Bro History

The Democratic Socialists of America just hit 129,000 members, the most socialists in US history. So what do democratic socialists actually want? We watched two viral videos to find out, and it got weird fast. Is democratic socialism a real movement or a vibe with a membership card? Two guys, one from each side, try to answer it honestly. We first watched Beatrice Adler-Bolton, co-author of Health Communism, argue that getting in shape is fascist and the left should be proudly "dysgenic." Danny got confused and Henry tried to help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKeoXXgYNYA Then we watched DSA co-chair Megan Romer sit down with David Remnick on the New Yorker Radio Hour and did a play-by-play on her answers to some pretty basic questions. Some of them landed. Most were weird and sparked some debate between us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RWsHLvBntg Chookah Bogan is powered by Maneku, the AI built for real conversations on your show. Learn more at maneku.ai TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 – Henry is back: why Bro History went quiet 01:41 – Meet Chookah Bogan, the AI third chair 02:52 – Why we don't let AI write the show 05:56 – 129,000 members: the most socialists in US history 07:17 – Mamdani so far: NYC is still standing and crime keeps falling 11:05 – Video 1: "Being fit is fascist"? Decoding the dysgenic speech 15:21 – Henry's generous reading: eugenics, disposability, and Marx 21:50 – Danny's hot take: the DSA is the left's Tea Party 24:17 – Video 2: DSA co-chair Megan Romer with David Remnick 26:29 – Workplace democracy: should every barista get a vote? 29:02 – Chookah checks: 706 Starbucks stores have unionized 33:19 – $500K union jobs and whether baristas are skilled labor 39:02 – Collective bargaining, Big Pharma, and the Medicare for All logic 41:02 – Owning the means of production: Google, Apple, power, water 42:49 – Why Marx would hate this: "a kinder, gentler capitalism" 45:26 – DSA is an umbrella: Bernie types, tankies, and open communists 52:06 – Romer says it out loud: this is not social democracy 54:05 – Who is "working class"? Romer vs Mamdani's $1 million line 57:47 – Chookah checks LeBron's net worth 01:01:10 – Retire the term "working class"? Factories vs Starbucks vs Deloitte 01:03:15 – Danny built an AI company. Is he the owner class now? 01:05:14 – Plumbers vs Bezos: Amazon drivers and the piss bottles (fact-checked) 01:10:02 – DSA snubbed Hillary in 2016 and Harris in 2024 01:12:06 – Jacobin's "guerrilla insurgency" inside the Democratic Party 01:18:34 – Open borders: the immigration non-answer 01:23:21 – Danny's actual immigration plan 01:27:47 – Why "it's the immigrants" stopped working in 2026 01:33:50 – "Tax the hell out of millionaires." How much? No number. 01:36:26 – "The rich" is the left's version of "the immigrants" 01:39:23 – The Israel red line and a suspicious jump cut 01:43:01 – One state, two states, or Canaan 01:49:00 – The Haaretz report: did Netanyahu know before October 7? 01:51:05 – DSA's 2028 shortlist: Fain, Nelson, AOC, Khanna 01:53:29 – Chookah recaps the entire episode 01:55:33 – Outro: Substack, Maneku, and getting back on schedule Links to our other stuff on the interwebs: https://www.youtube.com/@BroHistory https://brohistory.substack.com/ #DemocraticSocialism #Mamdani #BroHistory #Socialism #DSA #ZohranMamdani #WorkingClass #Unions #USPolitics #NYC #PoliticsPodcast #Maneku #349 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Knicks just won the NBA Finals — and José Alvarado led the Puerto Rican Day Parade the next morning. But while New York was celebrating, something else was quietly happening in the Caribbean: a US carrier strike group just parked itself 90 miles from Havana. Henry and Danny — with help from AI guest Tio Raul — break down the full arc of America's 125-year obsession with Cuba. From the first concentration camps in history, to the mob-run casino island Batista built for American business, to Fidel's guerrilla campaign on a 10-person yacht with 81 men aboard, to the Cuban tank crews that went and fought Israel on a mountain in Syria — this island punches so far above its weight it's almost unbelievable. They also get into why Cuba