview on this Monday, July 22nd, in the year of our Lord 2024. Join me Adam McManus, and my two sons, Honor and Valor, at the Colorado Father-Son retreat Thursday, August 15th through Sunday, August 18th. Go to ColoradoFatherSon.com. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

The political machinations of Tammany Hall extended to the buying and selling of political positions, including judgeships. New York State Supreme Court Judge Joseph Force Crater is claimed to have been one of the beneficiaries of this corrupt practice, but before the truth could come out he disappeared without a trace. The subsequent investigation captivated the nation, earning Crater the title of “the missingest man in New York.” Conspiracy Theories is now on Instagram @theconspiracypod and TikTok @conspiracy.pod! Follow us to keep up with the show and get behind-the-scenes updates from Carter and the team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tammany Hall was the executive committee of the Democratic Party in New York City during the 1800s formed with the intention of aiding the city's immigrant population — but by the 1860s it was riddled with claims of widespread corruption, bribery and fraud at the behest of its leader William “Boss” Tweed. Tweed's greed and ill-gotten assets made him obscenely rich—all while the taxpayers suffered. Conspiracy Theories is now on Instagram @theconspiracypod and TikTok @conspiracy.pod! Follow us to keep up with the show and get behind-the-scenes updates from Carter and the team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

To celebrate a month of diversity, courage and pride, we are rereleasing this episode which continues to be one of the most talked about shows on The Gilded Gentleman so far. The story of Murray Hall -- a Gilded Age bail bondsman, Tammany Hall representative and loving and devoted father -- is one that few know. It's a story that leaves you inspired and one that is impossible to forget and one that when you first hear it, takes you by surprise.  Murray's story, like countless others nearly forgotten, is one that is deeply relevant in our modern world long after his own death in 1901. Murray Hall lived an extraordinary life in a small nondescript house in New York's Greenwich Village that still remains  as a testament to his story  today. 

Fiorello LaGuardia was one of the twentieth century's most colorful politicians―a 5'2'' ball of energy who led New York as major during the Depression and World War Two, charming the media during press conference and fighting the dirty machine politics of the city. He was also quintessentially American: the son of Italian immigrants, who rose in society through sheer will and chutzpah.La Guardia made an unsuccessful attempt to enlist during the Spanish-American War. Following that, he served in two U.S. consulates in Europe from 1901 to 1906, and later worked as an interpreter at Ellis Island from 1907 to 1910. Strongly disapproving of corrupt Tammany Hall, his charisma and appeal to minority groups led to victories in districts that were traditionally Democratic. From 1923 to 1933, La Guardia gained national prominence in the House of Representatives, aligning himself with reformers and progressives. In the 1933 mayoral race, Franklin Roosevelt saw La Guardia as a potential ally who could collaborate across party lines. From there he took on the New York mayor's office with gusto.Today's guest is Terry Golway, author of “I Never Did Like Politics: How Fiorello La Guardia Became America's Mayor, and Why He Still Matters.”

Harper's Contributing Editor and novelist/historian extraordinaire Kevin Baker ("The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City") brings his blended affection for (and evocative portrayals of) both "The Big Apple" and the "National Pastime" - to make a compelling case for New York City as the rightful center of the baseball universe. From Alan Moores' review in Booklist:   "Baseball fans beyond Gotham's gravitational pull might bristle at the notion that New York was the epicenter of the creation and growth of the game. But Baker's raucous, revelatory, lovingly detailed account will win them over from the first pitch. Baker lays out the early history of the game in the city, then seamlessly weaves together the vibrant origin stories of the New York Yankees, New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers, and the city's Cuban and African American teams, right up to the eve of Jackie Robinson's 1945 signing with the Dodgers.   "He vividly recreates the recklessly ambitious, breathtakingly corrupt, alcohol-fueled world of Tammany Hall politics—which were followed by the reforms of Fiorello La Guardia—that steered, and were sometimes even steered by, the game. Dozens of near-mythic and also too-human figures parade through the pages, from John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, Fred Merkle, Carl Hubbell, Mel Ott, Leo Durocher, Casey Stengel, Red Barber, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, and Branch Rickey, to an array of crime bosses, team owners, and mayors.    "Then there was Babe Ruth, whose gaudy statistics, irrepressible personality, and seismic impact on the game, the city, and the entire nation outshone even his legend, as Baker convincingly argues here. A spellbinding history of a game and the city where it found itself."   SUPPORT THE SHOW: Buy Us a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable   SPONSOR THANKS: Newspapers.com (promo code: GSA20):  https://newspapers.com   BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City (2024): https://amzn.to/3TvWgsf   FIND & FOLLOW: Website: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable

Vivian Gordon went out before midnight in a velvet dress and mink coat. Her body turned up the next morning in a desolate Bronx park, a dirty clothesline wrapped around her neck. At her stylish Manhattan apartment, detectives discovered notebooks full of names—businessmen, socialites, gangsters. And something else: a letter from an anti-corruption commission established by Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Led by the imperious Judge Samuel Seabury, the commission had uncovered a police conspiracy to frame women as prostitutes. Had Vivian Gordon been executed to bury her secrets? As FDR pressed the police to solve her murder, Judge Seabury pursued the trail of corruption to the top of Gotham's powerful political machine—the infamous Tammany Hall. My guest is author Michael Wolraich, and his brand-new book is called "The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age". He shares the story of Vivian Gordon, her 1931 murder, and the dramatic effect it had on New York City politics. More about the author here: https://michaelwolraich.com/ This episode is sponsored by Factor. Go to https://factormeals.com/notorious50 to get 50% off! Use code notorious50. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a conversation with former mobster now mafia historian Louis Ferrante about his intriguing new book BORGATA: RISE OF EMPIRE. The former “chop shop” small time thug now erudite Ferrante is like a cross between Sonny Corleone & Niall Ferguson. Essential viewing/listening. Transcript below.AK (00:18): Hello everybody. It is Tuesday, January the second, 2024. We're in a new year, but old themes. Last year we did several shows on the Mafia, one with the historian Paul Moses on the what he calls, at least the true story of the immigrant cops who fought the rise of the Mafiaa. He had a new book out called Appropriately Enough, the Italian Squad, another with an interesting writer, Matt Beck, the Life We Choose about a series of conversations he had with a Mafiaa member called William Big Belly Delia. He talked about not just Donald Trump and Michael Jackson, but also Jimmy Hoffer, and we're going one better in 2024 rather than writing or talking to people who have spoken to people in the Mafiaa. We have a man, Louis Ferrante, who once upon a time was a member of the Mafia. And since become a very successful writer, the author of many books, bestselling books, including particular Mob Rules, what the Mafia Can Teach the Legitimate Businessman. It was a huge hit. And he has a new book out. It's a history of the Mafia, the Borgata Trilogy, volume one, rise of Empire. It came out in November of last year in the uk, and it's out this week in the US. Louis Ferrante is joining us from his home in Sarasota on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Louis, before we went live, you told me it's very nice in Florida.Louis Ferrante (02:01): Florida's beautiful, the Sunshine State, a lot of sun. I need sun. I grew up in New York, and the winters are dark and dreary, and London's a beautiful place too. I like the people in London, but once again, the weather's not the best part.AK (02:17): Dreary. Yeah, I'm talking to actually from California. So Louis, when you fly out and you get on a plane, you happen to sit next to someone and you get into conversation and they ask you what career you have or had, what would you say?Louis Ferrante (02:31): I'd tell 'em a hijacker if I'm on a plane.AK (02:36): And what do they do?Louis Ferrante (02:38): They look for the attendant or they go to the bathroom? No, I mean, I was a truck hijacker, a little different from a plain hijacker, but I tell them I'm a writer and a television host, which is the truth. I'm a bestselling author. My books have been translated into 2020 languages, and I hosted a show for Discovery Channel.AK (03:04): It's a good trade being a writer. But did you always intend to be one, or how did you go from being, as you say, a truck hijacker, someone who knows the Mafia, the American Mafia to actually writing about it.Louis Ferrante (03:21): I faced the rest of my life in prison, and I was lucky to get out of it with a 13 year sentence. I was represented at the time by the civil rights attorney, William Kunstler, who was very instrumental in, yeah, he helped Martin Luther King, Malcolm X. He went in to negotiate with the convicts during the Attica riots, and he defended me, and I was able to get a plea of 13 years without cooperating against anyone, and I didn't have to go to trial and possibly get the rest of my life sentenced to rest of my life in prison. And while I was there, I started to think through my life and eventually I picked up my first book, fell in Love with books, became an avid reader, and at some point or another I was reading a book a day, and that's what made my time go. And I started to teach myself how to write by reading all the great authors and taking notes as to how Leo Tolstoy begins and ends a chapter, how Dostoevsky Begins and Ends a plot, how Charlotte Bronte introduces a character, et cetera, et cetera. And that's how I taught myself how to write. And by the time I came home from prison, I was ready to be a writer. And my last book, Mob Rules was an international bestseller in 20 languages. And my current book will hopefully get picked up in a lot of languages as well. And it's a trilogy.AK (04:42): Yeah, it's already been picked up by the Germans. You imply that in prison, you were a meticulous reader. Is meticulousness something that's prized within the mafia? Was that one of your skills?Louis Ferrante (05:00): Skills? Yeah, I mean, I was a heist guy. I ran a crew of heist guys, heist and hijackings, and you need to know what you're doing and everything's, you got to cross your T's and dot your i's make sure that everybody knows their role. Make sure that you need a well-oiled machine when you're going to do a heist or a hijack in one mistake. And everybody's lives are at stake, including innocent people. Something I might regret now, but something that was just a fact then. But we wanted to get away with it. We wanted the money. I wasn't thinking about people's lives back then. I was thinking about money and we wanted to get away with it, and you need to know what you're doing and everybody needs to know what they're doing. And I was a big planner. I would make drawings, I would go over everything with everyone. I would do mock runs to the highway to make sure we had an escape route, a backup escape route. I made sure we had backup guys in place. I never just pulled the trigger too fast. At one point, I was picked up by the feds in California where you are. We were in San Francisco and we were looking to hit an armored car, and the feds swooped in on us and grabbed us the day before we were going to hit that armored car. And it was a crucial thing. I was one guy short, and the reason why we waited was I was waiting for an extra guy to come from New York so that he could make sure we had enough guys on the heist. But yeah, so I guess I was meticulous in that sense. I was ignorant and naive in a million other ways, but I was meticulous in that sense.AK (06:27): Yeah, you should come back, Louis. It's much easier to do your heist these days. I don't know if there are any police left in South Africa. Yeah,Louis Ferrante (06:34): I don't know if anyone would care anymore.AK (06:36): Yeah, you'd probably be encouraged. Lots of films and books about how young kids get into the mafia. There's The Godfather, of course, & the Irishmen. How did you get into it?Louis Ferrante (06:48):  If you start committing big enough crimes, they'll find you. And that's what happens. Once I started hijacking trucks, I ran an auto crime, a chop shop. I supplied car parts to auto collision shops for a long time when I was a kid, stole cars, chopped them up and sold them to a shop. That little operation started out with just a few car thieves, me and my friends, and eventually grew into, as I said, a chop shop. And then at some point, once we started hijacking,AK (07:18): What is a chop shop?Louis Ferrante (07:22): Chop shop is you have a shop where you steal a car, you get an order from a collision shop. So a collision shop, for example, has, let's say they got a Mercedes and they got to spend $30,000 in parts because it's a hundred thousand dollars car and the car's wrecked, so they need 30,000 in parts. They might tell us, look, we'll give you five grand, can you get us all the parts? And then they'll put the stolen parts on the customer's car and sell them back the repaired car. So we would get paid then to go out, steal the car, try to get the same color so they wouldn't even have to paint it, but if you had to, you paint it. It's not always easy to match colors, but we would steal the car, chop it up, give them the parts they needed, and then dump the skeleton somewhere in the beginning we dumped it in the woods. And then at some point or another, we started renting. Back then you could lease a building under a phony name and then just abandon the building when you were done with it. I don't think you could get away with that. Nowadays there's too many identifications and stuff required, and people are hip at things like that, but back then you could even fly. When I told you I went to California to knock off an armor car, we flew under different names. Pre 9/11, you just booked an airline ticket under any name. I just picked the name out of the phone book. Just get on a plane.AK (08:35): Those were the days. You mentioned your bestselling book, Mob Rules, what the Mafia can Teach the Legitimate Businessman. There's a sort of cliche, Louis, I'm sure you've heard it a thousand times, that had you been born into the New York or Boston upper classes, you would've ended up at Harvard Business School and made a million dollars that way, is what you were doing. Is that a form of innovation and in some ways equivalent to what kids are taught at Stanford or Harvard Business School these days to think and be meticulous and accomplish what they set out to do?Louis Ferrante (09:19): Yeah, I don't know if they're taught any more to think. I don't know what an Ivy League upbringing is like, so it would be unimaginable for me to even,AK (09:33): But you've met those types.Louis Ferrante (09:36): Oh, all day long. Yeah, all day long. Some of them can't tie their shoes. I mean, just can't fix a flat. I was with a doctor once who got a flat and didn't know what to do, had no idea where the jack was, where to even begin. If I wasn't with him, he would've sat on the side of the road probably for the rest of his life until he died of starvation. So yeah, I would rather grow up and have to learn how to do things yourself.AK (10:01): Where did you grow up? What town?Louis Ferrante (10:03): In Queens? Yeah. I grew up in Queens and one of the five boroughs in New York, lower New York. The lower borough.AK (10:08): Yeah. My son lives there now.Louis Ferrante (10:10): Does he really? What part?AK (10:13): On the border with Brooklyn.Louis Ferrante (10:17): Oh, okay. They're building it up. It's probably up.AK (10:20): Yeah. It's much more fashionable now than it, I'm sure it used to be.Louis Ferrante (10:23): Yeah. I mean, I was in a lower income section of Queens, middle to lower income, so it wasn't all that, but a lot of people now, they've bought up a lot of big real estate in Brooklyn, and I guess they're moving to Queens now too.AK (10:37): Did your family know what you were doing? How old were you when you started your chop shop?Louis Ferrante (10:42): I was in high school when I was running the chop shop, so I kept it from them as best I can. I remember the first time I came home with a tagged car. A tagged car would be if, let's say I bought a wrecked vehicle, let's say a wrecked Cadillac, and I bought the completely, it was totaled out. So you pick up the wreck for a couple hundred bucks. Nobody wants it, but it's got a clean title. If you have a clean title, you don't have to go to motor vehicle and go through an inspection at that time. I don't know if things have changed. Now, this is many years ago. So if you bought a wrecked car, you had a clean title, you could then go out and steal a car, pop a couple of the tags off, for example, the VIN number in the dashboard, pop that tag off, put it on your stolen car, and then drive that as if it's yours. If you get pulled over by a cop, usually the cops just checked the dashboard tag. They never went through the rest of the car unless it was auto crime, which was something different. They'd have to be looking for you. So I came home with a beautiful brand new El Dorado, and I remember my mother was heartbroken. She came out on the porch and looked at it and said, you're killing me. You're breaking my heart.AK (11:48): Right, because she knew what you were doing.Louis Ferrante (11:50): Yeah, of course. How would I afford that car? I didn't have a job. So I tried to tell her that my friend who I work at the Body shop for part-time, he gave me the car and he's going to let me pay it off, but she wasn't buying it. She came from a family who was crooked, although she was law abiding. She was hip to the streets in a way, and she knew something was wrong. And she said, you're breaking my heart. And I never forgot that I did break her heart. She eventually died in my arms. And when I was young, she died at 47. I was 19, turning 20, and I went off the deep end after that. But to this day, I regret that she had to go through that and no, did I admit it to her? No. Did I tell her? But she, no, she knew she was hip.AK (12:33): Louis, talk to me about why you've written this history. Is it bound up with your own history? I mean, much of this history, this first volume is set in the 19th, late 19th, early 20th century when of course you weren't around. But is this a very personal narrative or have you tried to step back and write about the history of the mafia as an objective historian?Louis Ferrante (13:18): Both. And so first answer, I'll answer that question and tell you how the book came about. I do try to be as objective as possible. I don't want anybody to believe that I'm inserting myself where I don't belong. I want to tell a real history. And Publishers Weekly gave me a rave review saying that I did not rest on my own experiences alone.AK (13:40): You didn't threaten them, did you?Louis Ferrante (13:42): No, I did not. No, I didn't hang anybody out of a window or anything. No. And then handed them a pen and said, you know what to do? No, I didn't. Basically, they just said it was Well-researched all my notes. My source notes are in the back years, years reading articles, books. But what I was able to bring to the table from my own insights was I have an extra sense that most people wouldn't have. Being I was a criminal when I read something, I know if it was true or if it wasn't. I know if the writer has been, they don't, usually a writer wouldn't intentionally mislead the reader, but sometimes writers themselves are misled and they may get information, and because they don't know the world or the culture, the subculture, they write the wrong story. And a lot of times I'd be in jail when I was reading history, biographies, science philosophy. I would hear other guys, mob guys reading mob books, and you would hear a lot of guys blurting out b******t never happened, who wrote this crap? And when I finally started to do my own research, I realized that I came across a lot of things that were untrue, and I was able to decipher that stuff for the reader, which I think is interesting. I debunked a lot of old mafia myths that have been around for decades about leading Mafia figures. And I would explain to the reader, this is why it could have never happened. I don't want the reader to just take my word. I want the reader to have confidence in me as a writer to know that this is why this could never have happened. So time and again, I do that. To go back to your original question is where the book came from, how it came about. It wasn't something I really thought about. I was invited to Mob Rules, as we mentioned, was an international bestseller. And I was invited to Sicily by the German media conglomerate at Axel Springer, and it was a retreat for editors in Argento, Sicily. And I was seated next to an older man who happened to be there, and his name was George. And him and I hit it off. He was in his nineties, but a very young nineties, sharp as nails. And we talked all evening, and at the end of the evening, he said, I would like to publish the next book. And it turned out to be Lord George Denfeld, one of the biggest of the 20th century. And the next day we had lunch in Argento overlooking the ruins with Lord George and his charming wife, lady Annabelle. And Lady Annabelle had some priceless input as well, which persuaded me to write the book, what turned down to morphed into a trilogy. Originally, I was contracted to write a book, but I said, you can't squeeze all this into a book. There's too much here. It has to be stretched out. And I probably could have wrote 10 volumes, but I ended up writing a trilogy, and that's how the book came about. Lord George, as I understand it, he had a reputation of connecting writers with subjects, and I was the last one he had personally did that with before he unfortunately passed away.AK (16:39): Louis, if you were to write a history of the Mafia itself, would that begin in Sicily? There's a very strong Sicilian quality, but the mafia existed throughout Italy, of course. Is there something about the Sicilian Mafiaa and the history of the American mafia that are inseparable?Louis Ferrante (18:23): There is, as I pointed out in the early chapters of the book, I dug deep into how the mafia was formed inside the Sicilian womb, and it did indeed start in Sicily and then spread throughout the peninsula up and down the peninsula of Italy. But it was born in Sicily, and it had a lot to do with socioeconomic reasons, culture, family tradition, as I point out all these things in the book. And there was also, I point out a strong Arab influence in Western Sicily, which is interesting because Sicily was invaded by so many different people's over the course of centuries, whether it be the Spanish, the French, the Austrians, and the Arabs at some point. So the Arabs had a strong, I believe, where it developed in Western Sicily for the most part, in places like Palermo and Argento and Casa Lama del Gulfo, there was a strong Arab influence there, which is still present, still prevalent in a lot of places in the architecture and stuff, in words, in people's names, et cetera. So I was able to trace the history deep into Sicily and how it started in America was during the Southern Italian mass exodus wave into the United States after slavery was abolished in the United States in the 1860s. That came on around the same time when the unification of Italy occurred in Europe. And Sicilians were not happy with the unification of Italy being sort of absorbed by Italy proper. And they felt like a lot of Sicilians felt like it was just the newest conqueror, the newest ruler, no different from the bans in France or whoever else was there. So they were like, Hey, you know what? We're not happy with this. And there was a lot of poverty. And when America abolished slavery, we needed labor. We needed cheap labor quick because we no longer had slave labor in the United States. And at that point, we started looking around and there were plenty of poor people in Europe, and we invited them, and they came here in droves, and the mafia rode in on those boats. A lot of them, and I go to detail, I go very, very close detail throughout the early chapters of how exactly that happened. And I'm also very, very careful to point out that most Italian-Americans came here to work hard and to make a new life for themselves and their children and grandchildren, and had nothing to do with the mafia and never committed crimes. But the unfortunate circumstance, the unfortunate byproduct of that mass immigrant wave was the Italian criminals that came with them. A lot of them were fugitives from justice in Sicily, and they planted new flags here in American cities throughout the country, in metropolitan areas. At one point or another. There were just as many Mafia families as there were metropolitan areas across the United States. There was one in every metropolitan area, and then the strongest one survived and went on sort of like Arnold Toby's Darwinian theory of how empires are built, the strong survive. It was the same thing with a lot of these.AK (21:27): Why was it that the Mafia, that the Sicilian Mafia became so dominant, and there were many immigrants from Naples and other parts of mainland southern Italy. What is it about the Southern Sicilian, and is it different in its principles organization, morality or lack of morality from the Neapolitan Mafia, for example?Louis Ferrante (21:51): Yeah. Well, the Neapolitan Mafia was the Kimora. I had done a documentary for the History Channel about them very different from the Italian Sicilian, the Sicilian Mafia in Sicily. A lot of these other mafias from Calabria, from Naples, and even there were a few in northern Italy, very weak. None of them had that sort of Sicilian, the Sicilians. They had something very special on that island. It was an island different throughout up and down the peninsula of Italy. You had city states throughout the Renaissance and stuff. So they were all very, I'm still asked, her father was from Naples, and her mother was from Sicily. So I have two grandparents on my mother's side from Naples and Sicily. And my father's, both parents were from Bari, all from southern Italy. But I'm still asked by people who are Italian American, where are you from? And they sort of connect with you a lot faster if you're from the same place they were from. So you can only imagine back then how territorial Italy was and how people really responded to people like themselves. So at that time, Sicily was an island away from even all those city states, and they were really, really isolated, and they really, really relied on themselves. And throughout history, there were always weak central governments in Sicily, no matter who ruled Sicily, they really never cared about the Sicilian people and implementing any positive changes, whether social changes or institutional changes. They just wanted to pretty much rape Sicily of whatever agrarian products they could get off the island. So most of the time, the Sicilian people relied on themselves, and that went a lot into it as well. And it was a patriarchal society, which in some cases comes from the Arab influence in Sicily.AK (23:33): Are you presenting then the Sicilian Mafia as a resistance, organizational resistance to colonialism of one kind?Louis Ferrante (23:41): Believe it or not, at one point they were. Now, I know that they evolved or devolved extremely quickly into something much more treacherous and less upstanding than that. But I do make the argument that in the very beginning, they were indeed just that in my book, even the word I trace, for the first time, people were, historians were sort of in agreement that it came from an Arabic word, but they threw out a half a dozen different Arabic words that it might've come from one meaning a cave dweller, another one meaning a proud horse, and all kinds of different words from the Arabic language, I was able to trace the word mafia. Those of us in the West who are familiar with the siege of Khartoum, where the Victorian general Gordo, the British General Gordo,, was sent to sort of hold off against the Muslim guy who sort took control and launched this rebellion and said, I am the sort of the prophet. I am the prophet incarnate. And he was sort of like a rebellious character against the status quo all throughout the world, throughout the east and the Middle East. And in this particular case, when the Arabs were pushed into the western region of Sicily, after the unification of Italy, the modest regime was known as the Media, which was one letter away from Mafia. So I left it, look, I'm not an etymologist, but I left it to future historians to debate this. And I make a cogent argument that this is where it came from, my quote, encyclopedia Britannica. I quote people who were on the scene at the time, I quote history books, et cetera, to make this argument. And I do believe it came from that particular word.AK (25:29): As I said, Louis, we've done lots of shows on the mafia infiltration, the response of the police, but is the reason why the Mafia became so powerful and perhaps remained so powerful in the United States