The Six-Foot-Six Orphan Who Fought Ten Battles for a Country That Wasn't Yet His with Admiral John Palmer

The Six-Foot-Six Orphan Who Fought Ten Battles for a Country That Wasn't Yet His with Admiral John Palmer

At four years old, a boy was dropped on the docks at City Point, Virginia, unable to speak a word of English except his own name. He'd been taken from his family on an island near Portugal, abused at sea by superstitious sailors looking for someone to blame for a storm, and abandoned with nothing but the clothes on his back. That boy grew to six foot six and 260 pounds, and became one of the most fearsome soldiers of the American Revolution. John Howell talks with retired Admiral John T. Palmer about his new book, George Washington's One Man Army: The Life, Legend, and Battles of Peter Francisco. Palmer traces how an indentured blacksmith's apprentice — inspired after eavesdropping on Patrick Henry's "give me liberty" speech — fought in ten major engagements, took six wounds, and by most accounts personally dispatched more than twenty enemy soldiers with a bayonet and a six-foot broadsword commissioned for him by Washington himself. They cover his single-handed defeat of nine of Banastre Tarleton's dragoons, the half-ton cannon he reportedly carried off the battlefield at Camden, being left for dead in a pile of corpses after Guilford Courthouse, and how he later ran into a burning Richmond theater and pulled out more than thirty people — then asked that his name be left out of the papers. Palmer also digs into why a soldier Washington personally credited with saving "perhaps the war" vanished from popular memory, what Francisco's story says about the man behind the myth, and how the book's structure moves between the generals' strategy and the up-close reality of one soldier's fight. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

How Archaeologists Outwitted the Nazis and Saved Ancient Greece with Stephan Talty

Hitler didn't just want to conquer Greece. He wanted to own it — convinced the ancient Greeks were proto-Germans whose civilization gave the Third Reich its rightful heritage. When the Wehrmacht occupied Athens in 1941, the Nazis arrived believing they were home. That belief bought just enough time for a small group of scholars and spies to pull off one of the war's most audacious cultural rescue operations. New York Times bestselling author Stephan Talty joins Big John Howell to discuss his new book The American School of Spies — the true story of how American archaeologists were recruited by Wild Bill Donovan, how a man named Rodney Young bled on the Albanian front before running Greece's wartime spy network, and how a single conscience-stricken German helped save Athens from deliberate destruction. Plus: the spy codenamed Cicero, the D-Day deception that hinged on a fake bride and a train out of Turkey, and why both Athens and Paris came within a few weeks of being rubble. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Dave Norman on Jerry Hey and the L.A. Studio Sound

John Howell sits down with trumpeter and educator Dave C. Norman for an inside look at the life and legacy of legendary L.A. studio player and arranger Jerry Hey. From Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall to Earth, Wind & Fire and Quincy Jones, Hey’s horn section defined a generation of pop and R&B. It’s a deep dive into the artistry, discipline, and unmistakable sound of the players who made brass shine like lasers. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Dave Norman on Chops, Sound, and the Art of Making Music

John Howell sits down with trumpet virtuoso and educator Dave C. Norman to unpack chops vs. musicianship, studio politics, and the “Quiet Trumpet” philosophy. They dig into range the right way (resistance, slotting, breath attacks), why soft, lyrical control beats higher-faster-louder, and how classical fundamentals pay off everywhere. Plus: mic technique from the Jerry Hey school, lessons from Doc and Maynard, and Dave’s upcoming book and 700+ tutorials. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Colby Hall Unpacks Trump’s Alaska Fumble—and the MAGA Media Meltdown

Mediaite’s Colby Hall joins John Howell to unpack the optics, fallout, and media spin from Donald Trump’s bizarre Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin. From red carpet applause to a rambling press conference, Hall explains how Trump’s attempt at statesmanship backfired—and why even some MAGA loyalists are starting to balk. It’s a sharp, funny, and sobering look at foreign policy as performance. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.