Consolation Prize

After two seasons, we have a lot to reflect on! We wanted you to hear the voices of the team, who have been working mostly behind the scenes for the past two seasons, and hear about their experiences working on Consolation Prize. Here, we have the honor to transmit to you our final report on our show about consuls. Show notes available at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.

In our final episode of Consolation Prize, we return to 1844 Hawai'i, where we look at another case involving vice consul William Hooper. In his efforts to gain power for the United States, Hooper may have made the lives of actual Americans more difficult. Hear how Hooper got involved in a legal case about a sexual assault, to the detriment of the accused, but to the ultimate benefit of the United States. This episode was produced by Abby Mullen and Kris Stinson. Show notes available at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.

In this episode of Consolation Prize, we meet two Americans in 1860s Thailand. Reverend Dan Beach Bradley was a Christian missionary and a newspaper publisher, and Captain James Madison Hood was the US consul to the Kingdom of Siam. These two men could not be more different from one another, but they both craved power in their own ways. In their quest for political power and moral superiority, they got involved in an international diplomatic kerfuffle of epic proportions in the Kingdom of Siam. This episode was produced by Abby Mullen, Deepthi Murali, and Kris Stinson. Shownotes available at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.

In this mini episode of Consolation Prize, we complete our tour of the world by going to the last continent where the United States had consuls: Australia. Alexander George Webster was a consul in Hobart, a port city on the island of Tasmania, but he also served on the Tasmanian Fisheries Commission, a group that was very concerned with making sure that Tasmanian rivers were stocked full of fish. In this episode, we see how Webster used his position as consul to move salmon halfway around the world, from the rivers of California to the rivers of Tasmania. This episode was produced by Abby Mullen and Kris Stinson. Show notes available at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.

In this episode of Consolation Prize, we investigate the role of consuls in dealing with wartime disasters and the toll they took on them. Consul Wesley Frost was stationed in Queenstown, Ireland during the early years of World War I. As part of his responsibilities, Frost assisted survivors from more than 80 German submarine attacks including the SS Lusitania, which at the time resulted in the greatest loss of civilian lives. Frost’s response to these attacks helped establish the processes the United States Department of State still uses today in crises involving civilians. Consolation Prize is hosted by Abby Mullen. This episode was produced by Jeanette Patrick. Show notes, including full transcript, available at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.