Advertise on podcast: Fourth Reich Archaeology

This week we step back out of our historical narrative and into the present day once more. But fear not, this is not yet one more election episode regurgitating the same basic talking points about what to expect from the midterms. Instead, we zoom out and look at the whole electoral charade as Spectacle, asking not what policies are up to a vote, but rather what narratives are being promoted as the two permissible poles for popular discourse. We promise we’re not libbing out, but we are encouraging people to think practically about how this moment of utter overreach and unpopularity on the extreme right has created a political vulnerability that an organized left could exploit. Just think about it! We hope you enjoy. Socials: @fourthreichpod Email: [email protected] Patreon: patreon.com/fourthreicharchaeology

This week we are picking up where we left off in our ongoing series within a series about the two women who, in September 1975, pointed their pistols at President Gerald R. Ford.  Our focus in this series as of late has been on the second of these two female assassins, the one who actually took a shot at the accidental president, Sara Jane Moore.   In this episode, we continue our discussion of Sara Jane’s husband #3, John O. Aalberg, the 10-time Oscar nominee and RKO executive Sara Jane lovingly called “Big John.”  Now, this is Fourth Reich Archaeology, so you know that we couldn’t really paint a complete picture of John Aalberg without diving a little deep into RKO, his longtime employer, and its eccentric owner, the aviator himself, Howard Hughes. It’s got the Fourth Reich written all over it. And that’s not all folks! In the second half of this episode, we read directly from Sara Jane’s 1979 prison interview transcript, with excerpts we humbly submit put together the pieces and show that not everything is what it seems when it comes to John Aalberg. In fact, nothing is what it seems.  Because according to Sara Jane herself, Big John was not just an academy man, but also a company man.  So get out your Vistavision glasses, ladies and gentlemen. It is time to go to the movies! Email: [email protected] Socials: @fourthreichpod

We are back to our series-within-a-series, She Harvey Oswald (a Jerryworld Series). And boy are we excited. When we last left her, Sara Jane Moore had dumped husband #2, Sydney Manning, and sent her three kids from her California home back to her parents in West Virginia. This week we move on to husband #3, still in Southern California–indeed, in Hollywood!--the RKO Pictures sound wizard, 10-time Oscar nominee, John O. Aalberg. In Side A, we gave the “official narrative” of Sara’s and “Big John’s” romance, drawing largely on Geri Spieler’s biography of Moore. Now it’s time to dig beneath the surface… John Aalberg was a veteran of WWI and lifelong mega-patriot. He perfected a recording technology in 1928 that enabled precise and easy cutting of sound in films. One of the technologies that bridged the gap to the widespread adoption of talking pictures. But moviemakers aren’t the only people interested in recording and editing technology: Aalberg was recruited to the Army to assist its pictographic works during WWII (in fact, starting even before Pearl Harbor by several months). And he remained involved in the armed services during the Cold War as well, besides busying himself as a reserve member of the LA County Sherriff’s Office as a literal “posse” member. It’s a great tale and we think you’ll like it. It’s got material and connections that have really not been reported before, and we thank you ever so kindly for supporting our work! We couldn’t do it without you. Email: [email protected] Socials: @fourthreichpod  “I Put a Spell on You” performed by Angelina Jordan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXOPpwucDYw&list=RDgXOPpwucDYw&start_radio=1

We are back to our series-within-a-series, She Harvey Oswald (a Jerryworld Series). And boy are we excited. When we last left her, Sara Jane Moore had dumped husband #2, Sydney Manning, and sent her three kids from her California home back to her parents in West Virginia. We had questioned whether “Syd” might have been a handler of some kind, considering that (1) he was a psychiatric professional working in a facility while she was a patient undergoing treatment and analysis, (2) he was 17 years her senior, (3) he knew her only a short time before tying the knot, and (4) she had exhibited abnormal psychology, suffering fainting spells and bouts of amnesia, making her an ideal subject for just the type of experiments the CIA was doing at the time under Project Bluebird. This week we move on to husband #3, still in Southern California–indeed, in Hollywood!--the RKO Pictures sound wizard, 10-time Oscar nominee, John O. Aalberg. We begin by giving the “official narrative” of Sara’s and “Big John’s” romance, drawing largely on Geri Spieler’s biography of Moore. Even the truncated and largely superficial story told by Spieler is interesting if, for no other reason, it is pretty wild that Sara Jane Moore was married to the guy who did the sound for Citizen Kane! And if you are listening on the free feed, that is where we leave things off. There’s more at Patreon, otherwise, you’ll have to wait to hear the rest of the story… Patreon.com/fourthreicharchaeology Email: [email protected] Socials: @fourthreichpod  Outro song performed by Angelina Jordan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXOPpwucDYw&list=RDgXOPpwucDYw&start_radio=1

