Mass For Shut-ins: The Gin And Tacos Podcast

At the peak of the Great Depression, one nation sent its athletes to the 1932 Olympics on a coffee freighter with instructions to barter and beg their way to Los Angeles. Even though coffee was a worthless commodity in 1932. Fuel? Canal tolls? Immigration fees? Money for food and lodging? No, they didn't have any of that. What they did have was coffee - AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT. This is their story.  Bonus: a Hungarian water polo referee is senselessly beaten. I value your support on Patreon.

In 1973 a low-ranking US Air Force officer training to work in a Minuteman missile silo asks, "How do I know that the launch order I receive comes from a president who is sane?" Good question, Harold Hering! The Air Force had no good answer, and Hering's career came to a screeching halt. I take a deep dive into what exactly presidents can and can't do with nuclear weapons and why I, in a rare moment of optimism, ultimately believe an unbalanced Trump could not start firing off nukes in a fit of anger. 18 minutes on a topic I could talk about forever, but decided to do only the interesting parts. I value your support on Patreon.

As the GOP is set to lock in a conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court, court-packing is re-entering the political conversation. This is the story of the original "court packing scheme" attempted by FDR in 1937 after several key components of the New Deal had been struck down by the highest court. Believe it or not, it all began not with a landmark decision but with a mundane piece of legislation designed to save money by reducing pensions. Unlike most minicasts, this is topical (to the release date, anyway). Minicasts are short stories for fans of quick, to-the-point podcasts and as a nice change of pace from the longer full episodes of Mass for Shut-ins. I value your support on Patreon.

Guest: Thomas Gokey of The Debt Collective (@StrikeDebt) joins me to talk about their new book Can't Pay Won't Pay, coming out in September from Haymarket Books. We talk about the ways that people can take on debt collectively to give themselves power - and choices - they don't have as individuals. And Thomas pulps a bunch of money and tries to sell it. The story is a coda to the Greek Debt Crisis of 2008-?? starring the Clintons' son-in-law. We all learn a valuable lesson about how differently the well-born experience debt from the rest of us who have to live in fear of it. The cocktail of the month is the Money Maker. It's probably good there isn't a cocktail with a debt-themed name. Question Cathy returns with the mailbag. Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, via Patreon. Contact me via Facebook, Twitter (@edburmila), or the venerable website Gin and Tacos.  Thanks: the Debt Collective, the bands that contribute music (Waxeater, IfIHadAHiFi, The Sump Pumps, Oscar Bait), Za

Albania emerged from one-party rule under Enver Hoxha as the poorest and most backward Eastern European state. Hoxha bequeathed Albanians 700,000 concrete pillbox forts and a complete lack of familiarity with even the basics of a cash economy. Inexperienced in the ways of capitalism, Albanians didn't realize 100% monthly interest on a bank deposit is a red flag. So in 1996 the entire country fell into a mania for investments that turned out to be pyramid schemes. When I say the whole country I mean 2/3 of the GDP of Albania. 95%+ of all adults invested everything, then sold their homes and farms to invest more. Minicasts are short stories for fans of quick, to-the-point podcasts and as a nice change of pace from the longer full episodes of Mass for Shut-ins. I value your support on Patreon.

Guest: Tom Sexton (@TomSexton) of The Trillbilly Workers Party (@thetrillbillies) joins me to talk about the Amy McGrath - Charles Booker primary race in Kentucky, the uncharismatic void that is Chuck Schumer, and the video Ted Turner made for the end of the world. The "cocktail" of the month returns with the gin radler, which is not really a cocktail but needs to be a part of any good hot weather self-care routine. Question Cathy returns with the mailbag. Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, via Patreon. Contact me via Facebook, Twitter (@edburmila), or the venerable website Gin and Tacos.  Thanks: Tom Sexton and all the Trillbillies, the bands that contribute music (Waxeater, IfIHadAHiFi, The Sump Pumps, Oscar Bait), Zachary Sielaff, Question Cathy, and all Patreon supporters, subscribers, and listeners.

