A Bug in the Software

History Impossible

#True Crime #Alexander von Sternberg #History #Society #PopQuiz Podcast

34:56

In this premiere episode of "The God Hook," host Carol Costello introduces the chilling story of Richard Beasley, infamously known as the Ohio Craigslist Killer. In previously unreleased jailhouse recordings, Beasley portrays himself as a devout Christian, concealing his manipulative and predatory behavior. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Beasley's deceitfulness extends beyond the victims he buried in shallow graves. Listen to the preview of a bonus conversation between Carol and Emily available after the episode. Additional info at ( carolcostellopresents.com ) Do you have questions about this series? Submit them for future Q&A episodes . Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see additional videos, photos, and conversations. For early and ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus content, subscribe to the podcast via Supporting Cast or Apple Podcasts. EPISODE CREDITS Host - Carol Costello Co-Host - Emily Pelphrey Producer - Chris Aiola Sound Design & Mixing - Lochlainn Harte Mixing Supervisor - Sean Rule-Hoffman Production Director - Brigid Coyne Executive Producer - Gerardo Orlando Original Music - Timothy Law Snyder SPECIAL THANKS Kevin Huffman Zoe Louisa Lewis GUESTS Doug Oplinger - Former Managing Editor of the Akron Beacon Journal Volkan Topalli - Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology Amir Hussain - Professor of Theological Studies Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://evergreenpodcasts.supportingcast.fm…

about a year ago 56:05

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Hey everyone, happy to present to all of you fine people with a brief bonus, this time adapting my recent historiographical essay that I had written my first semester in graduate school on the study of infectious disease’s effects throughout history and how it was written about from around the 1970s until the 2010s. This should serve as a nice pairing with the recent “Mother’s Wrath, Mankind’s Cope” and demonstrate the sort of academic origins of my thinking on this particular subject. Please enjoy and stay tuned!
…
History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive:
David Adamcik
David Alsbach
Rajan Athul
Robert Babeon
Michael Beach
Benjamin
Greg Bosai
Johannes Breitsameter
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Charles C
Curtis Christiansen
Clayton Connell
Cliffydeuce
CR
B.Cyr
daddygorgon
Danny
Lynda Davis
Paul DeCoster
Regina Dick-Endrizzi
Neil Dickens
Nathan Diehl
Bob Downing
Dramicas
Martin E.
Gavin Edwards
Howie Feltersnatch
Pierre Ghazarian
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Nathan Grote
Benjamin Hamilton
Peter Hauck
Henry
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Mike Jarulic
Joe6245
Russell Johnson
Lionel Joseph
Thomas Justesen
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Bryn Kaufman
Leah Kodner
Benjamin Lee
Constance Loucks
Maddy
Mounty of Madness
Jose Martinez
Mike Mayleben
Judy McCoid
Kyle Mohney
Kostas Moros
Ryan Mortenson
Cameron Needham
Skip Pacheco
Mel Padden
David Page
Molly Pan
Jeff Parrent
Sr. Powell
Brian Pritzl
AnaR737
PJ Rader
Gleb Radutsky
Aleksandr Rakitin
Reptilycus
Matthew M. Rice
Phillip Rice
Terry Rosen
Chris Rowe
Dan S
Jon Andre Saether
Jake Scalia
Emily Schmidt
Julian Schmidt
Andrew Seeber
Neil Sheehan
Joshua Simpson
Cameron Smith
Jerry Spangler
timetosuccedd1995
Thomas Squeo
Athal Krishna Sundarrajan
Jared Cole Temple
Ward Van Roy
Pierre Vorupuni
Robert VS
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Michael Wroblewski
F. You
Greg Zink
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support.

83 episodes

A Bug in the Software

History Impossible

43 subscribers

published about a year ago

MP3•Episode home

83 episodes

#True Crime #Alexander von Sternberg #History #Society #PopQuiz Podcast

All episodes

History Impossible

1
Trump 2.0: Making America Progressive Again 57:43

14 days ago57:43

57:43

The question of who President Donald Trump resembled in history is one that has become almost a cliche, mostly thanks to its ideological Rorschach quality, especially during his first term and in the years leading up to his second. This has become far less of a debate, thanks largely to the man himself actually citing his influences. This was what I decided to tackle in an essay I wrote for my friend David Josef Volodsko in his publication, The Radicalist . A couple of weeks later, I am happy to bring to all of you the audio adaptation of that essay, with a couple of important expansions you won’t receive anywhere else. This is the first installment of a small cluster of episodes I plan to put out for all of you that deal with the theme of imperialism, which will also hopefully include an interview or two about the subject as well.Thank you again for reading, listening, and for having incredible patience as I work on the next installment of “The Muslim Nazis” series. … History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik David Alsbach Rajan Athul Robert Babeon Michael Beach Benjamin Greg Bosai Johannes Breitsameter Carol ABC Charles C Curtis Christiansen Clayton Connell Cliffydeuce CR B.Cyr daddygorgon Danny Lynda Davis Paul DeCoster Regina Dick-Endrizzi Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Martin E. Gavin Edwards Howie Feltersnatch Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Henry Eric Hodges Carey Hurst Mike Jarulic Joe6245 Lionel Joseph Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Cameron Needham Strxmxn Skip Pacheco Mel Padden David Page Molly Pan Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Matthew M. Rice Phillip Rice Terry Rosen Chris Rowe Dan S Jon Andre Saether Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Jerry Spangler timetosuccedd1995 Thomas Squeo Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple Ward Van Roy Pierre Vorupuni Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
Diplomacy on the Eastern Border (w/ Kristaps Andrejsons, Jack Johannson, & Zack Twamley) 2:53:19

5 weeks ago2:53:19

2:53:19

I was recently invited to join in a panel discussion with three podcasting greats and people I consider friends—that is, The Eastern Border’s Kristaps Andrejsons , the Secret Police podcast’s Jack Johannson , and When Diplomacy Fails podcast’s Zack Twamley . It originally went up on the Eastern Border feed, split into two parts, but Kristaps was kind enough to let all of us get our grubby paws on the masters to put on our own feeds, something that I felt would allow me to give all of you fine people another nice bonus while you wait for the next installments of History Impossible.The conversation went on for nearly three hours and was incredibly enlightening and fun, and yours truly was able to actually sound relatively informed for most of the run time. Some plans are in the works for some more dedicated one-on-one conversations with these guys, but in the meantime, we all weighed in on the post-Oval Office diplomatic reality TV/Twitter IRL brouhaha that involved Presidents Zelenskyy and Trump and, especially to my ire as many of you will hear, Vice President J.D. Vance. The conversation also widened as our ranks narrowed (Zack and Jack both had previous engagements they needed to attend to), and Kristaps being who he is, was able to get me to spiral out some “worst case scenarios” for the changing global order as we know it. So please enjoy this panel discussion where a quartet of podcasters attempt to crack the nut of geopolitical strategy in 2025. … History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik David Alsbach Rajan Athul Robert Babeon Michael Beach Benjamin Greg Bosai Johannes Breitsameter Carol ABC Charles C Curtis Christiansen Clayton Connell Cliffydeuce CR B.Cyr daddygorgon Danny Lynda Davis Paul DeCoster Regina Dick-Endrizzi Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Martin E. Gavin Edwards Howie Feltersnatch Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Henry Eric Hodges Carey Hurst Mike Jarulic Joe6245 Russell Johnson Lionel Joseph Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Cameron Needham Skip Pacheco Mel Padden David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Matthew M. Rice Phillip Rice Terry Rosen Chris Rowe Dan S Jon Andre Saether Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Jerry Spangler timetosuccedd1995 Thomas Squeo Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple Ward Van Roy Pierre Vorupuni Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
The Slave Who Would Be a Spy (w/ Isaac Willour) 1:00:49

