Episode 4: "Ohio v. the 14th Amendment" John Bingham is one of the most important figures in American history to be all but forgotten. He drafted one of the most important Constitutional amendments: the 14th Amendment. Bingham spent decades 8 terms in Congress, prosecuted the Lincoln assassination conspirators and prosecuted the first ever Presidential Impeachment trial in 1868. We live with the rights his Constitutional amendment gave us, yet no one seems to remember his contributions.

We follow the Cadiz, Ohio native's career in politics and law. From his abolitionist roots in Eastern Ohio, to his decades in Washington, DC during the buildup to Civil War and Reconstruction. We sit down with Gerard Magliocca, professor of law at Indiana University and author of 2013 biography, American Founding Son: John Bingham and the Invention of the 14th Amendment. Link below to purchase Gerard's excellent book. We analyze Bingham's central role in Congress during those consequential years of American history and why he fought so hard for his Privileges and Immunity Clause and the Equal Protection/Due Process clause in the 14th Amendment.

We also welcome back Erik Archilla, co-creator, writer and producer of the hit audio drama, 1865, to the show to discuss John Bingham's prosecution of the Booth Conspriators, the Impeachment of President Andrew Johnson and the impact of the 14th Amendment on American history and the rights of US citizens today. John Bingham appears as a character in 1865 and we can't recommend that podcast more if you love Civil War history like we do. Link below to hear the show.

Subscribe and follow the show wherever you get your podcasts and rate and review Ohio v. the World on iTunes. 

BUY American Founding Son by Gerard Magliocca HERE. https://www.amazon.com/American-Founding-Son-Invention-Fourteenth/dp/1479819913

LISTEN to Erik's critically-acclaimed audio drama, 1865, HERE. https://wondery.com/shows/1865/

Contact the show at [email protected] or on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Check out the Evergreen Podcast Network for Ohio v. the World and hundreds of other great podcasts here www.evergreenpodcasts.com

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Broken Rings: Israel, Palestine and the Munich Olympic Massacre

EPISODE 3: Ohio v. Terrorism. Alex recounts the tragedy of the 1972 Munich Massacre and the murder of Cleveland’s David Berger. We look at the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict and its role in the death of David Berger and his fellow Olympic athletes. 

We’re joined by author and professor David Clay Large to discuss the events of September 1972 and his great book Munich 1972: Tragedy, Terror and Triumph at the Olympic Games. See link below. David takes us through the events of the 20th Summer Olympiad in West Germany and the terrorist attack on the Israeli athletes on September 5-6, 1972. David outlines the attack, the demands and the failed rescue attempt that claimed 9 of the 11 Israeli lives. 

Ori Yehudai, author and professor at The Ohio State University unravels a quarter century of Israeli-Palestinian history from the bloody birth of the State of Israel in 1948 to the Black September terrorists attack at the ’72 Olympics. We discuss the tangled web that is the first 25 years of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the possibility of peace in this never-ending cycle of violence and reprisals. Alex and Ori discuss his book Leaving Zion: Jewish Emigration from Palestine and Israel After World War II. Link below. 

Dr. Sean Martin, the curator for Jewish History at the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, Ohio. The life of David Berger is discussed, his weightlifting career and his youth in Shaker Heights, Ohio. We analyze the rich history of the Jewish people in Cleveland and how the city mourned and remembered David after his tragic murder at the hands of Palestinian terrorists. 

Subscribe and follow the show wherever you get your podcasts and rate and review Ohio v. the World on iTunes. 

Western Reserve Historical Society: www.wrhs.org

David Clay Large’s Munich 1972: Tragedy, Terror and Triumph at the Olympic Games. Buy it here https://www.amazon.com/Munich-1972-Tragedy-Triumph-Olympic/dp/0742567397

Ori Yehudai’s Leaving Zion. Buy it here https://www.amazon.com/Leaving-Zion-Ori-Yehudai/dp/1108478344

Contact the show at [email protected] or on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Check out the Evergreen Podcast Network for Ohio v. the World and hundreds of other great podcasts here www.evergreenpodcasts.com

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Episode 2: Ohio v. the Universe: Are we alone? We analyze the Wow! Signal, what many consider the first legitimate contact with an extraterrestrial source, which happened in Ohio in August 1977. Alex goes all in on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), the history, the science and the most fascinating moment in SETI at the Ohio State Radio Telescope in Delaware, Ohio.

