The Dave Bowman Show

It's just like work, but without that pesky paycheck...

On this episode of Dave Does History on Bill Mick Live we took a hard look at a statement from Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia that deserves more than a passing shrug. Kaine declared that our rights do not come from God or from nature, but from government. That claim cuts right into the heart of the American idea. Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence begins with the opposite truth, that we are cr...

In September of 1775, George Washington had just taken command of the Continental Army outside Boston. Morale was shaky, training was ragged, and then came the discovery: our entire army had enough gunpowder for each soldier to fire only nine shots.

Michelangelo’s David is one of those statues that we think we know because we have seen him everywhere. He shows up on posters, postcards, and even tourist aprons. But the real David, the one that stands seventeen feet tall in Florence, is something else entirely. When you see him in person, you understand why people call him the greatest sculpture of the Renaissance. The story behind David is as...

This week, Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod are pulling no punches. From a murder story ignored by mainstream media to viral “Karen” clips that light up the internet, they’re asking the hard question: who decides what matters? They dive headfirst into the world of AI, misinformation, and video fakery, wondering how long we can trust our eyes when machines can rewrite reality. Add in some sharp commentary...

The first days of September 1944 found the USS Paddle deep in enemy waters, sliding along the edge of the Sulu Sea and the Celebes, that broad, restless stretch of ocean where islands rise like jagged teeth out of the water. She was a Gato-class submarine, crewed by men who had already seen enough of the war to know its rhythms. They knew the false alarms, the sudden bursts of action, and the endl...

Special Guests Lena and Graham from the Patrol Reports Podcast join us today to talk about the first US Submarine attack in history... during the Revolutionary War... On the night of September 7, 1776, New York Harbor looked like a wooden forest, crowded with the towering masts of the Royal Navy. The British had come to town, and they came in force. Admiral Richard Howe’s fleet lay at anchor, its...

There's been a lot of life and loss since the last time...

Shabbat greetings come in many forms, but none carry the simple beauty and peace of just saying 'Shabbat Shalom

On September 6, 1901, the Temple of Music at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo was filled with excitement. Crowds gathered to see President William McKinley, a leader at the height of his popularity, who delighted in greeting ordinary Americans face to face. It was supposed to be a celebration of progress and prosperity, but history had other plans. Among those waiting in line was Leon Czolgo...

One of them has it. The other doesn't

In September of 1622, the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha set sail from Havana carrying a fortune in silver, gold, emeralds, pearls, and goods that represented the wealth of an empire. She was the rear guard of the treasure fleet, armed with twenty bronze cannons and built to protect the convoy from attack. Her holds were so full that the registered cargo alone would be worth hundreds of...

Got My Kidney X-Rays

On September 4, 1957, the front steps of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, became the stage for one of the most dramatic confrontations of the Civil Rights era. Nine African American teenagers, known now as the Little Rock Nine, tried to attend school like any other students. Instead, they found themselves blocked by the Arkansas National Guard and surrounded by an angry mob. Governor...

The USS Cod was one of the Silent Service’s proud hunters in World War II, a steel prowler built to stalk and sink the ships that kept Japan’s war machine alive. Commissioned in June of 1943, she quickly entered the fight in the South China Sea and the waters off Java and Luzon. Aboard her during the second and third war patrols was Calvin Baker, a young man who had graduated from submarine school...

In 36 BCE, the Roman Republic’s fate wasn’t decided in the Senate or on a battlefield in Italy, but on the waves off Sicily. The Battle of Naulochus is a name most people have never heard, yet it was the clash that made Augustus possible. Rome was starving, her grain supply strangled by Sextus Pompeius, son of Pompey the Great, who ruled the seas like a pirate king. Into this crisis stepped Marcus...

Three Wolves, One Sheep, and the Dinner Vote

Robin Wright wants you to know...

When Thomas Jefferson sharpened his quill and began drafting the Declaration of Independence, he wasn’t simply writing lofty poetry about liberty and equality. He was building a case—an indictment of King George III and the British system that treated the American colonies less like partners and more like neglected stepchildren. Jefferson’s soaring words about natural rights tend to get all the gl...

In the summer of 1920, the United States Navy had a new submarine to boast about. USS S-5, hull number SS-110, was one of the latest S-class boats, built not just for coastal defense but for true blue-water operations. She measured 231 feet in length, with a beam just shy of 22 feet, displacing 876 tons on the surface and 1,092 tons when submerged. She carried four 21-inch bow torpedo tubes, a 4-i...

There's no Such things as "bad" publicity, right? Right?

The Powder Alarm of 1774 is one of those moments in American history that does not get the glory of Lexington and Concord, but in many ways it deserves it. It was the day New England almost went to war months before the Revolution officially began. It was loud, it was chaotic, and it was sparked by rumor. In the end, no one fired a shot, but the entire colony of Massachusetts got a crash course in...

This week on What The Frock?, Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod take on a world that seems determined to trip over its own absurdities. The conversation begins with NBC issuing a bizarre correction to a story on the Minneapolis Catholic school shooting, where the network felt the real offense was not the act of violence itself but the pronoun used for the killer. That sparks a larger debate about affirming...

When people think of Rome’s worst emperor, Caligula is usually the first name they blurt out. He has become a sort of shorthand for tyranny, madness, and depravity. If you want an example of how absolute power corrupts absolutely, the popular image of Caligula will do the job. He is the emperor who supposedly made his horse a consul, slept with his sisters, declared himself a god, ordered his troo...

The Washington–Moscow Hotline is one of those Cold War stories that everyone thinks they know, but almost nobody really understands. Ask most people and they will tell you about a red phone, sitting on the president’s desk, ready to ring in the dead of night. The president picks it up, and the voice on the other end is a Soviet premier warning that the missiles are flying. That image is iconic. It...