The First Livestream of 2026!

0:02 Okay, let's see.

0:05 Where are we?

0:07 I think there's sound.

0:09 Hopefully, there's a few people out there.

0:11 Give me a thumbs up or something in the chat

0:13 if you guys don't mind just to make sure.

0:15 Playing around with my headset, so I just want to double check volume here.

0:24 There we go.

0:26 Anything?

0:27 Anybody?

0:28 Maybe there's a hi from St.

0:32 Louis.

0:33 Keith, hello Keith.

0:37 What else we got?

0:38 Who else is out there?

0:41 Check in.

0:42 Let me know where you guys are checking in from.

0:45 If you guys can pop something into the comments.

0:47 Excellent.

0:47 I'm glad.

0:49 Kalamazoo.

0:50 There we go.

0:53 Not that I've ever been to Kalamazoo, but welcome Kalamazoo.

0:57 Anybody else?

1:00 13 people I think for our first uh live stream of uh 2026.

1:09 Let's see.

1:10 Somebody checking in from Japan.

1:11 So, good morning to Japan.

1:14 Um not quite sure exactly what time it is there, but it's uh early.

1:19 I'm assuming that's coffee if nothing else.

1:22 Green tea.

1:23 [snorts] I don't know.

1:24 Depends what you drink, I guess.

1:27 Uh, tornado West Virginia that tornado is the name

1:31 of the town like South Australia checking in from Adelaide.

1:38 There we go.

1:40 Shalom to all.

1:42 Welcome everybody.

1:44 [snorts] Okay.

1:47 Um, tornado New Zealand.

1:51 I think I'm finally doing a live stream at at such a time that uh get a couple

1:56 of people from uh literally the other side

1:58 of the world kind of checking in from Oceanana.

2:00 Um I've gotten not criticism but like you know sort of people pointing like you

2:04 know it's like I always do these like you know on a Saturday afternoon or Sunday

2:08 afternoon my time in uh Ontario and people you know it's on literally the other

2:13 side of the world in Oceanana that uh

2:16 don't aren't able to participate because they're asleep.

2:19 That's but uh checking in from uh from the Ottawa Valley.

2:23 Very good.

2:24 That's my once upon a time my stomping grounds

2:27 and checking in from Romania from Bucharest or Timwar perhaps.

2:33 Um okay.

2:35 Um nothing particularly planned.

2:38 Um but I've been wanting to meaning wanting

2:41 to do like a live stream for a little bit.

2:44 Um and just you know life you guys know life always gets in the way.

2:48 Things come up.

2:49 You know it's it's what happens.

2:51 Um, I I like doing these.

2:54 It's a nice way to sort of reach out and touch base and have

2:57 a little chat with people and sort of see where your interests are.

3:01 You know, check in, see how we're doing.

3:03 As can ask questions in the chat.

3:05 Please do ask questions in the chat.

3:07 Um, oftentimes questions will be posted in the chat and I will start

3:11 talking to something and the conversation will kind of roll on past me.

3:17 I'll catch up to things.

3:18 I'll try not to miss questions.

3:20 I do reserve the right to answer questions or not answer questions um

3:24 because this is my live stream and I you know that's that's host's privilege.

3:30 So um yeah.

3:34 No, no, Andy, it's not it's not that I

3:36 find the name Tornado West Virginia difficult to believe.

3:39 It just um that just seems like you're inviting trouble somehow.

3:44 I don't know how many tornadoes I don't I don't

3:46 know if West Virginia is really torn is that tornado country.

3:49 I don't ever think of it that way, but possibly.

3:52 That's [snorts] a Blue Noseer checking in, Steve.

3:56 Welcome in.

3:57 Um, yeah.

4:00 So, um, DC swamp country.

4:04 There's something about major world capitals being built on swamps that, uh,

4:07 always makes me, uh, makes me laugh.

4:10 Between, uh, St.

4:11 Petersburg, God, Washington.

4:13 That's just pick the worst possible places that you can build a capital

4:18 and that's where you're going to that's where you choose to build it.

4:21 Makes it a terrible place to visit in the summer and in the winter.

4:25 But um [clears throat] yes, for the naming your small town explosion,

4:30 um Comrade ZedX, I asked people to comment,

4:35 just post where you're checking in from because I like seeing where

4:38 people are are checking in from at the end of the day.

4:41 Um let's see.

4:44 So, um yeah, state state of the channel right now.

4:48 We've uh we've had a good couple of months um the last little bit.

4:51 Viewership is uh is picking up, going strong.

4:54 We've had some really we've had some good topics in terms

4:56 of you know sort of generating um broad interest type thing.

5:01 Um a little bit more we've done some

5:03 we've done a run of Soviet Soviet focused um

5:06 episodes which always seem to get um some attention

5:09 or if not Soviet and Soviet adjacent type topics.

5:12 Um we're going to try we've got a few more like in the in the hopper that are

5:17 coming down over the next little bit that are

5:19 going to be sort of in a similar line.

5:21 um playing around with sort of looking at some

5:24 of the former republics and things like that.

5:26 Um because you guys like you guys you guys

5:31 the audience seems to respond well to it but we also

5:35 find it really interesting um sort of like avenues um

5:38 of research to pursue and sort of look into ourselves.

5:41 Um we don't I mean for anybody who may not know this we

5:45 go into topic selection um based on aid sort of things that we

5:50 are that we know maybe a little bit about um but things

5:53 oftenimes it's very much like not things that we're experts on but so

5:57 much as things that we want to know are more about ourselves

6:00 and it gives us a chance to research and write and do a little

6:03 bit more digging on and sort of hopefully present something that's new something

6:07 that's new to us that's something that's new to you guys as well.

6:10 Um, so that's look for a couple more episodes.

6:13 We'll be I mean we started our Soviet economics um episode.

6:16 Look for the continuation on that.

6:18 That'll be a three-parter.

6:20 So whenever we've done our up to the 70s,

6:22 we'll do an episode in the 70s and then there'll

6:23 be a an 80s economics episode which should be really interesting.

6:28 Um because some of the analytics that go into Soviet

6:31 economics in the 80s um definitely fly in the face

6:34 of what a lot of people assume [snorts]

6:36 that it was that it was all a complete disaster.

6:38 like, you know, it was brought into the core, going to collapse, etc., etc.

6:42 Economics didn't collapse the Soviet Union.

6:44 That's but I'm getting ahead of myself.

6:47 Um, but yeah, that's uh sort of where we're where we're at there.

6:50 And there's a bunch of other sort of what

6:53 I think are interesting topics that we're digging

6:54 into to um in a I'm going to call it

6:58 the writer room because that's grossly overstating how we work.

7:02 But uh there's a couple of ideas that we're sort of banding

7:05 around and tossing around um to bring new stuff to you guys.

7:09 So that's sort of [snorts] where where things are at there.

7:12 Um and if as I said if you guys have questions do put them into the chat.

7:16 I will try to sort of con on and give my my best thoughts as possible.

7:22 So, um well, there's a here's a question and a half.

7:32 I wonder given current events if I might comment on the path from the Cold War

7:36 to today and how I feel it informs where we are in terms of the Middle East.

7:41 Um it is really broad.

7:43 It's also incredibly incredibly um relevant.

7:49 Uh everything obviously I mean history builds

7:52 on itself like you know nothing nothing happens

7:54 in the present without it having um without

7:58 having precursors that are coming out of the past.

8:00 Obviously that the cold war period was almost 50

8:04 years of of history that was very much all-encompassing globally.

8:09 There's almost almost no situation in the present that isn't

8:13 informed in at least some minor way by the cold war.

8:16 And certainly the situation in the Middle

8:18 East is informed greatly by the cold war.

8:21 Uh the situation in in Iran 1979 where you know it's like the Islamic revolution

8:28 happens and like the sha is overthrown

8:30 and replaced by the Islamic revolution and the clerics.

8:34 um doesn't happen without the cold war politics that happened with the um

8:39 with the overthrow and the the replacement of uh Mosbec in the early 50s um

8:45 over the reason of oil oil interests uh by the British and the uh

8:48 the Americans um and the installation of the Bakovi dynasty um at that point.

8:54 So, it's I mean it really is there there's

8:56 this direct thread that happens and of course there's conversation

9:02 and I'm not going to speculate on what's going

9:04 to happen in Iran because there's there's some bad options,

9:08 there's some worse options, there's some even worse options,

9:11 but there's not a lot of good options that are going

9:13 to that in my opinion that are really going to come out there.

9:16 It's going to play out.

9:17 We're going to see it over the coming days, weeks,

9:18 months, however long this this is going to go on.

9:21 Um but I am seeing you know it's like

9:23 people talking about the restoration of the Baklavi dynasty

9:26 um once the inevitable overthrow of the government happens

9:28 and that's not a it's not a forritten thing.

9:31 Um but you don't see like you know like you wouldn't

9:34 have this conversation about the restoration

9:36 of the baklaves without the baklaves

9:37 having been installed in the first place and then being overthrown all

9:40 as a result of cold war politics in terms of the Americans

9:43 wanting to and the Brits wanting to maintain oil interests but also

9:47 interests in in the in the Middle East in the Gulf

9:50 region to offset the Soviets and to make sure that Soviets didn't

9:54 get control that much more oil right alongside the uh the Gulf.

9:58 Um, so yeah, there's there's all kinds of like

10:01 and it's and this is a really this is I mean that's such a cursory like you

10:07 know a couple of hundred words on the topic.

10:09 I mean there's there's books and books and books,

10:12 none of which I've particularly read um on that specific topic.

10:16 I'm I'm not deeply read on Iranian politics and Iranian history.

10:19 Like I know what I know and there's

10:21 there's lots there that I'm I'm not aware of.

10:25 Um, and I'll be the first one to admit that.

10:27 I have absolutely no problems admitting what I don't know.

10:30 Um, but certainly, I mean,

10:32 there's there's a very there's a very deep trajectory that happens there

10:35 that's that's coming through the cold war um into the modern day.

10:40 The situation in Iraq is the same thing where it's,

10:42 you know, that there's that informed like the overthrow of the dynasty,

10:46 the Hashmite dynasty in Iraq, the support the the lack of support for Saddam,

10:52 like the support for Saddam, panarabism, all of these things.

10:54 these all have deep cold war ties as the US and the Soviet

10:58 Union are trying to gain influence in different areas in the Middle East.

11:02 Um and they all those events all sort of play off of each

11:05 other from beyond 1990 and 1991 into [clears throat] the present day.

