Western Rome Fell Due to Germanic Immigration, Mass Inflation, and a Bloated Bureaucracy

“The ‘uncanny’ is that class of the terrifying which leads back to something long known to us, once very familiar.” This is a quote from Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychanalysis. He laid the foundations of understanding the subconscious and how our mind tries to protect us in ways we don’t understand. But what is strange is that for Freud, he arguably had problems identifying the uncanny in his own life. Freud’s ethnicity and beliefs made him an outsider in early 20th century Europe. As a Jew, Freud had long been met with anti-Semitism; but as an atheist, he took it less personally than others, and these encounters rarely struck a nerve. Only towards the end of his life, as warning signs of hatred and murder brewed in his native Austria, did he recognize the terrifyingly familiar prejudice. By then, it had already threatened his family – and he almost didn’t realize the very real danger until it was too late.Today we are looking at Freud’s own neuroses, against the backdrop of Nazi conquest of Austria. When the Germans invaded in 1938, Freud was still in deep denial. Several prominent people close to Freud, however, knew better. They began a coordinated effort to persuade Freud to leave his cherished Vienna and emigrate to England.I’m speaking today with Andrew Nagorski, author of “Saving Freud: The Rescuers Who Brought Him to Freedom.” We look at the remarkable collection of people – Freud’s personal physician, Napoleon’s great-grandniece, the heiress to the Tiffany fortune, his daughter Anna, an American ambassador, and his English-language translator – who succeeded in coaxing Freud to safety.In light of his story, we also look at the limits of the human brain when faced with true horror and true evil, which pace Freud, is a psychoanalytic study in and of itself.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

18 Okt 202244min

A Cherokee woman named Nanyehi, which means “One Who Goes About” was born in the 1730s in modern-day Tennessee. She stood out at an early age: At 17, she led her tribe to victory against the Creeks. She eventually became the only female voting member of the Cherokee General Council. Nanyehi later married Irish trader Bryant Ward and took the anglicized name Nancy. With her access to many differet cultures, she became one of the most important diplomats in eighteen-century North America, moving among the worlds of the British, Americans, and American Indians.Nancy Ward was the negotiator of the sale of Kentucky to the Transylvania Company by Daniel Boone, as well as savior to countless settlers and pioneers who helped form the course of American history. She advocated for peaceful coexistence with Europeans and Americans and, later in life, spoke out for Cherokee retention of tribal lands. Today’s guest is Debra Yates, author of “Woman of Many Names.” Debra is also the seventh-great-granddaughter of Nancy, who had ties to Daniel Boone and George Washington, including having saved the latter’s life (and, it’s believed, vice versa). We discuss how Nancy Ward innovated among the Cherokees, introducing new loom weaving techniques and chow to successfully raised cows, being the first to introduce that industry among the CherokeesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

13 Okt 202241min

Much of what we know about the college admissions process in the United States -- eg. requiring interviews to gauge "character"; seeking diversity of interest; looking for "geographic diversity" – are not timeless features of American higher education. They were actually implemented in the early 20th century to keep their Jewish populations down. This was one of many ways these schools tried to maintain their WASP character. Columbia University created separate campus in Brooklyn from 1928 to 1938 where they tried to send Jews and other undesirable minorities, to keep the main, uptown campus a space for its wealthy, Protestant students. At Dartmouth, a professor told a Jewish students in the 1950s that anti-Jewish quotas were necessary, or else the campus would be "swimming in Jews."Today’s guest is Mark Oppenheimer. He is a former New York Times religion columnist, author, and host of a new podcast series called Gatecrashers: The Hidden History of Jews and the Ivy League, in which he explores why we apply to college the way we do and how the Jewish experience in the Ivy League shaped American higher education and America at large. He shares how much has changed at the elite colleges since the 1920s, the strides that have been made, and the parallels between the college experience then and how “diversity” is achieved now.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

11 Okt 202237min

Why was Uber able to destroy the taxi cab industry in the United States, but it failed to get any sort of market share in the United Kingdom and China? The reasons are many, but essentially, the UK had strict licensing codes that made Uber’s operations impossible, while China openly supported a local rival to prevent the foreign company from taking over its market. However, the story of Uber is larger than a 21st century tale of government red tape. It goes back centuries to the origins of entrepreneurship and property rights in the Western legal traditionEntrepreneurship is more than taking risks to start a business, challenging legacy industries and innovating into success. It’s actually – as today’s guest argues – an act of rebellion that challenges the status quo and has a lot in common with fighting a revolution. We’re joined by John Landry, author of Launchpad Republic: America’s Entrepreneurial Edge and Why It Matters. We discuss how this rebellious spirit has influenced the institutional, political, and legal factors that have shaped our economy—with an in-depth look at how these have operated throughout history and can be improved going forward. Taking us from the economic foundation of the Constitution right to the present day, we explore current concerns about the ever-increasing inequality of wealth, offering strategies to improve the system without abandoning the balancing act between rewarding builders and enabling challengers that has proved remarkably resilient.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

