Sofa King Podcast

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we grab ourselves a bucket and talk about Kentucky Fried Chicken. There is, of course, no KFC without Colonel Sanders, so that seems like a good start. The story of this massive restaurant chain is also the story of Harlan Sanders, given the honorary title of a Kentucky Colonel by two governors in his life time. He’s delivered babys, served in the US Army in Cuba, and once shot a man in a fight over a marketing billboard. Colonel Sanders started the restaurant game late in life and somehow transformed a gas station where he served fried chicken to the second largest fast food empire in the world. He was one of the pioneers of franchising, letting people use his recipe of 11 herbs and spices in exchange for a nickel per chicken sold. How did the chain get so big? How much did he sell his shares of the company for? Why did he and Kentucky Fried Chicken sue each other? Did a reporter uncover the secret original recipe? Listen, laugh, learn.     Visit Our Sources: https://www.biography.com/business-figure/colonel-harland-sanders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_Colonel#Notable_Kentucky_colonels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_(U.S._honorary_title) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFC KFC recipe revealed? Tribune shown family scrapbook with 11 herbs and spices - Chicago Tribune KFC recipe challenge: Tribune kitchen puts the 11 herbs and spices to the test - Chicago Tribune https://www.history.com/news/8-facts-real-colonel-sanders-kfc https://www.thebalancesmb.com/colonel-sanders-bio-kentucky-fried-chicken-story-1350966 https://www.mashed.com/99890/untold-truth-kfc/ https://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com/index.php https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/30/kfc-admits-a-third-of-its-chickens-suffer-painful-inflammation https://global.kfc.com/press-releases/kfc-announces-new-global-chicken-welfare-guidelines

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the mother of all battles in WWII, the Battle of the Bulge. This was an offensive that lasted for six horrible weeks in the winter of 1944 and 1945. The allies had already launched D-Day and were trying to make their way to Berlin. Part of the plan was to send troops to Luxembourg and Belgium, but Hitler thought he saw a way to exploit this, cut off all allied armies, and force a surrender. The Battle of the Bulge became the costliest in all of WWII for the Americans. It is a story of men who had no equipment, no food, no fuel, and no winter clothing even though they were in near arctic conditions. But it was rough on both sides. All armies were exhausted and frozen, and the Nazis even had to rely on horses to move equipment. This battle has it all, from the noble actions of the 101st airborne, to the first desegregated black troops, to Nazis in disguise being forced to answer American trivia. You don’t want to miss it!   Visit Our Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-the-bulge https://www.army.mil/botb/ https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-battle-of-the-bulge https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8580915/ww2-pictures-battle-bulge-horror-band-brothers/ https://www.historyhit.com/facts-about-battle-bulge/ https://www.historynet.com/battle-of-the-bulge https://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-battle-of-the-bulge

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the Queen of Rock and Roll, Tina Turner. She was born to very poor sharecroppers in 1939 and went through an abusive marriage and bankruptcy, but somehow, she survived it all. In fact, she emerged as one of the queens of the 1980s, earning hit after hit and Grammy after Grammy. Indeed, she produced some of the most iconic videos and songs of the 1980s. It all started when she met Ike Turner and joined his band. He was addicted to coke and bipolar, so the relationship was never all that great, but he helped coach her vocals, and they met success together. With their hit “Proud Mary” they became national names. After an abusive marriage and tumultuous divorce, however, Tina struggled to regain popularity. But when she did, there was no stopping her. So, what lead Tina Turner to try to commit suicide? How many Grammys did she win? Why did she change her name to Tina Turner? What made her quit the music business? Where is she now? Listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://www.biography.com/musician/tina-turner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tina_Turner https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-books-music/a35938829/where-is-tina-turner-now/ https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/tina-turner-queen-of-rock-roll-190581/ https://www.eightieskids.com/10-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-tina-turner/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKpISNtgJMs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzQnPz6TpGc https://www.smoothradio.com/artists/tina-turner/age-real-name-husband-children/

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we go back in time and look at an interesting story from World War II. The Great Escape was immortalized in a 1963 Steve McQueen movie, but it is based on a real story where hundreds of allied airmen all pitched in to help some escape. The scene was Stalag Luft III, a Nazi POW camp for air force officers from all allied nations. It was a fairly relaxed camp compared to what many think of when a German war camp comes to mind. In 1943, RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bushell was transferred to Stalag Luft III after several escape attempts at other prisons. While there, he organized an audacious plan to set hundreds of prisoners free by digging not one, but three massive tunnels out of the complex at the same time. The ingenious nature of the prisoners, what items they stole or repurposed, the allies they found throughout Germany: all of it is pretty astounding. So, why were only 76 of the 200 able to get out of the prison that fateful night? What was the German response, and how many were rounded back up? What stopped all of them from being killed despite Hitler’s direct orders? How many fully escaped, and why did the Great Escape lead to war crimes trials years later? Listen, laugh, and learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://www.history.co.uk/article/the-true-story-of-the-great-escape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalag_Luft_III https://www.history.com/news/remembering-the-great-escape-70-years-ago https://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/projects/great-escape/index.html https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/five-myths-of-the-ww2-great-escape/  