11:10 So, um, that's the the biggest I mean the biggest takeaway that I could

11:16 probably give to to that specifically um

11:19 is that anything that's happening in the news

11:22 in the present um especially in certain areas but in almost every area you

11:28 can look back and sort of trace through where the the Cold War events happened.

11:32 That isn't to say that something that happened

11:34 in the Cold War is the the present is the direct

11:36 result of that, but the result like the events

11:40 of the present day are certainly informed by the past.

11:42 Um that's my way of sounding smart about that, I guess.

11:47 So, um yeah.

11:50 Um [clears throat] let's see.

11:55 Moving along.

11:56 There seems to be a lot of comments

12:00 and questions going on here for only 40 people.

12:02 There's this is moving.

12:04 Um but uh yeah, that's um thank you.

12:07 Please keep posting questions and you know you're going to listen listen

12:10 or you're not going to listen to me talk as we go along here.

12:12 So, um, yeah, that's, uh, oh, there's this is,

12:21 um, so be cool to see, um, good evening, Netherlands.

12:27 Um, cool to see, uh, content covering Africa and South America.

12:31 We've done a I'm not going to say a fair amount,

12:33 but we've definitely like dipped our toes back into Latin

12:35 American history over the last six to eight months.

12:39 Um, and that's going to continue.

12:41 I want to do a couple of revisits to some things that we've looked at.

12:44 Um, but sort of change the the focus and the angle, sort of the analysis of it.

12:49 Um, but which we can then build on into some other things.

12:53 Um, and I'm not going to give away too much on that because it's

12:56 something that I'm I was actually taking

12:57 notes on this a little bit earlier tonight.

12:59 Um, but that's something to to look forward to at that point.

13:02 Uh, Africa as well.

13:04 I really want to sort of get

13:05 into the the the decolonial the decolon that's the word

13:09 decolonization movement um especially as it relates

13:14 to the lucifone countries like masan beek and um

13:19 guine basau and a couple of the Portuguese

13:21 Angola um because I think that's that's actually

13:23 a relatively there's my dog right there dog

13:29 paws um the lucifone deolonization process happens later.

13:35 It's a much more violent um set of events that took place than

13:41 what I'm not going to say than what a lot of people think,

13:44 but certainly than what happened in many of the the Brit

13:48 former British colonies and even in the UK or sorry, the French colonies.

13:52 Um that isn't to say that there wasn't violence in a bunch of those.

13:55 There absolutely was.

13:56 Nigeria, you know, Kenya,

13:58 there's a whole bunch of other places that there's definitely violence.

14:01 Um, but the Portuguese deolonization process was incredibly violent and it

14:06 involved um third-party actors getting involved directly on the ground.

14:12 And by that I mean Cuba um Cuban like combat troops

14:16 being deployed directly to Angola um in support of uh communist rebels.

14:20 It's it's really this like fascinating cold war

14:23 microcosm and I definitely want to get into that.

14:25 Um, don't have a timeline on that, but look look for that in coming episodes.

14:31 Uh, make sure you press the bell button and, you know,

14:33 we'll see what the what terrible things we

14:35 can do to the bell button for that episode.

14:36 So, um, that's, uh, [clears throat] sorry, uh, Robocop comment.

14:46 Um, I have no idea what this is necessarily relating to, um,

14:50 other than perhaps just Detroit and Robocop.

14:53 Um, for anybody who is a bit of a gamer at all, um,

14:57 the Robocop game that was out uh last year,

15:00 the year before, and might still be on Game Pass.

15:04 Um, if you can get it like it's really fun.

15:07 It's like this goofy like it's very true to like the spirit of like,

15:11 you know, the Robocop thing.

15:13 Um, but it's also super goofy because it's got him, you know,

15:16 you play as Robocop and you like you've got to go around

15:20 and get like a birthday card signed by everyone at the police station.

15:22 like it's just a bunch of stuff when you're not blowing away bad guys.

15:25 Um, for anybody who hasn't seen the Robocop movie,

15:28 like the original one from maybe the late

15:30 80s with Peter Weller, um, check it out.

15:33 It's it's a great dystopian um, great dystopian movie.

15:38 Uh, definitely dystopian and very of its time.

15:41 Um, but definitely worth checking out.

15:42 So, but also the video game, lots of fun.

15:45 So, um let's [snorts] uh bear with me for one second here, guys.

15:54 Um [clears throat] well, that's interesting.

16:03 Um yes, I do do li I do do he I'm a child.

16:07 Um everybody's 12, as they say.

16:09 Uh I do occasionally do live streams.

16:11 couple a year kind of thing is really how often I get a chance to do them.

16:15 I'd like to do them more, but I feel like I'm always like I always feel like I'm

16:18 going to be pressing my luck to get people to come and watch.

16:21 Um, but um, so your mom's from from Dyetsk.

16:25 Um interesting the question here like asking like what the Soviet view is

16:31 on the withering way of the state which

16:33 definitely definitely a Marxist like idea that was

16:37 going to happen that you know it's like as like communism like as true

16:40 communism approached then the state would no

16:43 longer be necessary and it would wither away.

16:45 Um sort of the coal the definitely the cole's notes on that.

16:51 Um I that's an interesting question.

16:54 I've never actually I've never considered like

16:57 sort of looking at that particular angle.

16:59 Um I I sort of have the my my gut

17:03 impression and there's definitely a bit of gut there.

17:06 Uh a little less than there was before which is I'm happy about.

17:09 But my gut impression about the withering way of the state um the Soviet view is

17:13 that a lot of people pretty much knew that it

17:14 was[ __] That was just not that wasn't realistic.

17:17 It wasn't going to happen in reality, but it was a nice ideal to think about.

17:22 I mean, communism, that's really that in a nutshell in a lot of ways.

17:28 Um, but that would be interesting to sort of like to to look at that.

17:33 I mean, it's a it's definitely an interesting concept.

17:35 Um, I don't know if I don't know if

17:37 we'd be able to build an episode around that.

17:39 Coming up with coming up with material to be

17:42 able to put a compelling episode that people are going

17:45 to watch can be challenging sometimes to because depends

17:49 on how much has been written about it, etc., etc.

17:52 But um yeah, that's uh let's see.

17:57 [snorts] Um apparently it's video game evening.

18:06 Am I a Metal Gear fan?

18:07 I have never played a Metal Gear um game in my life.

18:11 And every time I mention this, people kind of look at me like it's like,

18:13 oh, like you know, it's like you must not know anything about games.

18:17 It's just a series that has completely passed me by.

18:20 I keep saying that I'm going to go back or I

18:21 keep saying I keep thinking like you know what oh

18:23 I'm going to go back and I should actually try

18:24 one of these and then I sit down and I play

18:27 six games of civilization or you know I do something

18:30 like I fall back into that pattern or if I am

18:33 playing something new I have one game that I play

18:35 for six months because that's how much gaming time I get.

18:38 Um so going back and finding old old series like that can be

18:42 quite challenging um just due to time limitations and restraints in my life.

18:47 But uh to answer the question, I have never played a Metal Gear game.

18:51 Uh I know I should.

18:54 Let's see.

18:58 Um Eel Master, uh thank you for binging those individual Soviet Republic videos.

19:04 Um if you could do that about six

19:05 or seven more times from different IP addresses, that would be fantastic.

19:09 Get all your friends, family, enemies, co co-workers, everybody.

19:13 if they can get them to do the exact same thing that would be much appreciated.

19:16 Uh Malddova and Kyrgystan stay tuned.

19:21 Um Malddova is a incredibly weird and confusing topic for me.

19:27 I understand that lots of people are quite familiar

19:29 with how the creation of Malddova and how it exists

19:32 as its own state and you know trans history

19:34 and all those things that how they fit into it.

19:36 Enlightening for me because it's not something that I've been familiar with.

19:39 So, as we've been looking at that, definitely something

19:42 to uh for people to keep on the radar.

19:44 So, um thank you.

19:46 Uh let's see.

19:49 Yeah, lots of people talking about uh uh this, you know what,

20:01 this is the type of deep analysis that we're here for.

20:04 Is a hot dog a sandwich?

20:05 Yes, it is.

20:07 Um case closed.

20:08 It is absolutely a sandwich.

20:10 That's There's absolutely nothing that says that a sandwich has to be,

20:13 you know, bread on top, bread on the bottom, stuff in the middle.

20:16 It's just bread on the side, bread on the side, stuff in the middle.

20:19 Um, yeah, that's a hot dog.

20:22 Absolutely.

20:23 A sandwich.

20:24 That's uh Do you dip your hot dog in water and then eat it?

20:28 If so, you're disgusting.

20:30 So um if I recall corre um question any

20:37 chance that we'll be covering the Brabant murders um

20:39 which I the Braant killers uh in 1980s

20:42 in Belgium if my memory serves me correctly that is

20:47 usually linked to a lot of the conspiracy around

20:50 uh Gladadio operators and staybehind um operations where weapons

20:55 caches were um used u on some kill sprees

20:59 And there was there was an incident that happened.

21:02 So I think the the Barbat murders in Belgium and as well in Italy.

21:06 We haven't done we have a five-part series on early

21:10 Gladio which is probably about two episodes too much.

21:14 Um but certainly if you go back into the back

21:16 catalog that there's a bunch of Gladio episodes.

21:19 We took it up to sort of the creation

21:20 and how that worked in a bunch of different countries.

21:23 Um but we didn't actually take it through to the other

21:25 side um into the the conspiracy side of things.

21:29 it's always been something that's been in the back of our head to come back to.

21:32 Um, so yeah, I it's it's entirely possible that we will come back

21:35 to that whether it's standalone on the broadband

21:38 killers or whether it's going to be looking

21:39 at sort of a wider right-wing because it's that's the the supposition is that it

21:46 was right-wing um operatives that were

21:49 that were conducted using the the gladial caches.

21:53 Um [clears throat] we're gonna whether how we frame it is the the question,

21:57 but we'd like to come back to that.

21:59 Yes.

21:59 So um yeah, let's take a look here.

22:12 Interesting question here.

22:13 Um World War II created and informed the the Cold War.

22:18 Absolutely.

22:18 I mean, that's how exactly what I was

22:20 talking about at the beginning of the stream.

22:21 It's exactly how history works.

22:22 Like it's sort of this incremental building process and things.

22:26 How did world the events of World War I inform into the Cold War?

22:32 I mean the Sykes Pico in the Middle East is was absolutely

22:37 the result of World War I that feeds directly into the Cold War.

22:41 I mean the Russian Revolution and the creation of the Soviet Union um I mean

22:46 believe it or not absolutely cycles and like

22:49 creates and builds into the Cold War.

