In July 1933, two mysterious men approached one of the most decorated soldiers in American history with what initially appeared to be a simple proposal. He didn’t know it at the time, but Major General Smedley Butler, whose prominent career mirrored the rise of the American Empire, was being recruited into a sordid plan to overthrow President Franklin Roosevelt, and bring fascism to the United States. In this episode, take a deep look at the rise and expansion of Imperial America, and the time w...
Dec 28, 2022•5 hr 28 min•Season 5Ep. 131
On April 5, 1976, the richest man in the world died of medical neglect on board a jet bound for Houston. At the time of his death, Howard Hughes had not been seen in public for nearly twenty years. With a massive fortune that enabled his worsening mental disorders, Hughes, once famous the world over, receded from the public eye, and for the last decades of his life, ruled a vast and often unsuccessful business empire confined entirely to his bed. In time the expansive and opaque system that Hugh...
Jul 14, 2022•4 hr 24 min•Season 5Ep. 130
On June 5, 1968, Robert Kennedy was gunned down in the back room of a hotel kitchen just minutes after it seemed he had secured the 1968 Democratic nomination for President. The man changed with, and sentenced to death for, Kennedy’s murder was a 24 year old Palestinian American named Sirhan Sirhan. From the very beginning, it was clear that something was wrong with official story. In this episode, we dive deep and reexamine the evidence of the case to determine who really killed Robert Kennedy....
May 15, 2022•54 min•Season 5Ep. 129
How did a shootout between two undercover cops on an LA freeway in 1997 lead to the discovery, and subsequent coverup, of one of the largest and most sinister networks of police crime and corruption in modern American History? Learn about Kevin Gaines, Suge Knight, Versace shirts, bank robberies, drug dealer cops, the Rampart Scandal, and more in this episode of Hidden History. Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Sources and Further Reading PBS, Rampart Scandal Timeline: Link PBS, ...
Apr 03, 2022•27 min•Season 5Ep. 128
What happens when your home is built on top of 20,000 tons of toxic chemical and radioactive waste? What about the park? The playground? Your child’s school? These questions were all too real for the residents of one sleepy Niagara Falls suburb, little they know they were in the fight of their lives. Learn more about the Love Canal disaster in this week’s episode. Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Sources and Further Reading Making Love Canal: Link Love Canal & Lois Gibbs 35 ...
Mar 20, 2022•26 min•Season 5Ep. 127
On February 29, 2004, American troops landed in Haiti to depose the country’s first democratically elected president. Who was Jean-Bertrand Aristide, why was he overthrown by two (2) US-backed coups, and what role does it play in the context of greater US-Haiti relations? Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Sources and Further Reading Lest we forget the Ottawa Initiative on Haiti: Link New documents detail how Canada helped plan 2004 coup d’état in Haiti: Link The other regime chan...
Mar 06, 2022•17 min•Season 5Ep. 126
You’ve seen it- a black flag bearing the silhouette of a forlorn prisoner, emblazoned with the letters POW MIA. The enduring myth of the missing Vietnam POWs, symbolized by this flag, is a conspiracy theory that has persisted into the current day, but its roots can be traced back to the political schemes of Richard Nixon. What’s the story behind the POW MIA flag and the right wing mass movement that inspired it? Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Sources and Further Reading The En...
Feb 06, 2022•22 min•Season 5Ep. 125
On July 16, 1976, the worst nuclear accident in American history- the second worst in the world- took place at a uranium mill in Navajo Nation. 94,000,000 gallons of nuclear sludge, and over 1000 tons of uranium tailings rushed into the Puerco River when an dam failed at the United Nuclear Corporation’s Church Rock Mine. Though the disaster poisoned thousands of Navajo people in the surrounding areas, contaminating hundreds of square miles with cancer causing radioactive waste, the victims were ...
Jan 23, 2022•19 min•Season 5Ep. 124
On November 10, 1995, the government of Nigeria, at the urging of Royal Dutch Shell, executed nine environmental and indigenous rights activists known as the Ogoni 9. They had fought nonviolently to protect their ancestral home: a 400 square mile area of the Niger River Delta known as Ogoniland, which had been turned into hell on earth by decades of oil extraction. Who were the Ogoni 9, how did they fight back, and has there been any justice for these terrible crimes? Twitter: Link Patreon: Link...
Dec 06, 2021•20 min•Season 5Ep. 123
In August 1996, investigative reporter Gary Webb published a series of three articles that shined light on a vast network of international cocaine smuggling that had both caused to crack epidemic, and was sanctioned by the CIA. Though his reporting was meticulous and factual, major newspapers engaged in a massive campaign to discredit him and his work, culminating in Webb’s blacklisting from journalism followed by a tragic end. How was the CIA involved in the crack trade, what was Dark Alliance,...
