History That Doesn't Suck - 170: The Crash of 1929 & Meeting President Herbert Hoover

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

“A wise man never sells out at the first sign of trouble. That’s for the pikers.” This is the story of the 1929 Wall Street Crash.  On October 24, or “Black Thursday,” stock prices plunge unexpectedly. Early the next week, whatever was left of the bottom falls out on “Black Tuesday.” The New York Stock Exchange has crashed. The Roaring 20s are over. But what exactly is a stock market? How does the American financial system work in the 1920s? And how did the Crash of 1929 happen? From the origins of the NYSE to the development of the Federal Reserve System, we’ll unravel it all before it all unravels as we also meet the man that 1920s Americans overwhelmingly want to lead the nation. He’s a man known for his gifted abilities when handling a crisis. They call him the “Great Humanitarian.” Welcome to the White House, President Herbert Hoover.  Check out this Spotify playlist if you’re looking for other HTDS episodes on economic panics, which are episodes 19, 27, 29, 30, 91, 97, 98, and 127. ____ Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations join discussions in our Facebook community get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette  come see a live show get HTDS merch or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks. HTDS is part of the Airwave Media Network.  Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Email us at [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Interior Chinatown is an all new series based on the best selling novel by Charles Yu about a struggling Asian actor who gets a bigger part than he expected when he witnesses a crime in Chinatown. Now streaming only on Disney Plus. Growth is essential for every entrepreneur. At BDC, we get that. And the businesses we support grow at double the average rate. Accelerating the pace. We're on it. BDC. Financing. Advising. Know-how. listening bonus content and early episodes from dozens of the most popular history podcasts,

including The Explorers, American Revolution Podcast, The History of World War II, The American Miracle, Plotting Through the Presidents, The History of Egypt, The Age of Napoleon, My History Can Beat Up Your Politics, and more. For your free trial, search AirWave History Plus on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe. That's AirWave History Plus, Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe. That's AirWave History Plus available now on Apple Podcasts. AirWave History Plus, the essential audio destination for history lovers. History That Doesn't Suck is a bi-weekly podcast

delivering a legit, seriously researched, hard-hitting survey of American history through entertaining stories. If you'd like to support HTTPS or enjoy bonus content, please consider joining our premium membership at HTTPSpodcast.com slash membership. It's 1050 in the morning, Thursday, October 24th, 1929, and Pat Bologna is but one of

an endless mass of people pressing into the overcrowded customer's room at the New York Stock Exchange. The market has been struggling all morning, but in the last half hour, stocks have simply plummeted. And like so many others, that's got Pat terrified. The young, short and stocky Italian-American has $5,000 in the market. $5,000 laboriously earned, spit-polishing wealthy banker's shoes. Rushing here from his nearby shoeshine station, he hoped to get some help, but this place is packed with elbowing, consternated people, including a cigar-smoking Chinese man who catches his eye. Pat's gaze soon shifts, though, to a woman with her arms stretched above the sea of strangers.

Her hat's elaborate and enormous, but the shoeshine can see the wedding ring glimmering in her tight grip. She thrusts it toward the clerks at the glass booth, shouting, You want more margin? You can't have more margin. The crowd's agitation is growing. The young boy working the quotation board is terrified. Pat hears a man grumble, That son of a bitch has sold me out. Taking a deep breath, Pat reflects on what Charlie Mitchell told him once during a shine, a wise man never sells at the first sign of trouble.

That's for the pikers. Surely the National City Bank chairman is right. Newly resolved to hold, Pat turns and pushes his way back out of the suffocating room. Okay, time out. Let's get some brief background on what's going on today at the New York Stock Exchange. Through most of the 1920s, the American economy has been booming, and investing in the nation's increasingly productive companies made sense. Up until the last year or two.