6 Okt 202246min

We are joined by James Early, the co-host of some of the best series on this show, including our Key Battles Series (World War One, the Civl War, the Revolutionary War) and Presidential Fight Club. James is here to discuss the War of 1812, a little war with a big impact. Although it was a sideshow for the British (that cared more about the Napoleonic Wars, which threatened its existence) and to the lesser extent the Americans (that couldn’t bother to field a standing army up to the war), the War of 1812 forged post-Revolutionary American identity. It gave the United States a new boost of confidence, shored up its military power, and kick off the age of expansion that continued for the next century.Check out more of James’s content on his Key Battles of American History Podcast.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

29 Sep 20221h 9min

Looking at Colditz Castle, it was no surprise why the Nazi’s chose the towering fortress as their prison-of-war camp for the most defiant Allied prisoners. Perched high above a rocky outcrop with thick medieval walls of stone, the men who had escaped other camps would surely have no such luck here, living out the war under the watchful eye of their German captors. But men do not resign themselves so lightly, and with nothing but time on their hands, the POWs of Colditz would engineer some of the most ingenious—and utterly reckless—methods of escape that could be imagined.Today’s guest is Ben Macintyre, author of “Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape From Colditz.” We metaphorically go inside the prison to live among side these men as they grapple with class conflict, bullying, boredom, insanity and farce. There are heroes and traitors, class conflicts and secret alliances, and ingenious escape attempts that would become legend. We get into character portraits of the inmates, along with their stories of bravery and sacrifice.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

27 Sep 202247min

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson was a broken man. Reeling from the loss of his wife and humiliated from a political scandal during the Revolutionary war, he needed to remake himself. And to do that, he traveled. Traipsing through Europe, Jefferson saw and learned as much as he could, ultimately bringing his knowledge home to a young America. He wrote a travelogue called “Hints to Americans Traveling in Europe.”Jefferson documented his trip in order to educate the infant nation on cutting-edge techniques in agriculture and architecture. He included sketches of buildings with Roman domes and columns, which he thought should be incorporated into America’s buildings to celebrate one of the ancient world’s greatest democracies. But he also indulged in European luxury and spent a gilded carriage’s worth on wine, ivory-handled knives, and porcelain statuettes, and (most odd) an organ for teaching songs to birds. More than two hundred years later, Derek Baxter, a devotee of American history, decided to follow in his footsteps and see what he could learn from the Founding Father. Baxter is today’s guest and author of “In Pursuit of Jefferson: Traveling Through Europe With the Most Perplexing Founding Father.” He stumbled on Jefferson’s travelogue and used it as a roadmap, embarking on a new journey, following Jefferson to the same French wineries and rivers, even eating period-accurate food at Monticello. The goal was to figure out how to make sense of Jefferson and the multitude of contradictions in his life, the most debated being that he was a slaveholder who also wrote a world-historical testament to freedom. This is an unflinching look at a founding father, and a moving personal journey. We explore how we can be better moving forward only by first looking back.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

22 Sep 202246min

Frank Murphy was a public servant that achieved the highest levels of civilian success in the early 20th century. After serving in World War I, he served as mayor of Detroit, then as the top appointed U.S. official to the Philippines, then as Governor of Michigan, U.S. Attorney General, and ultimately as a Justice on the Supreme Court, appointed by FDR. But it was his securing justice for a black doctor against a KKK mob that made him an icon. In 1925, Ossian Sweet, a black doctor, moved with his family into a traditionally white neighborhood in Detroit. The city did not have Jim Crow but it had the KKK and segregation, particularly in housing. On a daily basis, the Sweet family faced taunts and threats of violence from white mobs that gathered outside. One day in September, the mobs grew violent and threw rocks at the Sweet house, shattering glass windows as the police stood by. Sweet (or one of his companions) shot out from the house and killed a white bystander. He was arrested and tried for murder before an all-white jury. Judge Frank Murphy insisted on a fair trial for the Black defendants. As the trial judge, Murphy told the jury that Sweet had no duty to retreat if his home was threatened, as Americans had a right to live where they wanted. He evoked the house as a castle metaphor. Twice, the jury refused to convict and the charges were eventually dropped. The result was hailed by the NAACP and others as a rare triumph of the legal process for black defendants. When Murphy later ran for mayor of Detroit, he won in black precincts by margins of 30-1. Today’s guest, Greg Zipes, is here to share the story of Murphy. He’s the author of Justice and Faith: The Frank Murphy Story. Throughout his career, Murphy influenced the country’s values in tangible ways, cementing its focus on individual dignity and liberties at times in America’s history when it had moved in more authoritarian directions, whether through war-time suspension of rights or Jim Crow-era legislation or the internment of Japanese Americans.Other fascinating parts of his life include his Organization of Mayors, which helped pressure the federal government to provide aid directly to cities and individuals, bypassing the states; how the US did not learn lessons about colonial decoupling from Murphy's role in the Philippines prior to World War II; and Murphy’s dissent in the 1944 Supreme Court decision Korematsu vs. US, a decision that debated the legality of Japanese internment camps.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

20 Sep 202250min