As I've said, on multiple occasions, sometimes it takes a bit before I get to some of the more popular, or more recommended, audio dramas out there. However, I usually wind-up falling in love with them once I finally give them a listen. Without further preamble, let's get into today's review. We're taking a look at Alba Salix, Royal Physician.
Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there lives a witch named Alba Salix. She's the head of the House of Healing, and oversees all the medical clinics in the Kingdom of Farloria. Alba is joined by her assistant, a fairy named Holly. She's the chief herbalist at the House of Healing. Recently, the House of Healing has also taken on a former monk named Magnus. He's providing public service in lieu of a debt he owes. There's plenty of laughs and fun times to be had as the House of Healing team handles a new case each episode.
I'd seen Alba Salix recommended a few times in the "you may also like" section of my Apple podcast app. However, what finally convinced me to give it a try was a promo I listened to. It played at the end of an episode of We Fix Space Junk I was listening to. Alba Salix, Royal Physician and We Fix Space Junk are both part of the Fable and Folly network of podcasts. It is the same network that Harlem Queen is part of. The promo sounded promising, but what really won me over was the theme music. It is a combination of Medieval-style flutes and modern electric guitars. Snippets of the theme music are used for scene transitions. It perfectly encapsulates the style that Alba Salix goes for; a stereotypical fairytale setting, but with modern humor and sensibilities. Also, the theme music sounds completely awesome. If only we had an extended version of it.
So, I figured, even if I didn't like the show, at least I'd get to listen to the awesome theme music. I gave it a try, genuinely enjoyed the episodes, and now here we are. You guys know my thing about how I prefer non-British accents in fantasy audio dramas. Well, Alba Salix is the first to give me Canadian accents in a fantasy setting. The production team is based in Toronto. I should add they don't sound stereotypically Canadian, except for Holly at times, but they don't sound British, and that is a net positive. Not that I'm completely opposed to British people on fantasy settings, but I find British accents to be over represented in fantasy. I feel that, at times, fantasy fiction is a bit like 19th Century India: it suffers an excess of British accents.
As you might have gathered, Alba Salix is a sitcom in a stereotypical fairytale world. And you might also recall my love of the Shrek movies, which took a similar approach to their setting. So, that was another point in favor of Alba Salix. There are plenty of nods and references to classic fairytales and fairytale adaptations. For example, while on an ingredient run gone wrong, Holly comes across a cottage full of three bowls of porridge. One is too hot, one is too cold, and one is just right. Naturally, said cottage is owned by a family of three bears. In another episode, cute little animals offer tips to help Magnus with his chores. However, he blows them off repeatedly, and they get miffed. So, when he finally gives in and asks for help, they give him deliberately bad advice to teach him a lesson.
Now, let's talk about the characters. We'll start with the title character herself. Alba is one of the only people in Farloria with more than a few atoms of common sense and rationality. As such, she plays the straight woman to the antics of Holly, Magnus, Queen Parabel, and pretty much everyone else in Farloria. She's cynical, grouchy, and snarky. But considering what she has to put up with on a daily basis, it isn't hard to see why. Still, despite it all, it is clear that, deep down, she does genuinely care about Holly and Magnus. You don't often see older female characters playing major roles in fantasy fiction, and Alba is a nice change of pace. Despite Alba being the title character, there were times it felt that Magnus and Holly were the true focus of the show. Though, I suppose that's a side effect of Alba serving as the voice of reason. Magnus and Holly can screw-up more easily than she can. Alba is voiced by Barbara Clifford.
Also, Alba's name is a bit of a pun. Salix alba is the scientific name for white willow. Its bark contains salicylic acid, which can be used to make aspirin.
Holly is a fairy who serves as the herbal specialist at the House of Healing. She's almost perpetually cheery, sunny, and happy-go-lucky. It's always really cute when she gets excited and says "Yay!" Holly likes to sing while she works, and is always eager to help out, but has a tendency to be a bit of scatterbrain. For example, she loves to cook, but believes that the most important part of cooking his having fun, rather than following recipes and directions. This line of thinking once resulted in a batch of cookies that caused everyone who ate them to sprout tails. Holly also has terrible handwriting, which causes issues with labeling ingredients. But hey, at least bad handwriting is expected in the medical profession. About the only thing that can truly rattle Holly is the fear that she might be a bad fairy. Thankfully, Alba always assures her that she's a good fairy.
Holly is voiced by Olivia Jon. Personally, I hope we'll learn how Holly came to work for Alba at some point. Holly definitely doesn't seem like someone Alba would seek out of her own volition.
Magnus used to be a monk at the Dragon Mountain Monastery. Unfortunately, due to a martial arts performance gone horribly wrong, he incurred quite a bit of debt. So, he's working for Alba as a form of community service. Magnus has a tendency to slack-off, and otherwise shirk his chores and assignments. He also isn't above scamming the patients in order to make quick money. He wants to learn magic, but has a rather cavalier towards safety and rules. Naturally, he tends to butt heads with Alba. Still, though she wouldn't be quick to admit it, deep down Alba does care about Magnus. It is hinted that Alba sees a lot of herself in Magnus. Magnus has a sort of brother-sister relationship with Holly. They argue and squabble, as siblings are want to do, but when the chips are down they're there for each other. Magnus is voiced by Julian Sark.
Parabel is Queen of Farloria and is also Alba's younger sister. Many years ago, King Gunther was turned into a goat by a curse. Three sisters came to the kingdom in hopes of breaking the curse. Alba was the oldest sister, and tried to use a spell, but it didn't work. Parabel was able to break the curse with true loves kiss. As such, King Gunther promptly married her once he became human again. True, Alba missed her shot at being queen, but she doesn't strike me as type who would enjoy that sort of lifestyle. And hey, she got to be head of the House of Healing. Like most siblings, they tend to bicker, and don't always see eye-to-eye. Parabel's royal decrees often given Alba no end of headaches. For example, at one point Parabel orders that the all gardens within sight of the palace be uprooted and filled with nice looking flowers. This included the herb garden at the House of Healing. Alba and the gang need those herbs to make potions and healing salves. Parabel is voiced by Marisa King.
Not much to say about King Gunther. He seems like a reasonably nice guy; if a bit too indulgent of Parabel at times. He is voiced by Geroge Bertwell, who also voiced the badgers from the time Holly and Magnus had to go to Badger Town. That was especially funny. The badgers all sounded like Mr. Meeseeks from Rick and Morty, and it made me laugh.
In season two, Alba and company have to put up with Antalia Pearcey. She's in charge of overseeing all magical things and practitioners in the kingdom. As such, she imposes some very strict regulations on the House of Healing. Alba and the gang constantly chafe under these regulations, but to be fair, Mrs. Pearcey did have a point about the House of Healing being disorganized, and that the jars needing better labels, and that making Magnus sleep in the old tool shed was a bit much. Actually, she raised a lot of good points, but seeing Alba and company trying to comply with the regulations made for good episodes. Antalia is voiced by Elaine O'Neal.
There is a series of mini-episodes that take place between seasons one and two. They're meant to help hold everyone over while season three is in production. They're really fun little vignettes that provide some amusing (mis)adventures for the characters. I particularly liked the one where Magnus and Holly had to collect dragon tears by going to a dragon opera. They had to deal with stuffy well-to-do dragons who considered them riff-raff. Another fun one is where Holly finds a pigeon, which she believes to be a person turned into a pigeon, and is determined to do whatever to take to help it. That one was written, and featured a guest appearance, by Beth Crane of We Fix Space Junk. From this, we must conclude that Alba Salix actually takes place in the world of We Fix Space Junk. Well, actually not really, but they are both members of Fable and Folly. And I'm just saying, we have seen a couple pseudo-medieval planets in We Fix Space Junk.
There is another series set in the same world as Alba Salix, Royal Physician. It is called The Axe and Crown, and can be found in the same podcast feed Alba Salix is found in. The Axe and Crown follows a troll named Gubbin who owns a tavern, really more of a dive bar, named The Axe and Crown in the run-down part of town. Business is, if not exactly booming, then reasonably well. But the times they are a changing. The Axe and Crown has a new landlord named Stan. He's the son of the deceased former landlord, and is very excited to be part of The Axe and Crown, much to Gubbin's dismay. Before long, Gubbin's niece Betula comes to town to work for the black-market guild. Together, the three of them work together to keep their heads above water, and keep The Axe and Crown from going out of business.
