Sofa King Podcast

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Episode 683: The Pony Express: Madmen on Mustangs! Sep 28, 2022

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On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we travel back in time and look at the Pony Express. The Pony Express ran for only a year and a half, but was such an epic adventure that it still lives on as part of the mythology of the Old West. In 1860, several business men developed a system of riders going nonstop with mail, only pausing to eat and swap for a fresh horse. It was a dangerous job, especially since it took place in the middle of the Paiute War! Before the express, it took almost a month for mail to go from East Coast to West. With the Pony Express, it took only ten. So, how much did it cost? How dangerous was it? What famous Western figures were part of it? Why was it important when Lincoln became president? Listen, laugh, learn. Visit Our Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-pony-express https://www.nps.gov/poex/learn/historyculture/index.htm https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/537885/facts-about-pony-express https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pony-express-debuts https://www.ponyexpress.org/copy-of-quick-facts

Episode 682: Tara Calico: Gone Girl Sep 23, 2022

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On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the infamous disappearance of Tara Calico. This true crime tale is over thirty years old, and it has some strange twists and turns. On September 20, 1988, she went on her daily bike ride and never came home. Chillingly, she told her mom that if she wasn’t back home by noon, she should come looking for her. Witnesses said a truck was stalking her, and signs of a scuffle and broken Walkman were found. Then? Nothing. Months later, a polaroid was found in Florida that showed what could have been Tara bound and gagged in the back of a van. So, what did the FBI say about the picture? Who confessed in 2013 on their deathbed, and how could it implicate the sheriff overseeing the original case? What did the psychic stripper say? Listen, laugh, learn. Visit Our Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Tara_Calico https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap/tara-leigh-calico https://allthatsinteresting.com/tara-calico https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Tara_Calico Will Tara Calico Ever Be Found? | The Missing - YouTube

Episode 681: Bo Jackson: Game Changer Sep 21, 2022

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On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk about one of the greatest athletes in all of recent history, Bo Jackson. Bo dominated sports and popular culture in the 1980s. He was the only athlete in history to be the MVP on both professional football and professional baseball. He broke record after record in the MBA and NFL, and when younger he was even up for the Olympic track and field team. He was made extra famous from the “Bo Knows” ad campaign from Nike. Bo wasn’t named Bo, but earned it as part of his nickname “The Wild Boar” due to untamed spirit. You might not know sports, but you’ll be blown away once you listen in and get to know Bo. Visit Our Sources: https://www.biography.com/athlete/bo-jackson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Jackson http://www.espn.com/classic/jackson_bo.html https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-athletes/richest-baseball/bo-jackson-net-worth/ How Good Was Bo Jackson Actually? - YouTube Pro-Stars - Opening Theme (2nd Version) - YouTube

Episode 680: Bass Reeves: One Bad Ass Brother! Sep 16, 2022

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On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we travel back in time to look at one of the most badass lawmen of all time, Bass Reeves. You may not have ever heard of Bass Reeves. And that may be because he was black. Reeves was a deputy marshal and arrested over 3000 fugitives (the highest amount ever) in the most dangerous territory in the US. He was born a slave, fought in the Civil War on both sides, got in 14 gunfights with bandits, and is thought by some to be the genesis of everything from The Lone Ranger to Django. If you want to hear some true red dead podcasting, give this one a listen. Visit Our Sources: Bass Reeves: The Lone Ranger - YouTube Drunk History https://www.history.com/news/bass-reeves-real-lone-ranger-a-black-man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_Reeves https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/bass-reeves-the-real-life-django-a-legendary-african-american-marshal/ https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-bassreeves/ https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=RE020 https://www.tvguide.com/news/heres-everything-to-know-about-1883-the-bass-reeves-story-including-cast-release-date-and-more/ https://www.theringer.com/tv/2019/11/26/20984150/watchmen-bass-reeves-will-reeves-episode-6-lone-ranger https://www.tota.world/article/3372/