That's when the market indisputably started to bubble. There's more than one reason for that, and we'll get to those later. But the issue at play today is a call on stock investments bought, and I quote, on the margin. This is when an investor buys stocks with only a down payment, typically around 25 to 50 percent in the 1920s, but sometimes as low as 10%. It's a loan, really, one based on the assumption that the stock's value will quickly rise

and cover the difference while enriching the investor. Sounds risky, yet over half a million people invested in the New York stock market are trusting these on-the-margin stocks. And to be fair, they've worked like a charm as the Dow Jones Industrial Average has effectively doubled in the last two years. In fact, just last month, September 1929, it hit a staggering new high, exceeding 380. But for reasons that, again, we'll get to later, things began to cool after that. The decline got sharper about a week ago and now brokers have to call for cash in under

margin investment accounts. Ah, that explains the woman screaming about more margin while holding out her expensive wedding ring, likely indicating that she has nothing more of value for her suddenly upside down account. I wonder if she is as over leveraged as shoeshine Pat Bologna, whose $5,000 in life savings is exclusively in on the margin stocks. Good God, how many other Americans are about to go

from expectant millionaires to indebted poppers? Something has to be done. It's now early in the afternoon on this overcast, cool, and so far cataclysmic Thursday. National City Bank Chairman Charlie Mitchell has just entered America's four-story Tennessee marble temple to capitalism, the House of Morgan at 23 Wall Street. The sound of his Pat Bologna-shined shoes echo as the famed banker walks down the hall. Morgan employees note his haggard, coatless look. Understandable though, for nearly the

past hour the market's been in a complete freefall with only sellers. No buyers. Charlie is followed by Chase National Bank's Albert Wiggin, the guaranteed trust companies William Potter, the bankers trust companies Seward Prosser, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's George Harrison. They all head into the office of Morgan's senior partner, Thomas L. Lamont. We don't know what is said, but within 20 minutes, the men have a large pool of cash, at least 20 million,

but rumored to be as much as 240 million to steady the market and restore confidence. Banking legend, JP Morgan and his colleagues did the same exactly 22 years ago to the day, saving the nation from the worst of the panic of 1907. And now this group of bankers is entrusting Morgan Broker and stock market vice president Richard Whitney with their pooled funds, hoping the strategy will work again.

It's now 1.30 in the afternoon. We're at 18 Broad Street, just inside the New York Stock Exchange's famous marble facade on the main trading floor. Over $11 billion in market value has simply evaporated, and despite constantly spitting stock price quoting tape, the overtax ticker tape machines are two hours behind real time. The floor's hundreds of brokers appear to use the era's great war parlance, shell-shocked. This is the state of affairs as stock market VP Richard Whitney walks in.

It will later be said that he's running. Not true. Richard, or Dick, as his friends know him, would never violate the exchange's rules for bidding running. The simple sight of this tall, towering, handsomely husky 41-year-old man with flecks of gray in his otherwise jet black hair brings all trading to a halt as everyone waits to see what the powerful VP will do. Dick walks to post two. That's where U.S. Steel is traded.

He asks for the latest bid on this all-important stock. It's 195. In his official capacity as a Morgan broker, Dick loudly calls out for everyone to hear, 10,000 at 205. Cheers and applause ring out as Dick swagger along the floor, buying up other crucial stocks. His infectious confidence and millions of dollars in stock purchases stop the plunge in market. After having fallen from 305 to 272, the Dow Jones manages to close the day at a mitigated

2% loss of 2.99. But it's not enough. Some Americans are already ruined. A few suicides and attempted suicides happened that same day, and by early next week, it will become clear that this shot of confidence was merely delaying the inevitable. A crash is coming, and it will mark the beginning of an era of economic devastation unlike any the United States or the world has ever seen. Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story.

Allow me to draw a clear delineation. This is the story of the stock market crash of 1929, not the story of the Great Depression. The crash will open the door to the Depression, true, but it is neither the Depression's single cause nor the reason for its over a decade duration. So today, we will not go more than a few days past where this episode began in late October 1929. But in our quest to understand this crash, we will certainly go further back. Our tale begins in the 17th century as we figure out what stock markets are and how they came to the United States. Basically, their origins. But we'll hurry past the colonial era to trace two histories from the 1790s back to

the 1920s. One, the history of the New York Stock Exchange. And two, the history of U.S. financial institutions, regulations, and monetary policy. I promise it's more exciting than that sounds. I mean, who doesn't want to follow the path from Alexander Hamilton to the Fed? That's good times right there. We'll then let that fiscal history simmer in our minds as we meet our next president, Herbert Hoover, or just Berk, as some friends call him. We need to understand why 1920s Americans adore this man and want him to be president. Yes, before he became reviled for

his presidency, he was beloved and a hero known as the great humanitarian. And we'll figure out why. But then we return to the crash. We'll get into the nitty gritty on the various causes historians have attributed to this apocalypse on Wall Street and see how it destroys the hopes and dreams of average American investors like our soon to be friend, Greek immigrant, great war vet, and restaurateur, George Mahales. And with that, let's begin investing our time in the tale of the crash by getting Colonial. Rewind.

