*No spoilers here*
As I was driving home from the ranch yesterday I started listening to MSNBC / Maddow’s Ultra. I could not stop listening once I got home. I put in my earpods and carried on.
It is one of the most astounding periods of history that I knew nothing about. Oh I knew a little bit about Lindberg and America First but that really doesn’t even scrape the surface of the story.
Interest in WWII was a gift to me from my father. Oh don’t I wish he were here right now to discuss what I’ve learned from this podcast?! I wonder if he knew about all this?
But even more important than that I have a whole different perspective regarding what we’re going through now with Trump, the GOP, and beyond. What they are doing seems to me almost mild compared to what went on during the 40s. But, of course, nonetheless worrisome. And the podcast helps me understand why that’s true, too.
The podcast is an MSNBC / Rachel Maddow presentation and is absolutely brilliant. The writing, the production, Rachel’s voice overs, the music, the use of archives, the historians who give so much insight to those times, the supporting website… an absolutely fabulous project. It’s entertaining, educating, and very timely.
There are 8 episodes which average about 45 minutes. The first episode hooks you in the first 5 minutes. What in the world could make a sitting senator sob uncontrollably in the presence of his secretary the whole way to the airfield? Exactly. Every single episode gave me at least one, usually more, jaw dropping moments. I don’t want to spoil it for you because you should listen to it yourself.
I cannot believe that I could know so much about WWII and yet nothing about this. I asked my 92 year old aunt about it just a little while ago, she didn’t remember or know anything about it either. Like, how the f does that happen?
I told my son about the episodes and we both had a laugh over how our area of New York has these buildings and bridge named after Hamilton Fish III and oh if they only knew, they’d probably rename those places immediately! It’s just unbelievable.
You can find “Rachel Maddow presents, Ultra” in all the places where you’d listen to your favorite podcasts. I use the podcast app on my iPhone but there are loads of ways to get the episodes. Or try this:
And I have gone through the supporting website as well which you can find here: www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-presents-ultra. It’s beautifully done and chock full of interesting supplemental information.
For me, I wasn’t ready for the story to be over so I’m now also reading the O. John Rogge report that you can find in the internet archives, here.
May all the blessings of the all the gods be upon O. John Rogge for not letting the story die! And to Rachel Maddow, too. THANK YOU Rachel, and obtw, her love for the Library of Congress is well placed and she cracked me up with her unique tributes to it at the end of each episode. Very cool.
The next time you are taking a drive, check out this podcast. If you love history and politics I promise you will not be disappointed.