because it's a country with a tradition of weak central government, of federal government, of government that isn't for the most part, very effective or efficient. So in other words, was there something, and you have to be careful using this word as a historian, but was there a degree of inevitability about the mafia's rise to power in late 19th century America?Louis Ferrante (26:12): It's a great question, and the answer is yes. There was a Sicilian mobster, and I don't recall his name, but he said, why in the world can anybody think why? When Sicilians left Sicily for New life in America, and a lot of them landed in South America, central America, a lot of them landed in North Africa. They went everywhere. Sicilians were scattered everywhere. But why only in America did the American Mafia, did the Mafia really take root as it did? And that goes to our system, which is we have always had a very corrupt system. And I traced that it was very easily manipulated by mobsters who really learned how to bribe politicians and law enforcement officials during prohibition. And that was a prime time because during prohibition, which took place the roaring twenties into 1930, we had people in America who wanted to drink and were told by their government, you're not allowed. And so the people as a whole didn't agree with this. So they were really, really suddenly the mafiaa who wanted to provide them with liquor, with alcohol and supplying the demand for alcohol weren't seen as these animals anymore. These killers, these beat bad guys, they were all of a sudden these romantic sexy figures who were giving the United States, the people of the country, alcohol when they desperately wanted it. And that's when the mafia began to corrupt a lot of politicians and political machines. And the influence ran throughout law enforcement agencies and that deep influence they had during prohibition, basically, once prohibition was repealed and Americans could drink again, the mafia kept a lot of those deep corrupt alliances that they had made, and they moved on to use them for gambling and stuff, to open up casinos, to have a casino, to have a casino. So a lot of why the mafia was able to prosper here in America had a lot to do with the easily corruptible local governments. And at that point, there wasn't an overarching federal government who could come in and say, Hey, you've been all corrupted. We'll take over from here. We know you're all bought and paid for by the Mafiaa here in your local town. So here the federal government's going to move in with j Edgar Hoover's, FBI, et cetera, et cetera. That didn't happen.AK (28:44): Yeah. And of course, j Edgar Hoover's, FBI began in some ways as a response, not always a particularly effective one to prohibition. To what extent the book covers legendary figures and legendary mafia figures like Lucky Luciano & many others. To what extent do these kind of guys capture the spirit of a violent independent 19th century America?Louis Ferrante (29:16): They do and don't. By the time we get to Luciano and Genovese and Costello, they're sort of this newer generation of American mobsters. So the first generation with these sort of old mustache, peats, grease balls, all the derogatory names that they were called in this country, they were sort of like off the boat, Italians. That was the first generation. Then there was the second generation that were more American, and they weren't as clannish as the Sicilians were. They understood that if they were going to prosper in America, they needed to form these diverse relationships with Jews, with blacks, with Irish. They needed to really, if they were going to get somewhere, they basically came up with the plan that they were going to, Hey, we're going to keep this thing of ours, this thing of ours, this our thing, La Cosa Nostra. We're going to keep that to ourselves.Nobody's allowed entry into this secret organization that we have, but let's deal with everyone. We're not going to get anywhere if we stay to ourselves. And they made alliances with everyone across the country. And that was the key. And that was sort of like that second generation, even though Costello and Luciano came to the country when they were eight or nine years old, they may as well have been born here. They were just as good as Americans, just as good as American born citizens. They were a second generation of this. And they did away with the old ones, the old clannish Mafiosos, who felt like, no, we have to defend ourselves. We have to stick with ourselves. We have to continue to live amongst ourselves, and we can't trust the Irish. We can't trust the blacks or the Jews. This second generation of Italian-Americans said, no, we can trust them and we're going to, and we're going to deal with them.And for example, Frank Costello not only partnered with a million Jews in business, but he married a Jew. So he had a Jewish family. And at one point or another, Al Capone in Chicago, his guy Jake, greasy Thumb Gik was his best friend. He was a Jew. And when somebody had bragged that he made this little Jew greasy thumbs wine, Capone was beside himself, and he went looking for the guy, and he unloaded a revolver in his face and murdered him because Capone wasn't going to allow that to happen. He says, Jew or Italian, it doesn't matter if you're my friend, I protect you, I defend you. So these relationships really started by that sort of next generation of Italian American mobsters. And by my generation, I mean, I had a hijacking heist crew. The two of the toughest guys in my crew were Jews, and they were treated the same as any other Italian. We were all from the same neighborhood. We all grew.AK (31:50): It extend to race as well? I mean, in The Godfather, we all remember the explicit racism of many of the fictional figures were black Americans, African-Americans, were they as welcome as Jewish Americans?Louis Ferrante (32:08): Yes. Now, even in my time you had at one time, I said, for example, mobsters weren't going to go, oh, that African American owes me money. Let's go over there and pay him a visit. Obviously, the lingo would be that N owes me money. Let's go over there and pay him a visit. And the N would refer to us as a grease ball or whop a Guinea. So the words that we used back then would be considered racist today. But were we racist? And what were the Italians or the blacks racist against each other? Absolutely not. The only color we all saw was green. And that was it. And I point out in my book, they made a strong alliance, Lucky Luciano Luciano did with Bumpy Johnson. Bumpy Johnson, when they took over the policy racket in Harlem, they needed to smooth things over with the blacks because the black was a huge population in Harlem blacks. So Luciano struck a deal with Bumpy Johnson, where Bumpy Johnson was going to pretty much handle any black problems in Harlem and deal directly with Luciano. And bumpy Johnson's wife wrote a memoir years later that praised Luciano and said that him and my husband were best friends. And it was a real legitimate friendship. It wasn't just business. They had a real friendship. So all that racism they try to make, that's all television now because it sells. But for the most part, yeah, the talk, you told jokes about each other. You called each other what would be considered horrible names now, but were we really racist toward each other? Absolutely not. People will say Italians. And the Mafia hated gays. The Genovese family ran all the gay clubs in Greenwich Village. They controlled all the gay clubs.AK (33:53): How about women? We did a show last year on female drug gang leaders in Latin America. There aren't that many women in your narrative, are there?Louis Ferrante (34:03): No. I mean, if you want to say misogynistic, then I have to agree. Yeah. Not racist, but misogynistic. The Italian, theAK (34:09):Women in all the movies, the women are at home cooking the past, and the men are out killing each otherLouis Ferrante (34:14): Yeah, go home and cook. No Italian man wants his wife buttoned into his business. So I have to concede that point. I won't give in on racism because it wasn't there. But I will give in on misogynistic outlook toward women.AK (34:27): And I don't necessarily mean that critically. One way. The other narrative, Louis, which of course is most clearly articulated in the Godfather, the movies, the Godfather, maybe even Godfather three, is that the mafia began in a sort of communal way, reasonably decently, even if there was a great deal of violence, and it went really badly wrong with drugs. And of course, that was the foundation of the narrative in The Godfather, the cause of all the bloodshed. Is there any truth in that? There is tell you that veto Corleone in the Godfather wasn't a bad guy, and then it all went wrong when his family got in the drug business.Louis Ferrante (35:07): Yes, there definitely is a direct correlation between the movie and real life and the movie, whether Putto, I believe Mario Puzo, who was the author that they based the movie on, but either Puzo or Francis Ford Coppola adopted it from a real life story, which was Frank Costello. Frank Costello was the acting boss when Lucky Luciano went to jail and then was deported. And when Costello was boss, he was dead set against drugs. He did not want his Borgata dealing drugs because he felt that he had all these big political leaders in Tammany Hall who did everything that they could do for the mob to keep them out of jail, to help them with things. They had judges, they put judges in. They chose the head of Tammany, who in turn helped choose the mayor of New York slash the governor. And then obviously through the governor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt started out in New York and ended up being the president. So it's no telling how high you could go. Well, Costello said, if we continue to deal drugs, these political alliances are going to run away from us. They're not going to, this is something the American people do not like. They're fine with alcohol. They wanted alcohol. We gave it to them. They're fine with gambling. If the United States prohibits gambling and we allow them to gamble, that's fine. The people have no problem with that. They feel like we're providing them with a desire that they have. Even Luciano ran a chain of bordellos. That's an ointment for the hard up. That's fine. But obviously it's human slavery.AK (36:40): can I quote you on that ointment for the hard up?Louis Ferrante (36:44): Well, that's what, yeah, it basically was. It was like an outlet for social frustration maybe. Obviously. Obviously it's woman trafficking. It's disgusting. However, however, Luciano really didn't have a direct connection to it, but it was taking place, but it wasn't thought of by the American people, I should say, as the worst thing in the world.AK (37:10): I mean, the way the Godfather presents it is that this was the argument I think Sonny Cordone made with his father is that if we don't do it, someone else will. There's going to be other groups who do it. Was there any truth to that?Louis Ferrante (37:24): Yes. Yes. And everyone uses that argument today. There are still mobsters who sell drugs and say, if I don't do it, somebody else will. Somebody's got to do it. And me, myself, I never went near drugs. I had an uncle who was a drug addict. He was a heroin addict. And my mother from when me and my sister were little kids, she would beg us, please don't ever do drugs. Please don't ever do drugs. Don't put us through this hell that your uncle put us through. And we never did. I never did it, and I wouldn't sell it. I wouldn't call that curse down upon another person's family. I was dead set against it, but some people did. I knew people who sold drugs. I was in jail with a million different people who sold drugs. I don't think a lot of them sat down and really, really thought deeply about the consequences that could have with regard to mothers crying for the rest of their lives. And some kid dropped dead on his bed because he OD'ed or some, yeah, IAK: Excuse the Dimwittedness of this one. Louis, you've mentioned the word “Borgata” a couple of times. You might define it. Why did you title your book “Borgata”?Louis Ferrante (38:37): Borgata is what we called a crime family is the Borgata or the Broga, we would say, and it's a slang for a crime family. We wouldn't say we belong to a crime family. We wouldn't say we belong to the Mafiaa. We would say, I'm in so-and-So's Borgata or Borgata, and a Borgata. In the Italian definition of the word, it stems from the Latin burial. It's sort of like a poorer neighborhood of Italians would be a Borgata. A poorer community of Italians would be considered a Borgata. And that became, somehow, it became the name of a crime family, which is a little bit of a community. And obviously they don't start off super well off, or they wouldn't be committing crimes. People typically aren't born into wealth and commit crimes. So whoever the name came to mean, a crime family, that's what it means. And nobody had ever used it for a book before. So I figured, what the hell? It's perfect. So I went with the Borgata trilogy.AK (39:32): Well, I hope in this trilogy we're going to get to have you on at least two more shows for volume two and three. You end in the sixties, of course, in The Godfather, there were a wonderful moment in Godfather two, filmed in Cuba. Cuba was central. You make Cuba an important place in this narrative. Why'd you end in the sixties? Did something happen? Did something profoundly change?Louis Ferrante (39:58): Yes. There's a major shift that occurs in 1960 from the beginning of Borgata volume one until the end of Borgata volume one, there really isn't any concerted effort to destroy the Mafia. Thomas Dewey, who went on to become the Governor of New York and eventually ran as the Republican candidate for President against FDR, he did take a shot at locking up some gangsters in New York, but there was never really a concerted effort by the institutions of law enforcement to go after the mob. When Bobby Kennedy, when John f Kennedy's elected president in 1960, or begins his term in 1960, he appoints Bobby Kennedy, his younger brother, the Attorney General of the United States. And Bobby always had a thing against the mafia. He had started out in the McClellan Committee where he went after Jimmy Hoffa, and he went after other gangsters and called them to testify. And he was incensed that they took the Fifth Amendment all the time, and he didn't like that they would hide behind the Fifth, how dare them. And he swore he would go after them one day. And when John F. Kennedy becomes president, and Bobby is appointed Attorney General of the United States, he now suddenly has all of the Justice Department's, 30,000 employees under his control, treasury, I-R-S-I-N-S-F-B-I, et cetera, et cetera.AK (41:18): Although Bobby Kennedy used to call j Edgar Hoover, j Edna Hoover. He never seemed to listen very much to what Bobby Kennedy said.Louis Ferrante (41:27): No, he demeaned Hoover to, I mean, beyond what we would even consider. I mean, our standards today, forget it. They'd cancel Bobby Kennedy in a minute. But he was horrible to Hoover. And Hoover hated him. But Hoover did not. Hoover was dragged into the fight kicking and screaming. Hoover knew that if you made a concerted effort to destroy the mob, a lot of those mobsters, their backgrounds led to Congress led to congressmen, politicians, senator,AK (42:00): And of course, Hoover wonderful new biography, Al Prize winning biography. I'm sure you've read it. He was more interested, I think, in racial divisions in America. He might've been slightly sympathetic to the Mafia because they were white.Louis Ferrante (42:15): Yeah, I mean, he probably was at some point or another, he used the Mafiaa to uncover, I don't know if you're familiar with when those three civil rights workers were killed down in Mississippi.  Johnson put tremendous pressure on Hoover to crack the case, and Hoover probably got dragged into the fray kicking and screaming. I'm sure he didn't want to go after that. He was not deferential to blacks at all, Hoover. But he knew that that's what Johnson wanted. And the public wanted to know who these people were that killed these three civil rights workers, two whites and one black. And Hoover called one of his FBI informants down south and told them, here's the KK guy. The agents told, not Hoover himself, but Hoover's agents told this mob guy, here's the KKK guy. We believe the KKK guy we believe had something to do with it. You could beat it out of him if you want. Go for it. And this guy did. And then they dug up the bodies and they cracked the case. But Hoover, Hoover didn't like Italians, but he didn't go after them. And of course he didn't like blacks. Hoover was old school, very conservative in his views. Yeah. I mean, he was a man of his own time, but he was only concerned with groups trying to advocate the destruction of the United States. He was big on communists. He did not like communists Obviously, blacks and Italians weren't trying to overthrow the United States, but groups for the most part, like communist groups…AK (43:50): Right. His obsession with anti-Communist. And finally, Louis ending in the sixties, of course, in the sixties, America descended into a great deal of political violence, and particularly the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, of Bobby Kennedy, of Martin Luther King, many others. Lots of stories. And I'm sure you covered this in the book about Mafia involvement in one kind of assassination or another in the sixties, is in an odd ironic way at the end of this first volume, did America and the mafia kind of come together? Are they increasingly inseparable in the 1960s in the public use of violence of one kind or another?Louis Ferrante (44:31): That's a great question. I guess they've always remained, there's some sort of inseparability between them. But yeah, America became a very violent place.AK (44:44): Always was, but politically much more violent in the sixties.Louis Ferrante (44:48): Correct. I mean, we didn't have assassinations like we did. There's still a song. I heard it the other day. Where's my old friend, Johnny Martin, Luther King, John and Bobby, they died. Where are they? I forget the lyrics of the song, but it was made on the heels of that violence, and it still plays on the radio today. Where's my old friend Johnny? I think it is. But yeah, I mean, America became a violent place. I do believe that the mafia had something to do directly with John f Kennedy's. I present tremendous evidence in volume two of the Borgata Trilogy, trilogy. They had something to, andAK (45:24): That book's not out yet, right? Louis?Louis Ferrante (45:25): It's not out yet. But they did have something to do with his murder. And I also believe at some point or another, I intend to write a book about the Mafia's involvement with Martin Luther King's murder as well. I do believe there was a mafia informant who had something to do with Martin Luther King's murder as well. And I think if Hoover's hands aren't dirty in each of those cases, he definitely had his head in the sand and he heard things that he chose to ignore. And I think that that was the type of person, Hoover was where if I want a certain outcome and I just didn't see it or didn't hear it, it's like if you have a neighbor whose dog's been crapping on your lawn for the last 10 years, and then somebody beats up the neighbor, maybe you didn't see it. Maybe you looked the other way when it happened. I don't know. Maybe you get the outcome you wanted. So that could be what happened with Hoover.AK (46:19): Final question. I got to ask you this. We will get more next time you come on the show with volume two, talking about JFK and all that. What about you grew up in Queens? What about, you know who, I'm not sure if you've ever met him or come across him, but there's a mafia quality in the way, maybe a wannabe mafiaa quality to your fellow queens in New Yorker?Louis Ferrante (46:43): I never met him. I will say a lot of people have accused him of his construction business and the buildings that went up in New York having some type of mafia involvement. But I will say this, I know for a fact all of the buildings that went up in New York had some sort of mafia involvement. So you couldn't operate as a building developer in New York, especially back then, without having to deal with the mafia controlled unions without having to deal with the mafia controlled construction companies without having to deal with the mafia controlled concrete companies. There was something the mafia had, which was called the Concrete Club. And any bid over a million dollars, which would be any bid for a skyscraper, was controlled by the mafia. They let any bids under a million, they let them go, but anything over a million, they wanted to control. My friend, my former friend, I haven't seen him in years, I did time with him also. Tommy Rizzo supplied the rebar for the Trade Center. He was a Colombo gangster, Colombo family mobster. The guy who was supposed to fireproof the supports in the trade center was a Gambino family mobster. And the Port Authority cleared him of any wrongdoing when the towers fell. But I mean, these are mobsters who have all these contracts in New York and all these building developers to some extent have to deal with them. Now, usually there's a GC on the job, a general contractor, and at some point or another way below, someone like him or someone like somebody, his associates in that industry, somewhere down there, there's someone dealing with the cash envelopes under the table and stuff. But I don't think it ever rises to the height of himself or people like him in the developing industry. I think they're much bigger. They go to the parties. If he has a flamboyant nature, that's a completely different thing. But I mean, as far as incriminating something that he may have done incriminating, I don't believe so. I believe it was done lower, much lower than him. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comJoe is a journalist, author, old-school blogger, and an old friend. He's written seven books, most famously Primary Colors, and he was a longtime columnist for Time magazine. This year he launched a must-read substack called “Sanity Clause,” and he just started a podcast with the great John Ellis called “Wise Owls.”You can listen to it right away in the audio player above (or on the right side of the player, click “Listen On” to add the Dishcast feed to your favorite podcast app). For two clips of our convo — on Trump getting more political savvy, and the NYT's propaganda on domestic issues — pop over to our YouTube page.Other topics: growing up in Queens; a grandfather who kept the books for Tammany Hall; how reporting on the busing crisis in Boston made Joe an independent; embedding with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan; James Bennet's exposé of the NYT; a new study on how charter schools help black students; Daniel Patrick Moynihan and single-parent families; Trump's “dictator on Day One” comment; how Never Trumpers never understand his success; the Trump trials; Biden's age; his persistently dismal polling; Nikki Haley's potential; Trump turning the GOP against neoconservatism; how eastern Ukraine is turning into WWI; how Putin's devastated military is no threat to Europe; The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan; Russiagate; how Larry Summers was right on inflation; Biden's soft landing; Clinton balancing the budget; Boris and the Tories; tales from Joe's 30 years of reporting on Israel and Palestine; his optimism on a two-state solution; how AIPAC has been “disastrous” for Israel; Daniel Finkelstein's Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad; the Ivy League congressional hearings; DEI; why coddling Jewish students now is the wrong approach; Mao's Cultural Revolution; the dregs of social media; the importance of civility and traditions; the Electoral College; the TV show The Crown; the Latin Mass; Pope Francis and the blessing of gay couples; the AIDS crisis; the PTSD of returning vets; and Joe's bipartisan PAC for veterans called “With Honor.”Browse the Dishcast archive for another convo you might enjoy (the first 102 episodes are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Carole Hooven returns to talk about her tribulations at Harvard, Alexandra Hudson on civility, and Jennifer Burns on her new biography of Milton Friedman. Please send any guest recs, dissent and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