This week, Dick and Don are back together talking about a topic that seems to have fallen out of the media spotlight lately, but that is more than deserving of serious attention and concern. Deportation numbers are breaking records each month, due process is being whittled away, hundreds of thousands of people are losing legal status with the stroke of a pen based on what country they’re from. Even as the policies around mass deportation decline in popularity (even among Trump voters), administration officials continue to peddle mask-off Nazi rhetoric to dehumanize the most marginalized members of society. All in service of the classic fascist maneuver of prioritizing a hardcore base of support among ideological extremists - white nationalist eugenicist racists, in this case.  Side B will include an interview with Alex, a veteran immigration lawyer, who shares her perspective on the insanity from the center of the Maelstrom. Head on over to Patreon if you’d like to get at it sooner!

This week, Dick and Don are back together talking about a topic that seems to have fallen out of the media spotlight lately, but that is more than deserving of serious attention and concern. Deportation numbers are breaking records each month, due process is being whittled away, hundreds of thousands of people are losing legal status with the stroke of a pen based on what country they’re from. Even as the policies around mass deportation decline in popularity (even among Trump voters), administration officials continue to peddle mask-off Nazi rhetoric to dehumanize the most marginalized members of society. All in service of the classic fascist maneuver of prioritizing a hardcore base of support among ideological extremists - white nationalist eugenicist racists, in this case.  Side B will include an interview with Alex, a veteran immigration lawyer, who shares her perspective on the insanity from the center of the Maelstrom. Head on over to Patreon if you’d like to get at it sooner! The cover of Victor Jara’s “La Partida” featured in the episode can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8LaF-tFgg0&list=RD_8LaF-tFgg0&start_radio=1

We are coming at you this week with Side B of Don's discussion with Brother Isaac. In this episode we reprise a theme Don and Isaac have already recorded 2 episodes on on Isaac’s podcast, Coexist, Inc. That’s right, it’s the Jewish Question. This time, rather than diving deep on the theoretical approaches that have been taken to the Jewish Question by Marxists of various stripes over the past 200 years or so, we dig into the discursive turf of 2026, where the “blame the Jews” narrative is on the rise. Don and Isaac discuss how this narrative serves as an anticommunist trojan horse, carrying the potential to merge together the reactionary politics of the likes of Tucker Carlson with people of conscience shocked and appalled by Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine (and Lebanon, for that matter). We call the episode “JewAnon” because–just like the QAnon narrative that posited the overrepresentation of perverted pedophiles in the upper echelons of power, while adding into the mix a whooooole bunch of batshit crazy bullshit–there is a grain of truth at the core of the most popular forms of the “blame the Jews” narrative.  In other words, it IS true that Israel is engaging in daily atrocities with absolute cover from the U.S. government, and without any real consequences on the global stage, but it is not for “the benefit of the Jews” that it is doing so, or exacting global fealty in so doing. Instead, it is for the benefit of a global ruling class hell bent on developing (and testing out!!) new technologies of surveillance and mass slaughter that will absolutely “come home” to be deployed against those of us who dare oppose the Total Control sought by the techno-fascist ruling class.  This one went on so long we’re breaking it up on the free feed, but you can get the whole thing on Patreon at: ⁠patreon.com/fourthreicharchaeology⁠ And subscribe to Isaac’s work at: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/u6112951

Brother Isaac is back, and this time he’s with Don to reprise a theme the two of them have already recorded 2 episodes on on Isaac’s podcast, Coexist, Inc. That’s right, it’s the Jewish Question. This time, rather than diving deep on the theoretical approaches that have been taken to the Jewish Question by Marxists of various stripes over the past 200 years or so, we dig into the discursive turf of 2026, where the “blame the Jews” narrative is on the rise. Don and Isaac discuss how this narrative serves as an anticommunist trojan horse, carrying the potential to merge together the reactionary politics of the likes of Tucker Carlson with people of conscience shocked and appalled by Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine (and Lebanon, for that matter). We call the episode “JewAnon” because–just like the QAnon narrative that posited the overrepresentation of perverted pedophiles in the upper echelons of power, while adding into the mix a whooooole bunch of batshit crazy bullshit–there is a grain of truth at the core of the most popular forms of the “blame the Jews” narrative.  In other words, it IS true that Israel is engaging in daily atrocities with absolute cover from the U.S. government, and without any real consequences on the global stage, but it is not for “the benefit of the Jews” that it is doing so, or exacting global fealty in so doing. Instead, it is for the benefit of a global ruling class hell bent on developing (and testing out!!) new technologies of surveillance and mass slaughter that will absolutely “come home” to be deployed against those of us who dare oppose the Total Control sought by the techno-fascist ruling class.  This one went on so long we’re breaking it up on the free feed, but you can get the whole thing on Patreon at: patreon.com/fourthreicharchaeology And subscribe to Isaac’s work at: https://www.patreon.com/cw/u6112951