7 weeks ago1:00:49

1:00:49

Slavery is often known as the United States’ original sin, and for good reason. Much of our perceptions of it are informed both by the Civil War’s cause and outcome, and the contradictions—and even moral hypocrisy—that it created with our Founding Fathers’ professed beliefs. Contradiction is the theme not just of the United States’ values and history, but it also a major theme of this episode of the podcast. In this newest installment of History Impossible, we’re looking at the extraordinary life of James Armistead Lafayette, the slave who would become the Colonies’ most vital spy during the Revolutionary War. I had never heard of this man before, but after reading fellow Keinrath Publishing writer Isaac Willour ’s stirring and powerful portrait of the man— which everyone should check out here —I felt that it would be fitting for me and Isaac to chat about it. This conversation was the result of that, in which we discuss the circumstances of Armistead Lafayette’s life defined by action as well as the seemingly baffling contradiction that he shared with the Founding Fathers themselves: his owning of slaves after his own manumission. Isaac’s writing has appeared not just in Keinrath, but also publications including National Review , The Daily Wire , and the American Institute for Economic Research . He has also appeared in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal . Amid all of that, though, he has managed to carve out time to be fascinated in history and that led us to chatting about this story. It is a fascinating tale, and I hope you all enjoy. … History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik David Alsbach Rajan Athul Robert Babeon Michael Beach Benjamin Greg Bosai Johannes Breitsameter Carol ABC Charles C Curtis Christiansen Clayton Connell Cliffydeuce CR B.Cyr daddygorgon Danny Lynda Davis Paul DeCoster Regina Dick-Endrizzi Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Martin E. Gavin Edwards Howie Feltersnatch Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Henry Eric Hodges Carey Hurst Mike Jarulic Joe6245 Russell Johnson Lionel Joseph Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Cameron Needham Skip Pacheco Mel Padden David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Matthew M. Rice Phillip Rice Terry Rosen Chris Rowe Dan S Jon Andre Saether Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Jerry Spangler timetosuccedd1995 Thomas Squeo Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple Ward Van Roy Pierre Vorupuni Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
The Spirit of the American West (w/ David McGarry) 1:41:48

8 weeks ago1:41:48

1:41:48

The American West (or the “Wild West” as it’s still sometimes known) is arguably one of the defining features of the United States’ history and culture, if not the most defining feature. After all, much of the world has the image of the American cowboy (or less often, the American settler) planted firmly in their heads when they think of “Americans.” And while certainly not consciously, many Americans think of themselves in this way. There is a lot to be critical of the reality of the “American West,” not least of which being the brutality that it unleashed at various times and in various places. But there is also something—many things really—that we are at risk of losing if we completely demonize the time period and setting. This can even be seen in much of the media that has been created around the American West lately, with few exceptions (the Red Dead Redemption series of video games being one of those few exceptions). In losing the aspirational aspects of the American West even in much of the media, something more seems to be lost, up to an including the kind of models many young American men can aspire to. It may or may not surprise many of you that this is not exactly my wheelhouse, but it is not. I don’t know a lot about the American West beyond the more brutal stories I mentioned earlier and an awareness of it in the context of cinematic history. So that’s why with this special episode of History Impossible, I was joined by the prolific and talented writer David McGarry, who has had his work appear in esteemed publications including Reason and National Review , as well as his his own Substack, The Thoughtful Spot . David and I actually connected through a new writing venture that both of us have taken part in, a start-up known as Keinrath Publishing. I recently told you all about Keinrath when I put out the piece linking you guys to my essay for them covering the 1876 election , and like me, David put out a piece there covering, you guessed it, the spirit of the American West . I recommend not just David’s essay, but everyone’s essays there (including long-time friend and collaborator Daniele Bolelli!) because Keinrath is doing something really cool: offering thoughtful analyses of history and current events in long form, in which just a dollar will let you read each. It’s a great way to support writers like us, but honestly, Keinrath is just a great organization run by good people, and I would love to see them get some love. So go check them out when you get the chance. And I’m really happy to say that this will actually be the first of two interviews I’m doing with fellow authors there. So stay tuned for the next one very soon. In the meantime though, please enjoy this conversation I had with David McGarry about the spirit of the American West, where it went, and how we might get it back. … History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik David Alsbach Rajan Athul Robert Babeon Michael Beach Benjamin Greg Bosai Johannes Breitsameter Carol ABC Charles C Curtis Christiansen Clayton Connell Cliffydeuce CR B.Cyr daddygorgon Danny Lynda Davis Paul DeCoster Regina Dick-Endrizzi Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Martin E. Gavin Edwards Howie Feltersnatch Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Henry Eric Hodges Carey Hurst Mike Jarulic Joe6245 Russell Johnson Lionel Joseph Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Cameron Needham Skip Pacheco Mel Padden David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Matthew M. Rice Phillip Rice Terry Rosen Chris Rowe Dan S Jon Andre Saether Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Neil Sheehan Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Jerry Spangler timetosuccedd1995 Thomas Squeo Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple Ward Van Roy Pierre Vorupuni Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
A Bug in the Software 56:05

9 weeks ago56:05

56:05

Hey everyone, happy to present to all of you fine people with a brief bonus, this time adapting my recent historiographical essay that I had written my first semester in graduate school on the study of infectious disease’s effects throughout history and how it was written about from around the 1970s until the 2010s. This should serve as a nice pairing with the recent “Mother’s Wrath, Mankind’s Cope” and demonstrate the sort of academic origins of my thinking on this particular subject. Please enjoy and stay tuned! … History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik David Alsbach Rajan Athul Robert Babeon Michael Beach Benjamin Greg Bosai Johannes Breitsameter Carol ABC Charles C Curtis Christiansen Clayton Connell Cliffydeuce CR B.Cyr daddygorgon Danny Lynda Davis Paul DeCoster Regina Dick-Endrizzi Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Martin E. Gavin Edwards Howie Feltersnatch Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Henry Eric Hodges Carey Hurst Mike Jarulic Joe6245 Russell Johnson Lionel Joseph Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Cameron Needham Skip Pacheco Mel Padden David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Matthew M. Rice Phillip Rice Terry Rosen Chris Rowe Dan S Jon Andre Saether Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Neil Sheehan Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Jerry Spangler timetosuccedd1995 Thomas Squeo Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple Ward Van Roy Pierre Vorupuni Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
Mother's Wrath, Mankind's Bargain (The Los Angeles Fires of 2025) 1:50:57