Episode 679: Chris Farley: Down by the River Sep 15, 2022

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On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the wild life, tragic death, and amazing comedy of Chris Farley. If you lived through the 90s, you couldn’t escape his presence. He was a break-out star on Saturday Night Live, and he was in some of the top comedies of his day (I’m looking at you Tommy Boy). He rolled with the likes of Adam Sandler, David Spade, and Chris Rock, and he partied. He partied a bit too hard. He was checked in to rehab a dozen times in two years, and his antics were legendary. He was lined up to star in some pretty serious acting roles and headline some crazy projects before his death from an overdose at 33. If you want to live in a van down by the river, give this one a listen! Visit Our Sources: https://www.biography.com/actor/chris-farley https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000394/bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Farley https://nypost.com/2022/02/25/bob-odenkirk-knew-chris-farley-would-die-years-before-it-happened/ https://www.buzznicked.com/chris-farley-facts/ https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/richest-comedians/chris-farley-net-worth/ https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/why-adam-sandler-chris-farley-fired-from-snl/

Episode 678: The Sand Mafia: Murder over Mud Sep 09, 2022

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On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we take a look at the global Sand Mafia. Sand seems like a strange thing for organized crime to mess with, but it has become a global, dangerous phenomenon. With 50 billion tons of sand consumed globally, third world countries are selling off their sand through a mysterious system of third party corporations. Though sand is legal, the way it is mined is not. So, how dangerous is the Sand Mafia? Where do they operate? How much political pull do they have? How many people have they killed? What countries import the most illegal sand? Why is this so devastating to the environment? Listen, laugh, learn. Visit Our Sources: Vice Documentary More Deadly Than Being a Soldier in a War Zone: Environmental Activists Killed for Defending Planet Have Doubled in 15 Years (newsweek.com) Nat Geo Video Forbes Video https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a39880899/earth-is-running-out-of-sand/ https://theworld.org/stories/2015-04-03/worlds-deadly-war-over-sand-7-things-you-need-know https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-11/illegal-sand-trade-india-mafia-murders-vince-beiser/11779570 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_theft https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/feb/28/sand-mafias-killing-each-other-build-cities https://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/out-of-eden-walk/articles/2019-06-sand-mafia/

A Sofa King Classic: Joseph Stalin Sep 02, 2022

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Daves not here man .... This episode of the Sofa King Podcast is a discussion of the brutal regime of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Born Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili in December of 1878, he changed his name to Koba (a sort of Russian Robin Hood) and eventually settled on the new name of Stalin which meant “Man of Steel.” He was born to ordinary parents, but had a series of health complications as a child and a strange relationship with his mother, who wanted him to become a priest. If you’ve listened to our other podcasts about cult leaders, serial killers, and madmen, this childhood is the perfect recipe! Eventually, he went to the seminary study religion, but he ended up stopping. Some say he quit, others that he was expelled for lack of tuition, and some that he was booted for starting to join the early days of the Russian Revolution. Either way, he became an influential member of the early revolution, and he started leading guerrilla attacks and even famously robbed a bank to help fund the cause. Once Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin headed the revolution that brought down the Russian Empire and started the Soviet Union, Stalin’s true colors started to show. He slowly consolidated a power-base of loyal people around him in government, so that when Lenin died, he was able to take power over the newly-formed nation. From here, he started his history of purges and death to his own people. He eliminated all political resistance via firing squads, gulags, and forced deportation, and he ruled the USSR with an iron grasp. He restructured the nation to be an industrial powerhouse instead of a farming-based economy, a decision which caused the greatest man-made famine in the history of humanity (thought to have killed between 7-10 million Ukrainians, Russians, and Soviets). How did so many Soviets starve to death while the country still made a profit selling foodstuffs to other nations? How many Soviets was Stalin responsible for killing? Was his death caused by natural causes, or was it an assassination? Was he a hero or one of the worst villains in history? Listen, laugh, learn.

