Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast

Ms. Julia Chase, 53, of Hagerstown, MD took the White House public tour on April 3, 1956. She wandered away from her group and spent two hours creeping around the Executive Manson...starting fires. Five in total.  You won't believe what happened next (teaser). Minicasts are short (approx. 5 min) stories for fans of quick, to-the-point podcasts and as a nice change of pace from the longer full epis...

Story: Shakespeare Comes to America - How was a minor American industrialist, Henry Clay Folger, able to buy up so much of Shakespeare that more of Ol' William's written output is now in Washington DC than in all of England? It's a tale of an agricultural depression and the decline of the British aristocracy. You know, Downton Abbey style. The Brits needed money. American robber barons had it. Sud...

During the Cold War, the Pentagon tried to come up with a non-military use for nuclear warheads to justify building even more of them. Project Plowshare was one of the results. Because detonating nukes underground to help mine natural gas is...a thing that could not go obviously and terribly wrong. Yeah fracking is bad. But fracking could have been so much worse. Minicasts are short (approx. 5 min...

  Question Cathy joins me for an entire episode of user submitted questions about the midterm election. Topics we cover include Beto-mania, the Democrats' challenge in retaking the Senate, alternative voting methods, and the risks of political hobbyism (and the best ways to get involved if you can). Episode 012 (forthcoming) will return to the normal format shortly. If you're dying for a story, ch...

Story: Ten Cent Beer Night - In 1974 the Cleveland Indians turned to the forbidden fruit of promo giveaways to cure their ailing attendance. Results are predictable, except the part where a guy was nearly killed with a gallon jug of Thunderbird. That surprised everyone. They played the Texas Rangers that night, but their real opponent was human nature. Guests: This is a shortened episode (story on...

Story: The Disappearing Prime Minister - Australia is a crazy place. It's huge, empty, and full of things that can kill you. And every once in a while one of their Prime Ministers will disappear without a trace. Not figuratively, either.  Guests: Mike Bridavsky, owner / engineer of Russian Recording , member of Memory Map , and LIL BUB's ( @IAMLILBUB ) human dude. Yes, the same BUB who became a da...

The President of the United States, a man who claims to possess unimaginable wealth, somehow cannot get a suit that fits him. Why? The reasons have more to do with his personality than you might think. Minicasts are short (approx. 5 min) stories for fans of quick, to-the-point podcasts and as a nice change of pace from the longer full episodes of Mass for Shut-ins.

The filibuster has an interesting history in the U.S. Senate, but the term itself has an even more convoluted story. It involves, separately, both pirates AND mercenaries. Minicasts are short (approx. 5 min) stories for fans of quick, to-the-point podcasts and as a nice change of pace from the longer full episodes of Mass for Shut-ins.

Story: Brother, have you seen my Vermeer? The crazy secret life of stolen art masterpieces. For more information on the Isabella Stewart Gardner heist covered in this podcast, check out Master Thieves by Steven Kurkjian.  Or get a quick overview here .  Guests: Alyssa Bowen ( @alyssaannbowen ) UNC graduate student and anti-Silent Sam activist and Dr. Carolyn Holmes ( @carolyneholmes ) of Mississip...

Most people under 50 only know Steve Allen, if at all, as the answer to the trivia question, "Who was the first host of the Tonight Show?" Those who remember his normie comedy stylings would hardly call him a genius. But I'm here to talk you through it. Mass for Shut-ins Minicasts are ~5 minute stories to tide you over between full episodes, unless of course you don't like long podcasts. In that c...

Story: THE MAN WHO SAVED THE WHALES - The true story of Abraham Gesner, the obscure Canadian geologist whose big discovery in 1846 made whaling unprofitable just as most whale species were on the brink of extinction.  Guest: Dr. Ari Kohen , professor of political theory at University of Nebraska - Lincoln, curator of TrumpWatch , co-founder of the Hero Roundtable , and author of Untangling Heroism...

A brief look at the ORIGINAL Mass for Shut-ins - not this podcast, but the 1962-1992 public service broadcast on WGN-TV out of Chicago. I have discovered that the reference was not nearly as recognizable as I thought at first, so consider this an explainer if you've been curious what this seemingly random phrase means. Mass for Shut-ins Minicasts are ~5 minute stories to tide you over between full...

Story: THE RED SQUARE PILOT - The true story of Mathias Rust, the German teen who took his tiny Cessna 172 and invaded the Soviet Union with it. Late Cold War hijinks. May have very slightly hastened the fall of the USSR.  Guest: Dr. Lisa Wade, author of best-selling textbook "Gender" and the popular press book "American Hookup" about the sex lives of college students. She founded the excellent bl...

The terrifying tones of the Emergency Broadcast / Alert System are a lot more interesting than you think. And since you think they're not interesting at all, I have a very low bar to clear. Minicasts will be in the area of 5 minutes, posted between episodes and without many bells and whistles (intro, music, etc) which is time consuming for me production-wise. They will be short, hopefully interest...

Story: THE STAMP THAT MAILED A CANAL - How a 10-centavo Nicaraguan postage stamp turned the Nicaragua Canal into the Panama Canal in 1902. The tale combines all of your favorites: Gilded Age corrupt-af US congressional politics, comic-tragic Frenchmen, the Suez Canal, and hydrological engineering! Guest: Dr. Timothy Rich , who studies the Korean Peninsula as well as Taiwan and...Nigerian email sca...

Story: THE ROGUE TYPESETTER who terrorized Victorian London. The mystery of the Harcourt Interpolation. Easily the most exciting moment in the history of type compositing.  Guest: SSgt. Katie Schmid, US Army ( @SchmidCathrine ), plaintiff challenging the Trump transgender military ban. Read more about Katie's story here . Topic: Duverger's Law and the American two-party system. Why does Germany's...

Story: DEATH BY UMBRELLA: The Georgi Markov story. A tale of intrigue and covert operations from the late Cold War that John Le Carre couldn't have scripted any better.  Guest: Mike Konczal ( @rortybomb ), Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and contributor to Vox, The Nation, Dissent, and other fine publications. Mike and I discuss the art of punditry, appearing on TV without pants, the myth of a d...

Guest: 12-time Jeopardy! Champion Seth Wilson Topic: How you, yes YOU, can boost voter turnout Story: How to have a picnic in the Korean DMZ (and why it's at the 38th Parallel)  Cocktail of the Month: 24th Street Spritz Support Mass for Shut-ins via Patreon . Thanks: Seth Wilson, the bands that contribute music ( Waxeater , IfIHadAHiFi , The Sump Pumps , Oscar Bait ), Zachary Sielaff, #PostcardsTo...

Episode 001 Topic: A history of impeachment and why it matters now Story: US Postal Service Missile Mail Cocktail: Corpse Reviver #2 Performance: Author Andrew Bentley reads "Erosion!" Guest: Helen Clarkson, CEO of The Climate Group, joins us to discuss the future of the planet, China, and why the British refuse to put ice in their beverages.