The BrainFood Show

• The Incredible Real Life Cold War Bond Villain Ice Lair

  Ah, the ice lair! From Superman’s Fortress of Solitude to Ozymandias’s Antarctic headquarters in Watchmen to the Rebel Alliance’s Echo Base on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, nothing quite exudes sophistication, rugged determination, or - pun intended - sheer cool than a hideout carved out of cold, hard snow and ice. But while certainly stylish and awesome, such sub-zero digs are surely the exclusive preserve of comic book heroes and villains, being too impractical to build in real life, right? Well, actually no! In the late 1950s, the United States Army actually attempted to build a supervillain ice lair of its own, carving an elaborate nuclear-powered base directly into the Greenland ice cap. While sold to the public as a peaceful research outpost, the facility actually had a far more sinister, secret purpose, which had it been completed would have further ratcheted up already high Cold War tensions. This is the forgotten and fascinating story of Project Iceworm. Author: Gilles Messier Editor: Daven Hiskey Host: Simon Whistler Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• 32 Seconds from Detonation- That Time the U.S. Almost Accidentally Nuked North Carolina... 3 Times

  The Cold War, lasting from the end of the Second World War in 1945 to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was one of the most dangerous periods in human history. For nearly five decades, the communist East and capitalist West eyed each other suspiciously across the Iron Curtain, precariously balanced on the brink of nuclear Armageddon. Numerous intercontinental ballistic missiles sat ready in their silos, nuke equipped submarines prowled the oceans, while nuclear-armed strategic bombers patrolled the skies, all ready at a moment’s notice to unleash their apocalyptic payloads. With so much nuclear ordnance flying about, accidents could - and did - happen. Many of these near-misses have already been covered in previous videos such as That Time the Moon Nearly Started World War 3 (and Other Silly Cold War Shenanigans), Fire, Ice, and Plutonium, That Time the U.S. Air Force Lost a Nuke in the Mediterranean, and When Dropping a Wrench Almost Caused Armageddon; as well as Did a Scientific Experiment Really Nearly Start WWII in 1995? But none of these close calls were as horrifyingly close as a 1961 accident that nearly turned the entire U.S. state of North Carolina into a radioactive wasteland and the massive loss of life that would have come with that - and was only prevented from doing so by a single, shockingly crude electrical component. This is the disturbing story of the 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash. Author: Gilles Messier Editor: Daven Hiskey Host: Daven Hiskey Producer: Daven Hiskey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• Nikola Tesla's Rather Peculiar Childhood and Oddities (Daven & Gilles)

  In today's episode, Gilles Messier and Daven Hiskey do a deep dive into Nikola Tesla's childhood and many of his rather peculiar oddities. In the mid-19th century, the Austrian Empire, which stretched for over a thousand miles (1600 km) from Italy to Ukraine, was a place of contradictions. The ruling patriarch, Minister of the Interior Baron Alexander von Bach, was on the one hand something of a despot, abolishing public trials, reducing the freedom of the press and imprisoning political opponents. Conversely, his rule also saw the relaxing of economic laws, the demise of internal custom duties and peasants freed from their feudal obligations. It was during this time, in the small village of Smiljan, situated within the Empire’s military frontier (now modern-day Croatia) that Nikola Tesla was born on July 9th or 10th (with the confusion owing to the time at around midnight), 1856, the fourth of five children. Tesla’s father, Milutin, was a priest, and the family soon moved to nearby Gospić, where his parish was located. From the beginning, Tesla was seemingly a rather brilliant child, though Tesla claims his father discouraged scientific academic pursuit, hoping Tesla would become a priest himself someday and doggedly stuck to this point. Even, according to Tesla, restricting his study, with Tesla partially attributing this to the death of his apparently brilliant older brother Dane, back when Tesla was 5 years old.... Author: Daven Hiskey Hosts: Gilles Messier and Daven Hiskey Producer: Caden Nielsen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• The Incredible Tale of Inventing Walmart

  With their endless aisles, their bountiful racks chock full of discounted merchandise, Walmart stores have firmly wedged themselves into the hearts and minds of most Americans, especially within those neural circuits in charge of household budgeting. At this point, Walmart may as well be considered one of the great, all-American institutions, an essential fiber within the fabric of Star-Spangled capitalism. Or, on the other side, some might say Walmart is everything wrong with the business world today, ruthlessly dominating anyone who even hints at competing with them, and otherwise strong arming everyone from government officials to manufacturers to get their way. But whether you love to hate it, or hate to love it … you certainly can’t ignore Walmart. But how did the world’s largest retailer, with gross annual sales double that of the next up in amazon, start and grow to the behemoth we have today, let alone so insanely rapidly? Well, put on some Lynyrd Skynyrd, grab your guns, flannel, and a Budweiser, and let’s dive into the fascinating story of how one man changed how the world shops. Authors: Arnaldo Teodorani and Daven Hiskey Editor: Daven Hiskey Host: Daven Hiskey Producer: Caden Nielsen 0:00 Intro 2:51 An Incredible Humble Beginning and Sickening Overachiever 6:07 Continuing to Sickeningly Overachieve in College 8:43 After College Scatterbrained Hard Worker 10:24 WWII and a Dream Girl 12:33 A Beginning and Some Key Choices 18:40 A Huge Mistake, Overcoming, and Expansion 22:18 A New Breed of Store to Change the Game 25:40 Going it Alone and Risking It All 28:06 Go Big or Go Home 30:52 The Methods to the Madness 44:12 The Passing of a Titan 45:56 Good or Bad- The Walmart Controversy Sponsor note:  Give online therapy a try at ⁠betterhelp.com/BrainFoodShow⁠ and get on your way to being your best and happier self. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• Why Did Japan Join the Nazis? (Given, You Know, the Nazis Explicitly Hated Non-Aryans)

  Discover the complex relationship between Nazi Germany and Japan during World War II. Learn about the Tripartite Pact, their conflicting ideologies, and the consequences of their loose alliance. Author: Daven Hiskey Host: Simon Whistler Sponsor note:  Give online therapy a try at ⁠betterhelp.com/BrainFoodShow⁠ and get on your way to being your best and happier self. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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