SNAFU with Ed Helms

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From Executive Producer Ed Helms comes a new podcast, Broomgate: A Curling Scandal. Over the course of six episodes, semi-professional curler and fully professional comedian John Cullen (Blocked Party) is exposing the unbelievable, never-before-told scandal that rocked the sport of curling. Yes, curling. Listen here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

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.

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/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As you might have heard, the SNAFU book comes out next week (April 29, 2025)! If you want to meet Ed, either on book tour or virtually, buy your copy right now. He’ll be hosting a private Ask Me Anything for anyone who preorders and submits their proof of purchase here: www.Snafu-Book.com. Or if in-person is more your style, you can also join Ed on his book tour next week in 8 cities across the country, complete with book signings (NYC, Philadelphia, DC, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Silicon Valley, LA). On this episode, Ed sits down with his producer Carl Nellis to talk about treasure hunting for SNAFUs, the book’s jazzy and hangable art, his favorite stories (even if he loves all his children the same…), and which SNAFU characters he’d like to play in a movie adaptation.   Again, you can preorder SNAFU, buy your book tour tickets, or sign up for Ed’s virtual AMA at this link: www.snafu-book.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here’s a preview from a podcast we think you’ll enjoy, Fiasco. Slow Burn co-creator Leon Neyfakh transports listeners into the reality of America’s most pivotal historical events, bringing life to the forgotten twists and turns of the past while shedding light on the present. In his new season, Leon looks at the 2012 Benghazi attack that left four Americans dead—and the ensuing political storm, which raised questions about America’s role in the world, established a playbook to weaponize attention in the social media age, and ultimately changed the course of U.S. history. Find Fiasco: Benghazi wherever you get podcasts and binge the entire season with a Pushkin+ subscription – sign up on the Fiasco Apple Podcasts show page or at pushkin.fm/plus. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your favorite history podcast is back with even more SNAFUs -- one per episode, to be precise. With guests like Nick Kroll, Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey, Paul Scheer, Jordan Klepper, Mike Schur, and more, it's part history lesson, part hangout pod, and part group therapy for humanity.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

By the 1980s, tension between the U.S. and Soviet Union was a fact of everyday life. Early '80s American pop culture was quite literally exploding with nuclear doom. But was a real crisis unfolding right under our noses? One dauntless sleuth grows determined to get to the bottom of a decades-old Cold War mystery: Able Archer 83. Produced by FilmNation and Pacific Electric Picture Co. in association with Gilded Audio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A former Hollywood actor and a former Chairman of the KGB walk into a bar and... blow the whole thing up? In 1983, the decision to launch nukes lay in the hands of two men: Ronald Wilson Reagan and Yuri Andropov. Let's talk about how their teeny tiny… inferiority complexes set us on a path – right to the edge of a nuclear cliff. Produced by FilmNation and Pacific Electric Picture Co. in association with Gilded Audio.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tension mounts as Reagan's aggression deepens Andropov's paranoia. Surely, an attack from the West is imminent! Meet Oleg Gordievsky and Rainier Rupp, two spies whose loyalties aren't what they seem. These super secret agents scour the earth for signs of impending doom, but they have no idea that they're about to be embroiled in utter disaster. Produced by FilmNation and Pacific Electric Picture Co. in association with Gilded Audio. Correction: This episode incorrectly states that Operation Barbarossa began the Soviet Union’s entanglement with World War II. Operation Barbarossa brought the fighting to Soviet soil. However, the Soviets had long been colluding with Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Red Army had themselves invaded Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland prior to Operation Barbarossa. We regret the error, not least because this falsity is a particular piece of propaganda emanating from Putin’s Kremlin.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The situation is getting dire. Mind games and twitchy nerves lead to tragedy in Russian airspace. Finger-pointing only makes it worse, and any chance for real diplomacy flies out the window. As we hurtle toward November ‘83, a glitchy missile detection system almost spells disaster. Produced by FilmNation and Pacific Electric Picture Co. in association with Gilded Audio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s Opening day for Able Archer 83. The Soviets have front row seats to NATO’s autumn military exercises. Tens of thousands of soldiers are playing pretend war in West Germany. The Soviets are NOT enjoying the show. And then… the war game actors begin ‘launching’ nukes. Holy sh*tballs, this is not looking good. The spies try to thwart disaster, and one man is faced with a cataclysmic decision. Produced by FilmNation and Pacific Electric Picture Co. in association with Gilded Audio.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lt. General Leonard Perroots faces down the single most critical decision of his career: to escalate, or not? He knows the situation is bad, but he has no idea just how bad. The man’s got the fate of the world in his hands. Produced by FilmNation and Pacific Electric Picture Co. in association with Gilded Audio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sheer terror about the near disaster recedes over time, and intrigue sets in. Competing theories emerge as Nate Jones and others uncover reports that have been buried in archives for decades. Time casts a new shadow on Gordievsky and Rupp’s Able Archer heroics. Myth, propaganda, and reality melt into one big cloudy soup. Produced by FilmNation and Pacific Electric Picture Co. in association with Gilded Audio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Finale of Snafu: Season One! The holy grail of classified Able Archer documents is finally revealed. Will it hold the answers we seek? Produced by FilmNation and Pacific Electric Picture Co. in association with Gilded Audio.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bonus Episode – Ed speaks with actor Matthew Broderick, and director John Badham about their time on the seminal 1983 classic, “WarGames” and how it played a part in the cultural zeitgeist of the Cold War. Produced by FilmNation and Pacific Electric Picture Co. in association with Gilded Audio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bonus Episode – Ed speaks with former sleeper agent for the KGB, Jack Barsky. Together, they recount Jack’s life trajectory from super spy to American author, and discuss the Soviet paranoia permeating throughout the Soviet ranks during the high-intensity of Able Archer ‘83. Produced by FilmNation and Pacific Electric Picture Co. in association with Gilded Audio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Back in World War II, a group of Nazis tried to overthrow American democracy, with the help of some U.S. congressmen, no less. We’re talking about The Great Sedition Trial of 1944, and it’s the subject of a history podcast hosted by Rachel Maddow called ULTRA. SNAFU and ULTRA have so much in common. Both podcasts are deep-dives into important moments in American history, which are largely forgotten – and yet, they feel oddly prescient to our world today. Ed recently sat down with Rachel to discuss these two extraordinary stories, the roots of authoritarianism, and how it all weaves into current events.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1971, a courageous group of activists broke into an FBI office and stole files containing J. Edgar Hoover's deepest, darkest secrets. How did their actions forever upend everything Americans knew about their country's most powerful law enforcement agency?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.