On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we drop some science and talk about one of the most important feats of agriculture in all of human history—Corn. You may be asking, why Corn? Many people argue that it is disastrous for the environment and for agriculture in the US. For another thing, it is one of the most subsidized crops by the US government; the government pays the biggest corn growers millions of dollars a year to grow (or not grow this crop).

It has a crazy history and was domesticated some 9000 years ago by ancient peoples in Mexico. It was the descendent of a plant called teosinte. It was used by the Mayans and Native Americans, and now it is used to feed animals, make plastics, create fuel, sweeten your Mt. Dew and just about everything else you can think of. From threats of eco disaster to potentially corrupt government payoffs, Corn is more interesting than you might think.

 

Visit Our Sources:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/rethinking-corny-history-maize-180971038/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/time-to-rethink-corn/

https://farmtogether.com/learn/blog/a-brief-history-of-corn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBuYUb_mFXA

https://www.thebalance.com/farm-subsidies-4173885

https://grist.org/food/our-crazy-farm-subsidies-explained/

https://www.farmprogress.com/vegetables/13-ways-corn-used-our-everyday-lives

https://www.freshcityfarms.com/blogs/9-facts-you-might-not-know-about-corn

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC212689/

http://www.teachinghistory100.org/objects/about_the_object/maize_god

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we cover long-time listener request. This is the death of Natalie Wood. Hers is a story of stardom, sexual scandal, a controlling mother, and quite possible murder. She was found drowned off Catalina Island, after a night of drinking and arguing with her husband Robert Wagner about her friend Christopher Walken. The case was ruled as accidental, but in 2011, it became active again.

Natalie Wood was one of the biggest stars of her day, winning three academy awards before the age of 25. She was a childhood star in Miracle on 34th Street, and was in everything from Rebel Without A Cause to Westside Story. So what went down the night Natalie Wood died? What made the LAPD open this case after decades? What does Christopher Walken say happened? Why was Natalie Woods so afraid of the water? Why won’t her husband cooperate with the police in the current investigation? Listen, laugh, learn.

 

Visit Our Sources:

https://www.biography.com/actor/natalie-wood

https://allthatsinteresting.com/natalie-wood-death

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-11-30/40-years-later-the-mystery-over-natalie-woods-death-endures

https://nypost.com/2021/11/04/natalie-woods-sister-says-robert-wagner-killed-the-actress/

http://sandhillsexpress.com/cbs_entertai/natalie-wood-death-investigator-calls-new-witnesses-very-credible-cbsidcd019ffa/

https://www.factinate.com/people/facts-natalie-wood/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0fm42MGMGc

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about one of the largest heists in US history and the inspiration for the movie Goodfellas. It was called the Lufthansa Heist, named after the airline they stole from. This story is a tale of vintage mobsters, theft, powergrabs, and murders. So many murders. Jimmy Burke, the leader of the crew, went a bit psychotic after the FBI started to investigate. He took care of loose ends as only the mob knows how. So, if you want to learn if Joe Pesci, Robert DeNiro, and Ray Liotta accurately portrayed these unhinged mobsters, then listen, laugh, and learn.

Visit Our Sources:

https://www.biography.com/news/real-goodfellas-lufthansa-heist-henry-hill

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufthansa_heist

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lufthansa-heist-jfk-airport-goodfellas-henry-hill

https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/lufthansa-heist-murders-mafia-mobsters

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-happened-during-the-lufthansa-heist-of-1978-2014-1

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/goodfellas-did-the-real-henry-hill-make-any-money-from-the-movie.html/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Burke_(gangster)

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we feel the blues as we talk about the life, death, music, and drugs of the one and only Stevie Ray Vaughan. Stevie is considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time. And that is because he is. His style of playing and singing are as big and unique as his hats. Though he died at the age of 35, everyone from Eric Clapton to David Bowie and The Rolling Stones considered him one of the best musicians alive. If you’ve never done a YouTube dive on his live footage, you owe it to yourself to watch him shred and sweat and sing…and then listen, laugh, and learn.