A Sofa King Classic: Phoenix Lights Aug 30, 2022

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Daves not here man .... When he is we will be back =) On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we throw on our protective tinfoil headgear and step into a Faraday cage to talk about the famous Phoenix Lights. First witnessed on Thursday, March 13, 1997, the Phoenix Lights have been a topic of discussion among friends, colleagues, and strangers alike. Seen above the night skies of Arizona, the two events were witnessed and recorded by a number of people and while some settled for the delayed government explanation of just being flares dropped from an A-10 Warthog aircraft, others have maintained the argument that flares don’t move across and over great distances without falling from the sky and leaving a trail of smoke above them. But if they weren’t flares, what were they? And why did they show up again in later years? Join us as we take a closer look to figure out if they were secret experimental government aircraft, natural swamp gasses above the desert, Power Rangers come to save us, or perhaps actual extraterrestrial UFOs from another race and place still unknown to humankind. Share this:

A Sofa King Classic: City 40: Russia’s Nuclear Secret Aug 23, 2022

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On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the little-known secret of “closed towns,” most notably Russia’s City 40. City 40 was the old code name for what is now known as Ozersk. This is the birthplace of the Soviet Nuclear weapons program after the end WWII, and to this day, nobody is allowed into the city except its citizens. There are an estimated 100,000 people living in City 40 today, and it is the hub of Russian nuclear technology. A documentary called City 40 (directed by Samira Goetschel) was filmed by a crew who were illegally smuggled into the city by residents who wanted their story to be told. This is one of the major sources of information about Ozersk since the Russian military still keeps the place on lock down for reasons of state security. So what goes on in City 40? Well, originally, it was the home of the Mayak Nuclear Facility, a place built by forced prison labor. This plant produced the majority of the nuclear material for early Soviet Bombs, and now it refines nuclear materials from submarines and military purposes and repurposes them for medical and space exploration. As one would expect, this factory has not been without its environmental problems. For one thing, they dumped their nuclear waste in nearby lakes. A lot of it. I mean, like, tons of it. The lakes are considered by some to be the worst ecological region on the planet. This is a major problem for obvious reasons, but also because one of the lakes was drained, and the sand from the lake bed caused a nuclear dust storm! City 40 was also home to what was known as the Kyshtym disaster in September 29, 1957, when an underground container of liquid radioactive waste exploded. This created a 100 km long radioactive cloud. 23 Villages had to be destroyed and 10,000 evacuated. This explosion is pretty obscure to history, but it is said to have exposed over 500,000 people to five times more nuclear radiation than Chernobyl did in 1986. So, how does a city of 100,000 people remain closed to the public in today’s age? When are people allowed to leave, and who is allowed to come in? Why would people stay in a city that is filled with radiation and has one of the highest cancer rates on earth? How are the citizens of City 40 treated by the government? How many spies are in this town? What happened to the people in the documentary after it released? Listen, laugh, learn. Follow up to the City 40 Documentary: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jul/20/graveyard-earth-inside-city-40-ozersk-russia-deadly-secret-nuclear

677: Leopold and Loeb: Subpar Supermen Aug 16, 2022

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On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we turn to some True Crime and discuss the case of Leopold and Loeb. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb killed 14-year-old Bobby Frank on May 21, 1924. Why? Well, that one gets complicated. Both Leopold and Loeb were prodigies, child geniuses. They had each graduated from Ivy League colleges by age 17 or 18. Leopold thought that he was a Nietzschean superman and that typical laws and morality were below him. Loeb, apparently, was just down for whatever and loved the thrill of a crime. So they planned a perfect crime just to prove they could get away with it. Which they didn’t. So, how did they get caught? What was the plan? What happened to Frank’s body, and what evidence was found? Which one of them was shanked by a straight razor in prison? Listen, laugh, learn. Visit Our Sources: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/leopold-and-loeb-gain-national-attention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_and_Loeb https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/leopold-and-loebs-criminal-minds-996498/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/monkeytrial-leopold-and-loeb-trial/ https://famous-trials.com/leopoldandloeb https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/07/26/reopening-the-case-files-of-leopold-and-loeb/

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