WEBVTT - Bonus Episode 2: Your Unintended Consequences

0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:04.360
<v Speaker 1>This past season of Flashback, we covered stories about unintended

0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.960
<v Speaker 1>consequences in history, and we asked you, our loyal listeners,

0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:10.319
<v Speaker 1>to send in some of your own stories on that theme,

0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:13.840
<v Speaker 1>and you responded, so we wanted to devote a special

0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:17.640
<v Speaker 1>bonus episode in order to share some of your wonderful submissions.

0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:23.680
<v Speaker 1>One of the landmark historical events that came up in

0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:26.759
<v Speaker 1>several of our stories this season, from tales of Hitler's

0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:30.440
<v Speaker 1>drug habits to the dangerous effects of phosphorus, was World

0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:33.120
<v Speaker 1>War Two, and several of you pointed to some other

0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:37.920
<v Speaker 1>interesting unintended consequences tied to that war. Alicia Downs, a

0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:40.720
<v Speaker 1>history and anthropology major, wrote in to say she was

0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:43.280
<v Speaker 1>in fact working on a scholarly paper on two of

0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:47.440
<v Speaker 1>the biggest The first a major strategic blunder on the

0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:53.280
<v Speaker 1>part of the Nazis. At midday on June twenty two,

0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:55.360
<v Speaker 1>the peoples of the U. S s I heard the

0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.680
<v Speaker 1>news of fabled at warm in Germany. As Alicia writes,

0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:02.360
<v Speaker 1>Germany made a vital error in invading Russia. As strong

0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:04.959
<v Speaker 1>as Britain was, it wouldn't have survived a full scale

0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:08.680
<v Speaker 1>invasion from Germany. Instead, Alicia says that by attacking one

0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:12.280
<v Speaker 1>of the most populated countries Germany allowed Britain to regain

0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:16.720
<v Speaker 1>its strength. The second was another big strategic blunder, this

0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:26.160
<v Speaker 1>time by Germany's ally Japan. Yesterday, the Sumba some nineteen one,

0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:35.160
<v Speaker 1>a date which will live in infamy. United States of

0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:41.640
<v Speaker 1>America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by nabal on their

0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:47.720
<v Speaker 1>coasces of the Empire of Japan. Before the Japanese attack

0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:50.960
<v Speaker 1>on Pearl Harbor, the United States had resisted getting involved

0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:55.680
<v Speaker 1>in the war Japan provoked a sleeping tiger. I believe

0:01:55.840 --> 0:02:00.320
<v Speaker 1>that I interpret the will of the Congress and of

0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:05.360
<v Speaker 1>the people when I said, but we will not only

0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:10.480
<v Speaker 1>defend ourselves to the uttermost, but we'll make it very

0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:16.600
<v Speaker 1>certain that this form of treachery shall never again and

0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:24.200
<v Speaker 1>dangerous and as Ray Joseph points out, there were several

0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:28.239
<v Speaker 1>other consequences of America's participation in that war. He writes,

0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:31.880
<v Speaker 1>America exited World War Two with its infrastructure not only

0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:35.880
<v Speaker 1>intact but expanded well. Europe, Russia, and Asia were rebuilding

0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.799
<v Speaker 1>their cities. America became an industrial powerhouse. It took these

0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:43.320
<v Speaker 1>other countries decades to catch up. Thanks to the war

0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:46.919
<v Speaker 1>America was able to make a massive technology grab, including

0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:50.519
<v Speaker 1>grabbing some of the world's top scientists, especially from Germany,

0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:53.080
<v Speaker 1>scientists who would help the US get to the Moon

0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:59.320
<v Speaker 1>and more. And it doesn't stop there. That Stephen Martinez shares.

0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:02.359
<v Speaker 1>There were their unintended consequences of some of the projects

0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:05.680
<v Speaker 1>launched by American scientists after the war. One of them

0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.960
<v Speaker 1>was Project m k Ultra, the CIA program that used

0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:12.760
<v Speaker 1>human subjects to experiment with mind control. Many of these

0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:17.320
<v Speaker 1>unwitting subjects were found in prisons, asylums, and even top universities.

