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It's October 1910 and Los Angeles is on fire. The California labor war had reached its highest level of violence with the bombing of the LA Times Building, and now the world wanted to know who was responsible. Some thought radical anarchists planted the bombs while others thought the LA robber barons had lit the fuse themselves to defame the worker's movement.

Liam and Russian Sam they recount the riveting manhunt and ensuing trial, full of larger-than-life figures like grandstanding detective William Burns and crusading labor lawyer Clarence Darrow.

Join us this week on Gladio Free Europe as we dive into the aftermath the deadliest terrorist attack in US history up to this point, and how the outcome of this highly publicized trial would set the course of California society for the next hundred years.

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On September 30, 1910, the L.A. Times declared that anarchism has been defeated in California. The city of Los Angeles would be rid of trade unionists. Less than 12 hours later, these same anarchists and trade unionists would strike back in the grandest act of terror thus committed in the United States. This deadly bombing launched a nationwide manhunt and one of the most publicized trials in American history, while also pushing both capital and labor in increasingly radical directions.

Though not well-known today, this event in 1910 is an essential element of the prehistory of California politics and the formation of the American radical left. In this episode of Gladio Free Europe, Liam and Russian Sam delve into the brutal world of turn-of-the-century class struggle to learn what drove the labor movement to carry out this cataclysmic attack and how the captains of industry responded.

On one side of the labor war was the militant trade union movement, dominated by the radical Ironworkers. Their allies included radical allies like Emma Goldman and passionate liberals such as famed lawyer Clarence Darrow. At the front lines were working men and women who had taken too much for too long. Los Angeles meanwhile was occupied by the most viciously reactionary economic elite of any American city. Colorfully repellant robber barons like General Harrison Otis fought organized labor with tooth and claw while spending their free time promoting white supremacy and eugenics.

Ultimately, this labor war would end with capital triumphant. But the cinders of 1910 would not cool. This explosive Los Angeles night would foreshadow a turbulent century of further class struggle, posing painful questions that are still not resolved.

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By now much of our audience may have heard of PMC Wagner, the mercenary group that marched on Moscow earlier this week in what appeared to be an abortive coup against the Russian government. Wagner infamous for its many alleged atrocities, and has been proven to be the most effective force in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But this notorious private army is all the work of larger-than-life dog vendor Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Liam and Sam B recount the rise of Russia's most bizarre oligarch, nicknamed "Putin's Chef" for his insistence that his only business was catering. A failed athlete and former burglar, Prigozhin who fought his way to the top of St. Petersburg's brutal post-Soviet economy while striking up an advantageous friendship with a young Vladimir Putin. Long rumored to have ties to organized crime, he took up a side hustle as a warlord through his association with mercenary Dmitry Utkin, the apparent Neo-Nazi for whom PMC Wagner is named. After being outed as the leader of Wagner despite years of denial, Prigozhin has taken the stage as the fiercest critic of Russia's strategy in Ukraine. He gained attention for his colorful, vulgar front-camera video rants tearing into the military brass, particularly Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu. And just days ago, the world watched this trash talk escalate into an armed attempt to remove Shoigu from power.

On this week's episode of Gladio Free Europe, we explain why Yevgeny Prigozhin is both a figure from another time and also a guy who is inextricably of the president. Listen and find out if this St. Petersburg sausage seller really is the End of History on horseback.

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On Easter 1918, Georgian painter Nikolo Pirosmani passed away in a hospital bed before he could be examined by a physician. This enigmatic naive artist whose works graced the walls of half the taverns of Tbilisi was only mildly famous in the avant-garde world when he drew his last breath. But after this corporal death, Pirosmani would live on, reaching a mythic stature. Songs and stories of the mad painter of the Caucasus have spread widely across the past century, to the point where it is difficult to separate the facts of his life from the stories which followed. So just who was this man, and how did he come to be recognized as THE national artist of Georgia?

This week on Gladio Free Europe, we will be looking at Pirosmani: the man, the legend, his exalted place in the Georgian heart, as well as Giorgi Shengelaia's 1969 film documenting all of this, Pirosmani. Upon its international release, American critics were entranced by its visuals but largely confused about its contents. We'll be setting the record straight on this film and the man who inspired it, doing our small part to bring recognition to an incredible artist who is an icon across the former Soviet world but still obscure in the West.

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At the close of 18th century, the Mississippi River ran dark with blood and whiskey. This great artery of North America was a lawless frontier contested by Spain, France, Britain, the United States, as well as indigenous governments like the Choctaw and Chickasaw that had no intention of vacating land that had been theirs for generations. But there was one more ingredient in this cauldron of conflict. River pirates took advantage of this chaos, playing all these sides against each other in pursuit of gold and glory. From the time of the American Revolution up until the 1830s, the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers were dominated pirates just as ambitious and exciting as the buccaneers who ruled the Caribbean a century before.

On this week's Gladio Free Europe, Liam and Russian Sam give an overview of the unique political and social situation that existed on the frontier, with some discussion the nature of outlawry as well as the surprising amount of support the Spanish Empire lent to the American Revolution, particularly on the far-western frontier. Join us for a look at the old old west and the river pirates who once were the true masters of the waters. Characters include gentleman thief turned frontier warlord Philip Alston, Gaelic-Chickasaw freedom fighter James Colbert, the psychopathic hillbilly Harpe Brothers, and an ambitious young pirate named John Murrell who tried to incite a nationwide slave revolt to overthrow the planters and allow his pirates to dominate the South. Expect double-crossings and back-stabbings, a surprising amount of polygamy, and too many severed heads to count.