Each season of The Axe and Crown is set between season of Alba Salix. They usually have twice as many episodes as Alba Salix, but the episodes are only half as long, so it evens out. Much of the comedy comes from the contrast between Gubbin and Stan's personalities, and general outlook on life. Gubbin is an almost stereotypical surly bar owner. He's cynical, sarcastic, and places an emphasis on practicality, and sticking with the way things have been. One of the biggest contrasts between Gubbin and most dive bar owners is that he is gay. His ex-boyfriend Johann used to be the head chef at The Axe and Crown, but then he cheated on Gubbin and run off to work at another pub. Gubbin was so heartbroken he boarded up the kitchen door for many years afterwards.
Stan, by contrast, is a wide-eyed idealist with a generally sunny disposition. He's kind of like one of those sheltered rich progressives who want to change the world, but don't have much in the way of real-world experience. He frequently gets knocked on his ass, literally and metaphorically, but always manages to dust himself off and get back up.
Betula is a bit like Gubbin, but with better social skills, and maybe not quite as cynical. Stan thinks she's the most beautiful woman he's ever met. Gubbin thinks Stan is nuts, well, more so than usual, but it is soon hinted that Betula returns Stan's feelings. Betula wants to try her hand at cooking. She's pretty good at making traditional troll foods. Unfortunately, troll food isn't exactly edible by human standards. But hey, at least she's learning and getting better.
As much as they can get on each other's nerves, at the end of the day, all three members of The Axe and Crown genuinely do care about each other. One of the biggest challenges facing The Axe and Crown is that a Bucket Pub has moved in across the street. They're a pub chain whose names are always something plus bucket; Badger and Bucket, Unicorn and Bucket, Walrus and Bucket, etc. They have many things that Stan is envious of, such as outdoor patios, brunch service, and designer craft beers. Many episodes of The Axe and Crown involve our main trio trying to outwit the Bucket Pub, or else take them down a peg.
The theme music for The Axe and Crown isn't quite as catchy as the theme music for Alba Salix, but it did grow on me with time. It involves a lot of snare drums and horn. It's unpolished and rough around the edge, just like the titular pub.
So, there you have it. Alba Salix, Royal Physician and The Axe and Crown, are fun and funny fairytale sitcoms. Don't wait around like I did, go give them both a listen today. They are well worth your time.
Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.
Gen-Z Media is doing some really great work in the world of kid friendly audio dramas. They've got a good mix of genres to choose from. They've also decided to dip their toes into the world of superheroes. That brings us to the audio drama we'll be reviewing today. We're taking a look at Becoming Mother Nature, season 1 of The Natureverse.
Twelve-year-old Chloe Lovejoy has a rather strained relationship with her mother, to put it lightly. Chloe has been sent to live with her grandmother in California so that they both have some space. Before long, however, Chloe discovers some startling secrets. Grandma Ivy is none other than Mother Nature herself. Moreover, Chloe herself is the latest in a long line of women who are destined to inherit the power of Mother Nature. Chloe's got a lot to learn, and she'll have to master it quick. There are dark forces at work that want to claim the power of Mother Nature for themselves.
I've had a pretty good track record with Gen-Z Media shows, and Become Mother Nature bowled a turkey for Gen-Z Media. That's a bowling term that means to get three strikes in a row; if you get it in the first frame of a bowling match it is called a sizzling turkey. So, when I first started listening to this podcast, I figured it was a standard urban fantasy show. Hey, nothing wrong with that, I love urban fantasy. However, the more I thought about it, I realize that I could better describe Becoming Mother Nature as a superhero audio drama. It's a little unconventional, but it's there. Chloe finds herself in possession of extraordinary powers, has to figure out how to master them, has a sidekick, and has to take down a man who is basically a supervillain.
I'm all in favor of more superheroes with magical urban fantasy style origins. Mother Nature is one of those characters, like the Sandman or the Tooth Fairy, that everyone knows of, but not many people can actually tell you anything her. There's a lot of wiggle room for interpretation. William Joyce certainly found a lot of wiggle room with his Guardians of Childhood book series. You might be familiar with its, criminally underrated, film adaption Rise of the Guardians.