0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:20.200
<v Speaker 1>One of the most famous victims of these experiments was

0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:24.080
<v Speaker 1>reportedly a seventeen year old Harvard student named Ted Kazinski,

0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:28.000
<v Speaker 1>who would later become famous for something else. Federal agents

0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:30.920
<v Speaker 1>have taken into custody a man they suspect as the

0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:35.200
<v Speaker 1>UNI Bomber. Long before he became the unibomber, Kazinski volunteered

0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:38.800
<v Speaker 1>for psychological study run by Dr Henry Murray, a Harvard

0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:42.480
<v Speaker 1>professor employed by the CIA. Kazinski and other students were

0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:47.320
<v Speaker 1>subjected to aggressive psychological interrogations designed to test their responses

0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:51.600
<v Speaker 1>to stress. Following the experiment, Kazinski became withdrawn and many

0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:55.760
<v Speaker 1>scholars argue that this traumatic experience contributed to his alienation

0:03:55.840 --> 0:04:07.560
<v Speaker 1>from society and ultimately his crimes. World War two was

0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:10.360
<v Speaker 1>not the only war in which American involvement triggered some

0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:15.000
<v Speaker 1>unexpected consequences. Neil Stevens points out that US participation in

0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.200
<v Speaker 1>World War One did as well, For example, the nine

0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.159
<v Speaker 1>eighteen flu pandemic, which is believed to have been brought

0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:24.400
<v Speaker 1>by American soldiers from Kansas to Europe, where the local

0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:31.719
<v Speaker 1>outbreak was transmitted worldwide. This season on Flashback, we also

0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:34.599
<v Speaker 1>told the stories of invasive species like kat zoo and

0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:37.960
<v Speaker 1>the gypsy moth. We learned how introducing such species into

0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:42.200
<v Speaker 1>new environments had unleashed a torrent of unexpected consequences. One

0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:45.360
<v Speaker 1>of our listeners, Phantom Writer five six three, points out

0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:48.800
<v Speaker 1>another ecological introduction whose effects we are still living with,

0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:53.719
<v Speaker 1>especially during allergy season. For decades, American urban planners have

0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.279
<v Speaker 1>engaged in a form of botanical sexism, the decision to

0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:01.600
<v Speaker 1>plan only male trees along public streets and parks. Initially,

0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:04.560
<v Speaker 1>this appears to have been an effort to avoid the seeds, pods,

0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:07.680
<v Speaker 1>and other droppings from female trees, but of course male

0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:11.839
<v Speaker 1>trees make something else pollen so now the male dominated

0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:14.120
<v Speaker 1>city tree escape is one of the main reasons why

0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:18.520
<v Speaker 1>pollen and paullen allergies have gotten so bad in recent decades.

0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:33.360
<v Speaker 1>Thanks again for listening and for sharing your thoughts, feedback

0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:36.479
<v Speaker 1>and idea this past season, and you can continue to

0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:40.279
<v Speaker 1>do so by emailing us at Flashback at AUSSI dot com.

0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:44.160
<v Speaker 1>That's Flashback at oz y dot com. Please stay tuned

0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:46.960
<v Speaker 1>to this feed for more bonus episodes on fateful moments

0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:52.080
<v Speaker 1>from history in the weeks ahead. Flashback is written and

0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:56.000
<v Speaker 1>hosted by me Sean Braswell, Senior writer and Executive producer

0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:59.120
<v Speaker 1>at AUSSI. He was edited by Mayeve mcgorren and produced

0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.840
<v Speaker 1>by Tracy Murray in Chris haff engineered our show. Make

0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:05.320
<v Speaker 1>sure to subscribe to Flashback on the I Heart Radio

0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:09.320
<v Speaker 1>app or listen wherever you get your podcasts. M