For the last five years, Nate Mook has led World Central Kitchen, the ground-breaking humanitarian charitable organization founded by award-winning chef José Andrés. Helping to build the organization from scratch to over $400 million in projected 2022 revenues, Nate has been on the front lines of relief efforts around the world for years. And for the last six months, he's been in Ukraine helping to feed people reeling from Vladimir Putin's disastrous invasion. First on the Polish border, and the...
Aug 18, 2022•1 hr 36 min•Season 1Ep. 21
People talk about "horseshoe theory," but where does it come from? The idea of a "red-brown alliance" has been part of political discourse for decades, and plays up on the notion that the very far left and very far right have common interests in countering the status quo. Alexander Reid Ross is a geographer and political historian who has written about this phenomenon extensively. Tracing it back to its roots, he also has documented instances of where he has observed this in his own activism — w...
Aug 17, 2022•1 hr 32 min•Season 1Ep. 20
David Kertzer is the Pultizer-prize winning author of several books, including several about the rise of fascism in Europe and its interface with the Catholic Church. His latest book, The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler , chronicles the complex history of the Church during World War II. Dave talks with Kertzer about his research, much of which was only possible because of new archival material released by the Vatican in 2020, and what this important history mea...
Aug 08, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 19
What if January 6th was... all about gold? Sure, it sounds improbable at first, but since last year, Dave has been digging into the improbable backstory that got us here. From goldbugs to the "I AM" cult to libertarianism, crypto, and QAnon, this story has it all. In this episode, Dave continues his conversation with Hamilton Fish, editor of The Washington Spectator, which published his piece, " Paranoia on Parade : How Goldbugs, Libertarians and Religious Extremists Brought America to the Brink...
Jun 28, 2022•36 min•Season 1Ep. 18
What if January 6th was... all about gold? Sure, it sounds improbable at first, but since last year, Dave has been digging into the improbable backstory that got us here. From goldbugs to the "I AM" cult to libertarianism, crypto, and QAnon, this story has it all. In Part 1, Dave and Jack covered the origins of goldbuggery, from the New Deal to the Reagan era. In this episode, they cover the 1990's to today, and make some startling connections along the way. Dave reads the second half of " Paran...
Jun 28, 2022•1 hr 54 min•Season 1Ep. 17
What if January 6th was... all about gold? Sure, it sounds improbable at first, but since last year, Dave has been digging into the improbable backstory that got us here. From goldbugs to the "I AM" cult to libertarianism, crypto, and QAnon, this story has it all. In this episode, Dave talks with Hamilton Fish, editor of The Washington Spectator to introduce the show, and then reads the first half of his recently published piece, " Paranoia on Parade : How Goldbugs, Libertarians and Religious Ex...
Jun 28, 2022•2 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 16
SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT Dr. Steven Hassan, a longtime collaborator, joins me to talk about the overlap between cults and disinformation. Steve was a member of the Unification Church, or Moonies, as a young man, and we dive into the deep history of the group, its historical anti-communist agenda, its role in popularizing sushi (!) and much more. We also talk about how disinformation tends to radicalize people, how to manage relationships with f...
May 26, 2022•1 hr 50 min•Season 1Ep. 15
SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT Dr. Lilliana Mason, an associate professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University is the author of two books that shine a light on why and how America is so divided politically, what it means, and what we might do about it. And her most recent book focuses on why Americans are increasingly willing to justify politically motivated violence. Her work is also instrumental for understanding how disinformation divi...
May 13, 2022•1 hr 34 min•Season 1Ep. 14
SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT The term "Christian Nationalism" has been used to describe a broad range of religious and political belief systems in America, but we lack a detailed understanding of their belief systems and motivations. Journalist Frederick Clarkson has been bringing both nuance and clarity to the study of the interface of religion and politics in American culture. In this episode, Dave and Fred have a wide-ranging discussion about ev...
Apr 12, 2022•1 hr 51 min•Season 1Ep. 13
SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT Wesley Clark, Jr. is a US Army Veteran, climate activist, and sometimes screenwriter who got pulled into a strange world filled with oil contractors, private military companies, fake activists, and cults as part of a veteran action at the Standing Rock protests in 2016. And as it happens, this milieu is at the heart of what this podcast is all about — the intersection of oil, climate, and influence. Wes shares some of h...