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What do pocket watches, Korean prisoners, and samurai armor have in common? All of them help explain the close relationship between Portuguese merchants and Japanese warlords in the late 1500s. In this episode of Gladio Free Europe, we see how Portuguese Catholics entered the inner circles of Japan's most powerful men before a sudden change of heart turned this glamorous foreign religion into an underground cult.

This episode focuses on the ways different feudal daimyo responded to the sudden arrival of Christianity. A few noblemen converted outright. Some welcomed the missionaries just to get access to their foreign guns. One very important warlord distrusted the Jesuits, would set Japan on a course to ultimately eradicate Christianity in the islands.

While accounts of early East-West contact typically focus on European merchants and missionaries visiting Asia, this period saw people and goods and ideas move in both directions. We'll We go over the career of early Japanese Christians in Europe, such as a mysterious figure named Bernardo as well as an official diplomatic mission sent by three Christian warlords to the Papal States. And we can't forget the famous African samurai Yasuke, who arrived with the Jesuits only to become a close ally of the great unifier Oda Nobunaga. He and another Catholic would be a witness to Nobunaga's shocking betrayal, which would ultimately spell the doom of the Japanese Catholics.

Stay tuned for our upcoming final episode of this series, chronicling the long period of Christian persecutions that ended with a brutal last stand in the city of Shimabara.

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In 1549, a Portuguese priest and a Japanese pirate disembarked on the port of Kagoshima with one purpose: to bring Christianity to the islands of Japan. They would be remarkably successful. Within 50 years, hundreds of thousands of Japanese people had been baptized, from lowly fishermen and merchants to powerful noblemen at the center of the shogun's circle. Yet after 100 years, almost all trace of this foreign religion had vanished.

This episode is this first of a series covering the history of Christianity in Japan, which is going to explore how this faith, once praised by no less than the great warlord Oda Nobunaga, came to be persecuted with a fervor rivaling the Spanish Inquisition being carried thousands of miles away in Europe. Liam and Russian Sam explore how the 16th century brought political and religious upheavals to both Japan and Europe. In the east, this came in the form of the Warring States Period, or Sengoku Jidai, when samurai, shoguns, and Buddhist warrior-monks fought for control of Japan. In the west, the Protestant Reformation split Europe apart and led to the formation of the Jesuits, a well-connected order of priests commanded to spread the power of the Catholic Church by any means necessary.

What caused the civil war that tore Japan into pieces? Why were many Japanese people so accepting of a foreign religion? And where do the pirates come in? All this and more in this week's episode of Gladio Free Europe.

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England has a new king, and the realm has come down with a terrible case of coronation fever. You may have seen the ridiculous merchandise, the extravagant robes, or the swords and other odd utensils used in the ceremony, but you asking yourself — what does this all mean?

Well, Liam and Russian Sam sat through the coronation of Charles III so you don't have to. This week's episode of Gladio Free Europe is a run-down of the various aspects of this solemn ritual, which as it turns out is much less ancient than you might expect. Listen to find out what Penny Mordaunt's Sword of Mercy has to do with the Halo games, why Charles chose to be crowned in his mother's clothes, and how a rickety graffiti-covered chair became Britain's most sacred throne. We end the episode with a brief history of the Stone of Scone, sometimes known as the Stone of Destiny. Stolen from Scotland in the 13th century by Edward I, this rock seemed doomed to remain in England forever before a plucky group of young Scottish patriots busted it out of Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1950.

Apologies for the audio trouble on this one. We can only assume this is our punishment for besmirching the divine right of kings.

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After a couple weeks of adventuring across Japan and the Caucasus, the hosts of Gladio Free Europe are back in the States. Liam shares his experiences seeing the traces of the violent Sengoku period all across Japan's main island Honshu, and explains how this trip finally brought him to his "white guy into Buddhism" phase. Thousands of miles away, Russian Sam visited the ancient nations of Armenia and Georgia and got a front-seat view of how influences from east and west continue to vie over these countries today.

We'll be back very soon with full episodes on the history of Japan, Armenia, and Georgia, beginning this month we dive into the chaotic finale of Japan's Warring States Period, when a period of intense international ambition gave way to the famous centuries of isolation.

In 2011, the US National Archives released 12,000 pages of documents relating to the activities of the Public Health Service in 1940s Guatemala. This report conclusively proved that a team of doctors led by John Charles Cutler, previously involved in the notorious Tuskegee Experiment, knowingly infected patients in Guatemala with syphilis and other venereal diseases.

Our friend Krebbs joins Russian Sam for a discussion about this deeply shocking episode in the history of US-Latin American relations. Under the pretext of a program to study prophylactic methods for STDs, thousands of Guatemalans were infected without their consent. The victims included some of the vulnerable members of Guatemalan society, including psychiatric patients, prisoners, prostitutes, and orphans. The methods by which these patients were infected exhibited a sadism that rivals the medical atrocities of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

The US formally apologized for these horrific crimes in the Obama administration, but the grievances of the victims remain without redress. Join us as we explore the history of syphilis treatment and other brutally unethical medical experiments to understand why this official apology remains unsatisfying. As we explore how white supremacy and imperial violence underscore human medical experimentation, we have to ask if this atrocity in Guatemala was really about preventing disease at all.