Month: March 2016

025: I Am the King

Mark Podcast
"La Vie" ("Life"), painted in 1903 by Pablo Picasso.
“La Vie” (“Life”), painted in 1903 by Pablo Picasso.

Pablo Picasso comes to Paris to seek his fortune, during the Paris Exposition of 1900, but also experiences a tragedy. The Olympic Games of 1900 were also held in Paris. Franco-Italian relations become warmer. Instability in Morocco creates an opening for French intervention, provided some sort of understanding can be reached with Britain.

Listen.

Download.

Transcript.
Transcript provided by listener Josh.

 

Playlist:

 

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Gymnopédies No. 1
Composed in 1888 by Erik Satie. Public domain.
Performed by Accou. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are
© and ℗ 2015, 2016 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

024: How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?

Mark Podcast
Period cartoon commenting on the Perdicaris affair.
Period cartoon commenting on the Perdicaris affair.

In the United States of 1903-4, Theodore Roosevelt responds to British and German moves against Venezuela, renews his commitment to preserving America’s natural beauty, and gears up for the Presidential election. W.E.B. DuBois publishes The Souls of Black Folk, and an American citizen is kidnapped in Morocco.

Listen.

Download.

Transcript.
Transcript provided by listener Josh.

 

Playlist:

 

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“America the Beautiful”
Composed in 1882 by Samuel A. Ward. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Army Band Brass Quintet. Public domain recording. Source.

“Jacob’s Ladder”
Traditional. Arranged by Mark Painter.

Closing Theme

 

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are
© and ℗ 2015, 2016 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

023: Making Italians

Mark Podcast
A map of Italy, illustrating the process of her unification.
A map of Italy, illustrating the process of her unification.

“We have made Italy. What remains is to make Italians.” Italy struggles with unifying its different peoples into one nation.

Listen.

Download.

Transcript.
Transcript provided by listener Josh.

 

Playlist:

 

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Funiculì, Funiculà”
Composed in 1880 by Luigi Denza. Public domain.

“Santa Lucia”
Traditional. Public domain.
Sung by Tino Rossi. Public domain recording. Source.

 

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are
© and ℗ 2016 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

Mid-week Update

Mark Update

Next Sunday’s episode will be more Italian history—reunification (1870) through the Italo-Ethiopian war of 1897—with an emphasis on what’s going on in southern Italy, since the previous episode was largely from a northern perspective. I’m also putting the finishing touches on my version of “Funiculì, Funiculà,” which was composed in 1880 and will be a part of the episode.

This week I am also working on a script for a future episode on the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. So far, we’ve released two episodes on TR, with one more coming shortly. This script I’m working on this week may be the last episode on the Roosevelt presidency, but it may get long enough that I’ll have to split it into two parts. That would make five episodes on a seven and a half year presidency. It was never my plan to give each US president this much attention, but TR demands attention, as much so today as he was when he was President.

We’re coming up on the Russo-Japanese War pretty soon. I expect that will take seven (!) episodes to cover properly. And, of course, the Great War of 1914 is looming off in the distance.