Best of the Program | Guests: Riley Moore & Brad Meltzer | 1⧸17⧸23
Episode Stats
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Summary
Brad Meltzer has a new book out about a Nazi conspiracy to kill Churchill, Stalin, and FDR, and it's a great read. Plus, a story about a new invention that could change the way we eat meat forever, and more.
Transcript
00:00:00.060
Oh, I've got some great, I've got some great fortune cookie stuff, Stu, we have to do it.
00:00:06.120
I mean, I know that doesn't sound like, you're like, oh, yeah, pencil in the fortune cookie stuff.
00:00:11.580
I will say so much fortune cookie content is not great, and if you've found some that it is, I'm excited about it.
00:00:26.900
He's crying on the Batman cowl and everything else.
00:00:30.620
Okay, so I have to, I think the Chinese, forget TikTok, I think fortune cookies are really bringing us down, really bringing us down.
00:00:44.820
Like, for instance, here's a fortune, we have Chinese food, you know, as a family, and then we all open the fortune cookies and then we all share them.
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Things could be better, but they're good enough.
00:01:13.320
I think this is a communist plot to just bring us all down.
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Wait until you hear, wait until you hear one last one.
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I'm expecting to, you know, find something that's like, Americans, I'm just writing this note real quick.
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We have Michael Schellenberger, Schellenberger on.
00:01:53.560
Also, gun news with the West Virginia treasurer.
00:01:59.020
He's on and just a fantastic hour with my favorite guest always, Brad Meltzer, history geek.
00:02:09.760
He's got a new book out about a Nazi conspiracy to kill Churchill, Stalin, and FDR all in one fell swoop.
00:02:20.760
You have to check out and listen to him as he, as he drools all over my Batman mask.
00:02:32.480
Going about your daily life is, while you're living with pain, is really difficult.
00:02:39.780
I know the feeling because I was in pain for many, many years and tried everything.
00:02:49.120
And then when, you know, I heard the commercials for relief factor, I'm like, yeah.
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Only because I've been to the best doctors, literally the best doctors in the world for it.
00:03:03.680
My wife says, you got to try relief factor, you know.
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She said, I'm not going to listen to you whine unless you try absolutely everything.
00:03:14.460
And so at three weeks, I'm like, I don't think it's making a difference.
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And I realized it had made a huge impact on my pain.
00:03:57.560
Let me give you this story from the Associated Press.
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When some of the world's wealthiest and most influential figures gather at the World Economic
00:04:05.260
Forum's annual meeting last year, sessions on climate change drew high-level discussions
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on topics such as carbon financing and sustainable food systems.
00:04:15.760
But an entirely different narrative played out on the Internet, where social media users
00:04:21.400
claimed leaders wanted to force the population to eat insects instead of meat in the name
00:04:32.380
In a completely unrelated story, I just saw this.
00:04:37.780
I was doing some research on another story in Canada.
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And I came across, you can find it, canadianmanufacturing.com.
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Aspire Food Group has announced that it has completed construction of its alternative protein
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manufacturing facilities in London, Ontario, which is now the home to the world's largest
00:05:02.980
Aspire's new plant will reportedly produce 9,000 metric tons of crickets every year for
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That's about 2 billion insects to be distributed annually across Canada and throughout the United
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Now, I don't know about you, but I've been waiting for a plant to make 9,000 metric tons of crickets.
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People, my friends here in Texas, we're all talking.
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But the good news is Aspire Food Group has completed their production facility.
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They're ready now to just start sending out the crickets.
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Elites arrive in Davos and conspiracy theories online, blah, blah, blah.
00:06:02.600
Some conspiracy theories force the population in the United States.
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Uh, the annual event in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos, which opens, uh, today has increasingly
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become a target of bizarre claims from a growing chorus of commentators who believe the forum
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involves a group of elites manipulating global events for their own benefit.
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Experts say that it was once a conspiracy theory found in the internet's underbelly, but now it
00:06:38.040
One of the things that apparently these conspiracy theorists are talking about is how, uh, the
00:06:45.480
World Economic Forum had the Great Reset ready to go and were part of, you know, the WHO and all of
00:06:53.660
the plans to shut down the economies of the world when it came to a, you know, some sort of a pandemic.