22:51 Um so there's there's definitely things that happen um within like the First

22:55 World War and within that sort of that that immediate time period whether

23:00 you want to end at a hard date of 1918 or sort

23:03 of carry on into 1919 with the Western intervention in the Russian Civil War.

23:09 Um there's a bunch of things that happened there that certainly

23:12 directly inform um into the into a postWorld War II um area.

23:18 Those are the two that is I've never been asked this question before.

23:22 Um, John, so forgive that I only have two possibilities,

23:26 but I'd like to I would like to think

23:27 that they're both pretty big honken possibilities there in like,

23:32 you know, the creation of the Soviet Union.

23:34 Um, and in Sykes Pico in terms of redrawing the the Middle

23:36 Eastern map and what a what a mess that actually is.

23:42 Um, and that's not just a mess in 2026,

23:44 it's a mess in every single year since, you know,

23:47 since I'm not going to say since the beginning of time,

23:49 because that is a gross overstatement,

23:51 but certainly for many decades that has been a a big giant mess.

23:56 Um, and a lot of that does stem from the way that the maps

23:58 and everything were drawn after um as a result of Sykes Pico.

24:02 Um, yeah.

24:05 um for and I know there's somebody saying that we they

24:09 didn't want to talk about current politics and um it's going

24:13 to come up in this cuz you know the the events

24:15 of the present as I said are part of the events

24:17 of the past and it's being able to draw lines to explain

24:22 what's happening today and see where they come from and I

24:25 think that's that's actually really valuable and really important knowing

24:28 knowing our history our shared our shared history our collective history.

24:35 Knowing the history of a region is really

24:36 important for understanding a why something is happening

24:40 and b why something is happening and it

24:42 might be[ __] So um sometimes people lie.

24:46 People use history to lie or they just lie about history.

24:50 Um and knowing that stuff is really important to be

24:52 able to draw that line into the present day.

24:54 So my apologies that we that present day stuff may be coming up but it is

24:59 it's relevant and it's important especially right now

25:03 at the beginning of March of uh 2026.

25:06 Um yeah um moving on to um some other questions I think about video games.

25:16 Uh um well that would be interesting.

25:24 That's so so the question would we do videos

25:28 on specific socialist artists from the the olden days?

25:31 That makes me feel super old by the way.

25:35 Um, but Diego Rivera and Dolly and like, you know, I'm assuming like,

25:39 you know, um, Freda Ko and a bunch of others like Picasso,

25:44 like you could factor in a whole bunch of different,

25:46 uh, um, people like different artists and whatnot into that.

25:50 I like doing episodes like that where we sort of like,

25:54 you know, the Shastikovich and I've,

25:56 for anybody who has tuned in the last couple of these, like

25:59 I keep going on about the Shastikovich episode because I really,

26:02 really love that Shastikovich episode.

26:04 Um, the problem is like, you know, as much as I love doing them, um,

26:08 sometimes you guys don't and people don't watch beyond sort

26:11 of the the 46 of you who are in the room right now.

26:15 Um, I like doing them because I think they actually reveal an awful lot.

26:20 Um, but we we do have to sort of balance what

26:23 our what our viewers what what the viewership numbers are like.

26:27 Um, we try to as much as possible.

26:30 Um so we don't get punished by YouTube.

26:32 Um channels with dropping viewership get

26:36 fewer promote promotions from YouTube and it's

26:40 this downward cycle whereas if you can pick up an upward cycle.

26:44 So it's sort of balancing these subjects that we

26:46 find interesting that we want to do with viewership.

26:48 I think that'd be absolutely fascinating to do something like that.

26:51 Um I can't I'm going to we're going to take note of it.

26:55 um whether something gets produced directly on that or whether

26:58 we can work that into something else.

27:00 That may be the way we uh aim to go with it.

27:02 But I think that's a I think that's a great idea.

27:05 Uh because art really is sounds cliche to say,

27:10 but it's it's a window into seeing how things

27:13 sort [snorts] of it's a window into a time frame.

27:17 That's probably the words I want to use.

27:19 Um, if you want to understand sort of like an aspect of society,

27:24 looking at the art that that society is producing

27:26 is a really interesting way of sort of, you know,

27:29 drawing attention to what people find important,

27:31 what people are drawn to, what the art is saying,

27:35 who it's speaking to, like all of those different things.

27:39 Um, so yeah, that's I I really

27:42 for anybody who hasn't watched that Shustage episode,

27:44 I I implore you, please go watch it, please.

27:47 and come and sing our praises because we did such a great job with it.

27:50 That being said, um yeah.

27:55 Uh oh, that's very funny that you bring this up.

28:01 Um Pasadena 97, curious if there's going to be

28:04 any videos on mauist movements that are still ongoing.

28:07 Um as well as Shining Path.

28:09 Uh we were I was just talking about

28:11 this with some of our creators um our writers, researchers with the team.

28:15 Um, I really want to get into sort of like

28:18 there's these Knackalite movements in India like Shining Path in Peru.

28:22 Some of them are still in existence, some of them are wrapped up,

28:24 but this this whole Mauist conflict between like

28:29 you've got Marxist Leninist groups and then you've

28:32 got Mauist groups and they hate each other

28:33 just as much as they hate the, you know,

28:36 the capitalist running dogs that they're trying to overthrow.

28:38 Like it's they're it's this amazing sort of stories that get told.

28:42 Um, I don't it's not going to be in the next couple of weeks kind of thing,

28:48 but like it's definitely something like that's on the list

28:50 cuz that that kind of stuff really is interesting.

28:53 Um, and it does say a lot about how the Cold War

28:56 was being fought um in terms of sort of the monolithic communism,

29:01 which has never been monolithic communism,

29:04 and how that actually played out in the the real world.

29:07 Um, so yeah, that's uh um and it's funny

29:11 that you mentioned Shining Path because I've had Shining

29:13 Path come across I've crossed paths with Shining Path

29:16 about six or seven times in just the last week.

29:19 Um so I think that's probably a sign.

29:22 So yeah.

29:24 Um let's see.

29:25 [snorts] Uh apparently someone's not a fan of Pamela Anderson.

29:36 Um that's uh sorry hang on here.

29:48 Um all the videos in the SSR Republics

29:51 and our videos on some of the Warsaw pack countries.

29:54 Um I am uh Keith Doran, you are an absolute trooper to go back to some

29:59 of those early videos which would have been the Warsaw pack countries.

30:02 was it would have been like sort

30:02 of in the first six months probably of the channel.

30:06 I waved my arms around a lot.

30:08 Um I was engaged.

30:10 The studio was dark.

30:11 Still a real studio which was great.

30:13 Um but you're trooper to go back to those.

30:15 Um sound wasn't as good.

30:16 Like I think we've gotten better as we've gone along.

30:20 I would we're going to be doing so the direct question is like

30:25 you know we covered the growth of communism in some NATO countries like France.

30:29 we're going to be doing it but not exactly in that specified format.

30:33 Um there'll be a couple of things that we want to look at um

30:37 that are only properly informed by explaining

30:40 the growth of communism in some places like France.

30:43 Um so stay tuned for that.

30:44 That's sort of like we've got something in the works for that.

30:47 Uh we probably should be doing something on like the years of lead

30:50 in uh in Italy as well because that's a an equally fascinating thing.

30:55 Although that one's daunting because Italian pronunciation um

30:59 is uh that's not my forte and my pronunciation at the best of times is not great

31:06 as the comment section will constantly point out.

31:09 So um let's see.

31:18 [snorts] Oh, that's yeah, we should do uh sorry,

31:26 I just lost where the question is.

31:29 Um there we go.

31:32 Cold War themed movies such as spy thrillers, nuclear weapons, conflicts,

31:35 critical perspectives, those can be really difficult for us to do.

31:39 Um we can do them.

31:42 The challenge is that lots of and again

31:44 this is coming to because it's a visual medium.

31:46 Um, when we start talking about movies on a YouTube channel,

31:52 it's a visual medium.

31:53 People want to see clips from the movies.

31:56 That's where we run start running into copyright stuff.

31:59 Um, because fair I mean there's fair such a thing as fair use.

32:03 Um, but YouTube is a big believer in striking first

32:06 and you know it's like you can explain yourself after.

32:09 Uh, they're they're big believers in that.

32:11 Um, and we'd prefer not to be running into copyright

32:14 issues because that can actually get the channel shut down.

32:16 Um, so those those can actually be really difficult to balance talking

32:20 about what really is an important aspect um of the Cold War.

32:24 I mean, that's Cold War movies are that's art.

32:27 It's a just a different art form from Fina.

32:29 Um, but we run into this visual

32:33 [clears throat] challenge of um copyright um stuff.

32:37 Um, so finding a way around that is It's tricky.

32:42 It's and it's fortunately I have producers

32:44 that are really good at stuff like that.

32:45 Um but it's it's certainly we are playing with that idea,

32:48 but like finding out a way to actually

32:50 practically do that is um it could be challenging.

32:54 So, um, just if anybody's wondering why I haven't

32:57 gone on a three-hour diet tribe about the, you know,

33:00 The Hunt for Red October war games,

33:02 two of my favorite Cold War movies, by the way.

33:04 Uh, that's the reason is cuz, you know, [snorts] it's like no one wants,

33:08 I shouldn't say nobody wants to see me like, you know, reenacting scenes.

33:11 [snorts] Um, but most of you don't want to see me reenacting scenes on my own.

33:16 Like, that's just not We're professionals.

33:22 [snorts] Um, let's see.

33:32 Could I imagine taking today's world leaders back into the Cold

33:35 War if leaders could act more serious and professional?

33:42 I think it's very difficult to I mean I don't I would

33:48 like to think that we all know exactly specifically who you're talking about.

33:54 Is there a glut of unprofessionalism in politics in the present day?

33:59 Yes, there is.

34:01 Was there unprofessionalism in politics in the old days?

34:04 Yes, absolutely there was.

34:08 Politics is very much a victim of the 24-hour news cycle.

34:13 It's a victim of people always having a phone with them.

34:16 Uh to be able to record everything.

34:20 Um there's not a there's not a single moment of our lives

34:23 in the present that isn't at risk of being recorded.

34:25 Um that's that's really the reality.

34:28 Um more so in some countries than others.

34:30 But um [sighs] I I and where I'm going

34:37 with that is I think like you know it's like did

34:39 politicians in the old days do stupid things and and say

34:41 stupid say stupid things do stupid things act dumb.

34:44 Yeah 100%.

