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SNAFU with Ed Helms — History
SNAFU with Ed Helms

SNAFU with Ed Helms, America’s favorite podcast about history’s greatest screwups, returns for Season 4 with even more SNAFUs – one per episode, to be precise. And this time around, Ed ropes in a cavalcade of smart, hilarious guests to help unpack what these blunders, fiascos and faceplants say about who we are (spoiler: we’re basically just toddlers with nukes). Think of it as part history lesson, part hangout pod, and part group therapy for humanity.

Watch on YouTube at www.youtube.com/@SNAFUPod. And check out the SNAFU book at www.snafu-book.com.

Copyright: 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc. © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent from iHeartMedia

Latest Episodes:

S3E4: Trust Issues Apr 02, 2025

Show notes

Prohibition... wasn't going so well. Mabel Walker Willebrandt cooks up a new approach to prosecuting the biggest bootlegger in the nation. Meanwhile, government hypocrisy is on the rise and a mysterious gunshot rings out from the Attorney General's suite at the Wardman Park Inn.

Preorder the SNAFU book and join me on book tour at www.snafu-book.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S3E3: Battle Lines Mar 26, 2025

Show notes

The bootleggers' perspective comes into sharp focus as we meet a survivor of the Great War, George Cassiday. Meanwhile, why were speakeasies across the nation transforming into veritable chemistry labs?

Preorder the SNAFU book and join me on book tour at www.snafu-book.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S3E2: Ready, Willing, and Mabel Mar 19, 2025

Show notes

How did alcohol come to be illegal and why, of all the agencies, was the IRS tapped to enforce it? One rising legal superstar from California becomes the highest ranking woman in government, but she finds her efforts impeded by the IRS's newly established—and rather corrupt—Prohibition Unit.

Preorder the SNAFU book and join me on book tour at www.snafu-book.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S3E1: Satan's Last Stronghold Mar 12, 2025

Show notes

Organized crime, speakeasy gin, and jazz impresarios stole headlines in the 1920s, but behind the scenes boiled a bizarre government plot rooted in the first American culture war. In New York City, a pair of scientists sees the devastation written on the wall, and they try to put a halt to the mayhem before it's too late.

Preorder the SNAFU book and join me on book tour at www.snafu-book.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Introducing Season 3: Formula 6 Mar 05, 2025

Show notes

This is the story of Prohibition you haven't heard. Sure, Prohibition was a gigantic SNAFU to begin with. But it turns out Prohibition was actually darker than any of us could have imagined. Flappers and jazz? Not the full picture.
Season 3 of SNAFU follows an unlikely pair of sleuths trying to uncover what was behind a mass wave of deadly poisonings that killed thousands of people during Prohibition. Why were so many people dying when they imbibed? And what do gun-slinging Prohibition agents, Washington politicians, and a raging culture war have to do with it? Find out on SNAFU Season 3: Formula 6.

Preorder the SNAFU book and join me on book tour at www.snafu-book.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Introducing GREATEST ESCAPES with Arturo Castro Feb 04, 2025

Show notes

While we're hard at work on season 3 of SNAFU, we’re excited to revisit a pivotal moment from Season 1 with a special bonus episode of GREATEST ESCAPES. Produced by the same folks behind SNAFU, it's a brand new podcast covering history’s wildest true escape stories of all time. Ed joins host Arturo Castro this week to dive deeper into the bonkers escape of Oleg Gordievsky, the Cold War double-agent who helped avoid nuclear annihilation during Able Archer 83 and was able to slip through the clutches of the KGB.

Greatest Escapes is produced by iHeartPodcasts and FilmNation Entertainment in association with Gilded Audio.

Please listen and follow here: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-greatest-escapes-259897937/

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Announcing the SNAFU Book! Dec 05, 2024

Show notes

Exciting news from SNAFU headquarters: our first book is coming out April 29, 2025. It's called SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History's Greatest Screwups. Spanning from the 1950’s to the 2000’s, Ed Helms steps in as unofficial history teacher with a loving tribute to humanity’s finest faceplants, diving into each decade’s craziest SNAFUs. From planting nukes on the moon to training felines as CIA spies to weaponizing the weather, this book will unpack the incredibly ironic decision-making and hilariously terrifying aftermath of America’s biggest mishaps. Make sure to preorder your copy now at SNAFU-Book.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Introducing Slow Burn: The Rise of Fox News Nov 06, 2024

Show notes

While the SNAFU Team is hard at work on our next season, we are excited to share the first episode of a new season from our friends at Slow Burn. On Season 10, host Josh Levin takes you back to a crucial inflection point in American history: the moment between 2000 and 2004 when Fox News first surged to power and a whole bunch of people rose up to try and stop it.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BONUS: The FBI and Indigenous Movements with Nick Estes Sep 04, 2024

Show notes

COINTELPRO was shut down in 1971, and J. Edgar Hoover died in 1972. But the agency's dirty tricks continued in the years directly following the Media Burglary. Nowhere is this more evident than in the FBI's interactions with the American Indian Movement. Scholar, historian, and podcast host Nick Estes joins SNAFU to talk about how COINTELPRO and Hoover's legacy permeated the FBI, from the Wounded Knee Occupation in 1973 to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock in 2016/2017.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BONUS: Surveillance Now & Then with Loch Johnson Aug 28, 2024

Show notes

Former Church Committee Staffer Loch Johnson helps us dig deeper into the Church Committee Hearings to cover the appalling findings we didn't get to in Episode 7 of our season. Then, he takes us straight through to present day surveillance, where we try to answer the question: Where is the right balance between citizen rights and national security? Do we even have any privacy left anymore?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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