Personally, I think Becoming Mother Nature is a really fun take on a superhero origin story. I also appreciated that does touch on import life lessons. If there is a moral to Becoming Mother Nature, it is that you should be kind to other people, because you don't always know what they're going through. As I've stated, Chloe and her mom, Laurel, have a somewhat strained relationship. However, for as often as she screws up, Laurel does genuinely love Chloe, and wants to do right by here. Of course, at lot of Laurel's issues stem from the fact that she and Grandma Ivy had their own issues. Ivy did love Laurel, but her duties as Mother Nature meant that she couldn't always be there when Laurel needed her. It also meant she couldn't explain to Laurel why this was. Well, actually, I think a case can be made that Ivy should have been more trusting of Laurel in that regard. The Mother Nature powers always skip a generation, and are passed from grandmother to granddaughter.
I also like what the audio drama did with Felix. He's a boy that Chloe befriends, and he quickly becomes her sidekick/mentor. Felix, superhero fan that he is, practically jumps at the chance to be Chloe's sidekick. Felix works mission control for Chloe, and also provides moral support and guidance. Hmm, interesting. In these sorts of stories, it's usually the girl character who provides emotional support and advice. Nice to see Gen-Z Media mixing things up a bit. It was also nice to have a girl and boy as just friends with no hints of romance between them. Though, that might in part have been due to Chloe and Felix's age.
Of course, every superhero story also needs a supervillain. Becoming Mother Nature has Duncan Sunshine. He's a hotshot weatherman, and local celebrity, in the town the series takes place in. He's also been completely obsessed with Mother Nature ever since Grandma Ivy saved him during a storm when he was a little boy. More specifically, he wants to claim the power of Mother Nature for himself. So, he's kind of like Mr. Crocker from The Fairly Odd Parents, but as a genuinely threatening and competent villain. Duncan has a sidekick of his own in the form of his daughter, Raye O. Sunshine. She is involved in climate change activism, and claims she wants to save the planet. In reality, however, she's only in it for the fame and attention.
When I first listened to Becoming Mother Nature, I thought that Raye's name was spelled R-E-I. So, I envisioned the Sunshines being Asian-American. But I guess they were supposed to be more the blonde-haired blue-eyed All-American looking type.
I've often wondered if weathermen secretly get excited whenever severe weather happens. It's probably a lot more fun reporting on that than it is when everything is calm and relatively peaceful. As Duncan himself notes, storms tend to be great for the ratings.
Now, I did very much enjoy Becoming Mother Nature, but it does have a few issues. As I've said, Duncan's evil scheme is to steal the powers of Mother Nature for himself. The first step was to weaken Grandma Ivy, so he could take her out of the picture. How does he do this? Why, he builds an array of satellites that are capable of manipulating the weather, somehow launches them into orbit, and screws with weather systems across the world. Uh, what?
Why does Duncan even need Mother Nature's power? He's pretty much there already. He could probably become incredibly rich if he patented his satellites, or failing that, could make a bunch of money by auctioning them off to the highest bidder. Granted, the government can force you to suppress your inventions if they consider them a significant threat to national security. And Duncan does seem power hungry enough that he wouldn't just stop at weather manipulation satellites. So, I suppose I can let that one slide.
A bigger issue I had is that the Mother Nature powers, and their rules, were very inconsistent. At one point, Chloe freezes a puddle to test her powers out, and as a result, there's a sudden cold snap across the entire continent of South America. That just seems disproportionate. One of the big themes of Becoming Mother Nature is about the need for balance. Chloe has to find a sense of balance within herself if she wants to truly embrace her role as Mother Nature. It is also important to use the Mother Nature powers to help keep the world in a state of balance. I'm just saying, freezing a puddle causing South America to freeze just seem a bit too disproportionate.
I will say that the secret Mother Nature command center was cool. I especially loved the globe that shows real time weather events. It really added to the superhero feeling of the series. I also really loved that Grandma Ivy had a pet opossum named Oscar. He eventually becomes Chloe's pet. I admit, Oscar's not all the consequential in the grand scheme of things, but I like possums, so he made me happy.
The biggest issue with Becoming Mother Nature happened towards the end of the season. As such, we're going to have to get into spoilers. So, if you don't want that, either turn away or skip down a few paragraphs.
This is your last chance. Sure you want to keep going?
Well, if everyone who wants out is gone, let's get into it.
Duncan scheme is to get Chloe to give the powers of Mother Nature to him. There's a big spell book/user's manual for the Mother Nature powers, and one of them is transference. It is the spell that officially passes the powers of Mother Nature from person to person. So, Duncan successfully tricks Chloe into giving him the powers by pretending he'll be her mentor. Except, they don't go to Duncan, they go to Raye. Raye does mention some rule saying that only women can be Mother Nature. However, Duncan makes a remark that suggest he made-up to rule to get Raye to cooperate with his schemes. But, as previously mentioned, Raye really did get the powers.
Uh, how exactly does that work? If a man attempts the transference ritual, do the powers go to his closest living female relative instead? Oh, but we aren't done yet. Chloe may have given the powers away, but never fear, she doesn't need silly things like spell books or transference rituals. It turns out the true power was deep within her all along. So, she taps into her innate Mother Nature power to defeat Raye. Not only does the contradict the previously establish rule, it also comes completely out of the blue, with little to no foreshadowing. Then again, the rules were pretty inconsistent to begin with.
At times it felt like the writers were coming up with the rules on the fly, and this discarding them as soon as they jotted them down. That, or they painted themselves into a corner and just went "You know what, screw it."
Now, I don't want to sound too harsh or negative here. Overall, I did very much enjoy Becoming Mother Nature. It's a Gen-Z Media show, so you know it's going to have excellent voice acting, music, sound effects, and sound design. It will also add that in Cupid and The Reaper, season two of The Natureverse, Chloe's powers and portrayed much more consistently. The rules and also greatly simplified, and are followed consistently. And yes, I will review Cupid and The Reaper before long.
Well, there you have it. Becoming Mother Nature is a good, if slightly flawed, superhero origin story. It is an enjoy story on its own, and sets things up for later installments in The Natureverse.
I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.
I'm a big fan of historical fiction and alternate history, but I don't listen to very many history podcast. That is, podcast where it's usually one or two guys talking about various historical events. I find them to generally be low quality, interchangeable in terms of style and execution, and just not very good, barring a few notable exceptions. That's what makes the podcast we'll be looking at today so notable. It is alternate history, but told in the style of a non-fiction history podcast. Yet despite this it manages to be incredibly entertaining and engaging. What it this podcast? It is Age of Confusion.
What would have happened if President John F. Kennedy had survived his assassination attempt in Dallas, Texas? Perhaps it would be an age of wonders, or an age of terrors, but it certainly would be an Age of Confusion. Age of Confusion tells the story of just such a world. It chronicles the alternate history of America, and the world at large, from 1963-1983, starting with JFK dodging a literal bullet.
Age of Confusion is created, written, and produced by Sean Munger. He's a professional historian. He also runs the Second Decade podcast, which is about things that happened between 1810-1820; as well as Green Screen, an environmental movie review podcast. I first became aware of Age of Confusion when I read about it in the weekly new relates thread on the r/audiodrama subreddit. It looked promising, I gave it a listen, and now here we are.
As I've previously mentioned, due to the nature of this podcast, Sean has to carry the entire production all by himself. This is no small task, and there is a lot that can easily go wrong. Thankfully, I'm happy to report that Sean succeeds with flying colors. He presents the alternate history in a sort of narrative non-fiction format. Understandable, given that he's the one controlling the course of events, and it makes for an entertaining listening experience. It also helps that Sean's voice is very easy to listen to.
On the podcast's website, each episode page has a segment where Sean compares how things when in real history. He also uses these segments to explain his though process, and why he chose to make the changes that he did. I think that this is really great, and I applaud him for going that extra mile. Perhaps these segments, combined with the show proper, will get listeners to think more about the real history of the era. I know it has gotten me thinking.
The style of Age of Confusion reminds me of the novel For Want of a Nail: If Burgoyne Had Won at Saratoga by Robert Sobel. If is an alternate history novel set in a world where the American Revolution failed, and is notable for being told in the style of a non-fiction history book. It is a novel that proved quite influential on the online alternate history fandom. If you can't find the book itself, I recommend checking out the very detailed Sobel Wiki, which is dedicated to the world to For Want of a Nail.
So, how is the alternate history. I think it should be clear by now that Sean pays a great deal of care when crafting the alternate history of Age of Confusion. You can tell that he pays considerable attention to details. Why don't we go over a few highlights of this seasons? I should add that, every five episodes or so, Sean puts out a recap episode to help new listeners catch-up with the story so far, and to provide a refresher for returning listeners.