34:45 It just may not have been reported quite as deeply.

34:48 Um is there an issue with you know it's

34:52 like people being deliberately dumb and stupid in the present?

34:55 Yeah, I think there very much is because

34:57 it grabs headlines and it does a whole bunch

34:59 of things um in terms of as a result

35:02 of news cycle and sort of like those aspects.

35:06 Um but I mean yeah that's that's all I can that's all I'm going to say to that.

35:16 Um and anybody [clears throat] can read into that whatever they want.

35:19 So, um yeah, that's um thank you.

35:30 I mean, it's to to be fair, like we've we've it's we've been trying to build

35:36 academic perspective into more episodes as we go along.

35:40 Um, we've got a couple of I've got a c got a couple of regular writers

35:44 and researchers um who are um either have just

35:50 successfully defended their PhDs or going into PhD programs.

35:54 Um I I was in grad school.

35:58 Um we all have, you know, it's like grad degrees um of some sort.

36:03 Um so academics is sort of like we've been leaning into that a little bit.

36:07 Uh we've done some long form interviews um with some Cold War academics.

36:12 They're I think they're tucked away in the the specials playlist.

36:16 Um they're which I mean I like doing them because

36:21 I like that kind I like this conversational format like

36:23 you know where you get to sort of pick somebody's

36:25 brain and you have a conversation and discussion about things.

36:28 They don't get a lot of viewership.

36:29 Like lots of people aren't necessarily that interested

36:32 in hearing what a PhD has to say about something.

36:36 um bully which okay fine I mean it's you know

36:42 those episodes don't do as well in terms of our numbers

36:44 and that's and again coming back to the YouTube algorithm

36:47 we we get punished for that so yeah that's uh

36:52 but they're there um if the opportunity presents um sure

36:58 I mean that's there's always the disc there's there's an ongoing

37:01 discussion about setting up a secondary channel that I just get

37:04 to do my own weird little we crossromoted on Cold War.

37:07 Um, and that would probably involve more

37:10 things like that, but um, yeah, who knows?

37:12 Like that's that that's that's where

37:15 that that's where that resides at the moment.

37:17 So um, let's see.

37:29 Um, [snorts] Soul Sister, who I'm assuming is writing in from Korea.

37:34 Um, I can bring up whatever I want.

37:36 Yes.

37:36 Uh, and that the chat can and will stay civil.

37:40 Um, because, uh, if I see people, you know,[ __] around.

37:44 This isn't for kids.

37:45 So, if I see people[ __] around, the old banhammer comes out.

37:48 So, please stay civil.

37:49 We're all in here to, you know,

37:50 just to chat and have a conversation and be be good to one another.

37:55 So, yes.

37:56 Um, absolutely.

37:58 Um, the chat will stay civil.

38:00 So, um, let's see.

38:07 Uh, this is a whatif question.

38:09 It's a rather this is this is an interesting this is this is

38:12 a this is a regular debate at the like a pub debate to be honest.

38:18 If the coup against Gorbachov, that's the August coup in 1991,

38:21 didn't happen and the new union treaty actually got put into effect,

38:25 I think some sort some form of the Soviet Union would still be around today.

38:31 I think it's entire No, I don't.

38:36 I think the Soviet Union was doomed at that point.

38:40 Um like the the the coffin like the nail

38:42 in the coffin was absolutely the August coup,

38:46 but I mean the Soviet Union was absolutely fractured at that point.

38:50 Um so I don't think that the Soviet Union would have survived.

38:53 Would it have been pulled apart exactly the way that it did?

38:59 Probably not.

39:00 I think it would have been a much I think it would

39:02 have been a more a far more orderly over time type of progression.

39:06 Um the Baltics were going to be out anyways.

39:10 I mean, if you if you look at the timeline,

39:12 like I can't think of I can't think of the number,

39:14 but a bunch of the republics had all voted for independence.

39:19 um what independence exactly meant.

39:22 Um they'd all voted like yes for independence from from the center.

39:27 Um even before the coup had happened.

39:29 The coup just sort of hastened everything and everybody

39:31 just said like yeah okay[ __] you guys we're out.

39:33 Um and then you know by the elevation was signed like the beginning

39:37 of December and then by 26th of December it was done like

39:40 you know the Soviet flag comes down the Russian color goes up

39:44 and it's you know it's like hey look the cold war is over.

39:46 Um, I think the Soviet Union was doomed earlier than that.

39:54 Nationalism was going to rip it apart anyways,

39:57 but I think that the it would have been over a longer,

40:00 more orderly period of time.

40:03 Um, with with certain exceptions.

40:04 I mean, as I said, the Baltics were the Baltics had like themselves out anyways,

40:08 like they were they were out.

40:10 Um but you would have seen like you know I think

40:12 Turk Manistan would have stuck around for a bit for longer.

40:16 Um Tajik Tajikiststan like there's there's a couple

40:20 of like there's a couple of those republics that would have probably a lot more

40:24 slowly pulled themselves away from the center.

40:26 They were going to go but they would have gone above more slowly.

40:30 Now, as I said, this is a pub conversation.

40:32 Like, this is genuinely something that like, you know,

40:34 it's like nerds like myself and a couple of other

40:36 people that will sit and have beers and talk about this.

40:40 And there's lots of people that say like, "Yeah, absolutely." Like, you know,

40:43 there would have been a rump Soviet Union that would

40:45 have consisted of like three republics that would have,

40:49 you know, carried on and it would still be would still be the Soviet Union.

40:53 It would just have been like this like, you know, reduced in size Soviet Union.

40:58 like who knows?

41:00 It's the the count counterfactual history is interesting

41:02 to have this conversation over a couple of beers.

41:05 Um but I am I would be cautious to put too much

41:09 investment into thinking that one through

41:11 because there's so many different factors

41:13 at play and there's chance like that like the the fact

41:18 that that mystery factor of chance that you never know what's going to happen.

41:22 Um the events happened as they did and that's that's what we have to work with.

41:26 Um yeah, that's that uh hopefully that sort of you

41:34 know gives a a reasonable answer to that question.

41:38 Um because that but it's it's a it's a fun question to sit

41:40 and have a couple of drinks over and you know had like

41:42 and have that discussion with other people who are familiar with sort

41:45 of like the the players and the line of events that were happening.

41:48 So um definitely video game night.

41:54 Have I played uh Hi, Halls of Iron, Hearts of Iron 4?

41:59 Um, no I have not.

42:01 Um, I am uh not a Paradox game player.

42:05 Um, those games are way too complicated for my simple old man brain.

42:10 Um, there are menus in menus in menus and I I can't I can't do that.

42:17 That's not I'm I am almost 50 years old.

42:20 I have enough brain power to sort of look after about

42:23 three things in my life and paradox games ain't one of them.

42:26 So, um, they look super entertaining and I get

42:31 where the appeal is because I used to play,

42:33 you know, sort of like the the granddaddy of those games once upon a time,

42:37 but nothing like Civilization is about sort of my where

42:42 I cap out in terms of those that type of game.

42:44 And that's nothing like a typical paradox game.

42:48 So, um yeah, let's uh take a look here.

42:55 Just moving down.

42:59 Uh some people asking about Israel.

43:01 I'm in in the interests of everybody.

43:05 I am going to avoid talking about Israel.

43:06 Um, let's see.

43:16 A series on current leaders of in in the world today whose

43:19 policies and worldviews are stuck in the Cold War like the 1980s.

43:23 I I no, we've we've never talked about doing that.

43:27 Like that's that's a that's doing

43:30 probably too much present- day prognostication um

43:34 and trying to doing an episode on that would be would be difficult.

43:40 Um, and a little bit of wish wish maybe wish fulfillment in some ways.

43:45 Um, ev every single current leader like on the planet

43:50 is informed by the events of the cold war.

43:53 Um, to sort of try to shoehorn like you

43:55 know it's like oh well this person is Margaret Thatcher.

43:57 This person is you know they're acting exactly like

44:00 you know somebody would have done in the 1980s.

44:02 It's again that's you know that's that's

44:06 possibly a pub that's a pub conversation.

44:08 Um that's a podcast conversation like you know four four three like yet

44:15 another three like know dude bros sitting

44:17 around on a podcast having that discussion.

44:20 Um I don't know three dude bros to be able to do that with.

44:24 So that's uh yeah that's uh but I I

44:28 I understand like I understand the question because I think

44:31 there's definitely some parallels in terms of what you

44:33 see in terms of some thinking that seems very cold

44:35 war um cold warminded um but I'm not sure that I'm not sure that I want to use

44:43 my time to do that just because I don't think

44:45 that I would I would get much benefit from that.

44:47 So um yeah that's uh um most interesting fascinating cold war dictator.

45:00 That's that's [snorts] a question.

45:03 That is a question.

45:04 That's a question and a half.

45:06 Um Thomas Sankara is really interesting.

45:11 I don't know if dictator is the right word.

45:16 Um but Thomas Sankara and Bkina Faso um

45:20 largely because of not what he did when he

45:23 was alive but he was murdered so [snorts]

45:25 within such a short time of taking taking power.

45:29 Um there was so much there's been so much mythos

45:34 that's been built up around him in terms of you know

45:37 it's like he was the what he was going to be

45:39 able to do and what he what he promised etc etc.

45:42 And it's sort of that that curse of 27 where like it's like you you die he died

45:48 without being able to fulfill he died without being

45:50 able to fa too young to be able to fail.

45:53 Um Kennedy the same the myth around Kennedy is the same kind of thing.

45:58 Um yeah like it's it's interesting like I I

46:01 think that Thomas Sankar is a really interesting figure.

46:04 Um, oh, the whole North Korea thing is fascinating.

46:08 Like the creation of J and like, you know, it's like Kim,

46:12 no, Kim I I I and there's too many Kims at this point.

46:16 There's only three of them, but um Kim Jong-un Kim, somebody will tell me.

46:22 Um, North Korea is really interesting, too.

46:24 Like I think but that's just sort of like

46:25 this weird batshit crazy sort of like version

46:28 of like the weird alternate like you know it's

46:31 it's the expanded universe like on drugs kind of thing.

46:35 Interesting guy.

46:36 Um yeah that's uh um moving along.

46:45 Let's see.

46:53 Oh, that's actually this is good.

46:55 And I've talked about this and like I' I've talked about this process before,

46:59 but there may be new people.

46:59 So, this is actually really interesting.

47:01 Uh, how do we develop a topic to getting it

47:03 into the can and then out to um out to YouTube.

