Latest / Ridiculous History / Gods of Deception, Part II: Art, History, Fiction and War
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
- 0:27Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
- 0:30Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. Quick housekeeping note, this is
- 0:34Speaker 1: part two of a two part series, so if you
- 0:37Speaker 1: have not had the opportunity to check out part one
- 0:41Speaker 1: of our conversation with David Adams Cleveland, get the to
- 0:46Speaker 1: your podcast platform of choice and check it out. I
- 0:50Speaker 1: was gonna say a podcast, um, that's of thing, but
- 0:53Speaker 1: it should be why not enjoyed? You know, I can't
- 1:01Speaker 1: help but think about Frank Olsen, you know, in the
- 1:04Speaker 1: mk ulture experiments, the CIA mind control project that ultimately
- 1:08Speaker 1: resulted in his death, whether by misadventure, uh, suicide or
- 1:13Speaker 1: you know, some sort of murderous plot. But he also
- 1:16Speaker 1: plunged his death from a from a high window from
- 1:19Speaker 1: a hotel, and it just kind of makes me think, like, obviously,
- 1:22Speaker 1: you know, the KGB are known to be incredibly ruthless,
- 1:25Speaker 1: it's almost legendary, But I mean the CIA is pretty
- 1:28Speaker 1: ruthless too. I just wondered if there's any analogs that
- 1:31Speaker 1: you see between the two countries and the two organizations. Well,
- 1:35Speaker 1: the c I a UM had to do a lot
- 1:39Speaker 1: of things that most of it's UH operatives didn't enjoy doing.
- 1:45Speaker 1: Reading other people's bail was the joke that was always used, UH.
- 1:50Speaker 1: But in fact, after the Second World War, we were
- 1:54Speaker 1: up against a very aggressive Soviet Union and a very
- 1:57Speaker 1: aggressive KGB UH who being just the latest and hopefully
- 2:02Speaker 1: last example of the KGB trained cadres UH, and so
- 2:08Speaker 1: the CIA was forced to do a lot of things
- 2:11Speaker 1: that in retrospect it might have chosen not to do.
- 2:14Speaker 1: On the other hand, there were rules and regulations that
- 2:18Speaker 1: the CIA officers had to maintain, and by and large,
- 2:23Speaker 1: they stuck pretty much UH to the protocols of their
- 2:28Speaker 1: of their service, whereas the KGB operatives, UH, it was
- 2:33Speaker 1: pretty much anything goes and they were experts at bumping
- 2:38Speaker 1: off enemies UH, front, right and center. So I I
- 2:43Speaker 1: think it's night and day the difference between them, even
- 2:45Speaker 1: though the CIA had to adopt a lot of tough
- 2:49Speaker 1: measures UH in a tough Cold War and and the aftermath, No,
- 2:54Speaker 1: that makes sense. And I mean the mk Ultra situation
- 2:56Speaker 1: I think was one of those where they you know,
- 2:59Speaker 1: had UH certain individuals that were hired to be part
- 3:02Speaker 1: of this program that we're sort of given carte blanche
- 3:04Speaker 1: to do whatever they wanted and test you know, ariosolized
- 3:07Speaker 1: LSD on civilians and and and the like and even
- 3:10Speaker 1: their own you know, I'd like to further pursue, uh,
- 3:16Speaker 1: something we set up at the very beginning of this
- 3:19Speaker 1: conversation David, which is the the burden and the art
- 3:25Speaker 1: of historical fiction. Now, this book is exhaustively research, which
- 3:34Speaker 1: to me is tremendously compelling, and it does something that
- 3:39Speaker 1: a lot of these stories, a lot of these stories
- 3:43Speaker 1: missed the mark on Gods of deception humanizes what could
- 3:49Speaker 1: have otherwise been uh reciting of and of timelines and events.
- 3:57Speaker 1: But here in this story they or is a fascinating framework.