11 weeks ago1:50:57

1:50:57

In this episode of History Impossible inaugurating 2025 and the sixth anniversary of the show, we will be looking at the Los Angeles Fires of 2025 but from an extended, historical, and probably overly philosophical lens. Because as it turns out, natural disasters are a constant of the human experience and create some of the greatest extremes, and reflecting on what afflicts us now alongside what has afflicted us in the past can provide at least some clarity (or, in my case, closure). The destruction faced by Los Angelenos in 2025 is not too dissimilar from many examples of destruction in relatively recent history. From the Krakatoa explosion in 1883, to the Galvestone hurriance in 1900, to the San Francisco Earthquake in 1906, there are plenty of examples. We examine these and their after effects in detail in this episode of History Impossible. It was an emotional experience to go through all of this and I hope you all can appreciate why. I wrote the original essay upon which this episode was based over a month ago, but it still has some validity and weight that I didn't expect. So please enjoy as much as one can enjoy such a heavy subject, in this newest episode of History Impossible ... History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik David Alsbach Rajan Athul Robert Babeon Michael Beach Benjamin Greg Bosai Johannes Breitsameter Daniel Camaj Carol ABC Charles C Curtis Christiansen Clayton Connell Cliffydeuce CR B.Cyr daddygorgon Danny Lynda Davis Paul DeCoster Regina Dick-Endrizzi Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Martin E. Gavin Edwards Howie Feltersnatch Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Henry Eric Hodges Carey Hurst Mike Jarulic Joe6245 Russell Johnson Lionel Joseph Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Cameron Needham Skip Pacheco Mel Padden David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Matthew M. Rice Phillip Rice Terry Rosen Chris Rowe Dan S Jon Andre Saether Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Neil Sheehan Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Jerry Spangler timetosuccedd1995 Thomas Squeo Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple Ward Van Roy Pierre Vorupuni Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
A Revulsion of Feeling: The Arab Revolt and Collective Identity 1:31:15

18 weeks ago1:31:15

1:31:15

This is the first installment of something that doesn’t really have a name; the Grad School Files? That sounds a little like a bad Netflix show. I’ll take suggestions, but in the meantime, we can simply define this as it is: the first adaptation of one of my academic papers from graduate school into an honest-to-goodness episode of History Impossible. The first thing I want to say is that it was more difficult than I expected to adapt an academic paper into a podcast than I expected. The material is all there, but speaking in formal academic language manages to put me to sleep, so I did my best to spruce things up with this episode. The second thing I want to say is that a lot of the material in this one will be familiar territory, just more focused on a single event (or grouping of events) in Israel-Palestine history: that is, the Arab Revolt of 1936-1939. This was something I hadn’t planned to do until inspiration smacked me upside the head in my second semester, largely propelled by the lack of awareness I was seeing some of my cohort-mates possessed about the conflict in general, to say nothing of the minutiae of its long, long history. As has been covered at length by me and many others, this has very clearly become a political issue with no tether to history, when that history matters more than the politics. In any event, what resulted was this, but in paper form (that has also been published in written form on Substack and Patreon, as some of you may remember): an investigation into the formation of group identity—that is, of the declining British Empire, the Zionist movement, and the Arab nationalist movement—via the conflict that came to be known as the Arab Revolt of the 1930s. Apart from a few folks—like the awesome Oren Kessler, much of whose work I incorporated into this episode—very few scholars have focused their attention on this event, sandwiched as it is between the punctuated chaos of the 1920s and the Second World War. I hope looking at the event this way—as a crucible, to use a word Kessler has used—adds to the conversation. … History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik David Alsbach Rajan Athul Robert Babeon Michael Beach Benjamin Greg Bosai Johannes Breitsameter Carol ABC Charles C Clayton Connell Cliffydeuce CR B.Cyr daddygorgon Danny Lynda Davis Paul DeCoster Regina Dick-Endrizzi Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Martin E. Gavin Edwards Howie Feltersnatch Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Henry Eric Hodges Carey Hurst Mike Jarulic Joe6245 Russell Johnson Lionel Joseph Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Cameron Needham Skip Pacheco Mel Padden David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Sharon Peplinski Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Matthew M. Rice Phillip Rice Terry Rosen Chris Rowe Dan S Jon Andre Saether Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Jerry Spangler timetosuccedd1995 Thomas Squeo Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple Ward Van Roy Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
The Question of Genocide 1:04:57

21 weeks ago1:04:57

1:04:57

This episode of History Impossible is an adaptation of the historical polemic I wrote on the one-year anniversary of October 7th, 2023, examining the interpretation of genocide, as applied to the current war between Hamas and Israel, and to the devastation wrought against the Bosnian Muslims by their Serb counterparts in the early 1990s. This episode touches on some extremely upsetting and dark material, including descriptions of child death, mass killing, and rape, so please consider yourself warned if that sort of thing is something you might want to avoid. This episode will serve as a polemical counterpart to the first installment of the graduate school trilogy I have in the works. The other adaptations will have their own thematic counterparts, and I hope to release those in the coming weeks and months, which will hopefully sate everyone’s interest until the next and penultimate episode of “The Muslim Nazis” is released. … History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik David Alsbach Rajan Athul Robert Babeon Michael Beach Benjamin Greg Bosai Johannes Breitsameter Carol ABC Charles C Clayton Connell Cliffydeuce CR B.Cyr daddygorgon Danny Lynda Davis Paul DeCoster Regina Dick-Endrizzi Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Gavin Edwards Howie Feltersnatch Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Henry Eric Hodges Carey Hurst Mike Jarulic Joe6245 Russell Johnson Lionel Joseph Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Cameron Needham Skip Pacheco Mel Padden David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Sharon Peplinski Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Matthew M. Rice Phillip Rice Terry Rosen Chris Rowe Dan S Jon Andre Saether Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt David Schwedinger Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Jerry Spangler Thomas Squeo Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple Ward Van Roy Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
The Original Donald Trump (Throwback Thursday!) 2:48:00