It's no secret that politics can often have a dark side -- smoky backrooms, corruption and graft have always had their place in American history. And, amid all the corruption, few institutions are as infamous as Tammany Hall. In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max dive into the origin, growth, and ultimate collapse of this thoroughly American, thoroughly corrupt, and thoroughly ridiculous political machine.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Life Matters, Brian focuses on the very specific nature of a very specific political party: the Democrat Party of the United States. He finishes with a comparative and contrastive look at the striking difference between a Democracy and a Republic. As an explanatory template, he uses a recent publication from a Democrat Party operative and New York Times contributor, Terry Golway. The book is, Machine Made; Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics. While Brian clearly disagrees with the principles and nature of Tammany Hall, he recommends the book itself as a valid expose, and an unflinching examination of machine or collectivist politics. It was mastered in New York City and spread through much of New York, and is continuing to this very day. Golway, himself, states that the corrupt society of Saint Tammany or "Tammany Hall", founded in 1786, is the template being employed by the modern Democrat Party today. Stuffing ballot boxes, blanketing precincts with empty ballots, collecting and completing them, absence of ballot signature verification, less than honest voting tabulation were all a regular part of the Tammany machine.  Boss Tweed, one of its more notorious “bosses”, is perhaps the most infamous for gleefully celebrating his questionable methods, and eventually being exposed for obvious political corruption. Though caught, he was obviously less than penitent.   Many famous names from American history, Roosevelt and LaGuardia, are now familiar to us because they spent considerable efforts in attempts to limit the corrupt influence of Tammany on the city and state of New York.  When the Irish potato famine (1846-1852) drove millions to emigrate to the US, Tammany workers awaited them at the New York docks. Tammany "ward heelers" then knew where they lived and obliged them with employment if they could. All social and religious interests were accommodated and all accommodation came with political obligation. The machine was set. The resources of government and its influence would lubricate the machine. After exploiting the Irish immigrant population, Tammany spread its tentacles into the new Italian immigrant populace. Fiorello La Guardia was one who spoke out powerfully against the evils and corruption of racial exploitation, groupthink and machine politics as practiced by Tammany.  Before him, Theodore Roosevelt sought and received an appointment as a police commissioner in New York City in 1895, specifically because Tammany used the authority of government, as embodied in the police, to enforce its policies. Roosevelt was tenacious and popular with the press, but largely ineffective. But because of his commitment to stand against corruption and the evil of Tammany, he "rose like a rocket" in New York politics. But Roosevelt could not finish the job. The Tammany machine has not gone away. It still exists. It has morphed into the backbone of New York politics. Its methods are openly used by the modern Democrat party, and Terry Golway's, Machine Made:  Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics. makes no bones about that. 

