No Character Limit

In this episode we try and understand why Buffalo's longest serving mayor, Byron Brown, abdicated his seat to join a state run public benefit corporation riddled with corruption - Western Regional Off Track Betting (WROTB). We also explore some corruption in some public offices in Niagara County, including ex-Niagara Falls mayor Paul Dyster and former Niagara County Republican chair Henry Wojtaszek, along with his wife. Once Wojtaszek joined WROTB he endured scandal after scandal without any oversight until Byron Brown and state Democrats tried to stop him. But was Byron Brown trying to stop the corruption or only control it for himself? Finally, we dive back into Buffalo's past and learn about its troubling history of racism and segregation and how that impacted Buffalo's largest black neighborhood - the East Side - as well as one man who came from the neighborhood to stand up for the people for decades - Arthur Eve. Since Arthur Eve Byron Brown has likely been Buffalo's most influential black leader. How do their decades of public service compare?

Subscribe!

Link To This Episode!

Sources For This Episode

Support No Character Limit

Paypal

Bluesky/Reddit

Main Page

In this episode we do a comprehensive dive of the toxic waste legacy of Niagara Falls by going all the way back to the 19th century. In this episode we will explore the Free Niagara Movement, the Niagara Movement, Love Canal, the chemical companies that operated out of Niagara Falls, and the ongoing efforts to hold them accountable. A special shoutout to Christen Civiletto's book Thundering Waters which was an excellent source for this episode. Also in this episode we explore the connections between Occidental Petroleum's Armand Hammer and American politicians Al Gore Sr. and Al Gore Jr.

Subscribe!

Link To This Episode!

Sources For This Episode

Support No Character Limit

Paypal

Bluesky/Reddit

Main Page

Buffalo has a long time reputation as being a "rust belt" city with high rates of poverty and the usual narrative is that outside factors such as Ontario's Welland Canal and manufacturing jobs being outsourced is the reason why. However, there are very few narratives that point to factors happening within Buffalo that are considered the reason for its decline. In this episode we take a look at one of the wealthiest families in Buffalo - the Jacobs of Delaware North fame - and ask why are they wealthy while the rest of Buffalo is not. In this episode we will also look into some of the mafia origins in Buffalo, a thread that we will continue to pull on as we go deeper into this series.

Subscribe!

Link To This Episode!

Sources For This Episode

Support No Character Limit

Paypal

Bluesky/Reddit

Main Page

In this episode we explore what it is like to be a part of Buffalo and Western New York culture especially when compared to the far more popular New York City and feature one of Buffalo's most prominent national leaders: journalist Tim Russert. We also explore the new Buffalo Bills stadium and the country-club-ification of sports venues and how they are requiring more and more tax money while at the same time hoarding more wealth than ever. This is even more prominent with data centers, with Western New York slated to build a $19B center with over $1B in taxpayer subsidies for less than 100 jobs. Lastly we discuss the historic rise - and fall - of Western New York on the national stage.

Subscribe!

Link To This Episode!

Sources For This Episode

Support No Character Limit

Paypal

Bluesky/Reddit

Main Page

This is a new series on No Character Limit called The Western New York Files: Corruption, Crime, and Conspiracy in and around Buffalo, NY. In this episode of the Western New York files I explore the history of the Buffalo Bills and the controversial calls that has led people to question the authenticity of NFL officiating. From multiple calls against Buffalo that have led to full league changes to stunning defeats in key moments I explore the question of whether or not the Buffalo Bills are cursed.

Subscribe!

Link To This Episode!

Sources For This Episode

Support No Character Limit

Paypal

Bluesky/Reddit

Main Page

We can be so focused on the details of the battle over science that sometimes we forget to pull back and look at the story that it has really painted for us. In this last episode of the Hiding From Ourselves series we take an honest look at what the scientific evidence is showing us about our impact on the world - and this goes far beyond mere climate change. The main source used for this episode is the book The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert where she truly took the time to listen to experts from a variety of areas to paint a picture on the true impact of humans on the planet. In this episode we explore the Earth's five previous mass extinctions and compare the current 6th mass extinction and look at what makes them similar and different. The purpose of this episode is to acknowledge a reality that is so often avoided, downplayed, and obscured that many people don't even realize how far we've already changed the planet.

Subscribe!

Link To This Episode!

Sources For This Episode

Support No Character Limit

Paypal

Bluesky/Reddit

Main Page

In this third episode on exploring how to determine what is quality information we continue explore the climate change debate and the origins of why such a seemingly lopsided debate never won in favor of the fact-finders. How long have we known about climate change really? How far back was it known to be a problem? Were climate scientists really believing there was going to be "global cooling" in the past or is that mostly a made-up story? How can we prove that humans are the cause of it really? How did we end up with the International Panel on Climate Change? Were accusations that it was corrupt founded or was the corruption that of those making the accusations? Just as in the last episode, we will be using the book Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway to help guide us through where the climate debate came from and why we are here today.

Subscribe!

Link To This Episode!

Sources For This Episode

Support No Character Limit

Paypal

Bluesky/Reddit

Main Page

In this second episode on exploring how to determine what is quality information we continue following the ongoing debate on the purpose of science in a post-nuclear era into the 1980s. Do scientists have a moral and ethical responsibility to protect the planet or should they remain amoral stewards of policy-makers, leaving moral judgment to them? Legacy scientists from the Manhattan project, as well as popular astronomers Carl Sagan and Robert Jastrow, finally come to a head over what would happen if a nuclear war were to occur by using climate modeling. As a large bloc of America's most important scientists take a stand against further nuclear escalation a small handful of powerful and well-connected scientists begin to attack not only climate models for the first time, but all of science itself. Just as in the last episode, we will be using the book Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway to help guide us through this cultural shift in the American psyche away from scientific guidance and towards an ideological one.

Subscribe!

Link To This Episode!

Sources For This Episode

Support No Character Limit

Paypal

Bluesky/Reddit

Main Page

How do we know what information to trust and what to stay away from? Whether you find yourself wanting to question the science or prove the skeptics wrong, this episode is for you. In this episode you can find multiple stories where experts were proven wrong by those outside of their field, where once established fact was upended forever, as well as plenty of individuals, scientists, and industries that prey upon the uninformed solely for personal profit. Who to trust and how do we know? Today, there is no greater place to explore this idea than with the topic of climate science and in this episode we begin to explore that story with the help of the book Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. But before we get to how to know who to trust with climate science we need to dive in to the story of the top secret Manhattan Project, the Cold War's impact on the American psyche, the tobacco industry's research funding, and the infamous Love Canal - America's first superfund site.

Subscribe!

Link To This Episode!

Sources For This Episode

Support No Character Limit

Paypal

Bluesky/Reddit

Main Page

In this long awaited first bonus episode dedicated to Ultima Thule we take a look at some associated documentaries, research findings, and related information that has come up since Ultima Thule was first written in 2022. Consider the motivations of a Nazi that wanted to send people into space, learn about the long-lost sibling of the Sun, whether dark energy is speeding up or slowing down, and what the most recent missions to asteroids has revealed about our solar system. Come and listen to a celebration of space and time as well as the science that got us there and continues to uncover Ultima Thule today.

Subscribe!

Link To This Episode!

Sources For This Episode

Support No Character Limit

Paypal

Bluesky/Reddit

Main Page