We are back with Side B of Propaganda Madness 3, our exploration into the Pentagon’s propagandist-in-chief, Sean Parnell.  This week Don is joined by friend of the pod Matt Farwell who has quite the axe to grind when it comes to Parnell.  Parnell is someone we suspect you may never have heard of, but we think, upon thorough examination, he perfectly encapsulates a certain character type that could only really thrive in the Fourth Reich. Parnell is a self-described victim of “horrific” childhood bullying, which led him to an adolescence and young adulthood filled with self-described binge drinking, dirty living, and little awareness of what was even happening around him.   That all ended with 9/11. No, really. The guy actually credits the 9/11 attacks for his political awakening and decision to enlist in the army. So he enlisted and went to Afghanistan and later bragged about how many people his unit killed.  Parnell’s affect is like that of a whinier J.D. Vance. It's like they cooked him up in the same factory as Vance, but he fell off the assembly line before production was complete. You can tell he doesn’t have the Ivy League polish the way Vance does, and he thinks that’s a good thing. But his performance is to act like he is an authentic guy who’s just as smart, if not smarter than the Ivies, when in fact he is tremendously, colossally dumb. He, of course, wrote a memoir with a “co-author” as a pathway to a political or media career before epically failing upward towards his current position as the official spokesperson for the Department of Defense.  Let’s Get Digging.

This week’s episode focuses on the Pentagon’s propagandist-in-chief, Sean Parnell.  Parnell is someone we suspect you may never have heard of, but we think, upon thorough examination, he perfectly encapsulates a certain character type that could only really thrive in the Fourth Reich. Parnell is a self-described victim of “horrific” childhood bullying, which led him to an adolescence and young adulthood filled with self-described binge drinking, dirty living, and little awareness of what was even happening around him.   That all ended with 9/11. No, really. The guy actually credits the 9/11 attacks for his political awakening and decision to enlist in the army. So he enlisted and went to Afghanistan and later bragged about how many people his unit killed.  Parnell’s affect is like that of a whinier J.D. Vance. It's like they cooked him up in the same factory as Vance, but he fell off the assembly line before production was complete. You can tell he doesn’t have the Ivy League polish the way Vance does, and he thinks that’s a good thing. But his performance is to act like he is an authentic guy who’s just as smart, if not smarter than the Ivies, when in fact he is tremendously, colossally dumb. He, of course, wrote a memoir with a “co-author” as a pathway to a political or media career before epically failing upward towards his current position as the official spokesperson for the Department of Defense.  In Side A, we set the table on Parnell and provide some much-needed context.  Stay tuned for Side B, in which Don interviews a friend of the pod, Matt Farwell, about his coverage of Parnell.  Let’s Get Digging.

Well, it’s been almost 4 months since we’ve issued an episode in our Contra Iran series (not about Iran Contra), and yet it feels like there has been no real change in the status of the so-called “war” in Iran. (Of course, we eschew calling the US/Israeli illegal invasion without provocation a “war” at all.) Things seem trapped in a cycle of - fake ceasefire → stock market bounces → (usually) Israel keeps on bombing, burning, and looting ceasefire be damned → Iran asserts control over the strait of Hormuz → Trump says “no I’m gonna blockade YOU!” → Trump’s threats are empty and he backs down → rinse, repeat. We talk about the actual factual updates that have taken place over the past couple of months to illustrate just how insane this operation really is. We think it is important to have some information at the ready to support the obviously correct communist position against this imperial war.  If we are going to have any success opposing the war from a Marxist perspective, we must first analyze it using the tools of dialectical historical materialism. So that’s just what we do: who’s doing what, who’s benefiting, where are the potential weaknesses in the imperialists’ armor.  We then take stock of where things stand now, the lamentable state of affairs besetting the people of Iran, and the people of Lebanon, of Palestine. And we even get into a little prognostication about what might be coming down the pike. How will the cycle be broken? By peaceful transfer of power away from Trump? We also consider the continuity between both parties, and the recurrence of the type of mendacity we see from the Trump administration throughout history. Don’t miss it!!! Let’s get digging.  www.patreon.com/fourthreicharchaeology  Email: [email protected] Socials: @fourthreichpod