- 4:04Speaker 1: You know, Um, if we weren't talking about Russia, I'd
- 4:07Speaker 1: be more comfortable saying, uh, Matroshka dolls nested in the narrative.
- 4:13Speaker 1: So when and I don't want to spoil this too much.
- 4:16Speaker 1: I think people should experience this on their own. But
- 4:20Speaker 1: our story kind of starts with a judge in his
- 4:25Speaker 1: later years who is thinking back about his life, and
- 4:31Speaker 1: he is Edward Dimmock. He has defended Alger Hiss during
- 4:36Speaker 1: that Cold War trial and he's working on his memoirs
- 4:43Speaker 1: and he's still haunted, and him being haunted by this
- 4:47Speaker 1: leads to um him you know him, I don't want
- 4:53Speaker 1: to say conscripting him, asking his grandson George Altman two
- 4:59Speaker 1: help hidden understand the story the truth that occurs. And
- 5:04Speaker 1: I'm wondering what inspired you to take that approach. That's
- 5:10Speaker 1: one of the things that hooked me at the beginning. Well,
- 5:13Speaker 1: it's just what you said, Ben. I thought it important
- 5:17Speaker 1: as a novelist, as a fiction writer, to humanize the story.
- 5:22Speaker 1: It's enough to uh talk about Aldre Hiss and his
- 5:26Speaker 1: possible crimes and the crime certainly of Stalin and the
- 5:30Speaker 1: KGB which were which were manifest More interestingly, I think
- 5:37Speaker 1: it was to look at the Aldre his case in
- 5:41Speaker 1: terms of free generations of an American family, with the
- 5:46Speaker 1: patriarch of the family, Judge Dimmock, who had who had
- 5:50Speaker 1: defended Aldre Hiss uh in the day, and his writing
- 5:54Speaker 1: his memoir, and he enlists his grandson George Alban who's
- 5:59Speaker 1: a print ston astrophysicists, to help him finish the memoir
- 6:03Speaker 1: and figure out what the truth is. And in fact,
- 6:07Speaker 1: when the story opens, Um, it's right after nine eleven
- 6:11Speaker 1: the year after nine eleven, the judge doesn't even know
- 6:14Speaker 1: the new information that's come out on aldre Hiss. He
- 6:18Speaker 1: doesn't know about the access to Soviet intelligence files or
- 6:24Speaker 1: the Venona decrypts of Soviet cable traffic, which by two
- 6:29Speaker 1: thousand had made it clear that aldre Hiss was a
- 6:32Speaker 1: spy and more importantly, an agent of influence. So all
- 6:36Speaker 1: of a sudden, Edward Dimmick learned this that in fact
- 6:41Speaker 1: his client was indubitably guilty of the of the crimes
- 6:47Speaker 1: that he was convicted for, and and a lot more.
- 6:51Speaker 1: And I wanted to have show how that played out
- 6:54Speaker 1: in three generations of the family. So you have the George,
- 6:58Speaker 1: you have the Judge so Or and his three daughters
- 7:03Speaker 1: and his grandchildren who are involved in going through the
- 7:08Speaker 1: elements of the Algre His Spy case. And we see
- 7:12Speaker 1: how each generation had reacted to the story. And we
- 7:16Speaker 1: find out as the story evolves that the impact of
- 7:21Speaker 1: the Algre His case did terrible damage in the family.
