Episodes
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37: The Flamingo Revolution Is Still Happening, Here’s What We Can Learn
Albania is in the middle of its largest civil uprising since the fall of communism — and it started with flamingos. In this episode, we trace the “Flamingo Revolution” from a Trump-Kushner-backed luxury resort planned for a protected wetland and a Cold War-era island, all the way back through…
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36: Should Homeschooling in America be Illegal?
The LaBrant Family went viral this week for talking about their homeschooling routine. A lot of people have opinions on this topic — including me, a former educator who went to grad school for a masters in none other than Education. So today we’re going to go through why Germany banned...
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35) French Revolution Explained: Wealth Inequality Then vs. Now
With Bastille Day coming up, it was only right to do an episode on the French Revolution.In 1789, 96% of France was legally locked out of power while a tiny, tax-exempt elite lived off wealth built partly on the backs of enslaved workers thousands of miles away in the French colony of...
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34: From Jazz & Tap Dance to Politics & Gangs - the Development of Five Points, New York
What if one neighborhood held the entire origin story of American corruption, immigration, labor rights, and music? This week, we’re talking about Five Points — the most infamous neighborhood in 19th-century New York City, and arguably the most consequential few acres in American history. We…
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33: Is now the time to bring Victory Gardens back?
We’ve done it before. Multiple times. During World War II, everyday people — with no farming background, no land grants, no government subsidies — grew 40% of all the fresh vegetables eaten in the United States. They did it in backyards, on rooftops, in window boxes, in vacant lots. They did it...
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32: The Outlaws of Propaganda - Annie Oakley & Sitting Bull
In 1884, a Hunkpapa Lakota chief who had defeated the United States Army sat in a Minnesota audience and watched a five-foot-tall Ohio woman shoot a playing card out of the air from thirty feet away. He sent sixty-five dollars to her hotel room just to have his photograph taken with her. When…
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31: The Fall That Built the Renaissance
In 1453, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II breached the walls of Constantinople and ended the Eastern Roman Empire after 1,123 years. But the story that gets skipped in most history classes is what happened next — and what had been quietly happening for decades before. Byzantine scholars, philosophers…
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30: The Bonus Army: When America Turned Tanks on Its Own Veterans
In the summer of 1932, over 43,000 World War I veterans and their families descended on Washington, D.C., demanding early payment of service bonuses they’d been promised — and were met with tear gas, bayonets, and burning camps ordered by their own government. The Bonus Army encampment didn’t end...
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29: The Lady Hell Cats: How Women Fought Their Way Into the U.S. Military
From a Revolutionary War soldier forced to fight disguised as a man, to the first woman Marine in 1918, to modern combat veterans and political “Hell Cats” running for office, this episode explores how women challenged the status quo—and how those quiet rebellions still shape U.S. military…
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28: Lessons on Effective Organizing from Huey P. Newton & the Black Panthers
It’s Aquarius season, and there’s no better way to celebrate than highlighting an incredible air sign, Huey P. Newton. Considering current events, it’s important more than ever to explore and refresh the strategy of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense — from Huey P. Newton’s intellectual…
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27: When Truth Becomes the Crime: John Peter Zenger, Government Secrecy, and the Politics of Redaction
In 1735, a New York printer was jailed for publishing the truth. John Peter Zenger’s trial is often reduced to a footnote in American history, but it was a direct confrontation with a question that still haunts modern democracy: Who decides what the public is allowed to know? So we revisit the...
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26: How Oregon Became a KKK Haven
We’ve talked on other episodes about having found hoods & robes in moving trucks that past roommates and I have rented. Now, we are digging deeper into why that would happen in a “liberal” state out West. Oregon likes to brand itself as progressive, green, and forward-thinking—but its past tells…
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25: The Native Warrior Who Fought the US Government & Won the Hearts of the Rodeo World
BONUS EPISODE FOR THANKSGIVING TRAVELS BABYYY! Of course it’s about Indigenous History, what else did you think I’d do it over? 💅🏼 In this episode of Ripples of Rebels, we dive into the extraordinary life of Jackson Sundown, the legendary Nez Perce horseman whose talent, defiance, and cultural...