00:07:01.500
And then people started with those conspiracy theories and the World Economic Forum, you
00:07:19.620
Uh, you know, that cricket story I was just telling you about, uh, the reason why I was looking
00:07:23.880
up in Canada and seeing some things up in Canada was because there's a, um, there's a story up
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in Canada that's, uh, out today, Danielle Stephanie Warriner.
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She, uh, was sitting alone in a Toronto hospital.
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She was, uh, wearing a blue medical gown as she was sitting in kind of like a wheelchair.
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Uh, and she has, uh, her mask down off of her face, but that's because she went to the hospital
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So, uh, she couldn't have the mask over her face.
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She didn't have COVID by the way, but she couldn't put the mask over her face.
00:08:07.340
Um, because she couldn't breathe, but you know, Hey, rules are rules.
00:08:22.320
If you happen to be watching on the blaze, here comes the nurse to yell at her.
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So the security guards are given, uh, gowns and the security guards push her up against
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the wall along with a nurse and they, uh, they pin her to the wall, you know, putting
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their arm against her chest, kind of in a George Floyd sort of way.
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And there they are now wheeling her dead body in the wheelchair with such class.
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There is nobody that is trying to take your rights away.
00:09:13.020
And the world economic forum and the world leaders, they haven't been doing this.
00:09:18.720
I mean, can you think of a time when all world leaders were doing the same thing where every
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They all said build back better, which is from the world economic forum.
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But can you think, I mean, look at how different every country reacted to COVID and nobody lost
00:09:49.360
Anyway, uh, so, um, now increasingly in mainstream corners of the internet and conservative talk
00:10:01.540
The great reset has become shorthand for what skeptics say is a reorganization of society using
00:10:10.500
global uncertainty as a guise to take away rights.
00:10:21.620
They put out, you know, their own video made by them that said by 2030, you'll own nothing.
00:10:33.960
But, I mean, what rights are you talking about taking away?
00:10:40.520
By the way, you know, I got to be careful what I say here because you say the words,
00:10:46.460
the great reset on YouTube and, uh, they, they take you off of YouTube because you can't
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The great reset, the great reset, the great reset sucks.
00:11:00.380
Now, I can't imagine, for instance, let me, let me give you this conspiracy theory that
00:11:08.560
Remember the right winger, Richard Trumpka came out last week, last, uh, last Sunday.
00:11:15.980
Well, Richard Trumpka was a Obama, you know, era.
00:11:20.300
Yeah, but he's spreading conspiracy theories now.
00:11:24.860
So he comes out and he says, you know, as a consumer protection agency guy, we are now
00:11:32.020
looking at gas stoves because there's this really credible source out there that did a
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study that says gas stoves can lead to asthma in kids.
00:11:42.580
And so we're, we're gonna, we're gonna look at, uh, opening it up to public comments.
00:11:52.960
Well, of course, this was Republican scare tactics.
00:12:15.620
I mean, they're looking for efficiency standards, gas furnaces, uh, they're gonna try to get
00:12:25.220
And there's a not yet released proposed rule for water heaters, uh, that will tilt away
00:12:33.960
And I bet Republicans are going to pounce on that too.
00:12:41.700
I mean, this is, I mean, how do you question this study?
00:12:46.660
The green energy group behind the study study, you know, uh, cited by Richard Trump could
00:12:59.240
Um, is partnered with the Chinese government and their goal is in an economy wide transformation
00:13:10.480
Now it's a Colorado based group from, uh, it's a nonprofit, the Rocky mountain Institute,
00:13:16.020
and it published the study that, uh, attributes 13% of us childhood asthma cases to gas stove
00:13:26.260
Um, but they don't really get into how they came up with that in the study, but don't worry
00:13:32.860
about the organization is demanding systematic changes to the economy wide, uh, total transformation
00:13:44.460
And this group says, we have to, you know, we have to go to great lengths to avoid the
00:13:54.400
They have joined forces with China's national development and reform commission, which is
00:14:04.520
And then, you know, some of the things didn't work out and the, you know, the traffic lights
00:14:09.280
had to be dimmed and nobody could cook on their stoves.
00:14:15.580
Now they are, they advocate the banning of gas stoves.
00:14:28.500
The study, which spans nine paragraphs was, uh, based on a, a bunch of hodgepodge, different
00:14:35.800
data, uh, and methodology spanning various years and countries.
00:14:40.280
Um, and really nobody can really make sense of it.