So what is a stock exchange? In simplest terms, it's a market for buying and selling securities. There are different types of securities, but we'll just note two here. First, stocks, which are shares of ownership in a company. And second, bonds, which are debt, be that of companies or governments. The idea to trade and barter shares of ownership and debt starts with the Dutch.

In 1611, Amsterdam creates the first stock market and almost immediately introduces tactics that savvy traders will use for centuries, like short selling. The stock market is a powerful tool for getting a piece of a big enterprise without taking all of the risk. In fact, that's exactly the model as this market starts selling shares of the Dutch East India Company. The English take a small step in that direction at the end of the century, as Jonathan's coffee house in London begins listing the price of stocks as well as commodities, that is valuable and tangible or raw goods, in 1698. France follows suit with La Bourse de Paris in 1724. So the idea of a stock market

is older than 12 of the 13 colonies, but how does it come to America? Not to negate the trading of securities in the colonial era, which is a thing, but more formalized stock markets only emerge after the ratification of the U.S Constitution, as Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton's federally focused financial plan comes into play. Revisit episode 16 if you want details, but briefly, Congress asks Alex, in 1789, what to do about its crushing Revolutionary War debt, and the Caribbean-born founding father answers with his report on public credit. In it, he proposes that the federal government, one, assume the $25 million in debt carried

by the various states, thereby bringing the national debt to a total of $79 million, and two, pay off foreign loans but fund the far larger domestic portion with non-callable bonds. Ah, bonds! That sellable debt we just defined. Yes, Alex wants to sell the federal government's debt. Congress bites, and these bonds kick off a new era of trading. Philadelphia's decades-old securities market evolves into the nation's first official

stock market in 1790. New York isn't far behind. Not that it has much of a choice. Something has to be done to curb the city's shady dealings. It's an unspecified time of day, May 17, 1792. A group of 22 men have gathered at that ancient New York City road named for the defensive barrier that it displaced. Yes, they're on Wall Street, possibly at the Corey's Hotel, perhaps deep in their pints, but most certainly deep in

conversation about two recent financial problems. You know what? Let's grab some pints ourselves and I'll fill you in. The first issue is that their current securities trading system of a twice-daily auction generally held at a coffee house or under the Buttonwood tree near 68 Wall Street, is no longer viable. State legislators are so sick of auctioneers rigging prices they've banned the auctioning of New York securities. Ouch.

So they need a new system. The second issue is William Dewar's becoming the nation's first insider trader. We touched on his story in episode 19, but in brief, this speculating, gambling public servant moved to corner the market on government bonds and shares of the newly created Bank of New York and the equally new Bank of the United States. Doing so, he landed himself in debtor's prison and helped cause an economic panic. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton capably navigated this panic of 1792 by quietly having the treasury buy back underpriced government bonds. But between banned auctions and Williams' actions making securities traders look like scoundrels, these traders need a new method.

Hence this meeting. need a new method. Hence this meeting. Soon they've got it. Rather than auction securities, they'll use fixed commission rates on each sale. They'll also give preferential treatment to traders agreeing to these terms. They write up a contract to this effect, which reads in part, We the subscribers, brokers for the purchase and sale of public stocks, do hereby solemnly promise that we will not buy or sell at a less rate than one quarter of one percent

commission on the specie value, and that we will give preference to each other in our negotiations. All 22 men present sign it. Allegedly they do so at their go-to outdoor place of business, at 68 Wall Street's shade-providing Buttonwood Tree. Two more brokers add their signatures that November, bringing the total number of signatories to 24. This contract will later be known as the Buttonwood Agreement. This auction-ending and commission-inaugurating Buttonwood Agreement of 1792 does indeed professionalize