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24: The Veterans That Made the Pride Flag
This episode of Ripples of Rebels examines the intersecting histories of Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States, and Gilbert Baker, the artist and activist who created the modern Rainbow Pride Flag. Their lives—shaped by military service, state…
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23: How Public Education Fought The Devil
Before America was even a nation, a small wooden classroom in Boston ignited a revolution — not of muskets, but of minds. In this episode of Ripples of Rebels, we trace the story of public education in the United States from its roots in Boston Latin School (1635) to the modern-day attacks on...
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22: Torture in the Name of thy Lord; The Extremist Take-Over of Münster
In 1534, a group of radical believers seized control of the German city of Münster—declaring it the New Jerusalem and promising paradise on earth. What followed was a nightmare of prophecy, starvation, and power gone mad. Like Mad King type of mad. Ripples of Rebels is a reader-supported...
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21: How Slavic People Became Literate Against the Catholic Church's Wishes
In the shadow of the Byzantine Empire’s glittering power, a quiet revolution was unfolding in the Balkans. At its heart was Saint Naum of Ohrid — a scholar, healer, and monk whose life helped ignite the literacy and spiritual awakening of the Slavic world. Ripples of Rebels is a reader-supported...
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20: The Origins of Bella Ciao, & The "Culture War" between "Groypers" and the "New Right"
What does a song born in the rice paddies of northern Italy that brought down Mussolini have to do with political extremism in the United States? In this episode, we follow the journey of Bella Ciao — its origins among the mondine, its rise with WWII partisans fighting fascism, and its continued...
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Bonus: "Changing Palestine" from National Geographic, April 1934, Part 1
You all asked, and I am attempting to deliver us from evil. The evil that is misinformation and Zionist propaganda about the colonization of Palestine. The snippets I read online that upset a lot of Zionists, were all covered in this first part of the episode— there is still about 10 pages left…
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19: 🇵🇱 Shadows of Defiance in The Polish Resistance
Warsaw, 1944. An eight-year-old girl named Róża Maria Goździewska stands in a makeshift hospital cellar, a Red Cross armband sliding down her thin arm. Around her lie wounded fighters of the Warsaw Uprising. She carries water, wipes foreheads, whispers encouragement. She is remembered now as the...
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18: The Butcher of Bosnia Still Lives
Yugoslavia didn’t just fall apart overnight—it was torn apart by rising nationalism, propaganda, and calculated violence. In this Ripples of Rebels episode, we look at the unraveling of a country once held together by diversity, and how that collapse led to the Bosnian Wars, the siege of…
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17: The Bloody History Behind America's Robber Barons, & the current threat to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Meet the titans who shaped America’s wealth—and crushed its workers. This episode of Ripples of Rebels dives into the dark legacies of Robber Barons John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan. From labor exploitation and violent union crackdowns to monopolies that stifled competition…
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16: The Little Rock Nine, Posse Comitatus Act, & The Undoing of Brown v Board of Education
They walked into history with books in hand and bravery in their bones. In 1957, nine Black teenagers—known today as the Little Rock Nine—stepped into Little Rock Central High School and the heart of a national crisis. This episode unpacks their story: a showdown between federal power and state...
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15: The Teen Girls Who Killed Nazis
What does resistance really look like? This is the true story of teenage girls who joined the Dutch Resistance during WWII and used strategy, seduction, and sabotage to fight fascism—risking everything to save lives and destroy oppression from the inside out. You’ll meet: • Freddie Oversteegen –…
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14: Nelson Mandela, Elon Musk, and The "White Genocide Refugees" coming to America
Learn how apartheid came to define South Africa, the origins of white supremacy and land dispossession through laws like the 1913 Native Land Act, and the role of major resistance movements like the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the tragic Sharpeville Massacre. Additionally, we dig into how Elon…
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13: Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and the fight for Boardman, Oregon
Picture a boy no older than ten, bent over in the rows of a lettuce field in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The sun hasn’t yet crested the horizon, but César Chávez is already at work—hands blistered, his small frame weighed down by a burlap sack filled with crops he’ll never afford to eat. The...