00:14:43.860
The, um, the, uh, the experts at Yale university say, yeah, it's a little more than questionable.
00:14:56.500
Now I just, I just want to tell you that you should not worry when we have a government
00:15:04.360
official citing something, you know, like this study it's from Colorado.
00:15:12.440
Now I will say, I will say that they have a board of directors, but look how strong the
00:15:29.880
Uh, he's the founder and chairman of the Chinese equity firm, uh, broad river capital.
00:15:35.180
Uh, he started the firm after serving as chairman of the China international capital core corporation.
00:15:44.140
Um, and the executives, Chinese leaders, he's in ping's vice president, right-hand man way, uh,
00:15:54.440
Um, and, uh, they have a deep participation in China's economic reforms and development.
00:16:03.380
Rocky mountain Institute also sits on China clean transportation partnership, a Chinese green
00:16:09.840
energy nonprofit whose founding members include China's national development and reform commission
00:16:20.220
They're deeply in bed with communist China and you know, who wins if the United States gets
00:16:33.340
You know, his son in bed with China who got the Bagram air force base after we, okay,
00:16:40.520
China, but I'm sure this is all just because gas stoves are very dangerous.
00:16:56.680
And all the, just Republicans thrusting this issue into the culture wars and this, they,
00:17:01.360
they don't have any power world economic forum, no power at all.
00:17:11.240
It's just a bunch of rich people getting together, get over it.
00:17:25.320
Coincidentally has nothing to do with anything.
00:17:27.820
Wall street journal says the central bank digital currency where you'll have a, a bank account
00:17:36.820
Yeah, that's coming whether you like it or not.
00:17:39.940
Cause we just have to do it, but that's a conspiracy.
00:17:45.200
You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.
00:17:55.880
So I want to play something for you and believe it or not, I have a very deep point on this.
00:18:02.000
It's not just to, it's not certainly not to make fun of Chelsea Handler.
00:18:06.460
It is to remind people you should stop listening to people like this.
00:18:10.400
This is my first point, but this is not the deep point.
00:18:14.380
Uh, she was on, um, uh, the tonight show with Jimmy Fallon and she told a story, um, that, uh, she made it a mission that she really didn't understand something.
00:18:25.660
And if you don't understand this, what else don't you understand?
00:18:32.440
And this is coming from a woman who has lectured us morally and intellectually, our superior on, you know, how to live our lives.
00:18:47.640
I didn't know until I was 40 years old that the sun and the moon were not the same thing.
00:18:58.540
I mean, of course, it must have been more shocking to you.
00:19:06.320
And there was a man riding an elephant for us because we don't know how to ride an elephant.
00:19:11.060
And my older sister, Simone, looked up at the sky and she said, Chelsea, Chelsea, look up.
00:19:16.440
It's not often you get to see the sun and the moon at the same time.
00:19:36.680
I was like, I'm like, I knew what I said was wrong.
00:19:50.860
And she said, no, I need you to tell me what you think is happening between the sun and
00:19:59.340
And I was like, honestly, I just assumed when the sun went down, it popped back up as
00:20:10.180
The man riding the elephant spoke no English and went.
00:20:13.820
And he's just like another dumb American, you know?
00:20:28.120
Because, you know, look, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer either, but that's pretty
00:20:47.740
The mentality of these elites that they are so morally and intellectually superior and
00:20:55.940
that, you know, everything is old fashioned and, you know, you need to learn.
00:21:01.680
It's more important than facts to learn the new facts that are cool.
00:21:07.380
You know, men are, men are, men are able to have babies.
00:21:14.260
No, they're, my problem in doing this show is I am, um,
00:21:31.680
Um, cause I'm, I'm, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I'm very transparent, uh, with my life and, uh,
00:21:44.620
this is coming from, uh, someplace else, uh, that is happening in my life.
00:21:53.480
Our children have no idea that we know parents, you have no idea how confused and lost your
00:22:08.840
It might seem like they get it, but Chelsea Handler is, I mean, she is, she's a genius
00:22:22.860
They're not learning the things that they need to learn.
00:22:26.500
And they're learning all of these things that are, are really horrible, that are counter
00:22:39.760
And I don't know if anybody can see where I'm, I'm going when I make this connection, but
00:22:51.320
And it is a story about how Satanism is becoming very popular.
00:23:02.020
There's no murder, there's no sacrifice, there's no blood rights to Satan.
00:23:09.420
We don't cast magic spells, says the leader of the satanic temple in England.
00:23:20.280
Um, he said, yeah, we do occult rituals and, you know, there's no virgin sacrifices or
00:23:27.800
chalices of blood and we don't believe in the actual devil or Satan.
00:23:34.800
Satanism is luring, um, uh, alluring to young people now because everything in religion is
00:23:46.700
And you're told that you have to offer yourself, you have to change your ways.
00:23:58.060
Um, the Sunday Telegraph I'm reading spoken to leaders of members of the satanic groups
00:24:04.880
around the world who claim that the opportunities Satanism offers people to engage in activism
00:24:11.080
and, uh, they campaign on injuries issues such as gender sexuality is part of the appeal for
00:24:18.160
younger members, particularly those who are less likely to declare themselves Christian.
00:24:22.880
Christian, the, uh, the guy who is, uh, the, uh, well, he's, he runs the global order of Satan
00:24:32.960
Uh, he's a, he's an undertaker for, uh, for a job.
00:24:37.540
He says he has a 200% increase in membership over the last five years.
00:24:42.480
He said, I wish I could claim that we could pat ourselves on the back and say, yeah, we've
00:24:48.740
I'm quoting, we're, uh, successfully declining the number of Christians, but it's more complex
00:24:54.940
He said, two factors are responsible, the decreasing popularity of traditional dogmatic religions
00:25:01.080
and a movement towards self-identification and self-realization.
00:25:06.880
He said this amongst younger people, they don't want to be identified as part of a prescriptive
00:25:13.660
Instead, they want to identify with their own self-belief and their own self-realization,
00:25:29.300
He says from incredibly outdated, very obviously stuffy views that are completely not in keeping
00:25:45.560
Those stuffy religious ideas that come from the Bible, they are not in line with contemporary
00:26:00.380
And if you want an easy life where you will be accepted and things are going to be really
00:26:08.900
peachy and swell for you for a while, and I emphasize for a while, as an alcoholic, I know
00:26:17.580
how things, how taking the easy route and just not dealing with stuff, not dealing with reality,
00:26:25.180
just have a drink, you'll be, that'll all go away, you won't have to worry about it, for a while.
00:26:33.060
And then it all comes crashing down on your head.
00:26:58.280
They are confused and they are being confused intentionally.
00:27:03.040
Social media and the phone that they all look at 24 hours a day is the enemy in their pocket.
00:27:20.320
And we are going to get to a point to where I swear to God, I'm going to be driving a buggy
00:27:25.140
I am, I mean, you, we are not going to be able to protect our families in this society.
00:27:37.220
And, uh, Christians, it's going to get really hard to be a Christian when say Satanists can say,
00:27:47.740
Oh, we're not, we're not really, I mean, we're not really Satanists.
00:27:54.300
I mean, you know, Satanism is a young person's religion, you know, uh, and it's just a diversification.
00:28:04.420
And we just explore, um, you know, your identity, your interest, your values, your beliefs.
00:28:15.680
And they say that we're, you know, Satan is just more metaphorical, you know, he's just
00:28:28.060
Instead, we revolve around a religion of the self.
00:28:39.940
And it's up to individuals to define their own moral code and their, and to develop themselves
00:28:52.000
We get around, you know, we get together, do rituals in the forest and stuff, you know, uh,
00:28:58.500
and, you know, we have a community bonding and meditation to give people the time to develop
00:29:16.820
I, I, I, um, I want you to write to me and tell me how I can help you as a parent.
00:29:25.260
Because as a parent, uh, my kids are, and I'm not Satanist and stuff like that, but, um,
00:29:42.140
And Tanya and I just feel like we are just, uh, uh, losers.
00:29:54.920
All of that work for decades and none of it took.
00:30:02.700
Um, but I cannot be the only person feeling that way.
00:30:08.520
And I am out of answers in my own life many times.
00:30:15.960
Um, but we are, thank God, uh, mom and dad are on the same page and we love each other
00:30:24.400
So we are able to, uh, keep our head above water, but it is difficult because no one has
00:30:35.320
We did an experiment on our children and it's going awry.
00:30:41.100
We just gave our kids, do you know, do you know what failure to launch is?
00:30:47.320
Failure to launch when people are still living at their house, you know, mom and dad's house
00:30:53.400
Do you know what, uh, psychiatrists have now, they've just moved the age up.