23 weeks ago2:48:00

2:48:00

Hello all, hope you are doing well. For a long time, I was skeptical of doing “re-runs” of History Impossible’s earlier episodes. I didn’t think that I had the “right” to do so, or something along those lines. Obviously, that’s a silly way of looking at things and, to be honest, it’s counterproductive. Many of you reading or hearing this have been with me since Day One (or near Day One) and many of you have likely gone through the entire show archive, and I love you all to pieces for it. But then I look at the calendar and I remember that it’s been nearly SIX YEARS since I started this little show. Six years is wild to think about. I was just breaking into the time period known as “real adulthood” in my early 30s. It’s certainly wild to think about where the time has gone and all the crazy things that have happened since then, both in my life and in the world around me. That includes a historic presidential election this year, in which for only the second time in American history, a man has been elected for a non-consecutive term. It’s also historic because of his convicted criminal status (putting aside how one might feel about the validity of those convictions or the trials that produced them; this is historically significant no matter how you slice it or how much your mileage may vary). I have had several people ask me for my take on everything that has happened, and I have given it in small doses, but I’ve also had people ask me how I feel about the man—that is, Donald Trump—himself. I don’t have an answer that has pleased many people, but only a fair few likely know it has not changed since 2019, when I started History Impossible. When I started this show, I came very close to beginning it with the “Muslim Nazis” series. But thanks to the advice of my good friend and guru Daniele Bolelli, I came to realize that I would be essentially imposing myself on the historical podcasting audience by asking them to commit to a series that, at the time, I assumed would take a few years (and boy was I right on that estimate, more than I knew). So I went with one-off’s for a while, occasionally foraying into thematic trilogies and two-parters. Some of these were my favorite stories to delve into, even until this very day. But my very first episode was one where I tried to unpack my feelings on Donald Trump from a historically comparative perspective, and looking back on that first episode, I think most of my feelings have remained consistent. I have never liked the “fascism” comparison, much less the “Nazi” comparisons (I think that should just be obvious by now). But historian Niall Ferguson, many years ago now, helped break down just what kind of historical figure Donald Trump is. It inspired me, and, after a couple months of frantic research into the period of time Ferguson discussed in his above-linked talk, I was able to pull together a story about a next-to-unknown man from American history; the “Original Donald Trump,” if you will. And the first episode of History Impossible was born. Because that was so long ago, and because I realized the idea of re-releasing episodes is really no big deal, I figured I would re-release that episode. Also, to be honest, because it has been a while since I released an audio episode for the podcast. Being trapped by a looming thesis prospectus in graduate school and the ongoing writing and research I am doing for my proper class has eaten up large amounts of my time, as has other projects to which I have committed. We still have some episodes coming before the end of the year and—god willing—an interview or two (though those are less certain), but I wanted to give something to those of you who have only recently found my work and just have not found the time to work your way back through six years of content. Now like I said, I essentially endorse everything I researched, wrote, and said from this episode I did so many years ago, at least in broad strokes. I do not necessarily endorse the quality—either my delivery, or production. I cannot promise that will stand to scrutiny compared to my more recent work; it was my first stab at historical podcasting after all. But I think this re-release—relevant as it is to the results of the 2024 election—can serve as a nice time capsule that answers some lingering questions my followers and listeners might have regarding my feelings on our 45th, and now 47th, President of the United States. At the very least, it can serve as a nice historical comparison to the first Trump administration, and the years that led up to it (I do believe, for what it is worth, things are different in 2024 American society than they were in 2015-2016, but not by much; in some ways, they are heightened). So please, enjoy this throwback (posted on a Thursday!) of the very first episode of History Impossible, “The Original Donald Trump.” History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik David Alsbach Rajan Athul Robert Babeon Michael Beach Benjamin Johannes Breitsameter Carol ABC Charles C Clayton Connell Cliffydeuce CR B.Cyr daddygorgon Danny Lynda Davis Paul DeCoster Regina Dick-Endrizzi Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Gavin Edwards Howie Feltersnatch Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Henry Eric Hodges Carey Hurst Mike Jarulic Joe6245 Russell Johnson Lionel Joseph Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Cameron Needham Skip Pacheco Mel Padden David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Sharon Peplinski Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Matthew M. Rice Phillip Rice Terry Rosen Chris Rowe Dan S Jon Andre Saether Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt David Schwedinger Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Jerry Spangler Thomas Squeo Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple Ward Van Roy Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

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Revisionism and Misplaced Empathy: The Darryl Cooper - Tucker Carlson Situation 1:24:47

30 weeks ago1:24:47

1:24:47

I have, for many years, recommended Darryl Cooper’s hit podcast Martyr Made to the relative handful of people kind enough to listen to my own show and read my thoughts on various publications, including my own Substack. And not to fully bury the lede, I still do, though admittedly with a little more reservation than I might otherwise have only a month earlier. This comes from the piece I wrote for the good folks at Merion West which takes a close look at the claims made last month by my podcasting comrade Darryl Cooper while he was being interviewed on Tucker Carlson’s X show. This is the podcast version, with some tweaks and expansions, but I highly recommend you go read the polished piece over on Merion West . Thank you all for reading and listening. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
The Elites Who Would Play God (w/ CJ Killmer of Dangerous History) 1:34:00

34 weeks ago1:34:00

1:34:00

In this newest special episode of History Impossible, I sat down to discuss a super-light topic, one not fraught with intense controversy and tragedy, with my long time friend and podcasting comrade, CJ Killmer, of the Dangerous History Podcast : that is, the topic of eugenics! More accurately, we discussed a particular man in that noteworthy field who CJ discussed on his second-most recent episode (as of this writing; the 12th and newest epic installment of the Woodrow Wilson series he’s been working hard on just released), Dr. Edwin Katzen-Ellenbogen. This man’s storied career included being a pioneer in promoting the pseudo-scientific field that gripped the hearts and minds of American and European elites in the early 20th century, as well as having the worst luck in escaping the Nazis as their reach expanded across Europe while placing Jews like him in the crosshairs. This ultimately worked out for him, in a sick sense, because shortly after being captured and tossed into a camp, he began working with them on some of their notorious human experiments. It has been alleged that he personally murdered at least 1,000 human test subjects by lethal injection. Unlike many of the other Nazis’ collaborators, he was purely in it for himself, and, based on his activities before the war, likely agreed with many of their conclusions. CJ and I spoke not just about this man, and not just about eugenics, but how they—especially eugenics—fit into the broader schema that is the philosophy of progress, that is, Progressivism. It’s at once obvious and shocking. And to help hammer the point home, we close by discussing an underrated piece of 1990s cinema that not only remains great nearly 30 years later, but eerily prescient. So please sit back and enjoy this conversation with CJ Killmer. … History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik Rajan Athul Robert Babeon Michael Beach Benjamin Johannes Breitsameter Carol ABC Charles C Clayton Connell Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Danny Lynda Davis Paul DeCoster Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Rob Duval Gavin Edwards Howie Feltersnatch Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Eric Hodges Carey Hurst Mike Jarulic Joe6245 Russell Johnson Lionel Joseph Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Cameron Needham Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Phillip Rice Terry Rosen Chris Rowe Dan S Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Jerry Spangler Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Ward Van Roy Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

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The Yasuke Conspiracy (w/ Sebastian Major of Our Fake History) 1:53:46

35 weeks ago1:53:46

1:53:46

To say historians can be pedantic is like saying water is wet. To say gamers and gaming commentators can be pedantic is yet somehow even more of an obvious understatement. So what happens when these two communities clash and/or blend? You get what we could charitably call the Yasuke Conspiracy. As many gamers likely know by now, the insanely popular and long-running Assassin’s Creed series of games has explored multitudes of time periods, aesthetics, and characters from across history, ranging from Renaissance Italy, to Revolutionary America, to Victorian London, to Roman Empire-era Egypt, to, most recently, Viking England. The newest, upcoming game in the series, Assassins Creed Shadows , promises more of this trend, this time taking us to medieval Japan during the Sengoku Jidai, or Warring States period. Sounds all well and good, right? There was one problem, at least in the eyes of many gamers: that one of the two playable characters was not, in fact, Japanese, but African. And not only was he African, he was a purportedly real person from history (a first for the series, whose protagonists have always been fictional). This person was the so-called “African samurai,” Yasuke. And what followed was a firestorm of controversy, bad corporate crisis management, and a historian’s credibility being thrown in the direction of a woodchipper. Being a gamer, and one who enjoys the Assassin’s Creed series, I was aware of the Yasuke controversy, and I was also aware of Yasuke, having come very close several years ago to covering him, but opting instead to cover the far less vague and mythological-seeming story of William Adams, the supposed British samurai . Part of the reason for this choice was due to the fact that there was indeed only one secondary source on Yasuke, and it didn’t seem completely reliable. And sure enough, it was that source that, four years later, became the source of the controversy at hand. To help me make sense of this story, I needed to reach out to someone far more familiar with the material and, more importantly, someone who understood the power of historical myth. I could not find anyone better than my comrade-in-historical-podcasting-arms, Sebastian Major, the host of the phenomenal Our Fake History podcast . Sebastian had indeed covered Yasuke before, so I picked his brain and we discussed the true story of Yasuke and the controversy itself as well as the writer at its center, the now-unfortunately-controversial Thomas Lockley. So please enjoy, as we are joined by Sebastian Major, and attempt to plumb the depths of our fake (impossible) history. … History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik Rajan Athul Robert Babeon Michael Beach Benjamin Johannes Breitsameter Charles C Clayton Connell Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Danny Paul DeCoster Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Rob Duval Gavin Edwards Howie Feltersnatch Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Eric Hodges Carey Hurst Mike Jarulic Joe6245 Russell Johnson Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Cameron Needham Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Phillip Rice Chris Rowe Dan S Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Jerry Spangler Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Ward Van Roy Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

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Why Hajj Amin Matters 37:25

38 weeks ago37:25

37:25

The following is the audio version of the recent essay addendum to the most recent episode of History Impossible, “ The German Voice of Islam .” Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read and listen and, when at all possible, support my work. Please consider becoming a patron or paid subscriber to History Impossible at whatever level you feel comfortable. History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik Rajan Athul Robert Babeon Michael Beach Benjamin Johannes Breitsameter Charles C Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Danny Paul DeCoster Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Rob Duval Gavin Edwards Howie Feltersnatch Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Eric Hodges Carey Hurst Mike Jarulic Joe6245 Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Jim Miller Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Cameron Needham Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Phillip Rice Chris Rowe Dan S Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Jerry Spangler Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Ward Van Roy Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

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The Muslim Nazis: The German Voice of Islam 6:02:13

41 weeks ago6:02:13

6:02:13

The Third Reich’s so-called war on the Jews was not one that they fought alone. In fact, their war had been being fought for decades before Hitler even took power, perhaps even a full generation. The fight began in the late 19th century in Jerusalem, within the office of the mufti of that city. He was an elderly, serious man who, unlike everyone around him, believed he could read the tea leaves and explain where these land sales to an ever-increasing number of Jews was supposedly heading (despite the fact that he himself was also taking part in these land sales). By the early 1900s, a young boy—the elderly, serious man’s son—was sitting in this office with his father, taking all of this in. No one at the time could have possibly known that this man would come to represent one of the most controversial parts of the Third Reich’s war three quarters of a century after its conclusion, thanks almost entirely to the words he spoke and wrote. This episode of History Impossible returns to the first long-form series, “The Muslim Nazis”, that started it all, three years ago. In this episode, we’ll be looking at what happened when the Nazis began to craft a nearly unprecedented propaganda campaign directed primarily at the world’s Arabs, but also the world’s Muslims as a whole. The propaganda itself—filled with unparalleled invective, racism, and conspiracy-mongering—was not invented whole-cloth by the Nazis. Indeed, it was fine-tuned by the Nazis’ growing cast of Islamic allies, most of whom from embattled nations struggling under the weight of empire and civil war. This cast included that young boy all grown up: the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini. Not only is the Grand Mufti’s role in the propaganda campaign examined in this episode, but so are the most consequential claims ever made about the man—namely, his alleged role in the Shoah, which does not cease to cause massive, angry debates around the world. With claims ranging from those made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2015 when he alleged that Hajj Amin is who inspired Hitler to commit the Holocaust, all the way to the Grand Mufti’s dwindling handful of apologists, who either ignore his time spent with the Axis or even outright minimize its importance; this part of our story endeavors to get to the bottom of it all. History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik Rajan Athul Robert Babeon Michael Beach Benjamin Johannes Breitsameter Charles C Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Danny Paul DeCoster Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Rob Duval Gavin Edwards Howie Feltersnatch Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Eric Hodges Carey Hurst Mike Jarulic Joe6245 Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Jim Miller Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Cameron Needham Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Phillip Rice Chris Rowe Dan S Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Jerry Spangler Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Ward Van Roy Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
Assassinations and Stoic Optimism (w/ The Eastern Border) 1:10:57

42 weeks ago1:10:57

1:10:57

Considering what happened…some thoughts needed to be shared. I’m already working on something for the Substack, and believe it or not, the next episode of the “Muslim Nazis” will actually be up and available for paid supporters of the show within the next day or so. However, given what indeed has happened, involving the former president almost getting his head taken off, a lot of conversation has appeared. My dear friend Kristaps Andrejsons and I decided to sit down to add our voices to this choir (after overcoming some tech-related SNAFU’s that finally resolved themselves). This conversation is also on the Eastern Border feed, but please make sure to subscribe to his podcast because it is among the best out there. Much of what has been said here is likely to change over time, but those in the history and politics space have nothing else to talk about. Please enjoy (as much as one can) this discussion, and consider becoming a paid sub or Patron in order to access an ad-free version of this and the newest proper History Impossible episode. Thank you all for listening. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

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Questioning Anti-Zionism, Colonizing Gaza, and Revealing Lenin (w/ David Josef Volodsko) 2:57:44

46 weeks ago2:57:44

2:57:44

For this next special installment of History Impossible, we’re joined by the journalist, writer, and fellow podcaster David Josef Volodsko, one of the most well-traveled individuals I’ve ever had the pleasure of speaking to (both in and out of the United States). He is the man behind The Radicalist Substack (which I encourage all of you to subscribe to), but he has also contributed to the Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Foreign Policy Magazine, The Nation, Bari Weiss’ The Free Press, and most famously (thanks to his abrupt 2023 ouster, which he explained here ), the Seattle Times, where he served on the Editorial Board. His sole article under his own byline— “Dear Fremont: We need to talk about Lenin and your statue of the genocidal tyrant” —ignited a firestorm of a historical debate on, where else, Twitter/X, where Washington tankies decided to make it their mission to cost David his job, and for which they ultimately succeeded. He has thankfully bounced back, founding The Radicalist, and appearing on other, far more prestigious podcasts than my own, and spending his time doing deeper dives on political extremism throughout history, as well as provocative examinations of present events, particularly lately Israel’s war in Gaza. David and I spent a little time discussing his ouster, but we spent the majority of the three hours we spoke discussing the deeper themes of some of his essays—namely, his essay discussing how anti-Zionism has, in practice, become anti-Semitism , and his even more provocative but well-considered essay, why colonizing (or occupying) Gaza is likely the only solution moving forward . Much more came up naturally during the conversation, including where the consistently anti-Zionist Christopher Hitchens might have landed in this political moment of ours, the casual and performative cruelty of Briahna Joy Gray and leftists like her, the anti-Israel leftist tradition and the different varieties of protester, and, of course, the legacy of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husseini. This was a thoroughly enlightening, at times depressing and upsetting, but ultimately productive conversation that I was more than thrilled turned into a three hour epic (after assuming it would likely be less than 90 minutes). Many thanks to David for being so generous with his time and being willing to engage with such difficult subjects. History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik Rajan Athul Robert Babeon Michael Beach Benjamin Johannes Breitsameter Charles C Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Paul DeCoster Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Rob Duval Gavin Edwards Howie Feltersnatch Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Carey Hurst Mike Jarulic Joe6245 Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Jim Miller Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Cameron Needham Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Phillip Rice Chris Rowe Dan S Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Jerry Spangler Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Ward Van Roy Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

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The Oddsmakers of Armageddon (w/ Benjamin Teitelbaum) 1:08:12

50 weeks ago1:08:12

1:08:12

“When a cycle of civilization is reaching its end, it is difficult to achieve anything by resisting it and by directly opposing the forces in motion. The current is too strong; one would be overwhelmed. The essential thing is to not let oneself be impressed by the omnipotence and apparent triumph of the forces of the epoch. These forces, devoid of connection with any higher principle, are in fact, on a short chain. One should not become fixated on the present, and on things at hand, but keep in view the conditions that may come about in the future. Thus the principle to follow could be that of letting the forces and processes of this epoch take their own course, while keeping oneself firm and ready to intervene when ‘the tiger, which cannot leap of the person riding it, is tired of running.’” —Julius Evola “We are only against people who are harmful. And we don’t hate them. There’s no need of hating them. We don’t hate bugs. We fight them. We don’t hate lice. We fight them. They’re harmful. They bite us... they infect us with disease. Mosquitoes: the same thing... You have to do something to make them go away, at least to get rid of them. It’s the same thing with races that do harm to ours. We defend ourselves, and that’s all... But in this Yuga, this Dark Age nearing its end, you get more and more power in the hands of those people. That’s natural. And there will be a racial struggle somewhere. I can see it coming. I can see it coming in the USA. I wouldn’t be at all astonished if one day, not tomorrow, perhaps not in fifty years, but perhaps later on, the USA had a National Socialist government, made of Americans, after a terrific fight with the other races... I think America will precede Europe in that way, not for any other reason but because in America the pressure of the dark races is much more powerful.” —Savitri Devi “What we are against will unite us, while what we are for divides us. Therefore, we should emphasize what we oppose. The common enemy unites us, while the positive values each of us are defending actually divides us. Therefore, we must create strategic alliances to overthrow the present order of things, of which the core could be described as human rights, anti-hierarchy, and political correctness – everything that is the face of the Beast, the anti-Christ or, in other terms, Kali-Yuga.” —Aleksandr Dugin These quotes are key to understanding a very particular strain of thought that has been discussed a few times on History Impossible; first, on the episode we did on Savitri Devi, “The Hitler Avatar and His Masochistic Priestess” , and then again on the first episodes we did with Kristaps Andrejsons of the Eastern Border podcast, where we discussed Aleksandr Dugin, Putin’s so-called “brain.” This strain of thought is Traditionalism, a perennial philosophical school, often attributed to a number of European thinkers of the 19th century. Very few people can be called experts in this field, though I’ve been lucky enough to get to know one of them: Benjamin Teitelbaum, the author of the book War for Eternity: The Return of Traditionalism and the Rise of the Populist Right from 2020, as well as contributor to many different august publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic (he’s also a professor of ethnographic and international studies!). As many listeners know, War for Eternity has come up a lot on History Impossible, so it seemed fitting to sit down with Ben and discuss the central aspects of his work, which included conversations with Aleksandr Dugin and the late Brazilian populist and Bolsonaroist firebrand Olavho de Carvalho, and, of course, the many hours spent speaking with the most famous American populist, Steve Bannon. The key to understanding a philosophy as dark and twisted as Traditionalism—one might be tempted to call it unwittingly nihilistic—is to take it seriously, which Ben absolutely does. It’s a thick subject, and being pressed for time, we were not able to cover everything, so this is likely the first of hopefully more than one conversation. In this one, we went through the basics of Traditionalism, its odd connection to religious thinking, Savitri Devi, the Tucker Carlson-Aleksandr Dugin interview, and just what the hell is going on with Steve Bannon these days. Enjoy and stay tuned for more! History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik Rajan Athul Robert Babeon Michael Beach Benjamin Elias Borota Johannes Breitsameter Charles C Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Paul DeCoster Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Rob Duval Gavin Edwards Howie Feltersnatch Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Carey Hurst Mike Jarulic Joe6245 Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Jim Miller Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Cameron Needham Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Phillip Rice Chris Rowe Dan S Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Jerry Spangler Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Ward Van Roy Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
The Soviet Who Saved the World (w/ The Eastern Border) 1:21:53

1 year ago1:21:53

1:21:53

In this special conversational episode of History Impossible, we’re joined again by friend of the show and friend of mine, Kristaps Andrejsons of The Eastern Border podcast (which will also host this conversation on its feed!), who was kind enough to grace the shores of the United States for a visit, specifically Texas. Specifically, we turned to his recent special wedding episode where he discussed the eponymous “man who saved the world,” Stanislav Petrov, who, according to erroneous headlines from publications like the Atlantic a number of years ago, saved the world by “ doing absolutely nothing. ” Kristaps is here to disabuse us all of such a ridiculous notion. In 1983, the Cold War was at its most tense since the early 1960s, particularly during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was during this time that the monitoring station where Stanislav Petrov was station picked up signals indicating that a handful of nuclear missiles launched from the United States had been launched in the direction of the Soviet Union. While he could have responded without thinking, leading to missiles being launched back at the United States, Petrov opted to wait for visual confirmation of the incoming missiles, putting both he and potentially hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens in jeopardy. His rationality paid off and it turned out that there had indeed been an error in the detection equipment. No missiles had been fired. Why was this so extraordinary? This is what Kristaps is here to tell us about for us to discuss, along with scatterings of news from Ukraine as well as the eternal debate over American involvement overseas, as well as the proliferation of nuclear weaponry. It’s actually a fairly light episode, considering the subject matter, so enjoy! History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik Rajan Athul Babeonbobby Michael Beach Benjamin Elias Borota Johannes Breitsameter Charles C Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Paul DeCoster Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Rob Duval Gavin Edwards Howie Feltersnatch Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Carey Hurst Joe6245 Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Jim Miller Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Cameron Needham Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Phillip Rice Chris Rowe Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Ward Van Roy Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
Oppenheimer and the Nuclear Question 55:01

1 year ago55:01

55:01

Hey all, I hope you’re doing well. I have for all of you the audio adaptation of the essay I wrote last year in response to my seeing the magisterial Oppenheimer, and given its newly Oscar-anointed status, I figured now would be the best time to get this out as a bonus as you all patiently await the return of the Muslim Nazis series (it’s still coming, worry not!). In this, we cover, mostly from my own memory (but supported by sources), the various reasons the United States might have dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. To say this is a complicated question is an understatement. To say there is a consensus, even almost 80 years later, is impossible. So we’re going to get into the weeds with this question while also showing the love Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus deserves. And as always, History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik Rajan Athul Babeonbobby Dave Baxter Michael Beach Benjamin Elias Borota Johannes Breitsameter Charles C Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Paul DeCoster Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Rob Duval Gavin Edwards Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Carey Hurst Joe6245 Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Jim Miller Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Cameron Needham Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters John Pisano Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Phillip Rice Chris Rowe Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey Michael Wroblewski F. You Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

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Closing the Holocaust Knowledge Gap 46:55

1 year ago46:55

46:55

Hey everyone. The following is an ad-free bonus audio essay that follows up on the recent conversation I had with the History Underground's J.D. Huitt, where I make some corrections and then provide some deeper context to my thinking about how we might fix the Holocaust Knowledge Gap via education. I will let the episode speak for itself, but I want to thank all of you for your constant support of the show and your patience as I work on the longer episodes. History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik Rajan Athul Babeonbobby Michael Beach Benjamin Elias Borota Johannes Breitsameter Charles C Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Paul DeCoster Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Rob Duval Gavin Edwards Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Carey Hurst Joe6245 Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Jim Miller Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Phillip Rice Chris Rowe Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
The Holocaust Knowledge Gap w/ The History Underground 1:31:04

