Sofa King Podcast

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we do a somewhat unique show and do a deep dive on the Netflix documentary called The Social Dilemma. What exactly is the dilemma? Well, for one it’s privacy and the way that apps like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and all the rest use our data and manipulate us. Worse, however, is the ability to the platforms to isolate us in ocean of our own making, where our own politics, fears, prejudices, and hopes are the only thing we see. These apps distort our world view to the point where there is no more truth, just bias and a divide that keeps putting a wedge between us more and more. We talk about the three main goal of the apps—engagement, growth, and advertising. The algorithms used by these companies are far more sophisticated that we could dream, and even the creators no longer have control of what their AIs do or how they do it. More to the point, the social media apps are leading us to a dystopia where we all hate each other and only see one narrow world view. If you

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk one of the all-time legends of the music industry, the one and only Quincy Jones. He wasn’t just a music prodigy, he understood the business in a way nobody else ever has. He worked with some of the greatest of all time, from Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles to Dizzy Gillespie and Elvis Presley. He created the sound of Michael Jackson’s three biggest albums, and has won a whopping 28 Grammy awards. He created The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Mad TV, and worked on film with greats like Steven Spielberg. But he started with humble beginnings in Chicago. After his mother went insane, his father moved to Seattle, and he started to learn music. At 14, he met a young Ray Charles, and they broke into the music world together. He got into a prestigious music school and then transferred to another one, but ultimately left, so he could tour with legendary Lionel Hampton’s big band. From there, he met and worked with bigger and bigger stars until he was hired by Mercury record

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we look back at a little known group from World War Two called the Night Witches. Known as the 588th Night Bomber Regimen, this all female group of Soviet pilots were such a terror to the Nazis that any German who could shoot one down would instantly receive their prestigious Iron Cross medal. Over the course of the war, they flew around 30,000 missions. They were the most decorated unit in the entire Soviet air force. Their story is a very interesting one. At first, women couldn’t serve in the Soviet air force, but a woman named Major Marina Raskova (The Russian Amelia Earhart) convinced Stalin to let it happen. He signed in three women regiments, including the 588th. Ironically, the biggest difficulty they faced was also the biggest part of their legacy and infamy. They flew the worst planes. They were given old plywood biplanes meant for crop dusting. They had no armor, no radio, no parachute, no light. However, they were so old and slow, that they f

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at the one and only kings of rock, the immortal Run-DMC. Composed of DJ Run (Joseph Simmons), DMC (Darryl McDaniels), Jam Master Jay (Jason Mizzel), this trio set the world of Hip Hop on fire and managed to take it from streets and dance clubs to the entire world. Without Run-DMC, Russel Simmons, and their unique take on style and marketing, the rap world would be an entirely different place. The three of them met each other as teens in Hollis, Queens, New York. When Run was only 17, he worked with the legendary Kurtis Blow thanks to his promoter/producer brother Russel Simmons. Eventually, Run, DMC, and JMJ wanted to record together, but it took them some convincing to get Russel on board. He changed their name to Run-DMC, insisted they keep a street looking style, and the rest was rap history. They started release hit after hit, becoming the first rap albums to make national attention and even get played on MTV. They had a lucrative deal with Adidas since

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we go back in time and look at two of the most famous train robbers and desperadoes from Cowboy Days, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. These two are linked through all of U.S. history, but they were really part of a much larger game called The Wild Bunch (and weren’t even that good of friends). The Wild Bunch led the most successful career of train robbery in the American West, and some scholars say they were only brought down by the hiring of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Butch Cassidy was born Robert Parker, but took his name from a mentor he met, who probably taught him how to steal and sell cattle and how to shoot a gun. Cassidy frowned upon violence, ironically, and boasted to have never killed a man. The other famous member of the gang was The Sundance Kid, aka Alonzo Longabaugh. Both of these men did various crimes from petty to preposterous and eventually joined forces in the Wild Bunch. They were joined by a cast of characters with amazing names: “Elzy

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about one of the strongest cases of UFO sightings, the Ariel School Encounter in Zimbabwe. What makes this one such a good case? For one, it was in a rural area, and it had over 60 witnesses. They were in such a remote location, they were not subjected to bias from mass media and popular culture, and they came from different ethnicities and religious backgrounds. What did they see? Well, common story is that several glowing silver orbs in the sky were flashing red lights. They lowered, and then two beings came out and bounced from the earth as if they were humans walking on the moon. They were riffs on a Gray Alien, almond eyes, short, thin bodies, but these had long flowing black hair. Once they were near the children, they looked at them with “evil eyes” and apparently sent a message to their brains. We are destroying the planet, and we need to stop. An African Ufologist named Cindy Hind was there the next day to investigate and reached out to

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk about one of the most revealing figures of World War Two, Anne Frank. Born to a Jewish family in 1929, her story perfectly captures the plight and flight of Jews as they tried to avoid the pure evil of the Third Reich. Though her father fought for Germany in WWI, they had to go in hiding to save themselves. During their two year stay in what came to be called the Secret Annex, Anne kept her world famous diary. It shows the mind of a very bright young woman, and it captures the fear, dread, and hope that people felt during World War Two. Who all was in the Annex with Anne Frank? What types of things did she put in the diary? What things did her father not allow to be published? What type of friction was there as Anne fell in love with Peter Van Pels, leaving her older sister out of the loop? What happened to Anne and the others? Who survived and who died? Listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://www.biography.com/activist/anne-frank https://www.