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12: The Legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt
As First Lady, humanitarian, and civil rights advocate, Eleanor redefined the role of women in American politics and society. We explore her progressive yet controversial positions, her influence on President Franklin D. Roosevelt despite his infidelities, and her lifelong commitment to justice…
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11: Stolen Daughters of Ireland and North America
Today we confront the haunting legacies of the Magdalene Laundries of the Catholic Church and their chilling influence on the Native American boarding school system, the Sixties Scoop, and the U.S. child welfare and adoption industries. With raw survivor testimony, historical records, and…
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10: Yes, the U.S. hired Nazi Scientists That Helped Build Rural Communities
After WWII, hundreds of Nazi scientists weren’t punished—they were welcomed into the United States under Operation Paperclip. Nazi researchers like Wernher von Braun helped build America’s rocket programs, company towns, and even shaped the founding of government agencies like NASA. We dive deep...
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9: The Anarchist Nun Up For Sainthood, And The Sisters She Inspired
Who would have thought an anarchist & activist could be up for Sainthood? In this episode we explore the incredible life of Pacifist Nun Dorthy Day, how she’s challenged norms in life & in the path to Sainthood, and learn about the other women she has inspired to keep fighting the good fight....
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8: Paperboys vs. Press Barons
Today we dive into the cobblestone streets of 1899 New York City, where a ragtag army of working-class kids—many orphaned, homeless, and dirt poor—took on two of the most powerful men in American media: Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. These “Newsies,” armed with nothing but...
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7: The Messiest Economic Drama in U.S. History; Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930
Today we dive into one of the most infamous pieces of economic legislation in American history: the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. Backed by Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis Hawley, this law was intended to protect American jobs and industries during the early days of the Great...
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6: The Pack Horse Librarians
In the depths of the Great Depression, a group of fearless women rode on horseback across the rugged Appalachian Mountains, delivering books to families who had never owned one before. Among them was Rose Farmer Thomas, a dedicated librarian who braved treacherous terrain and deep-seated…
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5: How The Triple Nickles Saved the PNW and A Former Federal Employee Confronting Elon Musk
Before you come for the spellings of Nickle— the 555th were named after the “Buffalo Nickle”, which isn’t ever spelt how we spell the metal or currency nickel. However I used both for SEO reasons ;)For more information on the Triple Nickles, you can visit museums in Pendleton, Oregon, where they...
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4: How Teaching a Country to Read Embarrassed the CIA
What would you do if a company took over your town or country, while defended by one of the most powerful countries in the world? Would you fall in line, even when the wages were barely above slave wages? Would you watch in silence as police forces rounded up your neighbors and executed them just...
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3: The Pale of Settlement
Thank you to everyone who has subscribed and/or pledged so far! I really appreciate it. You might’ve heard something called the “Pale of Settlement” referenced in current events more recently— I know I have. So in this episode we travel through time, starting in biblical times, leading to present...
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2: How Public Lands Pulled Us Out of the Great Depression
What did America look like before the creation of public lands & federal agencies? Learn about how they helped pull us out of the Great Depression, and how much the contribute to our economy today on Episode 2 of Ripples of Rebels. Learn more about public land creation’s impacts on indigenous...
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1: Sweatshop Cinderella & The Fight For Labor Rights
Most people know the classic Cinderella story—rags to riches, a fairy-tale ending. But what if Cinderella wasn’t rescued by a prince? What if she picked up a pen, and joined the revolution?Join as we dive into the untold story of a woman who refused to stay silent. Have questions or suggestions?...