Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast

In 1973 a low-ranking US Air Force officer training to work in a Minuteman missile silo asks, "How do I know that the launch order I receive comes from a president who is sane?"

Good question, Harold Hering! The Air Force had no good answer, and Hering's career came to a screeching halt.

I take a deep dive into what exactly presidents can and can't do with nuclear weapons and why I, in a rare moment of optimism, ultimately believe an unbalanced Trump could not start firing off nukes in a fit of anger. 18 minutes on a topic I could talk about forever, but decided to do only the interesting parts.

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In 1946, post-war Britain tries to solve four very different problems at once: a labor surplus of returning military, a shortage of key foods, the need to make colonies economically independent, and a dignified way to draw down the Empire. The scheme they came up with is ... incredible. That is to say, you will not find it credible.

Tanzania. 3 million acres of rock-hard clay soil. It just screams "Let's grow peanuts there!" doesn't it.

A tale of overconfidence, bureaucratic overkill, paternalist attitudes, man vs. nature miscalculations, and the unwavering belief that white Europeans with a lot of education could solve anything given an unlimited budget.

Four years, a billion pounds (!!!), and the project managed to *use* more peanuts than it grew. They made *negative peanuts.*

Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, via Patreon. Contact me via Facebook, Twitter (@gin_and_tacos), or the venerable website Gin and Tacos.

Thanks: Seth Wilson, all the bands that contribute music (Waxeater, IfIHadAHiFi, The Sump Pumps, Oscar Bait), Zachary Sielaff, Question Cathy, and all Patreon supporters, subscribers, and listeners.

After World War I, German utopian pacifist architect Herman Sörgel proposed a scheme to keep European nations busy (and not fighting wars!) for 100 years by damming the Strait of Gibraltar, the Dardanelles, and the Strait of Sicily. This would produce enormous amounts of hydroelectricity AND lower the Mediterranean Sea by over 600 feet. That would connect Africa and Europe into one supercontinent with thousands of square miles of new dry land. No more need to fight about territory, Herman believed.

Atlantropa was surprisingly popular and well-known during the Interwar period - and believe it or not, it is technically feasible. It would just be staggeringly expensive and, as Sörgel predicted, require decades of cooperative effort.

See what the Mediterranean might look like if Atlantropa were real.

Minicasts are short (approx. 5-8 min) stories for fans of quick, to-the-point podcasts and as a nice change of pace from the longer full episodes of Mass for Shut-ins.

In which I stoop to being my own guest on my own podcast to talk about my book, which is available from wherever you prefer to get books in Ebook, Hardcover, and Audiobook formats.

If you listen to this podcast you're almost certainly aware by now that I have a book, and in fact you may be sick of hearing about it. Nonetheless, here's a little teaser if you're still on the fence about checking it out.

What if I told you that right now you can get a new car very nearly for free? Sounds like a scam, right? Well thanks to Hydrogen Fuel Cells, the Technology of the Future of 2002, you can. With some caveats.

Crazy, right? Now what if I also told you this isn't the first time Americans have had the opportunity to get a brand new car for free? That part of the story takes to a place called ... Kragujevac.

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