American Seances

This piece connects Smedley Butler’s blunt “War is a racket” callout to today’s messy choice: easing oil sanctions to calm fuel prices or keeping the economic pressure on Russia. It’s a quick look at who really wins...

This episode walks you through why oil is never just oil: it’s cash, clout, and negotiation power. We channel John D. Rockefeller to make sense of Trump’s diesel deal with Russia, Zelensky’s alarms, and how energy...

Episode five of Flock takes you through the surprisingly rich history of the U.S. Post Office, from Ben Franklin and the Constitution to the 1878 Ex Parte Jackson decision that said a sealed letter stays private even...

We went back to Madison and the founders to figure out what happens when the government can record everywhere you go just because it can. This is about more than finding a stolen car; it’s about whether collecting...

Curious about the thinker who wanted to keep your house but tax the dirt beneath it? This episode unpacks Henry George's simple, bold question—why does progress bring more poverty?—and his famous 'single tax' answer...

This episode pulls a wild thread from early America: Thomas Skidmore in 1829 actually proposed wiping out the existing property map and giving every adult an equal share. It’s one of those stories that makes you realize...

Imagine we dragged Marx into the 21st century and showed him the “cloud”—not fluffy skies but huge, noisy data centers humming with servers, pipes, and power lines. He’d smile: AI isn’t weightless magic, it’s heavy...

We’ve been quiet for a minute, but we’re back with a two-part deep dive that drags Karl Marx into the AI conversation. We’ll ask the big questions: sure, AI can write your email and code your script, but who benefits...

Picture agents breaking into your home and reading every scrap of paper for hours: that happened to John Entick in 1762. He sued, won, and a judge insisted the government can’t do useful things just because they’re...

Think of this as the 18th-century origin story for modern surveillance—except with more drinking, scandal, and a pamphlet called No. 45. John Wilkes took on the government’s power to 'just go find whoever wrote it,' and...

We want to take you on a quick thread about flock cameras, surveillance, and why a guy from 1761 (James Otis) still matters. These cameras don’t kick in your door, but they do let investigators look back in time — and...

We're diving into a wild bit of history: Britain’s stubborn push to collect a tiny tea duty and Edmund Burke’s plea to stop burning bridges (and empires) over a principle. It’s a sharp, friendly reminder that money on a...

We dig into how Britain’s massive war debt after the Seven Years’ War pushed George Grenville to impose the Sugar and Stamp Acts—and how that financial squeeze turned into a constitutional fight that helped spark the...

Imagine borrowing a mountain of money to win a global war and then showing up with Canada and a huge bill. That’s exactly what William Pitt did: he turned British credit into cannon fire, bankrolling victories from...

Let me tell you a wild quick story: the national debt doesn’t start with Hamilton or Jefferson, it really kicks off with William III and the 1694 founding of the Bank of England. Parliament began pledging future taxes...