Useless Information Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Bad Apples #5 - The Bishop's Wife - UI #186 Dec 15, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, my wife Mary Jane joins me to review the 1947 classic Christmas movie "The Bishop’s Wife," starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven. Released just one year after the classic “It’s a Wonderful Life,” we discuss whether this movie is of the same caliber. And even if it isn’t, is the movie worth seeing?

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200 Years of Twas the Night - UI Podcast #185 Dec 05, 2022

Show notes

December 24, 2022, marks the bicentennial of the classic poem Twas the Night Before Christmas. Pamela McColl, author of the new book Twas the Night, The Art and History of the Classic Christmas Poem, joins me to discuss the origins of the poem, the debate over who truly wrote it, and how it has gone on to be the most published and most often recited poem in the library of English literature.

Transcript, images, and links for this episode: https://uselessinformation.org/200-years-of-twas-the-night-podcast-185/

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The Cryptanalyst (Part 3) - UI Podcast #184 Nov 18, 2022

Show notes

In this third and final segment, 93-year-old Marvin Lautzenheiser discusses his reasons for leaving the FBI, his 17 years consulting with the Pentagon to model future nuclear wars, his patents that are still used today for computer storage, plus you will get to hear music being played on his monster-sized theater organ that he installed in his home.

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The Cryptanalyst (Part 2) - UI Podcast #183 Nov 03, 2022

Show notes

In this second segment, 93-year-old Marvin Lautzenheiser discusses his time as an FBI field agent in Charlotte, how his team finally deciphered the hollow nickel message after years of numerous failed attempts, how he avoided testifying at Rudolph Abel's trial, and offers up his opinion on the Steven Spielberg movie Bridge of Spies.

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The Cryptanalyst (Part 1) - UI Podcast #182 Oct 21, 2022

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93-year-old Marvin Lautzenheiser was the lead cryptanalyst for the FBI team that deciphered the microfilm message contained in the Hollow Nickel (Podcast #168) and was asked to testify at the trial of Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. In this first segment, Marvin discusses growing up during the Great Depression and how a chance question at his college graduation led him to the FBI.

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The Great Los Angeles Air Raid - UI Podcast #181 Oct 07, 2022

Show notes

The long-forgotten story of a major battle that took place over Los Angeles just a few months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. It was but a brief blip in the global conflict, yet the US used all its might in an attempt to shoot down the enemy planes that were detected overhead. The sky was set ablaze with exploding shells as searchlights focused their beams and tracked the enemy aircraft high above.

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YesterCast #1 - November 22, 1963 - UI #180 Sep 22, 2022

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The assassination of President John F. Kennedy was a tragic day for the United States. But what else was happening on November 22, 1963? This first episode of the Useless Information YesterCast explores the rest of the happenings of that day, including the top movies, songs, and TV shows.

Included are a number of quirky and offbeat stories, including that of a man who took an ad out in the newspaper seeking an elephant, a man who mistook a boy for a squirrel and shot him, a bank robbery in which the bank earned money, an escapee who had been in jail nearly the entire time he was supposedly on the run, and so much more.

Images, links, & transcript: https://uselessinformation.org/yestercast-1-november-22-1963-podcast-180/

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Bad Apples #4 - Gaslight - UI #179 Sep 07, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, my wife Mary Jane joins me to review the 1944 classic movie "Gaslight." Starring Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotton, and Angela Lansbury (in her film debut), it is from this movie that the term “gaslighting” originated. It’s a psychological thriller in which the viewer is witness to a woman being intentionally driven to madness by her husband so that he can carry out his sinister plan.

Images, links, and transcript: https://uselessinformation.org/bad-apples-4-gaslight-podcast-179/

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Russell Sage: The Meanest Miser in the Land - UI #178 Aug 15, 2022

Show notes

Russell Sage was once one of the wealthiest men in the world. He was ruthless in business and was said to hate philanthropy, upper education, and women. When he passed away in 1906, his wife Olivia got even by giving away nearly every penny of his fortune to the causes that Sage despised. Historian Kathy Sheehan joins me to tell the true story of Russell Sage.

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Retrocast 12 - UI Podcast #177 Aug 01, 2022

Show notes

In this episode: A man who claimed that he had eloped with another man’s wife because she had fed him a delicious piece of cake, a dead woman who sat up in her coffin just as the undertakers began to pour ice over her body, smog changes the color of a California man’s tie, and much more! Tim Harford of Cautionary Tales cohosts.

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