deployed nearly half a million troops to Angola over 16 years, how that campaign helped end apartheid in South Africa (and what Nelson Mandela himself said about it), and how Aroldis Chapman — the hardest thrower in baseball history — had to buy his freedom from a cartel for $30 million just to pitch in the majors. And then there's Marco Rubio, whose family left Cuba under Batista — not Castro — now sitting as Secretary of State with a carrier fleet and a personal vendetta shaping US foreign policy in real time. Someone just dropped $57,000 on a prediction market betting it all goes hot before the end of 2026. Tio Raul is powered by Maneku — the AI built for real conversations. Learn more at maneku.ai TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 – Knicks Win & the Puerto Rican Connection 02:30 – More Puerto Ricans in Florida Than New York? 05:00 – Bad Bunny, Nuyoricans & José Alvarado 08:15 – Cuba: Spain's Prize Colony & the First Concentration Camps 14:30 – The USS Maine, Yellow Press & the Spanish-American War 19:45 – The Platt Amendment: Independence with an Asterisk 24:00 – Batista, the American Mob & Meyer Lansky's Havana 29:00 – Castro, the Granma & the 26th of July Movement 33:30 – Bay of Pigs: The CIA's Most Embarrassing Failure 38:00 – The Cuban Missile Crisis & Proletarian Internationalism 44:00 – Cuba vs. the IDF: Tank Crews in the Golan Heights 48:00 – Operation Carlota: Cuba Ends Apartheid in Angola 57:00 – Chapman, Cartels & Cuban Athletes Buying Their Freedom 01:04:00 – The Soviet Collapse & Cuba's "Special Period" 01:07:00 – Mariel Boatlift, Scarface & the Cuban American Political Machine 01:14:00 – Obama Normalizes, Trump Reverses, Rinse, Repeat 01:22:00 – Marco Rubio's Messy Timeline & the Carrier in the Caribbean 01:35:00 – Should the US Invade Cuba? Prediction Markets Say… 01:42:00 – Final Thoughts #CubaHistory #USForeignPolicy #MarcoRubio #ColdWarHistory #BayOfPigs #BroHistory #Podcast #FidelCastro #Knicks #PuertoRico #JoseAlvarado #AroldisChapman #Angola #Apartheid #LatinAmerica #Geopolitics #TioRaul #Maneku Links to our other stuff on the interwebs: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BroHistory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://brohistory.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ #348 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if rooting for the Knicks and rallying behind a nation-state are powered by the exact same part of the human brain? On this episode of Bro History, Henry and Danny are joined by Frankie Donnelly from South Philly — and yes, Frankie is an AI research co-host powered by maneku (maneku.ai) — to break down one of the most fascinating and disturbing parallels in modern life: sports fandom as a mirror of nationalism. It starts with the Knicks' electric playoff run taking over New York City, spirals into a deleted newspaper article comparing the OKC Thunder to the state of Israel, and ends somewhere between Mussolini's Italy and a pep rally. They dig into why MSG unites Orthodox Jews and Arab New Yorkers in a way Congress never could, why Knicks fans sacking Philadelphia felt like a Mongolian conquest, and how the same psychological machinery that makes you weep over a playoff loss is the same thing authoritarian regimes have weaponized for centuries — from Hitler's Nuremberg rallies to the 1978 Argentine World Cup. Frankie drops facts, pulls receipts, and says the uncomfortable quiet part out loud — all in real time. That's maneku. Try it yourself at maneku.ai. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 – Intro: Sports, Tribalism, and a Special Guest 01:42 – The Knicks Run Is Taking Over New York City 05:31 – Why There's Only One True New York Basketball Team (Sorry, Nets) 10:05 – Knicks Fandom as Nationalism: The Glory, the Humiliation, the Mythology 14:44 – J.R. Smith Gets Trampled by His Own Fans 17:08 – When Winning Teams Spark Riots: Detroit '84 and the Pistons '90 20:20 – Knicks Fans "Conquer" Philadelphia — A South Philly Reaction 23:18 – The Psychology of Nationalism: In-Groups, Shared Mythology, Ritual, and Spectacle 28:00 – It's Irrational to Root for a Team — So Why Do We Do It? 31:25 – Sports Fandom Tied to Real Nationalist Projects 32:40 – The Deleted Oklahoman Article: "Like the Thunder, Israel Is an Underdog That Has Become Hated" 42:35 – Could You Make This Comparison for the Third Reich? 