What do we actually Know about J. Edgar Hoove...

From the history of recorders (the OG flute), to a celebrity fart-flute performer, to the flautist who pulled off a museum heist in order to buy a new instrument... today's episode features nine fascinating facts about flutes! This episode originally aired on May 9, 2024. Got a q ...  Show more

Rats! For centuries, we've tried (and failed) to keep them under control, because not only are rats brave enough to swim out of toilets, they're also kind of brilliant. Find out how they foiled Pablo Escobar, why some rat owners let their pets play dentist, and why tiny trousers ...  Show more

As Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover exercised a dictatorial influence over the department – and, it seems, everyone else. Meticulous and vindictive, he frequently weaponised secrets while carefully guarding his own. Deborah Friedell grapples with his overwhelming and disturbi ...  Show more

J. Edgar Hoover became director of the FBI when he was just 29 years old. His orders? Clean up the Bureau. At first, he proved to be a brilliant and innovative leader, setting new standards for education, physical fitness, and training of federal agents.But there was a dark side ...  Show more

Today, J. Edgar Hoover is remembered as a power-hungry, corrupt and prejudiced man, obsessed with an imagined threat of domestic communists. But during his life, he was widely respected and admired as the man responsible for building the FBI into a premier law enforcement agency. ...  Show more

It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that J. Edgar Hoover was perhaps the most powerful American of the 20th century. By the time he established the FBI as America’s police force, presidents were afraid of him. Just exactly how did he get to be so puissant?See omnystudio.com/li ...  Show more