logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2024
32m 12s

Hitler’s Olympics, Part 2: Pangloss, Pol...

Pushkin Industries
About this episode

Charles Sherrill was everything a gentleman of his generation was supposed to be: rich, handsome, charming, Ivy-Leagued. He was impossibly well connected and extravagantly mustachioed. He was also the person who, as much as anything, decided whether American athletes would participate in the 1936 Olympics. Faced with one of the great moral dilemmas of the day, America needed the wisdom of Solomon. Instead, it got the wisdom of Sherrill. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Jul 2024
Hitler’s Olympics, Part 3: Mustache to Mustache
With the fate of the Olympics on the line, Charles Sherrill travels to Germany to take up the question of Jewish athletes directly with the Führer. We dig through a dusty archive to uncover a long-buried account of their meeting. The wolf met with the chicken. Guess who won? See ... Show More
35m 44s
Jul 2024
Hitler’s Olympics, Part 4: Outcast in Olympia
The cheerleader-in-chief for the American Olympic movement was a brilliant, self-made Chicago tycoon named Avery Brundage. Brundage did more to ensure the success of the Berlin Games than anyone except Hitler. But what exactly were his motivations? We meet the man behind the curt ... Show More
42m 45s
Jul 2024
Hitler’s Olympics, Part 5: The Amateur’s Hour
A German Jewish high-jumper is determined to get her shot at Olympic greatness. And an idealist faces an existential choice. In the fifth episode of Hilter’s Olympics, Avery Brundage faces the reality for Jewish athletes in Nazi Germany and makes a critical decision.See omnystudi ... Show More
36m 25s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2024
Part One: How Avery Brundage Gave Hitler an Olympics
Robert sits down with Matt Lieb to discuss Avery Brundage, the millionaire athlete and professional Olympics nerd who stopped the U.S. from Boycotting the 1936 Berlin Olympics.   (2 Part Series)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 
1h 2m
Oct 2024
Part 1: The Jiggle & the Giddy Up
The most famous athlete in 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany was the American sprinter Jesse Owens, and one of the most famous stories from those Games was the unexpected, heartwarming encounter Owens had with the German long jumper Luz Long. The friendship between the two athletes w ... Show More
39m 55s
Feb 2021
SYMHC Classics: The Nazi Games and Jesse Owens
This 2012 episode covers the 1936 Berlin Olympics and African-American sprinter Jesse Owens, as well as the games as Nazi propaganda. More nations than ever participated, and the Olympic torch was used for the first time. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodc ... Show More
26m 12s
Jul 2024
Art of Gold: The Olympic Art Competitions
In the first half of the 20th century, athletes weren't the only ones competing for Olympic glory. Today's episode takes us back to an era when artists, poets, and even city planners battled for medals — and the messy in-fighting that threatened to tear the art world apart. See o ... Show More
35m 39s
Dec 2022
The Olympics Used to Have an... Extraordinarily Weird Art Competition
Everyone's heard of the Olympics. This global competition brings athletes from around the world together to compete in various sports -- but, not too long ago, one man led the charge to bring artists, sculptors, musicians and more into the fray, with medal-worthy competitions of ... Show More
40m 29s
May 2023
Boneheads
The Gilded Age was a time of opulence and opportunism, an age that turned businessmen into household names. But it also created some of the biggest rivalries in the rush to unearth the past.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 
28m 5s
Mar 2021
How a Tokyo Olympic Official Insulted Japan's Biggest Celebrity
The hits. They just keep on coming. More controversy at the Olympics, more tedious men being tedious!abroadinjapanpodcast@gmail.com for all your messages and drawings!Abroad in Japan is the podcast devoted to the most unique country in the world. Subscribe for new podcasts twice ... Show More
39m 13s
Sep 2025
Buying the Presidency
Money and politics have always been intertwined in America, but before the days of Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg, there was Rockerfeller, Carnegie and Morgan, titans of industry whose political power may have become absolute if they hadn’t underestimated an upstart politician by the ... Show More
40m 17s
Mar 2016
2: He Had It All
He had the talent. He had the charisma. He had the looks. But without one little change, he'd never be the household name he is today. 
4m 48s
Jan 2021
Shirley Temple Black
Once upon a time, there was a little moppet whose grit and optimism on screen gave the world the courage to endure the Great Depression. But time and fashion are fickle mistresses, and Shirley Temple had to reinvent herself as a star performer - in the world of diplomacy. Learn m ... Show More
2h 24m