Shaking America

Jan 30 2025 50 ep. 10 mins 2
Shaking America Podcast artwork

A podcast about stories in history that shook up the United States.

  History  Education  Society & Culture
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The Rochester Mafia Bombings

Jan 30 2025 9 mins  
In 1970 the Rochester crime family boss Frank Valenti ordered a series of false flag bombings, hoping to draw the federal authorities’ attention away from his criminal organization and onto anti-war activists.SourcesFive Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires by Selwyn RaabAmerican Mafia: The History of its Rise to Power by Thomas Rep

Poundmaker: Peacekeeping Warrior of the Cree

Nov 28 2024 14 mins  
Poundmaker was a Chief of the Plains Cree, a peacekeeping warrior who fought and defeated the Canadian government at the Battle of Cut Horse Creek. He shouldered the impossible task of preventing bloodshed, of calming the young warriors of the tribes and negotiating with an expansionist government that despised him. His story is one of the great tragedies of Canadian history.Visit

How Honda and Toyota Won the Trade Wars

Aug 15 2024 13 mins  
Honda and Toyota survived trade wars, import quotas and xenophobia in the 1960s through the 1980s to become an economic juggernaut that reshaped the American auto industry. SourcesThe Keiretsu Advantage by Jasper Boers from the Yale Economic History JournalThe New, Improved Keiretsu by Katsuki Aoki and Thomas Taro LennerforsLessons from the US-Japan Trade War of the 1980s from NPR'

The US Army Officer Who Ordered an Artillery Strike on Himself in WWII

Jul 25 2024 14 mins  
Outnumbered and surrounded by Nazi forces, Lieutenant John R Fox made a last stand in the hills of northern Italy. In a desperate final act of bravery, Fox ordered an artillery strike on his own location just as the Nazis overran his position, killing hundreds of the enemy and sacrificing himself.

The Locust Plagues of the Great Plains

Apr 11 2024 11 mins  
In the 1870s locust swarms of biblical proportions descended onto the Great Plains, devouring everything in their path. Billions of locust blocked out the sun and devastated America’s agriculture, creating a national emergency unlike any other.Sources include:The book Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier by Jeff

The Irish Hearts of Steel Rebellion

Mar 07 2024 12 mins  
The poor Irish farmers of Northern Ireland rose in armed rebellion in 1770 after their British landlords evicted thousands of them from their homes.Sources:A History of Ireland by Jonathan BardenLord Donegall and the Hearts of Steel by W.A. Maguire from Cambridge's Irish Historical StudiesThe Battle of Gilford by D E McElroy from the Craigavon Historical Society

The Bomb Brothers and the Invention of Land Mines

Feb 01 2024 14 mins  
In 1862, during the American Civil War, Confederate rebels Gabriel Rains and his brother George Washington Rains changed warfare forever. They ordered their men to place specially made explosive torpedoes into the ground as they retreated from the Battle of Yorktown, creating the world’s first land mines. Their invention would go on to become one of the most destructive and perva

The Kensington Runestone Hoax

Nov 16 2023 9 mins  
In rural Minnesota a farmer named Olaf Ohman found a mysterious runestone. Engraved into the stone was an epic tale of adventure and bloodshed, apparently written by Norse explorers. The discovery of the Kensington Runestone sparked a worldwide discussion about what we know about pre-Columbus European exploration.Sources:The Kensington Stone: Anatomy of a Hoax by Harold Edwards fro

Brooklyn's White Hand Gang

Oct 19 2023 10 mins  
The White Hand Gang was a coalition of Irish street gangs in Brooklyn known for terrorizing Italian immigrants. Even among New York criminals they were notorious for liberal use of violence, lynching dozens of Italians along the waterfront. The White Hand Gang’s reign of terror ended in 1924 after a violent confrontation with a young Al Capone at a waterfront bar.Sources:Capone:

American Rivers Catching Fire

Sep 07 2023 7 mins  
In 1969 it was not uncommon for American rivers to burst into flames. Filled with sewage, oil, and agricultural waste, several major rivers were so polluted that they caught fire multiple times.Here's the story of how the US almost destroyed its rivers, and how it eventually brought them back from the brink.Sources:Silent Spring by Rachel Carsonhttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/histor