October 21, 2025 • 10 mins
It's 1943. Nazi Germany and its Axis power allies are ravaging Europe and the Pacific with a terrible war. At this juncture, President Franklin Roosevelt has one critical goal: a face-to-face meeting with his allies, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill. The first ever meeting of the "Big Three" is set to take place in Tehran, Iran, where the leaders of the three great superpowers will discuss and decide on some of the most crucial strategic details of the war. But when the Nazis learn about the meeting, they form their own secret, deadly plan: an assassination plot that would forever change history...if they're successful. This riveting true story, filled with daring rescues and high stakes intrigue, explains how this pivotal meeting in Tehran changed the course of World War II, and how the Nazi conspiracy to assassinate the Allied leaders nearly led to world-shattering disaster.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, my brother. Good to hear your voice.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Oh my god. It's always a pleasure to talk with
you because you always take readers into areas that not
only in form, but is it okay to say you
also entertain. You give us that place of escape to
where we're we're going to experience something and go No,
I got to do at least one or two more pages.
I can't put this down just yet.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Listen. I don't do it for any other reason that
those are the books I love to read, right. I
love when I get to the end of the chapter.
Whether it's a history book, a kid's book, whatever, a thriller,
doesn't matter. But I want to plaitanger because I want
to go, oh my gosh, what's going to happen next?
That's the most panalizing question in a world, what's going
to happen next?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Well, this book right here is so important to our
modern day in history. And the reason why is one,
look at the world. There's some stuff going down. But
what a lot of the generation z X alpha betoy.
You bring up these people's names, so they're gonna go,
who are you talking about? But then here comes Brad
He's got the Nazi conspiracy and he's going to get
into their lives, saying, hey, by the way, before you
(00:58):
got here, this did actually happened. But let me share
with you the way it happened and how it allmost
really took place.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yeah, you know, and you know me well enough to know.
I mean, let's paint the picture of the Nazy conspiracy.
You know. It's it's the moment where Stalin wants the
Allies to invade continent of Europe because he's getting blitzed.
The Nazis had invaded the Soviet Union and it's decimating,
so he wants help. He's like, help me out here.
So as nineteen forty three arrives, the Big Three, FDR,
Stalin and Churchill need to meet face to face for
(01:29):
the very first time. Talked about troop numbers, logistics, They
need to meet in person. The states could not be higher.
The wars, you know, shifting and the winner's going to
take all and the summit must happen. And FDR is
the middleman because Stalin and Churchill hate each other. So
FDR gets to troan around where this meeting is going
to take place with the Big Three. He's coming his
(01:51):
motor Kate's coming down the center of the city. Everyone's
out there craning their next to look at the motor
case that's coming, and everyone's waving. But what no one
really is the person who's waving back in the motorcade.
It's not FDR. Really, it's actually a Secret Service it's
a Secret Service decoy. And the real FDR is ducked
down and hiding in the back of a beat up sedan,
(02:13):
racing through the side streets because they're worried that there's
a Nazi assassin is about to murder him. And I
just ruined chapter one of the Nazi Conspiracy. But that's
chapter one, and I love the fact that it starts
with a cliffhanger.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
But you know what, though, Brad, I got to be
honest with you, you didn't ruin chapter one because I mean,
in reality, we all just went through a moment where
where it's like we've just been through an assassination. We
know what chapter one is now, we just don't know
what chapter two is. And that's one of the things
that's going to keep us growing forward is that we
now know the setup, the possibility, the occurrence that may
(02:47):
have happened. So I mean no, no, no, no, that's what
they need to know so they can get into the
book and get into that full story.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
No, that's right, and listen, as you said, you know,
my love is pulling the names that you have in her.
All know adelf Hitler, we all know FDR. But this
story is about people you've never heard of before. There's
a guy a Nazi and Otto Scorzenny in this book.
