Profiles In Eccentricity

This week Matt takes the lads deeper into Ben Franklin’s life of brilliant ingenuity, dysfunctional family dynamics, flirtatious relationships with young women, and an affection for nudity all while the relationship between the states and Britain begins to sour!

This week Matt shows the boys the early years of Benjamin Franklin and how his devotion to publishing, writing, debate and philosophy leads to a desire  to create organizations and societies that center on the distribution of information and even the formation of American militia!

This week Johnboy chronicles the saga of the Public Universal Friend, born a woman of the Quaker faith, the tumultuous times of the American Revolution would have them found the first religious order in the burgeoning country as a non-binary being sent from heaven!

This week the lads are joined by Laura Crawford for the ancient tradition of the story swap! Aaron has a Francophile African cannibal dictator, Johnboy has a priest-slaughtering Irish bounty hunter, Matt has the mysterious-yet-reassuring Leatherman and Laura has the man who secretly created revered Donald Duck comics that Walt Diz took credit for!

This week Matt brings us the tale of twin armed robbers who grew up in a life of crime before taking on the law themselves before the war amongst each other brings their spree to an end and extends beyond! 

This week Johnboy brings the tale of the man J. Edgar Hoover called “the most amazing figure in contemporary criminal history!” Gaston Bullock means falls in love with the thrill of deception as a youth and it takes him from blackmailing criminals while a government agent to grafting and murdering an heiress and finally, exploiting the kidnapping and death of the Lindbergh baby! 

This week Matt brings the lads the thrilling conclusion of an impossibly obscure cinema saga! Kim Jong-il holds the stars of South Korea film royalty in captivity in a bid to boost the silver screen output of the most sinister regime on earth, while our estranged stars dream of an escape! What happens next?? Be forewarned: harsh descriptions of prison torture contained herein! 

This week Matt brings the first part of the history of film on BOTH sides of the demilitarized zone in Korea! We hear the struggle of South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee and her oddball producer husband Shin Sang-ok and how their meteoric rise in cinema success led them to catch the eye of a secret cinephile - Kim Jong-il?? 

This week Johnboy tells the lads of the Colombian street kid who was adopted by American parents and then himself adopted a very royal persona! Anthony Gignac never works a job but always works his hustle of pretending to be a Saudi Prince and along the way he dupes Johnny Cochran, American Express and multiple investors out of millions of dollars! What will stop him??

This week Aaron treats the lads to the impossibly unlikely tale of the rural scrappy lad that enlisted in the military after Pearl Harbor and became America’s most decorated soldier through accomplishing unfathomable feats of bravery against the fascists before taking on fame, Hollywood and the addictions and afflictions of post-war life!

This week the boys return with three tales of morons! A-A-Ron brings the miserable miser who hid his wealth in literal feces and ate tainted meat! Matt has the cult who embraced castration via scriptural misinterpretation! John has Russia’s empire-ending, catastrophic naval expedition!

This week Aaron explores the life, legend and legacy of Vlad Dracula III and the boys explore to what extent the 15th century ruler of Wallachia influenced Bram Stoker’s novel! Vlad cuts an equally chilling figure as a daring, sadistic, brutal ruler and military leader - with a flare for unfathomably macabre spectacle!

We're off this week due to the fires out here, so we've got one of our favorite old episodes.

This episode John shares the story of a neo-nazi biker gang whose members were half undercover ATF agents, the story of a WW2 SS unit that committed such heinous atrocities that even the Nazi leadership was appalled, and the Norwegian phenomenon of preceding doppelgängers that show up before their real life counterpart.

This week Matt throws us back into the storm with a savagely harrowing tale of a tornado made of fire in Wisconsin! Then we meet the next generation of experts, Corporal John Park Finley and Ted Fujita and discover new ways of looking at devastating storms!

This week Matt treats the lads to the story of America’s first tornado chasers from Ben Franklin through the first meteorologists - who’s overblown egos and theoretical stubbornness revolted the scientific community! Along the way we get into the science of storms and the awe-inspiring violence and power of the tornado!

Dropping an old favorite on Xmas. From 2019:

This week on Profiles each lad once again brings a wee bit for a 3 way love fest! Aaron tells of a 19th century prostitute who used steak creatively. John meditates on cosmonaut tragedy and sacrifice and Matt brings us to the island that cocaine changed dramatically!