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Hosted by Ed Helms, SNAFU is a podcast about history's greatest screw-ups. This is Season 3: Formula 6 - how prohibition's war on alcohol went so far off the rails the government poisoned its own people.

SNAFU with Ed Helms

While we're hard at work on season 3 of SNAFU, we’re excited to revisit a pivotal moment from Season 1 with a special bonus episode of GREATEST ESCAPES. Produced by the same folks behind SNAFU, it's a brand new podcast covering history’s wildest true escape stories of all time. Ed joins host Arturo Castro this week to dive deeper into the bonkers escape of Oleg Gordievsky, the Cold War double-agent who helped avoid nuclear annihilation during Able Archer 83 and was able to slip through the clutches of the KGB.
 
Greatest Escapes is produced by iHeartPodcasts and FilmNation Entertainment in association with Gilded Audio.
 
Please listen and follow here: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-greatest-escapes-259897937/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Introducing GREATEST ESCAPES with Arturo Castro

This is the story of Prohibition you haven't heard. Sure, Prohibition was a gigantic SNAFU to begin with. But it turns out Prohibition was actually darker than any of us could have imagined. Flappers and jazz? Not the full picture.

Season 3 of SNAFU follows an unlikely pair of sleuths trying to uncover what was behind a mass wave of deadly poisonings that killed thousands of people during Prohibition. Why were so many people dying when they imbibed? And what do gun-slinging Prohibition agents, Washington politicians, and a raging culture war have to do with it? Find out on SNAFU Season 3: Formula 6.
 
Preorder the SNAFU book and join me on book tour at www.snafu-book.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Introducing Season 3: Formula 6

Organized crime, speakeasy gin, and jazz impresarios stole headlines in the 1920s, but behind the scenes boiled a bizarre government plot rooted in the first American culture war. In New York City, a pair of scientists sees the devastation written on the wall, and they try to put a halt to the mayhem before it's too late.
 
Preorder the SNAFU book and join me on book tour at www.snafu-book.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S3E1: Satan's Last Stronghold

How did alcohol come to be illegal and why, of all the agencies, was the IRS tapped to enforce it? One rising legal superstar from California becomes the highest ranking woman in government, but she finds her efforts impeded by the IRS's newly established—and rather corrupt—Prohibition Unit.
 
Preorder the SNAFU book and join me on book tour at www.snafu-book.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S3E2: Ready, Willing, and Mabel

The bootleggers' perspective comes into sharp focus as we meet a survivor of the Great War, George Cassiday. Meanwhile, why were speakeasies across the nation transforming into veritable chemistry labs?
 
Preorder the SNAFU book and join me on book tour at www.snafu-book.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S3E3: Battle Lines

Prohibition... wasn't going so well. Mabel Walker Willebrandt cooks up a new approach to prosecuting the biggest bootlegger in the nation. Meanwhile, government hypocrisy is on the rise and a mysterious gunshot rings out from the Attorney General's suite at the Wardman Park Inn.
 
Preorder the SNAFU book and join me on book tour at www.snafu-book.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S3E4: Trust Issues

Out west, Prohibition agents take the gunslingers' path to enforcement. When their methods backfire, it stains Mabel Walker Willebrandt's Dry cause, while Formula 6 lurks in the shadows.
 
Preorder the SNAFU book and join me on book tour at www.snafu-book.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S3E5: Double Barrel

The battle of scientific wits comes to a head, as government chemists continue to up the ante on their formulas, with Alexander Gettler hot on their trail.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S3E6: Signature Cocktail

Mabel Walker Willebrandt and the Dries have their backs against the wall. The Treasury Department has made their poisoning program public, but will any of it matter when the tainted booze reaches the masses? Meanwhile, a mind-melting twist in the case of Two Gun Hart comes to light.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S3E7: Judgement Day

As you might have heard, the SNAFU book comes out next week (April 29, 2025)! If you want to meet Ed, either on book tour or virtually, buy your copy right now. He’ll be hosting a private Ask Me Anything for anyone who preorders and submits their proof of purchase here: www.Snafu-Book.com. Or if in-person is more your style, you can also join Ed on his book tour next week in 8 cities across the country, complete with book signings (NYC, Philadelphia, DC, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Silicon Valley, LA). On this episode, Ed sits down with his producer Carl Nellis to talk about treasure hunting for SNAFUs, the book’s jazzy and hangable art, his favorite stories (even if he loves all his children the same…), and which SNAFU characters he’d like to play in a movie adaptation.
 
 
 
Again, you can preorder SNAFU, buy your book tour tickets, or sign up for Ed’s virtual AMA at this link: www.snafu-book.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!

Prohibition, and all that Mabel has worked to build, comes crashing down, thanks in part to a sly tell-all by none other than George Cassiday. And in New York City, Gettler & Norris finally see their work yield meaningful results.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S3E8: National Hangover

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