History Unplugged Podcast

Every day, iconic brands like J.C. Penny, Sears, Kodak, and Blockbuster vanish. As entire lawful industries are disrupted out of existence, how have some organized criminal syndicates endured for nearly a century - despite billions of dollars of law enforcement opposition and ruthless rivals dedicated to their demise? In Relentless, Zimmerman and Forrester combine seventy-five years of Nobel Prize-winning economics research with insights from criminal prosecutors to examine how the Sinaloa Cartel, the American Mafia, the Hells Angels, the Crips, and the Bloods survive, and even thrive, whereas legal companies that play by the rules falter and often fail.All successful leaders—both lawful and unlawful—must follow the same fundamental economic principles: assign tasks, measure outcomes, reward performance, and cultivate corporate culture. Successful criminal enterprises construct their “Four Pillars" to create high-performance teams with a long-term focus, enduring corporate cultures, and strong brands. They attract the “right” people while purging “vampires” – individuals that take more from, rather than contribute to, an organization.Lawful managers cannot merely copy mobsters’ four pillars, but they can follow the underlying economic principles to construct relentless organizations.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Napoleon once commented that if the Earth were a single state, Istanbul (nee Constantinople) would be its capital. The general clearly knew his geography: Istanbul is the meeting point of Europe and Asia to the East and West, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean to the North and South, the convergence of the Silk and Spice Roads, and the pit stop for pilgrims going to Mecca or Jerusalem. The point is that in the pre-modern period, any soldier, merchant, or pious person had to pass through the city. And with that much cultural interaction going on, it's no surprise that Turkish food is the original fusion cuisine. Since human history, civilization, and culture converge in one place, you can make the argument that Turkish food is sort of an archeological record of the human experience. On the far eastern side of Turkish civilization, you have the Central Asian Turkic peoples who created the forefather of today's Chinese dumplings. On the far western side, you have kebabs, eggplant dishes, and other Mediterranean cuisines that many swear is actually Greek food (don't get us started on arguments that this or that dish is actually Turkish but stolen from the Greeks, and vice versa).Today's guest is Derek Imai, host of the Youtube Channel Meet Turkey, which explores the depths of Istanbul's society, culture, and food. It's sort of a mix of Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, the travel writing of Rick Steves, all tied together with a good dose of Ottoman and Turkish history. You can find his channel and free cooking videos on meetturkey.io. Here are other things we discuss:Yogurt was originally fermented horse milk made to feed horseback mounted warriors in Central Asia (including Genghis Khan's army)The fusion of Arabic and Mediterranean cuisine produces delights (baklava) and head-scratching curiosities that mix sweet and savory (chicken pudding).The strange names of Turkish dishes that translate terribly into English. Women's Thigh. The Imam Fainted. The Sultan's delight.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

British West Florida—which once stretched from the mighty Mississippi to the shallow bends of the Apalachicola and portions of what are now the states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana—is the forgotten fourteenth colony of America's Revolutionary era. The area's eventful years as part of the British Empire form an overlooked but important interlude in our American history which is corrected with the publication of the new book "Fourteenth Colony" by today's guest Mike Bunn.For a host of reasons, including that West Florida did not rebel against the British government, the colony has long been dismissed as a loyal but inconsequential fringe outpost, if it was considered at all. But the colony's history showcases tumultuous politics featuring a halting attempt at instituting representative government; a host of bold and colorful characters; a compelling saga of struggle; perseverance in the pursuit of financial stability; and a dramatic series of land and sea battles that ended its days under the Union Jack. In Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America's Revolutionary Era, historian Mike Bunn offers the first comprehensive examination of the colony, introduces readers to the Gulf Coast's remarkable British period, and restores West Florida to its rightful place in the lore of Colonial America.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's guest recently went on a quest to reclaim his family’s property in Poland and found himself entangled with Nazi treasure hunters. He is Menachem Kaiser, author of "Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure."Kaiser’s story is set in motion when the author takes up his Holocaust-survivor grandfather’s former battle to reclaim the family’s apartment building in Sosnowiec, Poland. Soon, he is on a circuitous path to encounters with the long-time residents of the building, and with a Polish lawyer known as “The Killer.” A surprise discovery—that his grandfather’s cousin not only survived the war, but wrote a secret memoir while a slave laborer in a vast, secret Nazi tunnel complex—leads to Kaiser being adopted as a virtual celebrity by a band of Silesian treasure seekers who revere the memoir as the indispensable guidebook to Nazi plunder. In our discussion, we get into questions that reach far beyond Kaiser's personal quest. What does it mean to seize your own legacy? Can reclaimed property repair rifts among the living?