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we give some respect to one of the greatest comedians to ever live—Rodney Dangerfield. He was a comedy staple in the 70s and 80s, appearing on The Tonight Show over 70 times after he squashed a beef with Johnny Carson. Keep in mind that doing that show even one time as a comedian could make your career. He then turned a small role in Caddyshack into a career-defining moment alongside Bill Murray and Chevy Chase, and he went on to star in Easy Money and Back to School along with other film classics. His persona of Rodney Dangerfield was fictitious. His legal name was Jack Roy (though he was born Jacob Cohen), and the Dangerfield name was taken from a comedy bit he saw as a young man. But the “No Respect” gimmick was what made him famous. He overheard it from a gangster, and he retooled all of his comedy to revolve around that one concept. It wasn’t a hard concept for him since his childhood was one of abuse and abandonment. In the end, he became a comedy legend who opened one of the most successful comedy clubs ever and was even a pioneer in the early days of the internet. So, give Rodney and SK some respect, and give this one a listen!     Visit Our Sources: https://www.biography.com/performer/rodney-dangerfield https://www.biography.com/news/rodney-dangerfield-i-dont-get-no-respect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Dangerfield http://www.rodney.com/ https://screenrant.com/rodney-dangerfield-best-roles-movies/ http://jackbenny.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=596

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we put on our tinfoil hats and explore the conspiracy theory of MK Ultra. It turns out it wasn’t a conspiracy theory, so much as a conspiracy fact. MK Ultra was the CIA’s illegal attempt at behavior modification and mind control which officially ran from 1953 until 1973. Some say it is still running under a different name, but the official party line is that it was disbanded in the paranoid wake of the Watergate tapes. The fact that MK Ultra existed is incontrovertible and involved three senate hearings, a freedom of information act release that included 20,000 pages of documents about the CIA’s secret funding, and multiple reports filed by senate subcommittees and even the office of veteran’s affairs. So what did MK Ultra involve? The CIA funded experiments on various ways to control minds, alter perceptions, and get inside of people’s heads. They did this at 87 American universities, often without the knowledge of the subjects or the scientists (who didn’t know their funding was coming from the CIA). MK Ultra used LSD as a way to break people down, often dosing American citizens with the drug without their consent or knowledge through projects such as the accurately named Project Midnight Climax which used prostitutes to deliver the drugs in San Francisco. MK Ultra used a doctor named Donald Cameron who was president of the World Psychiatric Health Organization to work on a technique called Psychic Driving. What did it involve? Induced paralysis and then an audio loop that played thousands of times to try and break a patient’s personality down and replace it. Oh, and the patients were coming to him for things like post mortem depression and anxiety and had no idea this was being done to them! Find out about Subproject 54, which was a Naval Research project involving amnesia, and the case of Frank Olson. Olson (a biochemist employed by the CIA) was thought to have committed suicide in 1953, but an autopsy in 1994 that he was murdered with a blow to the head after being dosed with LSD. All of this is true, provable with congressional documents, and completely nuts. Of course, it gets crazier when the tin foil does come out, and a woman named Cathleen Ann O'Brien reveals details about an alleged MK Ultra subproject called Project Monarch. It involves George Bush, holograms, and lizard people. Oh, and it also involves Shia LaBeouf, Roseanne Barr, and Michael Jackson. No. I’m not kidding...

Another Sofa King Classic as we anticipate Daves return... We dig in to the conspiracy theories surrounding the Illuminati and their new world order. From the Bilderberg Group to the Freemasons, and from Bohemian Grove to space alien reptoids, we look at all the common ideas spread on the Internet about the Illuminati. We even look at the theories of the “Hop-Hop Illuminati” that supposedly rules rap music. Adult Content. NSFW.

Dave should be back Wednesday and we will back to business as usually. It is hilarious to hear how much the show has changed since Episode 26. Check out this classic episode and thank you for being cool as fuck. This episode is all about mythical, mystical, and cryptozoological creatures. We cover a wide range from purely mythical and fictional creatures down to things that people think may exist in the real world. The Sofa Kings discuss crypto creatures and even talk about ghosts for a minute or two. Brad tests Dave and Brent’s nerd knowledge by asking about monsters found in popular fantasy games and classic mythology, and Brent astounds us with a discussion of monsters that come from Japan—and they are wild! Some of our specific topics include the Loch Ness Monster, the Chupacabra, the Moth Man, the Scape Ore Swam Lizard Man of South Carolina, vampires, and the mysterious “Bloop” from deep in the ocean that many people fear to be the sleeping Cthulhu. Adult Content. NSFW.

  Dave is gone for 8 days so here is a Sofa King Classic from the archives Quotable moments from radioactive grandmas to Cesium queefs... you wont want to miss this one. On this episode, we discuss the accident at the Chernobyl power plant as only the Sofa King Podcast can. The Chernobyl power plant in Pripyat, Ukraine suffered a ten day nuclear fire starting on April 26, 1986. This was one of only two Level 7 nuclear disasters in the history of nuclear power, and the causes, reaction, and effects are pretty staggering. Though the numbers vary greatly, upwards of 350,000 people were evacuated, 500,000 “volunteers” were called on to help, and somewhere around 75,000 cases of cancer are still with us due to this nuclear meltdown. What caused it? According to most reports, it was human error, arrogance, and design flaws working in perfect concert. We cover the causes and the basics of how a nuclear reactor works in order to fully explore this horrible accident. Most of the blame can be put on one of the foremen (a man so radioactive that he gave his own son Leukemia!), but there is a complex web of control and Soviet era Party politics involved as well. We also look at the Nobel Prize winning book Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich which covers a dozens of interviews of survivors of this meltdown. Then we talk about everything from the chances of the reactor’s protective sarcophagus cracking and making an even worse disaster in the future, hostile radioactive wolves which roam the Exclusion Zone even today, and what the Soviet Union did right and wrong in trying to stop the disaster. Their policy tended to be telling lies to the free world about how good things were and sending hundreds of thousands of volunteers into radioactive danger with no equipment or medicine to help them. However, with little else to do, we wonder if this was the action of an evil communist state or actually true heroism by a nation desperately trying to stop the meltdown from making most of Europe a nuclear grave yard.

On this bonus episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we cover a real world conspiracy theory that turns out to be true: Project Azorian. What was Project Azorian? Well, it was a little plan concocted by the CIA. In 1968, a Soviet nuclear sub sank, and the Russian didn’t know where it was. The US Navy narrowed it down to a few miles, however, so they plan was on to fully retrieve this vessel from the ocean floor. It took years to pull off, and the cover story involved the amazing Howard Hughes. His companies and his bizarre secrecy in all things made him the perfect person to build the Hughes Glomar Explorer, the ship sent out to do the actual spying. But wait! This one is only for the patrons! To learn more and to become a $1 dollar patron, so you can access over 150 bonus episodes, go to http://www.patreon.com/sofakingpodcast So, what exactly was Howard Hughes’ role? Who was Clementine, and what was her job in pulling up the sub? Did the Soviets ever learn what was going on? How was it a success and a failure? What did they do with the dead Russian sailors they raised to the surface? What do conspiracy theorists claim was really happening here? Listen, laugh, learn. Visit Our Sources: https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/04/25/project-azorian/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Azorian https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/during-cold-war-ci-secretly-plucked-soviet-submarine-ocean-floor-using-giant-claw-180972154/

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we do the whole biography thing on the grandfather of an American dynasty, Mr. Prescott Bush. Prescott Bush is the father of President George H.W. Bush and the grandfather of President George W Bush. He was a businessman, politician, power broker, Skull and Bones Man, and possible Nazi collaborator. If there happens to be an Illuminati run by a race of power-hoarding lizard people, Prescott Bush is a member. Born in 1895, Prescott lived through the highest heights of American wealth and the lowest lows of the American depression. He followed in the footsteps of his own father and entered Yale and became a member of the notorious Skull and Bones. Indeed, rumor has it that he and people in his class broke into a graveyard and stole the skull of Geronimo, which sits in the bowels of the Bones house to this day. After that, he spent time in World War two and got into intelligence work. From there, he came back to the states and started his life as a business mogul and politician. Working in Intelligence, big business, and the government pretty much set the path that all Bushes would follow in future generations. Once World War Two was starting, Prescott Bush was one of the founding members of an international bank that was owned by and helped launder money for one Fritz Thyssen. Thyssen was a Nazi. I mean a super Nazi. I mean, the main financier for the rise of Nazi power, the architect of the Nazi war machine through his steel and coal plants, the main backer of Adolf Hitler, and even the guy responsible for creating the poison gas used in concentration camps. All evidence suggests that Prescott Bush knew all of this and kept dealing with him through the war. Oh, and then there was the time Grandpa Bush tried to overthrow the American presidency with a rebel army backed by the wealthiest families in the country. Well, he never got prosecuted for either of these attempts to control the world, but the jokes on us. He pretty much ruled the world anyway when his descendants starting running the United States intelligence apparatus and became president a couple of times.

