Conflicted: A History Podcast

Fake coffee. Rotten meat. Poison milk. This is the story of a few good men and their bitter fight to make America’s food supply safe. Hounded by enemies and discredited at every turn, a handful of scientists and activists challenged the titans of the 19th century food industry – and won.  SOURCES: Blum, Deborah. The Poison Squad: One Chemists Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of th...

Tank battles, Cold War politics, and nuclear alerts. This is the epic conclusion of a two-part series on the Yom Kippur War. On October 6th, 1973, Egypt and Syria launch a brilliant surprise attack on the nation of Israel. Golda Meir struggles to restrain her generals from unleashing doomsday weapons, and Dr. Henry Kissinger navigates the perilous world of Cold War diplomacy in hopes of bringing t...

The Yom Kippur War of 1973 has been described as the greatest military intelligence failure since Pearl Harbor. This is the story of how a vengeful surprise attack almost destroyed the nation of Israel. Told through the eyes of titanic personalities like Anwar Sadat, Golda Meir, and Moshe Dayan. (Part 1 of 2). SOURCES: Boyne, Walter J. The Two O’clock War. 2002. Blum, Howard. The Eve of Destructio...

On June 5th, 1864, the Shogun’s secret police raced against time to foil a sweeping terrorist plot in Kyoto. The ensuing bloodbath would have far-reaching consequences for the future of Japan.  SOURCES: Hillsborough, Romulus. Shinsengumi: The Shogun’s Last Samurai Corps. 2005. Hillsborough, Romulus. Samurai Revolution. 2014.  Hillsborough, Romulus. Samurai Assassins. 2017.  Jansen, Marius B. The M...

The Marquis De Sade was a pariah in his time, a monster on the page, and a genius in death. But what crimes did the namesake of “sadism” actually commit? Where did his real-life appetites end…and his literary fantasies begin? (Explicit, obviously) SOURCES: Thomas, Donald. The Marquis de Sade. 1976. Du Plessix Gray, Francine. At Home with the Marquis de Sade. 1998. Lever, Maurice. Sade. 1994. Schae...

How the US government deliberately sent thousands of mentally-disabled men into combat during the Vietnam War. A bonus episode and companion to Episode 12: "The Good Guys". SOURCES: Gregory, Hamilton. McNamara's Folly: The Use of Low-IQ Troops in the Vietnam War. 2015.  Hsiao, Lisa. “Project 100,000: The Great Society’s Answer to Military Manpower Needs in Vietnam”. 1989. Hastings, Sir Max. Vietna...

The 1968 My Lai Massacre shocked Americans, but the true nature of the Vietnam War went far beyond anything the public could’ve imagined. This is the story of the war within the War, between the soldiers who brutalized Vietnamese civilians, and the unsung men who tried to stop them. SOURCES: Jones, Howard. My Lai. 2015.  Hastings, Sir Max. Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy (1945-1975). 2018.  Hersh, Seymou...

In 1945, the German city of Dresden was consumed in a firestorm engineered by the Allies. Many consider it to be a war crime. Others, a necessary evil. SOURCES Taylor, Frederick. Dresden: Tuesday, February 13th, 1945. 2004. McKay, Sinclair. The Fire and the Darkness: The Bombing of Dresden 1945. 2020. Charles River Editors. The Firebombing of Dresden and Tokyo. 2017. Gregg, Victor. Dresden: A Surv...

A bonus episode concerning the Praetorian Guard's musical and murderous relationship with Rome's fabulous fifth Emperor, Nero. An epilogue to E10: "Kingbreakers" SOURCES: Strauss, Barry. Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine.2019 De La Bodeyere, Guy. Praetorian: The Rise and Fall of Rome’s Imperial Bodyguard. 2017 Rankov, Boris. The Praetorian Guard. 1994 Bingham, Sandra. The Pr...

The story of Rome through the eyes of the infamous Praetorian Guard, feared bodyguards who wielded the power and leverage to make – or break – the Emperors they swore to protect. SOURCES: Strauss, Barry. Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine. 2019 De La Bodeyere, Guy. Praetorian: The Rise and Fall of Rome’s Imperial Bodyguard. 2017 Rankov, Boris. The Praetorian Guard. 1994 Bingh...