Nov 21, 2021•26 min•Season 5Ep. 122
Episode 121: From 1945 to 1959, the United States brought 1600 Nazi scientists to America in order to leverage their knowledge against the Soviets. Many were unrepentant war criminals who had played active roles in the slave trade and the Holocaust almost all were given American citizenship and died peacefully as free men. How did this secret Nazi rescue program impact our modern world? How did the American government whitewash its role? (Hint: it’s anti-Communism) Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Sh...
Nov 07, 2021•25 min•Season 5Ep. 121
Episode 120: Part 2 of 2. Throughout the Cold War, the CIA maintained a vast web of secret publications that it used to influence public thought and perceptions of the United States. Meanwhile back home, it funded successful attempts to remove politics and philosophy from American creative writing. Find out how the CIA manipulated writing and literature to its own anticommunist aims in this episode. Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Sources and Further Reading How Iowa Flattened ...
Oct 24, 2021•11 min•Season 5Ep. 120
Episode 119: Part 1 of 2. Throughout the 1950s, the CIA, through a number of secret fronts, provided funding and publicity for abstract modern art in the United States. Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko became arrows in the Cold War quiver, as the Agency turned them, and scores of other modern artists into unwitting agents of American propaganda. How and why did the CIA accomplish this, and what does it mean for the relationship between modernism and politics? Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts an...
Oct 10, 2021•17 min•Season 5Ep. 119
Episode 118: Part 2 of 2. The American War in Afghanistan was defined by its cruelty, inhumanity, and futility. This episode takes a look at the history of Afghanistan in the 21st century, consumed by the shadow of America’s longest war. Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Sources and Further Reading The Other Afghan Women: Link The Kill Team Photos: Link The CIA’s Afghan Death Squads: Link US Marine sniper unit photographed with 'Nazi SS' flag: Link The Taliban Peace Deal Might Ha...
Sep 26, 2021•26 min•Season 5Ep. 118
Episode 117: It’s known as “The Graveyard of Empires,” and its history certainly lives up to the nickname— as news about Afghanistan is plastered across television screens throughout America, let’s take a look at the history of the country so many know so little about. Part 1 of 2. Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Sources and Further Reading The Other Afghan Women: Link The Kill Team Photos: Link The CIA’s Afghan Death Squads: Link US Marine sniper unit photographed with 'Nazi S...
Sep 12, 2021•21 min•Season 5Ep. 117
Episode 116: On July 3, 1988, the USS Vincennes, an American cruiser, sailed into Iranian waters and launched a surface to air missile at Iran Air Flight 655, which it supposedly mistook for a fighter jet. Out of the 290 on board non survived. What were the events that led up to July 3rd, and how did the American government respond? Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Sources and Further Reading George HW Bush and Ali Akbar Velayati address the United Nations: Link The 8th Minute: ...
Aug 07, 2021•20 min•Season 4Ep. 116
Episode 115: Throughout the Cold War, the United States, through the CIA, funded, supplied, and protected a vast continental network of right-wing death squads that spanned South America. This genocidal collaboration between the CIA and six US-backed dictatorships was known as Operation Condor. In its wake, it left 80,000 dead, and 400,000 more disappeared into secret prisons. Learn about the life and legacy of Operation Condor in this week’s episode. Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more:...
Jul 25, 2021•20 min•Season 4Ep. 115
Episode 114: On November 14, 1974, a labor activist and chemical worker named Karen Silkwood left a union meeting and set out to blow the whistle to a reporter from the New York Times. She was never seen alive again. Who killed Karen Silkwood? Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Sources and Further Reading Museum remembers Karen Silkwood: Link The Killing of Karen Silkwood: The Story Behind The Kerr-McGee Plutonium Case, Second Edition: Link Public Health and the Law, the Case of K...
Jul 18, 2021•16 min•Season 4Ep. 114
Episode 113: Throughout the Cold War the CIA organized, funded, and supplied a network of secret armies across Europe. Recruited from fascist anti-Communist circles, these groups wove a vast web domestic terrorism— carrying out bombing campaigns, massacres, military coups, and more, all in the name of freedom, democracy, and keeping the Left out of office. Learn more about the infamous and insidious Operation Gladio in this week’s episode. Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Source...
Jun 27, 2021•16 min•Season 4Ep. 113
Episode 112: On May 31, 1889, a 60 foot wall of water tore through the city of Johnstown, destroying everything in its path. In the end, over 2,000 lay dead, and all so some rich guys could catch a couple fish. Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Sources and Further Reading Revisiting the Timing and Events Leading to and Causing the Johnstown Flood of 1889: Link DISASTER TOURISM AND THE MELODRAMA OF AUTHENTICITY: REVISITING THE 1889 JOHNSTOWN FLOOD: Link Official History of the Joh...