In a rapidly changing New York, two forces battled for the city's soul: the pro-slavery New Yorkers who kept the illegal slave trade alive and well, and the abolitionists fighting for freedom. We often think of slavery as a southern phenomenon, far removed from the booming cities of the North. But even though slavery had been outlawed in Gotham by the 1830s, Black New Yorkers were not safe. Not only was the city built on the backs of slaves; it was essential in keeping slavery and the slave trade alive. In The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War (Bold Type Press, 2020), historian Jonathan Daniel Wells tells the story of the powerful network of judges, lawyers, and police officers who circumvented anti-slavery laws by sanctioning the kidnapping of free and fugitive African Americans. Nicknamed "The New York Kidnapping Club," the group had the tacit support of institutions from Wall Street to Tammany Hall whose wealth depended on the Southern slave and cotton trade. But a small cohort of abolitionists, including Black journalist David Ruggles, organized tirelessly for the rights of Black New Yorkers, often risking their lives in the process. Taking readers into the bustling streets and ports of America's great Northern metropolis, The Kidnapping Club is a dramatic account of the ties between slavery and capitalism, the deeply corrupt roots of policing, and the strength of Black activism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

In a rapidly changing New York, two forces battled for the city's soul: the pro-slavery New Yorkers who kept the illegal slave trade alive and well, and the abolitionists fighting for freedom. We often think of slavery as a southern phenomenon, far removed from the booming cities of the North. But even though slavery had been outlawed in Gotham by the 1830s, Black New Yorkers were not safe. Not only was the city built on the backs of slaves; it was essential in keeping slavery and the slave trade alive. In The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War (Bold Type Press, 2020), historian Jonathan Daniel Wells tells the story of the powerful network of judges, lawyers, and police officers who circumvented anti-slavery laws by sanctioning the kidnapping of free and fugitive African Americans. Nicknamed "The New York Kidnapping Club," the group had the tacit support of institutions from Wall Street to Tammany Hall whose wealth depended on the Southern slave and cotton trade. But a small cohort of abolitionists, including Black journalist David Ruggles, organized tirelessly for the rights of Black New Yorkers, often risking their lives in the process. Taking readers into the bustling streets and ports of America's great Northern metropolis, The Kidnapping Club is a dramatic account of the ties between slavery and capitalism, the deeply corrupt roots of policing, and the strength of Black activism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In a rapidly changing New York, two forces battled for the city's soul: the pro-slavery New Yorkers who kept the illegal slave trade alive and well, and the abolitionists fighting for freedom. We often think of slavery as a southern phenomenon, far removed from the booming cities of the North. But even though slavery had been outlawed in Gotham by the 1830s, Black New Yorkers were not safe. Not only was the city built on the backs of slaves; it was essential in keeping slavery and the slave trade alive. In The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War (Bold Type Press, 2020), historian Jonathan Daniel Wells tells the story of the powerful network of judges, lawyers, and police officers who circumvented anti-slavery laws by sanctioning the kidnapping of free and fugitive African Americans. Nicknamed "The New York Kidnapping Club," the group had the tacit support of institutions from Wall Street to Tammany Hall whose wealth depended on the Southern slave and cotton trade. But a small cohort of abolitionists, including Black journalist David Ruggles, organized tirelessly for the rights of Black New Yorkers, often risking their lives in the process. Taking readers into the bustling streets and ports of America's great Northern metropolis, The Kidnapping Club is a dramatic account of the ties between slavery and capitalism, the deeply corrupt roots of policing, and the strength of Black activism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