We sit down with the director and writer of the documentary Wow Signal, Bob Dawson and Michael Shaw, respectively. We discuss their excellent movie, “the SETI life” and attempt to debunk the source of the Wow Signal: 6EQUJ5. Alex meets with radio astronomer, Bob Dixon, who spent 49 years at Ohio State and headed up the Ohio State Radio Telescope that may have made first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Our 4th guest and one of my favorite interviews of all time, Tom Burns, the former director of the Perkins Observatory and professor at Ohio Wesleyan University. Tom talks about the Big Ear telescope, the Wow Signal and the recent UAP sightings and Congressional hearings. Tom also gets our listeners ready for the total solar eclipse next week in North America and going directly over Ohio.

LINKS to our GUESTS:

Check out the Wow! Signal now streaming on Peacock. Bob Dawson and Michael Shaw’s Next Future Films website. https://www.nextfuturefilms.com/

Perkins Observatory click for history and programming information. https://www.owu.edu/about/offices-services-directory/perkins-observatory/

Book Recommendation of the episode: UFO by Garrett Graff (2023). Click here for this fantastic read on the history of UFOs in the US since the 1930s. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/UFO/Garrett-M-Graff/9781982196776

Contact the show at [email protected] or on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Check out the Evergreen Podcast Network for Ohio v. the World and hundreds of other great podcasts here https://evergreenpodcasts.com/

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Alex details the rise of anti-semitic and fascist groups during the Depression in America. These groups hatred of Jews, FDR and core American values spreads across the country and its roots begin in Ohio and the entire Midwest. The Radio Priest, Father Charles Coughlin, becomes the most popular media figure in US history. His demagoguery propels these anti-semitic ideas into the mainstream. Guest Andrew Layton of the Coughlin-based hit podcast Radioactive, joins the program to discuss the power of Coughlin and his hate filled radio sermons, especially in Cleveland. Bradley Hart and Mike Cikraji detail the forgotten pro-Nazi group, the German American Bund and how such a group of outcasts could actually sell out Madison Square Garden for a "Pro-American Rally" in 1939. This episode is more rise than fall but make sure you listen to Part One first before going to Part 2.

LINKS to our GUESTS:

Bradley W. Hart's new podcast the Star Spangled Fascism Podcast is out NOW. Link here https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/star-spangled-fascism-podcast/id1729473516

Bradley W. Hart's fantastic book Hitler's American Friends (2018) buy it HERE. https://www.amazon.com/Hitlers-American-Friends-Reichs-Supporters/dp/1250148952?asin=1250871883&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1

Andrew Lapin's hit podcast Radioactive, download here or wherever you get your podcasts https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/radioactive

Samantha Seiple's book, Nazi Saboteurs, is available on Audible or buy in print here https://shop.scholastic.com/teachers-ecommerce/teacher/books/nazi-saboteurs-9781338259148.html

Mike Cikraji's in depth and fantastic book History of the Cleveland Nazis can bought here https://www.amazon.com/History-Cleveland-Nazis-1933-1945/dp/1500872792

Contact the show at [email protected] or on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Check out the Evergreen Podcast Network for Ohio v. the World and hundreds of other great podcasts here. www.evergreenpodcasts.com.

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Part Two: Ohio v. Fascism. The cautionary tale of the rise and fall of American Fascism in the 1930s is explored in detail in Part Two of our Season 8 premiere. Nazi Germany and her allies in the US are defeated as World War II begins in Europe but not without a fight. The propaganda effort finds an effective home on Capitol Hill with George Sylvester Viereck and a group of sympathetic Congressmen. The America First Committee finds massive support stateside with the help of celebrity members and none more important than American hero, Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh and the AFC's conspiratorial and anti-semitic rhetoric further divides the country until a historic attack on America unites the country like never before. An Ohioan, back in the Reich, helps lead a failed sabotage mission on US soil that has dire consequences for the saboteurs.

LINKS to our guests:

Bradley W. Hart's new podcast the Star Spangled Fascism Podcast is out NOW. Link here https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/star-spangled-fascism-podcast/id1729473516

Bradley W. Hart's fantastic book Hitler's American Friends (2018) buy it HERE. https://www.amazon.com/Hitlers-American-Friends-Reichs-Supporters/dp/1250148952?asin=1250871883&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1

Andrew Lapin's hit podcast Radioactive, download here or wherever you get your podcasts https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/radioactive

Samantha Seiple's book, Nazi Saboteurs, is available on Audible or buy in print here https://shop.scholastic.com/teachers-ecommerce/teacher/books/nazi-saboteurs-9781338259148.html

Mike Cikraji's in depth and fantastic book History of the Cleveland Nazis can bought here https://www.amazon.com/History-Cleveland-Nazis-1933-1945/dp/1500872792

Contact the show at [email protected] or on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Check out the Evergreen Podcast Network for Ohio v. the World and hundreds of other great podcasts here. www.evergreenpodcasts.com.

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We're back! Season 8 of Ohio v. the World drops on March 5, 2024. Thanks for being patient through our 2023 hiatus but Season 8 is in production and on its way to your ears.