And Otto Skorzenny is a Hitler brings together. He wants
all of his best fighters to come together in the
(03:15):
Wolf's Layer, in his in his kind of secret highway,
and he brings them all together, lines him up shoulder
to shoulder in this big room, and he says to
them he gives him a quiz, and the first question
of the quiz is what do you think of Italy?
And they all start kissing. The bosses breer and like, oh, boss,
you know we love Italy. There are you know they're
on our side. We're going to help us beat the Allies.
(03:36):
And that's what they're all saying. And this one voice
screams out, I am from Austria and my furor to
Otto Scorzenny, who's gambling in this moment because he knows
that Adolf Hitler is also like him from Austria, and
a true Austrian actually hates Italy because back in the
First World War Italy, Italy took a key piece of
(04:00):
and never gave it back. And in that moment, Adolf
Hitler looks at Otto Skorzenny and he's like, you're my guy,
You're my guy, and he sends Auto Skorzenny on a
secret Nazi mission. That is so bananas and crazy, brother
that had. I actually had a picture of the moment
put in the book because I'm like, when kids read this,
(04:22):
they're not going to believe it's true. Adults are not
be believe the kids are not to believe it, so we
need a picture to show it's true. I won't ruin
the moment for you, but it is the craziest Nazi
story You've never heard in your life what a secret
mission is on? And I've never heard of Otto scores
any I'm wagering you've never heard of Otto Skorzenny. No,
but it's just a banana's moment in World War Two
when you see what he's what mission is Adolf Hitler
(04:44):
puts him on.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Please do not move. There's more with Brad Meltzer coming
up next. The name of the book the Nazi Conspiracy.
We are back with Brad Meltzer. So now is it
my imagination or are a lot of the stories from
this particuicular part of history, World War two and even
World War One? I feel like that the masters who
are leading right now are borrowing from the leadership rules
(05:08):
of those that came before us, because I mean, there's
so much that we see today and we're going, oh,
that happened before, You're kidding me. I thought it was
just happening today.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Well, that's the right question to ask, right Why what
is this book really about? And why do we tell it?
And when you see right now, you know, anti Semitism
and hating and blaming Jews is at an all time
high right now, right, So why are we still fighting
these Nazi ideals in twenty twenty five? And we always
think that like the Nazis are you know they were?
(05:39):
The reason is is because they never left. The Nazis,
we always think, is something that happened in Europe and
they were over there. But in the hYP of World
War two we found and we put this in the book.
There was a Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden in
New York City, twenty thousand Nazis cheering, and there was
a great, big banner with a swastika on, and another
(06:02):
big one of George Washington's face. The first speaker at
the rally set if George Washington were alive today, he'd
be friends with Adolf Hitler. We don't tell that story anymore.
We're embarrassed of it. But that happened here, not in Europe,
but in America, and that sentiment did not go away,
(06:23):
and that's why we continue to fight. These things are
more important than ever.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
One of the things that I've really put a lot
of love and interest in sharing this book with the
people that I surround myself with, is I go this
is not just a book for young readers. Adults need
to read this book as well. You need to pipe
down and get rid of the genre labels that we
put on books, and you need to really take this
book in and experience it.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
No, and I appre and let'ten hear. I agree with
you one hundred percent. And here's the reason why this
is a recipe for authoritarians. Right, you have an Adolf Hiller,
a charismatic leader, and he says he finds these white
native born Germans suffering economically, and then he says, those
people are the cause of your pain. Those people, And
that's the code word, right, Radil Hilary. He's talking about
(07:08):
the Jewish people. But we've seen it done in the
black community, about the immigrant community. We saw, you know,
but when you see people being blamed. To me, the
American dream is not about making money. American dream is
that when you see someone being picked on and you
see someone being bullied, you stand up and you use
(07:28):
your voice and you say enough enough already. And look
at where we are as a culture right now. We're
so divided with tearing each other apart. But there's the
reason why cable news wants you mad. There's a reason
why politicians want you mad. There's a reason why the
scrolling on your phone and social media wants you mad.