Genghis Khan and the Mongols killed millions, but were they actually woke AF? Let's tackle the surprisingly progressive (yet blood-drenched) legacy of one of history's most mysterious empires. SOURCES: Weatherford, Jack. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. 2004. Weatherford, Jack. Genghis Khan and the Quest for God. 2016. Weatherford, Jack. The Secret History of the Mongol Queens. 201...

Car bombs, hitmen, and hunger strikes. How "The Troubles" tore Northern Ireland apart. SOURCES: Toolis, Kevin. Rebel Hearts. 1995 McKittrick, David. Making Sense of the Troubles. 2000 Coogan, Tim Pat. The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal and the Search for Peace. 1995. Edwards, Aaron. The Northern Ireland Troubles. 2014. O'Doherty, Malachi. The Trouble With Guns. 1998. Collins, Eamon. Killing Rage. 1997...

Wonder and warmth quickly turn to slaughter and horror as Hernan Cortes meets Emperor Moctezuma in the explosive conclusion of this two-part series. SOURCES: Levy, Buddy. Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs. Sheppard, Si. Tenochtitlan 1519-1521. 2018. Thomas, Hugh. Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes, and the Fall of Old Mexico. 1993. Prescott, William H. History...

How a handful of mercenaries, explorers, and pirates destroyed the Aztec Empire and burnt its capital city to the ground. Two cultures collide in the first of a two-part series on the Conquest of Mexico.  SOURCES: Levy, Buddy. Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs. Sheppard, Si. Tenochtitlan 1519-1521. 2018. Thomas, Hugh. Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes, and the...

The story of China’s infamous One-Child Policy, the most ambitious (and catastrophic) social engineering project the modern world has ever seen. SOURCES: Fong, Mei. One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment. 2016 Evans, Karin. The Lost Daughters of China. 2008 Johnson, Kay Ann. China’s Hidden Children. 2016 Xinran, Message From an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love. 201...

How a single week in 1967 changed the Middle East, and the world, forever. This is the action-packed, heartbreaking origin story of Israel and the Six-Day War.  SOURCES: Oren, Michael B. Six Days Of War. 2002. Pressfield, Steven. The Lion’s Gate. 2014. Churchill, Randolph S. The Six Day War. 1967 Dana, Seif. “The 1967 Naksa: The Making of the New Middle East”. Al Jazeera. June 2016. Samuel, Sigal....

African berserkers, graceful samurai, and deadly Soviet fighter pilots. A three-part, globe-trotting tour of remarkable female soldiers and the complicated lives that they led. SOURCES: Vinogradova, Lyuba. Defending the Motherland. 2015 Alpern, Stanley B. Amazons of Black Sparta. 1998. Dash, Mike. “Dahomey’s Women Warriors”. Smithsonian.com. Sept 2011 Busch, Jenna. “Meet the Dahomey Amazons, the I...

The Rated-R-for-Russian story of the Red Army’s horrific campaign of vengeance against Nazi Germany.  SOURCES: Beevor, Antony. The Fall of Berlin 1945. 2003. Huggler, Justin. “Fall of Berlin: ‘Of course I was afraid. I was 17 years old.’”. The Telegraph UK. May 2015 Johnson, Daniel. “Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps”. The Guardian. Jan 2002. Ash, Lucy. “The Ra...

Sea battles, tiger hunts, and a mountain of human noses. This is the Shakespearean saga that triggered centuries of bad blood between Korea and Japan. SOURCES: Samuel, Hawley. The Imjin War: Japan's Sixteenth-Century Invasion of Korea and Attempt to Conquer China. 2005 Turnbull, Stephen. The Samurai Invasion of Korea. 2008. Turnbull, Stephen. War in Japan, 1467-1615. 2002 Berry, Mary Elizabeth. Hi...

A myth-busting breakdown of history’s favorite fitness cult. SOURCES: Hanson, Victor Davis. A War Like No Other. 2005. Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War Plutarch. Parallel Lives Xenophon. Hellenica Cartledge, Paul. “The Socratics’ Sparta and Rosseau’s”. Cambridge University. 1998 Penades, Antonio. “Bred for Battle - Understanding Ancient Sparta’s Military Machine”. National Geographic H...

A quick introduction to the concept behind the show and your host, Zach Cornwell.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices