Episode 79: The Conversation: Yeltsin's Grocery Revolution

In today's episode we discussion the evolution of grocery stores, as discussed in Episode 78. Life in Romania, automatic sliding doors, Walgreens lighting, Rachel's dads inventions and the plight of A&P. 

When Boris Yeltsin came to the United States in 1989 to speak, visit with the President and see the Statue of Liberty, his entire outlook on the world changed in one :20 minute moment. But it wasn't NYC or Miami or President Bush. It was Randall's Grocery Store in Webster Texas.  This is the story of the history of that moment. In this episode we cross paths with Marjorie Merriwether Post, IBM, Spectra-Physics, Wrigley's Gum, James J. Hill, Clarence Saudners, Williams Leslie Maxson, Boris Yeltsin and Grape Nuts. 

Are those really the world's most famous tunes? Rachel and I discuss the "easter eggs" of the show, whether they are songs and more ludicrousness.  Foreigner, Twinkle Twinkle, Happy Birthday . . . what do you think? 

Can you believe the world's most famous music is 3,000 years old?  Not necessarily from the first note written, but from the idea that created it. In this episode we cross paths with Thomas Edison, Stanley Kubrick,  Walt Disney, The Lone Ranger, Richard Strauss, Johannes Brahms, Charles Darwin, The Who, Edvard Grieg, Peer Gynt, Freidrich Schiller and Friedrich Nietzche and many more. 

We're taking "the cutting room floor" to a new level. Rachel and I go over all the stories we couldn't fit into "The Real Forrest Gump" story.  Enjoy this new series and a full conversation, including Josh Norton: The Emperor of the United States. 

Before there was a movie, there was a man who lived it. We all know the story of the accidental hero who wandered through history, rubbing elbows with presidents and changing the world by mistake. But what if that story wasn't fiction? In this episode, we trace the impossible footsteps of a figure who defined the 19th century.Follow the journey of a man who: Survived the rugged Oregon Trail during the height of the expansion. Navigated the treacherous Mississippi as a high-stakes steamboat captain. Chased a fortune as a silver and gold miner in the wild West. Crossed the Atlantic Ocean six times, becoming one of the first true global celebrities. Revolutionized modern life by inventing and patenting the everyday bra strap clasp. He wasn't just a witness to history—he was the one writing it. Join us as we peel back the layers of a life so cinematic, it’s hard to believe he was ever real. You might think you know who we’re talking about, but the final destination is a name you’d never expect to find sitting on that bench.

In 1894 Jacob Coxey decided to take thousands of unemployed and March on Washington. Well, that was just the prequel to 1964 March for Civil Rights. But it's how A. Philip Randolph was indoctrinated to the idea. And crazily this store involves both Mark Twain and Jack London, in addition to Pullman Porters, the Ferris Wheel, Eugene V Debs, the May Day Riots, Frederick Douglass, and even the Statue of Liberty.  

The word Hello showed up just as the world was changing . . . in the absolute biggest ways ever. Nothing was the same after "Hello". In this episode we cross paths with Michigan J Frog, Tin Pan Alley, the Phonograph, Western Union, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Alexander Graham Bell, Scott Joplin, the telephone operator, Thomas Edison and J. N. Pattison.

Can you imagine a group running on perfect communism, flourishing in the capitalist market and then eventually spawning the Patriot Missile - to fight actual Communists. And it happened twice. In this episode we cross paths with Quaker Oatmeal, microwave popcorn, Vennevar Bush, the Amana Colonies, Oneida Silverware, Bob Hope and Raytheon. 

Somewhere along the way, we lost the truth. The questions we ask about the truth haven't been the same since Orson Welles' War of the World's Broadcast in 1938, but that doesn't mean we haven't stopped trying. In this episode we cross paths with William Moulton Marston, Alice Guy-Blache, Frye Vs The United States, John Houseman, Alan Turing, The Shadow, Wonder Woman, Artificial Intelligence, FDR, IBM and Orson Welles.