Apr 04, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 12
SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT Bitcoin first emerged on the world stage in 2009, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. But the story of where cryptocurrencies came from goes back decades. Dave talks with software engineer and prominent cryptocurrency critic Stephen Diehl about the libertarian roots of crypto and NFTs, why it’s anti-democratic, how it radicalizes and preys on people, and why we need to pop this corrosive Ponzi scheme sooner than l...
Feb 23, 2022•1 hr 59 min•Season 1Ep. 11
SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT The Catholic Church is a complicated organization with many internal divisions, political affiliations, intelligence connections, and banking functions. Frank Cocozzelli has written extensively about the factions inside the church, their connections to economic libertarianism, and Steve Bannon and Vladimir Putin’s ambitions for a “Third Rome” in Moscow. Frank and Dave have a wide-ranging discussion on all things Catholi...
Feb 21, 2022•2 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 10
SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT Christine Arena is a public relations veteran, climate activist, and filmmaker based in San Francisco. For the last several years she's been studying the funding of influence campaigns by the carbon fuel industry, looking at ways to expose and disrupt their strategies. She and Dave discuss the history of how the oil industry has not only sought to deny climate science, but to target lawmakers and the public with influen...
Feb 20, 2022•1 hr 27 min•Season 1Ep. 9
SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT The Council for National Policy was created in 1981 with funds from the oil and gas industry to operationalize goals of the libertarian and Christian Right movements which had joined forces to elect Ronald Reagan as president. The CNP went on to play significant roles with the Iran Contra affair as well as to significantly shape the strategy of the right for the following four decades. The CNP played a significant role ...
Feb 20, 2022•1 hr 59 min•Season 1Ep. 8
SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT Anyone studying online disinformation will eventually come to the realization that much of it can be traced back to the oil and gas industry — specifically to groups like the Council for National Policy, created by and for oil and industrial interests. These networks have a deep history of fascist activity in the United States, where they were born primarily as a reactionary response to the New Deal and fears of "creepi...
Feb 20, 2022•1 hr 27 min•Season 1Ep. 7
SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT The 1930's was a time of incredible upheaval in world politics, and the United States was no exception. Financial uncertainty, the New Deal, and anxiety about FDR's departure from the Gold Standard accompanied the flourishing of cult practices that aimed to address fundamental questions around the direction the country (and the world) might take. These groups, informed by previous traditions such as New Thought and Theo...
Feb 20, 2022•1 hr 34 min•Season 1Ep. 6
SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT Continuing discussion from November 23 with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Dave talks with Monique Camarra, an instructor at the University of Siena and co-host of the Kremlin File podcast. Dave and Monique have a wide-ranging conversation spanning the origins of Italian fascism, its asthetic roots, and its spread and adoption around the world. They tie the global fascist turn to oil, gas, and carbon fuel interests and to gold and cry...
Feb 20, 2022•1 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 5
SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT Ruth Ben-Ghiat is the author of the book "Strongmen: Mussolini to Present". She joins Dave Troy in conversation about the history of fascism in Italy, its offshoots around the world and connections with the Catholic Church. Ben-Ghiat studied how multiple dictator strongmen came to power, the tools they used to keep it, and how they eventually fell, to look for common patterns. She presents fascism as a "third way," a ri...
Feb 20, 2022•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 4
SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT Most people may not be aware that the modern Republican Party has been overtaken in recent decades by libertarian extremists that hail from the anti-communist, gold-obsessed John Birch Society. Dave Troy talks with Dr. James Scaminaci III, who is a noted expert on the extreme Christian Right and the American libertarian movements, as well as 4th generation warfare. He describes how the ideology from the John Birch Socie...
Feb 20, 2022•2 hr 22 min•Season 1Ep. 3
SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT In 1964, Henry Littlefield proposed that the wildly popular book and film "The Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum could be read as an allegory about the gold standard, silver, and other political themes present in the 1890's when Baum was conceiving of the book. Others suggest it could be read as a theosophical story as well. Regardless of Baum's intent, this reading of this universally beloved story provides a gateway for ...
Feb 20, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 2
SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT As the age of oil winds down, a variety of interlinked forces are in play. Dave outlines a framework spanning roughly the last 100 years that helps put oil, gold, cryptocurrency, disinformation, radicalization, and the pandemic in perspective, and offers ideas about how we might overcome the looming climate emergency. He also addresses questions posed by listeners. Recorded live, November 2021.
Feb 20, 2022•2 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 1
