What do Protestant choirmasters, Renaissance pacifiers, mass retailers, and a 700 lb chocolate sculpture of Neil Armstrong have in common? They're all connected to the history of our favorite Christmas treat. Join Emily, Meredith, and Frank as we explore the economics of the candy cane -- and what it teaches us about consumer behavior. Show Notes: "The Sweet and Sticky Story of Candy Canes" via National Geographic The Plate "The History of Candy Canes" via CBSNews "The Economics of Christmas" "It's Crunch Time for 93-Year-Old Candy Maker" - Article about Hammond's candy company (here) Hammond's Candy Company https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OMx7xhxu70
Meet James Reavis, the greatest con man you've never heard of. Calledthe Baron of Arizona, Reavis defrauded thousands of people -- scamming them out of more than $150 million in today’s dollars. Using his forgery skills and a love of Spanish romance novels, he literally stole most of Arizona from legal landowners. And the most famous newspapermen, railroad giants, government officials, and Spanish aristocrats of the 1800s fell for it -- hook, line, and sinker. Join us as Emily breaks down largest and most diabolical scam in American History. Timeline of James Reavis Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo · 2/2/1848 · Ended the Mexican-American war · Gave US lots of land: Rio Grande, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada Utah, Wyoming, Colorado Gadsen purchase · Signed 12/30/1853, final approval 6/8/1854 · James Gadsen was American ambassador to Mexico · Lands south of Gila River and west of Rio Grande, finish Arizona, New Mexico · acquired to construct transcontinental railroad along...
Everything you know about Black Friday is wrong (except the mob-driven violence and greed. You're definitely right about that). It has nothing to do with slave markets or retailers' profits moving into the black. It's not the biggest shopping day of the year, and it definitely doesn't have the best prices of the year, either. Frank, Meredith, and Emily separate fact from fiction while exploring the cultural and business evolution of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and holiday shopping. Don't miss the outtakes at the end of the episode! (Show notes are coming, y'all. Promise. It's just been one of those weeks).
Shouldn't you always strain your mash before distilling it? What is "on the grain" distilling? Meredith breaks down answers to listener questions in this quick minicast. Our last episode (Ep 48: Whiskey, Women, and Walgreens) sparked messages from listeners telling us we'd made a mistake when we talked about putting mash into a still to make whiskey. Mash, they insisted, should always be strained so you only put liquid -- also called "the wash" -- into a still and never the solids. And they're partially right. To makes *some* kinds of whiskey and whisky, you absolutely SHOULD distill only the wash after lautering (separating) it from the mash solids. But that's not true for all. Putting the mash liquids AND solids in the still is a method called "distilling on the grain," and -- when done properly -- it produces richer flavored, higher proof bourbon and rye whiskeys. This method has been used all of the world for millennia, and Americans have been perfecting it for the last 300 year...
Forget everything you know about whiskey, Prohibition, and the modern liquor industry. The real story is wild ride full of little known tales, plot twists, and unexpected connections that shaped the drink we call aqua vitae - the water of life. We're not kidding about the "crammed" part. We explorethe connections between: * Mesopotamian perfume makers &Alexandrian alchemists * The Jewish female alchemist who invented the still * Baptism by fire in Gnostic traditions * Monastic infirmaries and the origin of gin * Walla Walla onions and champagne * The real story behind anti-Catholic stereotypes ofdrunken priests * The anti-union, anti-immigrant, and anti-black agenda of the Temperance Movement * Myths about alcohol consumption in the 1800s * Why Prohibition caused a spike in rabbinical school enrollments and church attendance * Why the average bootlegger was a woman -- not a mobster - who exploited cultural norms to outsell her male competitors 5 to 1! * How Walgreens became the larg...
