SNAFU with Ed Helms

The battle of scientific wits comes to a head, as government chemists continue to up the ante on their formulas, with Alexander Gettler hot on their trail. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Out west, Prohibition agents take the gunslingers' path to enforcement. When their methods backfire, it stains Mabel Walker Willebrandt's Dry cause, while Formula 6 lurks in the shadows. Preorder the SNAFU book and join me on book tour at  www.snafu-book.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prohibition... wasn't going so well. Mabel Walker Willebrandt cooks up a new approach to prosecuting the biggest bootlegger in the nation. Meanwhile, government hypocrisy is on the rise and a mysterious gunshot rings out from the Attorney General's suite at the Wardman Park Inn. Preorder the SNAFU book and join me on book tour at www.snafu-book.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informat...

The bootleggers' perspective comes into sharp focus as we meet a survivor of the Great War, George Cassiday. Meanwhile, why were speakeasies across the nation transforming into veritable chemistry labs? Preorder the SNAFU book and join me on book tour at www.snafu-book.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How did alcohol come to be illegal and why, of all the agencies, was the IRS tapped to enforce it? One rising legal superstar from California becomes the highest ranking woman in government, but she finds her efforts impeded by the IRS's newly established—and rather corrupt—Prohibition Unit. Preorder the SNAFU book and join me on book tour at www.snafu-book.com. See omnystudio.com/list...

Organized crime, speakeasy gin, and jazz impresarios stole headlines in the 1920s, but behind the scenes boiled a bizarre government plot rooted in the first American culture war. In New York City, a pair of scientists sees the devastation written on the wall, and they try to put a halt to the mayhem before it's too late. Preorder the SNAFU book and join me on book tour at www.snafu-book.com. See...

This is the story of Prohibition you haven't heard. Sure, Prohibition was a gigantic SNAFU to begin with. But it turns out Prohibition was actually darker than any of us could have imagined. Flappers and jazz? Not the full picture. Season 3 of SNAFU follows an unlikely pair of sleuths trying to uncover what was behind a mass wave of deadly poisonings that killed thousands of people during Prohibit...

While we're hard at work on season 3 of SNAFU, we’re excited to revisit a pivotal moment from Season 1 with a special bonus episode of GREATEST ESCAPES. Produced by the same folks behind SNAFU, it's a brand new podcast covering history’s wildest true escape stories of all time. Ed joins host Arturo Castro this week to dive deeper into the bonkers escape of Oleg Gordievsky, the Cold War...

Exciting news from SNAFU headquarters: our first book is coming out April 29, 2025. It's called SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History's Greatest Screwups. Spanning from the 1950’s to the 2000’s, Ed Helms steps in as unofficial history teacher with a loving tribute to humanity’s finest faceplants, diving into each decade’s craziest SNAFUs. From planting nukes on the moon to training felines as CIA...

While the SNAFU Team is hard at work on our next season, we are excited to share the first episode of a new season from our friends at Slow Burn. On Season 10, host Josh Levin takes you back to a crucial inflection point in American history: the moment between 2000 and 2004 when Fox News first surged to power and a whole bunch of people rose up to try and stop it. See omnystudio.com/listener for p...

COINTELPRO was shut down in 1971, and J. Edgar Hoover died in 1972. But the agency's dirty tricks continued in the years directly following the Media Burglary. Nowhere is this more evident than in the FBI's interactions with the American Indian Movement. Scholar, historian, and podcast host Nick Estes joins SNAFU to talk about how COINTELPRO and Hoover's legacy permeated the FBI, from the Wounded...

Former Church Committee Staffer Loch Johnson helps us dig deeper into the Church Committee Hearings to cover the appalling findings we didn't get to in Episode 7 of our season. Then, he takes us straight through to present day surveillance, where we try to answer the question: Where is the right balance between citizen rights and national security? Do we even have any privacy left anymore? See omn...

The FBI tries to clean up its act, but will all those lessons learned later be… forgotten? Plus, the legacy of the Media Burglary. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Journalist Carl Stern stumbles upon a single, curious codeword in the burglarized documents: COINTELPRO. As shocking revelations about the FBI come to fruition, Congress forms the Church Committee to investigate. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A mole, a raid, and a war on trial. The Camden 28 make national headlines. But will their trial jeopardize the identities of the Media burglars? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The FBI hunts the burglars, who suddenly have a window into J. Edgar Hoover's most twisted and sinister operations. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Ali and Frazier go head-to-head in The Fight of the Century, Bill Davidon and his team aim to pull off the heist of the century. But at what cost? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the team assembled, the burglars begin staking out a small FBI satellite office in Media Pennsylvania. And Bonnie Raines takes a big risk. To read more about the FBI’s history, check out Daniel Chard’s book, Nixon’s War at Home . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s 1970 when John and Bonnie Raines get a call from their friend and fellow activist, Bill Davidon. He suspects something is very wrong with the FBI, and plans to do the unthinkable: break into an FBI office to prove it.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In March 1971, Washington Post reporter Betty Medsger receives a mysterious envelope full of classified documents. Soon, what's inside will change the way America sees the FBI.   Logo and branding by The Collected Works: www.thecollectedworks.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1971, a courageous group of activists broke into an FBI office and stole files containing J. Edgar Hoover's deepest, darkest secrets. How did their actions forever upend everything Americans knew about their country's most powerful law enforcement agency? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From Executive Producer Ed Helms comes a new podcast, Broomgate: A Curling Scandal. Over the course of six episodes, semi-professional curler and fully professional comedian John Cullen (Blocked Party) is exposing the unbelievable, never-before-told scandal that rocked the sport of curling. Yes, curling. Listen here . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Back in World War II, a group of Nazis tried to overthrow American democracy, with the help of some U.S. congressmen, no less. We’re talking about The Great Sedition Trial of 1944, and it’s the subject of a history podcast hosted by Rachel Maddow called ULTRA. SNAFU and ULTRA have so much in common. Both podcasts are deep-dives into important moments in American history, which are largely forgotte...

Bonus Episode – Ed speaks with former sleeper agent for the KGB, Jack Barsky. Together, they recount Jack’s life trajectory from super spy to American author, and discuss the Soviet paranoia permeating throughout the Soviet ranks during the high-intensity of Able Archer ‘83. Produced by FilmNation and Pacific Electric Picture Co. in association with Gilded Audio. See omnystudio.com/listener for pr...

Bonus Episode – Ed speaks with actor Matthew Broderick, and director John Badham about their time on the seminal 1983 classic, “WarGames” and how it played a part in the cultural zeitgeist of the Cold War. Produced by FilmNation and Pacific Electric Picture Co. in association with Gilded Audio. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.