Adam Tod Brown

You know American democracy can’t always have a ‘West Wing’ tone. Mud will be slung! Sexploits will be news! Results will occasionally be fishy! However, there is a cottage industry of people claiming the current negatives of American politics are new. They claim we are a few social changes (and a few purchases of MY NEW BOOK) away from “returning” to a more positive past. A past where noble patriots ran “traditional” campaigns and “did things the right way” and “were not divisive.” But what if everything we just put in quotes is wishful fiction? What if most American elections have been…disapppointing? And what if gaining that historical perspective will make your 2020 a lot more tolerable?

On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians & satirists Zack Bornstein (The New Yorker, ‘Alternatino’) and Adam Tod Brown (Unpopular Opinion podcast network) for forgotten stories of dumb and embarrassing American elections. They’ll share tales of corruption, lies, fraud, sex stuff, and other crimes dominating 200+ years of Presidential politics. It turns out the gross U.S. elections you do know about (2000, 2016, and maaaaaybe 1876) are the historical norm — and boy will that wisdom do wonders for your 2020 mental health.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/9-dumb-embarrassing-american-elections-nobody-talks-about/

If you ask the average American to name ten things from World War II, Benito Mussolini won’t often make the list. But “Il Duce” seized power long before Hitler, spent more than two decades reshaping Italy in his image, and coined that “Fascist” term we all yell these days. Isn’t it strange that we never focus on Mussolini when we hearken back to WW2? Could he be a useful historical touchstone for understanding the present day? And did you know modern Italy is so steeped in Mussolini, its rising political stars CELEBRATE his brutal genocidal legacy?

On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by historian & scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat and by comedian & podcaster Adam Tod Brown. They’re taking a timely look at the most ignored fascist government of all time. They’ll debunk common myths about Mussolini’s train-centric reign. They’ll reveal the shockingly brazen Mussolini acolytes in modern Italian politics, supported by Fascism’s soccer subculture and normalized legacy. Also stick around for the shocking parallels between 2010s world leaders and Mussolini’s 1920s quest to Make Italy Great Again.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/what-fascist-italy-reveals-about-modern-america/

“No bad ideas in a brainstorm.” That’s a common saying that implies a darker truth: as soon as an idea leaves a brainstorm’s cocoon, and gets put into practice, it can metamorphose into a living, breathing disaster. After all, who knows how your theoretical idea would actually work? How can we put any idea into practice without testing it on millions of people first? And surprise — sudden mental left turn here — what if we already had a way to test all kinds of ideas, see how great they really are, and then easily make your life better by implementing them?

On this week’s episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Adam Tod Brown (Unpopular Opinion) and Nick Wiger (Doughboys) for a worldwide brainstorming session. They’ll consider all kinds of real ideas, tested by real countries, that could upgrade life in America if we just had the courage to borrow them. The year’s almost over, so throw on some headphones and find out how copying the best laws from Sweden, Cuba, Taiwan and more places could be our first and best decision of 2019.

Footnotes: http://www.cracked.com/podcast/12-great-ideas-america-should-steal-from-other-countries/

Most disaster movies make cannon fodder out of almost every single living person on the planet who isn’t a president, a fighter pilot, or the one scientist who has the key to solving the alien/meteor/whatever problem. What about the rest of us? Isn’t there a great story in the Armageddon expanded universe about a bunch of people partying like the world is going to end and then having to go to work the next day?

What about the thankless IT workers of S.H.I.E.L.D. or any secret organization of that matter? Where are the stories of the people whose job it is to handle the IT tickets when Darth Vader’s hologram doesn’t work or Captain America forgets his password?

In this live episode recorded at the Comikaze Expo in Los Angeles, Jack O’Brien is joined on a panel by Dan O’Brien, Soren Bowie, Michael Swaim, Tom Reimann, Katie Willert, Alex Schmidt, Adam Tod Brown, Cody Johnson and Josh Sargent to discuss movies that would be completely changed if you viewed them from the point of view of the little people.

Also, be sure to buy tickets to our next LIVE podcast on Wednesday, January 6th at 7pm at the UCB Sunset theatre in Los Angeles. Jack will be joined by Dan O’Brien, Alex Schmidt and Carmen Angelica to talk about the frustrating intricacies and strange evolution of the English language. Tickets are only $5 and on sale here: bit.ly/1OCNQTK

Sometimes finding the presidential candidate that’s right for you comes down to the endorsements. Are they supported by the teachers union or local firefighters? Maybe the endorsement of the New York Times means something to you.

What if a major candidate this year, a certain blustery, orange-haired TV personality, had the endorsements of The Daily Stormer, American Renaissance and the League of the South, organizations whose political leanings fall somewhere between John Wilkes Boothe and Michael Fassbender in 12 Years A Slave? Why hasn’t the Donald Trump bullet-train to the White House come to a screeching halt with the revelation that many of his advocates would rather it be 1850 than 2015?

This week on the podcast, Jack O’Brien is joined by Cracked editors Adam Tod Brown and Robert Evans to discuss Donald Trump, the seeming rise of white supremacy around the globe, and secret Nazi dog-whistles. Later, Stephanie Georgopulos from Paper Magazine sits down with Jack for a one-on-one about Michael Jackson’s racial identity and what it’s like to grow up biracial in America.

Think about the Disney princesses of the 1930s, 40s and 50s and what they actually accomplished in their films. Snow White: Hot girl falls asleep in the forest and is almost murdered by dwarfs until they realize how hot she is. Alice in Wonderland: English girl falls asleep at lunch, has crazy dreams, wakes up. Sleeping Beauty: Do you see where we’re going with this?

When you peel away your personal experiences with these movies and just think about their base elements, a dark subtext arises. The Disney filmography from the 1930s to today perpetuates an antiquated American value structure that depicts misogyny, racism, classism and narcissism, yet as kids watching these films and parents showing them to our children, we never think twice about it. Should we be more vigilant in deciphering what these movies are really about instead of just blindly trusting the logo on the Blu-Ray case?

This week on the podcast Jack O’Brien and guest host Tom Reimann are joined by Cracked editors Alex Schmidt, Josh Sargent and Adam Tod Brown. They discuss the grim underpinnings of the Disney film library, how his earliest films are ripe with misogyny, and Jack’s secretly horrifying childhood vacation to a Disney theme park.