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alabama State University is well known as a historically black university and for the involvement of its faculty and students in the civil rights movement. Less attention has been paid to the school's remarkable origins, having begun as the Lincoln Normal School in Marion, Alabama, founded by nine former slaves. These men are rightly considered the progenitors of Alabama State University, as they had the drive and perseverance to face the challenges posed by a racial and political culture bent on preventing the establishment of black schools and universities. It is thanks to the actions of the Marion Nine that Alabama's rural Black Belt produces a disproportionate number of African American Ph.D. recipients, a testament to the vision of the Lincoln Normal School's founders. Today's guest is Joseph Caver, author of the book "From Marion to Montgomery: The Early Years of Alabama State University, 1867-1925." He discusses the story of the Lincoln Normal School's transformation into the legendary Alabama State University, including the school's move to Montgomery in 1887 and evolution from Normal School to junior college to full-fledged four-year university. It's a story of visionary leadership, endless tenacity, and a true belief in the value of education.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Brown was a charismatic and deeply religious man who heard the God of the Old Testament speaking to him, telling him to destroy slavery by any means. When Congress opened Kansas territory to slavery in 1854, Brown raised a band of followers to wage war. His men tore pro-slavery settlers from their homes and hacked them to death with broadswords. Three years later, Brown and his men assaulted the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, hoping to arm slaves with weapons for a race war that would cleanse the nation of slavery. He wasn't the only one using strong methods to free slaves, but many questioned his violent methods.Today's Guest, H.W. Brand, is author of the book "The Zealot and the Emancipator," an account of how two American giants shaped the war for freedom.Brown’s violence pointed ambitious Illinois lawyer and former officeholder Abraham Lincoln toward a different solution to slavery: politics. Lincoln spoke cautiously and dreamed big, plotting his path back to Washington and perhaps to the White House. Yet his caution could not protect him from the vortex of violence Brown had set in motion. After Brown’s arrest, his righteous dignity on the way to the gallows led many in the North to see him as a martyr to liberty. Southerners responded with anger and horror to a terrorist being made into a saint. Lincoln shrewdly threaded the needle between the opposing voices of the fractured nation and won election as president. But the time for moderation had passed, and Lincoln’s fervent belief that democracy could resolve its moral crises peacefully faced its ultimate test.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why do Midwestern and Rocky Mountain states share a boxy, sharp-edged shape while East Coast state borders look like the fever dream of an impressionist painter? Much of it has to do with when these states came into existence, and whether their borders were set by an 18th century land surveyor, a 19th century committee that wanted to balance the size of free states and slave states, or a 20th century government panel basing their decisions on aerial photography.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Frequent History Unplugged guest James Early (co-host of Key Battles of the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WW1, and Presidential Fight Club) now has his own podcast! It's called Key Battles of American History, and you can find it by going to keybattlesofamericanhistory.com. This episode has a short snipped of one of his most recent episodes on the great WW1 film "All Quiet on the Western Front." Check it out on the podcast player of your choice.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we’ll look at Obersalzberg--a region that became a secret headquarters for the Nazi Party in WW2 that was later completely destroyed by the Allies and Germany to denazify it--and what it means to cleanse a region from its past. For example, Is it right to destroy monuments or should they be kept no matter what, even if they celebrate a regrettable history?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For a 100-year period, from the 1880s to 1980s, if you asked an American which profession was the purest expression of the nation's spirit, they wouldn't answer with soldier, baseball player, or astronaut. Rather, they would answer with "mountain man." That's because American history taught that the nation's identity developed from the friction between civilization and the frontier. And nobody did more to conquer the frontier then mountain men, a group of trappers who went out into th American wilderness after the Lewis and Clark expedition, but before it was settled by pioneers in the 1830s. In this episode we look at the background of these mountain men and why they play such an outsized role in American History.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.