Criminal Records Podcas‪t‬ Demetria Spinrad and Isaac Meyer

Our first episode about South America gives us a very different perspective on the American fight against Communism. Was promoting America's interests in the Cold War really worth propping up a brutal dictatorship? And why did the international attempt to bring Pinochet to justice involve British Law Lords, a fake case of dementia, and a law that gave Spain carte blanche to prosecute all crimes against humanity... except for the ones that happened in Spain?
Content note: This episode includes a discussion of what Pinochet's regime did to dissenters and suspected leftists. This included torture, sexual assault, and mass murder. The facts of these cases may be disturbing. Please be aware that there are detailed victims' testimonies about these events in the source links.
Show notes and sources at this link

Get your flags and your bibles, we’re hunting Communists. The Red Menace could be lurking anywhere: in your unions, in your movies, maybe even in the very halls of Congress.
Show notes, sources, and patriotic films and sources at this link

Take a tour around the swamp with America's favorite rascal. Florida Man's always making headlines for punching alligators, stealing meat, and fighting cops in the buff. But does Florida really deserve its reputation as the weirdest state in the union? And is our nation's most beloved rapscallion the villain of our story, or is he the victim of a legal system that accidentally created a media monster?
Show notes, sources, and speeches from some of Florida's best humorists at this link

Meet the man who used his artistic talents to resist Nazi occupation, then planned an elaborate scheme to destroy a public records building by posing as a German official. In the occupied Netherlands, a group of artists fought the law with typography and tailoring. Why did Willem Arondeus go from a little-known WII resistance fighter to a hit with Tumblr teens, and what can his story teach us about resisting fascism today?
Show notes and sources at this link

Was Mao Zedong's fourth wife one of history's deadliest criminals, or was she a scapegoat for a country that needed to preserve the image of its founding father? The answer is complicated, tragic, and involves a surprising amount of high-stakes theater criticism.
Show notes, sources, and sacred mangoes at this link

China’s last emperor ended up becoming one of history’s strangest political pawns, and ended his life as an avowed communist. How did a man born into unbelievable wealth end up penning a memoir about the evils of the landlord class? And was his disavowal of his privileged upbringing genuine, or was he the victim of a justice system that perfected the art of brainwashing prisoners?
Show notes and sources here