Fascinating People Fascinating Places

This episode contains adult content and is not suitable for young listeners.

In this episode, I speak with Kiki Smith — not her real name. But she is a stay at home mom and a married woman who makes a quite lucrative living posting as KS Wifey on websites including Only Fans, many vids and even her own domain: kswifey.com. What led her into this industry? How does it affect her relationship with her husband? What are the pitfalls and perks? A candid discussion about a growing yet controversial segment of the sex industry.

Guest: Kiki Smith

KS Wifey on Onlyfans
KS Wifey Official website

Author Michael Ruskin’s powerful new book “The Vow: A Love Story and The Holocaust,” tells the heart-breaking yet inspirational story of his own family’s experiences during the Holocaust.

His Parents David and Dora Ruskin lived in Lithuania at the outbreak of World War II. Initially, the area fell under Soviet control as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. However, Hitler soon broke that agreement and sent Nazi storm troopers into Lithuania. Like countless other Jews living in Europe, the Ruskins were forced into ghettos before eventually being deported to concentration camps.

In this episode I talk to Michael about his book and his parents vow, that they were remarkably able to honor after the ravages of World War II and the Holocaust.

The book features rare archive footage including letters of his parents, family photos, and rare archival pictures and information from both Israel and the US. You can purchase a copy of Michael’s book through his official website:

TheVowaLoveStory.com

Music:

Ken Bakodesh Haziticha, A Jewish Hasidic Niggun, sung by the Li-Ron choir, Israel. Public Domain.

Coming on 11 August, I speak with Professor Kristin Sorenson of Bentley University and an expert on Chile about the American involvement in over throwing a democratically elected government in Chile and replacing it with a fascist dictatorship that killed, tortured and tormented tens of thousands.

During World War II, a new medium gave people on the homefront the kind of insight into the frontlines they had lacked during World War I: Radio. This relatively new technology enabled political figures such as Winston Churchill to warn of the dangers on Nazism even before the war.

But radiowaves are not confined by national boundaries and the British were not the only ones to see the usefulness of this technology during war time. In 1939, listeners in the UK began hearing seemingly British yet unwelcome messages over the radio.

In this episode I explore, Lord Haw Haw and the Nazi’s radio propaganda machine.

Related episodes:

The Göring Brothers: Albert and Hermann
The Hindenburg Disaster
East Germany

Music: Pixabay

Sound: Public domain speeches from Winston Churchill, King Edward VIII and William Joyce AKA Lord Haw Haw

Während des Zweiten Weltkriegs gab ein neues Medium den Menschen an der Heimatfront den Einblick in die Frontlinien, der ihnen während des Ersten Weltkriegs gefehlt hatte: das Radio. Diese relativ neue Technologie ermöglichte es Politikern wie Winston Churchill, bereits vor dem Krieg vor den Gefahren des Nationalsozialismus zu warnen.

Aber Radiowellen sind nicht an nationale Grenzen gebunden und die Briten waren nicht die Einzigen, die den Nutzen dieser Technologie während des Krieges erkannten. Im Jahr 1939 begannen Hörer im Vereinigten Königreich, scheinbar britische, aber unwillkommene Botschaften über das Radio zu hören.

In 1981, American journalist David Ost attended an extraordinary meeting in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz. Just decades earlier, it had been a majority German city, in the German empire and had a German name: Bromberg. Two world wars, the Holocaust, mass movement of people and two border realignments had seen it end up behind the proverbial iron curtain in 1945.

The meeting was organized by a group named Solidarity which became the first legally sanctioned trade union in the Warsaw pact. It was a remarkable concession by a communist regime whose authority was based on the fact the country was controlled by the workers, to acknowledge there was even a need for such a group.

This minor freedom had been hard fought but it was short lived. Within months, Solidarity had been banned and the whole of Poland was subjected to martial law. In this episode I talk to David Ost, Hobart and William Smith professor of politics about Solidarity and Poland’s arduous journey from communism to today.

