S8 Ep116: Appomattox: Lee's Surrender and the Legacy of Mosby — Patrick K. O'Donnell — At Appomattox, Robert E. Lee rejected guerrilla warfare, disobeying Jefferson Davis's orders in favor of reconciliation and statesmanship. Grant offered generous terms. The surre

S8 Ep116: Harry Harrison Young and the Jesse Scouts Lead Sheridan's Final Campaign — Patrick K. O'Donnell — After Blazer's capture, Harry Harrison Young led the Jesse Scouts, using Confederate disguises for reconnaissance. Scouts provided Phil Sheridan with real-ti

S8 Ep116: Lewis Powell and the Confederate Secret Service Plot to Kidnap Lincoln — Patrick K. O'Donnell — Lewis Powell, a Mosby Ranger, was identified as a Lincoln conspirator working with John Wilkes Booth. Powell's trip to Richmond ostensibly to deliver prisoner

S8 Ep116: The Manhunt: Blazer Scouts vs. Mosby's Rangers and the Capture of Blazer — Patrick K. O'Donnell — Grant ordered Phil Sheridan to wage total war against partisans, though Sheridan only partially complied for political reasons. Following Mosby's devastating

S8 Ep116: Jubal Early's Near-Capture of Washington and Mosby's Influence — Patrick K. O'Donnell — General Jubal Early marched on poorly defended Washington in summer 1864, aiming to capture the capital and liberate prisoners at Point Lookout. Early and Mosby dislik

S8 Ep116: The Decapitation Raid on Richmond and Confederate Covert Operations — Patrick K. O'Donnell — The controversial Kilpatrick-Dahlgren raid (1864) aimed to burn Richmond and assassinate Confederate leaders like Jefferson Davis. Lacking sufficient troops for o

S8 Ep116: Richard Blazer and the Manhunt for the Thurman Rangers — Patrick K. O'Donnell — Richard Blazer, a skilled manhunter, commanded the Blazer Scouts, utilizing Jesse Scouts tradecraft. Operating in rugged West Virginia, they functioned as the first modern hun

S8 Ep116: The Jesse Scouts and the Origins of Civil War Irregular Warfare Patrick K. O'Donnell The Civil War saw the rise of irregular forces like Jesse Scouts, named after John Fremont's wife, who used 21st-century tradecraft like infiltration and Confederate dis

S8 Ep115: Dallas, Magpies, and Cockatoo Villains Jeremy Zakis Jeremy Zakis reports that his 11-year-old spoodle, Dallas, continues to be a friend to magpies and other birds, whose non-threatening demeanor makes them comfortable. Meanwhile, the "villain" cockatoos r

S8 Ep115: The Ashes Cricket Debate Jeremy Zakis Australia decisively won the first Ashes test by eight wickets against England in Perth. England's aggressive "Baz" batting strategy, aimed at hitting long balls, spectacularly backfired on the quick, hot pitch, resul

S8 Ep115: DIY Snake Catching Classes Emerge Jeremy Zakis Due to a massive snake population boom and a forthcoming shortage of retiring professionals, a new industry offering DIY snake wrangling training has emerged in Australia. Courses, like one run by Dr. Christi

S8 Ep115: Cyclone Fenina Headed for Darwin Jeremy Zakis Cyclone Fenina, described as a one-in-twenty-year monster with 160 mph winds and a 200-mile width, is tracking toward Darwin, Northern Territory. Evacuation advice has been issued but not a mandatory order. Af

S8 Ep114: The Fall of Communism: Top-Down Collapse and the Legacy of Violence in Modern Russia Professor Sean McMeekin The final segment discusses the collapse of communist regimes in 1989, contending that these regimes generally did not fall because of a rising f

S8 Ep114: The conversation moves back to the USSR with Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 Secret Speech, which led to disruption in Eastern Europe. The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) is analyzed as an act of traditional great power politics driven by the desire to prove Soviet

S8 Ep114: The Nihilism of the Red Guards and Mao's International Maneuvers Professor Sean McMeekin

S8 Ep114: The focus shifts to Mao Zedong and Chinese communism, which was highly influenced by sharp anti-imperialism and xenophobia, blending the Marxist binary struggle with resentment of foreign exploitation. After Stalin's death, Mao began to "experiment," resu

S8 Ep114: The discussion turns to Joseph Stalin and his relationship with the legacy of Leninism. Stalin was a more "ideologically flexible" and savvy political operator than Trotsky, who was relentlessly focused on immediate and continuous revolution. While both L

S8 Ep114: This segment addresses Vladimir Lenin's adoption of Marx's ideas, particularly the aspect of Marxism requiring political violence. Lenin's major innovation, often called "vanguardism," involved a top-down party of professional revolutionaries leading the

S8 Ep114: Professor McMeekin states clearly that communism, specifically Marxist-Leninism, prospers only in conjunction with extreme violence and the disintegration of governance norms. The discussion covers the French revolutionary Babeuf, who advocated for the ov

S8 Ep114: Tiananmen Square, the Unmasking of Communism, and Karl Marx's Hegelian Roots Professor Sean McMeekin Professor Sean McMeekin's book, To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism, begins with the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989 as the