Visit Our Sources:

https://www.biography.com/musician/stevie-ray-vaughan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevie_Ray_Vaughan

https://srvofficial.com/

http://rockandrollgarage.com/what-eric-clapton-said-about-stevie-ray-vaughan-after-his-tragic-death/

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/austin/news/2015/04/10/15-facts-about-stevie-ray-vaughan

Life Without You Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ4REYdCkTw

Albert King and SRV In Session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-apz26BfHYU

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at living cult, the New Zealand community of Gloriavale. It was founded by Neville Cooper. He learned his preaching craft in America, choosing the speaking-in-tongues, faith-healing variety. When he brought it back to New Zealand, he was a hit. He started a small agriculture community tied to his church. He survived a plane crash, renaming himself Hopeful Christian, and the rest is history. And by history, I mean a cult. You know the drill, nobody can leave, brainwashing, sexual abuse, all the money goes the founder, dairy cows, crazy names, stupid outfits. The works.

Visit Our Sources:

https://www.ted.com/talks/lilia_tarawa_i_grew_up_in_a_cult_it_was_heaven_and_hell/transcript?language=en

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloriavale_Christian_Community

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/91034991/reid-going-undercover-in-gloriavale-still-haunts-me

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/30/my-life-in-a-religious-cult-the-most-dangerous-place-in-the-world-is-the-womb-of-an-ungodly-woman

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300241979/gloriavale-the-daily-life-the-dark-side-and-uncertain-future-explained

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7089287/Former-Gloriavale-member-tells-desperate-quest-free-wife-children-cult.html

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/anna-murray-why-going-back-to-gloriavale-was-a-bad-idea/EW2KDNN7JRHSIEPD3DQQ2OY3RE/

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6298385/gloriavale-religious-cult-leader-dead-cancer-new-zealand/

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we all say “wooooo” and talk about the legend that is Ric Flair. If you don’t know Ric Flair, you owe it to yourself to discover him. He is considered by most wrestlers, promoters, and sports writers to be the greatest of all time. He had the skills in the ring, the crazy persona, and the charisma to win the crowd. Flair started in the old days of dozens of wrestling organizations and was able to stay at the top of his game all the way to Vince McMahon’s consolidation of the WWE. Ric Flair fought for decades and won belt after belt after belt. So, who did he really feud with backstage? How did a plane crash help him discover his wrestling persona? Where did the woooooo come from? Where did the line blur between his character and himself? Listen, laugh, learn.

Visit Our Sources:

Nature Boy: 30 For 30, ESPN.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ric_Flair

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/ric-flair-10009.php

https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/ric-flair-net-worth-salary

https://www.natureboyricflair.com/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-ric-flair/

I Quit Match: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyakky

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the king of the jungle. And by jungle, I mean petting zoo. That’s right, goats. No, we don’t mean Michael Jordan, the Greatest Of All Time. We mean goats. Billy goats, pygmy goats, mountain goats. You might wonder what is so exciting about goats. Do you want to know who doesn’t wonder that? Satan! That’s right, from Satan’s ultimate symbol to Pan, the horny Greek god, these domesticated devils have been part of human civilization for 10,000 years. So, what is a Goat Tower? Which American President had goats for pets? How can goats be used to fight climate change disasters? The simple goat may just surprise you!

Visit Our Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat#Mythology_and_folklore

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/61542/15-amazing-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-goats

https://backyardgoats.iamcountryside.com/kids-corner/10-amazing-benefits-of-owning-a-goat/

https://www.livescience.com/52540-goat-facts.html

https://factslegend.org/20-crazy-goat-facts/

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we talk about a wicked case of human test subjects known as the Holmesburg Prison Experiments. This small prison in Philadelphia became home to a very unethical doctor named Albert Kligman. He was brought there to investigate a break-out of athletes foot among the inmates, but what he saw was “acres of skin.” The hundreds of humans were the ultimate petri dish for Kligman, and he began to experiment. The shocking thing is that he had the support of the University of Pennsylvania, the prison system, the courts, and companies like Dow and Johnson and Johnson. What did he test? He started by testing shampoos and soaps on prisoner skin. He ended up dosing them with dioxin, wrecking them with radiation, and nuking them in microwave ovens. What brought this to a stop? What is Kligman’s reputation like now? Did any prisoners get justice? Listen, laugh, learn.

