History on the Dark Side

Jared, Jacob and Henry look at the investigations after the fire at Waco, as well as the trials and Congressional investigations that illuminated quite an assortment of blunders, lies, and errors that left the government looking as or more dangerous than the Branch Davidians. Then we analyze the way that so many groups and individuals have adopted the Waco cause as their own, with particular attention on the OKC bomber, Timothy McVeigh.

This episode features Jared, Jacob and Henry going over the events between the shootout at Waco and the fire that ended the standoff. FBI tactics and policies as well as those used by the Branch Davidians are analyzed. Trigger Warning...more cops shooting dogs may have started a standoff!

Jared, Jacob and special guest Henry, discuss the events immediately proceeding the ATF raid on Waco as well as the failures that occurred along the way and during the raid. The breakdown of communication as well as unclear authority to alter or stop the raid are also considered.

Join your hosts, Professor Andrus and Jacob as they discuss April 19th; a date that includes the Battle of Lexington and Concord, The Oklahoma City Bombing, and the final day of the siege of the Branch Davidian compound at Waco Texas. Learn about historical coincidences, as well as an overview of mind control methods used in many settings and circumstances. This episode discusses an overview of the "Shot heard 'round the world" during Colonial times as well as providing background information and context for why the ATF/FBI were involved with David Koresh and the small group of followers he had gathered at the Mt. Carmel compound in rural Texas. The first of several episodes covering the Waco raid and aftermath.

This episode explores the continued travails and final rescue of the entire crew of the Endurance expedition led by Ernest Shackleton. Beginning with the decision to leave Elephant Island and venture to South Georgia Island in hopes of finding any possible means to save the crew.

Jared and Jacob discuss the incredible survival account of 28 men trapped on the ice off the coast of Antartica just after the start of World War I. With unparalleled determination, leadership and a bit of luck, the men are all rescued, but only after braving the frozen sea for days in glorified lifeboats.  

In this episode Professor Andrus and Jacob discuss the shooting and aftermath of the 1966 Tower shootings and family murders committed by Charles Whitman. The idea of "leakage" and warning signs of suicidal/homicidal behavior are discussed with the ultimate conclusion that Charles Whitman was, above all else, a liar. 

In the first episode of Season 3, Jake moves from guest to co-host, Jared moves from teaching middle school to teaching college, and we discuss the archetype mass shooter: Charles Whitman and his senseless attack from the University of Texas clock tower.  We talk about the mythology that has surrounded the event and how ultimately, Whitman only ever cared about himself. Is there anything to learn from these type of atrocities? We think there is, and over 50 years later, many refuse to see what was has always been true in this world: Some people do horrible things just because they want to. 

How did someone like Mengele escape Germany after the war and end up in S. America?  What did he do there? The series finale of Nazi Medicine explores the too crazy to be fiction end of the Mengele story that is quite unsatisfying to those who lost loved ones under his "care"...

Jared and Jake continue to look at Dr, Mengele and the uniquely horrific world he created within Auschwitz.

No doctor has ever been more associated with death and bad medicine than Joseph Mengele.  In part 1, Jacob and I talk about how Dr. Mengele existed in the pre-Nazi world and some of the choices or historical accidents that led him into the perfect spot to experiment and murder with impunity.

Cadee and Jared talk about the experiments leading to and within the walls of Auschwitz.

Once killing became the new normal, Nazi doctors were free to do any experiment, regardless of merit or cruelty, as they sought to save soldiers lives, make murder more efficient, and further the eugenic research that claimed aryan superiority.  

Pt. 2 of our discussion of about the Aktion t4 and other Nazi "mercy" killings that proceeded the greater geneocide

Jared and Duke discuss "Aktion T-4" the transition from sterilizing disabled Germans to the killing of "life unworthy of life".  How medical personal make that tremendous shift as well as the techniques and public suspicion and outcry that ended the campaign until the war allowed for such killings outside of German soil.  

Jared and Bobbijo talk about the earliest eugenics based sterilization programs of the Nazi's and explore their unfortunate inspiration from American sterilization law and practices.  Even as the Nazis moved from sterilization to murder, there was a dedicated emphasis on finding fast and economical ways to sterilize people all the way through the liberation of the camps.  The Nazis were dedicated to a 1000 year solution to their perceived problem of non-aryan children.

Jared and Cadee complete their conversation about the pseudo-science of Eugenics and consider how it made sense in many German medical minds of the time.

Season 2: Nazi Medicine.  Jared and Cadee talk about the conditions and factors that made the Nazi movement more likely to be accepted in the time and place they were in.  Intro to Season #2.

Teaser for Season 2 exploration of Nazi Doctors

This sample of my History on the Bright Side podcast introduces you to my shorter form program that focuses on inspirational people and messages in history.  This episode looks at three athletes from the 1968 Olympics who ran very different races for very different reasons and all collectively displayed their character and conviction under the heaviest conditions.  HOTBS S1 E2 "On the Run"

Part 2 of our study of similarities and parallels between the angry crowd of protesters in Boston that led to shooting by a policing military force with a focus on the way propaganda and news molded the incident then as well as how news shapes events at protests today.  We also take a look at how the colonists were able to seize the moral "high ground" through both Paul Revere's  "Bloody Massacre" engraving and the top shelf legal defense of the shooters by John Adams.  

A look into the events of March 1770 and the many parallels to protest, policing and resistance to authority in America and the rest of the modern world in our time.   

How the literature of Holocaust survivors can make that human tragedy more relatable to our time.

Examining how the study of Holocaust literature can make those events relatable.  Learning to Remember and Honor.

Forces in Salem spin completely out of control as women are hanged, men are pressed, and neighbors see the financial rewards of reporting on one another.  How does a community stop the madness once it realizes things have gone too far?  Does that kind of thing still happen in our world 300 years after the last witch hunt in America?

The Salem Witch Trials give us a lens to view mass hysteria, but also the politics of power, control and manipulation.  This episode examines the sociological and psychological factors that were at play in Salem village as well as identifying similar factors in America's more recent history and the present.

There were economic and social costs that encouraged and stemmed from the American slavery experience.  Today we focus on the differences between indentured servitude and slavery as well as the concept of conflict between those who wrote, spoke of and fought for freedom but still engaged in slavery.  

The Origins of American Slavery....  How slavery evolved (And WHY) in medieval Europe and landed on the shores of Virginia in 1619.   Jared and Jeff discuss the Plague, Christianity, and even Zombies and the Nazis as they try to understand what slavery looked like in pre-American times.

Personal memories of 9/11 as well as how that "remembrance" has evolved in the years since.  

A bunch of history nerds talk about why history matters at all

UPS Genocide and of course Slavery (Sorry Nazis, you can't be in every episode!)

Uncle Sam, the Nazis, and Coach Harris all come together as Mr. Andrus finally gets around to teaching history.