Five Stars !!!

 

History That's Exciting,  Ultra (!) Relevant 

       and Ultimately Reassuring

(What a deal!)

In 1940 I was 3 and 4 years old, so you wouldn't expect me to be keeping up with the political scene.

But I could have told you who Gabriel Heatter and Walter Winchell were: Men on the radio who talked funny.  I thought Gabriel Heatter had the funniest name going. ("Gabriel Stove" I said a lot, laughing every time.) I missed most of what they were reporting, probably because I was laughing.  

Rachael Maddow, and a great MSNBC team have put together an 8-part podcast that makes that 1940 span leap to life, It's modestly called:

It's got everything: Deadly plane crash, armed bands of insurrectionists, corrupt politicians, star special prosecutors, nasty anti-Semites, lotsa Nazis, out-of-control lawyers, private spies, Roosevelt haters... oh it's got everything (but sex, and sex isn't nearly as interesting as the other stuff).

I rarely-to-never binge, but I went through the first seven installments of Ultra without taking a breath.  Each is about 35 minutes long, and they just fly by.  Fascinating. Enlightening. Deeply surprising. All that and more! 

Count this as an unqualified endorsement. Go "wherever you get your podcasts," and dive into Ultra.  In many ways it makes today's political shenanigans look low key, and I find that reassuring. 

Not that I need reassuring.

Five stars... Six if I could.

UPDATE

The last installment, #8 has been published, and it is a doozy of a finish.  The parallels with today's plight are made crystal clear -- as if they weren't already.  WAKE UP, ONE AND ALL!