 

Visit Our Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmesburg_Prison

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/black-prison-inmates-experiments

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Kligman

https://www.med.upenn.edu/evpdeancommunications/2021-08-20-283.html

On this episode, we explore the Branch Davidians, their leader, David Koresh, and the deadly siege at Waco, Texas. This was one of the biggest conspiracies of the 1990s, and the story is full of bizarre and exciting twists. The Davidians started in the 1930s and grew to be an apocalyptic cult that preached that the world’s government was run by the devil and that the Davidians would all die as soldiers against the devil’s government soldiers in a storm of fire. They got most of that right, as it turns out. When Koresh took over in 1983, the power struggle involved an attempt to exhume a corpse and resurrect it. You read that right…

After a box of hand grenades was discovered by a delivery driver, a 51 day siege of the compound known as Mt. Carmel started. First the ATF attempted to arrest Koresh and serve a search warrant, but it ended in a deadly gunfight. We discuss this and the details of the 51 day siege, looking closely at what the Davidians did wrong and what the FBI did wrong. The siege culminated in a prolonged gunfight, a day-long assault of tear gas, and the compound burning to the ground with an estimated 80 Davidians (over 20 children) still inside. Who started the fire? Was it the cult members or the FBI? What lies did the FBI tell congress and Janet Reno (there were plenty). Where did President Clinton and Hillary Clinton come in? Did Delta Force secretly kill all the people on the compound? This story is a strange one, and the debate gets rather heated this time around. You won’t want to miss it. Thanks to listener Stephen Thunderdome for the topic suggestion of cults and cult leaders!

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at Aum Shinrikyo, the Japanese “Death Cult” lead by the mysterious (and crazy) Shoko Asahara. Aum made international headlines in 1995 when they attacked the Tokyo subway system with Sarin gas killing 13 people and wounding thousands, but this bizarre cult did (and planned) a lot more than that.

Their leader, Asahara, was born mostly blind to a poor family with seven kids. Once he graduated high school, he was unable to get admitted to a college and started to study Chinese herbalism and medicine as well as acupuncture, yoga, meditation, and various religions. He started his group innocently enough as a studio for yoga, but as he recruited some of the best minds from top Japanese universities, things took a dark turn.

His religious teachings started to focus on the Bible’s Revelations and even the predictions of the end of the world by Nostradamus. He became obsessed with the US and thought they would start WWIII and nuke the world. Well, we still might to be fair, but he said it would happen in 1997. Best of all, by 1992, he declared himself the new Jesus, the rightful Japanese Emperor, and the Lamb of God. Logically, this meant he needed to form groups of special soldiers who would overturn the Japanese social orders with mass killings to let him take the throne. And we thought American cult leaders had all the crazy!

So, tune in to hear about how they pulled off the Sarin attacks and a previous attack in Matsumoto. After the Subway attack, Aum went on a killing spree, trying to assassinate government officials and even attempting to detonate a Cyanide canister in a busier Tokyo Subway just a few weeks later. We discuss how they manufactured their WMDs, various murders their cult performed, and even a plan to spread poisonous gas to all of Tokyo by deploying it with a Soviet made Mil MI-17 helicopter they bought from some of their 30,000 Russian cult members. But above all that, what makes them the cult to end all cults? Anime! That’s right, theu produced anime and comic books to recruit people, and the footage (as well as a sweet dance video) can still be found on YouTube. They are totally worth watching, and this episode it totally worth listening to.