Empires, Anarchy & Other Notable Moments

This is the first in a series of four episodes regarding Mexico's real life Jose Cuervo, a man whose story goes far beyond the drink that he made famous throughout America. This episode focuses on establishing the challenges that came with life in the Mexican region of Tequila, whose volcanic soil allows them to grow the best blue agave plants in the world. There his uncles would carve out a busin...

This is the sixth and final episode in a series  regarding America's first terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan.  Although the trial of D.C. Stephenson stopped the forward momentum of the Klan, it continued to pervert American society in a variety of forms.  This episode traces white supremacy, neo-nazism, and the American bund movement before looking at how the Klan operates today in its thir...

This is the fifth in a series of six episodes regarding America's first terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan.  Hiram Evans, the tooth puller, made a grave mistake in ceding regional control of his Klan to D.C. Stephenson, a man cloaked in half-lies and full-failures. He would take the Klan to its greatest heights, initiating 1/3rd of all Hoosiers, spinning off into a Women's Klan, and sponsori...

This is the fourth in a series of six episodes regarding America's first terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan.  Following the success of America's first blockbuster, The Birth of a Nation, a failed businessman in Atlanta dusts off the name Ku Klux Klan. His struggles were alleviated, however, by two marketers who believed that they saw an opportunity to make boatloads of money. Their efforts t...

This is the third in a series of six episodes regarding America's first terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan.  The 15th amendment's bestowing of the vote on African American men was designed to be the ultimate weapon in the fight for equal rights throughout the South. Freedmen represented a core constituency in the South, one that both parties would have to tailor policies towards in order to...

This is the second in a series of six episodes regarding America's first terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan.  Although it started as a harmless way to poke fun at newly Freedmen by ex-confederate soldiers, the KKK became the number one threat to security in the American South after Former General Nathaniel Bedford Forrest took the reigns. The architect of the Pillow Massacre, one of just two...

This is the first in a series of six episodes regarding America's first terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan.  America has twice before defeated the KKK; only to see the organization rise again as its enemies had failed to address the ideology of white supremacy that was at the core of the group's belief system.  While subsequent episodes take a chronological look at the organization, this epi...

This is the seventh and final episode in a series regarding the terrorist leader of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden.  The hunt for Bin Laden covers the terrorists time between escaping the mountains of Tora Bora and up to the raid that final brought Osama to justice.  Along the way we meet some of the characters that surrounded him in his last days, his obsession with 'just for men,' and why the governm...

This is the sixth in a series of seven episodes regarding the terrorist leader of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden.  The hunt for Bin Laden cools after he managed to escape US forces in Tora Bora, but that doesn't stop America from expanding the War on Terror.  Beyond an endless war against an impossible to defeat idea, the conflict tested America's core ideas:  Freedom of Speech, Freedom from Torture, D...

This is the fifth in a series of seven episodes regarding the terrorist leader of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden.  The September 11th attacks permanently changed the course of world history.  In this episode, I walk through the timeline, Bin Laden's thoughts, and the immediate actions of President Bush.  Along the way, I attempt to debunk the main conspiracies that emerged from the attacks as well as o...

This is the fourth in a series of seven episodes regarding the terrorist leader of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden.  Al Qaeda had officially declared war, but left the next move up to the United States.  It was here that Bill Clinton (and then George W. Bush) would come up short.  Despite the Bin Laden Task force screaming for action, the Monica Lewinsky affair and Hollywood's decision to release 'Wag t...

This is the third in a series of seven episodes regarding the terrorist leader of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden.  After successfully participated in the defeat of the Soviet Union, bin Laden returns home to Saudi Arabia expecting a hero's welcome.  The rise of regional threat Saddam Hussein encourages him to once again put down his construction work in favor of a Mujahideen's ak-47.  His offer for hel...

This is the second in a series of seven episodes regarding the terrorist leader of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden.  This episode dives deeper into the terrorists radicalization through two separate events.  In the first one, Osama was shocked to see terrorists assault the Grand Mosque, the site of the House of God.  In the second instance, Osama would feel as though he was called to serve; first as fin...