00:31:13.640
That it's, that it's, it's only a problem when you hit 37.
00:31:32.280
They are so in a bubble that they have absolutely no tolerance to any kind of stress.
00:31:50.040
You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.
00:31:59.820
Brad, it is a thrill to have you, uh, in studio.
00:32:03.500
Uh, again, you have a new book out, uh, called the Nazi conspiracy.
00:32:07.780
I, I had no idea this was even, had been planned.
00:32:13.700
The secret plot to kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill.
00:32:17.200
At the height of World War II, Nazis are planning to kill the big three.
00:32:23.420
How do you, I mean, how is this, the, you watch certain history channels and it's all
00:32:34.000
And listen, I obviously watch those same shows.
00:32:38.280
I don't think the internet is good for many things, but it's good for obscure historical
00:32:43.140
And I found, scrolling through my feed, I found the story years ago.
00:32:47.360
It was a tiny mention, maybe a half page, page article.
00:32:51.160
I'm like, you're telling me the Nazis tried to kill FDR, Stalin, and Churchill to hide
00:32:54.320
a World War II, and you and I don't know about this story.
00:33:02.180
It's the moment where Joseph Stalin wants us to invade the continental Europe.
00:33:10.200
We, of course, the United Kingdom and the United States are sending munitions and weapons,
00:33:14.560
but he's like, no, you need to invade, basically do what becomes the invasion of Normandy.
00:33:19.620
And FDR realizes we got to get the big three together.
00:33:23.100
We have to look each other in the eye, plan troop movements, plan supplies, plan morale,
00:33:33.700
Also, you paint a great picture in the book of the moment the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor
00:33:39.620
and what that was like in the White House, and then you go overseas and what it was like
00:33:45.640
with Churchill, and he's having, I think it was dinner with the ambassador of the United
00:33:51.840
And what I love in that moment when you see Churchill, because we've all heard the story
00:34:00.100
And what I love is in the moments after, we always tell the story in America that, you
00:34:06.800
We won, you know, we saved democracy for the world, and that's the end.
00:34:10.640
And that's a beautiful story, but that's the Hollywood version.
00:34:13.440
It was much more complex and actually much more amazing for America to see what we had to
00:34:18.500
And what I love is when Pearl Harbor happens, we, of course, declare war against the Japanese,
00:34:24.320
but they'd say to Adolf Hitler, stay out of it.
00:34:31.660
And Hitler slaps his leg, literally slaps his leg and says, this is great that it happened.
00:34:36.440
We're going to declare war on them because, you know, strong people declare war.
00:34:41.420
And Winston Churchill remembers this quote he heard about the United States.
00:34:45.480
He says that the United States is like a gigantic boiler.
00:34:48.180
And once you light a fire under it, there is no limit to the amount of power it will produce.
00:34:57.060
And this story, you know, as we're, as the big three are coming together.
00:35:05.720
And FDR doesn't trust him at all because he was on the side of the Germans for a while.
00:35:13.180
The only reason he comes to our side is because Hitler invades.
00:35:20.860
And, you know, we've done books on, we did the secret plot to kill George Washington.
00:35:26.940
We did the Lincoln conspiracy about the secret plot to kill Abraham Lincoln.
00:35:30.860
The first plot, not the John Wilkes Booth plot.
00:35:33.220
And when I look at what makes a good president, it's not the person that makes the best promises.
00:35:37.860
It's not the person that makes the best speeches.
00:35:39.820
It's the person who, when a disaster strikes, can pivot and deal with that disaster and be the right person for that right moment in time.
00:35:47.840
And FDR in that moment, whenever anyone thinks of his politics, he has one belief in himself and it's his ability to charm.
00:35:55.320
And he's like, I'm going to charm Stalin because I know Stalin likes me better than you, Churchill.
00:36:01.040
And he knows that Churchill, of course, prefers him to Stalin.
00:36:07.700
And Tehran, Iran of all places, which, again, I was like, how did I not know this?
00:36:18.080
I know the Tehran conference, but I know that the assassination plot took place there.
00:36:32.160
And he comes to town and the motorcade is moving through the center of the city.
00:36:36.600
And everyone's craning their neck because they want to see the president of the United States.
00:36:44.140
What none of them know is that that is not FDR in the motorcade.