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we explore the meteoric rise, scandal, and fame of the one and only Hulk Hogan. Born Terry Bollea, this six foot seven inch monster became synonymous with wrestling for several decades. It is said that nobody ever sold as many tickets to a wrestling match as Hulk Hogan. Starting in humble beginnings, Bollea was a big guy who bragged about becoming a wrestler—so much so that on day one of his training, they broke his leg on purpose and sent him home. But this didn’t stop him. For the better part of a decade, he traveled to different wrestling territories. Eventually, he ended up in New York working for Vince McMahon Sr., and this is where he got the name Hulk Hogan and started to get real fame. However, he was fired for his work in Rocky III and went elsewhere. Eventually, the WWF was bought by Vince Jr, and he instantly hired Hogan as the most popular wrestler in America. Together, they broke all the rules and lit wrestling on fire. They conquered every

I will just leave this right here. Merry Christmas.

This holiday season has hit us with some unexpected time restraints as we are visiting and spending quality time with our families.  We hope all of you are healthy and doing well in this joyous season.  Please excuse our absence as we will be back next week on our normal schedule, well as normal as we three can be. On this very merry episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we discuss Christmas. But it wouldn’t be us if we didn’t dig back the layers and come to some strange and ugly truths about the holiday that is associated with the birth of Jesus Christ. You may think this topic is a no brainer (a recent Pew Poll showed that 65% of Americans believe the Christmas story to be true), but be prepared to learn some odd truths about this beloved holiday. For one thing, the origins of the holiday and how it is celebrated date back to ancient pagan rites and were only adopted by the Catholic Church as a way to lure pagans to church membership. That’s right: gingerbread cookies, the Yule Log, a Christmas ham, Christmas

This holiday season has hit us with some unexpected time restraints as we are visiting and spending quality time with our families. We hope all of you are healthy and doing well in this joyous season. Please excuse our absence as we will be back next week on our normal schedule, well as normal as we three can be. Hello and welcome to Brewing The 99 where we talk about all facets of the Magic: the Gathering’s Commander format. This episode we are giving you some ideas on how to play webmander, online live commander games.  We will also be answering a no stupid questions question asked by one of patrons.  And we bring you another week of hot picks.  Lastly, we break down our successes and failures collecting for Commander, so you can learn from our mistakes, and start your collection off right.  We hope you stick around for the show and we also hope you take something away from it as well. Follow us on Twitter! @Brewingthe99 Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brewingthe99/ Follow us on Instagra

This holiday season has hit us with some unexpected time restraints as we are visiting and spending quality time with our families. We hope all of you are healthy and doing well in this joyous season. Please excuse our absence as we will be back next week on our normal schedule, well as normal as we three can be. The old man lingered in the liminal place that presaged sleep, that space where reality had variable density and fluctuating tactile strength. Moments of clarity, of skies with a blue so sharp they caused him to ache, were interspersed with vagaries, memories, haunting scars and echoes of the psyche in which he was intruding. This episode of Mindframe is a Prelude of the whole story. It introduces you to some of the major characters as seen through the eyes of a very interesting “Old Man” who doesn’t have the best grip on reality. He travels from place to place and time to time, checking in on people who he knows. It may be trippy and seem innocent, but the key themes (such as WorldGov and the Worl

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about a true-crime story. It is a case that feels like the plot of the next Grand Theft Auto game. The first character is a Ukrainian mobster named Tarzan who owns a strip club called Porky’s (named after the classic 80’s movie) and who used to be an enforcer for the Gambino crime family. Additionally, the second character is an elite car and power boat salesman/thief/grifter from Miami who starts to sell black market military equipment from Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. The third character? A member of the Cali Drug Cartel named, who is considered violent even among cartel members. What do they have in common? Well, for one, the rapper Vanilla Ice. Next, they love to make money and do illegal things. Additionally, they are pretty awesome. They try everything from selling Russian military helicopters to impersonating Pablo Escobar to trying to buy a Soviet era submarine to sell 40 tons of cocaine per trip. The characters are unbeliev

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the murder of Brian Wells, also known as the Pizza Bomber. This is a strange one. It involves an innocent pizza delivery man who is held at gunpoint as he delivers his pizza. A bomb is strapped around his neck, and he’s given directions to go on a scavenger hunt to keep the bomb from boing off. One stop on the scavenger hunt? A little bank robbery using a shotgun made to look like a walking cane. Here, the cops catch Brian Wells, and the bomb goes off and kills him. But as the backstory unfolds, this turns into a tale of hardened life-time criminals, murders, a potential female serial killer, and bodies stored in freezers. Oh, and Brian Wells may have been in on it all along! Want to know more? Give this one a listen! Visit Our Sources: https://allthatsinteresting.com/brian-wells-evil-genius-marjorie-diehl-armstrong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Brian_Wells https://pizzabomber.com/faces-from-the-case/ https://www.mcall.com/ne