1 year ago1:31:04

1:31:04

In this newest special installment of History Impossible, we’re joined by long-time friend of the podcast and friend of mine, J.D. Huitt, the man behind the incredible History Underground channel over on YouTube , probably one of the best historical travel and educational content creators in the game (who has more than earned his 600,000 subscribers). Both J.D. and I were DMing on Twitter/X recently, sharing our discomfort with the seeming spike we’ve been seeing of not just ignorance about the Holocaust—what we thought was one of the best known event of the 20th century—but also the skepticism and even downright denial of it as it’s been traditionally known. This coincided with the Economist-reported YouGov poll released in late 2023 that showed a shocking 20 percent of young Americans believing the Holocaust was a myth, with more vastly underestimating the numbers. As it happens, this is a subject J.D. and I had discussed before in one of our conversations a number of years ago, and J.D. warned the audience that this was the natural consequence of poor education on this subject. Much as it’s crude to say, we felt it was necessary to take a rueful victory lap on our concerns being confirmed. We discuss why this phenomenon has occurred in a bit more depth, while also offering some broader solutions to how one teaches such a horrifying event in a way that might stick with people, without it simply going in one ear and out the other. It’s hard to say whether we succeed, so we’ll let you be the judge of that. History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik Rajan Athul Babeonbobby Michael Beach Benjamin Elias Borota Johannes Breitsameter Charles C Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Paul DeCoster Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Rob Duval Gavin Edwards Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Carey Hurst Joe6245 Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Constance Loucks Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Jim Miller Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters Sr. Powell Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Reptilycus Phillip Rice Chris Rowe Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey Michael Wroblewski F. You Greg Zink Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
The Perfect Tie: The Election of 1876 (w/ Richard Lim of This American President) 1:04:29

1 year ago1:04:29

1:04:29

“I scarcely ever passed a week under such depression of spirits. […] It is terrible to see the extent to which all classes go in their determination to win. Conscience offers no restraint; nothing is so common as the resort to perjury unless it is violence. In short, I do not know who to believe: if we win, our methods are subject to impeachment for possible fraud; if the enemy wins, it is the same thing exactly. Doubt, suspicion, irritation go with the consequence, whatever it may be.” —Lew Wallace, retired Civil War general, 1876 Many people will call out elections in our lifetimes as being particularly divisive, whether it’s the 2000 election or the 2020 election. Those were indeed divisive, but very few elections have approached the divisiveness and the chaos unleashed in the United States Presidential Election of 1876, fought between the Democrat Samuel Tilden and the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, in which the ultimate decision on who would be president was decided by one electoral vote. In this special five year anniversary episode of History Impossible in which we revisit this event only briefly touched upon in the inaugural episode of this entire show, we’re joined by Richard Lim of the This American President podcast , who helps shed some light into the details of this contentious election and this absolutely wild period of American history. With the election of 2024 looming large and with everyone’s imaginations running wild with how things will turn out, Richard and I thought it might be prudent to not just provide a historical reality check on just how wild things can get, but how Americans were able to extract themselves from such insanity while living through it. Happy five years and here’s to five more with History Impossible. For more detailed look at the Election of 1876, check out Richard’s episode on that election here . History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik Michael Beach Benjamin Elias Borota Johannes Breitsameter Charles C Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Paul DeCoster Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Rob Duval Gavin Edwards Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Carey Hurst Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Jim Miller Kyle Mohney Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Phillip Rice Chris Rowe Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey Michael Wroblewski F. You Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
Balkan Inferno: The Bosnian Dream 4:05:19

1 year ago4:05:19

4:05:19

Sometimes, the best way to understand everything a people have gone through is to understand a dream. This is how many nations frame themselves and their own origins. No matter the context, there is always truth in the idea that before there was a nation, there was a dream. And that dream, however morally sullied by the ugliness of reality, consequences, and choices, can never and should never be discounted, even with the nations who have had their dreams frustrated for so long. In fact, the truth of that dream can be seen in those realities, consequences, and choices that we may not understand or accept on a moral level many years later. This can be seen in plenty of nations, both old and young, and that everyone recognizes, from the United States to Israel. But there are few nations whose history better represents this dynamic than the young nation (but very old culture) of Bosnia. In this conclusion to the Balkan Inferno trilogy that will lead us by the hand back into the good graces of the so-called “Muslim Nazis,” we look at that long history of that central, symbolic part of the old Yugoslavian Region we today call Bosnia-Herzegovina (or Bosnia, for short). We’ll look at many of the strange and mysterious aspects of this place’s history, including its own schismatic Bosnian Church, and the various attempts at self-determination peppering the timeline. This timeline is often dominated by collapsed empires—Roman, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, German—and failed kingdoms—Serbian and Croatian—but always present is the story of Bosnia. This nation and its people has always had others trying to define them for their own ends, but there has always been a force within that has wanted to define itself. This has indeed led to some truly disturbing decisions—namely alliances—but these decisions could always be tracked back to the dream that forges all nations. That is what we explore here today. History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik Michael Beach Benjamin Elias Borota Johannes Breitsameter Charles C Mind Chatterings Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Paul DeCoster Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Rob Duval Gavin Edwards Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Carey Hurst Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Jim Miller Kyle Mohney Monica Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Ben Mullen Allen Pace Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Phillip Rice Chris Rowe Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Joshua Simpson Cameron Smith Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey Michael Wroblewski F. You Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
Pogroms and Students 1:03:26

1 year ago1:03:26

1:03:26

Hey everybody. Now that I’ve finished up the notes and script for the conclusion of the “Balkan Inferno” trilogy (which will lead us right back into the thick of the “Muslim Nazis” series), I’m hard at work putting all of that together. In the meantime, please enjoy (as much as one can enjoy such a subject—I really do say that a lot, don’t I?) this bonus episode that slightly tweaks and expands my recent Substack post , “Pogroms and Students.” This episode covers relatively current events regarding the escalation of anti-Semitic incidents—especially in the United States, where in New York they have risen by 200 percent —on the heels of Hamas’ declaration of war on Israel and the ongoing war being waged against them by the IDF, but it also gets into the history of the role students played in some of the most infamous pogroms in Jewish history, particularly in Russia around the time of the First Russian Revolution. It also revisits the discussion of mass violence we did in the last part of “Balkan Inferno ," which unfortunately, feels even more relevant than ever (so please consider giving that 5 hour 18 minute beast a listen if you haven’t already and have a strong constitution). History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik Michael Beach Benjamin Elias Borota Johannes Breitsameter Charles C Mind Chatterings CJ Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Paul DeCoster Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Rob Duval Gavin Edwards Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Carey Hurst Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Jim Miller Kyle Mohney Monica Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Ben Mullen Allen Pace Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Phillip Rice Chris Rowe Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Cameron Smith Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey Michael Wroblewski F. You Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
The Greatest Blunder in Palestinian History w/ Oren Kessler 1:02:21

1 year ago1:02:21

1:02:21

The recent Substack post and episode of History Impossible about the significant three root historical causes of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict has largely been well-received. What I didn’t expect is that one of the main sources I used for that episode would be willing to speak with me in greater depth about the massively underrated Arab Revolt of 1936-1939. In this episode, we’re joined by the scholar, political analyst, and writer Oren Kessler, whose 2023 book Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict should be included as required reading for anyone interested or invested in what has been topping the news since October 7th, 2023. Oren, like myself, is a believer in the notion that the Littlefinger of Palestine, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husseini, is a figure of massively underrated importance. In this episode, we discuss the Arab Revolt through the eyes of the Mufti and examine just why he and his decisions and his legacy matter in the 21st century, despite him becoming largely forgotten except for his infamous photo op with the Fuhrer of Nazi Germany himself, Adolf Hitler. Oren makes the case that this is giving al-Husseini the short shrift with regards to his impact and we discuss why this should be both self-evident and required for understanding why things have gotten so bad between Israel and Gaza. Thank you and enjoy! History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik Michael Beach Benjamin Elias Borota Johannes Breitsameter Charles C Mind Chatterings CJ Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Paul DeCoster Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Rob Duval Gavin Edwards Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Carey Hurst Joseph Hurst Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Leah Kodner Benjamin Lee Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Kyle Mohney Monica Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Ben Mullen Allen Pace Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters Brian Pritzl AnaR737 PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Phillip Rice Chris Rowe Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Cameron Smith Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey F. You Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
Israel, Gaza, and Three Root Causes 1:47:15

