Episode 516: Red, Red Whine episode artwork

EPISODE · Jan 12, 2026 · 34 MIN

Episode 516: Red, Red Whine

from What the HELL Were You Thinking? · host Dave Bledsoe

Episode 516: Red, Red Whine This week Host Dave Bledsoe woke up brutally hungover behind a trash dumpster in the Tacony neighborhood of Philadelphia meaning a whole New Year has started.  (It’s tradition) On the show this week, we end our hiatus without actually going on hiatus. (Turns out Dave was just sad) We start our generational pivot with the first leg of the tripod that holds up the Baby Boomers, the Red Scare!  Along the way we discover that Dave isn’t a communist (Turns out their parties are not his kind of parties) then we dive right into the history of international Communism with its bearded Daddy, Karl Marx. We breeze past the first Red Scare and honestly most of the second one, focusing on the major players.  (Oddly, mostly Republicans) We talked about why they were looking for a communist under their beds (because they didn’t like Jews) and why they had to persecute anyone who might be a communist.  (Again, they don’t like the Jews).  Then we take a quick look at the impact of the Red Scare on American society and how it formed the Boomer generation. (It is why so many of them don’t like the Jews) Our sponsor this week is Your Local Communist Party, there are six of us, how scary can we be? We open with a 50s newsreel about international Communism and close with Kuerdas who prefer reds. Show Theme: Hypnostate Prelude to Common Sense The Show on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/whatthehellpodcast.bsky.social The Show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whatthehellpodcast/ The Show on Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjxP5ywpZ-O7qu_MFkLXQUQ The Show on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatthehellwereyouthinkingpod/ Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/kHmmrjptrq Our Website: https://www.whatthehellpodcast.com Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/Whatthehellpodcast The Show Line: 347 687 9601 Closing Music: https://youtu.be/K3eobcILO3Q?si=_9vnBoQtYy5gvSjA Buy Our Stuff: https://www.seltzerkings.com/shop Citations Needed: Britannica: Karl Marx https://www.britannica.com/biography/Karl-Marx Wikipedia: The Communist Manifesto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communist_Manifesto “Enemies from Within”: Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s Accusations of Disloyalty https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6456 Anti-Communism in the 1950s https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/anti-communism-1950s Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Episode 516: Red, Red Whine

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