New York's securities trading a bit. The two dozen gents who sign it also pool funds to buy a lot on the corner of Wall and Water Streets, where the soon-established Tontine Coffee House becomes their new place for trading. This will evolve into the future New York Stock Exchange. Well, according to legend and lore, it will. But is evolve into the future New York Stock Exchange. Well, according to legend and lore, it will. But is that really the case? Historian Peter Eisenstadt rejects this claim, pointing out that New York Stock and Exchange Board publications date the exchange to 1817. Hmm. Sounds like the New Yorkers of yester century

felt their stock market really began with the Stock and Exchange Board's founding on March 8, 1817. This is, after all, the organization that renames itself the New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE for short, in 1863. That's right, NYSE, not NYSE. So which origin claim is right? I guess you'll just have to decide that one for yourself. More important than the New York Stock Exchange's birthday though, is the unsavory reputation and secrecy

of the Big Apple's early traders. The Buttonwood Agreement illustrates this as the contract is drawn up in the wake of scandal. As for the secrecy bit, that's baked into the Buttonwood Agreement too, as it creates a select group privy to the agreement's commission rate and promised a first crack at deals. In other words, it's made an in-group. Ill reputations and secrecy follow the New York Stock Exchange into the next century. Many early 19th century Americans consider securities trading little more than gambling.

Brokers fire back brilliantly, saying it's no worse than gambling on horses. Ah, and as we know from episode 167, Americans of this generation wouldn't dream of messing with horse racing. But given that reputation, it's a little wonder that board members are reclusive and maintain the privacy of the city's small group of traders, which only numbers about 100

by the start of the Civil War. Indeed, historian Henry Hammond describes the mid-19th century New York Stock Exchange as a time when, quote, "...its sessions were invariably secret, and its members regarded it as a point of honor not to reveal the names of buyers and sellers, the transactions not being recognized by law." But this small-scale, highly selective exchange is thrust into the spotlight in the 1860s as the railroad industry explodes under Civil War needs.

To illustrate this, let's point out that in the 1840s, New York traders exchanged about 1.2 million shares per year, while in 1865 alone, they exchanged 9 million shares. Meanwhile, that pre-war trader headcount of 100 year, while in 1865 alone they exchanged 9 million shares. Meanwhile, that pre-war trader headcount of 100 has blown past 1000. In 1886, New York exchanges over a million shares in a single day for the first time, while names like Vanderbilt, Roosevelt, Gould, and Morgan are now emblazoned on New York City's financial scene. Yeah, we are well past trading in coffee houses, and on April 22, 1903, big shots like John

Pierpont Morgan celebrate the dedication of the exchange's new colonnaded marble home at 18 Broad Street. Future expansion soon stretched the NYSE's structure north to Wall Street, thus making it officially kitty corner to Federal Hall. And when JP's House of Morgan appears on the opposite corner, at 23 Wall Street, in 1914, we have our third and final of the iconic buildings all facing each other at the intersection of Broad and Wall Streets. This will remain the NYSE's home through the 20th and right into the 21st century.

Okay, so we defined the stock market and followed the NYSE from its humble genesis to its powerful place in the early 20th century. But for all the exchange's bullish expansion and the robust growth it brings, the bear still frequently claws down on the nation's economy. From the Revolution to the Great Depression, the United States sees about 40 economic downturns, or recessions, or better still, panics, to use the lingo of many a past generation. A few dozen too many to detail here, and it would be repetitive since we've covered the big ones in past episodes.

Side note, if you're looking for your holiday travel HTDS economic panics playlist, that would be episodes 19, 27, 29, 30, 91, 97, 98, and 127. But these busts between the booms also drive the development of the nation's fiscal policies as the government tries to fix and prevent economic problems. And that is some valuable context for today's tale. So let's explore these developments from the early Republic to the eve

of our 1929 stock market crash. The first fiscal crisis we actually touched on just a moment ago, Congress's question in 1789 of how to handle its revolutionary war debt. With great restraint, I will not get into the sordid details of how this launches one of the nation's nastiest political battles between Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson beyond saying this.

While Tom doesn't love Alex's debt assumption idea, he really loses it after the Treasury Secretary delivers his second fiscally advising report to Congress, which calls for a national bank. From a deep-seated agrarian distrust of bankers to states' rights beliefs, Tom loathes everything about it. He soon emerges as the leader of a political party, the Democratic Republicans, in a fight to take down Alex and his supporters, the Federalists. Well, despite Tom's lamentations, Congress does charter the Bank of the United States in 1791.