The first major changes happens when Kennedy returns to Washington DC. Congress moves to vote on the 1963 Civil Rights Act, and segregationist politicians successfully kill the bill in the senate. As you might imagine, this has major ripples. Martin Luther King Jr loses a lot of his clout within the Civil Rights Movement. He'd been banking on Kennedy getting the Civil Right Act passed. Many in the movement also begin to question King's non-violent methods. Instead, the movement pivots towards Stokely Carmichael. He was one of the founders of the Black Power Movement. He encourages Blacks to go on strikes and hold sit-in demonstrate how much of the economy is dependent on Black people. He also says he wants the strikes and sit-in in Northern cities as well as Southern cities. That way, it will show that the struggle for Civil Rights isn't just a Southern issue.
The series starts off with a bang, and I think Sean does a good case for his choices in altering history. In our world, Lyndon B. Johnson was able to use Kennedy's tragic death to push the Civil Rights Act through Congress. He framed it as Kennedy's legacy. In a world where Kennedy survives, there is no guarantee that the 1963 Civil Rights Act is going to get passed; especially if Congress votes on it in December.
I can also see MLK falling out of favor with the Civil Rights Movement. Even in our own timeline, King was starting to fall out of favor with the movement around the time he was assassinated. Sean has confirmed that King will not be assassinated in the world of Age of Confusion. It was only a minor mention, but we see that Malcolm X also survived his assassination attempt. He's been seriously reconsidering the direction of his life. Sean takes the view that assassinations are disruptions to the flow of history, and he wants to imagine a world where the major assassinations of the mid-twentieth century never happened.
Sean also has a very interesting method for determining the outcome of elections. He uses Thirteen Keys to the White House system devised by historian Allan Lichtman. They determine who will be president based on factors such as which party is in power, what were the midterm gains and/or loses, were there any scandals or major policy changes, how charismatic are the candidates, and so on.
It's actually really interesting stuff. The Thirteen Keys system has successful predicted every presidential election from 1984 to 2020. The only exception was the 2000 Election. To be fair, Florida having faulty voting machines was a factor nobody saw coming. The Thirteen Key successfully predicted the election of Donald Trump, something that most other analysts said was impossible, as well as his defeat at the hands of Joe Biden.
The first application of the Thirteen Keys is applied to the 1964 Election. Kennedy faces off against Nelson Rockefeller and ekes out a narrator victory. However, what I found most interesting was that a segregationist politician managed to carry Mississippi. Third party candidates almost never carry states in elections. The two main exceptions were Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party in 1912, and George Wallace's segregationist platform in 1968. I figured this would have major ramifications for the 1969 election, but we'll get to that in a minute.
A new Civil Rights Act is proposed, and this time, Kennedy fights harder. There had been previous attempts to get a Civil Rights Act passed prior to 1963, but they always got defeated. On the whole, Kennedy did support civil rights for minorities, but he had to contend with the segregationist win of the Democrat Party. He also didn't want thing to move so fast that they scared white voters. To be fair, most other white politicians sympathetic to Civil Rights tended to hold this attitude. Although, one of Kennedy's motivations to fight for the new Civil Rights Act is that it will be his legacy.
The Comprehensive Civil Rights Act officially gets signed into law in 1966. As the name suggests, it's actually a somewhat expanded version of the 1963 Civil Rights Act. For example, one its provisions is the establishment of a national department to investigate instances of police brutality. It will be interesting to see how thinks turn out in future seasons now that we have the Comprehensive Civil Rights Act.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union has been experiencing some political turmoil. A coup was successfully carried out against Nikita Khrushchev. There's a lot of squabbling and in-fighting, but once the dust settles, a hardline Stalinist named Alexander Shelepin. He wants to undo Khrushchev's reforms and take a more aggressive approach to the United States. The beginning to each episode begins with snippets from in-universe new reels and recordings. One of these is a broadcast from West Berlin saying that East German tanks are invading the city. My guess is that, at some point in the future, Shelepin is going to put pressure on East Germany to retake West Berlin. Also, the podcast cover art is a collage several pictures, include a hydrogen bomb exploding. That has...troubling implications, to say the least.
Meanwhile, things heat up in Vietnam like they did in our world. Sean makes a good case that Kennedy would probably choose to commit American troops to the conflict due to not wanting to look soft on communism. Albeit, Kennedy doesn't commit nearly the number than LBJ did in our timeline. At the same time, Sean also makes a strong case that Kennedy would pull America out of Vietnam sooner than in our timeline. It would still be viewed as a tragedy, but there would far less loss of life.