- 7:26Speaker 1: It impacted the judge and his wife's marriage, UH, it
- 7:30Speaker 1: impacted their their three children, one of them Um, the
- 7:36Speaker 1: son who goes off to Korea. UH. And so I
- 7:40Speaker 1: wanted to humanize it, and also there is in the
- 7:43Speaker 1: book there are letters from Priscilla Hiss, there are people
- 7:47Speaker 1: who have talked to algre His, So we do get
- 7:50Speaker 1: a certain insight um into algre His and his family life,
- 7:56Speaker 1: his his son, um and his wife. Why. I think
- 8:00Speaker 1: by humanizing it, you make it not just clearer in
- 8:04Speaker 1: terms of what the truth is, but also how the
- 8:08Speaker 1: truth plays itself out over free generations of of an
- 8:13Speaker 1: American family. Now, that's really interesting and it makes me
- 8:17Speaker 1: wonder when you're writing a work like this that's based on,
- 8:21Speaker 1: you know, real historical facts and also relatively recently uncovered
- 8:27Speaker 1: details that kind of re contextualized one of those historical facts,
- 8:30Speaker 1: how do you decide where the sort of new story
- 8:35Speaker 1: that you're going to tell is where it comes from,
- 8:37Speaker 1: which parts need to remain just like steadfast truth, and
- 8:41Speaker 1: which parts can kind of meander a little bit to
- 8:43Speaker 1: serve your narrative. Well, for the most part, I like
- 8:48Speaker 1: to think that night percent of the facts in the
- 8:53Speaker 1: book are accurate, and uh they have been. They've come
- 8:57Speaker 1: out recently from the owner decrypts and the access to
- 9:03Speaker 1: Soviet era files, So most of the history is accurate.
- 9:07Speaker 1: Where I have as a novelist taken charge of of
- 9:12Speaker 1: the narrative is when I've gone into the heads, say
- 9:16Speaker 1: of Priscilla Hiss. Priscilla Hiss his letters um, and she
- 9:21Speaker 1: talks about in her letters how difficult it was, although
- 9:26Speaker 1: we don't know if she's really being truthful about this.
- 9:30Speaker 1: That the fastest. One of the most fascinating things about
- 9:33Speaker 1: the trial was that Whittwaker Chambers, who testified against Hiss,
- 9:38Speaker 1: testified about his years of being involved with his family.
- 9:42Speaker 1: They went on vacation together, they went bird watching together,
- 9:46Speaker 1: they spied together, they did all this stuff. He took
- 9:49Speaker 1: their documents and photographed them, brought them back in the morning,
- 9:53Speaker 1: They had meals together. They were friends. Whittaker Chambers actually
- 9:58Speaker 1: was was very fond of Aldre his and Priscilla his.
- 10:04Speaker 1: And yet Priscilla Hiss writes at least letters that I
- 10:07Speaker 1: used in the book, how difficult it was to be
- 10:12Speaker 1: faced by Whittaker chambers uh testimony and the trial. And
- 10:17Speaker 1: later in the book he wrote Witness where he talks
- 10:19Speaker 1: about their life together as friends of the family and this,
- 10:23Speaker 1: that and the next thing, and she says, gosh, so
- 10:26Speaker 1: much of it was just like the kind of people
- 10:29Speaker 1: we were I understood it, and yet he's lying. And
- 10:32Speaker 1: that brings in the idea that I used in the
- 10:34Speaker 1: Book of Parallel Universes, which is where our Princeton astrophysics
- 10:40Speaker 1: UM guy George Altman is brought in. Because there's two
- 10:44Speaker 1: worlds out there. There's the world where aldre Hiss is
- 10:48Speaker 1: guilty in the the world where aldre Hiss is innocent,
- 10:52Speaker 1: and the two worlds collide and they don't overlap. And
- 10:55Speaker 1: how you figure out which is which, I think makes
- 10:58Speaker 1: the narrative pretty interesting. And there's a there's another question
- 11:09Speaker 1: on this note I'd like to I'd like to explore
- 11:12Speaker 1: with you. Speaking of parallel worlds, David, you stand astride
- 11:19Speaker 1: a few parallel worlds of your own. You are an
- 11:23Speaker 1: art historian, UH extensively published art historian. I'm thinking in
- 11:28Speaker 1: particular of a history of American Tonalism, which I believe
- 11:33Speaker 1: has been published in three different additions at this point.
- 11:38Speaker 1: How do you and I can I I can experience
- 11:43Speaker 1: um your I can experience your love of art and
- 11:49Speaker 1: history in in reading Gods of Deception, UM and Times. Betrayal,
- 11:55Speaker 1: by the way, is next on my list. But what
- 11:57Speaker 1: drew you to historical fiction? From the world of art history.
- 12:04Speaker 1: Do you feel that those are um somehow separate or
- 12:08Speaker 1: distinct pursuits or do they inform one another, and if so,
- 12:13Speaker 1: in what ways they do inform each other? But at
- 12:18Speaker 1: the same time, there's no way I could be working
- 12:20Speaker 1: on an art history project and writing a work of
- 12:24Speaker 1: fiction at the same time. They're very different muscles, very
- 12:28Speaker 1: different kind of brains. I think. Starting with the art history,
- 12:34Speaker 1: I like telling the stories about artists and bringing artists
- 12:38Speaker 1: to life and bringing their works to life. I like
- 12:41Speaker 1: that narrative context. And what I did, uh in the
- 12:45Speaker 1: History of American Tonnalism, which is about American landscape painting
- 12:50Speaker 1: from around eighteen eighty and nineteen twenty, was bring that
- 12:54Speaker 1: whole world back to life and the great artists of
- 12:57Speaker 1: that period that would be Georgianist and William McNeil Whistler,
- 13:02Speaker 1: among others. Uh and uh this was largely forgotten talk
- 13:07Speaker 1: about times betrayal, uh the title of a novel. These
- 13:12Speaker 1: guys were forgotten about for about seventy years until I
- 13:16Speaker 1: came along and kind of wrote the book on them
- 13:18Speaker 1: and sort of brought that world back. So I liked
- 13:22Speaker 1: getting justice for great artists. I liked the feeling that
- 13:26Speaker 1: there is justice in this life and that these artists
- 13:30Speaker 1: and their reputations can be revived for for future generations.
- 13:34Speaker 1: At the same time, I find in writing fiction that
- 13:39Speaker 1: my love of landscape painting in particular UH informs my writing,
- 13:44Speaker 1: and that I like to feel that any given moment,
- 13:47Speaker 1: any um, any chapter, any scene that's set in the book,
- 13:52Speaker 1: that you can feel the quality of the light, the temperature,
- 13:57Speaker 1: the humidity, the sea, and um, that those ephemeral atmospheric
- 14:05Speaker 1: elements that are that one loves in great landscape paintings
- 14:10Speaker 1: can inform the writing as well, getting the reader a
- 14:14Speaker 1: feeling that they're there and that the sense of time
- 14:18Speaker 1: and place is very real. I think that's a really
- 14:20Speaker 1: good way of putting it. You know, I wanted to
- 14:21Speaker 1: ask you. I'm a huge something Ben and I and
- 14:24Speaker 1: and Max are all huge fans of art and art
- 14:26Speaker 1: museums and you know, graphic novels and just there's so
- 14:29Speaker 1: many ways that it can be used to tell amazing stories.
