Terrible Portraits artist and longtime cherished friend Jacob Ryan Reno comes to make Hedge Fund Management ENTERTAINING AS ALL HELL! If you don't know this story, I highly encourage you to go in blind like Jacob did, because I fear I totally gagged him at the main climax of the story.

We dive into the ultimate "not like other girls" disgraced Wall Street trader Sam Israel III. Third time's a charm for the Israel family no doubt as we really dig into the story of a guy with a tattoo of a little cherub on his hip desperate to beat the nepo baby allegations.

Honestly the main source I used was Guy Lawson's book "Octopus: Sam Israel, the Shadow Market, and Wall Street's Wildest Con" from 2012. It is a very detailed book that, as discussed on pod, lowkey gets conspiracy-brain-pilled in the middle and it is not particularly entertaining or great. I checked with other news sources to verify some of the key information, but I'd be lying to say I used those news sources as much as I just simply used the book to get this story across, since it is absolutely fucking nuts. But the book isn't great, so I can't recommend it the way I recommend other books.

Support Jacob's work @terrible.portraits which you may have no doubt seen on the news or Instagram recently! Hire him for your funeral on a day he's not meant to be a the clubbbbb!

I meant to post this yesterday and just literally forgot? Sorry everybody LOL.

You ever bestie so hard you and your homegirl's boyfriend wind up at drinks and podcasting? My dear friend Archie joins me in studio to talk about a geographically relevant piece of history for him: The Minneapolis Aquatennial! This is a pretty violent and bloody episode - I mean, what else were people up to in the 30s? - and is a long awaited union-sode! Along the way we'll talk trashy old newspapers, the kidnapping of a beer heir, and just how much businessmen will put on the line for...documents. Spoiler alert: it's EVERYTHING!

Yes I did record this like 2 days after it'd have been relevant. One thing about me? I love being juuuuust a hair away from being topical.

SOURCES:

1) "A Union Against Unions: the Minneapolis Citizens Alliance and Its Fight Against Organized Labor, 1903-1947" by William Millikan 2001 https://archive.org/details/unionagainstunio0000mill/page/n1/mode/2up (This is the main source on the subject, and basically any website is ripping from this book)

2) Aquatennial.com

3) Minneapolis Journal Tuesday August 26, 1930 is the random newspaper I picked: https://www.newspapers.com/image/811596648/

4) Star Tribune, Wednesday November 1, 1933 op-ed: "In Defense of Hitler" https://www.newspapers.com/image/182407195

5) The grindset ad is somewhere on this newspaper page of the Star Tribune, Sunday August 21st 1932: https://www.newspapers.com/image/182534699/

6) This wasn't officially quoted BUT "90 years ago, Hamm's heir kidnapped in broad daylight in St. Paul," Cathy Wurzer and Gretchen Brown, Jun 2023, MPR News, https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2023/06/14/90-years-ago-hamms-heir-kidnapped-held-for-ransom-in-st-paul

7) the stock music I used for that one bit is at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I34bTKW8ud0&list=PLQtpqy3zeTGB7V5lkhkfBVaiZyrysv_fG the top comment of which is "My god, this beat just told me that unionizing wasn't in my best interest because it would destroy our family culture"

Minister of Toilet Management Mark Geary joins me for a romp into the world of non-profit arts organizations! He is the founder of The Lincoln Lodge, which is where I record my podcast and is also my place of full time employment. Do two standup comedy philistines have any right to judge Shen Yun? NOPE, but we saw the show anyways on a strange, beautiful Thursday afternoon. Parking took 17 minutes by the way. Mark has a long and storied history in the Chicago comedy scene and it is actually a huge score that he agreed to be on my podcast, so please forgive how nervous I was during the recording.

Anywhoozles, Shen Yun is a non-profit arts organization AKA it is in the same line of business as The Lincoln Lodge - so that's the expertise we're bringing to the table. Other podcasts have dutifully covered the....strange and religious background origins of Shen Yun and its parent organization the Falun Dafa. I'm honestly not sure if I did a great job explaining the Falun Gong stuff because 1) you sound crazy when you try to summarize it 2) it's out of scope for the podcast 3) i was a little drunk and 4) i made a concerted effort to not be too hard on religious people because it's a smug lefty podcast trend that I find gauche. Sorry TrueAnon people, I am just a better person than you <3

I wish I'd remembered to say this on mic, but Mark did lean over during the piece of the performance that was meant to be set in the modern day. The actors all wore khakis and blue shirts and he, brow furrowed with the gravitas of a 60 minutes interview, leaned over and went "why are they all dressed like they work at Best Buy?" and to me that made Shen Yun worth the price of admission 100%.

SOURCES:

1) The article I need to attribute the most credit to (though the content comes super late in the episode) is "How Shen Yun Tapped Religious Fervor to Make $266 Million" by New York Times reporters Nicole Hong and Michael Rothfeld linked here: https://web.archive.org/web/20250106190435/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/29/nyregion/shen-yun-money-falun-gong.html

2) Shen Yun's 2023 Form 990: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/208812402/202421039349300917/full

3) IRS Whistleblower website link: https://www.irs.gov/about-irs/whistleblower-office-at-a-glance#:~:text=The%20IRS%20Whistleblower%20Office%2C%20which,else%20they%20may%20be%20encountered.

4) "California Man Sentenced for Acting as an Illegal Agent of the People’s Republic of China Government and Bribery," DOJ press release linked here: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/california-man-sentenced-acting-illegal-agent-peoples-republic-china-government-and-bribery

5) "US: Chinese agents paid bribes in plot to disrupt anti-communist Falun Gong movement," CBS News May 6 2023 linked here: https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/us-chinese-agents-paid-bribes-in-plot-to-disrupt-anti-communist-falun-gong-movement/

6) "Federal lawsuit accuses Dragon Springs compound of sewage contamination of stream," Times Herald-Record, Chris McKenna, January 2022 linked here: