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  • The Prison Doctor Who Delivered Fifty Babies and Stayed When Ordered Out

    The Prison Doctor Who Delivered Fifty Babies and Stayed When Ordered Out
    2026/10/30
    A Japanese American doctor is forced into an internment camp, where the US government demands she deliver babies in a converted horse racetrack.

    The Prison Doctor Who Delivered Fifty Babies and Stayed When Ordered Out

    This episode explores the extraordinary life of Dr. Kazue Togasaki, a Japanese American physician who delivered fifty babies in a World War II internment camp. It examines the contradictions of her situation and the resilience that defined her path in medicine.

    Person: Kazue Togasaki
    Date: June 29, 1897 (birth)
    Location: Tanforan Assembly Center, San Bruno, California
    Event: World War II internment

    - Kazue Togasaki was born in San Bruno in 1897, the eldest of nine children in a Japanese immigrant family.
    - At age nine, she translated for Japanese immigrant women in a makeshift hospital after the 1906 San Bruno earthquake.
    - Despite racial segregation in schools and discrimination in hospital employment, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from Stanford in 1920.
    - She then became a registered nurse in 1924 and pursued a public health degree in 1927.
    - In 1933, at 35, she earned her medical degree from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, becoming one of the earliest Japanese American women to do so.

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    18 分
  • The Eyelid Surgery That Tried to Hide Him and Lost

    The Eyelid Surgery That Tried to Hide Him and Lost
    2026/10/29
    A 23-year-old American gets eyelid surgery and refuses removal from California-how did his attempt to hide him expose the government?

    The Eyelid Surgery That Tried to Hide Him and Lost

    In this episode we follow the choices and obstacles surrounding one man’s refusal to leave his California home during wartime and the legal fight that followed. It traces why he altered his appearance, who took his case, and what risks those defenders faced in challenging military orders.

    Person: Fred Korematsu
    Date: May 30, 1942
    Location: San Leandro, California
    Event: Refusal to report to assembly center
    Organization: ACLU Northern California chapter

    - He had surgery on his eyelids, adopted the name Clyde Sarah, and claimed Spanish-Hawaiian ancestry to avoid exclusion.
    - He was arrested at age twenty-three on a San Leandro street corner and taken to a San Leandro jail.
    - Ernest Besig, ACLU Northern California director, sought a test case and recruited Korematsu from his cell.
    - National ACLU leadership refused to support the case, citing fears of appearing unpatriotic during wartime.
    - Besig assigned Wayne M. Collins to represent Korematsu and proceeded without national backing.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 分
  • The Mandarin Tutor Who Became a Colonial Target

    The Mandarin Tutor Who Became a Colonial Target
    2026/10/28
    A Mandarin-educated scion faces Dutch colonial power in 1930 and dies in prison fifteen years later - how did his language betray him?

    The Mandarin Tutor Who Became a Colonial Target

    In this episode, we follow the life and institutional role of Khouw Kim An as he navigates Dutch colonial structures, Chinese communal leadership, and shifting loyalties during wartime occupation. We trace the decisions, relationships, and offices that placed him at the intersection of empires and ask what made him a target in 1942.

    Person: Khouw Kim An
    Date: February 10, 1930 (Grand Gold Star), 1942 (internment)
    Location: Batavia and Tjimahi prison
    Family: Khouw Tian Sek (grandfather), Khouw Tjeng Tjoan (father), Phoa Tji Nio (wife)
    Institution: Majoor der Chinezen; Kong Koan (Chinese Council of Batavia)

    - Born in Batavia in 1875 into the Khouw family, five generations entrenched in Chinese colonial administration.
    - Received a classical Chinese education, learned Mandarin and Hokkien while contemporaries Westernized.
    - Married into the Phoa family around 1893, linking two leading Chinese institutional lineages and settling in Buitenzorg.
    - Rose through colonial ranks: Luitenant (1905), Kapitein (1908), and positioned as successor to Majoor Tio Tek Ho.
    - Awarded the Grand Gold Star for Loyalty and Merit in 1930, yet by 1942 was detained without charge alongside colonial leaders.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 分
  • The camel treatise that lent a fascist his credibility

    The camel treatise that lent a fascist his credibility
    2026/10/27
    A respected camel veterinarian in British India kept a definitive textbook on clinic shelves for decades - while its author, Arnold Spencer Leese, was simultaneously building fascist networks in England; how did the veterinary credibility shield his politics?

    The camel treatise that lent a fascist his credibility

    In this episode, we follow a single veterinary textbook and the two lives of its author as they run in parallel: the meticulous fieldwork on camel disease and the deliberate organizing of fascist groups at home. What happens when professional trust becomes the vehicle for political influence?

    Person: Arnold Spencer Leese
    Date: Treatise published 1927
    Location: British India and England
    Event: Founding of the Imperial Fascist League, 1929
    Topic: A Treatise on the One-Humped Camel in Health and in Disease

    - Qualified at the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 1903, posted to India by 1907 to work with camels few Western vets had studied.
    - Published first paper on camel disease in 1909; a parasite named Thelazia leesei honored his work.
    - Served as a Veterinary Officer during WWI, then completed a rigorous camel treatise consulted for fifty years.
    - By 1923 he wrote Fascism for Old England, joined the British India, and by 1924 helped elect fascist local councillors in Stamford.
    - Founded and funded the Imperial Fascist League in 1929, preferring a small, ideologically "correct" organization over mass membership.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 分
  • The Lecture He Gave in Ruins that Rebuilt a City

    The Lecture He Gave in Ruins that Rebuilt a City
    2026/10/26
    After escaping a POW camp, an engineer walks into the ruins of Warsaw and immediately begins teaching machine construction. This pattern of rebuilding defined his life.