50:20 – How Authoritarian Regimes Weaponized Sports: 1936 Berlin, Mussolini, Argentina's Junta 54:10 – How Soccer Explains the World: Serbia, Barcelona vs. Madrid, and the American Culture Wars 57:28 – Why Soccer Became a Conservative vs. Liberal Identity Marker in the US 01:06:40 – Sports, Honor, and Sending Your Kids to War: Same Mechanism, Different Uniform 01:10:40 – Blue No Matter Who. My Team No Matter What. Same Sentence. 01:23:06 – Outro: Introducing AI-Assisted Research on Bro History Links to our other stuff on the interwebs: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BroHistory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://brohistory.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ #347 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we break down: Why Iran and Israel weren’t always enemies The secret cooperation between the two during the Cold War How oil pipelines and geography shaped Middle Eastern politics The turning point after the 1967 war The impact of the 1979 Iranian Revolution The Iran-Iraq War and covert Israel-Iran cooperation Why everything changed after the fall of the Soviet Union And how this relationship slowly collapsed into today’s hostility This isn’t a simple story of “good vs bad” — it’s a story of strategy, survival, and shifting power. If you want to understand the current conflict, this is the context you’ve been missing. TIMESTAMPS: 01:00 – Current Iran-US War Context 11:00 – Ancient Iran & Jewish Relations 14:45 – What Changed? (Birth of Israel) 20:00 – Secret Cooperation (Oil & Intelligence) 24:00 – Pipeline Politics Explained 32:00 – The Arab Cold War & Regional Power 36:00 – Israel’s Rise After 1967 38:00 – Breakdown Begins 42:00 – Yom Kippur War & Iran’s Strategy 55:00 – 1979 Iranian Revolution 58:30 – Iran-Iraq War & Survival Strategy 01:02:00 – Ideology vs Pragmatism 01:04:00 – Hezbollah & Regional Influence 01:10:00 – Post-Cold War Shift 01:13:00 – Missiles, Nuclear Program & Rising Tension 01:16:00 – Final Breakdown of the Relationship Links to our other stuff on the interwebs: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BroHistory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://brohistory.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ #346 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. is now at war with Iran — and in this episode, we break down how we got here, why it happened now, and what could come next. We react in real time to the opening phase of the conflict, from the shock of direct U.S. involvement to the strategic questions already emerging: the Strait of Hormuz, oil disruption, Iran’s missile and drone strategy, regime change talk, and the possibility of a much wider regional war. They also dig into the shifting justifications for the conflict, whether this was really about nuclear weapons, how Israel may have shaped the timing, and why the endgame still looks dangerously unclear. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – The U.S. is at war with Iran 05:18 – Strategy, Millennium Challenge, and early war questions 08:30 – Strait of Hormuz, oil, and global economic risk 16:52 – What is the real casus belli? 25:00 – Trump, Israel, and the politics of escalation 32:02 – Why Iran may be choosing attrition over saturation 42:00 – Iranian public opinion, regime stability, and miscalculation 49:13 – MEK, Pahlavi, and the regime change fantasy 53:28 – Israel’s long-term strategy and the diplomacy problem 56:02 – Does this push Iran toward getting the bomb? 01:04:00 – Cluster munitions, nukes, and moral double standards 01:13:00 – The anti-war myth and Trump’s base 01:19:00 – Ground invasion, Kharg Island, and what comes next #Iran #USIranWar #IsraelIran #MiddleEast #Geopolitics #WorldNews #StraitOfHormuz #Trump #MilitaryAnalysis #BroHistory Links to our other stuff on the interwebs: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BroHistory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://brohistory.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ #345 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices