When Parakeets Plundered New York

In 1942, eight men are sent from Nazi Germany to infiltrate America. Their mission: to sabotage critical infrastructure. Their problem: they're idiots. Operation Pastorius soon devolves into one of the most baffling failures of World War II. For a list of sources, see the show no ...  Show more

This is a special crossover episode with Business History. John DeLorean was a visionary who wanted to create a futuristic new sports car - a stainless steel marvel with distinctive gull-wing doors. The British Government agreed to finance the project, provided he built his facto ...  Show more

When invasive parakeets began to spread in New York City in the 1970s, the government decided it needed to kill them all. Today: The offbeat panic about wild parrots, and a history of anxieties about population growth.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

The 2018 episode covers the day the last known Carolina parakeet died at the Cincinnati Zoo, as well as the stories of two other endlings, to see how abundant species can quickly become extinct.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

“A cloud of black, acrid smoke hung over the area. It was a scene from a warzone, a battlefield - it was a scene from the end of the world…” New York in the 1970s was a city decimated by economic stagnation, unemployment and ever-rising crime rates, haemorrhaging its population t ...  Show more

On World Parrot Day, Brent talks to Francois La Grange, a scientist working with the Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots, an organization working to reintroduce the spix macaw into the wild.  The spix macaw is currently extinct in the wild. See omnystudio.com/l ...  Show more