- 14:33Speaker 1: I am a fan of being able to walk into
- 14:35Speaker 1: a gallery, look at a piece of art, and have
- 14:38Speaker 1: it affected me viscerally. I think it's really interesting and
- 14:41Speaker 1: and and and an important thing to have some historical
- 14:44Speaker 1: context or to know a little bit about the artist
- 14:47Speaker 1: who made it and maybe what inspired them. But I
- 14:49Speaker 1: think ultimately it's not successful if it doesn't hit me
- 14:53Speaker 1: in some way, and just by looking at it, can
- 14:56Speaker 1: you kind of talk about that, like the sort of
- 14:58Speaker 1: like viscerality of art and the way it affects you,
- 15:01Speaker 1: just like cold versus having that context, and how those
- 15:06Speaker 1: two things can coexist. I think that's right. I think
- 15:09Speaker 1: that going into a gallery uh. And I've been involved
- 15:13Speaker 1: in the art world one way or the other for
- 15:15Speaker 1: many years. My son, Carter Cleveland is the founder of
- 15:19Speaker 1: artsy dot net, which is the largest on site art
- 15:23Speaker 1: site in the world now for buying and selling and
- 15:26Speaker 1: studying and finding out about art. So we've been involved
- 15:31Speaker 1: with art for a long time. And I'm a great
- 15:35Speaker 1: believer that art really, uh enhances our life. Living with
- 15:41Speaker 1: art enhances our life. That having art on the walls
- 15:46Speaker 1: is important not just for the good effect it has
- 15:50Speaker 1: on your own life, but because you're supporting artists living
- 15:53Speaker 1: or dead, or or however it may be. And I
- 15:56Speaker 1: agree with you that I think that one's reaction to
- 16:00Speaker 1: art is fundamentally visceral. Uh. You either love it or
- 16:04Speaker 1: you don't, and there's certain things that are gonna grab
- 16:06Speaker 1: you or not. I think that having some background on
- 16:12Speaker 1: the artists and some background on their time helps you
- 16:17Speaker 1: in terms of your ability to see the world and
- 16:21Speaker 1: the the or if you will have a narrative background
- 16:25Speaker 1: that produced that are and that may eventually help you
- 16:30Speaker 1: evolve certain ways to like different kinds of art from
- 16:34Speaker 1: what you may be used to or what you're you're
- 16:37Speaker 1: drawn to viscerally. But in the end, uh, it's really
- 16:42Speaker 1: your eyeballs, bathing your eyeballs and the beauty of art
- 16:45Speaker 1: that matters. And Uh, in the end, that's the great
- 16:49Speaker 1: joy and the great pleasure to be had bathing your eyeballs. Yeah,
- 16:55Speaker 1: this is going to recur on our show, sir. This
- 16:59Speaker 1: is an know the time is flying away from us
- 17:03Speaker 1: and I can only imagine how how strange it must
- 17:07Speaker 1: be to have um to have works like Gods of
- 17:12Speaker 1: Deception out in the world, which was published just in
- 17:16Speaker 1: April of this year. Correct, Uh? Is that correct? So
- 17:20Speaker 1: when you have you know, it must be similar to
- 17:24Speaker 1: the experience of walking out of another universe into you know,
- 17:32Speaker 1: or like seeing an amazing exhibition or seeing works of
- 17:36Speaker 1: the old masters and then walking out into the world.
- 17:40Speaker 1: And this inspires one of one of our last questions
- 17:44Speaker 1: as we wrap up, what do what do we ideally
- 17:50Speaker 1: want the readers and the audience to come away with
- 17:56Speaker 1: from the experience of Gods of Deception? Do we what
- 18:01Speaker 1: do we as readers take forward into the greater world? Well,
- 18:06Speaker 1: I think that God's Deception, both as the historical novel
- 18:11Speaker 1: and as a work of fiction, should make us aware
- 18:15Speaker 1: of the dangers. Certainly that the Soviet Union once upon
