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Landru’s Secret with Richard Tomlinson Mar 19, 2019

Show notes

Today we are headed to France to talk about one of that country's most notorious serial killers, Henri Landru.

My guest today is Richard Tomlinson. Richard first came across the Landru case in the early 1980s when he was researching a Ph.D. in modern French history in Paris. He was trawling through old newspapers in France’s national library and got hooked on the saturation press coverage of Landru’s sensational trial at Versailles in 1921. He was sure the prosecution's case was wrong and over the next decades maintained his interest in Landru during a career as a writer and journalist in Asia and Europe.

Richard joins me from London via Skype to discuss his book Landru's Secret: The Deadly Seductions of France's Lonely Hearts Serial Killer. Richard returned to the subject of Landru in 2016 after an exhibition in Paris revealed previously hidden documents in the Paris Police Archives which suggested that his theory about the case was correct. Landru's Secret is the end of his long quest to discover what happened to the 10 women who disappeared near Paris during the First World War and to explore the possibility that Landru actually killed many more victims.

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Tesla: Inventor of the Modern with Richard Munson Mar 05, 2019

Show notes

Welcome to another episode of the Can't Make This Up History Podcast.

We have an excellent show in store for you today about the life and innovations of Nikola Tesla. My guest today is Richard Munson. Dick is the Director of Midwest Clean Energy for the Environmental Defense Fund. He is the author of five books on the history of science and technology, government energy policy, and the electricity industry.

Dick joins me to discuss his newest book Tesla: Inventor of the Modern. Some of the things we cover in our discussion are Nikola Tesla's early childhood in Serbia under the parentage of a distant father, Tesla's employment and eventual rivalry with the inventor Thomas Edison, and how Tesla's invention of the AC electricity system provides the basis for our modern way of life but is unfortunately too often forgotten in American history.

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Hitler’s American Friends with Dr. Bradley W. Hart Feb 19, 2019

Show notes

Welcome to the Can't Make This Up History Podcast. I'm your host Kevin. Thank you for joining me during this cold, cold February for episode number 12 of the podcast.

My guest today is Dr. Bradley W. Hart. Bradley is an assistant professor at California State University, Fresno where he teaches the history of journalism and Jewish studies. He completed his PhD in history at Cambridge University under the supervision of the historian Richard J. Evans, who some listeners may know from his seminal trilogy on the Third Reich. Bradley has written on global economics and politics in the early 20th century as well as on Nazi Germany.

Bradley joins me from California via Skype to talk about his new book "Hitler's American Friends: The Third Reich's Supporters in the United States." Some of the things we cover in today's episode are groups in America that were sympathetic to the rise of nazism and fascism in Europe, the prominence of anti-semitism in mass media, and the role of the isolationist America First Committee in trying to keep the United States from entering World War II.

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Empire of Deception with Dean Jobb Feb 05, 2019

Show notes

My guest today is Dean Jobb. Dean is a professor of creative nonfiction and journalism at the University of Kings College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has been a newspaper staff writer and freelance journalist for over 35 years. During that time, he has received numerous awards in the United States and Canada for his investigative reporting. A lover of true crime and crime fiction, Dean writes a monthly true crime column for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine called "Stranger than Fiction."

Dean joins me via Skype to talk about his seventh book Empire of Deception: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation. Through his extensive research, Dean uncovered the tale of a largely forgotten con artist whose investment scheme put Charles Ponzi to shame. Today we cover the economic atmosphere of the Roaring Twenties that made Chicago ripe for the picking for a lawyer named Leo Koretz to implement his "big idea," how Koretz built an imaginary investment empire that made himself and his early investors fantastically wealthy, and how even the most carefully built house of cards eventually falls down.

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Ice Ghosts with Paul Watson Jan 22, 2019

Show notes

My guest today is Paul Watson. Paul's career in investigative reporting and photo journalism has spanned thirty years and has taken him across the globe. As a war correspondent, Paul has written for the Toronto Star as well as the Los Angeles Times where he served as South Asian Bureau Chief. He has won numerous awards for his work including the Freedom of the Press Award from the National Press Club for his reporting during the Kosovo war, Daniel Pearl Award from the South Asian Journalist's association for his coverage in Afghanistan, and most notably a Pulitzer Prize in news photography for his work during the Somali Civil War and the 1993 UN peacekeeping mission in Mogadishu. There is even a permanent display on Paul's work in the Newseum, a museum dedicated to the history of journalism and the press, in Washington, D.C.

Paul joins me today from western Canada via Skype to talk about his book Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition. Paul was present on board the ship that discovered the wreckage of HMS Erebus in 2014 over 150 years after the expedition was beset by arctic ice and lost to history. Today we cover what motivated Sir John Franklin and his crew, how the quest to find the lost expedition became an international fascination, and how Inuit oral history was pivotal in solving this century old mystery.

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In Search of Mary Shelley with Fiona Sampson Jan 08, 2019

Show notes

My guest today is Professor Fiona Sampson. Fiona is a leading British poet and writer who has authored 27 books, been published in 37 languages, and she has received numerous international awards in the US, India, Macedonia and Bosnia. In the U.K., she has been named a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by the Queen for her services to literature.

