Month: November 2022

303: Axis and Anschluss I

Mark Podcast

Hitler takes Mussolini on a tour of Berlin during his 1937 visit.

Hitler had ambitious plans for expanding Germany to the east, and he hoped that Britain and Italy would align with Germany in that effort.

An alliance with Britain proved out of reach, but by 1936, Germany and Italy were drawing closer together, while Mussolini began to speak of the “axis” between Berlin and Rome.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Prelude to Act III from Lohengrin
Composed in 1848 by Richard Wagner. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Marine Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

302: When You Wish upon a Star

Mark Podcast

Illustration accompanying the story “Little Red Riding Hood” in a 1909 British collection of fairy tales.

Fairy tales date back at least to medieval Germanic cultures, and probably date back much farther.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, fairy tales had been relegated to the realm of children’s entertainment, but the century would see them used in wholly new ways.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Les carnaval des animaux
Composed in 1886 by Camille Saint-Saëns.
Performed by the Seattle Youth Symphony and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

301: The Marco Polo Bridge

Mark Podcast

Japanese air reconnaissance photo of the Marco Polo Bridge. You can see it lead to the Wanping Fortress, just on the other side of the river.

Following the formation of the Second United Front, Communist units were integrated into the Nationalist Army. Some of these Communist units deliberately sought to provoke war between China and Japan.

An incident at the Marco Polo Bridge on 7 July 1937 triggered a confrontation between Japan and China. Chiang Kai-shek was no longer of a mind to back down, and so the incident led to a bloody eight-year war between China and Japan.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

陽關三疊 (Three Refrains on the Yang Pass Theme)
Composed in 1867 by 琴學入門 (Qinxue Rumen)
Performed by Charles R. Tsua and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.