But Life Was Good for Me!

How do ordinary people help a dictatorship take hold—and still believe they’re the good guys?

This week, Oldmate and Josh dig into They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933–45 by Milton Mayer. Drawing on his conversations with ten former Nazi Party members, we explore the excuses, the everyday comforts and the small compromises that helped make the unthinkable feel normal.

Work still happened. Bills still needed paying. And when someone else was being targeted, there was always a reason to keep your head down.

Expect uncomfortable questions, questionable tangents and two blokes trying to understand how “I’m staying out of politics” becomes a political decision.

Would we have recognised what was happening—or just carried on because life was good for us?

📚 The book and further reading

They Thought They Were Free — Milton Mayer

Read the excerpt: “But Then It Was Too Late”

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🎵 Music by Pity Lips.

The world remembers the day. How much do we know about everything that came before it?

Oldmate & Josh explore the road to September 11, drawing on Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower. From the rise of al-Qaeda to warnings that failed to become action, we follow a story of extremism, institutional failures and information that never reached the people who needed it.

We examine the FBI–CIA disconnect, the haunting story of investigator John O’Neill, and the difficult questions surrounding the official investigation. Then comes the aftermath: fear, war, political opportunity and consequences that still shape our lives.

Big questions, uncomfortable history and occasional reminders that putting “intelligence” in an organisation’s name is a bold commitment.

Who knew what? What could have been prevented? And how do we question powerful institutions without mistaking every unanswered question for proof of a conspiracy?

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Music by: Pity Lips

Ep104: Toddie got lost

Ep103: thomas hobbes

Michael Jackson almost owned Marvel. Somehow, that’s only the beginning. Oldmate & Josh follow the money through Neverland, shrewd music-catalogue deals and dreams of an entertainment empire—before asking how it all unravelled.

Drawing on former adviser Dieter Wiesner’s The Real Story, we put the insider account under the microscope: what stacks up, what remained a dream, and who benefits from telling it? Huge ambition, staggering debt, and a commercial empire that flourished after his death. Everyone seems to know the “real Michael”—especially when there’s a book to sell.

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Enjoyed the episode? Follow the show, leave a rating and share it with someone who loves a rabbit hole.

Music by: Pity Lips

Ep101: Tuberculosis


One hundred episodes. Countless rabbit holes, questionable theories and conversations that went wildly beyond the original point.

For this milestone celebration, we revisit the moments that shaped Oldmate & Josh, discuss amd honour the listeners who helped carry us here and reveal a few things we’ve been keeping up our sleeves. We’re also looking forward—unpacking potential new shows, strange creative projects and where this whole magnificent mess could go next.

There may even be an answer to a question nobody realised they’d been asking.

This isn’t the finish line.

It’s the end of the beginning.

Music by: Pity Lips

We book holidays as if another location contains a calmer, happier and more interesting version of ourselves. Then we arrive and discover the weather is real, the queues are real—and our personality came through baggage handling completely unharmed.

In this episode, Oldmate and Josh unpack Alain de Botton’s The Art of Travel: a philosophical look at why we travel, why the imagined holiday can feel better than the real one and why even paradise eventually becomes Tuesday. We explore anticipation, airports, bucket lists, exoticism, nature, photography, social-media performance and whether AI-generated itineraries are quietly removing curiosity from the journey.

Are we travelling to experience the world, escape ourselves, collect evidence—or simply remember how to pay attention?

Listener question: What is the greatest travel experience you’ve ever had that would still matter if you had no photographs and nobody knew you went? Leave a comment, send us a message or email oldmateandjosh@gmail.com.

Apologies for the publication-feed weirdness. Caleb is too sick to function and Oldmate’s brain has melted into a warm, unusable paste—so naturally, both were given access to podcast-distribution software. Welcome to Episode 99.2.

Website: https://www.oldmateandjosh.com
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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/oldmate-and-josh-the-podcast/id1745812861

Music by Pity Lips.