47:08 Um so genuinely there's like a group chat like know we sit and we

47:12 have these conversations in a group chat

47:14 um about sort of things that we're interested

47:16 in things that sort of like it's like hey like I I was reading about

47:20 this like what about you know topic on this you know etc etc and if

47:24 something sort of and there's like constantly

47:26 like ideas being tossed out and if something's

47:29 interesting we sort of like the the group of us will workshop it a little

47:32 bit sort of come up with is there explore it a little bit figure

47:36 out if there's enough to be able like actually do a proper episode on it.

47:40 Like we've got to be able to have research material.

47:42 Um because this is a we actually do use research material.

47:46 It's not just a vibes based channel.

47:48 Um and we sort of come up with what like sort of what's

47:53 the angle like what kind of angle do we want on the story?

47:56 Because I mean there's no universal telling of a story.

47:58 Eh Carr will tell you that.

48:00 for anybody who doesn't know who that is.

48:02 Please go look up who eh Carr is and that go read what is history.

48:08 Um but um sort of come up with what the angle is,

48:11 what's the story that we want to tell.

48:13 Um and then someone will volunteer to do

48:16 the research and the writing on that script.

48:18 Um and they put together like the the first draft of that script.

48:21 Um comes back to me.

48:22 We review it.

48:23 We go through it, changes if necessary.

48:26 If no changes, I go through it and do like editing on it.

48:30 And the editing a lot of time is for voice.

48:32 It may be for clarification, extra content,

48:35 take some things out, basic editing stuff.

48:38 Um, but voice is important because I'm the one who's presenting it.

48:42 Um, and then I get together with our producers,

48:47 uh, usually usually about once every four weeks or so.

48:51 Um, and there's we've got a studio like an actual studio that's set up.

48:55 It is green screen.

48:56 You guys might not believe that.

48:57 Most of you believe that.

48:59 um green screen.

49:00 We do the filming usually four or five episodes in a sitting.

49:05 Um which is exhausting by the fifth one for me.

49:09 Um and then it goes to like this story like

49:13 you know the episodes get storyboarded the actual script type stuff.

49:16 Um gets storyboarded goes to production to add

49:19 to find you know B-roll you know it's and then

49:22 it goes through a review process to make sure

49:24 that you know the sound seems pretty like you know

49:26 pretty well aligned to make sure that the you

49:29 know the footage looks good that there's not me repeating

49:32 this like mispronouncing the same thing six times over

49:34 because we missed like cutting something in the right spot.

49:37 um because I take a lot of takes for some things.

49:40 Um and then it goes through final review

49:43 and then you know on a Saturday or Sunday

49:44 what uh when we're ready we uh I hit publish and it goes out to you guys.

49:48 So that's uh that whole process um can take

49:56 it's like 30 40 hours of work per episode.

50:00 there's a ton of work between a bunch of different people um that uh

50:05 that that goes through um for each episode like a 20 minute episode.

50:10 Um so yeah, like that's that's sort of the the basic process

50:15 that we uh that we follow and that's pretty consistent um over the last

50:20 seven years because the channel is

50:22 actually celebrating seven years of u publishing

50:25 videos uh which I really can't quite believe but uh here we are.

50:29 So, um, no, that's are we covering like on the channel,

50:39 are we covering the topic of Iran or do you mean like Well,

50:42 if you mean on the channel, no, we weren't going to be covering like

50:44 any of this like Operation Furry or whatever,

50:48 urgent furry or whatever he's calling it.

50:50 We're not covering any of that on the channel.

50:52 Um, am I talking about it tonight?

50:55 You can ask me questions.

50:56 I know probably as much as you guys do.

51:00 Probably less in a lot of [snorts] cases.

51:03 Um, it's an unfolding story.

51:05 It's like four or five days old.

51:08 It's I I'm not sure what I can You can

51:12 ask questions I reserve the right to refuse to answer based

51:15 on what I'm a comfortable answering and b what I

51:19 have knowledge to be able to answer in the first place.

51:21 So, um, uh, the B night with a financial contribution.

51:28 Um, thank you very much.

51:29 Uh, yes, 2026.

51:31 What a year.

51:32 Yeah, what a year.

51:33 It's, uh, it's been a hell of a year

51:34 already and it's only the beginning of March.

51:36 Uh, but thank you very much.

51:38 The, uh, that is a the financial

51:40 contribution is incredibly incredibly appreciated.

51:43 Thank you so much for that.

51:45 um financial contribution finan this I mean we all do this because

51:50 we love doing this like it's it's a joy and a pleasure

51:54 to do it there's we have financial obligations that we all

51:58 have to meet um and you know donations and viewership and all

52:01 sponsors and all those things all go towards meeting that um

52:04 but um thank you very much I I know that uh everyone's

52:08 hard-earned dollars are incredibly hard-earned

52:10 and uh anything that you're willing

52:12 to to give up really does mean the absolute world to me So, thank you very much.

52:16 Um, let's see.

52:20 [clears throat] Moving along.

52:26 Um, Patrick with the question,

52:30 do still do still images of movies encounter the same copyright issues as video?

52:34 They can.

52:35 Um, and it really depends on sort of where YouTube is with the algorithm.

52:39 Um, people also don't want to look I mean coming

52:42 back to like because I remember what I was talking

52:44 about people don't want to look at a still frame

52:46 from a movie for three minutes while I talk about something.

52:49 Um, people want to see like and would people do it like pay attention to it?

52:56 Probably, but I sort of feel shitty about it and then

52:58 we get some shitty comments and it just makes me feel bad.

53:00 It's just the whole thing.

53:02 Um, YouTube can also be quite aggressive as I

53:04 said in terms of its uh its copyright um algorithms.

53:08 Um and we just prefer not to to take that chance.

53:11 So um we will find ways around it.

53:16 Um I because I would like to do that and we've done we've

53:20 done like other like media stuff where we talk about that but um

53:25 yeah that's uh let's see [sighs] that uh uh have I ever

53:36 been to the Berlin wall where where checkpoint Charlie used to be?

53:38 I've never been to Berlin.

53:40 Um I've been the only place in Germany I've ever been is Munich.

53:44 Uh, but I have never been to uh to Berlin.

53:47 I would absolutely love to go to Berlin.

53:50 Um, especially if it's a transit point on my way

53:52 to Poland because I really really really want to go to Poland.

53:55 Um, but uh my Yeah, that's a long story short.

53:59 I've never been to Berlin.

54:00 So, no, that's an easy answer to that question.

54:02 I would absolutely love to go to Berlin.

54:05 Um, I'd love to go back to I haven't been to Europe in a number of years.

54:08 I would really like to be able to go back.

54:10 Um, but things are there's home stuff going

54:14 on that prevents me from being able to travel too much.

54:17 Um, but hopefully at some point.

54:19 Um, but uh I'd like to go back to a lot of places in Europe.

54:23 Um, that uh I used to I used to live

54:26 in [snorts] Hungary uh once upon a time many years ago.

54:30 Um, and I would love to go back to Hungary and see how much has

54:33 changed and how much actually hasn't changed because

54:36 progress in that country is really difficult apparently.

54:38 Um, but yes, that's uh um yeah, please please don't blow up the world.

54:48 Like even when I'm here gone,

54:50 like that's just let's let's try not to blow up the world.

54:53 That would be I think that's probably the least that we can ask.

54:56 So, um video on Nixon and Watergate.

55:01 I don't know how much we'll focus on Watergate

55:03 necessarily because it's one of those things that people

55:06 who already people people who are going to watch

55:08 something about Watergate already know all about Watergate.

55:10 I'm not going to add a whole lot to it.

55:12 I think some extra context for a lot

55:14 of people on Nixon though is actually really really interesting.

55:16 I was having this who was I that was my oldest kid I think

55:21 the other day I was talking to about

55:22 Nixon and their their entire concept of Nixon.

55:26 was like he's this horrible human being and he's this right-wing bigot

55:29 like all these things and he's not he's not wrong in terms

55:33 of what they're saying about Nixon but Nixon is also like

55:35 this really like he's actually quite progressive in a lot of ways.

55:39 Um the EPA was established by Richard Nixon.

55:43 Richard Nixon had a had a the enough of a majority that he could have

55:48 rolled back all of like LBJ's like

55:50 great society programs and like you know started

55:52 stripping away rights from you know from nonwhites

55:56 like I mean the whole like civil

55:57 rights movement like all of that he could have done that and he chose not to.

56:02 Um so Nixon is quite interesting I think there's a lot of context like some

56:05 deeper understanding that can and should be

56:08 should be looked at in terms of that.

56:09 So, um, that's definitely something we'd like to do.

56:12 Maybe not too, well, I would talk about Watergate,

56:14 obviously, because you can't talk about Nixon without Watergate.

56:17 Um, but Nixon is this really fascinating character to me.

56:20 So, um, yeah.

56:22 Um, let's see.

56:23 [snorts] Uh, sorry, just going through a couple of couple of bits here.

56:34 uh my educational background.

56:38 Uh yes, I I actually did uh go to school for history many many years ago.

56:43 I have a uh I have an undergraduate honors degree

56:45 um in history uh from a university here in Canada

56:48 and I have a post-graduate diploma um uh from a university

56:52 in the UK um studying uh specifically military history.

56:56 Um so that is my that is my educational background.

57:01 um formal, not formal.

57:06 Um I've I've always liked reading about history as as it informs the present.

57:13 Like that's very much what I've realized.

57:16 Like that's very much what I like reading about.

57:19 Um, for a great many years,

57:21 the Second World War was always my was always a deep and abiding passion,

57:25 especially the uh the Pacific theater like the PTO and um um CBI.

57:31 Absolutely fascinating to me.

57:33 Um and then sort of the this channel came

57:37 along and I pitched the idea of the cold war

57:39 as a something to sort of explore further and I've

57:42 found that I find this topic actually much more fascinating.

57:45 I think the sec I and I continue

57:46 to think the Second World War is quite interesting.

57:49 Um, but I think the Cold War is just so much

57:52 there's so much more happening and so much more going on.

57:54 It's just so insidious and neb nebulous and everything that uh yeah,

57:59 I've definitely found found my my my niche,

58:02 my my niche um depending how you want to pronounce that.

58:06 So um yeah, that's um Oh, you know what?

58:14 Actually, John, John, you make an excellent, excellent point here.

58:18 Um, leaders during the Cold War all went

58:20 through the furnace of the Second World War together.

58:22 Um, and it and I'm going to deviate slightly from your you you

58:27 note that like forced them to grow up and yeah, it absolutely did.

