Very Special Episodes20 Mar 2024

Seed Wars: History's Deadliest Botany Rivalry

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the main event. The greatest botany rivalry in history! It's Vavilov vs. Lysenko for the fate of the Soviet Union.

In the 1920s and '30s, Nikolai Vavilov was a big deal. He was studying seed genetics and learning how to prevent famines. Everyone wanted to work with him. Including a young kid named Trofim Lysenko.

Lysenko studied with Vavilov. They were friends. But years later, Lysenko turned on his mentor, and turned against science. This became a problem, because Lysenko was good buddies with Stalin. The feud would bring the Soviet Union to its knees. And it would force Vavilov to make a fateful choice: one between the truth … or his life.

Very Special Episodes is a new podcast with a simple premise: we tell one incredible story each week. Follow us down a different rabbit hole every Wednesday.

Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, Jason English
Written by Lucas Reilly
Produced by Josh Fisher
Editing and Sound Design by Chris Childs
Additional Editing by Jonathan Washington
Mixing and Mastering by Baheed Frazier
Story Editor is Josh Fisher
Research and Fact-Checking by Austin Thompson and Lucas Reilly
Voice Actors: Tom Antonellis, Zaron Burnett, Josh Fisher, and Chris Childs
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English

Hear Also...
Noble Blood: Catherine the Great and Her Husband the Mediocre
Noble Blood: The Ice Queen
Ridiculous Crime: Dope Floats: The Uncrashable Gary Betzner

Further Reading...
Check out two excellent sources: Peter Pringle's great book on Vavilov, and the essential Where Our Food Comes From by Gary Nabhan. Thanks for listening!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Episoder(91)

Nicolas Cage, Y2K, and History's Most Unlikely Art Heist

After a party at Nicolas Cage’s Bel-Air mansion, one of the rarest comic books on Earth disappeared. Action Comics #1 — the comic that introduced Superman — is worth millions of dollars. With almost n...

6 Aug 49min

North by North Korea [Re-Release]

When two of the most influential figures in film become the personal hostages of Kim Jong Il, they have two objectives: to elevate North Korean cinema on the world stage, and to plot their daring esca...

29 Jul 1h 7min

Spies and Dolls [Re-Release]

Velvalee Dickinson ran a doll shop on Madison Avenue that catered to wealthy collectors. But in one of the strangest espionage cases of World War II, Dickinson's clients had no idea she was using corr...

22 Jul 49min

The Dog Who Saved the 1966 World Cup [from Ridiculous Crime]

Hello, Very Special listeners! Today we're dipping into the archives of Zaron's other podcast, Ridiculous Crime, to share a tale of dog excellence from World Cup history. In 1966, England hosted the ...

15 Jul 1h 9min

Chaotic Philanthropy: Saint Joan of the Golden Arches

Thanks to her McDonald’s fortune, Joan Kroc was one of the world’s wealthiest people. And she was determined to die nearly broke. * Special thanks to our guests Lisa Napoli, Dick Starmann, and Stephan...

1 Jul 46min

How a Dog Talks: The Surprising Redemption of Comic Sans

Comic Sans is a punchline. A design crime. Cultural shorthand for bad taste. But the notorious font's legacy isn't one of failure. Because Comic Sans succeeded in ways its critics never saw coming. * ...

24 Jun 36min

Searching for Soshern: The Forbidden Star Trek Fanfiction

In 1968, a woman wrote a romantic story about Kirk and Spock, passed it quietly among friends, and hoped it would never see the light of day. Before vanishing entirely, The Ring of Soshern had become ...

17 Jun 50min

The White Death

In the winter of 1939, Finland faced overwhelming odds. The Soviet Union was invading with hundreds of thousands of troops. Standing in their way was an unlikely defender: a shy farmer and expert mark...

10 Jun 45min