EP 001 - Mr Islam Meets The Camelbot - Doha, Qatar False Walls podcast

24:38

Location: Stockholm Sweden This year, I found myself in various locations in the Nordic countries, a region that contains stunning natural phenomena as well as a deep folklore populated by an endless cast of mystical beings. Trolls inhabit lakes and dark caves, elves are found in deep forests and waterfalls, giants inhabit mountain ranges and rocky islands. And yet even in the modern cities, folklore and legend can be found, ghosts and traces of history, real and imagined, overlap in certain places, hiding in plain sight but available for those of us who know where, and how to look for them. In this episode, we will take a trip to one of these places, a real place that has stories to tell, some from within our earthly realm, some within the world of fantasy and some that float between these two words, waiting for the right person to uncover them. And we, of course, are following the arrow directly to that very destination. Steel yourself, the train is leaving the station...…

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EP 009 - Severed Heads Of State Part 2 - Saddam in the Shadows 48:28

3 years ago48:28

48:28

Location: Kuwait City, Kuwait Welcome to part two of our search for hidden statues, figurative memorial symbols of power or commemoration that have fallen from favor, pulled from their pedestals and have been defaced, destroyed, decapitated and/or hidden away in secret locations as shameful totems of the past. In our last episode, I brought to you my adventures in statue hunting in Albania, a beautiful place with a dark past that is physically impossible to ignore. I found a small but potent gang of dictators lurking behind the local art museum, a graven image of former totalitarian ruler Evener Hoxha alongside his idol Stalin and other various symbols hardline communism, but also explored the underground complexes, the decaying concrete pyramid in the heart of the city, the omnipresent and indestructible bunkers, all of which serve as enduring physical reminders of this dark chapter in history and the ways in which we deal with them. If you have not heard this episode yet, please do so. In this episode, we’ll be headed to the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula or Persian Gulf specifically, where I was able to uncover the enduring traces of another difficult chapter of history, the Gulf War and its eventual sequel, including a chance discovery in a dark passageway that tied it all together.…

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EP 008 - Severed Heads Of State Part 1 - Uncle Joe and Friends 39:02

4 years ago39:02

39:02

Of all the ways to achieve immortality, becoming a statue is probably not the one you want. If there exists a moment in time in which the powers that be go through the machinations to create and erect these figurative memorial statues, the powers that be may eventually fall from favor, the moment in time the statue represents may eventually be seen as a less than ideal moment of history, and these symbolic construction may be pulled from their pedestal, dragged through the streets, and thrown into the river. Or worse. For the next two episodes, I’ll be taking you with me to the sites of two of the most interesting, controversial and hidden statues that I’ve had the luck to uncover. Each one represents the results of changing eras, the ways in which we deal with our problematic histories, or in these cases, how we hide them away or at least, attempt to. How do we dispose of fallen idols?…

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EP 007 - The Women of Whitechapel and the Long Shadow of Leather Apron - London 31:43

4 years ago31:43

31:43

This story involves murder, mystery, cryptic clues, hidden identities, and ulterior motives, all wrapped around one the best known tales in what we now call the True Crime genre. But we’ll look beyond the usual voyeuristic parlor games and shine a little light on the real people, and the real circumstances, that lead to the horrific real life killing of several women in Victorian London, as well as the strange secret that some feel the museum itself is built upon. We are headed to Whitechapel 1888 and into the streets beyond…We are headed to Whitechapel 1888 and into the streets beyond...…

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EP 006 - The Many Lives and Times of Alcatraz - Part 2 - San Francisco, California 30:41

5 years ago30:41