- 18:20Speaker 1: a time post along with the KGB, and I think
- 18:26Speaker 1: uh speaking of going from one world to the next, uh,
- 18:30Speaker 1: leaving the world of God's of Deception and then finding
- 18:33Speaker 1: us right back in that same world with Putin's invasion
- 18:37Speaker 1: of Ukraine. Because the title God's of Deception speaks to
- 18:43Speaker 1: the mentality of many of the Soviet agents who and
- 18:48Speaker 1: the KGB, who thought themselves in the forefront of history
- 18:51Speaker 1: that they were going to revolutionize the world and they
- 18:54Speaker 1: were going to become the heads of stay or they
- 18:58Speaker 1: were gonna overturn uh countries by the power of their
- 19:02Speaker 1: revolutionary ideas. So UH, for me, I have found that
- 19:08Speaker 1: God's of Deception came out right during the Putin's invasion
- 19:12Speaker 1: of the Ukraine, and Putin being a great admirer of
- 19:17Speaker 1: Stalin and being trained by the KGB. His entire leadership
- 19:22Speaker 1: circle are all x KGB agents. They know the ropes,
- 19:26Speaker 1: they used, the same false flags, big lies, you name it,
- 19:31Speaker 1: ultimately backed up by brutal force that Stalin was so
- 19:36Speaker 1: adept at. So Putin is still there, and the ways
- 19:40Speaker 1: of the Soviet Union are still there. And I think
- 19:45Speaker 1: the only reason that I'm hopeful at this point in
- 19:49Speaker 1: terms of Putin in the Ukraine is that we seem
- 19:53Speaker 1: to evolve to the point where defensive warfare seems to
- 19:57Speaker 1: be in the ascendency with smart weapons, and I think
- 20:01Speaker 1: the Ukrainians are managing to put up a terrific fight
- 20:05Speaker 1: against the Russians and against Putin, and hopefully with the
- 20:09Speaker 1: ascendancy of defensive weapons, it's gonna make the Russian invasion
- 20:14Speaker 1: increasingly more devastating for Putin and that in the end
- 20:19Speaker 1: he will fail and hopefully his people will overthrow him.
- 20:23Speaker 1: And I think the Chinese will think twice about the
- 20:26Speaker 1: possibility of invading Taiwan at this point, again seeing what's
- 20:30Speaker 1: happened in the Ukraine. So the gut world of God's
- 20:33Speaker 1: deception is still with us. There are still lessons to
- 20:38Speaker 1: be learned. But at the same time, uh, I think um,
- 20:42Speaker 1: from a literary standpoint, the humanity of this one American
- 20:46Speaker 1: family and the trials that they went through, UM, through
- 20:51Speaker 1: the altra his years and where they came out in
- 20:53Speaker 1: the end is a hopeful uh one for the for
- 20:57Speaker 1: the future. I gotta ask you really quickly a little
- 21:06Speaker 1: bit of for a bit of a hot take. Do
- 21:08Speaker 1: you think Putin bit off more than he can shoe?
- 21:10Speaker 1: Do you think he knew what he was doing? Was
- 21:12Speaker 1: it just sort of a power play that was ill
- 21:14Speaker 1: informed or uh, it just seems like people are not
- 21:18Speaker 1: behind him in his own government and things are just
- 21:20Speaker 1: going horribly awry. Is he making a decision based on
- 21:24Speaker 1: the past that no longer like he's sort of out
- 21:26Speaker 1: of his element now? Like? What what do you think
- 21:28Speaker 1: is going on with Putin? Now? I think Putin was
- 21:32Speaker 1: absolutely devastated, surprised by what happened on the initial months
- 21:39Speaker 1: of the invasion of Ukraine, how his forces were really
- 21:44Speaker 1: just taken apart piece by piece. I think he was amazed,
- 21:48Speaker 1: I thought he I think he probably thought, oh, this
- 21:51Speaker 1: is just gonna be another great KGB operation. We're gonna
- 21:55Speaker 1: run in there and we're gonna overthrow KiB and it
- 21:59Speaker 1: will be over in a in in a few days.