    The Lecture He Gave in Ruins that Rebuilt a City

    This episode explores the life of Stanisław Panczakiewicz, an engineer whose repeated response to imprisonment and displacement was to return to building and teaching. It examines the formative experiences that shaped his unwavering commitment to reconstruction.

    Person: Stanisław Panczakiewicz
    Date: January 18, 1945
    Location: Warsaw
    Occupation: Engineer
    Event: Escape from POW camp

    - Stanisław Panczakiewicz escaped a prisoner of war camp in January 1945 and, within days, co-organized a school in war-torn Warsaw.
    - His father, Ludwik, was an architect and construction entrepreneur in a partitioned Poland, instilling in Stanisław the belief that construction was a form of assertion.
    - In 1916, Panczakiewicz joined the Polish Legions, fighting for Polish independence under Austro-Hungarian command.
    - During the 1917 Oath Crisis, he was interned at Zegrze for refusing to swear loyalty to the Central Powers, a refusal that led to conditional release.
    - After studying engineering in Paris, he returned to independent Poland in 1926 and became the youngest head of the body shop at Central Powers Workshops (CWS), designing the first Polish series-produced cars.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 分
  • The Comintern Promise That Abandoned a Revolt

    The Comintern Promise That Abandoned a Revolt
    2026/10/25
    A Daur nobleman navigates three empires, founding parties and leading an uprising. A Soviet file reveals his disappearance after a Comintern promise.

    The Comintern Promise That Abandoned a Revolt

    This episode explores the story of Merse, a Daur nobleman from Hulunbuir, whose life and disappearance are documented in a single KGB folder. It raises questions about the fate of individuals caught between competing empires and the promises of revolutionary movements.

    Person: Merse
    Date: 1989 (file release), 1934 (final notation)
    Location: Hulunbuir, Soviet Union
    Status: Formally rehabilitated in 1989

    - Merse, born in 1894, was a trilingual Daur nobleman from Hulunbuir, a borderland region claimed by three empires.
    - He graduated from the Russian Language Institute in Beijing in 1917 and returned to open a school teaching Daur children in their own language.
    - In 1925, he co-founded the Inner Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, strategically named to appeal to both Moscow and the Republic of China.
    - A Comintern agent, Ivan P. Stepanov, promised Soviet backing and supplies for an armed uprising of Barga Mongols in Hulunbuir.
    - Merse, at 34, agreed to lead the revolt, which became known as the Hulunbuir Uprising in 1928.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 分
  • A Quietly Chosen Name Defied the Soviet State

    A Quietly Chosen Name Defied the Soviet State
    2026/10/24
    A scholar's quiet act of naming himself Ukrainian becomes a defiant stand against the Soviet state's attempts to erase his identity.

    A Quietly Chosen Name Defied the Soviet State

    This episode explores the life of Mykhailo Drai-Khmara, a Ukrainian scholar and poet, whose personal choices and academic pursuits put him at odds with the Soviet state. It delves into the discrepancies surrounding his death and the deliberate obscuring of his legacy.

    Person: Mykhailo Drai-Khmara
    Born: October 10, 1889
    Birthplace: Cherkasy Oblast, central Ukraine
    Languages: 19
    Literary Group: Ukrainian Neoclassicists

    - Mykhailo Drai-Khmara's family had Cossack roots, with his father being a wealthy peasant and judicial counsellor in Mali Kanivtsi.
    - He pursued an extensive education, attending institutions like the Pavlo Galagan Collegium and Kyiv University, followed by postgraduate study abroad.
    - During his student years, he quietly added "Khmara" (Ukrainian for cloud) to his surname "Drai," a subtle assertion of Ukrainian identity.
    - He became a prominent figure in Ukrainian academia, heading the Slavic studies department at the Institute of Linguistics and collaborating on the development of Ukrainian as a scientific language.
    - Drai-Khmara published one poetry collection, "Sprout," in 1926, and was in the process of translating Dante's "The Divine Comedy" when he was arrested.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    17 分
  • The Pocket Watch That Deflected a Fatal Musket Ball

    The Pocket Watch That Deflected a Fatal Musket Ball
    2026/10/23
    Four musket balls rip a jail cell; two men die, a third lives and a pocket watch is damaged - why?

    The Pocket Watch That Deflected a Fatal Musket Ball

    This episode explores the life of John Taylor, a prominent figure in 19th-century American religious history, and the mysterious pocket watch that played a role in his survival during a violent attack. What connects a damaged watch to a life spent as a fugitive?

    Person: John Taylor
    Date: June 27, 1844
    Location: Carthage Jail, Illinois
    Event: Musket ball attack

    - John Taylor was born in Milnthorpe, England, in 1808 and became a Methodist preacher by age seventeen.
    - He emigrated to Toronto, Canada, in 1832, where he met and married Leonora Cannon.
    - Taylor and his wife converted to the Latter-day Saint church after meeting apostle Parley P. Pratt in 1836.
    - By 1838, Taylor was ordained an apostle and took on multiple civic and religious roles in Nauvoo, Illinois, including city councilman and newspaper editor.
    - On June 27, 1844, Taylor was locked in a second-floor jail cell with Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and Willard Richards, as a mob approached.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    23 分