58:30 Um, but I think because all of like this entire generation

58:38 that went through of leaders that went through and I think furnace

58:42 is a really good word for it went through like the like

58:44 the absolute hell that was World War II like the global madness.

58:50 no one wanted to repeat that and what they could do

58:54 to avoid repeating that especially knowing

58:56 that there were nuclear weapons then involved

58:59 um which would have made things just I mean infantessimally worse um

59:04 that all very much like you know it's like it it tempers

59:07 decision-m like you know it's like that's there's rash decisions when

59:12 a you know a 10 megaton bomb or 15 10 megaton bombs are

59:18 pointing at your city I mean that's It it makes you stop

59:21 and think when you've seen what the horrors of war look like.

59:24 Um, and I I'm gonna say we and I'm gonna be I I

59:31 there's lots of people in this like there's plenty of people in this chat

59:34 that are coming from various parts of the world that likely have

59:38 seen and experienced some degree of the misery and the horror of war.

59:43 We in the West, speaking for myself, we don't have an experience of that.

59:48 like we don't have like that like you

59:51 know of being of being bombed and rocketed.

59:54 Um the closest we get to that is Keefe at this point.

59:58 Um and there's a lot of people that are

59:59 trying to keep that as arms length as possible.

1:00:02 Um yeah I think that's that's a really important point John.

1:00:05 I'm glad you brought that up.

1:00:06 Thank you very much for that.

1:00:07 And I think that's that's really important important to note

1:00:10 that a big part of the Cold War the reason

1:00:13 for it staying cold in the broader sense is

1:00:17 that people didn't want to reenact World War II on speed.

1:00:22 So um yeah, that's uh let's see moving along.

1:00:32 Thank you for that.

1:00:32 Moving along to other questions that I can possibly find and answer here.

1:00:36 just realized I think my my my wife [snorts] is trying to call me.

1:00:39 She's at work tonight.

1:00:40 So, it's part of the reason it's a good evening for me to do this.

1:00:44 Um, let's see.

1:00:50 Oh, so more academics in our videos.

1:00:53 Do I plan on doing more histography

1:00:56 videos on prominent Cold War authors and arguments?

1:01:00 That sounds like a literature review, Patrick.

1:01:04 Um, which I I'm not sure that I'm ready to to do that.

1:01:10 I'm not I don't know how much interest there would be in people, you know,

1:01:14 knowing in me talking about, you know,

1:01:16 it's like what does Otter and Avestat think about this versus, you know,

1:01:20 Louis Gatis like I I I think there's

1:01:23 I think there's value to it within the academic

1:01:26 community and to people who are not just

1:01:28 I shouldn't I shouldn't restrict that to just academics.

1:01:31 people who are interested in historioggraphy, there's value to it.

1:01:34 But are are 30,000 people going to sit and watch a video on historioggraphy?

1:01:39 I I would be I would be horrified if there were

1:01:42 30,000 people that want to sit and watch a video on historioggraphy.

1:01:46 That's But I'll put a pin in.

1:01:50 I'll think about it.

1:01:50 So, um I'd like to see interview Steven Codkin.

1:02:00 That would mean that I would have to read a bunch of things by Cotkin.

1:02:04 Um, of which I've got several,

1:02:05 but that's like that's thousands and thousands of pages to be

1:02:09 able to prepare to uh to have a conversation with Stephen Cotkin.

1:02:12 Um, which would actually be absolutely fascinating to do.

1:02:16 Um, again, I'm going to put a pin in that.

1:02:18 So, um, yeah, that's uh, let's see.

1:02:31 This is how you get this is the question that that how you get cancelled.

1:02:35 What Balkan nation is my favorite?

1:02:38 I don't have a favorite Balkan nation because they're all amazing

1:02:42 and unique in their own way and my love to the Balkans.

1:02:46 Um that's uh yeah that no that's really how somebody throws a bomb at my house.

1:02:54 I don't need that.

1:02:54 I don't need that in my life.

1:02:56 What are you trying to do to me?

1:02:58 That's [snorts] um Let's see.

1:03:07 Have I watched For All Mankind?

1:03:09 Um no, I I haven't.

1:03:11 And everyone keeps telling me that I that I need to.

1:03:13 It's on I don't have Apple TV and I

1:03:17 mean I'm not one for necessarily like extolling

1:03:20 the the values of uh of like taking to the high seas to find copies of things.

1:03:25 Um, I'm quite positive that I would really

1:03:28 enjoy the show and I know the premise,

1:03:30 everything like and I'm sure that I would really enjoy it.

1:03:33 Um, but there's just there's extra levels

1:03:34 for me to go and find episodes to watch.

1:03:37 And honestly, like I I work a corporate corporate job during the day.

1:03:41 I get home.

1:03:42 I usually do like an hour, two hours of, you know,

1:03:45 it's like cold war research, writing,

1:03:48 you know, whatever that happens to look like.

1:03:51 I have a family I like spending time with.

1:03:53 I actually like my family.

1:03:54 I want to spend time with them.

1:03:55 I want my dog.

1:03:57 That's Where's my dog?

1:03:59 There's my dog right there.

1:04:02 Anyways, I like hanging out with him.

1:04:05 Um, yeah.

1:04:07 So, in terms of watching TV, I don't really watch a lot of TV, I'm afraid.

1:04:11 Um, yeah.

1:04:13 So, it's that's it's on it's on the the ever

1:04:16 growing list of TV shows I know I really should watch.

1:04:20 Not sure I'm ever going to get there,

1:04:21 but hopefully one of these days eventually.

1:04:24 Um, yeah, that's uh uh let's see.

1:04:30 [snorts] People talk I'm way behind in terms of answering questions here because

1:04:38 people are talking about my opinion on the uh the survival of the union.

1:04:42 Let's uh let's see.

1:04:49 Um, I'm skipping forward a little bit.

1:04:53 That's uh uh Have I been to have I been to Vietnam?

1:04:57 No, I've never been to Vietnam.

1:04:59 Um, I would absolutely love to go to Vietnam.

1:05:02 Um, it's on my list.

1:05:04 I was just talking to my my wife actually about that.

1:05:07 That uh she doesn't eat seafood,

1:05:09 so Vietnam's kind of can be I think that's sort of a wildcard trip.

1:05:13 Um, I would love to go to Vietnam.

1:05:17 Um, but we'll that that I don't know how that's going to happen.

1:05:22 I would love to.

1:05:23 Have I been to Cuba?

1:05:24 Yes, I've been to Cuba several times.

1:05:26 Um, because I'm Canadian.

1:05:28 Um, it has been very accessible and very

1:05:31 easy to get to Cuba for relatively cheap, you know, honestly vacations.

1:05:37 Um, this year has been since the the the Maduro thing in Venezuela.

1:05:44 Um, Cuba really has has what?

1:05:48 My god, what a what a terrible thing that's happening to those people.

1:05:51 Um, it wasn't good before and it's just

1:05:53 getting worse and worse and worse and magnified.

1:05:55 Um, with the embar the the effects of the embargo and like not being

1:05:59 able to get any oil which is shutting down literally shutting down the country.

1:06:03 Cuba is not accessible to us um at the moment.

1:06:07 I have been in the past.

1:06:08 I really really enjoyed Cuba.

1:06:10 Cuba was the the people the beaches are great but the people are amazing.

1:06:15 Um really fantastic.

1:06:17 Some of the some of the best great conversations with people um

1:06:21 in my basic Spanish and their willingness to listen to a you know

1:06:28 like you know like try to like massacre their language and just wanting

1:06:32 to get to know who they are and what they're about and everything.

1:06:35 Really fantastic fantastic people in Cuba.

1:06:38 Um, so yes, I've I've been to haven't been to one,

1:06:41 have been to the other a couple of times.

1:06:43 Um, let's see.

1:06:50 Uh, com Oh, comrades who is has left

1:06:54 um made a another made a financial contribution.

1:06:57 Um I uh I know you're not listening to this at this point,

1:07:02 but um um thank you very much for for the financial for the the contribution.

1:07:08 That's uh that is very much appreciated.

1:07:10 Uh immensely.

1:07:11 Um thank you for stopping in and spending a little bit of time with us.

1:07:15 Much appreciated.

1:07:16 Uh let's see.

1:07:19 Um Zachary asking a question.

1:07:26 Have we done uh videos on Cult of Stalum?

1:07:29 Yeah, we've actually done we did two actually.

1:07:32 We've done one in the early days which was a bit more

1:07:36 sort of probably like bit more top level, a bit more cursory.

1:07:39 Um and then we did one not within the last year

1:07:42 we did one um re-examining um culture personality built around Stellum.

1:07:47 Um, and that one I think it was

1:07:51 the channels evolved and developed in terms of how

1:07:53 we approach things like as people were saying there's

1:07:55 a bit more of an academic bend to things.

1:07:57 That one had a bit more of an academic look to it.

1:08:00 Um, but we went into a bit more into the the analysis of the cultum.

1:08:04 Um, but yeah, we we definitely have a um what I would like to think

1:08:08 is a pretty good video on that within the last uh within the last year.

1:08:11 Anyways, um, am I a Rush fan?

1:08:20 Um, yes.

1:08:20 I I like Rush.

1:08:22 I'm not like this like a mega super fan or anything.

1:08:24 Um, I have seen them in concert once.

1:08:27 I saw them on their last tour when they were at the uh the ACC,

1:08:32 which is the big it's the hockey rink here in Toronto.

1:08:36 Um, I was uh lucky enough to score some box seats.

1:08:40 um corporate large s uh to go see that um which was awesome.

1:08:45 It was just like that's the the loudest show uh one of the loudest

1:08:49 shows that I've ever been not the loudest but one of the loudest shows

1:08:51 I've ever been to and fantastic very proud Canadian moment and I don't don't

1:08:56 have many of those but a very proud Canadian moment to go see Rush.

1:09:00 So, um yeah, that's uh let's see moving along.

1:09:12 Um some conversation about uh Yao Ming.

1:09:19 U I remember Yaoing.

1:09:21 Um yeah, that guy's huge.

1:09:23 If anybody ever tries to tell you that[ __]

1:09:25 that like you know Asian people are all small

1:09:27 just say the words yaing and like oh

1:09:28 my god like that guy's enormous good ball player too.

1:09:32 Um am I a PhD?

1:09:33 No I'm not a PhD.

1:09:34 I think I probably answered that be after you had

1:09:37 posted that question solista but um no I'm not a PhD.

1:09:41 I have no intention of ever doing a PhD.

1:09:46 Um, that's yeah, my wife would like me to be a PhD,

1:09:50 but that's mostly because she would like to introduce me to her.