She joins me on the podcast to talk about her critically acclaimed biography, In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein which has received several significant accolades, including BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week as well Literary Non-fiction Book of the Year in the Times. In our discussion, we cover Mary Shelley's childhood in a unique intellectual household, her romance with the aristocratic poet Percy Byshhe Shelley, the origins of Mary's monumental novel Frankenstein, and how she pushed the envelope of social convention to craft a literary career during her life and reshape the face of literature with her legacy.

One disclaimer before we get started. You will notice some issues with the audio quality at certain points in our interview. While Fiona and I didn't hear it during recording, I think there was an issue with our connection that I discovered during post production. I've spent several nights taking out what interference I could, and the recording is much improved but not where I would like it to be. For that I apologize.

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Don’t Make Me Pull Over! with Rich Ratay Dec 11, 2018

Show notes

Welcome to the Can't Make This Up. I'm your host Kevin. A family cruising across the country crammed together in a wood-paneled station wagon has become the cliche icon of the American road trip, but it was a reality for many families in the latter half of the 20th century. Interwoven into the history of the Great American Road Trip was the economic and population boom that followed the United States' victory in World War II, a massive infrastructure investment on the part of the federal government, and an interventionist American foreign policy in the 1960s and 1970s. The legacy of the road trip is a robust cultural history steeped in Americana and memories of a simpler, more family-oriented era. I'm joined on the podcast this week by Rich Ratay. Rich grew up in Wisconsin in the 1970s and remembers well his experiences during what he calls the "Golden Age of Road Tripping." His book, Don't Make Me Pull Over!: An Informal History of the Family Road Trip, weaves the history behind the nation's transportation network, today's speed-driven consumer culture, and the explosion of the amusement-tourism industry with his own humorous anecdotes of traveling cross-country with his family as a kid in the 70s. Rich was the last of four kids raised in Elm Grove, Wisconsin. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in journalism and has worked as an award-winning advertising copywriter for twenty-five years. Today, Rich continues the tradition of road tripping with his wife and their two sons. “Don’t Make Me Pull Over!” is his debut book.

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King Con with Paul Willetts Nov 27, 2018

Show notes

At the turn of the 20th century, white Americans and Europeans saw the Native American Indian as both a mysterious and exotic figure. Their perceptions were almost entirely informed by horribly inaccurate pop culture, and Edgar Laplante found it all too easy to exploit their ignorance. The "King of Con Men" came from a working class family in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and seemed to have a pathological need to lie and consume an endless tide of praise and attention. His unbelievable adventures would take him from swindling country churches by impersonating a celebrated athlete to an international celebrity doling out handfuls of cash to fawning crowds across Europe. This week's guest on Can't Make This Up is author Paul Willetts. Paul is the author of several books, most of which center on larger-than-life personalities in the true crime genre. In his most recent book, King Con: The Bizarre Adventures of the Jazz Age's Greatest Impostor, Willetts describes the incredible exploits of Edgar Laplante in wonderful detail using a fun, novelistic style. Paul joined me from the U.K. to share some of Edgar's most successful (and outlandish) cons and dive into the psychology that drove him.

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Rising Star, Setting Sun with John T. Shaw Nov 13, 2018

Show notes

My guest on the podcast today is author John T. Shaw. John is Director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, and his fifth and latest book is Rising Star, Setting Sun: Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and the Presidential Transition that Changed America which deals with a significant change in American politics following one of the most notable elections of the 20th century.

Want to listen to new episodes a week earlier and get exclusive bonus content? Consider becoming a supporter of the podcast on Patreon!

Like the podcast? Please subscribe and leave a review! Follow @CMTUHistory on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & TikTok

--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cmtuhistory/support

A Spy Named Orphan with Roland Philipps Oct 26, 2018

Show notes

After World War II, the globe was divided in half between the capitalist West and the communist Soviet Union. Even though no shots were fired during the Cold War, the intelligence agencies of these two spheres were constantly vying for critical information that could give their side an edge. In the United Kingdom, Donald Maclean graduated from the right school. He attended the right university. He came from good British stock. And he entered public service just as his country desperately needed intelligent and capable young men to help combat the rise of fascism in continental Europe. Donald Maclean was also a Soviet spy. To talk about Maclean's life as a Soviet agent, I am joined by Roland Philipps. He is the author of A Spy Named Orphan: The Enigma of Donald Maclean. Roland went into publishing on graduating from Cambridge and until recently was the publisher of the author John Murray. He has edited leading novelists, politicians, historians, travelers, and biographers. A Spy Named Orphan, his first book, arises from lifelong connections to Donald Maclean and Roland's grandfather was Roger Makins, Maclean’s boss at the British Foreign Office. He is currently working on a new book about Special Operations Executive, the Double-Cross system, Collaboration and Resistance in the Second World War.

Want to listen to new episodes a week earlier and get exclusive bonus content? Consider becoming a supporter of the podcast on Patreon!

Like the podcast? Please subscribe and leave a review! Follow @CMTUHistory on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & TikTok

--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cmtuhistory/support

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