It's our birthday! Hooray for year two! And considering the monumental occasion, we decided it is time, yet again, for some R&R. This week, we shut off our lamps, hang up our hard hats, and take some time to reflect on the past year, the present moment, and what’s to come.  We also take this occasion to revisit a highlight reel of some of our favorite mashups, clips, and cold opens from the past year.  Since our very first episode, our view has been that it is high time that we wise up and realize that there is a complete disconnect between the purported ideals of the United States and the reality of the actions taken by the American government, namely the horrific history of enslavement, exploitation, and the series of successive genocides.  It is now, more than ever, difficult to square the American ideals of truth, justice, and equality with the American actions of slavery, genocide, and forced migration. In this episode, we take it back to the basics and reflect on what this project means to us and what we consider its core values.  As a result, we think this episode is another good one to help new listeners dip their toes in our project.  Because we walk through the foundational pillars, new listeners will leave with a capsule course on what Fourth Reich Archaeology is all about.  And what it is all about is friendship. As we say many times in this episode, this project is powered by friendship–the friendship shared between Dick and Don, but equally important is the friendship we've forged with all of you who tune in week after week and, dare we say it, year after year.  Here is to a happy birthday and to many returns!

We are back this week with Side B of our ninth installment of She Harvey Oswald. And as we laid out in Side A, from here on out our series-within-a-series on the two would-be female assassins who set their sites on President Gerald Ford is going to get increasingly and precipitously weirder.  In Side B we pick up just as Sara Jane’s marriage to her suss ass second husband–a Captain in the U.S. Air Force with connections to the psy-war Sydney Lewis Manning–was on the rocks. We continue connecting dots that others who’ve covered the assassination attempt didn’t even see.             Before signing off on this one we read into the record excerpts from the 1979 prison interview (on file with the hosts), which offer the only record evidence of Sara Jane addressing the issue of her early life and marriages. Her answers may lead much to be desired in factual content, but they may give insights into how her mind works.  We think you will really enjoy this one, and humbly submit it as one of our most eye opening episodes to date.  Let’s get digging.  www.patreon.com/fourthreicharchaeology  Email: [email protected] Socials: @fourthreichpod

This week we’re back in the hellworld of 2026 where the US government has launched the greatest (if dumbest) crusade against communism in over half a century. We dig into the historical roots of the latest iteration of the red scare and cover the landscape of current anticommunist action from the Trump administration. In particular, we examine how (and why) a generation of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab discourse developed in the global war on terror has been repurposed to put communists back in the crosshairs of the state. Spoiler alert: the line goes straight through Palestine. We then take a survey of some of the latest outrages that have come out of this administration in the name of anticommunism, including the further demonization of Cuba by the State Department and the persecution of Fergie Chambers. Will this overreach finally spur some resistance? We consider the question, and much more. Dig in! www.patreon.com/fourthreicharchaeology  Email: [email protected] Socials: @fourthreichpod

We are back this week with another installment of She Harvey Oswald. Buckle up friends, because from here on out our series-within-a-series on the two would-be female assassins who set their sites on President Gerald Ford is going to get increasingly and precipitously weirder.  In this episode we start with a little scene setting by covering Project Bluebird—that Cold War era CIA backed mind control program that was the predecessor to Project Artichoke, which then evolved into the infamous Project MKULTRA. Remember, our protagonist, Sara Jane Moore (nee Kahn), presented a highly interesting psychological/neurological profile: she suffered recurrent fainting spells, followed by bouts of amnesia. And given her enlistment in the military-affiliated Civil Air Patrol at the tender age of 15 (not to mention her dad’s employment with weapons manufacturer DuPont Chemical), she was on Uncle Sam’s radar from jump.  During the time period covered in this episode, Sara Jane Kahn Anderson divorces her first husband, Wally Anderson, shortly after her White House amnesia episode. At just about the same time, she starts a relationship with a man 17 years her senior, a Captain in the U.S. Air Force with connections to the psy-war of his own… Sydney Lewis Manning.  This episode presents probably the single deepest dive on Manning, the father of FOUR of Sara Jane’s forgotten children. We’re connecting dots that others who’ve covered the assassination attempt didn’t even see. And it tells the story of what happened to those kids, and to Sara Jane’s role as mother to them, as she makes her way out to Kkkalifornia. Before signing off on this one we read into the record excerpts from the 1979 prison interview (on file with the hosts), which offer the only record evidence of Sara Jane addressing the issue of her early life and marriages. Her answers may lead much to be desired in factual content, but they may give insights into how her mind works.  We think you will really enjoy this one, and humbly submit it as one of our most eye opening episodes to date.  Let’s get digging.  www.patreon.com/fourthreicharchaeology  Email: [email protected] Socials: @fourthreichpod