Because angry people vote, Angry people watch cable news. Angry
(07:49):
people will scroll endlessly on their phone. And we have
to be better than what angers us and stop being
divided as the culture and stand together and say enough
with bullying, enough with dividing us. And we got to
stand together against what's actually wrong in the world. And
I know that's harder than it sounds, but it's a
battle worth fighting, and we we got to get back
to fighting it.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Speaking of battles that are worth fighting, how are you
keeping people off your back because they like to control
the authors, it seems these days they don't want to
call it censorship, but by god, they'll come in there
and take it out of libraries.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Listen. You know, as you know I've spoken to many
times about our kids books We've done. I am Amelia Arhart,
I am Abraham Lincoln, I am George Washington. Our books
I am Rosa Parks, and I am Martin Luther King
Junior got banned. I am Villaging King. Book is on
the top ten list of banned children's books from last year.
And you know when they banned I am Rosa Parks
(08:43):
and I am doctor King, I got a call from
Fox News, from MSNBC and from CNN, all saying this
is ridiculous, this is wrong, browd. We want you to
come on and fight back and tell our viewers about it.
When MSNBC and Fox News and CNN all agree, you
know you screwed up. You did something wrong, And we
fought those book bands. You know, in Pennsylvania where they
(09:05):
banned I Am Rosa Parks, we had so many copies
of I Am Rosa Parks that people bought to send
to the school. But they now teach that book in
the schools, and we made them eat those book bands.
We made you know, and you got to take the
lessons of Rosa Parks and take the lessons of Martin
Luther King Junior. And you need to fight back against
those book bands, because if you're cheering while books are
(09:25):
being pulled from library shelves and telling you you're on
the wrong side of history, you're going to eventually be
revealed as the bad guy in the story. And no
one wants inappropriate books going into the hands of the
wrong kids. Everyone wants it to be age appropriate. Don't
let anyone tell you otherwise. That's just a talking point
to scare you. But man, you've got to fight back
(09:46):
against those bands.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I love where your heart is, Brad. You got to
come back to this show anytime in the future. You
know that door is always going to be open for you.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I'll see you January for the Viper. That's the new thriller.
I can't wait.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I can't wait either. Man, you'd be brilliant today.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Okay, thanks brother, thank you,
Hey, my brother. Good to hear your voice.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Oh my god. It's always a pleasure to talk with
you because you always take readers into areas that not
only in form, but is it okay to say you
also entertain. You give us that place of escape to
where we're we're going to experience something and go No,
I got to do at least one or two more pages.
I can't put this down just yet.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Listen. I don't do it for any other reason that
those are the books I love to read, right. I
love when I get to the end of the chapter.
Whether it's a history book, a kid's book, whatever, a thriller,
doesn't matter. But I want to plaitanger because I want
to go, oh my gosh, what's going to happen next?
That's the most panalizing question in a world, what's going
to happen next?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Well, this book right here is so important to our
modern day in history. And the reason why is one,
look at the world. There's some stuff going down. But
what a lot of the generation z X alpha betoy.
You bring up these people's names, so they're gonna go,
who are you talking about? But then here comes Brad
He's got the Nazi conspiracy and he's going to get
into their lives, saying, hey, by the way, before you
(00:58):
got here, this did actually happened. But let me share
with you the way it happened and how it allmost
really took place.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yeah, you know, and you know me well enough to know.
I mean, let's paint the picture of the Nazy conspiracy.
You know. It's it's the moment where Stalin wants the
Allies to invade continent of Europe because he's getting blitzed.
The Nazis had invaded the Soviet Union and it's decimating,
so he wants help. He's like, help me out here.
So as nineteen forty three arrives, the Big Three, FDR,
Stalin and Churchill need to meet face to face for
(01:29):
the very first time. Talked about troop numbers, logistics, They
need to meet in person. The states could not be higher.