Go back and listen to all of our 99 episodes on the Evergreen Podcast Network https://evergreenpodcasts.com/ohio-v-the-world

Email us at [email protected] with show ideas or to get an OvTW t-shirt. Free shipping and free bumper stickers with every order. See you in March!

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FyreFest, Altamont, Woodstock '99, Astroworld are some of the biggest festival disasters in American history, today we'll look at some of the most flawed festivals in Ohio history in our Season 7 Finale.

We start with BalloonFest '86 a fatally flawed world record setting balloon release festival in Downtown Cleveland. We relive the ecological disaster and dangerous consequences of the City of Cleveland's releasing of 1.5 million balloons in September 1986. We're joined by Cleveland sports personality and Twitter legend Chris McNeill, better known as Reflog_18 on Twitter to discuss 1980s Cleveland and the ill-fated BalloonFest '86. We'll also talk about Chris McNeill's leading role in the "Perfect Season Parade" to protest the Cleveland Browns winless 2017 NFL season. Follow Reflog_18 on Twitter and check out his Ohio-based weekly sports show, the BIGPLAY Reflog Show here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjqGMjGtAUKxlthtZ7hXt7Q

Next we revisit the economic disaster that was AmeriFlora '92 in Columbus, Ohio. This horticultural exhibition was everything and nothing. Part theme park, part flower show, part mixed message branding nightmare. This $95 million boondoggle projected some 5+ million visitors but fell way short of those numbers. Tim Trad, the creator of onlyincbus, details the big swing and miss that was AmeriFlora '92. Follow @onlyincbus on Instagram and check out Tim's incredibly interesting content here www.onlyincbus.com

We go all the way back to the 1950s for one of the first failed music festivals in American history. We replay an interview from a previous episode with Jerry DePizzo of the famous Ohio rock band O.A.R. about 1952's Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland. The rock n' roll concert was hosted by the famous radio DJ Alan Freed, the man credited with popularizing the phrase rock n' roll. We follow Alan Freed's career and his disastrous event at the Cleveland Arena in March 1952, regarded by many as the first rock festival in the United States.

Lastly, we sit down with friend of the show Vince Tornero to discuss the wildly successful concert series the World Series of Rock in Cleveland during the 1970s. We hear clips from his great new podcast season for the Evergreen Podcast Network show PrOHfiles called The Wrath of the Buzzard. His show documents the meteoric rise and fall of 100.7 WMMS - the iconic Cleveland FM rock station that proved to be one of the most influential radio stations of all time. We also discuss the disasterous 1979 World Series of Rock that resulted in violence and even the breakup of the famous band Aerosmith following their headlining performance at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Check out The Wrath of the Buzzard here https://evergreenpodcasts.com/prohfiles

We're proud to be part of the Evergreen Podcast Network. Go to www.evergreenpodcasts.com for our show and dozens of other great podcasts. Thanks for listening to Season 7, we'll see you all again in 2023 for Season 8.

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In the penultimate episode of Season 7, Alex travels back to the Gilded Age to uncover the forgotten story of the greatest con woman of the era, Cleveland's Cassie Chadwick. In the second part of a two-part con artist series, Alex tells the story of how Cassie defrauded some $60 million from banks using her alleged connection to America's richest man, Andrew Carnegie.

We're joined by two great guests to tell us the immigrant stories of Cassie Chadwick and Andrew Carnegie in the Gilded Age. Author William Hazelwood joins the program to discuss his new book Greed in the Gilded Age: The Brilliant Con of Cassie Chadwick (2022). Hazelwood brings Cassie's story back to life from her humble petty criminal days in Canada to her many scams in her new home in Cleveland, Ohio. Buy William's book here. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/greed-in-the-gilded-age-william-elliott-hazelgrove/1139927521

Our second guest and our favorite recurring guest is Bruce Carlson from the podcast My History Can Beat Up Your Politics rejoins the show to discuss the rise of Andrew Carnegie from Scottish immigrant child laborer to steel magnate to the richest man in America. It's Cassie's claim that she's Carnegie's illegitimate daughter that sparks her greatest con that would lead to her con story captivating the entire country in 1905 and landed her behind bars. Check out Bruce's amazing podcast here or wherever you get your podcasts. https://myhistorycanbeatupyourpolitics.wordpress.com

We're proud to be part of the Evergreen Podcast Network. Go to www.evergreenpodcasts.com for our show and dozens of other great podcasts. Rate and Review the show on iTunes and we'll read your review on the air.

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Alex tells the story of John Spano, the con man who managed to buy a National Hockey League team despite having almost no money. Spano's ill-fated purchase of the New York Islanders in 1997 is examined with the journalist who lead the investigation that exposed one of the biggest scams in American sports history. Alex is joined by John Valenti of Newsday on the 25th Anniversary of the the con man who nearly brought down an NHL franchise and the league's commissioner.

