Podbit · Empire: World History
When Hitler became chancellor in 1933 and the Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of citizenship in 1935, Catherine — a brown-skinned Indian woman in a same-sex partnership in Prussia — simply stayed. She was invisible enough to survive and well-connected enough, through Lena, to be protected — for now.
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At 27:39 · chapter starts 24:58
The moment Catherine is strong enough after WWI, and the moment borders allow, she returns to Lena in Kassel. Through the 1920s — the era of Weimar Germany, of Babylon Berlin, of unprecedented same-sex visibility and cultural experimentation — Catherine and Lena live in what the former calls 'domestic bliss.' Dalrymple evokes the world of Cabaret and Babylon Berlin, noting how little this era of German openness is remembered now. Catherine describes them as 'happy little church mice,' wandering around and having the most wonderful time. It is a happiness that history is about to catastrophically curtail — but for a decade, they are simply content. [1] — Anita Anand "Through the 1920s, Catherine and Lena lived out their days in Kassel during the Weimar Republic's wild years — describing themselves as 'ha…" 26:49
Through the 1920s, Catherine and Lena lived out their days in Kassel during the Weimar Republic's wild years — describing themselves as 'happy little church mice.' It was the world of Cabaret, of same-sex visibility, of an unlikely freedom that was about to be catastrophically reversed.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
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