David Ost Professor of Politics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1986 B.A., SUNY Stony Brook, 1976.

David Ost: The Defeat of Solidarity: Anger and Politics in Postcommunist Europe

If you enjoyed this episode you will also enjoy the following episodes:

Romania 1989
East Germany
Putin’s False Flag: The 1999 Moscow Apartment Bombings

This episode is sponsored by World History Encyclopedia, one of top history websites on the internet. I love the fact that they’re not a Wiki: Every article they publish is reviewed by their editorial team, not only for being accurate, but also for being interesting to read. The website is run as a non-profit organization, so you won’t be bombarded by annoying ads and it’s completely free. It’s a great site; and don’t just take my word for it they’ve been recommended by many academic institutions including Oxford University. Go check them out at WorldHistory.org or follow this link: World History Encyclopedia

Music: Pixabay

Featuring Ellen Evert Hopman, Lucya Starza and Dr. Giovanni Caputo

In more ancient parts of the world our ancestors developed methods for (as they believed) viewing the past, the future and contacting beings or entities be they living or deceased from other realms.

This was serious business. The way a priest interpreted a reflection could be the difference of life and death if you were a potential foe of an emperor. More recently, the Christian church and individuals such as the self-appointed Witchfinder General Mathew Hopkins accused practitioners of these rituals of heresy or diabolism. A charge that could lead to burning at the stake.

But one academic, Italian Doctor of Psychology Giovanni Caputo decided to put one aspect of scrying – specifically mirror gazing – to the test. If you have even the most basic grasp of physics you might think it extraordinary to suggest you could look into a mirror and in place of your own reflection you might see a loved one, an animal or a complete stranger. But Dr. Caputo put this exact premise to the test. I interviewed him for this podcast and his findings may well surprise you. In this episode I explore the science of scrying and talk to Druid Priestess and author Ellen Evert Hopman author of A Legacy of Druids and member of www.tribeoftheoak.org and Lucya Starza of The College of Psychic Studies and author of a Bad Witch’s Blog. about the practice.

The Druids

This episode is sponsored by World History Encyclopedia, one of top history websites on the internet. I love the fact that they’re not a Wiki: Every article they publish is reviewed by their editorial team, not only for being accurate, but also for being interesting to read. The website is run as a non-profit organization, so you won’t be bombarded by annoying ads and it’s completely free. It’s a great site; and don’t just take my word for it they’ve been recommended by many academic institutions including Oxford University. Go check them out at WorldHistory.org or follow this link: World History Encyclopedia

Music: Pixabay

Scientists tell us that as we die our senses cease to function. The last sense to die is touch. Perhaps this attachment to physicality explains our preoccupation with the 3D world. Any police wanted list or database Ny site profile tends to begin with physical traits such as our height, weight, observable age, hair and eye color. But what if our physical form was a dispensable vessel distinct from our true intellectual and spiritual selves? The idea of reincarnation is nothing new. It’s been a key tenant of religions including Buddhism and Hinduism for hundreds and thousands of years. But in recent decades growing numbers of Christians, secularists and atheists have come forward with stories of young children having seemingly inexplicable recollections of apparent past lives. In this episode I speak to an English woman who wracked by a sense of emptiness and chronic illness moved to Australia where she had a spiritual awakening that not only solved her physical ailments but left her convinced that her present existence was just one chapter in a multi dimensional, time transcendent journey of consciousness.

Ellie Garnham of IHeal is a Quantam healer based in Australia who uses hypnotherapy and related techniques to help individuals resolve trauma from the past he it in this life or as she and they believe from other lives past, present and future.

She grew up in the UK not far from my home in the South East of England. It is a largely secular and cynical society. Consequently, I was curious as to how Ellie came to learn about and believe in this particular set of beliefs.