The wars, you know, shifting and the winner's going to
take all and the summit must happen. And FDR is
the middleman because Stalin and Churchill hate each other. So
FDR gets to troan around where this meeting is going
to take place with the Big Three. He's coming his
(01:51):
motor Kate's coming down the center of the city. Everyone's
out there craning their next to look at the motor
case that's coming, and everyone's waving. But what no one
really is the person who's waving back in the motorcade.
It's not FDR. Really, it's actually a Secret Service it's
a Secret Service decoy. And the real FDR is ducked
down and hiding in the back of a beat up sedan,
(02:13):
racing through the side streets because they're worried that there's
a Nazi assassin is about to murder him. And I
just ruined chapter one of the Nazi Conspiracy. But that's
chapter one, and I love the fact that it starts
with a cliffhanger.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
But you know what, though, Brad, I got to be
honest with you, you didn't ruin chapter one because I mean,
in reality, we all just went through a moment where
where it's like we've just been through an assassination. We
know what chapter one is now, we just don't know
what chapter two is. And that's one of the things
that's going to keep us growing forward is that we
now know the setup, the possibility, the occurrence that may
(02:47):
have happened. So I mean no, no, no, no, that's what
they need to know so they can get into the
book and get into that full story.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
No, that's right, and listen, as you said, you know,
my love is pulling the names that you have in her.
All know adelf Hitler, we all know FDR. But this
story is about people you've never heard of before. There's
a guy a Nazi and Otto Scorzenny in this book.
And Otto Skorzenny is a Hitler brings together. He wants
all of his best fighters to come together in the
(03:15):
Wolf's Layer, in his in his kind of secret highway,
and he brings them all together, lines him up shoulder
to shoulder in this big room, and he says to
them he gives him a quiz, and the first question
of the quiz is what do you think of Italy?
And they all start kissing. The bosses breer and like, oh, boss,
you know we love Italy. There are you know they're
on our side. We're going to help us beat the Allies.
(03:36):
And that's what they're all saying. And this one voice
screams out, I am from Austria and my furor to
Otto Scorzenny, who's gambling in this moment because he knows
that Adolf Hitler is also like him from Austria, and
a true Austrian actually hates Italy because back in the
First World War Italy, Italy took a key piece of
(04:00):
and never gave it back. And in that moment, Adolf
Hitler looks at Otto Skorzenny and he's like, you're my guy,
You're my guy, and he sends Auto Skorzenny on a
secret Nazi mission. That is so bananas and crazy, brother
that had. I actually had a picture of the moment
put in the book because I'm like, when kids read this,
(04:22):
they're not going to believe it's true. Adults are not
be believe the kids are not to believe it, so we
need a picture to show it's true. I won't ruin
the moment for you, but it is the craziest Nazi
story You've never heard in your life what a secret
mission is on? And I've never heard of Otto scores
any I'm wagering you've never heard of Otto Skorzenny. No,
but it's just a banana's moment in World War Two
when you see what he's what mission is Adolf Hitler
(04:44):
puts him on.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Please do not move. There's more with Brad Meltzer coming
up next. The name of the book the Nazi Conspiracy.
We are back with Brad Meltzer. So now is it
my imagination or are a lot of the stories from
this particuicular part of history, World War two and even
World War One? I feel like that the masters who
are leading right now are borrowing from the leadership rules
(05:08):
of those that came before us, because I mean, there's
so much that we see today and we're going, oh,
that happened before, You're kidding me. I thought it was
just happening today.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Well, that's the right question to ask, right Why what
is this book really about? And why do we tell it?
And when you see right now, you know, anti Semitism
and hating and blaming Jews is at an all time
high right now, right, So why are we still fighting
these Nazi ideals in twenty twenty five? And we always
think that like the Nazis are you know they were?
(05:39):
The reason is is because they never left. The Nazis,
we always think, is something that happened in Europe and
they were over there. But in the hYP of World
War two we found and we put this in the book.
