We Always Lie to Strangers: An Ozarks Podcast

This episode is about the defining legacy of Orval Faubus- violent resistance to integration in the Little Rock School District against federal orders after the Brown vs The Board of Education ruling

Back to the main story of Orval Faubus, this week focuses primarily on his first term as governor, which is more politically progressive than not. We meet the White Citizens Council, a racist political group that ultimately influences Orval into the segregationist camp, and, as usual, talk lot about rural Arkansas high schools.

This week, we take a brief detour from Orval Faubus to discuss Commonwealth College, a short-lived leftist radical labor college in the rural Arkansas Ouachitas. I know the timing of this release is odd, in the middle of a series, but it makes sense! Orval Faubus is an alumni of sorts, after all

In the second episode about the life and times of Orval Faubus, we learn about his short-lived attendance at Commonwealth College, a left-wing work college in the rural Arkansas Ouachitas, followed by his experiences in Europe during World War Two. Then, we learn about his early political career, culminating in his election as Arkansas Governor in 1954.

This is the first episode of a full series on Orval Faubus, the 36th governor of Arkansas. Orval's legacy rightfully focuses on his staunch segregationist policies, but if you look at his story, you can clearly see how American politics has always and will always be the same. This episode focuses more on Orval's father Sam, a prominent member of the Socialist Party in the Ozarks, and the history of Socialism in the Ozarks before its decline following World War I. We also learn about other family members, including a country singing brother named Doyle, and learn about Orval's childhood and some of his pre-political career adult years.

In our loosest episode to date, we hear the story of a B-25 bomber that crashed on a mountain in rural Arkansas, on a site that is now a hiking trail. We also learn about a few more plane crashes in Arkansas and beyond. We also just chit chat for a lot longer than usual, discussing baseball, hiking trails throughout the Ozark National Forest, donkey basketball, flying on little planes from small town airports, Gus's childhood interest in ventriloquism and multiple hosts meeting Bill Clinton, among other things

The story of Maud Duncan, the first woman to be elected mayor in the state of Arkansas, as well as her role as the long time editor of the Winslow American newspaper. We also discuss rural Arkansas school consolidation, the Olympics, sports in general, and Daniel's long-standing dislike of horses/horsepeople. In fact, from about 16:00-24:00, we are off topic the whole time!

This week, down a cohost, we discuss the history of Bullfrog Valley, an area of the Southern Ozarks in Arkansas and the valley's most famous occupants, a gang of counterfeiters known as the Bullfrog Valley Gang. Also some discussions of headless horsemen and Quiz Bowl

This week, we learn about and discuss a found, hidden and lost radium mine, somewhere deep in the Mark Twain National Forest in the Southern Missouri Ozarks. (Specifically, the Piney Creek Wilderness area of the Mark Twain Natoional Forest)

In this episode, after an overview of Ghost Mountain, an allegedly haunted mountain near Fayetteville, we get into the story of Doodie, a student at the University of Arkansas and suspect in the infamous, unsolved Texarkana Moonlight Murders. We also talk about Fayetteville food trucks for a while