Only 20% owned by the government, it serves government and commercial interests, and weathers the panic of 1792 quite well. It isn't technically a central bank, as it is not tasked with managing a national monetary policy, but its actions effectively do so anyhow, cramping the style and power of state banks. Oh, the Democratic Republicans do not like that. Soon coming to dominate Congress, they choose not to re-charter the Bank of the United States in 1811.

But the financial woes of the War of 1812 soon convinced Congress that was a bad idea, and in 1816, the august Body backpedals to charter a second bank of the United States. It too becomes a sizable force on the nation's economy, regulating the notes issued by the nation's now 464 state banks. Ah, but it also bears some responsibility for the Panic of 1819 as its western branches extend credit a little too easily.

Distrust from this panic, as well as the state's rights arguments against a national bank, all contribute to President Andrew Jackson vetoing Congress's re-charter, meaning that, like its predecessor, the second bank of the U.S. is gone after 20 years. The bank's government role ends in 1836. Its disappearance plays a significant role in the Panic of 1837 and inaugurates the nation's quote-unquote free banking era of only state banks. But the crisis of war has a way of forcing fiscal measures and the Civil War brings the

federal government back into the banking game. The 1863 and 1864 National Bank Acts do not create a third national bank but invite state banks to apply for federal charters. These federal banks then buy government bonds and receive treasury notes, thereby creating a national currency, soon nicknamed for its color, as greenbacks. Further National Bank Acts impose taxes on state banks to incentivize federalization, but even then, state banks continued to outnumber national banks in the years ahead.

Meanwhile, ceilings and limitations on total notes in circulation limit the ability of national banks to pivot amid financial crises, like the infamous panics of 1873 and 1893. But the failures of this government bond tethereded and therefore artificially inelastic national currency become most apparent in the panic of 1907. Why is that? Because the inelasticity and shortage of US dollars is effectively the cause of the panic. Ah, that being the case, no wonder JP Morgan and his fellow finance bros are able to save the day by funding the situation. The generally healthy economy just needed a little liquidity to wash things down.

This and other post-panic of 1907 epiphanies help nudge the progressive era United States to create a central bank, or rather a uniquely semi-decentralized central banking system, as federalism loving Americans will never accept a full-on central bank. But with a hand on monetary policy, this one is decidedly more of a central bank than either the first or second banks of the United States, and most certainly makes Andrew Jackson roll over in his grave. Naturally, I'm referring to the Federal Reserve System, or the Fed, which enters the scene

in 1913. We covered the Fed's origins in episode 127, but let's note highlights pertinent to today's tale. The Fed has a seven-member, president-appointed board, called the Board of Governors. The system itself consists of 12 banks, each serving one of 12 districts, whose territory generally includes a couple of states. Meanwhile, local banks must deposit 6% of their assets in their region's Federal Reserve Bank. The reason? So that the Federal Reserve Bank can lend it back to them in a pinch, thereby making

the Fed's new currency, the Federal Reserve Note, far more elastic than greenbacks were. Now there are wrinkles to iron out, like the nature of the relationship between the board, the banks, and the less than enthusiastic world of finance. You'll want to remember those issues. Ahem. Foreshadowing. But notwithstanding the power struggles to come, the nation hopes this new Federal Reserve banking system means more boom and less bust.

And it seems that way. Despite panics at the outbreak of and right after the Great War, the United States roars into the 20s with the strongest economy in the world. It's a decade in which the Fed's wagging finger toward the rampant unchecked growth of Wall Street is met with a different finger from investors. And that gets us back to the eve of the 1929 crash. But before we go deep on these blackest of NYSE days, we need to get to know the man who will be the president during the disaster and the aftermath that follows. Is he Nero

fiddling while Rome burns? Or is he the great humanitarian? Perhaps all we can say for sure is that he's Herbert Hoover and his story began a few decades back. Rewind. History That Doesn't Suck is sponsored by BetterHelp. One of the most haunting screen portrayals of the vampire legend is from the 1922 German silent film Nosferatu. We talked about this film in this year's Halloween special. The Trails of the Vampire Legend is from the 1922 German silent film Nosferatu. We talked about this film in this year's Halloween special. Staring at the ghostly black and white image of the pointy-eared gargoyle-like Count Orlok

still sends a shiver down the spine. While writing that episode, I was reminded of how fear is such a powerful emotion. Fear isn't just something we experience while watching a scary movie. There are a lot of things in life that can frighten us. But sometimes we've got to face and overcome our fear to move forward. That can be tough to do. And that's when therapy could help. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try.