This is the first in a series of seven episodes regarding the terrorist leader of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden.  This episode covers his formative years, looking into some of the misconceptions that many have regarding Islam, his untypical upbringing by his parents, and his exposure to fundamentalist ideas.  I also examine some of the key events that happen in the same year that his father dies in a...

This is the fifth and final episode in a series  regarding specific moments of divergence in African American history; moments were two distinct choices were offered.  This episode focuses the leaders of the Modern Civil Rights Movement.  When taught simplistically, Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X become polar opposites.  But dig in to the true story and one finds a singular vision for our fut...

This is the fourth in a series of five episodes regarding specific moments of divergence in African American history; moments were two distinct choices were offered.  This episode focuses the leaders of the early Civil Rights Movement.  Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institution, focused on vocational education; believing that proving their worth through work would lead to equality....

This is the third in a series of five episodes regarding specific moments of divergence in African American history; moments were two distinct choices were offered.  This episode focuses on the American Colonization Societies longstanding goal for repatriation to Africa.  The idea of 'a return' simmered throughout American history, from pre-civil war advocates like the Great Compromiser, Henry Cla...

This is the second in a series of five episodes regarding specific moments of divergence in African American history; moments were two distinct choices were offered.  This episode focuses on the role that African Americans played in the American Revolution.  Special attention is paid to Crispus Attucks and the Boston Massacre, the loyalist Ethiopian Regiment, and the Rhode Island First. Contact th...

This is the first in a series of five episodes regarding specific moments of divergence in African American history; moments were two distinct choices were offered.  This episode focuses on Christianity, which was forcibly introduced in order to justify slavery (curse of ham, plantation bible etc) but was instead used to spread the liberation philosophy that was co-opted by men like Nat Turner and...

This is the eighth and final episode in a series  regarding America's seventh President, Andrew Jackson.  It covers the remainder of Jackson's life as well as the legacy left behind by the men who followed in his aftermath: James Polk, Martin Van Buren, Roger Taney, and Abraham Lincoln.  Clip of Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson, a broadway musical (NSFW - language) - https://youtu.be/gzs0CLXiqA8?si=s...

This is the seventh in a series of eight episodes regarding America's seventh President, Andrew Jackson.  It covers the remainder of Jackson's time in public office with a focus on the Bank War, Indian Removal, and the Nullification Crisis. Contact the show at resourcesbylowery@gmail.com or on Bluesky @EmpiresPod If you would like to financially support the show, please use the following paypal li...

This is the sixth in a series of eight episodes regarding America's seventh President, Andrew Jackson.  Old Hickory had already proven himself to be as tough as they come, but even he was unprepared for the real housewives of DC.  This episode covers his attempt at governing Washington while his Veep schemed behind his back.  The spoils system, Kitchen Cabinet, and the seeds of Indian Removal are...

This is the fifth in a series of eight episodes regarding America's seventh President, Andrew Jackson.  Feeling as though he had been robed unfairly of the Presidency, Jackson plots his revenge in 1828.  Maintaining his political machinery in the aftermath of the Corrupt Bargain, Jackson spends the next 4 years campaigning against the sitting president.  It set the stage for the nastiest election...

This is the fourth in a series of eight episodes regarding America's seventh President, Andrew Jackson.  Having "saved" the nation at New Orleans, Jackson parlays his newfound hero-status into the territorial governorship of Florida, a seat in the Senate representing Tennessee, and a candidate in the 1824 election to replace James Monroe.  But with victory in his grasp, John Quincy Adams, with the...

This is the third in a series of eight episodes regarding America's seventh President, Andrew Jackson.  This episode explores the origins of Old Hickory's hero status via the hero's journey.  Picking up the events at the end of the Creek war, Jackson is summoned to fight his old Revolutionary foe, the British in the War of 1812.  In addition, to Jackson's success at the Battle of New Orleans, we d...