284: The Bomber Will Always Get Through

Mark Podcast

Begun in 1933 ostensibly as a project to design a new passenger airliner, the Heinkel-111 became the backbone of the Luftwaffe bomber force.

Even before Adolf Hitler became chancellor, it was an open secret that Germany was violating the limits on its military set by the Treaty of Versailles. After Hitler became chancellor, Germany began a massive rearmament campaign.

These developments concerned the French and the British. The French began building the Maginot Line and the British beefed up the RAF, although it was widely believed at the time that it would be virtually impossible to defend against a bomber attack.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Pomp and Circumstance No. 4
Composed in 1907 by Edward Elgar. Public domain.
Performed by The United States Army Band. Public domain recording. Source.

“Le Chant du Départ”
Composed in 1794 by Étienne M. Méhul and Marie-Joseph Chénier. Public domain.
Performed by Wikipedia user AverynNqdieve, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 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.

283: Where Are the Customers’ Yachts?

Mark Podcast

Seal of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Apart from the New Deal programs meant to put people to work and get the economy moving, the Roosevelt Administration also moved to restore confidence in banking and in the stock market.

And even after the banks reopened, they still weren’t selling gold for dollars. Was the US still on the gold standard? No, as it turns out, and in fact Americans will be barred from owning gold until 1974.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Blues for Mundy“
Composed by Rick Whitehead. Public domain.
Performed by The United States Air Force Band Airmen of Note. Public domain recording. Source.

“A Bird in a Gilded Cage“
Composed by Arthur J. Lamb and Harry Von Tilzer. Public domain.

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.

282: One Hundred Days

Mark Podcast

This period editorial cartoon makes light of the proliferation of new Federal agencies with three-letter abbreviations during the early months of the Roosevelt Administration.

Once Roosevelt was sworn in, he and his Cabinet set to work to end the US banking crisis. A week later, the crisis was over.

Roosevelt took advantage of the swell of public support and goodwill his successful management of the banking crisis had earned him to forge ahead with Federal job and relief programs to alleviate the suffering caused by the Great Depression.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Panama“
Composed in 1912 by William Henry Tyers. Public domain.
Performed by The United States Air Force Heritage of America 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.

281: Fear Itself

Mark Podcast

Franklin Roosevelt takes the oath of office, March 4, 1933.

Franklin Roosevelt was elected President on November 8, 1932, but owing to the United States’ unusually long transition period, he would not be sworn into office until March 4, 1933, a transition period of 116 days.

Typically, US Presidential transitions are slow but dignified affairs. But in this case, the US faced a new banking crisis worsening by the day, while lame duck President Hoover did everything in his power to dissuade the President-elect from proceeding with the program he had promised during the campaign.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Smooth as Silk

“Hail to the Chief”
Composed in 1812 by James Sanderson. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Navy 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.

280: A New Deal

Mark Podcast

In the governor’s mansion, New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt follows the proceedings of the 1932 Democratic National Convention on the radio.

Almost as soon as he had been elected Governor of New York, Franklin Roosevelt was regarded as the favorite for the 1932 Democratic Presidential nomination.

The US economic situation continued to worsen throughout 1932, even as some of the other major economies were beginning to improve. When the US Army attacked protesting veterans in Washington, a change in administration became all but inevitable.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“The Star-Spangled Banner“
Composed in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, music by John Stafford Smith. Public domain.
Performed by The United States Navy Band. Public domain recording. Source.

“At the Jazz Band Ball”
Composed in 1917 by Nick LaRocca and Larry Shields. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Coast Guard Band Dixieland Jazz Band. Public domain recording. Source.

“Down by the Riverside” 
Traditional. Public domain.


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.

279: Persistent Experimentation

Mark Podcast

New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt shakes hands with his predecessor, Al Smith.

In 1921, Franklin Roosevelt had already served as a state senator in New York, as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and been the 1920 Democratic candidate for Vice President, a pretty good résumé for someone who was not yet forty years old.

But that summer, Roosevelt contracted polio and lost the use of his legs. Most people would have said his career was over. But he—and his wife Eleanor—thought otherwise.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Clarinet Marmalade
Composed in 1918 by Larry Shields and Henry Ragas. Public domain.
Performed by the Dixie Players of the United States Air Force Heritage of America 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.

278: Chain Reaction

Mark Podcast

The cloud chamber result that detected a positron for the first time. The positron entered from the bottom and passed through a sheet of lead, which slowed it down. From the curvature of its path, you can determine its mass and electric charge.

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 


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.

277: The Empire Christmas Pudding

Mark Podcast

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 


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.

276: The Salt March

Mark Podcast

Mohandas Gandhi on the Salt March.

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 


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.

275: Stalin Is the Lenin of Today

Mark Podcast

This 1939 illustration of Lenin’s arrival at Finland Station in 1917 shows Stalin climbing down from the train just behind Lenin himself. In reality, Stalin was not in exile, did not return with Lenin, and was not present at the station that evening.

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 


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.