Mike and Dylan talk about the Great Chinese Famine and the Four Pests Campaign. Chairman Mao had huge plans for China. He figured if he bolstered the agriculutural output and industrialized most of his country, China would be #1 again. But a few slip ups here and there can lead to a false sense of security followed by a real sense of regret. https://www.npr.org/2012/11/10/164732497/a-grim-chronicle-of-chinas-great-faminehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaignhttps://web.archive.org/web/20120822081443/http://io9.com/5927112/chinas-worst-self+inflicted-disaster-the-campaign-to-wipe-out-the-common-sparrowhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward#Industrializationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chinese_Famine#Extenthttps://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-four-pests-campaign-objectives-execution-failure-and-consequences.htmlhttps://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/the-great-sparrow-campaign-was-the-start-of-the-greatest-masshttps://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/09/26/1958-mao-zedong-ordered-sparrows-killed-ate-much-grain-caused-one-worst-environmental-disasters-history/

History Blitz

Great Chinese Famine

Dylan and Mike welcome guest and friend of the show Jake Jekyll from Bitter sweet revenge and Engineer of Signal Flow Studios, We talk about the capture of Guam 

Capture of Guam w/ Jake Jekyll

Dylan and Mike are joined by local artist and live painter Amanda Luisi aka "5" We talk about Japanese fire balloons and the attack on American soil. 

Fugo (Fire) Balloons w/ Amanda 5

Dylan and Mike talk about John the liver eating Johnston

John "Liver eater" Johnston

This week, it's all about the goats of the Galapagos Islands.      When 3 goats were introduced to the Galapagos in the year 1959, the whole ecosystem was rattled. In less than 40 years, the population of goats had risen over 100,000. Plant life was being wiped out by the goats which caused the other animals who ate the vegetation to also dwindle. The whole ecosystem was threatened by the presence of the goats.     That is when Project Isabela came into the picture. The goats had to be removed from the island, one way or another. This meant a massive extermination project was in the works. Teams of hunters were trained, and the project was underway. We talk about how this project came to be, how the hunters were trained, and the secret weapon the hunters used to finish the project: the Judas Goat.Sources; https://www.galapagos.org/conservation/our-work/ecosystem-restoration/project-isabela/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/onward/2014/09/02/on-the-galapagos-the-betrayal-of-judas-goats/#closehttps://modernfarmer.com/2013/09/killing-goats-galapagos/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3092746/https://www.galapagos.org/conservation/our-work/tortoise-restoration/restoring-existing-populations/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ab2a/256e768a06a6ec41e2b89589b565e97cc090.pdf

18 - Project Isabela

Dylan and Mike talk about Government cover ups and one in particular, The Goldsboro NC B-52 crash that had not one but two Nukes on board!!!

17 - Goldsboro B-52 crash

     Mike and Dylan are joined this week by their first ever guest! James Begin from Tropidelic is on the show this week, and they are talking about weaponized animals used in WWII. First, the focus is on one of the earliest animals used in battle in an unconventional way: The flaming war pig!      The guys talk about what animals were used in different ways, such as the way the Soviets used dogs. Most people think of war dogs as canines who could attack a soldier in the trenches, sniff out enemy weapons, or even help carry supplies. The Soviets figured dogs could be great suicide bombers, and fitted them with landmines to become Anti Tank Dogs     Exploding Rat bombs were also a thing! The British used rats to conceal small explosives, which they had sewn into the innards of the rat. Then, the rat was to be placed outside an enemy camp, specifically near the boiler room. The thought would be that the rats would be dumped in and kaboom!      Project Pigeon was an experiment by the US to use pigeons in a different way. The original job of the pigeon in war was to deliver messages, but that's not what we wanted. The US wanted these pigeons to deliver bombs! The pigeons would be the pilots essentially, leading a bomb onto a target.     The US also had project x-ray, another animal bomb. This time, bats were the main ingredient. The bats were fitted with little vests, and the vests were filled with napalm. When the bats scattered around the city and roosted, bam! A whole city could be up in flames in seconds!      The last weaponized animals talked about today are the fleas and flies that Japan used as bio weapons. The fleas were covered in bubonic plague, also known as the black plague. These fleas were then stuffed into clay casings and dropped onto China, where the fleas would spread the plague. The Japanese also coated the flies with cholera, and sprayed them out of a crop duster plane. You can thank Unit 731 for that!