2 years ago1:47:15

1:47:15

When you talk about history for a living, the contemporary world often has opportunities to make your knowledge more relevant. What knowledge actually possessed here about Israel and Palestine is likely more limited than some, I'd like to think that there is still some I can share to help clarify the conversation a little, at least when it comes to the notion of truly root causes to this ongoing conflict whose 2023 flare-up is the worst it's been in a long time, if not ever. In this special dispatch of History Impossible--which is being treated as a proper episode--we're going to revisit some old stomping grounds of this show, namely the Israeli-Palestinian region of the world during the 1890s-1930s. There are some familiar events and faces, and some information has been adapted from previous episodes, but this is largely all new ground to cover with new sources added into the mix. This will not solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by a long shot, and it will not please everyone, but it will hopefully add some historical clarity into the mix for folks who find themselves increasingly invested in the ongoing events in the Middle East. Love to you all who support this show: David Adamcik Michael Beach Benjamin Elias Borota Johannes Breitsameter Charles C CJ Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Paul DeCoster Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Rob Duval Gavin Edwards Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Carey Hurst Joseph Hurst Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Benjamin Lee Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Kyle Mohney Monica Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Ben Mullen Allen Pace Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters Brian Pritzl PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Phillip Rice Chris Rowe Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Cameron Smith Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey F. You Please consider supporting History Impossible over on Patreon or Substack if you like what I do here and want to support my work. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
Affirmative Action and the Making of a Token 1:15:41

2 years ago1:15:41

1:15:41

This is a bonus episode (a bit bigger than one might expect) that adapts and, more importantly expands, an essay I wrote for my friend and editor Jamie on his American Dreaming Substack . I seriously need to thank him for letting me write something so…I dunno, controversial? Combative? Anyway, whatever, so THAT under his publication’s name). This does use a very contemporary and contentious issue as its launchpad, and while some might see this as impolitic or even inappropriate, my history-addled brain only allowed me to see, hear, and read what I see, hear, and read and interpret it thusly. Pretentious way of saying, yes, I know I’m being edgy, and I know I’m being provocative, but I do implore all of my listeners to hear me out. This is not only history, but it’s, in my mind, an important aspect of history both in the United States and the “West” more broadly. So yes, we’re talking about the biggest problems with the mere idea of affirmative action and what I—and by extension Hannah Arendt—believes is the real issue at heart when aristocrats and monarchs (literal and figurative) grant privilege as a means to improve their own lots, while, of course, always under the guise of improving everyone’s lot. Is History Impossible too cynical? It’s been suggested. But there’s a polemic in here that needed to be made, otherwise I’d go a little crazy without making my self-important analysis known. Love to you all who support this show: David Adamcik Michael Beach Benjamin Elias Borota Johannes Breitsameter Charles C CJ Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Paul DeCoster Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Rob Duval Gavin Edwards Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Carey Hurst Joseph Hurst Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Benjamin Lee Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Kyle Mohney Monica Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Ben Mullen Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters Brian Pritzl PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Chris Rowe Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Cameron Smith Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey F. You Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
Is The Holocaust Unique? 30:06

2 years ago30:06

30:06

Hey all. This is an adaptation/audio version of an essay I recently wrote for my friend and editor Jamie Paul’s American Dreaming Substack , in which I examine the uniqueness of the Holocaust as both a genocide and historical event. If you like what you hear and want to hear me delve more into this subject, I’ll try to delve further into it in a future special episode like this one. But in the meantime, please enjoy. And thank you very much for all of your patience as I try and juggle all the projects I have on tap at once. History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik Michael Beach Benjamin Elias Borota Johannes Breitsameter Charles C CJ Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Paul DeCoster Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Rob Duval Gavin Edwards Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Carey Hurst Joseph Hurst Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Benjamin Lee Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Kyle Mohney Monica Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Ben Mullen Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters Brian Pritzl PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Chris Rowe Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Cameron Smith Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey F. You Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
Balkan Inferno: The Heritage of Horror 5:18:58

2 years ago5:18:58

5:18:58

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains persistent graphic genocide violence and cruelty, especially in its first 75 minutes. Listener discretion is advised. In this part of the ongoing Balkan prelude to our return to the "Muslim Nazis" series, we are about to descend into the depths of hell. This was by design by the murderous Ustashe regime that took power after the invasion and dismemberment of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Fuhrer of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler. What happened next was a nightmare beyond the the imagining of most modern, comfortable nations in the 21st century. But it all happened. Serbs, Jews, Roma, and others were singled out not just for extermination, but extermination in the most brutal methods imaginable, thanks both to the savage hatreds festering under the surface of the former Kingdom's political culture, but also because the perpetrators actually saw their cruelty as the point; as their mission. It was less about politics, or religion, or anything really, than it was about simplistic notions of identity-based vengeance that never really made much sense to begin with. In the wake of this slaughter, however, more chaos was to follow. Almost immediately after the Nazi-fascist invasion, resistance began to crop up, both from Serb nationalist royalists and the multi-ethnic, multi-religious communist Partisans, as well as from other, less-armed but no-less-motivated groups we will be examining in later episodes. The three-to-five-sided civil war that exploded across the region not only swallowed up thousands of lives and muddied the waters of loyalty and nationhood and identity, but it placed the Nazis in the greatest quagmire the world had yet seen, where even members of their own military apparatus--no strangers to the deliberate mass destruction of civilians--were horrified by what they saw their supposed allies do to their hated countrymen. If anyone thought self-reflection was in order, however, they were naïve. The story of the Yugoslavian territory during World War II--one of pain and unresolved trauma--is one that will likely not be matched in European history in terms of sheer brutality and hatred, at least not for a very long time. But it's a story that must be examined, even if only as part of a much larger one. Also: Make sure to check out my friend and comrade Saša Paprić's awesome work here and here . History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik Michael Beach Benjamin Elias Borota Johannes Breitsameter Charles C CJ Cliffydeuce CR daddygorgon Paul DeCoster Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Rob Duval Gavin Edwards eli123ky Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Benjamin Hamilton Peter Hauck Carey Hurst Joseph Hurst Thomas Justesen Mike Kalnins Bryn Kaufman Benjamin Lee Maddy Mounty of Madness Jose Martinez Mike Mayleben Judy McCoid Kyle Mohney Monica Kostas Moros Ryan Mortenson Ben Mullen Skip Pacheco David Page Molly Pan Jeff Parrent Jean Peters Brian Pritzl PJ Rader Gleb Radutsky Aleksandr Rakitin Chris Rowe Jon Andre Saether Alison Salo Jake Scalia Emily Schmidt Julian Schmidt Andrew Seeber Cameron Smith Thomas Squeo Brian Steggeman Pier-Luc St-Pierre Athal Krishna Sundarrajan Jared Cole Temple ChrisTX Robert VS Jonny Wilkie Ricky Worthey F. You Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .…

History Impossible

1
Balkan Inferno: The Yugoslav Vortex 4:17:00

2 years ago4:17:00