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we look at the life and imagination of Ian Fleming. Fleming was of course, the creator of the iconic James Bond and author of a dozen Bond books, but he was also a key figure in British Intelligence during WWII. In fact, many people say his depiction of Bond is one of the most accurate depictions of what a spy was like during the war. His own exploits involve trying to steal an Enigma Machine, training one of the most important commando-spy units in Great Britain, and even helping draft the key elements of the CIA in Washington, D.C. He was a drinker, a womanizer, an adulterer, and a spy, and the world was made better for him. He was born to a very wealthy family. His grandfather was the founder of a bank, and the family had deep pockets and strong political connections. His father died in the trenches in WWI, and he grew up a smart and inquisitive child (though not one who cared for school work). Eventually, he was sent to a boarding school in Austria w

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we cover the true crime roller coaster that was the trial of Amanda Knox. She and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were arrested for the murder of Meredith Kercher. This case it had it all. Promiscuous college students, rough Italian cops, bar hopping, Americans, Brits, and an international cast of characters. The case gets crazy as they two get convicted, released, and then arrested and convicted again due to crazy loopholes in Italian law. Amanda Knox was born in Seattle and was a normal child and a good college student. Since childhood, she had a love of Italy, and she got a chance to study abroad while she was getting a degree in linguistics. She moved to Perugia, Italy, to finish her studies. Perugia is a small town known for its colleges (and college students) as well as some pretty crazy murder cases. Amanda Knox was not the only wild murder in town. There was a case there of an Italian Prime minister allegedly murdering a journalist and another case of a band

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we travel back in time and look at the king of all swashbucklers, Sir Henry Morgan. Morgan was a privateer (paid by the crown, so not a dirty pirate) who single handedly changed the face of the Caribbean and the war between England and Spain. In the 1600s, he was known for his cunning tactics (such as using the nuns and priests as a human shield), and he’d fight on land or at sea. He was one of the leaders of Jamaica, beloved by the people of England, and the scourge of the Spanish fleet. Yes, he helped England, but often at the end of a cutlass, with his men torturing their captives, taking slaves, and burning entire towns to the ground. Nothing could stop him. Born to a humble farmer, Henry Morgan longed for adventure. Two of his uncles served in the British Navy, and he wanted to as well. At a young age, he worked his way to the Caribbean and Jamaica, though nobody is exactly sure how he got there. It was very expensive and dangerous to make the voyage, and many v

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we look into one of the most famous cases of a haunting to come out of the UK, the Enfield Poltergeist. This is the story of a single mother living in government housing trying to support four kids when some very strange things started to happen in their house. One night in 1977, she went upstairs because her kids were freaking out, and she saw the chest of drawers move several times amidst knocking inside the walls. What came next was a series of hauntings that ran for 18 months--or a series of hoaxes if you think the daughters were up to no good! So on the night of August 31, 1977, Peggy Hodgson saw the chest of drawers move and ran next door with all of her kids. The neighbor went to investigate the now empty house and heard bizarre knocking in the walls follow him around. He went back home and called the cops. They investigated, and the officer saw a chair move on its own. She tried to find out how but could see no logical explanation. Since nobody

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we look at one of the worst natural disasters of our lifetimes, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Responsible for the death of at least 230,000 people, this massive wave gave no warning in most areas, and the level of destruction was unprecedented. Some native peoples in the area knew it was coming due to old folk lore their people followed for thousands of years (and turned out true), but for most, it was a day of horror. First off, before you even listed to this episode, you should make sure you watch some clips on YouTube. The terror of the black wave, the people swept away to nothing, cars filled with people as they get swept aside as if by the hands of giants. It is truly terrifying. The tsunami was spawned by an underwater earth quake that hit on December 26th, 2004. It was said to be the second strongest quake ever recorded and lasted a total of ten minutes of shaking in some areas. The wave was generating from the quake, and due to the holiday, tou

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we indulge in some true crime and talk about one of the worst monsters we’ve run up against, Pee Wee Gaskins. Born Donald Gaskins, he was always small (hence the nickname). His childhood ticked all the boxes: absent father, step fathers who beat him, a mother who didn’t care, drinking kerosene, and never even learning his own name. By the age 11, he had dropped out of school and ran with the “Trouble Trio,” where he robbed and gang raped prostitutes. This behavior never stopped, and with a life in and out of prison for endless crimes, he finally found his true calling once he started to kill and discovered his “Bothersome Feeling.” Once Pee Wee was busted for the horrible things he did with the Trouble Trio, he was sent to a reform school. All he learned there was how to be gang raped, and he finally had to sell his sexual services to the “Big Boy” for protection. He finally escaped and joined a carnival, like you do, and eventually he was too old to serve his juveni