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we climb to the top of the podcasting world and talk about Mt. Everest. This peak is the highest on earth, and to many people, reaching its summit is the height of human performance. Named after a British surveyor (who didn’t even want it named after him), it has become a strange, deadly tourist attraction. What was once the ultimate spiritual challenge is now a booming business and a mountain littered in human corpses, trash, and excrement. Back when people like George Mallory, Edmund Hillary, and Tenzing Norgay made the first attempts to reach the summit, all eyes were on them. However, in the modern day, hundreds of people climb it, and there are deaths every single year. The problem with the deaths is that the bodies don’t deteriorate due to the weather, and it is nearly impossible to get a dead body down. Some bodies have actually become landmarks for guides leading tourist climbers up the passes. So, who is Green Boots, and what does he signify? What shut down the mountain in 2015? How many have made up to the top of Mt. Everest? How many have died? How much does it cost for a modern climber to make the ascent? Listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Everest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Boots https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20151008-the-graveyard-in-the-clouds-everests-200-dead-bodies https://www.aworldtotravel.com/mount-everest-facts/ https://www.tripsavvy.com/little-known-facts-about-mt-everest-4136176 https://www.themanual.com/outdoors/climbing-mount-everest-cost/

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the one man legend, Andre the Giant. In wrestling, he was one of the greatest of all time. In film, he knocked it out of the park in The Princess Bride (and secretly starred as Dagoth the demon with Arnold Schwarzenegger and the epic Bigfoot in the Six Million Dollar Man). He was a kind hearted, loving giant coming in at seven foot four inches and well over 500 pounds. He could also drink! Story after story from his WWF colleagues confirm that he could drink well over 100 beers in single sittings and needed to have six full bottle of wine before a match. He battled it out in an epic feud with Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania III, and his gigantism condition (known as Acromegaly) took its toll on his back and knees. It also made it impossible to live daily life and do things such as ride in a car, take an airplane, or buy clothes. Andre the Giant's personality was as large as his frame, so whether you like 80s nostalgia, classic wrestling, or…well…giants, this episode is the one for you! Visit Our Sources: https://www.biography.com/athlete/andre-the-giant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_the_Giant https://www.thisdrinkinglife.com/andre-the-giant/ https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/andre-the-giant/ https://www.foxsports.com/wwe/gallery/best-andre-the-giant-drinking-stories-072516 https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/501418/10-larger-life-facts-about-andre-giant

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk about one of the biggest war crimes in modern history, the Armenian Genocide. Through a systematic effort, the Ottoman Empire ruled by the Young Turks killed upwards of 1.5 million Armenian Christians through murder, forced marches, hunger, and disease. This was during World War One, and the empire thought Armenia (part of their empire) was going to side with Russia while everyone else sided with Germany. The state rounded up the men first and killed them village by village. The Turks then sent the women on death marches into the Syrian desert that lasted weeks or months. They were raped, beaten, and often had to watch their family and children be murdered. Tens of thousands were forced to live with new men (some willingly, sometimes the murderer of their family) and turn to Islam and have children. Those were the lucky ones, if such a thing can said to exist. So what brought this Armenian Genocide on? How many survived? Who were members of a Butcher Brigade? When did the US Government finally recognize this genocide? Listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-armenian-genocide-1915-16-overview https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/ref/timestopics/topics_armeniangenocide.html https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/armenian-genocide https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/video/introducing-armenian-genocide http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/armenian_genocide.php https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/24/statement-by-president-joe-biden-on-armenian-remembrance-day/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Nemesis

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we hit you with some def tracks and rap about the Beastie Boys. The core trio of Mike D, MCA, and Ad-Rock were a key ingredient to any party in the 80s. Then, they had a misstep with Paul’s Boutique and rebounded with a series of records that defined the sound track of the 90s. While they came to detest some of their earliest work (and their image as party bros), they evolved into some of the most talented musicians and hip hop artists of a generation. From License to Ill to Check Your Head and Ill Communication, their albums were a mix of styles, influences, samples, and instrumentals the likes of which nobody has done before or sense. In fact, some of their music almost sounds cliché since so many people stole their innovative style afterwards. Sadly, Adam Yauch (aka MCA) died in 2012, and the band agreed to never perform again. But they remain as popular as ever with a recent book release and a documentary directed by Spike Jonze. Their story is one of highs and lows. Through it, you see a group of best friends evolve into the musicians the world asked them to be. Don’t be a sucka MC. Give this one a listen.   Visit Our Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beastie_Boys Beastie Boys Story: Apple TV