- 22:01Speaker 1: I think he was. He was mightily surprised. On the
- 22:06Speaker 1: other hand, being a KGB guy, being the head of
- 22:09Speaker 1: a totalitarian government. He's got no place to go, no
- 22:13Speaker 1: place to hide. He cannot retire from the scene. He's
- 22:16Speaker 1: got nothing that he can do except keep fighting in
- 22:20Speaker 1: the Ukraine for the time being until something gives way,
- 22:23Speaker 1: either his army, his military, or his intelligence service, or
- 22:27Speaker 1: the people of Russia turn on him and throw him out. Yeah,
- 22:31Speaker 1: it's uh. The situation is untenable, and I agree with
- 22:36Speaker 1: you that there is a there is not a viable
- 22:40Speaker 1: retreat option at this point. Perhaps emboldened by Um by
- 22:46Speaker 1: the invasion of Crimea in this calculus that informed Putin
- 22:53Speaker 1: based on the events of provided in his mind a
- 22:58Speaker 1: rational expective for for an invasion, and let's be honest,
- 23:04Speaker 1: speaking of hot takes Um a chance to realize the
- 23:09Speaker 1: dream of creating a new Soviet hegemony. However, I'm looking
- 23:15Speaker 1: for the right way to say this, David. The the
- 23:21Speaker 1: thing that many characters in God's deception and the thing
- 23:27Speaker 1: that Vladimir Putin himself is wrestling with now is the
- 23:32Speaker 1: idea of perception in a bubble right, um, being being
- 23:37Speaker 1: a tyrant, being a strong man. Uh. It's it's no
- 23:40Speaker 1: secret that Putin is likely surrounded by syncophants and as
- 23:45Speaker 1: a result, has a very different experience of reality right
- 23:52Speaker 1: than most people outside of that bubble. Do you believe that? Um?
- 24:00Speaker 1: What would be your insight on this idea? It's tossed
- 24:03Speaker 1: around so often. Do you feel that um world leaders
- 24:09Speaker 1: um from Putin to you know, the recently recently deposed
- 24:15Speaker 1: Boris Johnson, prime minister over there in the UK. Um,
- 24:18Speaker 1: do you believe that people in power may live in
- 24:22Speaker 1: bubbles of reality? And if so, why how well? I
- 24:27Speaker 1: think Putin is a special case because he's been living
- 24:31Speaker 1: in a in your bubble of reality maybe most of
- 24:35Speaker 1: his life. I mean, he grew up, he learned his uh,
- 24:39Speaker 1: he learned all of his brutal tactics and ways as
- 24:42Speaker 1: a KGB officer. And when Russia fell apart a part,
- 24:46Speaker 1: he lost his job, he lost prestige, he lost all
- 24:51Speaker 1: kinds of things, and uh, he has a vaunted sense
- 24:54Speaker 1: of of Russian history. I mean, after all, Russian aggression
- 24:59Speaker 1: goes back to Catherine the Great and before that, so
- 25:04Speaker 1: it's not just the Soviet Union. Um. Russia has a
- 25:08Speaker 1: history of of of expansion. But I think that Putin
- 25:12Speaker 1: certainly in the last five years, has been up against
- 25:18Speaker 1: the West and what he's seen is weakness that the
- 25:23Speaker 1: West has rolled over to his aggression, whether it's in
- 25:27Speaker 1: Georgia or Crimea. Uh, and he's been He's gotten away
- 25:32Speaker 1: with it time and time again, because most people in
- 25:35Speaker 1: the West just think, well, could wars over? People don't
- 25:38Speaker 1: act like that anymore. But the fact of the matter
- 25:41Speaker 1: is aggression, evil intent, megalomania. All of these terrible things
- 25:48Speaker 1: can come back in different guises, and Putin certainly has
- 25:52Speaker 1: them all. And uh, I think you know, he lives
- 25:56Speaker 1: in a bubble, but he can get away with a
- 25:58Speaker 1: lot of stuff. And the West is let him get
- 26:00Speaker 1: away with it too long. So he took a gamble,
- 26:03Speaker 1: and this time the gamble is not paying off at
- 26:06Speaker 1: least easily. Let's let's hope that the Russian people will
- 26:11Speaker 1: put him in his place and and get rid of it.
- 26:14Speaker 1: Thank you so much for spending some time with us
- 26:18Speaker 1: and talking about your book, which I look forward to
- 26:20Speaker 1: reading and its entirety, and for all of this amazing
- 26:23Speaker 1: perspective on everything from art to current politics and everything
- 26:27Speaker 1: in between. It's been a real, real delight talking with you,
- 26:30Speaker 1: Benn and Noel. Thank you so much. It's been fun
- 26:33Speaker 1: for me as well. Oh wonderful. Thank you for classing
- 26:37Speaker 1: up the show. David these this is uh. This conversation,
- 26:42Speaker 1: Asnal said, has led us through so many fascinating parts
- 26:48Speaker 1: of history, parts of art, parts of geopolitics, and I
- 26:53Speaker 1: believe it's a conversation that is worth pursuing. Fellow ridiculous historians.
- 26:59Speaker 1: You would like to learn more about the work of
- 27:04Speaker 1: David Adams Cleveland, please check out the website David Adams
- 27:09Speaker 1: Cleveland dot com. It's uh, it's where I started stalking
- 27:13Speaker 1: you in the beginning, sir, and um, it's where I
- 27:17Speaker 1: have learned already uh so much about about history. Again.
- 27:22Speaker 1: I'm excited for Times Betrayal. I want to read it.
- 27:25Speaker 1: I saw some of the reviews I said, I was
- 27:29Speaker 1: again a fanboy too much, But uh, sir, thank you
- 27:34Speaker 1: sincerely for your time. We're looking forward to hearing more
- 27:38Speaker 1: about the next works. In the meanwhile, where's one of
- 27:42Speaker 1: the best places for people to learn more about your works, current,
- 27:49Speaker 1: past and perhaps future well, As you mentioned, probably the
- 27:53Speaker 1: best starting place is my h is my author side,
- 27:57Speaker 1: David Adams Cleveland dot com, and from there you go
- 28:02Speaker 1: right to the books. There's articles certainly on my author
- 28:06Speaker 1: side as well. I've probably done I think eight or
- 28:10Speaker 1: nine articles around God's Deception, which gives you some background
- 28:16Speaker 1: into the history of the algra his case, but also
- 28:20Speaker 1: how I researched it, so you can find all that
- 28:23Speaker 1: kind of good stuff there. And then I've written a
- 28:26Speaker 1: bunch of articles about writing fictions, so for aspiring writers
- 28:30Speaker 1: and historians there's some good thoughts there. So all are
- 28:34Speaker 1: welcome and Uh, I'm delighted to be on your show
- 28:38Speaker 1: and help out any way. I can thank you again,
- 28:42Speaker 1: And in the meantime, listeners, if you have anything you
- 28:46Speaker 1: want to ask us about or topics you want to
- 28:49Speaker 1: see us cover, you can hit Ben or up. As
- 28:52Speaker 1: individual human people on the Internet, I am on Instagram
- 28:55Speaker 1: exclusively at how now Noel Brown, Ben Boland. Where can
- 28:59Speaker 1: the find folks out in the internet world find you? Oh? No,
- 29:02Speaker 1: thank you so much for asking Uh. In a burst
- 29:05Speaker 1: of creativity, you can buy me on Instagram where I'm
- 29:07Speaker 1: at ben Bowling b o w l I n uh.
- 29:10Speaker 1: If you are more Twitter inclined, you can find me
- 29:13Speaker 1: at ben Bowling hs W. The big win for people
- 29:16Speaker 1: on Twitter is that there you can also find our
- 29:20Speaker 1: very own super producer, Mr Max Williams. Yes, you can
- 29:23Speaker 1: find me at Ahl Underscore Max Williams. That is my
- 29:26Speaker 1: address on Twitter. Thanks as always to Max Williams. Thanks
- 29:31Speaker 1: to our composer. We have a composer, Mr Alex Williams thinking.
- 29:35Speaker 1: Thanks again to Mr David A. Cleveland. Uh noll. This
- 29:40Speaker 1: this is one of those uh. This is one of
- 29:43Speaker 1: those conversations that makes our collective day. I think it's true.
- 29:47Speaker 1: It's one that's hard, hard to wrap up, but you
- 29:50Speaker 1: gotta do it. People got stuff to do. It's Friday. Um,
- 29:53Speaker 1: We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
- 30:03Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
- 30:06Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.