In this episode, Def, Adrian and Dan discuss the hype around Disney Lorcana, the effect of starting to cool on a game you first loved, and big things that come in small boxes! In Sizzling Games, Dan is comparing cards to catch a count, Adrian is collecting crowns in close competition, and Def is creating combinations to cultivate a culture capital. There's also the Question of the Pod, Swear an Oath, and all of the usual shenanigans you've come to expect from the Board Game BBQ Podcast. New Question of the Pod: How does hype around board games influence you?   Sizzling Games: Dracula vs Van Helsing (41:00) Splendor Duel (51:05) Age of Innovation (58:15) Question of the Pod Recap: (1:16:15) Swear An Oath: (1:29:45)   PlayCon is coming in 2024. Make sure you sign-up at https://play-con.com/ so you don't miss out! Check out our Eventbrite page for all of our upcoming Game Days: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/board-game-bbq-32833304483   Has this episode left you with a thirst for more? Here are all of the games that we discussed: Earth (2023), Disney Lorcana (2023), Tash Kalar: Arena of Legends (2013), Knarr (2023), Patchwork (2014), Framework (2022), Final Girl (2021), Dracula vs Van Helsing (2023), Splendor Duel (2022), Age of Innovation (2023), Tammany Hall (2007), Lacrimosa (2022), Too Many Bones: Unbreakable (2023), Battlecrest (2022)  **SPONSORS** Our podcast is proudly sponsored by Advent Games. Advent Games are an Australian online board game store based in Sydney, NSW. Their core values are integrity, customer satisfaction, and providing a wide range of products including those hard-to-find board games. **PATREON** Yes, that's right. We have a Patreon. By becoming a Patreon member you will receive exclusive content, have access to a members only section of our discord where you can contribute to the content of the show, and much more. Your Patreon support will also allow us to expand the podcast and deliver some exciting upcoming projects that we have planned for 2023. Our team at the Board Game BBQ Podcast love what we do and will continue to deliver the same shenanigans that you have come to expect from us, and we are already incredibly grateful and humbled by all of your support. Being a member of the Patreon is by no means an obligation and please do not support the Patreon if it will it cause you financial hardship in any way. But if you would like to support us from as little as USD$5 a month please click the link and head to the Patreon page. Thanks again for all of your continued support. We work hard to create a welcoming and inclusive community and you are all awesome. See you at the BBQ!! Patreon link: https://www.patreon.com/BoardGameBBQ **SOCIALS** Support the podcast and join the community! https://linktr.ee/BoardGameBBQ

Nataša Babič is a New York actress, originally from Ljubljana, Slovenia. Natasa studied musical theater at the Performing Arts Studios Vienna. She continued her studies in New York at The Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute. Upon completion, she joined the HB Acting Studios and studied with Austin Pendleton in his advanced scene study class.Nataša performed Off and Off Off Broadway for many years. Her first Off Broadway role was Sandra/Sissy a split personality character in Anne L. Thompson Scretching's "The Sanctuary" at the American Theater Of Actors. One of her favorite roles was the impressionist painter Mary Cassatt in The Independents. The play opened Off Broadway at the Jerry Orbach Theater in 2019 and extended it's run twice. Nataša's latest performance Off Broadway was Tammany Hall at the SoHo Playhouse. This immersive theater production was directed by Alexander Wright and Darren Lee Cole. Nataša has also developed her film and TV career. Amongst others she played a lead role in a horror movie Dark Tarot, a supporting role in an indie feature Life is Too Short and a thriller Gunpoint.Nataša joined the Hallmark Movie Channel family in their new production The Dancing Detective, A Deadly Tango. She is playing a lead supporting role of Mary Aston. The movie premiered on Hallmark in June 2023. Nataša is looking forward to what the future might bring and is a determined optimist on this ever changing path of life.Website SRTN Website

Episode Notes We've all heard of machine politics. Tammany Hall. Boss Tweed. Right in the heart of New York City, the Gilded Age, an era synonymous with corruption in America's history. But Virginia has its own slice of machine-politics history: under the control of Harry Byrd, Sr., the Byrd Machine controlled the state government for the better part of fifty years. Who was Harry Byrd? How did he gain total control of the government? And what are the lasting impacts we feel today? To answer these questions, we're joined by friend of the show Michael Pope, author of The Byrd Machine in Virginia: The Rise and Fall of a Conservative Political Organization.

