When It Was Cool Dark

Make no mistake about it. NoFriender, host of the Thrash Metal Show Podcast, made this show for one reason only- to mess with When It Was Cool founder Karl Stern. Still, it's not as ridiculous a question as it may seem on the surface. What if the most superhuman in-time drumming machine were the drummer for thrash heavy metal's most legendary group rather than Lars who, let's just say, may have questionable timing issues. Anyway, this is all pretty fun.

DragonKing Dark Podcast continues to get even darker this week as we continue the theme of the faces of evil.  On this episode, host Karl Stern from WhenItWasCool.com asks the question, who are the most evil people in history? Several immediately come to mind for obvious reasons but are there any we overlook? Are there people who's evil acts and evil nature are completely evident until later on? Did these evil people meet a terrible end or did their unholy works go unpunished in this life time?

Host Karl Stern celebrates his birthday all week long with a look back at the year he was born- 1971. On this episode, we look back at the insane circus that was the Manson family trial. While the killings took place in 1969 and the trial began in 1970 it wasn't until 1971 that a verdict could finally be reached. The Charles Manson family trial was a media circus and the cult played continuous mind games with the court including some outrages antics.

This is a fun show and a real mind bender. Tonya and Karl discuss some very esoteric questions including: What if you were born with an expiration date? You know the date of your death but not the nature of it. It would impact the world in lots of ways you might not think of. We also discuss time travel, the butterfly effect, and how seeing into either the future or visiting the past would impact your life in very profound ways. This is an example of the Patreon only content you get at WhenItWasCool.com

This week DragonKing Dark takes a turn toward true crime with a look at three wrestlers whose careers were tainted by murder accusations. Most everyone is very familiar with Chris Benoit who killed his wife and child and then himself. But did you know I once had dinner with him? I'll tell you about it and discuss the crime. Jimmy Snuka never went to trial on the killing of Nancy Argentina, he died of cancer first, but we will discuss the night in 1983 she was killed. Finally, a deep dive into wrestling history finds that the World Welterweight champion and his wife were also indicted for murder but ultimately acquitted. I'll tell you about that too.

Professional wrestling has had it's share of tragedy, accident, and true crime over it's lengthy American history but, July as it seems, has historically been the worst month of all.  A major superstar comes to America and is the darling of the press and would spawn imitators for decades later. He also literally goes down with the ship. Car wrecks, freak boating accidents, and even murder.  July is a month that, as a pro wrestler, should bear extra caution. 

DragonKing Dark takes another journey back in time to study ancient civilizations in our continuing effort to make sense out of the history of mankind, a timeline which seems to have a lot of pieces that don't fit. One of the great central American cultures surrounded by a lot of mystery are the Olmecs.  They left us several giant carved heads. We presume these heads represent the Olmecs but why are they all wearing helmets? Have some of these same heads also been found in Africa? We try to cut through the information and misinformation surrounding the mysterious Olmec culture and attempt to determine where they fit into our story of human civilization.

To date, Overkill has released nineteen studio albums, an album of cover songs, two EPs, one demo tape, and three live albums. They were one of the first thrash metal bands to sign to a major label, having signed to Atlantic Records in 1986, and rose to fame as part of the genre's movement of the mid-to-late 1980s, along with the "big four" Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax and other bands such as Exodus and Testament.  Join NoFriender for part 3 of this series.

This week on DragonKing Dark, host Karl Stern returns to the topic of ancient civilizations and tries to unpack the question - what is actually the most ancient organized civilization we know of? Most of us know of the Sumerians, and ancient Egypt of course, but recent archeological investigation is beginning to shed light on even older civilizations which are moving more north of the "cradle of civilization" of the Persian Gulf region.  And what beyond that? Do we really even have a grasp of the history of our planet? The answers are interesting.

This week on the DragonKing Dark Podcast, we are going to look at how we remember the dead.  In years past, the veneration of the deceased was a big deal. Historically, mankind has built elaborate tombs, pyramids, even cities to the deceased.  As recently as the early 1900s it was not uncommon for families to erect massive memorials to departed loved ones. On this weeks episode Karl discusses the differences between then and now and visits a historic cemetery in Nashville, TN to pay respects to a pop culture legend.