1:09:54 She's a she's a nurse.

1:09:55 She works with a lot of doctors, like MD doctors.

1:09:58 She would like to be able to introduce me

1:09:59 to people and say that this is my husband, the doctor.

1:10:02 No, not that kind of doctor.

1:10:04 So, that's really the entirety of the closest I'm ever going to get to a PhD.

1:10:08 Otherwise, I have absolutely zero intention of that.

1:10:11 Um, yeah.

1:10:14 Let's see.

1:10:14 [snorts] Um, where are the exercises on Able Archer and the VA incident?

1:10:25 Well, they're not created yet.

1:10:27 So, um, they are up here,

1:10:29 but for anybody who is interested but may not know what those are,

1:10:33 Ael Archer was a nuclear command and control exercise

1:10:37 that was tacked on to the end of Reforger 83.

1:10:40 And it is probably it is one of the moments that's

1:10:43 touted as being the closest the world has come to nuclear annihilation.

1:10:47 Um except that one side had absolutely no

1:10:49 idea that they were that close to nuclear annihilation.

1:10:52 Um paranoid Soviets and possibly somewhat oblivious Americans.

1:10:58 Um and the VA incident uh was a the likely testing of an Israeli or South

1:11:07 African nuclear weapon um over the southern

1:11:10 Indian Ocean um in the late early 80s.

1:11:14 Yeah, early 80s.

1:11:16 Um that uh was likely an atomic the one

1:11:21 of those countries joining the um the nuclear club,

1:11:24 but it's never been confirmed.

1:11:26 Um it's become known as the VA incident.

1:11:30 Um yes, I'm sorry.

1:11:34 Moving along.

1:11:41 Uh my thoughts on the Canada US hockey gold medal game.

1:11:45 Uh I don't watch the Olympics.

1:11:46 I don't give I I don't give a rat's ass about the Olympics.

1:11:50 I haven't for a very long time.

1:11:52 Um for a variety of reasons.

1:11:55 Uh, I heard the game was like everything was left on the ice.

1:11:58 It was, you know, etc., etc.

1:12:00 Um, and I think that things would have been just fine had the Anyways,

1:12:06 what happened afterwards and like, you know, there's,

1:12:08 you know, sore sore losers, sore winners, like etc., etc.

1:12:14 Politics is sports, sports is politics.

1:12:17 I very firmly believe that.

1:12:19 Um, do I have thoughts?

1:12:22 Yeah.

1:12:22 puts.

1:12:23 I mean, [snorts] you guys already know what those are.

1:12:25 So, um, moving along.

1:12:32 Um, let's see.

1:12:37 Uh, sorry, I'm trying to read these.

1:12:40 I'm trying to read questions as I go and not bore people by listening to me go,

1:12:45 which is I'm not good at that.

1:12:46 So, um, the, uh, what is the dog's name?

1:12:53 The dog's name is, uh, well, I call him Grover.

1:12:56 G R O V E R.

1:12:58 Um, my wife calls him Rover.

1:13:01 Um, because that's the name that he came with from the rescue.

1:13:04 I think Grover sounds just goofy.

1:13:07 Like, it's just like it's like a it's just such a what a basic name for a dog.

1:13:13 Um, so I call him Grover.

1:13:16 everyone, a lot of most of the rest of the family call him Rover.

1:13:19 Um, he's a dog and really can't tell

1:13:21 the difference between with the G or without the G.

1:13:24 Um, so yeah, that's his name is Grover for the purposes of this channel

1:13:29 and the 43 people that are hopefully paying attention to me at this point.

1:13:33 The dog's name is Grover.

1:13:35 Um, and he we've had him for four years.

1:13:42 Four years.

1:13:44 Yeah, four years.

1:13:45 So, um, that's an this is an interesting question.

1:13:49 It's a little bit more.

1:13:51 Am I still excited about the Cold War after doing it for so long?

1:13:54 Yeah, I am actually.

1:13:55 This is the the amazing like absolutely.

1:13:58 Um, just because there's always something new.

1:14:02 There's always a new facet.

1:14:04 There's always a new aspect to the topic.

1:14:07 Um, there's a new like the there's always something new coming out.

1:14:10 There's tons of documents that are being declassified daily like

1:14:15 around the world out of all kinds of different archives.

1:14:18 Um, and as that happens, more academics are able to get their hand on it

1:14:21 and they're able to do their own analysis from different

1:14:23 perspectives and lenses and angles and all that gets published

1:14:26 and like you know there's you get into conversations with people.

1:14:29 It's I it really is like it's just

1:14:31 this deepening deepening love affair with the topic.

1:14:35 Um, [clears throat] yeah, like it really is just like I absolutely love it.

1:14:40 So, will we see more on the topic of Yugoslavia?

1:14:46 Yes, we are.

1:14:47 We'll probably do one maybe two episodes between sort

1:14:54 of like the like market socialism sort of like the role

1:14:57 that Yugoslavia played um during the cold war itself because it

1:15:00 wasn't really ever eastern block but it was never like it

1:15:03 was you know been doing like third um non-align movement

1:15:07 like that whole thing where Yugoslavia sort of sets itself up

1:15:11 in the middle [clears throat] um but then obviously like

1:15:14 you know the the the dissolution of the of Yugos Slavia,

1:15:18 which is like the the death the death throws through

1:15:20 the 80s and the rise of nationalism and then finally the uh

1:15:23 the Balkan Wars um and which I so vividly remember um

1:15:31 from like the early 90s and just how awful that was.

1:15:36 Um yeah, like that's No, no,

1:15:40 definitely definitely going to be coming back to that.

1:15:41 So, give me one second here, guys.

1:15:50 [clears throat] Oh, that's better.

1:15:51 Um, let's see.

1:15:57 Sorry, I'm laughing at this question because it's just so blunt.

1:16:00 Is this World War III?

1:16:01 I don't know.

1:16:02 Let's hope not.

1:16:03 Um, it's really all I can say to that.

1:16:05 Let's Let's not Let's Let's hope not.

1:16:09 Let's hope Let's just hope not.

1:16:12 That's uh James Baker.

1:16:18 Um I'm assuming that this is possibly a different

1:16:21 James Baker than former Secretary of State James Baker.

1:16:24 Um but if it's the same James Baker, that's that's amazing.

1:16:28 Um thank you for that compliment.

1:16:31 Um we we publish the videos and we we do our research and our scripts based

1:16:37 on sort of like the the what we have access to and what what we believe.

1:16:42 Um, as much as some people will try to convince

1:16:45 you history that history should be unbiased, history is biased.

1:16:50 All history has bias.

1:16:51 I will refer you back to eh car and what is

1:16:53 history um which I'd mentioned earlier in the show um being

1:17:00 honest to the sources and being honest to the material um

1:17:05 is is the the ultimate thing that we try to do.

1:17:08 Um, and I don't expect everyone to to agree with sort

1:17:13 of the angle that we take or the, you know, exactly how we present things.

1:17:16 Um, but we hope that people agree that we that we make the best

1:17:21 effort possible to be fair and evenhanded in terms of what we do.

1:17:25 Um, so thank you for that.

1:17:27 That's uh that that's very much appreciated.

1:17:30 Um, [clears throat] what is my day job?

1:17:35 My day job, I work in a medical device for a medical device company.

1:17:41 Um, it's just a regular old corporate

1:17:44 corporate job that I've done in an industry

1:17:47 that I've worked for for a very long time that uh that treats me well

1:17:50 and that I enjoy and I feel I do something good in the world during

1:17:54 the day and then I come home and I hopefully do something good in the evenings.

1:17:57 So it um yeah that's uh clearly I'm being slightly like you

1:18:04 know it's like you know hidden in terms of what I do.

1:18:06 I'm not going to go tell you like the address of where I work is blah blah.

1:18:10 Please understand that this is the public

1:18:12 and the public can be very weird sometimes.

1:18:14 Um but um but I have a what I feel to be quite a fulfilling

1:18:20 day job which is more than I think a lot of people can say.

1:18:24 Um, and it it's one that that accompany with people that treat

1:18:28 me treat me well and with respect and all those things.

1:18:31 So, um, yeah, that's, uh, David is not a high school teacher.

1:18:38 Um, where am I in Canada?

1:18:43 I'm in the the GT.

1:18:44 I'm in the Toronto area.

1:18:45 Uh, I've been living here for almost almost 25 years, I want to say.

1:18:50 Uh, coming up on 25 years.

1:18:51 Um, I am originally from the Ottawa area.

1:18:56 Um, and I', but I've been down here for quite a long time.

1:19:00 Uh, I I don't like Toronto.

1:19:02 I like Toronto less and less every minute that I spent here.

1:19:06 Um, but this is where, you know, this is where my my job is,

1:19:09 my my kids and my wife and my family and all those things.

1:19:12 25 years.

1:19:13 I just don't like the city.

1:19:14 It's uh I'd rather be any I would rather be somewhere else.

1:19:18 I would rather be back in the Ottawa Valley.

1:19:20 But uh but uh yeah um when and how did I become interested in the Cold War?

1:19:29 Um so I'm born in the late 70s.

1:19:31 I grew up a Cold War kid.

1:19:33 Um like through the 80s.

1:19:35 Uh the TV was always on with the news.

1:19:38 Uh my parents um always had newspapers.

1:19:41 Um in because of my dad's job, we moved around a lot um including places abroad.

1:19:48 uh we would always have newspapers even if they weren't in English.

1:19:51 Um so there's constant exposure to the news and you know it's like

1:19:54 you you watch the news in different

1:19:55 languages whatever that happens to look like.

1:19:58 Um and the Cold War wasn't history at that point.

1:20:01 The Cold War was just like the background of everyday life.

1:20:04 Um so that's sort of baked in there.

1:20:07 Um, I used to play a lot of video games um as a kid like simul like flight

1:20:11 simulators and things like that uh in the late

1:20:14 80s um when they came on discs and they

1:20:19 had manuals and those manuals had like you know

1:20:22 histories and like you know explanations of what the scenarios

1:20:25 like were supposed to be and blah blah blah

1:20:26 and a lot of that was cold war stuff.

1:20:28 It was m Micropros games like F19 and Gunship blah blah blah.

1:20:32 Um and again like that wasn't cold war history at that point.

1:20:35 that was just like that was events from the news.

1:20:37 Um but that sort of seeped in and I loved that kind of stuff.

1:20:42 Um and I with my dad's job we ended up

1:20:46 in Hungary for four years um in like the early

1:20:49 90s and we watched like communism be socialism be taking

1:20:55 up taken apart like we watched that in real time.