00:36:49.840
The real president, the real FDR, is ducked down and hiding in the back of a beat-up sedan,
00:36:56.080
racing through the side streets because they're worried that there's a Nazi assassin who's
00:37:02.400
I just ruined chapter one of the Nazi conspiracy for you, but that is chapter one.
00:37:16.560
That this is a history book, I thought, okay, well, he's really good at history,
00:37:22.980
I get into the first chapter and it's over for me.
00:37:29.020
Well, that's the thing is, you know, for me, you know, I love these stories, but I don't
00:37:36.660
So, and we all know FDR and we all know Winston Churchill.
00:37:42.240
What I love are the people you don't know in this book.
00:37:44.440
So there's a Nazi in there named Otto Skorzenny.
00:37:47.500
And Otto Skorzenny gets the call from Adolf Hitler one day to come down to Adolf Hitler's
00:37:55.360
And you know, you're in trouble when the word lair is in the title, right?
00:37:59.120
You know, you know, you're not going for a party.
00:38:01.220
And Adolf Hitler wants all of his best special operations fighters, which Otto Skorzenny is
00:38:08.600
He wants to find the toughest and strongest one.
00:38:10.940
And he lines up all the special op guys in this big room, shoulder to shoulder, and he
00:38:20.200
And they all give these kind of macho answers saying, oh, you know, Italy's on our side.
00:38:26.980
Otto Skorzenny, this one Nazi, shouts out above everybody else.
00:38:33.040
And he's gambling because he knows Adolf Hitler is from Austria.
00:38:36.120
And he also knows that a true Austrian forever resents Italy because in World War I, they
00:38:41.740
took a key piece of Italy and of Austria and never gave it back.
00:38:45.840
So at that moment, Adolf Hitler turns to Otto Skorzenny and he's like, you're my guy.
00:38:54.320
We won't ruin this part of the book, but he sends him on a secret mission that is so
00:38:57.200
crazy and so wild that Josh mentioned, I'm a co-writer in the book, said that we need
00:39:02.120
to put an actual photograph of this secret mission in the book because people will not
00:39:08.060
Nazis falling from the sky and 80% casualty rate is what they predict.
00:39:14.360
His, the end result of the secret mission earns Otto Skorzenny the nickname, the most dangerous
00:39:20.520
And this is the craziest Nazi story you've never heard in your life.
00:39:27.500
Well, and, and the thing is, is it doesn't even stop with him, right?
00:39:31.820
There, it, there's a guy in there named Franz Mayer.
00:39:34.960
So there's two Nazis that play a key role in this, in assassination plot.
00:39:37.820
And Franz Mayer is a guy who's on the ground in Tehran.
00:39:43.800
They think he's captured when the allies come there.
00:39:45.680
They're like, he's done, but he's actually spent a couple of years making, uh, finding
00:39:54.480
He sends a message back to Berlin and says, I got a drop zone.
00:39:58.720
You can send me supplies and paratroopers, send me money.
00:40:03.380
Like you and I talking, you're going to say a certain, a couple of words together, and
00:40:09.500
And at that moment in time, the Nazis get the greatest thing that anyone can get in a fight,
00:40:15.020
which is an opportunity because the big three are coming to town and they've got a guy on
00:40:22.460
So you've got Franz Mayer on one side, you've got Otto Schrozet on another.
00:40:26.480
And Glenn, the best part is, is that Franz Mayer is not just there because he loves the Nazi
00:40:36.480
And he loves a local woman from a wealthy family.
00:40:40.580
What he doesn't know is she's sleeping with another guy who's an American GI.
00:40:51.180
My editor would be like, no one will believe this.
00:40:54.980
Anyone who loves history, like I was like, this is the greatest story.
00:40:58.680
And, and, and the thing that you realize is it could have changed the entire war, right?
00:41:03.940
It could have, if, if the big three are assassinated at this moment in time, this is just the
00:41:08.480
moment where the Nazis, it's starting to go against them.
00:41:12.520
And we have to remember, assassination was used as a weapon all the time back then.
00:41:17.260
So when, even when Admiral Yamamoto, one of the chief architects of Pearl Harbor, the
00:41:24.080
United States, we get information where he is, where he's going to fly.
00:41:27.120
And they go to FDR and they say, what do you want to do?
00:41:30.600
FDR knows, listen, if we kill him, they could retaliate against us.
00:41:35.140
Therefore, this is the main architect of Pearl Harbor.
