Episode 15: Who is Harvey Milk - Part 1

Episode 15: Who is Harvey Milk - Part 1

A lot of people know the headline version of Harvey Milk: openly gay politician, San Francisco, assassination. We wanted to start somewhere messier and more human, back when he’s just a kid in Woodmere, New York trying to understand why he feels different, why opera feels like home, and why the adults around him talk about “homosexuals” like a warning label. That early shame and confusion is not just biography, it’s a map of what the 1940s and 1950s demanded of queer people who wanted to stay safe. From college to the Korean War era US Navy, we talk about how Milk rises through the ranks while still finding gay community near the base, and how quickly that world can turn into risk, discharge, and long term consequences. We end Part 1 with his first serious relationship, the tenderness of their domestic routines, the reality of closeted life around family, and the flash points that show his temper and politics before the Harvey Milk most people recognize. Subscribe for Part 2, and if this hit you, share it with a friend and leave a review so more people can find the story. Follow us on Social Media Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thatssomac_podcast/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61586497411795#] Want Our Resources:  Resource Library [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ra9JVm_NfKnhMWMwhmwiwHxOnp0uA2Gs?usp=drive_link]

Episode 14: Military Gays - Part 2

The U.S. military has asked queer people to serve for generations, and then punished them for existing. We pull that thread from World War II forward, starting with the horrifying reality of “queer stockades,” where service members are interrogated about their sex lives, coerced into naming names, and subjected to humiliation, isolation, and outright abuse. It’s history that makes your stomach turn, and it explains a lot about why silence felt safer than honesty for so long. Then we hit Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the political compromise that still cost careers and lives, including the murders of Alan Schindler and Barry Winchell. We end with repeal, visible firsts, the slow restoration of benefits, and why staying vigilant matters when today’s leaders talk about rolling back “woke military” policies.  Subscribe, share this with someone who needs the timeline, and leave a review telling us what part of this history you wish everyone knew. Follow us on Social Media Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thatssomac_podcast/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61586497411795#] Want Our Resources:  Resource Library [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ra9JVm_NfKnhMWMwhmwiwHxOnp0uA2Gs?usp=drive_link]

Episode 13: Gays In The Military - Part 1

They paid sailors to entrap gay men, called it “investigation”, and spent a million dollars doing it. That is not a metaphor, it is US Navy history, and it sits right in the middle of a much longer story about how queer people have always served while the rules keep changing around them. We start with the language shift that changes everything: early American law mostly targets sex acts under “sodomy” and “buggery”, but the 1800s and early 1900s bring a new framework where medicine, psychiatry, and sexology try to define “homosexuality” itself. We talk through the rise of terms like homosexual and homosexuality, the impact of researchers like Magnus Hirschfeld, and why the Nazi destruction of sex research still echoes today when information gets removed, buried, or “goes missing” from public record. Subscribe, share this with a friend who likes real history, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What part of this timeline surprised you most? Follow us on Social Media Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thatssomac_podcast/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61586497411795#] Want Our Resources:  Resource Library [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ra9JVm_NfKnhMWMwhmwiwHxOnp0uA2Gs?usp=drive_link]

Episode 12: How A Teenage King Reshaped The Baltic World - Sweden: Part 2

A teenage king. A pile-on alliance. A war that drags on for 21 years and quietly rewrites Europe. We’re breaking down the Great Northern War in a way that actually sticks, from the Anti-Swedish Coalition’s opening gambit to the final treaty that ends Sweden’s era as a Baltic Empire. If you like military history, European history, and the kind of storytelling that makes treaties and battles feel human, follow along with us. Subscribe, share this with your favorite history friend, and leave a review with your hottest take: was Sweden doomed after Poltava, or did it lose earlier? Follow us on Social Media Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thatssomac_podcast/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61586497411795#] Want Our Resources:  Resource Library [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ra9JVm_NfKnhMWMwhmwiwHxOnp0uA2Gs?usp=drive_link]

Episode 11: The King, The Cows, and the Scandinavian Joke - Sweden: Part 1

We’re eating donuts, laughing at a viral clip about Charles XII, and then we fall into the rabbit hole: how a northern kingdom turns itself into a Baltic Sea superpower by stacking ports, treaties, and absolutely furious neighbors. We trace the early chaos through the Kalmar Union and Queen Margaret I’s not-so-behind-the-scenes rule, then jump to Gustav Vasa, the Stockholm Bloodbath, and the moment Sweden hardens into a more modern state with a standing army and a hereditary crown. From there, the map gets messy fast: Russia’s Time of Troubles, the Ingrian War, and treaty terms that make Sweden richer and everyone else louder. Yes, we also stop to translate rubles into cows, sturgeon, and fur coats, because early-modern economics is unhinged. If you like chaotic royal history, Baltic Sea politics, and the Great Northern War setup told with jokes and real stakes, hit play. Subscribe so you don’t miss part two, share this with a history-loving friend, and leave us a review with your hottest Sweden take. Follow us on Social Media Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thatssomac_podcast/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61586497411795#] Want Our Resources:  Resource Library [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ra9JVm_NfKnhMWMwhmwiwHxOnp0uA2Gs?usp=drive_link]