16 - Weaponized Animals in WWII

     Mike and Dylan talk about Charles Henri Sanson, the Royal Executioner in France in the 18th century. Sanson is known for being one of the most prolific executioners, having completed nearly 3000 executions. Sanson not only took the heads of many, but he also had some well known executions, like King Louis XVI.      Like most jobs back in the day, being an executioner was in your blood. Charles was a 4th generation executioner, and his sons would go on to do the same work. He apprenticed for his father and his uncle, learning the ways of crowd management as well as being able to accomplish the task at hand swiftly.     Sanson was the man who got to work with the guillotine when it first was used to execute the condemned. He helped to make it more efficient and pain free, while still knowing what to do and how to keep the crowd of people from getting to impatient or bored.      Sanson was responsible for many deaths, and some very notable deaths. He was responsible for beheading Charlotte Corday, King Louis XVI, and oer 2900 others. The rest of this mans life story is inside! Sourceshttps://www.geriwalton.com/french-executioner-charles-henri-sanson/https://www.headstuff.org/culture/history/charles-henri-sanson-royal-executioner/https://the-line-up.com/charles-henri-sansonhttp://theappendix.net/posts/2014/06/a-short-history-of-the-executionerhttps://allthatsinteresting.com/charles-henri-sanson

15 - The Royal Executioner

     Dylan and Mike talk about the search for the Titanic! It all starts with a man named Robert Ballard, an Army LT who ended up transferring to the Navy. Ballard was fond of the ocean, its history, human impact on the ocean, and ship wrecks. He had went to the Navy and asked for permission to search for the Titanic, but was denied... until they finally said yes.     Of course they had secret reasons for agreeing to the search party. You see, the US Navy had lost nuclear submarines, two of them; the USS Thresher and the USS Scorpion. Losing these submarines could have had adverse effects on the ocean and any other country could get there hands on them.Thus, Robert Ballard was tasked with finding these submarines. If he was able to find them, he could search for the Titanic. The mission was to be top secret, and they could only claim they were searching for the Titanic.     Also covered in this episode is the story of JFK and his PT boat. Dylan and Mike briefly talk about what happened to JFK in WWII, and how he became shipwrecked as well. We also find that Robert Ballard managed to recover parts of that very same PT boat.

14 - Finding the Titanic

In the year 1904, the Olympics were still young. Well, the modern Olympics were young. After the first two were held in Athens and Paris respectively, the 3rd Olympics were held in Louisiana. Things did not go as well as they had hoped. The Louisiana Purchase Expo bullied the Olympic committee into moving the Olympics to Louisiana after they were supposed to be held in Chicago. The LPE was full of exhibits, info, athletes, and most of all, racism. And that carried over into the Olympics. You know the "Special Olympics", but you don't know about the Special Olympics they held!      Also, we get to talk about the 1904 Olympic marathon. This is probably the biggest group of rag tag runners to have ever graced the Olympics. The winning time is still the slowest winning time ever! So yes, these guys were studs! Thing is, some of them almost die, and one of them almost steals 1st! It's quite the wild ride, even for us!Sourceshttp://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2016/05/felix-carvajal-mailman-stopped-talk-crowd-stole-peach-took-nap-still-somehow-managed-come-fourth-1904-olympic-marathon/https://www.history.com/news/8-unusual-facts-about-the-1904-st-louis-olympicshttps://www.boredpanda.com/1904-olympic-marathon-st-louis/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organichttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-1904-olympic-marathon-may-have-been-the-strangest-ever-14910747/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase_Exposition#1904_Summer_Olympicshttps://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/1904-st-louis-hosted-first-olympics-american-soil-it-was-kind-mess#stream/0https://slate.com/culture/2008/08/remembering-the-anthropology-days-at-the-1904-olympics.htmlhttps://humanzoos.org/category/explore/st-louis-worlds-fair/

