Month: December 2023

350: The Land of Abundant Wildlife

Mark Podcast

This 1934 photo illustrates the segregation that existed in the Panama Canal Zone at the time. The sign reads: “Farfán Beach is reserved for the use of white employees of the Panama Canal Railway Company, their families, and their guests.”

The name “Panama” is believed to have come from an indigenous language and to mean something like “abundance.”

The two fundamental facts about the nation of Panama are its abundance of wildlife, and that it is located where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans come closest together.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Himno Istmeño” [The national anthem of Panama.]
Composed in 1903 by Santos Jorge. Public domain.
Performed by The United States Navy Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

349: Why Do the Winds and Waves Rage So Turbulently?

Mark Podcast

The Great Wave off Kanagawa, 1831 print by Hokusai. It is the first in his famous series, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.

Japan was bogged down in an endless war with China and, in the view of its political and military leaders, surrounded by hostile nations in an increasingly unsafe and unstable world.

The Japanese signed a non-aggression agreement with the USSR, but increasingly believed the survival of the Empire required that it seize the resources of the Southwest Pacific, which would mean war with the UK, the Netherlands, and especially, the United States.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Matsurika“
Traditional. Public domain.

Closing War Theme


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

348: Five Minutes to Midnight

Mark Podcast

Women digging defensive trenches outside Moscow in late 1941.

The rasputitsa, the mud season, forced a pause in the 1941 German offensive. Afterward came a narrow window of opportunity, when the capture of Moscow might have been possible.

But despite the string of defeats it faced in the previous five months, the Red Army of December 1941 was a much more effective force than it had been in June 1941.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean“
Composed ca. 1843. Public domain.
Performed by The United States Navy Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

347: The Green Folder

Mark Podcast

In this photo, taken March 20, 1941, you can see some of the architects of Generalplan Ost: from left to right, Rudolf Hess, Heinrich Himmler, Philip Bouhler, Fritz Todt, Reinhard Heydrich, and on the far right, Konrad Meyer.

The Nazi government in Berlin had a plan in place for the administration of occupied Russia (and the other Soviet states) before Operation Barbarossa had even begun.

The plan called for the starvation, relocation, and mass murder of the current inhabitants of the region. They were to be replaced with Germans.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Elegy No. 2
Composed in 1877 by Franz Liszt. Public domain.
Performed by Mauro Tortorelli and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC-BY 3.0 Deed license. Source.

Closing War Theme


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.