Hello everyone!
I can’t lie, it’s hot where I live as I’m writing this!
It’s no secret that I have a deep admiration for Founding Father and 2nd President of the US John Adams. John Adams didn’t like the heat, which I totally relate to, as I don’t like it either. He would often complain about the heat. He was much more eloquent than I could ever be, so I’m going to quote him from a letter that he wrote to his wife Abigail on August 14, 1777, (I found the letter at masshist.org.)
We are still parching under the fierce Heats of Dog days. It is agreed, by most People, that so long and so intense a Heat has scarcely been known. The Day before Yesterday, Dr. Ewing an eminent Philosopher as well as Mathematician, and Divine told me, the Spirit in his Glass, was at 91 in his cool Room, and from thence he concludes that it was above an hundred abroad in the Shade, because he says it is generally ten degrees lower, in his cool Room, than it is in the Shade out of Doors. Yesterday, it was at 94, abroad in the Shade. He placed his Thermometer, against a Post which had been heated by the Sun, and the Spirit arose to an 100, but removing it to another Place, and suspending it at a distance from any warm Object and the Spirit subsided and settled at 94. -- How we shall live through these Heats I don’t know.
The Tudors
There’s some really exciting things coming up for The Door Key Podcast Substack! We’re going to be watching and discussing the first season of the show The Tudors! This will all start on July 26th (the day after this post goes out). We’re going to be watching and talking about the entire first season, one episode a week. I’ve even made BINGO cards for it that you can play while watching if you’d like, and I’ll be sending a Tudor-themed prize to the winner. (FYI - The Tudors is a really fun show, and the BINGO cards reflect that: one of my favorite squares says: ‘Henry throws a tantrum’)
This is a feature for paid-subscribers - you can upgrade to a paid subscription if you want to be part of all this The Tudors conversation and fun! There’s time, I’ll even email you a BINGO card!
It’s Disability Pride Month!
July is Disability Pride Month, and I want to share two podcasts that I listen to that discuss disability in a very real way.
MeSsy - This podcast is hosted by actresses Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Both of these women have Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and discuss what life with this illness is like in a very real, matter-of-fact way.
The Lady’s Illness Library - The host
has guests on her show, and they discuss different chronic illnesses of all sorts in a way that really explains what it’s like to live with a debilitating illness. Rachel also has a fantastic Substack that I highly recommend: Inner WorkingsMore good news!
I was featured in an episode of the podcast #impact, where I talk about someone who inspires me to build community!
The host of #impact is Regina Larko - she’s amazing, and I’m so excited to be a small part of this great episode!
Here’s a link to the episode I’m on: here
Regina also has a newsletter: here
xoxo, April
A Conversation with historian Jackson van Uden
I hope you’ve had a chance to listen to my conversation with historian Jackson van Uden by now! Jackson is also a political scientist and author. He specializes in totalitarianism and totalitarian regimes. Jackson and I had a great conversation about totalitarianism, and then we discussed the great satire movie The Death of Stalin.
You can listen to the episode here:
This episode is the third part of a story I’m telling about this period of Russian history. It started with an episode about Rasputin, then I talked about The Romanovs and the mystery of Anastasia, and it ends with this episode.
In case you missed them, here are links to the first two episodes in this series:
I try to make it so that each episode can stand on its own, but I really enjoyed sort of telling a larger story over several episodes the way I did with this, so let me know in the comments if you’d like to see me do this more often!
An example of what we were talking about
In the episode, Jackson and I discuss Stalin’s Great Purge, and how people were ‘disappeared’. Here’s an example of someone being ‘disappeared’, I think this is something that needs to be seen to be believed. It’s a grim reminder that while Jackson and I discussed a movie that was a satire, the truth behind the events of the movie were very real, and very serious:
Thank you Jackson!
I’m really grateful to Jackson for coming onto Door Key! I really enjoyed our conversation, and he provided a lot of extra context and knowledge which I really appreciate!
Here are all of Jackson’s social media links!
website: https://historywithjackson.co.uk/
podcast ‘History with Jackson’: https://historywithjackson.co.uk/podcast
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/history-with-jackson
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@historywithjackson?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxXh8pNeS7gdE377kgrNOIw
books ‘The Crystallisation of Totalitarianism’ and ‘Dictators’: https://historywithjackson.co.uk/books
One last thing before I go
In the episode, Jackson and I talk about how one of the ways people dealt with the very real fear of living in Stalin’s regime was through humor, and we talk about some real jokes that were told during that time.
Here’s another one of those real-life jokes:
Stalin was out swimming, but he began to drown. A peasant who was passing by jumped in and pulled him safely to shore. Stalin asked the peasant what he would like as a reward. Realizing whom he had saved, the peasant cried out: ‘Nothing! Just please don’t tell anyone I saved you!’
Some extra credit
My friend Jeffrey LaMonica has written a book that ties in really well with the topic of the current episode of Door Key!
The book is called Between Deterrence and Détente, and it discusses what was happening in the Cold War in the year 1953 from the perspective of Great Britain’s Ambassador to the US. Much of the book deals with how Stalin’s death impacted US Cold War policy, particularly Churchill’s push for a high-level meeting between US and Soviet leaders.
You can find the book here.
This episode of Door Key was edited by Stephanie Fuccio of Coffeelike Media. Steph also helps with the marketing of this podcast.