1:20:58 Um, and then yeah, that stuck with me and then um ended up

1:21:03 in Russia on and off um in Moscow uh in the late 90s.

1:21:08 Um, and that's just sort of like adds fuel to that as well because that's sort

1:21:11 of the like oh my god like I'm standing

1:21:14 in I'm standing in the middle of Red Square.

1:21:16 Um, and that was fascinating and to itself and that's

1:21:19 like sort of like fuels the Cold War stuff as well.

1:21:22 But yeah, like that's there's always been an interest in the in the period.

1:21:26 As I said before, the Second World War was always the passion prior.

1:21:29 Um, and then started doing this channel and realized that you know what,

1:21:32 this is this is this is my baby.

1:21:33 This is my true this is my co my passion.

1:21:36 So yeah.

1:21:38 Um, uh, we're getting conflicting messages.

1:21:43 One saying it's the same James Baker and somebody

1:21:45 else saying that it's not the same James Baker.

1:21:47 But I am going to uh trust the James

1:21:49 Baker saying that it's not the same James Baker.

1:21:52 Um and don't worry James, I won't hold that against you.

1:21:55 So thank you for being here.

1:21:57 Much appreciated.

1:21:59 Um that's um sorry guys, I'm uh my voice is [clears throat] dying here.

1:22:15 I realized I've been talking for almost an hour and a half,

1:22:17 which is uh a lot even for me.

1:22:20 That's uh I have somebody jumping in and defending like my dislike of Toronto.

1:22:27 Um so, somebody had asked a little bit earlier um what's wrong with Toronto?

1:22:33 Uh Brian Bar had asked what's wrong with Toronto.

1:22:37 It's a city that the infrastructure hasn't kept up

1:22:39 with the population growth um anywhere you go in the city.

1:22:43 Um, it's it's just a really it's a big

1:22:49 city in that you there's always something to do.

1:22:52 There's always something going on, but you have

1:22:54 to prepare for like giant chunks of time

1:22:57 of your life to be able to get to whatever it is that you want to go to.

1:23:01 Um, and it's just it's as I'm getting older and grumpier,

1:23:04 it's just more of a hassle.

1:23:06 Um, yeah, like it's just it's not it's it's too much.

1:23:09 It's getting it's too big for this guy that wants to sit in the quiet and not

1:23:14 have to worry about think about you know traffic

1:23:17 and parking and like all that all that nonsense.

1:23:21 So um I don't think that this is really radically different from the feelings

1:23:25 of like you know people who live in any other big city in the world.

1:23:28 This just happens to be the big city that I live in.

1:23:30 So, um, yeah, that's, uh, um,

1:23:40 was the Challenger explosion a big deal in Canada, too?

1:23:43 Um, I will come clean, Soul Sista.

1:23:45 I, we all knew about it here, and I know that because people have told me that.

1:23:51 I wasn't living in Canada at the time

1:23:53 that Challenger the Challenger explosion happened.

1:23:55 I was living in Colombia in Boata.

1:23:58 Um, and it was a really big deal there that was on the news cycle,

1:24:02 like on the news constantly.

1:24:03 I saw that explosion.

1:24:04 I came home from school and there it was like, you know,

1:24:08 it's like I can still see it, that bright blue sky with like,

1:24:10 you know, it's like the splitting branching cloud coming like, you know,

1:24:13 it's the capsule coming like I I vividly remember that in grade three.

1:24:19 Um, it was a big deal.

1:24:22 It was a really big deal.

1:24:23 And I know it was a big deal here in Canada as well because my wife has told

1:24:26 me like we both have those recolle we've had

1:24:28 that conversation like where were you when um we have

1:24:31 that recollection of exactly where we were when we saw

1:24:34 it happen and we found out about it and then

1:24:36 talking about it afterwards like with like you know

1:24:40 your friends and with teachers like all of those things.

1:24:43 So um Challenger was a big deal in the west

1:24:46 like it was was absolutely a big deal.

1:24:49 was that that whole the invincibility of like you know

1:24:52 the the US being challenged like right there like you know

1:24:57 and it was that was such a big important mission with like

1:25:00 you know Sally no I was going to say Sally Ride

1:25:04 but that's not uh the the teacher I can't think

1:25:06 of her name right now um but yeah like that's like that it

1:25:10 was a big deal um for sure um Would would it

1:25:19 be better uh Brian if I just kept calling it muskva?

1:25:22 I can call it muskva but that's going to sound

1:25:24 really weird as I speak English through the rest of it.

1:25:27 Canadian pronunciation can be a very strange thing um because it will

1:25:31 change the same word will change

1:25:33 pronunciation three times in the same paragraph.

1:25:36 Um it really depends.

1:25:37 We are exposed to a ton of British media.

1:25:40 We are exposed to a ton of American media.

1:25:42 Um and we are exposed to a ton of our own Canadian media.

1:25:45 We're also a really big country next to another really big country

1:25:48 um where pronunciation changes on its own within all all of these regions.

1:25:53 Um so pronunciation is going to be very

1:25:55 strange and we do normally say it Moscow here.

1:25:58 Um but I can say it musa and I can

1:25:59 spell it out that way if that makes people feel better.

1:26:02 So um what cold war countries have I been to?

1:26:11 Every country I've ever been to has been a cold war country.

1:26:14 um just after the fact uh because the cold war reached out everywhere.

1:26:18 That's my gotcha comment.

1:26:20 Um but it's in a lot of ways it's actually true.

1:26:24 I mean Hungary Hungary and Russia are probably the two

1:26:26 most direct things I think in terms of what you mean.

1:26:32 Um in terms of countries I've lived in.

1:26:34 I mean I've been to Slovakia.

1:26:36 I've been to Czech Republic.

1:26:38 I've been to Finland.

1:26:41 I [snorts] mean, there's I'm already missing a bunch of others in there,

1:26:45 but um been to Austria, like um yeah, like I was Hong Kong a cold war country?

1:26:57 Like it was a colony at the time that I was there?

1:26:59 But I mean there's there's lots of Yeah,

1:27:03 like I've I've I've been like South America.

1:27:05 Like I've been to a lot of places, but you know that's Yeah.

1:27:08 [snorts] Anyway, that's uh um let's see.

1:27:20 I am going to be wrapping this up relatively soon.

1:27:25 Um just because I'm uh [clears throat] I'm

1:27:28 definitely starting to lose my voice a little bit.

1:27:32 Um the Lenin Mausoleum on Red Square.

1:27:38 I've never actually like I've been to Red Square a bunch of times.

1:27:40 Um when I was in Moscow, I've never actually been into the mausoleum.

1:27:44 The lineup for it was always gigantic and huge

1:27:47 and I always sort of assume like oh well, you know,

1:27:49 I'll come back at some other point when it's not quite so

1:27:51 bad and then I'll go in and see his shrinking mummified corpse.

1:27:54 And I just never did.

1:27:56 Um and to be perfectly blunt, it's not something that I'm actually disappointed

1:27:59 that I've never actually gone in to see.

1:28:02 Um interesting to see it from the outside.

1:28:04 Like there's definitely like this There's definitely like there there's

1:28:10 there's a a feeling of standing like on, you know, it's like and you've got St.

1:28:15 Basil's at one end, you've got like, you know,

1:28:17 the natural history museum on one side,

1:28:18 the Kremlin on one side, Goomba on the other.

1:28:20 And it's that feeling that you've seen this on the news so many times.

1:28:25 Um, you've seen a Cessna land on it.

1:28:28 Um, for anybody who knows that reference,

1:28:31 like there's all this there's there's so much like history and it's so alive.

1:28:36 um and you're standing in the middle of it and realizing that it's just a it's

1:28:39 just a square and there's really nothing crazy

1:28:43 about it except what you make of it.

1:28:47 Um and then Lemon's Mausoleum is right there

1:28:50 and you know and like all these things.

1:28:53 Um there's a sense of history and a sense

1:28:56 of feeling to it if you want it to be there.

1:28:59 Um, like I was there with my parents and my they always they hated it.

1:29:04 Like that's that especially Red Square,

1:29:07 they never had that sense of awe and wonder

1:29:09 and that feeling that they're they're in contact with history.

1:29:13 Um, that could just be a me thing.

1:29:14 That could just be like a history nerd thing.

1:29:17 I don't know.

1:29:18 But um, yeah, that's uh interest.

1:29:23 I just I thought of that as you mentioned um, lemon muscleium.

1:29:28 So, um, since they took Stalin out of it,

1:29:31 it really just lo sort of lost the flare.

1:29:33 He's buried in the wall when you go out and around the, uh, the side.

1:29:37 Um, that was really interesting because when I was there,

1:29:39 I hadn't realized that he was actually buried in the wall.

1:29:42 Um, and you're sort of going along and reading like, you know,

1:29:44 the names of like the people interred and you

1:29:47 suddenly realize that you're standing in front of Stalin's like,

1:29:49 you know, it's like, oh my god.

1:29:50 Like, it's like, look, look, one of the world's mass dictators and killers.

1:29:54 So, this is insane.

1:29:55 Um yeah, that's just kind of funny.

1:29:59 But um yeah.

1:30:06 Um I think on that note, guys, I am going to uh to start um wrapping this.

1:30:12 Uh I apologize that um someone is going to have to go

1:30:15 back to class as a result of me losing my voice a bit.

1:30:18 Um but um can I read Cerillic?

1:30:22 Uh yeah, I can.

1:30:24 That's I've taken a couple years of Russian language.

1:30:26 Not that you can ever tell when I start pronouncing anything.

1:30:29 Um, but I I can like I'm familiar with the alphabet and I can read it.

1:30:33 I've been actually taking Ukrainian lessons for the last little bit.

1:30:36 Um, so yeah, like cerillic is I can I can read that slowly a lot of the time,

1:30:43 but I can't read cerillic.

1:30:44 So don't always know what it means, but I can read it.

1:30:47 But um, on that winning note, um, thank you very much guys.

1:30:52 Um, really appreciate it.

1:30:53 I appreciate the support from everybody out there.

1:30:56 As always, you know, it's look after each other.

1:30:59 Stay safe.

1:31:00 Throw us a couple of bucks, you know, if you're able to.

1:31:03 Completely understand if you're not able to.

1:31:05 Um, but click on the, you know, press subscribe, press the bell button.

1:31:09 We do terrible things to it every week.

1:31:12 And, um, yeah, most importantly, look after each other.

1:31:15 It's, uh, on that note, have a good night, everybody.