One aspect about JFK that isn't often discussed is that he had Addison's Disease. In our timeline, Kennedy actually lied to voters during the 1960 Presidential Election, and claimed to not have Addison's. Oh, you better believe this comes back to bite him in the ass, and leads to a major scandal. Again, this is further proof of the attention to details that Sean puts into Age of Confusion.
Now we're going to talk about the 1968 Election. It was the most recent episode, as of this writing, so I figured I should maybe do a spoiler warning for it. So, if you don't want spoilers, skip down a few paragraphs.
Last chance, you sure you want to keep going?
Well, if everyone who wants out is gone, let's continue.
Lyndon B. Johnson has his sights set on being Kennedy's successor, and he wins the Democratic nomination. The Republicans do some more scuffling, but ultimately nominate George Romney as their pick. In our timeline, his son Willard, known by his nickname Mitt, unsuccessfully ran for president in 2012. Romney runs into some trouble because he was born in Mexico, and is accused of not being a real American. However, his parents were both American citizens, so it is a moot point. I can't decide if it is funny or groan-worthy how this parallels similar accusations leveled against Barack Obama in our world.
Personally, I'm amazed that Romney's Mormon faith didn't prove to be more of a stumbling block. In our world, JFK was frequently hounded about his Catholicism throughout the 1960 Presidential Election. There was a still a fair bit of anti-Catholic sentiment in America at the time. Sean justifies things going easier for Romney by having him downplay his Mormonism. Romney speaks of his strong Christian faith, but almost never specifically identifies as Mormon. That said, Sean has hinted that this will come back to bite Romney in the ass, and he'll be involved in a scandal.
From the intro, we know that Bobby Kennedy will become the 37th President, and JFK was 35th. So, the only question now is will RFK win in 1972 or 1976? Well, that and how many terms will Romney serve.
Meanwhile, George Wallace runs on a platform of segregation and repelling the Comprehensive Civil Rights Act. He chooses Strom Thurmond, rather than Curtis LeMay, as his running mate. Troublingly, they do even better than Wallace did in our timeline. They win every former Confederate state, minus Florida, but plus West Virginia. They didn't bother campaigning in Florida because they thought it was too full of Jews and Cubans. They almost succeed in throwing the election to Congress, but Romney manages to get just enough electoral votes to win.
I would assume that there will be no attempt on Wallace's life in 1972. That is, if we are to go by the theme of assassinations never happening. In our world, Wallace was not killed, but he was paralyzed from the waist down. This caused him to reevaluate his life, and eventually lead him to renounce his racist views. In fact, towards the end of his life, Wallace worked toward the betterment of racial relations. If the assassination attempt never happens, Wallace will probably continue to fight for segregation. That's bound to have impacts future down the line.
Sean has stated that there won't be very many episodes about the Space Race. I guess it's going to go more or less as it did in our world. That said, there are some differences. The Apollo 1 disaster never happens, but something equally tragic happens. A Saturn V rocket, with crew already loaded into it, explodes on the launch pad. I bring this up because it is what costs Johnson the election. Much as in our world, Johnson really pushed NASA to kick the Apollo program into gear. He does this in hopes that the Moon Landing will happen after he is elected, and he can take credit for it. In the world of Age of Confusion, however, Johnson is under scrutiny for pressuring NASA to ignore safety regulations.
And so that is everything of note so far. It is very exciting stuff, and we're just getting started. Sean said that he played things safe with season one. He stuck fairly close to the actual historical record. However, in future seasons, things are going to diverge much more. I can't wait to see how it plays out.
The only suggestion I have, and I admit it is a minor one, is that perhaps Sean could vary up the style of the show a bit. I really enjoy the opening of each episode where we get snippets from news bulletins and recordings from the world of Age of Confusion. Perhaps, in future episode, he could play some extended clips in the middle of the episodes. I think I might add to the immersion of the podcast. Maybe also bring on a fellow historian, either a real one or an actor, to discuss in-universe events. Or perhaps interview people who witnessed the events of episodes. Obviously, they'd be played by actors. These would also be great ways to build the immersion.
Of course, if Sean chooses to keep the show as is, well, I know I'll be perfectly happy. I also hope that you give Age of Confusion a try. It is an alternate history audio drama in the style of a non-fiction podcast. It is a really creative and interesting twists on alternate history audio dramas.
Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.