The New York Mystery Machine is nothing if not Tammany Hall but for ghosts….but, finally, today, EPISODE 100, is the day we take down Tammany Hall with the murder case that highlighted for the public the depth and breadth of Tammany Hall corruption. Learn on this week's episode how the frame-up and subsequent murder of whistleblower Vivian Gordon resulted in galvanizing the governor's quest to eradicate the corruption that plagued New York City. Available wherever you stream podcasts! Be sure to Subscribe, Rate, & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Audible! Support the show by becoming a sponsor on our Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.Patreon.com/NYMysteryMachine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Buy NY Mystery Machine Tees: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.BelowTheCollar.com/NYMysteryMachine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Don't forget to follow us on all the socials: Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@NYMysteryMachine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@NYMysteryMachine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@NYMysteries⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@NYMysteryMachine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: BARKBOX: Use the link ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.barkbox.com/NYMysteryMachine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to get a Free Extra Month of BarkBox (valued at $35) when you sign up for multi-length plans. HUNT A KILLER: Receive 20% off your first Hunt a Killer subscription box at www.HuntAKiller.com with the code NYMYSTERYMACHINE at checkout!

En 1930, un juez del Tribunal Supremo de Nueva York vinculado a la organización Tammany Hall del Partido Demócrata y al futuro presidente Roosevelt desaparece al salir de un restaurante

This week, the Family covers a lot including Krysta talking more about the Miraculous Ladybug in her corner, Dean suggesting a format for Patreon shows and in general discussing Family matters. We finally settle down to discuss the subject of this episode, Judge Joseph Force Crater and his disappearance. We cover his youth, the New York of 1930 and it's famous Democratic machine in Tammany Hall. Then we discuss Judge Crater, his philandering ways (something Krysta does not like at all), his friends and the events on the last day of his life. We discuss the theories about who or what happened to 'the missingest man in America' in this historical true crime episode of the Family Plot Podcast!!!!This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/4670465/advertisement

Elizabeth Holtzman is best known for her legendary primary upset of the Dean of the House in 1972, making her the youngest woman elected to Congress and propelling her to national notice as part of the House Judiciary Committee Impeachment Hearings of Richard Nixon. Even beyond that specific era, the diversity and duration of her public service is nearly unrivaled...including working in 1960s Georgia to advance civil rights, her role bringing 100+ Nazi War Criminals closer to justice, becoming the first woman to be a District Attorney in New York City,  the only woman to serve as NYC comptroller, and an impactful political legacy spanning several decades that continues to this day.IN THIS EPISODEMemories of growing up in an immigrant family in Brooklyn, NY...An incredibly formative experience working on civil rights issues in Albany, GA...Her instrumental role bringing 100+ Nazi war criminals to justice in the 1970s...How she became the youngest woman elected to Congress by beating the Dean of the House in 1972...Stories of taking on the Brooklyn political machine...An unsettling comment from a veteran member after she's first elected to the House...Memories of her service on the House Judiciary Committee during the Nixon Impeachment Hearings...Her rejection of the revisionist view of Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon...Analyzing her very narrow loss for US Senate in 1980...Looking back on her stint as both Brooklyn District Attorney and NYC Comptroller...Her view on the "finest mayor NYC has had"...Comparing her 2022 House race to her first run in 1972...Her view of the current Supreme Court as "illegitimate"...The couple of times her path crossed with Donald Trump in NYC politics...AND Abraham Lincoln High, Samuel Alito, Birch Bayh, Jimmy Breslin, bureaucratic gobbledygook, the CIA, CORE, Jimmy Carter, cattle prods, Manny Celler, Frank Church, Cracker Barrel, John Culver, Al D'Amato, Mike Dewine, William O. Douglas, Meade Esposito, the first piece of paper, Flatbush, Gimbles, The Godfather, Barry Goldwater, the instrumentality of the state, Jacob Javits, John Lindsay, Carolyn Maloney, James Meredith, Pat Moynihan, NAACP, Radcliffe, John Rhodes, Peter Rodino, Russian pogroms, SNCC, Bernie Sanders, Hugh Scott, shoe leather, smoking guns, John Paul Stevens, Adlai Stevenson, Tammany Hall, Clarence Thomas, Larry Tribe, whistleblowers, witch hunts & more!

Meg investigates the corruption and drama that defined Donald Manes' short life. Jessica at The Quilted Giraffe and gets a good look at its clientele of American Psychos.Please check out our website, follow us on Instagram, on Facebook, and...WRITE US A REVIEW HEREWe'd LOVE to hear from you! Let us know if you have any ideas for stories HEREThank you for listening!Love,Meg and Jessica

In this episode of Design Vault, Doug speaks with Todd Poisson, Partner at BKSK Architects in New York City. They discuss Tammany / 44 Union Square.Visit glengery.com/design-vault to see photos and additional information as you listen along.44 Union Square sits at the northeast corner of Union Square Park in Manhattan. The project includes a remarkable contemporary steel and glass dome addition to the storied landmark building on Union Square's northeast corner for Redding International Ink.The new building expands the usable square footage of the historic building and adds an iconic anchor to Union Square. The building's former life was as the last headquarters for the political machine, Tammany Hall, an American organization founded in 1786, famous for controlling New York City and state politics for a time. The restoration and expansion of the building includes preserving two facades, new bronze storefronts in the likeness of the original 1928 design and a three-story rooftop addition. This wild steel and glass building cap is composed of a self-supporting free form shell grid dome atop a reconstructed hipped roof with gray terracotta sunshades.

Meg goes down into the subway to tell tales of horror and hope on the tracks. Jessica takes note of the events that led to the election of David Dinkins, New York's first black mayor.Please check out our website, follow us on Instagram, on Facebook, and...WRITE US A REVIEW HEREWe'd LOVE to hear from you! Let us know if you have any ideas for stories HEREThank you for listening!Love,Meg and Jessica

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 16. The New York Tong Wars were a series of four violent conflicts that happened in New York between the two most influential tongs there… the On Leong Tong and the Hip Sing Tong. In this episode, we talk about the events and environment that led to the Tong Wars, focusing on Tom Lee of the On Leong Tong and how the corruption of law enforcement through Tammany Hall contributed to conflict escalation. We also talk about a few other key Chinese community leaders like Wo Kee, Lee Toy, and Wong Get. For more detailed information on the NY Tong Wars, we highly recommend the Scott Seligman book Tong Wars: The Untold Story of Vice, Money and Murder in New York's Chinatown. In our second segment, we celebrate the recent gold medal for Madison Chock and Evan Bates in Ice Dancing at the recent World Figure Skating Championships, not to mention the 6 medals won by Japanese and Korean skaters. For previous episodes and information, please visit our site at https://asianamericanhistory101.libsyn.com or social media links at http://castpie.com/AAHistory101. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, email us at info@aahistory101.com. Segments 00:25 Getting Caught Up 03:19 The History of the Tong Wars Part 2 20:54 Celebrating Madison Chock, Evan Bates, several Japanese and Korean skaters

Today we dig into the origins and the history of America's Irish Mob.  We begin centuries ago in Ireland, when a series of oppressive, discriminatory laws designed to break the backs of the Irish and leave them too powerless to rebel against British rule, followed by the Great Famine that was greatly intensified by these same laws, led to hundreds of thousands of Irish fleeing the Emerald Isle for America to avoid certain death. Impoverished and often malnourished, these new immigrants were met with an increasing amount of anti-Irish sentiment in the United States, and to overcome this, they ended up banding together and working with gangsters and politicians who would help them get jobs and food in exchange for votes. And thus, the Irish mob was born. Cue 150+ years of underworld violence! We cover SO much territory today. A good one for both the true crime and the history lovers. Hope you like it! Want to apply for the Cummins Family Scholarship fund? Click this link!: https://learnmore.scholarsapply.org/cummins/  Deadline for application is April 24th at 3PM CT. Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp tickets are ON SALE!  BadMagicMerch.com Get tour tickets at dancummins.tv Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GNCtRyNgyIEMerch: https://www.badmagicmerch.comDiscord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