00:41:39.160
And at that moment, FDR says, quote, get Yamamoto.
00:41:47.420
We, you know, they try and kill him in the Alps.
00:41:50.540
The Nazis tried, they find out that Winston Churchill, they think is on a commercial flight.
00:41:56.680
It's just a guy who looks like Winston Churchill.
00:41:59.580
So all through the war, assassination is being used.
00:42:02.740
When the big three come to Tehran, it's a tantalizing target for the Nazis.
00:42:08.640
And you have to ask yourself, why do I not know this story?
00:42:12.140
How do you and I, who obsess over this stuff, not know this story?
00:42:15.780
And it's because when Churchill comes back and FDR come back from the meeting, FDR holds
00:42:24.580
And he says, yes, the meeting went really well.
00:42:27.520
We plan the, you know, he doesn't tell it, but he knows they plan the invasion of Normandy
00:42:30.240
is coming now, but he says, by the way, the Nazis tried to kill us.
00:42:36.220
The Secret Service is like, why'd you say that?
00:42:47.460
150,000 men stormed the beaches, a million more standing by in successive waves.
00:42:52.040
And then this story becomes a footnote in history and gets lost until nerds like me dig it up
00:42:58.180
and show you, look at this moment that we all forgot.
00:43:01.320
It's almost like, do you remember when Rumsfeld on September 10th came out and said, like,
00:43:14.040
So the night before, because we had it on our show prep, remember, Stu?
00:43:20.880
Rumsfeld comes out and they had just done some audit of the Pentagon.
00:43:25.960
And he was like, this is worse than we thought.
00:43:32.940
It was like $1 or $2 trillion that they can't account for.
00:43:39.680
And we're going to get down to the bottom of it.
00:43:41.660
And the next morning, it was just, it was a non-story because the next morning was 9-11.
00:43:47.320
Well, the thing is, is there's always, to me, lost history is the best history, right?
00:43:51.720
Because we know the stories that we hear and we tell over and over again.
00:43:54.440
And the story of World War II is not just, you know, an amazing battle where millions
00:44:00.160
It's also one of the few, maybe last times in the American government where we think that
00:44:05.680
the government went in, we did the right thing, we saved the day for everyone, and everyone
00:44:22.200
And Josh and I, when we write these books, like when we did the Nazi conspiracy, we were
00:44:25.860
like, okay, it's great to say that we have this amazing plot you've never heard of to
00:44:34.620
What is this, you know, you and I know our love of history is not just that we love dates
00:44:38.640
What we love, and you and I have been together a long time, decades now, is that it informs
00:44:48.760
And one of the things I remember is when Charlottesville happened, when we saw, and not thrown, you know,
00:44:53.620
when Nazis were marching in Charlottesville, I'm not talking about throwing around the word
00:44:57.440
But truly, Nazis are marching there, and we're all wringing our hands and going, how
00:45:06.880
One of the things I didn't know is, and you see it early in the book, is back in World
00:45:11.540
War II, there was a rally in Madison Square Garden.
00:45:15.560
20,000 Nazis in the heart of New York City who cheer, and they have a big giant banner of
00:45:21.760
George Washington surrounded by swastikas, and the first speaker of the day says, if George
00:45:25.700
Washington were alive today, he'd be friends with Adolf Hitler.
00:45:28.620
And, oh my gosh, I'm like, why are we fighting Nazis today?
00:45:34.840
Anne Frank is born the same year as Barbara Walters.
00:45:42.440
And to me, the reason why we tell these stories is so, you know, to me, the American dream
00:45:51.360
It's about when you see someone being bullied, when you see someone being picked on, you use
00:45:58.900
And over and over in time, you know, we see it, you know, Adolf Hitler, what he does is
00:46:02.800
he says, those people are the cause of your problems.
00:46:05.920
He goes to those Germans who are suffering economically.
00:46:17.600
And listen, when someone says to me, you're the cause of my problem, I'm like, oh my gosh,
00:46:23.320
But we see it over and over through history, whether it's the black community, you see with,
00:46:27.340
you know, the gay community, the immigrant community, there's always a group where someone
00:46:40.540
And we have to say, when someone's being picked on, use your voice and say enough.
00:46:44.620
Not just when it's your group being picked on, but any group that's being picked on, you
00:46:49.880
We used to say, I disagree with what you say, but I will fight to the death.