We are having another special episode of the Raspberry Podcast , this time with the writer Kevin Baker. He has written numerous history books and novels. His latest is The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City. We are talking sports and specifically a week in 1921 when boxer Jack Dempsey became a superstar, later teaming up with newly minted New York baseball legend Babe Ruth. The era of the superstar athlete was born, which along with the rise of a new media - radio - would turn local heroes into international celebrities.

A US nuclear test in the Bikini atoll went horribly awry in early March. The explosion was much bigger than anticipated - whoops! and fallout rained down on a Japanese fishing boat - Lucky Dragon 5. Not so lucky for them it turns out. It gave rise to the story behind Godzilla, released later that year. The terrible monster from the deep created by nuclear radiation.

Like the errant nuclear test in Bikini, the rapidly expanding power of the USA - dueling with the Soviet Union around the world in a Cold War while also on an epic tear of economic growth - was transforming into a world-crushing monster like the one that that emerged from the deep.

The USA had its own monsters - including Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the famous drunken, redhunter. Another lurking monster was the US involvement with the French as our ally tried to hold onto its colonial vanity while slowly losing its final battle in Vietnam at a place called Dien Bien Phu.

Doomed French paratroopers, Communist ghosts, tail gunners and monsters, and lots of nuclear fallout. This is the Raspberry Podcast looking at the week of March 20-26, 1954.

In February 1978 the good old USA had big problems, inflation was high and also unemployment was high. This was stagflation and it was raging. No one seemed to have a handle on how to address these multiple issues.

Jimmy Carter was the serious president attempting to deal these issues in a serious way, as an adult president.

1978 was the final year of the era when you could be a president looking to solve problems. From 1979, with the start of the "Killer Rabbit" fake scandal, the right-wing attack machine found its stride and has not let up since then. In fact, you can draw direct line to Joe Biden stealing the 2020 election.