Frank breaks down the history, controversies, and basics of the Gold Standard in just 7 minutes. Additional Links and Resources: Wikipedia is actually a great source to get the basics on the gold standard. No, REALLY. I know, I know. Your college professors promised to fail you if you even thought of using it as a source, and that has biased you against it. It's ok. No one is grading you here. We won't tell. The gold standard has come up in this presidential election from some Republican candidates. This New York Times article addresses those proposals through the lens of several historians. History.com has a brief overview of how and why FDR took the USA off the gold standard in 1933. Matthew O'Brien lays out the arguments against returning to the gold standard in his Atlantic article "Why the Gold Standard Is the World's Worst Economic Idea, in 2 Charts." The gold standard limited central banks from printing money when economies needed central banks to print money, and limited gov...
What do large scale sea travel, the Hajj, Parson Weems's biography of George Washington, and Welsh naming customs have to do with the richest man in history? EVERYTHING, folks! They all help tell the story of how Mansa Musa became Emperor of Mali, amazed a fortune of $400 BILLION in today's dollars, and used business incentives and savvy PR stunts to do it. Additional Links & Resources Here's the article that started it all for us: "The 25 Richest People Who Ever Lived - Inflation Adjusted". Mansa Musa is, of course, #1. Sorry, Bill and Warren. This is the amazing Catalan Map of 1375 we discuss in the podcast. You can see Mansa Musa sitting in the bottom right corner holding up a nugget of gold. Click through here to get a more up-close look at different parts of the map. Here's the detail of Mansa Musa: John Green did a great 10-minute Crash Course episode on Mansa Musa and Islam in Africa. Watch it here. Here's an excerpt from the African Muslim scholar Mahmud Kati's "The Chronicl...
This is the story of why tarring and feathering government employees is not a legitimate form of democratic expression. Also, booze. (Happy Tax Day! We're getting this up one day late - because, like many of you, we were still working on our taxes, too!) Additional Links & Resources: Read a quick overview of the Whiskey Rebellion from Encyclopedia Britannica hereand from PBS's series "The American Experience" here. Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, was a key figure in the Whiskey Rebellion. Here's a portrait of him done by John Trumbull in 1792, not long before the Whiskey Rebellion: Listen to the entire "Cabinet Battle #1" (where Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson argue about the national bank and states' debt - and allude to the future whiskey tax) from the musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda below. (There's a bit of NSFW or NSFChildren language, so be aware of that.)whiskey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBmTdJ4XTfs This illustration shows the mob ...
A few years ago, inspired by the films he watched during his naval training, Frank wrote this funny little blog post about Godzilla and leadership. Years later, it's still our most popular post - and it's even been used in a few MBA course syllabi. We've included the entire original post below: 11 Leadership Lessons From Godzilla (original post here:http://me2-solutions.com/2013/05/leadership-lessons-from-godzilla.html) One week when I was eight, Channel 9 in Los Angeles chose Godzilla as their Million Dollar Movie – the original Godzilla with Raymond Burr. They played it every day for a whole week. I saw the movie eight times in eight days! It was love at first sight.There’s something universal about Godzilla that really speaks to kids’ imaginations – three generations later, my grand kids still clamor to watch it every time they come over. 50+ years since I first heard Godzilla roar, I’ve worked with everyone from the Boy Scouts to Rickover to Congress. I’ve studied Attila t...
Godzilla is - and always has been -- more than a monster movie. April 27th will be the 60th anniversary of Godzilla's release in the U.S. Join us as we geek out about our favorite guardian monster, and explore: * how an 8 year old Frank fell in love with Godzilla * what really happened when the atomic bombs dropped * the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs -- emotionally, economically, and socially. * how a visa issue nearly derailed the Japanese film industry * the connection between Godzilla and Batman * how Godzilla helped Japan process the effects of the war and radiation poisoning * what modern businesses can learn from the men who created Godzilla Bonus! You'll also get to hear Meredith and Frank recommend their favorite monster movies. We have opinions on this subject, folks. OPINIONS. Be sure to check out Part B of this episode -- a minicast about the 11 Leadership Lesson from Godzilla. Additional Links & Resources First off, take a look at the awesome original ...