Ellie Garnham website: Iheal

This episode is sponsored by World History Encyclopedia, one of top history websites on the internet. I love the fact that they’re not a Wiki: Every article they publish is reviewed by their editorial team, not only for being accurate, but also for being interesting to read. The website is run as a non-profit organization, so you won’t be bombarded by annoying ads and it’s completely free. It’s a great site; and don’t just take my word for it they’ve been recommended by many academic institutions including Oxford University. Go check them out at WorldHistory.org or follow this link: World History Encyclopedia

Music: Pixabay

Around the time Tom Cruise was introducing the general public to a Hollywood version of the high-octane life of a Top Gun pilot, Mike Manazir was the real thing. In his new book Lead To Win he provides practical advice for leaders in any field drawn from his distinguished career in the military and his post-naval career as a Vice President at Boeing.

In this episode, Mike recounts his experiences flying the F-14A/D Tomcat and the F-18E/F Super Hornet — the high points and the near disasters. The extraordinary tale of how he brought home an aircraft after the navigator partially ejected, his time as Rear Admiral on the USS Nimitz, and his thoughts on the so-called Tic-Tac UFOs.

This episode is sponsored by World History Encyclopedia, one of top history websites on the internet. I love the fact that they’re not a Wiki: Every article they publish is reviewed by their editorial team, not only for being accurate, but also for being interesting to read. The website is run as a non-profit organization, so you won’t be bombarded by annoying ads and it’s completely free. It’s a great site; and don’t just take my word for it they’ve been recommended by many academic institutions including Oxford University. Go check them out at WorldHistory.org or follow this link: World History Encyclopedia

Thanks to: Mike Manazir

On 3 January 1896, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany sent a congratulatory telegram to Paul Kruger President of the Transvaal Republic. The Dutch settlers or “Boers” had just successfully fended off an attack by 600 British irregulars under the command of Leander Starr Jameson. The telegram caused alarm in Britain as Germany flexed its muscles on the world stage. More immediately it empowered Kruger and his allies as they attempted to remain independent and outside the vast British Empire. In this episode, I speak with South African historian Des Latham — host of The Anglo-Boer War Podcast — about the conflict that followed — The Second Boer War — and its aftermath.

Des Latham is a South African historian and host of the Anglo-Boer War podcast.

This episode is sponsored by World History Encyclopedia, one of top history websites on the internet. I love the fact that they’re not a Wiki: Every article they publish is reviewed by their editorial team, not only for being accurate, but also for being interesting to read. The website is run as a non-profit organization, so you won’t be bombarded by annoying ads and it’s completely free. It’s a great site; and don’t just take my word for it they’ve been recommended by many academic institutions including Oxford University. Go check them out at WorldHistory.org or follow this link World History Encyclopedia

The 1956 Hollywood version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, popularized King Mongkut of Siam, who from a Western perspective was a hitherto obscure figure. In the musical, an English teacher played by Deborah Kerr, drags the monarch of a seemingly insulated and somewhat backward country into the modern world. As is so often the case. The Hollywood version of history was far from the truth. Though Mongkut did embrace science and technology he wasn’t the first Siamese ruler to do so. Some 200 years earlier, King Narai of Ayutthaya, sought out cutting-edge technology and formed alliances with powerful figures such as King Louis XIV of France. In this episode I speak with Australian historian Dr Ian Hodges about Narai, his reign, his legacy and his eventual successor the better-known King Mongkut.

Music: Pixabay

Guest: Dr Ian Hodges Historian at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Australia

This episode is sponsored by World History Encyclopedia, one of top history websites on the internet. I love the fact that they’re not a Wiki: Every article they publish is reviewed by their editorial team, not only for being accurate, but also for being interesting to read. The website is run as a non-profit organization, so you won’t be bombarded by annoying ads and it’s completely free. It’s a great site; and don’t just take my word for it; they’ve been recommended by many academic institutions including Oxford University. Go check them out at WorldHistory.org or follow this link: World History Encyclopedia

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