A NSFW, detailed and funny long-form podcast about The Cold War.
Latest episodes
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10 min
Cold War 318: The Politics of Illusion
The CIA’s plan for the Bay of Pigs was, in short, to land a brigade of exiles, hope the Cuban people spontaneously rose up, and call it a day. No backup plan. One in three odds of…
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14 min
Cold War 317: The John Wayne Complex
The CIA’s original plan for Cuba was a slow, subtle guerrilla operation…. then someone started adding things. A combined air and sea assault. A march on Havana. Possibly US troops.…
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12 min
Cold War 316: “I Cannot Wait For You”
The CIA’s master plan for the Bay of Pigs invasion was, apparently, a cakewalk. The frogmen hit the coral reef they thought was seaweed, a light shorted out and alerted the shore,…
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16 min
Cold War 315: Like an Iron Filing to a Magnet
Castro expropriated every American-owned asset in Cuba, got kicked out of his New York hotel for looking like a credit risk, and ended up hosting Malcolm X in a rundown place in Ha…
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14 min
Cold War 314: The Coffins of United Fruit
Eisenhower signs off on a covert plan to overthrow Castro in March 1960…. a plan which, to be clear, is literally titled “Program of Covert Action Against the Castro Regime.” Subtl…
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12 min
Cold War 313: Pick Up the Gun (CUBAN REVOLUTION #38)
The CIA didn’t want Cuba buying weapons from Britain, so Allen Dulles quietly leaned on the British ambassador to kill the deal…. hoping Cuba would get desperate enough to buy from…
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17 min
Cold War 312: Fatherland or Death (CUBAN REVOLUTION #37)
A Belgian munitions ship called La Coubre blows up in Havana Harbour, killing somewhere between 75 and 100 people…. and Castro immediately points the finger at Washington, which is…
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19 min
Cold War 311: Coletillas (CUBAN REVOLUTION #36)
Mikoyan, Soviet deputy premier and ice cream king, rolls into Havana in February 1960 with a 40-person delegation, a science exhibit, and advice for Castro to just take all the Ame…
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28 min
Cold War 310: Ice Cream and Ideology (CUBAN REVOLUTION #35)
Cuba, 1959/1960, and Fidel Castro is desperately trying to walk the middle path…. no communism, no capitalism, just “humanism” – liberty with bread, bread without terror. Meanwhile…
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31 min
The Man Who Owned Everything: Cold War 309: Cuban Revolution #34
This week we dig into the fallout from Castro’s agrarian reform law — the land grabs, the diplomatic notes flying between Havana and Washington, and the moment a Texas cattle baron…
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13 min
The Land They Were Never Meant To Own – Cold War 308 (Cuban Revolution #33)
On this episode we dig into the centrepiece of Cuba's revolution — the Agrarian Reform Act of 1959. We break down exactly what the law said, why even the Cuban Communist Party thou…
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32 min
Fidel Does America – Cold War 307 (Cuban Revolution #32)
Fidel is the newly installed as Prime Minister of Cuba — and immediately does on a charm offensive to the United States, where he wows crowds, spars with Richard Nixon, and somehow…
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23 min
Prime Minister Castro – Cold War #306 (Cuban Revolution #31)
This week we're deep in the early days of Castro's Cuba — watching a revolutionary figure out he's now got to actually run a country. We cover Castro's sweeping reforms: dissolving…
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30 min
Revolutionary Justice – Cold War 305 (Cuban Revolution #30)
This week we dig into the messy aftermath of Castro's victory — the revolutionary tribunals, the firing squads, and the international blowback that followed. We also get into Fidel…
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34 min
The Dove Has Landed – CW 304 (Cuban Revolution #29)
It's January 1959, and Fidel Castro has just pulled off the impossible — a ragtag band of bearded rebels from the Sierra Maestra mountains has toppled the Batista dictatorship, and…
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32 min
Fangio, Fatigues, and the Fall of Batista (CW 303) (Cuban Revolution #28)
It’s April 1958, and Cuba is a powder keg with a sputtering fuse. Fulgencio Batista is bleeding support from every direction — the church, the business elite, even his American bac…
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30 min
Cold War #300 – Castro Goes Viral (Cuban Revolution #25)
Episode 300 marks a major waypoint for the Cold War Podcast, and the discussion dives straight back into the hard mechanics of revolution. Castro is alive, hiding in the Sierra Mae…
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44 min
Cold War #299 – Castro Is Dead. Long Live Castro! (Cuban Revolution #24)
In this episode, Cameron and Ray pick up the Cuban Revolution story at its most fragile moment: Fidel Castro has just landed in eastern Cuba with 82 men, most of them dead, scatter…
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19 min
Cold War #295 – History Will Absolve Me (Cuban Revolution #20)
Fidel Castro’s first attempt to ignite revolution in Cuba ends in disaster — but also forges the legend. We follow the aftermath of the failed 1953 Moncada Barracks raid: the bruta…
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19 min
Cold War #295 – History Will Absolve Me (Cuban Revolution #20)
Fidel Castro’s first attempt to ignite revolution in Cuba ends in disaster — but also forges the legend. We follow the aftermath of the failed 1953 Moncada Barracks raid: the bruta…