Jun 13, 2021•18 min•Season 4Ep. 112
Episode 111: On November 28, 1978, former City Supervisor Dan White snuck into San Francisco City Hall and assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first widely known openly gay politician in America. Who was Harvey Milk, rise through the ranks of city politics, why was he assassinated, and what was the infamous “Twinkie Defense” employed at his trial? Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Sources and Further Reading Dan White's audio confession after killing...
May 30, 2021•18 min•Season 4Ep. 111
Episode 110: It’s been 36 years since the Philadelphia Police Department dropped two bombs on the roof of a house in West Philadelphia, killing 11 people, including five children, in an attempt to destroy the environmentalist Black liberation group MOVE. What were the events of that led up to the MOVE Bombing, and has anyone ever faced any consequences for this act of state terror? Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Sources and Further Reading On a Move- website of the MOVE Organi...
May 15, 2021•14 min•Season 4Ep. 110
Episode 109: On Easter Sunday, 1873, a band of Klansmen and Confederate veterans committed one of the most sickening acts of violence of the Reconstruction era. In the Colfax Massacre white supremacists murdered mover 100 people in an attempt to overturn to Louisiana gubernatorial election of 1872, and cement the grip of white supremacy over the South Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Sources and Further Reading The 1873 Colfax Massacre Crippled the Reconstruction Era: Link The C...
Apr 24, 2021•13 min•Season 4Ep. 109
Episode 108: In the 1850s and 1860s, the young city of Chicago was blighted by disease, its growth hampered by its lack of a sewer system. In order to solve the city’s constant public health crises, a group of engineers concocted a plan that would be unthinkable today: physically lifting an entire city out of the muck. Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Sources and Further Reading Chicago’s ‘sunken’ homes are remnants of a bold effort to raise the city out of the mud: Link It Happ...
Apr 10, 2021•8 min•Season 4Ep. 108
Episode 107: Let’s take a ride through history while examining the state of American transit infrastructure, the lost streetcars of the past, and the 1940s corporate conspiracy that may have stripped transit from your city. Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Sources and Further Reading Report Card on America’s Infrastructure: Link Railroads in the Late 19th Century: Link The world’s first electric streetcar: Link Impact on Transit Patronage of Cessation or Inauguration of Rail Ser...
Apr 03, 2021•12 min•Season 4Ep. 107
Episode 106: At 2:25 AM on November 28, 1953, a CIA bacteriologist and chemical warfare specialist named Frank Olson got up, and ran across a dark room in his underwear, dodging two beds, to hurdle through a closed window with the blinds closed and the curtains drawn, falling 10 stories to his death. At least…that’s the official story. Frank Olson was an unwitting participant in a covert operation called MKULTRA, a two decade long crusade to develop mind control through non-consensual human expe...
Mar 27, 2021•11 min•Season 4Ep. 106
Episode 105: Unfortunately, America has a long history of unethical medical experimentation, a tradition that’s caused mass suffering around the globe, and served to massively decrease trust in medicine. This episode covers the CIA’s fake Pakistani vaccination program, the Guatemalan Syphilis Experiments, and the Cincinnati Radiation Experiments. Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Sources and Further Reading Coronavirus Attitude Tracker Survey Pakistan: Link How Drone Strikes and ...
Mar 13, 2021•11 min•Season 4Ep. 105
Episode 104: Some call it "The Forgotten War," and they definitely have a point- the Korean War has not been memorialized in the American memory, it had neither the scale of World War II, nor the cultural impact of Vietnam. Make no mistake: brutal, horrifying, and influential, the Korean War is more important than you know. This episode takes a look at the history of the Korean Conflict, and how America's heinous war crimes helped shape a century of foreign policy. Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Sh...
Mar 07, 2021•19 min•Season 4Ep. 104
Episode 103: During the Great Depression, as millions of Americans went hungry, and 2/3rds of families were in poverty, famers across the country destroyed their crops- burning wheat, cracking eggs, and pouring out milk. This episode explores the history of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, and asks: what kind of society would burn food while its people starve? Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and more: Link Sources and Further Reading Portland police officers ‘guarding’ Fred Meyer dumpsters as...
Feb 20, 2021•10 min•Season 4Ep. 103
Episode 102: From 1943 to 1944, as a result of decades of exploitative colonial policy, and intentional neglect from the British government, a terrible famine gripped the colonial Indian province of Bengal. Estimates bring the death toll in Bengal alone to three million people. This episode covers the history of colonial rule in India, and the intentional engineering of the genocidal Bengal Famine, the brutality of which has been compared to the Holocaust. Twitter: Link Patreon: Link Shirts and ...
Feb 06, 2021•15 min•Season 4Ep. 102
