History on the Bright Side

Enjoy a bonus episode of my longer format podcast "History on the Dark Side".  This episode is a conversation about the Boston massacre and some of the many similarities in our modern America today.  (From HOTDS S1 E12)

The raid in Mogadishu immortalized in the book and film Black hawk Down provides true life heroism and an understanding of the price we pay to leave no man behind.

Twice upon a time, a Russian officer saved the world from Nuclear War

Abraham Wald was an exiled European Jew whose work with the US military during WW2 saved lives and brought a new way of thinking about mathematics in the war and everyday life.  

Pat Tillman was a professional football player who walked away from the game and joined the Army after 9/11.  His desire to be true to himself is complemented by his mother's demands for truth following his death in Afghanistan.  

Paul Rusesabagina found himself and his family squarely in the middle of one of the worst genocides since the holocaust.   But his "wider" family became his obsession as he protected over a 1000 tutsis from the mobs and militia that sought to cut them down with machetes.

Why would a black man attend a KKK rally?  Why would a Grand Dragon of the KKK be found in a black man's living room?  Daryl Davis has taken a very personal response to racism after experiencing hate as a child.  Find out how he has become the unlikeliest of friends with those who claimed to hate him and given us all a different tool to fight racism and division in America today.

Lesser known facts about George Washington and Harriet Tubman.  Beyond the myths we find that the truth; a truth that is every bit as inspiring as the exaggerations we learned in grade school. 

Denis Avey, A British soldier in WWII was in a POW camp that was part of the Auschwitz complex.  He heard about what went on on the "other side" and made the incredible decision to trade with another prisoner so he could see for himself what happened there.  Special guest Lizbeth explains what she learned while researching for a National History Day project.

In 1982, Florida Air Flight 90 crashed through the 14th street bridge and into the icy Potomac River.  73 souls were lost in the crash, but the story of the six who initially survived, and the everyday men and women who were thrust into this tragedy is worth remembering.