It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists at any time for no additional charge Overcome your fears with better help visit better help comm slash HTT s today to get 10% off your first month That's better help Helped com slash HTT s Breaking news happens anywhere anytime Breaking news happens anywhere, anytime. Police have warned the protesters repeatedly, get back.

CBC News brings the story to you as it happens. Hundreds of wildfires are burning. Be the first to know what's going on and what that means for you and for Canadians. This situation has changed very quickly. Helping make sense of the world when it matters most. Stay in the know. CBC News. The Middle Child of a Canadian-born homemaker and a farmer slash blacksmith equipment salesman,

Herbert Hoover is born on August 10, 1874 in West Branch, Iowa. The young Quaker grows up learning the value of hard work and the pains of loss and loneliness. At just six years old, little Herbert, or Bertie, or Bert as the child is also called, loses his father, Jesse Hoover, to a heart attack. His near penniless mother, Holda, does what she can for the three kids, but she too dies three years later—pneumonia. The kids are passed around to relatives. Burt ends up with a less-than-loving uncle in Oregon who puts him at hard labor for the

next six years. The growing boy becomes shy, suspicious, and a complete introvert. Though an average poor student in all but math, Bert really wants to attend the university recently founded by Leland Stanford in Palo Alto, California. He studies hard and squeaks by on the entrance exam. Once there, the newly minted geology major throws himself into college life, earning his tuition by working in the registration office, starting a student laundry, and using his math skills to manage the school's baseball and football teams. So introverted Bert is doing sports, just in more of a moneyball, not on the field sort of way.

Most importantly, he meets a young lady in the geology lab, whom one classmate describes as quote, slim and supple as a reed, with a wealth of brown hair, close quote. This is Lou Henry. The two fall in love, but this young man of trauma and poverty won't start a family until he knows he can provide. So more hard work. Before graduating, he spends his summers on geological surveys in Arkansas, California, and Nevada. After graduation, he pushes mine carts in a Nevada City, California gold mine.

He then works in the office of a San Francisco mine consulting firm. That last one is the ticket. His boss, Lewis Janin, recommends Burt to a British mining firm to evaluate mines in Australia. That's right, the future president is heading to the land down under. In 1897, Bert Hoover begins examining gold fields in Western Australia's Great Victoria Desert, which he calls a, quote, country of black flies, red dust, and white heat, close quote. Yeah, Bert doesn't love it here, but he's making a pretty penny doing it.

He even begins anonymously providing scholarships to Stanford students. The ex-Pat Stanford man keeps in touch with friends and family, but most especially that beautiful brunette from his lab class, his fellow native Iowan outdoors enthusiast and lover of geology, Lou Henry. When Herbert gets word that he's being promoted and sent to China, the now fiscally sound geologist sends her a telegram, asking, Going to China via San Francisco. Will you go with me? Lou answers with an enthusiastic one word reply.

Yes! The Quaker Episcopalian wedding officiated by a Catholic priest takes place in Liu's family living room on February 10, 1899. The adventures are only just beginning for the Hoovers. Upon arriving in China, they find themselves in the midst of an uprising as the Society of Righteous Harmonious Fists, or the Boxers as they're called in English, carry out a nationalist anti-imperialist uprising seeking to push out the heavy influence of the Japanese and Western empires. As bullets fly around the besieged city of Tianjin, Bert

builds barricades, attends to food distribution, and water purification. Lu works at the hospital. to food distribution and water purification. Lou works at the hospital. The Boxer Rebellion is crushed by 1901, and over the next six years, the Hoovers grow their family and their fortunes as Burt travels the world fixing failing minds and acquiring the nickname, the Doctor of Sick Minds. He starts his own firm in 1908 and soon is able to legitimately call himself a millionaire. Burt's come a long way from the hungry, shy, overworked orphan that failed English in Oregon. But all the same, even with a loving wife, children, and millions of dollars,

Herbert is still looking for his life's work. Maybe he can find it as the world collapses into war. It's the afternoon of August 4, 1914. Herbert Hoover is in his office in London's financial district, but his mind isn't on finances. Rather, as the now world-famous millionaire will later recall, his mind is, quote, ruminating over the impossible nature of things. Close quote.