Spano, an Ohio native, had lied about nearly everything and still managed to purchase and control the storied Islanders franchise for more than 3 months. We look at his youth near Ashtabula, Ohio, where he played football with Urban Meyer. Spano was only 32 when he duped the Islanders and the NHL into selling him the team. John Valenti walks us through the fraud and the staggering lack of due diligence done on Spano's finances.

As his many and unbelievable excuses for his non-payment build, our guest, John Valenti, begins to investigate John Spano and quickly exposes Spano as a con artist. When the NHL finally removes him and federal investigators close in it takes Valenti to track down Spano when he skips town to the Caribbean. Valenti recalls the Newsday team's investigation, that he led, and its role in bringing down Spano and ultimately sending him to federal prison for fraud.

We're proud to be part of the Evergreen Podcast Network. Go to www.evergreenpodcasts.com for our show and dozens of other great podcasts. Rate and Review the show on iTunes and we'll read your review on the air.

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Alex finally gets around to telling the story of the most famous Ohioan, Thomas Alva Edison. We sit down with the leading Edison scholars to discuss his amazing life of invention and innovation. And to spice it up we tell the story of "the Wizard of Menlo Park" in reverse, from death to birth. Alex details his most important inventions from electric light to motion pictures to the phonograph and sound recordings.

We're joined by Dr. Paul Israel from Rutgers University, the Director of the Thomas A. Edison Papers and author of Edison: A Life of Invention (2000). Dr. Israel describes the modern world we live in being built by Edison. The telephone, the music business, television and movies were all invented or innovated by Edison and his team's work at their Menlo Park in New Jersey. Dr. Israel manages over 5 million papers in the Edison collection and buy his book Edison: A Life of Invention https://www.amazon.com/Edison-Life-Invention-Paul-Israel/dp/0471362700

Ernest Freeberg, author and professor of history at the University of Tennessee also joins the program to discuss Edison's most famous invention: electric light. The history of electric light, the impact on the world and the innovation involved it bringing to the entire world are discussed. His great book, The Age of Edison (2013) analyzes the invention of Edison's incandescent light bulb from every angle and gives incredible insight in the inventor himself. Such a great read. Buy it here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/307057/the-age-of-edison-by-ernest-freeberg/

Lastly, we're joined by Robert Wheeler, the president of the Board at the Edison Birthplace Museum in Milan, OH. Robert, a relative of Edison, discusses Edison's family life and his youth in the small town of Milan up by Lake Erie. Go check out the excellent museum at www.tomedison.org

We're proud to be part of the Evergreen Podcast Network. Go to www.evergreenpodcasts.com for our show and dozens of other great podcasts. Rate and Review the show on iTunes and we'll read your review on the air.

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Mary Church Terrell was born in 1863 the year of the Emancipation Proclamation and died months after the landmark Brown v. the Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954. Over four generations, she was involved in fighting for African American rights on the front lines. A truly remarkable life. Her story is too little told but there's so much to get to.

We're joined by four guests to discuss her 90 years of struggle against injustice, including her formative years in the Buckeye State. Joan Quigley, author and attorney, discusses Mary's battles from suffrage, founding the NACW and the NAACP, anti-lynching legislation and her victory in the US Supreme Court to desegregate Washington DC. Joan's book about MCT, Just Another Southern City (2016) is a fantastic read and you can buy it here. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/just-another-southern-town-joan-quigley/1121877528

Alison Parker, professor of history at the University of Delaware and author of Unceasing Militant (2020), a new biography of Mary Church Terrell joins the show. We discuss Molly Church's life: born into slavery, her lifelong love of education and the many social justice issues she addressed in her incredible life. Give Alison's book, Unceasing Militant, a read by clicking link here https://www.amazon.com/Unceasing-Militant-Terrell-Franklin-American/dp/1469659387/

We also head to historic Oberlin College, Mary's alma mater and meet with Ken Grossi, archivist and Eboni Johnson from the Mary Church Terrell Library. Ken and Eboni discuss her years in Ohio from her early childhood through her graduation at Oberlin in 1884. We analyze her time in Ohio and the influence of Oberlin, one of the first co-educational and mutli-racial, colleges in America at its founding in 1833. Check out the excellent digital exhibit from Oberlin on their famous alum, Mary Church Terrell here https://terrell.oberlincollegelibrary.org/scalar/mct/index

We're proud to be part of the Evergreen Podcast Network. Go to www.evergreenpodcasts.com for our show and dozens of other great podcasts. Rate and Review the show on iTunes and we'll read your review on the air.

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