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The neutron, first hypothesized by Ernest Rutherford in 1921, was proved to exist in 1932. That same year, the positron was proved to exist, and nuclear fission, or “splitting the atom” was accomplished for the first time.

These discoveries gave atomic physicists new tools with which to probe further the structure and properties of the atom, leading refugee physicist Leo Szilard, in London, to have an uncomfortable thought.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Two-Part Invention No. 8 in F major
Composed c.1723 by Johann Sebastian Bach. Public domain.

Closing Theme 

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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.

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The British economy had not yet fully recovered from the war when the Great Depression struck.

As dependent on exports as its economy was, Britain was particularly hard hit by the sharp decline in world trade, and then by the international banking crisis. Inevitably, the UK was forced to abandon the gold standard.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Warriors Dance” from The Crown of India
Composed in 1912 by Edward Elgar. Public domain.
Performed by The United States Marine Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme 

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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.

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The Indian National Congress unilaterally declared independence in January 1930, but needed Mohandas Gandhi to lead the way forward. How would Indians challenge British rule?

Gandhi came up with a characteristically eccentric, but shrewd, strategy: mass resistance against the British monopoly on salt.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Qadam Qadam Badhaye Ja”
Composed in 1942 by Ram Singh Thakuri and Vandhidhar Shukla. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme 

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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.

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After the death of Lenin, Stalin emerged as the most important figure in Soviet government by the late 1920s.

Over the course of the 1930s, Stalin consolidated his power, eliminating those in a position to challenge him, until he was in all but name the dictator of the USSR.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“The Sabre Dance” from Gayane
Composed in 1942 by Aram Khachaturian. Public domain.
Performed by Markus Staab. Recording used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 license. Source.

“Марш энтузиастов” (“March of the Enthusiasts”)
Composed in 1940 by I. Dunaevskii and A. D’Aktil. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme 

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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.

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Although sound recording was invented in the late 19^th century, motion pictures with sound did not begin to appear until the late 1920s. The early, experimental talking picture above was recorded in 1924.

By that time, silent film had developed its own style and set of conventions. It took talking pictures time to get established, for both artistic and technical reasons.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo’Bye!)”
Composed in 1922 by Gus Kahn, Ernie Erdman, and Danny Russo. Public domain.

“California, Here I Come”
Composed in 1923 by Bud DeSylva, Joseph Meyer, and Al Jolson. Public domain.

Closing Theme 

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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.

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In this third episode of a three-part series, we look at the anatomy of fascism.

Fascism in power is not so much an ideological force as it is a fascist leader, who rules pragmatically. One might say instinctively. At home, fascists celebrate the glories of “our” people; abroad, they fight wars.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Into the Abyss

Closing Theme 

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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.

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In this second episode of a three-part series, we look at the ideology of fascism.

What do fascists believe? At the heart of fascism is an ideology that centers “our” people as the world’s best and brightest, and accuses “other” people of stealing “our” glory. Only by embracing fascism can “we” recover what was taken from “us.”

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Bullets and Bayonets”
Composed in 1917 by John Philip Sousa. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Marine Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme 

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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.

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In this first episode of a three-part series, we look at the origins of fascism.

At the turn of the century, socialists were becoming increasingly confident that expanding the right to vote to the working classes would inevitably bring socialism via the ballot box. But what happened instead was a new right-wing ideology came into being, one that competed with socialists for that new working-class vote: Fascism.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Bullets and Bayonets”
Composed in 1917 by John Philip Sousa. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Marine Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme 

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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.

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On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of a German government in which Nazis held only a couple of cabinet posts. But Hitler had demanded yet another Reichstag election (Germany’s third in less than a year), and the Nazis set out to create a crisis out of a supposed impending Communist revolution.

When a fire was set in the Reichstag just days before the election, Hitler and the Nazis got everything they needed to declare an emergency, crack down on the left, and persuade the Reichstag to grant them sweeping “emergency” powers that they would retain until 1945.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, Opus 167
Composed in 1921 by Camille Saint-Saëns. Public domain.
Performed by Jordi Rumbau. Recording used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme 

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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.