Understandable. It's been just over a month since Archduke Ferdinand's assassination, and somehow that's translated to a cascade of war declarations in the last week. Surely Burt would prefer to focus on his son's 11th birthday, which is today, or reflect on his own milestone birthday of 40, which is only days away, or even turn his attention to his fast approaching month-long working vacation in California. So much is going so right for this orphan-turned-famous millionaire and yet at the same time so much is going so wrong in the world. The telephone

rings ripping Burt from his ruminations. He answers to hear the voice of the new American Consul General Robert Skinner. At least, that's Burt's version. Robert will never remember making this phone call. Nonetheless, Burt recollects the consul making it clear that things are desperate at the nearby consulate. There's a mob of a thousand American tourists, all penniless, because they cannot raise money on travelers' checks. And they cannot even get food or lodgings. Can you think of anything to do?

Well, forget California. Herbert immediately heads over to the consulate to see what he can do. It's pandemonium. Countless Americans, hungry and shelterless because war-panicked banks have cut them off from their own funds, pound their fists on the counters, and demand to know what the US government is doing to make this right. Observing that the weary Consul General, Robert Skinner, is, and I quote, a mess, Bert leaps into action. He amasses cash from his office, from business associates. His wife, Lou, brings £100 from their London home, and with all of it, the cool under-pressure expat opens an office in the consulate that same afternoon where he hands out no interest loans to over 300 Americans to get them through the panicked

filled days ahead. In the next few days, Bert finds room aboard ships bound for the states and convinces London hotels to extend credit to Americans. Meanwhile, Lou forms a women's committee to assist single women and children in distress. The Hoovers and their newly organized teams find solutions to every problem that comes their way, be that entitled wealthy Americans who learn the hard way that sometimes first-class travel isn't available during war or convincing terrified expats it's safe to go home. isn't available during war or convincing terrified expats it's safe to go home. For instance, when one elderly woman demands a guarantee that the Germans won't sink her ship, Burt writes her a guarantee. It works. As Burt later tells it, if she came through all right,

she'd say I kept my word. If she was sunk, she'd never have time to blame me. By October, Herbert's committee has registered 42,000 American travelers, provided financial assistance to 9,600 of them, and distributed more than $400,000 in aid. Herbert is enormously proud of his work. He's got no plans to go anywhere soon, and as he'll later put it, I did not realize it at the moment, but my engineering career was forever over. I was on the slippery road of public life.

A slippery road indeed. Herbert's attention is soon turned to Belgium, where 9 million people trapped between the British naval blockade and the German army are starving. The intrepid businessman turned humanitarian founds the Commission for Relief in Belgium or CRB and after weeks of negotiations with the British, French and Germans he gets all of them to recognize his organization as a neutral entity permitted to ship foodstuffs to these desperate starving millions of civilians. Bert displays impeccable managerial skills as he relies on over 40,000 Belgian volunteers.

The Belgian people love him. Bert's a world-renowned hero. No surprise then that when the United States enters the Great War in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appoints the hero to, quote, immediately place in operation his plans for food control in the United States, close quote, as the head of the US Food Administration. Burt calls on Americans to support the troops by eating less with meatless Mondays, Wheatless Wednesdays and banners declaring, food is ammunition, don't waste it. Burt's forceful and given to exceeding his authority as reflected in his nicknames as

the Food Czar, or the Food Dictator, and the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. These appellations are more tongue in cheek than accusatory, though, as many appreciate his work. Indeed, Herbert Hoover is so successful that his name becomes a verb meaning to get by with less, that is, to Hooverize. The war ends in 1918, but Burt's humanitarian work continues, now with the American Relief Administration or the ARA, which provides relief to war-torn and hungry European children. In newly independent Poland, it's said that the name Woodrow Wilson spelled freedom while

quote, the name Herbert Hoover spelled life, close quote. The organization's work spreads to newly Soviet Russia. Soon, the ARA is employing 120,000 Russians to operate 19,000 kitchens to help feed almost 11 million people daily. When some critics in the US government claim that his efforts are only aiding the Bolsheviks, Burt responds, 20 million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed.

