# Are You Listening to Maddow's podcast Ultra? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** radio-podcast\ **Created:** [October 25, 2022, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-listening-to-maddows-podcast-ultra/973788 "2022-10-25T22:07:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-listening-to-maddows-podcast-ultra/973788/1 "2022-10-25T22:07:30Z")
It is four parts. I just listened to part one today. What do you think? More to the point, what resources can I find to back up her story? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-listening-to-maddows-podcast-ultra/973788/2 "2022-10-25T22:44:02Z")
[Moderating] I think this might have been intended for a different thread, or for a private message? As-is, it doesn’t seem to make much sense: Maddow surely has a lot more than four podcast-parts in total, and what story are you looking for backup on? If there’s more here that you want to add, let me know. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-listening-to-maddows-podcast-ultra/973788/3 "2022-10-25T22:44:08Z")
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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-listening-to-maddows-podcast-ultra/973788/4 "2022-10-26T21:06:51Z")
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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-listening-to-maddows-podcast-ultra/973788/5 "2022-10-26T21:10:05Z")
My apologies; I hadn’t realized that “Ultra” was the name of her current podcast, which led me to misparse the OP: I thought that it was a question addressed to Ultra (UltraVires? Though I haven’t seen him around much lately), and without knowing that it was about a specific series, the question seemed impossibly vague. A couple of other posters explained the situation to me, so we’re fine. Though one might still ask which specific details you want backup for. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-listening-to-maddows-podcast-ultra/973788/6 "2022-10-26T21:20:03Z")
I’ve listened to the first two episodes so far. I found it to be interesting, and details things I wasn’t aware of, though I knew about, generally, the America First movement prior to the U.S.'s entry into WWII. As far as Ernest Lundeen, the senator from Minnesota who was the focus of the first episode, it’s pretty easy to find similar, corroborating information online. As Maddow says in the podcast, the cause of the plane crash was apparently never definitively determined. Here’s an article about Lundeen, and the plane crash; it also does corroborate that there were FBI personnel on the plane. > **[Death of senator from Minnesota still shrouded in mystery | MinnPost](https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2009/09/death-senator-minnesota-still-shrouded-mystery/)** > > LOVETTSVILLE, VA. — Paul Wellstone wasn't the first U.S. senator from Minnesota to die in a plane crash. U.S. Sen. Ernest P. Lundeen died 69 years ago this week in a crash that remains shrouded in mystery. Here’s a 2010 opinion piece from a Minnesota newspaper: a cautionary tale about Lundeen, which also mentions Lundeen’s secretary, who quoted Lundeen as saying he’d “gone too far,” immediately prior to the crash (Maddow provided similar quotes): > **[Column: Ernest Lundeen, and a conspiracy theory](https://www.dglobe.com/opinion/column-ernest-lundeen-and-a-conspiracy-theory)** > > WORTHINGTON -- Kathleen Parker, who writes a syndicated column which appears on this page, is attractive, pert, witty and (you many not believe) 59 years old. Parker and New York's former governor Elliot Spitzer, renowned for his nights spent wit... Here’s an archived 1942 article from Time Magazine, about the Nazi propagandist who had been working with Lundeen, as well as with another Congressman, Hamilton Fish of New York: > **[The Memory of Fish](https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,773070,00.html)** > > Ham Fish's memory went dead. The gangling, trumpet-tongued Congressman > was on the witness stand in Washington, called there to explain his relations > with George Sylvester Viereck, veteran Nazi... And, this link has photographs of the pro-Germany speech which Lundeen had with him when his plane crashed: [https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23127861-lundeen-germany-speech\_sm](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23127861-lundeen-germany-speech_sm) ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-listening-to-maddows-podcast-ultra/973788/7 "2022-10-26T22:07:53Z")
Her podcasts have been excellent. So much changes, so much stays the same. This century is echoing the last. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2022, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-listening-to-maddows-podcast-ultra/973788/8 "2022-10-27T21:02:43Z")
I’ve heard her give short descriptions of the topics. Frankly, those descriptions give me the willies considering the current political situation. I’m afraid the podcast would give me nightmares. I really like how she maps things out though, so I’m going to try and put on my big chick drawers and listen to her. 🫣 ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2022, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-listening-to-maddows-podcast-ultra/973788/9 "2022-10-27T21:12:57Z")
And it echoes Karl Marx’s pamphlet, The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte: “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2022, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-listening-to-maddows-podcast-ultra/973788/10 "2022-10-27T21:21:23Z")
Amazon has no biography of Senator Lundeen. Probably none was ever published. I have not looked for the CAA accident report. What easily-accessible documents provide further background to the story told in this podcast? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2022, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-listening-to-maddows-podcast-ultra/973788/11 "2022-10-27T23:12:22Z")
Each episode has archival materials up on the podcast website at MSNBC. > **[Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra, Episode 1](https://www.nbcnews.com/msnbc/msnbc-podcast/rachel-maddow-presents-ultra-episode-1-ncsl1299321)** ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2022, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-listening-to-maddows-podcast-ultra/973788/12 "2022-10-27T23:54:54Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Each episode has archival materials up on the podcast website at MSNBC. Thank you. Yes, I know. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2022, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-listening-to-maddows-podcast-ultra/973788/13 "2022-10-28T04:02:38Z")
This is Lundeen’s biographical page on the Minnesota Legislature website. Not a lot of information there, though it notes (and there’s a link to a short article about it at the bottom of the page) that he ran for either state or federal office _sixteen_ times, losing in ten of those elections. > **[Lundeen, Ernest - Legislator Record - Minnesota Legislators Past & Present](https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/fulldetail?id=13717)** > > This database from the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library contains brief biographical information about Minnesota legislators since territorial times. It also contains data related to each term for the most recent ninety years, including party... ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2022, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-listening-to-maddows-podcast-ultra/973788/14 "2022-10-29T18:20:07Z")
I look forward to each segment. Will be interesting to see where she takes this. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2022, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-listening-to-maddows-podcast-ultra/973788/15 "2022-10-29T18:33:56Z")
Here’s an article in _Slate_ about Father Charles Coughlin, the Roman Catholic priest in suburban Detroit who’s extensively mentioned in episode 2 of “Ultra.” His 1930s radio program was originally rather progressive, but it became increasingly extremist and anti-Semitic as Coughlin’s anti-Communist sentiments evolved into pro-fascism, until the show was finally forced off the air. [https://slate.com/technology/2021/01/father-coughlin-deplatforming-radio-social-media.html](https://slate.com/technology/2021/01/father-coughlin-deplatforming-radio-social-media.html) When I listened to that episode, I wondered to myself about how a Catholic priest was able to get away with that level of public hatred for so long, without censure from the church hierarchy. The [Wikipedia article on Coughlin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coughlin#Backlash) says this: > [@](#): > > While members of the Catholic hierarchy did not approve of Coughlin, only Coughlin’s superior—Bishop Michael Gallagher of Detroit—had the canonical authority to curb him, and Gallagher supported the “Radio Priest”. Owing to Gallagher’s autonomy and the prospect of the Coughlin problem leading to a schism, the Roman Catholic leadership took no action.