Bill "el carnicero" fue boxeador callejero, miembro de varias bandas anticatólicas y antiirlandesas del distrito de Five Points y líder del movimiento político Know Nothing Su mayor enemigo era John Morrisey, un inmigrante irlandés que trabajaba para Tammany Hall, una facción política opuesta. En una ocasión una disputa que se resolvería boxeando terminó en tragedia. Síguenos y visita nuestro sitio oficial:instagram.com/eldolloptwitter.com/eldollopfacebook.com/eldolloppodcasteldollop.com/ 

To wrap up our 15th anniversary celebration -- and to set up our big 400th episode -- we take a fond look at one corner of New York City which taught us to love local history.Perhaps you know this area for Seward Park, the first municipal playground in the United States, or for Straus Square, named for Nathan Straus, philanthropist and co-owner (with his brother Isidor) of Macy's Department Store. Today, trendy artists and influencers instead spend their weekends in Dimes Square, just one block (and seemingly one world) away.In the 19th century, as Rutgers Square, this area became a small portion of a large German immigrant community called Kleindeutschland. In an inconceivable historical moment, a statue was almost raised here -- to William 'Boss' Tweed, leader of Tammany Hall.By the late 19th century, this place was the center for American Jewish culture, and East Broadway became Yiddish publishers row, hosting newspapers and magazines from a host of perspectives. In the 20th century, thanks to a mid-century housing boom (fueled partially by the labor unions firmly rooted to this place), some also called it Cooperative Village, with hundreds of old, deteriorating tenements replaced with new high rises.It's a neighborhood that means so much to so many -- and we hope you learn to love it all yourself, no matter what you call it. PLUS: We're join by staff members of the Forward, celebrating its 125th year of publication. Forward archivist Chana Pollack joins us along with Ginna Green and Lynn Harris, hosts of the the newspaper column-turned-podcast version A Bintel Brief.

The U.S. Constitution has a lot to say about elections. But nowhere is there any mention of political primaries, the process by which candidates are winnowed down ahead of a general election. Though they may seem integral to the U.S. system, primaries in fact are a relatively new phenomenon, borne of the turn of the 20th century when reformers sought to wrangle power from political party bosses. Of course, quite a lot has changed since the days of Tammany Hall. Gerrymandering has greatly reduced competitive districts, while the urban-rural divide has grown exponentially. Divisions run deep, with social media capable of dramatically shifting the political landscape at unprecedented speed. Many see primary elections as a principal culprit of what they consider an undermined democracy, fueling extremism, hindering compromise, and lending too much power to partisans. Others argue that primaries are an important bulwark against political corruption and a hedge against elitism. In this context, we ask: Are Primary Elections Ruining Democracy?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the team here at First Name Basis was doing the research for our recent episode “Alcatraz: An Untold Story of Indigenous Resistance,” we came across the story of the Tammany Society — and we knew right away that story was too wild not to share! The Tammany Society — also known as the Tammany Hall or the Columbian Order — was organized in the late 1780s right alongside the founding of the United States. It was a group of white men who were influencing the politics in New York at the time and then spread out geographically from there.  Their story is one rampant with cultural appropriation that directly relates to injustices and racism we still see in this country today. And to make the story even more bonkers, one of the most notable members of the society is someone who has become a household name in recent years. “Pardon me. Are you Aaron Burr, sir?” The twists, turns and wild connections in this story are something you're not going to want to miss. In this episode, we'll tell you more about: The origins of the Tammany Society. How it's creation was in response to the creation of the Society of the Cincinnati (Spoiler alert: Alexander Hamilton enters in the story here too) The Tammany Society's many instances of appropriation of Indigenous culture. A look at a specific example of the Tammany Society's appropriation that we still see today (Spoiler alert #2: It's the Atlanta Braves)   Get your Voting Action Plan Whether it's for a primary election or a general election, if you‘re voting for your local school board or president of the United States, being an informed voter is crucial — and takes more effort than just skimming headlines or reading one-off articles on social media. We're here to help! Head over to firstnamebasis.org/vote your to have the First Name Basis Voting Action Plan sent straight to your inbox!   Get your FREE Halloween costume download Let us help you avoid cultural appropriation this Halloween with this FREE DOWNLOAD! We've created a printable decision tree to help you determine whether a costume falls into the “cultural appropriation” category. It's a great resource for helping you decide and for sparking conversations with your kiddos about what makes a costume appropriation or not. Head over to firstnamebasis.org/costumes to get your copy sent straight to your inbox!   Articles, Studies & Podcasts Referenced In The Episode  First Name Basis Podcast, Season 2, Episode 28: “How to Become an Informed Voter” First Name Basis Podcast, Season 7, Episode 8: “Culture Is Not a Costume: Cultural Appropriation and Halloween” First Name Basis Podcast, Season 2, Episode 16: “How to Avoid Cultural Appropriation” First Name Basis Podcast, Season 3, Episode 1: “Your Top 5 Cultural Appropriation Questions Answered” First Name Basis Podcast, Season 3, Episode 2: “Real Talk: Cultural Appropriation and White Supremacy” “Tammany Hall,” Britannica  “Tammany Hall Braves Honor Nation's Birth: Dedicate New Wigwam as Part of Tradition to Celebrate Fourth,” July 5, 1929, news article “Sachems & Sinners An Informal History of Tammany Hall,” Time “The History of Tammany Hall,” by Gustavus Myers “Native Americas: Tribal Leaders: Head Chief Tamanend the Affable of the Lenape,” The History Files “The Cincinnati: A Society That's In the Blood,” by Tim Page, Washington Post “Society of the Cincinnati,” Wikipedia Society of the Cincinnati website Applying for Membership, The Society of the Cincinnati website “Alexander Hamilton's American Revolution,” The American Revolution Institute “Surrogate Americans: Masculinity, Masquerade, and the Formation of a National Identity,” Carroll Smith-Rosenberg “Society of St. Tammany,” Encyclopedia.org “Sachem,” Online Etymology Dictionary “Tammany Hall,” Wikipedia “Fraternal Purpose In The Establishment Of Tammany's ‘American Museum,'” Timothy Winkle “The Timeline History of Celebrating (and Not Celebrating) Columbus Day,” by Rebeca Coleman, Smithsonian Magazine “Tammany: The Indian as Rhetorical Surrogate,” Alan Leander MacGregor “Becoming the Cleveland Indians and the Atlanta Braves,” by Bill Felber, Call to the Pen “Ward Wants His Team to be Called the ‘Boston Braves,'” Boston Globe article from Dec. 21, 1911 First Name Basis Untold Stories Episodes First Name Basis Podcast, Season 1, Episode 13: “The Untold Story of Thanksgiving” First Name Basis Podcast, Season 2, Episode 1: “The Untold Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” First Name Basis Podcast, Season 2, Episode 6: “The Untold Story of Dr. Seuss” First Name Basis Podcast, Season 5, Episode 7: “The Untold Story of Rosa Parks” First Name Basis Podcast, Season 3, Episode 14: “The Untold Story of Fried Chicken” First Name Basis Podcast, Season 4, Episode 7: “The Untold Story of Christopher Columbus” First Name Basis Podcast, Season 6, Episode 8: “The Untold Story of the Star Spangled Banner” First Name Basis Podcast, Season 7, Episode 7: “Alcatraz: An Untold Story of Indigenous Resistance” Song Credit: “Tomorrow is Far Away” by The Undertowns

You may have heard about the messy, chaotic and truly horrible presidential election of 1876 -- pitting Democrat Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutherford B Hayes -- but did you know that New York City plays a huge role in this moment in American history?Tilden, the governor of New York, was a political superstar, a reformer famous for taking down Boss Tweed and the corrupt machinations of Tammany Hall. From his home in Gramercy Park, the extremely wealthy governor could kept himself updated on the election by a personal telegraph line.In a way, the presidential election came to him -- or at least to his neighborhood. The Democratic national headquarters sat only a few blocks south, while the Republican national headquarters made the Fifth Avenue Hotel (off Madison Square) its home.All this would have made the 1876 national election somewhat unusual already -- New York City seemed to be at the center of it -- but the strange series of events spawned by a most contentious Election Day would send the entire country into pandemonium.Not only was democracy itself on the line, but the fate of Reconstruction was also at stake. As were the rights of thousands of Black Southerners.How did shadowy events which occurred at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in the early morning hours of November 8, 1876, change the course of American history? How did a flurry of telegrams and months of political chicanery cause an end to the country's post-Civil War ambitions?FEATURING: A visit to Tilden's mansion on Gramercy Park, now the home of the National Arts Club!PLUS: How was Daniel Sickles involved here? RECOMMENDED LISTENINGRECOMMENDED READING