In 1918 Emmanuel Haldeman-Julius and his wife Marcet, editors of a moribund socialist newspaper, pursued their populist vision to bring education to the working classes in the form of cheap, widely available, high quality reading material. The result was the Little Blue Books that took the US by storm in the 1920s, a series of almost 2000 titles on a grab-bag of topics, everything from classic literature, academic debates, philosophy, religion, and how-to. For $1 a person could get Dante, Clarence Darrow on atheism, W.E.B. duBois on race relations, socialist theory, factual information about STDs and Birth Control, "How to play Stud Poker," and "Best Lawyer Jokes of 1928." In an information-starved age, Haldeman-Julius's pocket-sized 5 cent booklets were a smash, with over half a BILLION printed and sold. Little Blue Books educated and entertained millions of people with information and literature they would not otherwise have had easy access to. This, as the kids say, was praxis. Minicasts are short stories

Guest: Financial policy guru Mike Konczal (@rortybomb) explains what should be happening in response to the economic crisis, what is happening, and why those two are different. We cover unemployment, policy coming out of Congress, what decision-makers just aren't getting about this crisis, and how we both had childhood vacations in Florida that turned out to be nightmares. Question Cathy returns with the mailbag. Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, via Patreon. Contact me via Facebook, Twitter (@edburmila), or the venerable website Gin and Tacos.  Thanks: Mike Konczal, all the bands that contribute music (Waxeater, IfIHadAHiFi, The Sump Pumps, Oscar Bait), Zachary Sielaff, Question Cathy, and all Patreon supporters, subscribers, and listeners.

Between 1850 and 1900 it was all the rage for rich, roguish Americans to form private armies to invade and conquer countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. These men were called "Filibusteros" and the most prolific was William Walker, who led invasions of three different countries in an effort to add new slave-holding territories to the U.S. and alter the balance of power toward the South. This minicast references two previous episodes, the linguistic history of "Filibuster" and how the Nicaragua Canal became the Panama Canal. Minicasts are short stories for fans of quick, to-the-point podcasts and as a nice change of pace from the longer full episodes of Mass for Shut-ins. Get full episodes on Stitcher, Apple Music, Spotify, and more. I value your support on Patreon.  

A pair of artists use a large market research survey to find out what people say they like least in music and, with their neuroscientist friend, set out to create the worst possible song. Featuring an opera soprano rapping about Wittgenstein, and a chorus of children singing about Yom Kippur at Walmart.  Did they succeed in making the worst song? Let's put it this way: It isn't good. The full song is available here. Check out the series of paintings "Most / Least Wanted" by Komar & Melamid.  Minicasts are short stories for fans of quick, to-the-point podcasts and as a nice change of pace from the longer full episodes of Mass for Shut-ins. Get full episodes on Stitcher, Apple Music, Spotify, and more. I value your support on Patreon.

In 1982 an eccentric, paranoid coal baron from Frog Level, VA wanted to buy a remote island to get away from Communists, taxes, and Freudian psychoanalysts. He chooses one of the Pitcairn Islands (of Mutiny on the Bounty fame) and proceeds to try to buy it from the UK, of which it is a colony. And here's the thing: they almost said yes. They wanted to say yes.  A real-life version of Boss Hogg came THIS CLOSE to building a mansion on a remote island where he could spend the rest of his life watching cowboy movies without being bothered by Communists. One of my favorite stories, with a little something for everyone. Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, via Patreon. Contact me via Facebook, Twitter (@edburmila), or the venerable website Gin and Tacos. 

Story: Three Men in a Can - Voskhod 1. The USSR beats the USA to the feat of sending a three-person crew into space by pointing at its one-man spacecraft and telling three guys "Get in there." A story (with a happy ending!) about claustrophobia as we are all starting to feel a bit cooped up from sheltering in place. Guest: Dr. Samantha Montano, who holds a Ph.D. in emergency management, discusses the responses to COVID-19 in the US, while I fret about her heartrate getting too high from watching the White House botch this. She offers some really great insights about the nature of preparedness and...well, why we weren't prepared. Cocktail of the month: Penicillin. Appropriate for a pandemic. YES, I know antibiotics do not work on a virus. It's thematic, in spirit. Question Cathy returns with the mailbag.   Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, via Patreon. Contact me via Facebook, Twitter (@edburmila), or the venerable website Gin and Tacos.  Thanks: Dr. Montano, all the bands t

The origin story of those flaming bottles we all know and love. Nothing says "Take that, The Man!" like the imagery of someone in a mask lobbing a Molotov. Today it's an anti-authoritarian gesture, but it started as (checks notes) a Finnish tank-killer. In one of the least-remembered conflicts of the 20th Century, the Soviet-Finnish Winter War of 1939. Minicasts are short stories for fans of quick, to-the-point podcasts and as a nice change of pace from the longer full episodes of Mass for Shut-ins. Get full episodes on Stitcher, Apple Music, Spotify, and more. Patreon.com/ginandtacos