There was a Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden in
New York City, twenty thousand Nazis cheering, and there was
a great, big banner with a swastika on, and another
(06:02):
big one of George Washington's face. The first speaker at
the rally set if George Washington were alive today, he'd
be friends with Adolf Hitler. We don't tell that story anymore.
We're embarrassed of it. But that happened here, not in Europe,
but in America, and that sentiment did not go away,
(06:23):
and that's why we continue to fight. These things are
more important than ever.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
One of the things that I've really put a lot
of love and interest in sharing this book with the
people that I surround myself with, is I go this
is not just a book for young readers. Adults need
to read this book as well. You need to pipe
down and get rid of the genre labels that we
put on books, and you need to really take this
book in and experience it.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
No, and I appre and let'ten hear. I agree with
you one hundred percent. And here's the reason why this
is a recipe for authoritarians. Right, you have an Adolf Hiller,
a charismatic leader, and he says he finds these white
native born Germans suffering economically, and then he says, those
people are the cause of your pain. Those people, And
that's the code word, right, Radil Hilary. He's talking about
(07:08):
the Jewish people. But we've seen it done in the
black community, about the immigrant community. We saw, you know,
but when you see people being blamed. To me, the
American dream is not about making money. American dream is
that when you see someone being picked on and you
see someone being bullied, you stand up and you use
(07:28):
your voice and you say enough enough already. And look
at where we are as a culture right now. We're
so divided with tearing each other apart. But there's the
reason why cable news wants you mad. There's a reason
why politicians want you mad. There's a reason why the
scrolling on your phone and social media wants you mad.
Because angry people vote, Angry people watch cable news. Angry
(07:49):
people will scroll endlessly on their phone. And we have
to be better than what angers us and stop being
divided as the culture and stand together and say enough
with bullying, enough with dividing us. And we got to
stand together against what's actually wrong in the world. And
I know that's harder than it sounds, but it's a
battle worth fighting, and we we got to get back
to fighting it.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Speaking of battles that are worth fighting, how are you
keeping people off your back because they like to control
the authors, it seems these days they don't want to
call it censorship, but by god, they'll come in there
and take it out of libraries.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Listen. You know, as you know I've spoken to many
times about our kids books We've done. I am Amelia Arhart,
I am Abraham Lincoln, I am George Washington. Our books
I am Rosa Parks, and I am Martin Luther King
Junior got banned. I am Villaging King. Book is on
the top ten list of banned children's books from last year.
And you know when they banned I am Rosa Parks
(08:43):
and I am doctor King, I got a call from
Fox News, from MSNBC and from CNN, all saying this
is ridiculous, this is wrong, browd. We want you to
come on and fight back and tell our viewers about it.
When MSNBC and Fox News and CNN all agree, you
know you screwed up. You did something wrong, And we
fought those book bands. You know, in Pennsylvania where they
(09:05):
banned I Am Rosa Parks, we had so many copies
of I Am Rosa Parks that people bought to send
to the school. But they now teach that book in
the schools, and we made them eat those book bands.
We made you know, and you got to take the
lessons of Rosa Parks and take the lessons of Martin
Luther King Junior. And you need to fight back against
those book bands, because if you're cheering while books are
(09:25):
being pulled from library shelves and telling you you're on
the wrong side of history, you're going to eventually be
revealed as the bad guy in the story. And no
one wants inappropriate books going into the hands of the
wrong kids. Everyone wants it to be age appropriate. Don't
let anyone tell you otherwise. That's just a talking point
to scare you. But man, you've got to fight back
(09:46):
against those bands.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I love where your heart is, Brad. You got to
come back to this show anytime in the future. You
know that door is always going to be open for you.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I'll see you January for the Viper. That's the new thriller.
I can't wait.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I can't wait either. Man, you'd be brilliant today.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Okay, thanks brother, thank you,
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