13 - 1904 Olympics

In this weeks episode, Mike and Dylan take a look at the history of mail delivery in the USA. The focus is on all the strange, crazy and dangerous ways the mail used to be delivered. It's not that crazy to think a man on horseback delivered mail in the colonial days. But did you know George Washington had personally requested a letter be delivered by a hot air balloon? The pony express is insane in its own right, but we get to hear about one of the riders. After that, its time to fly again! This time, we are flying in old war planes that have nothing. No communications, no navigation, just dead reckoning and a prayer. Finally, we wrap it up with missile mail! USPS and the Navy decided to team up to become a super power, and use fucking missiles to deliver your mail! All that and more!Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service#Historyhttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mail-delivery-rocket-never-took-180963557/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_mailhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSM-N-8_Regulushttps://www.wired.com/2011/06/0608submarine-fires-mail-missile/https://about.usps.com/publications/pub100/pub100_026.htmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Post_Office_Departmenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Pierre_Blanchardhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Expresshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Blanchard

12- Missile mail (USPS)

     This week Mike and Dylan talk about Smoky the War Dog. Smoky was not your average War Dog! Even though it did take her a long time to be recognized as an official War Dog, she is official nowadays!      Smoky may have done more in her life than I will ever do with mine! Not only was she a dog who went on various combat missions, she did much more than that! She was an entertainer, who would do special tricks and play games for the troops. She could walk across a tight rope blindfolded and even parachute out of a tree!     Smokys biggest accomplishment is probably that she was the first real therapy dog! Smoky started off making rounds in the hospitals with doctors on shifts. The doctors could tell that the patients were having a positive encounter, an they seemed to be getting better! This led to Smoky being a therapy dog, and other doctors trying to mimic what they had with Smoky.     Smoky did so much more than all of this, it was hard to fit it into one episode! So come hear the rich history of one of the greatest War Dogs in history!

11 - Smoky the War Dog

     This episode Mike and Dylan talk about the harrowing tale of Henry Johnson, a WWI combat hero. Henry Johnson had a difficult life, growing up poor, in rough neighborhoods, and had to work a lot of odd jobs to make ends meet. When the Great War happened, he decided to enlist and make his country proud.     However, being an African American man in this time wasn't exactly easy. His country decided they didn't want to fight along side black men, so he ended up fighting with the French. Just how much of a badass was this guy? Badass enough to earn the medal of honor, distinguished service cross, and the highest French award that any American ever had, the Croix de Guerre.      This is the story of The Black Death, and how he earned that name, and became part of the Harlem Hellfighters!Sources : http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/essay-world-war-i.htmlhttps://www.britannica.com/topic/Harlem-Hellfighters/Discrimination-at-home-and-fame-abroadhttps://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/3/3/1838885/-Henry-Johnson-The-Black-Deathhttps://www.history.com/news/wwi-hero-henry-johnson-finally-receives-medal-of-honorhttps://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-2001908;jsessionid=012D34CBBC2A4E77E5468BB94404D300https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/remembering-henry-johnson-the-soldier-called-black-death-117386701/https://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/johnson/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Johnson_(World_War_I_soldier)

10 - Henry "The Black Death" Johnson

     This week Mike and Dylan take a look at Time's Person of the Year. As most of you know, Time selected their person of the year recently. Sometimes the most interesting part of the award is that most people don't understand the actual reason people receive this award.      We cover a little bit about Greta Thunburg, and what she did to earn the award. We also cover a couple other people who previously were TPOTY. Adolf Hitler, FDR, and even Gandhi! All of them won the award, and we talk about some of the things you may not know about them as well as a few others!

09 - Time's Past People of the Year

This week, Mike and Dylan talk about the history behind powdered wigs. Have you ever looked at an old president, a judge, or your creepy neighbor and thought "Hey! Whats the deal with that smelly wig."? Well, you are in luck because we have the answer. It starts and ends with Syphilis. Find out how the "New" disease ravaged through Europe and created one of the strangest fashion trends in history!

08 - Powdered wigs and syphilis

We are a podcast that covers events in history you may not be familiar with. Join our hosts Michael Berry and Dylan King as they rush into some of the most insane moments in time, covering things like medicinal cannibalism or that warrior Galvarino, who had his arms chopped off so he replaced them with giant blades. Each week will teach you a little something while getting your laughs in too. NSFW comedy here too, so be warned!

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History Blitz

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