Story: One of my favorite phenomena in demographic data...the harvesting effect. What I learned from a heat wave in Chicago in 1995, and how it applies to the current coronavirus outbreak. Mortality data can simultaneously be accurate and misleading. Guest: Mike Pearl (@MikeLeePearl), author of the Vice column "How scared should I be?" and of the new book The Day it Finally Happens. We talk about existential threats to life on Earth like antibiotic resistance as well as more prosaic phenomena like crosswalks and whether Jurassic Park is scientifically accurate. Where Mike is involved, life finds a way. Cocktail of the month: The Four Horsemen. Truly a drink for the apocalypse, as you stare down the planet-killer comet heading for Earth. Question Cathy returns with the mailbag.   Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, via Patreon. Contact me via Facebook, Twitter (@gin_and_tacos), or the venerable website Gin and Tacos.  Thanks: Mike Pearl, all the bands that contribute music (W

Guest: Adam Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) is the cohost of Citations Needed, an outstanding podcast on the media and political communication. He joins me to talk about the unfolding situation in Iran and how it rekindles some of the biggest problems with media coverage of the Iraq War run-up, like the exclusion of anti-war voices in "debates" that boil down to both sides agreeing that war is awesome and disagreeing on the details.  Question Cathy returns with the (live!) mailbag. Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, via Patreon. Contact me via Facebook, Twitter (@edburmila), or the venerable website Gin and Tacos.  Thanks: Adam Johnson (for doing this on short notice), all the bands that contribute music (Waxeater, IfIHadAHiFi, The Sump Pumps, Oscar Bait), Zachary Sielaff, Question Cathy, and all Patreon supporters, subscribers, and listeners.

The 2nd annual All-Mailbag Episode. Question Cathy and I tackle ranked-choice voting & instant runoff voting, whether the primaries are too nasty, how to put your time to the best use in the election, climate change, Brexit, and whether the hot dog counts as a sandwich (hint: it does, and I'm sorry). Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, via Patreon. Contact me via Facebook, Twitter (@edburmila), or the venerable website Gin and Tacos.  Thanks: QC, all the bands that contribute music (Waxeater, IfIHadAHiFi, The Sump Pumps, Oscar Bait), Zachary Sielaff, Question Cathy, and all Patreon supporters, subscribers, and listeners.

If you need more encouragement to listen to a story about the Lewis & Clark expedition shitting poisonous heavy metals all over the continent and how science has exploited that to generate useful historical data, I don't know what to tell you.  Minicasts are short stories for fans of quick, to-the-point podcasts and as a nice change of pace from the longer full episodes of Mass for Shut-ins. Get full episodes on Stitcher, Apple Music, Spotify, and more. Patreon.com/ginandtacos

An underemployed draftsman named Harry Beck looked at the original London Underground map, realized it was crap, and set himself the task of creating a better one. By ignoring one of the cardinal rules of mapmaking he showed how to make transit maps better and easier to use.  Minicasts are short stories for fans of quick, to-the-point podcasts and as a nice change of pace from the longer full episodes of Mass for Shut-ins. Get full episodes on Stitcher, Apple Music, Spotify, and more.

In 1946, post-war Britain tries to solve four very different problems at once: a labor surplus of returning military, a shortage of key foods, the need to make colonies economically independent, and a dignified way to draw down the Empire. The scheme they came up with is ... incredible. That is to say, you will not find it credible. Tanzania. 3 million acres of rock-hard clay soil. It just screams "Let's grow peanuts there!" doesn't it.  A tale of overconfidence, bureaucratic overkill, paternalist attitudes, man vs. nature miscalculations, and the unwavering belief that white Europeans with a lot of education could solve anything given an unlimited budget.  Four years, a billion pounds (!!!), and the project managed to *use* more peanuts than it grew. They made *negative peanuts.* Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, via Patreon. Contact me via Facebook, Twitter (@gin_and_tacos), or the venerable website Gin and Tacos.  Thanks: Seth Wilson, all the bands that contribute music

Walking around the countryside ("rambling") is very important to the British, and they don't take kindly to the idea that unoccupied land is off-limits to walkers. The so-called Right to Roam, even on privately owned land, is the direct result of ... direct action. In 1932 a group of walking enthusiasts / Communists in Manchester engaged in mass civil disobedience by walking across the Duke of Devonshire's land at a spot called Kinder Scout. They won. 20 years later, that spot became the first UK national park (Peak District). An inspiring story of collective action and the public good.  Minicasts are short stories for fans of quick, to-the-point podcasts and as a nice change of pace from the longer full episodes of Mass for Shut-ins. Get full episodes on Stitcher, Apple Music, Spotify, and more.