And criticisms aside, Burt is a hero back in the states. Before the 1920 election, both Democrats and Republicans seek to nominate him for president. Even though he sides with the Republicans, his future rival Franklin D. Roosevelt writes, He is certainly a wonder and I wish we could make him president. There could not be a better one. Well, Burt doesn't seek the nomination in 1920, but he does find himself a cabinet member in the Harding and Coolidge administrations as the Secretary of Commerce. You might remember from episode 156 that President Calvin Coolidge calls on Burke to provide

relief after the 1927 Mississippi flood because, as famous humorist Will Rogers puts it, quote, when a man is sick, he calls a doctor. When the United States of America is sick, they call for Herbert Hoover, close quote. Though not without controversy over the disparity of loss between white and black homes, Herbert organizes local efforts by the Red Cross to provide for families who lose everything when the levy breaks. In the end, Burke comes out maintaining his nicknames as the great humanitarian and master of emergencies. Meanwhile, President Calvin Coolidge declares in South Dakota that he won't be seeking a

second term as president. Ah, yes, we heard that speech in episode 156. Well, after a lifetime of working for the livelihood of Americans and the little guy, and proving himself a successful businessman, it's hard to disagree with FDR's assessment that there could not be a better president than Burt. Yet, facing off against Democratic New York Governor Al Smith, the great humanitarian can't help but worry. He's never held elected office and is so shy he prefers to give his speeches via the

radio, whereas Al is a four-term governor, opposed to unpopular prohibition. But orphaned Burt has become Uncle Sam's golden child. I mean, prosperity just follows him wherever he goes. Though he doesn't personally say it, the Republican Party's promise of a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage feels doable under a Bert Hoover presidency. And Bert does express a similar idea while accepting the GOP's nomination, proclaiming that, quote, we and America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.

The poorhouse is vanishing from among us, close quote. But is that enough? Well, let's see how the election goes. It's almost 11 o'clock at night, November 6th, 1928. We're at the Hoovers' elaborate, international architecture style home in Stanford, California, where Bert, Lou, and their friends and family are excitedly tracking the election's results. Bert puffs his pipe and scratches chalk numbers on a blackboard in his study as one state after another comes in.

But as he does, Burt can hardly believe what he's seen. He's not just winning. This is a landslide. He's received over 21 million votes while Democrat Al Smith's barely clearing 15 million. As for the real determining factor, the Electoral College, that translates to an overwhelming 444 electoral votes for Herbert and only 87 for Al. Forty states, including some solid Southern Democratic strongholds like Tennessee and Florida and even Al Smith's home state of New York, have cast their Electoral College

votes for the one and only great humanitarian, Herbert Hoover. Still stunned, Bert hears something outside. Is that music? He and Lou go to the balcony to discover that 74-year-old legendary March composer, John Philip Sousa, is leading a 70-piece band followed by a crowd of thousands of Stanford students and supporters. As the loving couple takes all of this in, an airplane flies overhead, releasing fireworks.

It's just too much for the reserved businessman and humanitarian. Despite his best efforts, the sight of thousands celebrating his election leads the man to cry. Wiping away tears, he shouts down to the crowd, I thank you for this expression and appreciate your coming up to greet me. I thank you from the discovery of insulin in 1921 to the promise of universal health care in 1966, Canadians have always made health care our mission. Now we face our biggest challenge yet, a cure for health care. Reduced wait times, safer patients, advancements in

technology, the end of hallway medicine. We're finding it all here at Humber River Health. Help us innovate to keep health care alive. Donate at healthcarelives.ca. Help turn off hesitation, turn off doubt, turn off fears. With your support, the YMCA of Greater Toronto helps people turn off whatever's holding them back so they can let their potential shine. Help turn on confidence and connections and possibilities. From youth shelters to job training, mental health counseling and beyond, the YMCA offers hundreds of programs that empower people to shine their brightest.

See our charity's impact at ymcagta.org slash charity. Pausing to take stock of what we've covered today. Yes, pun intended, we now know what a stock market is. We've followed the evolution of New York's stock market specifically, explored the United States' less-than-direct path to a central-ish banking system, the Federal Reserve System, and finally, we know that it's against this financial background that Americans enthusiastically send the impoverished orphan-turned-millionaire and great humanitarian Herbert Hoover to the White House. He takes the oath of office on March 4, 1929, just a little over six months before the stock market crashes.

And with all of that background, I'd say we're ready to turn our attention to the various possible causes of the 1929 crash. Although historians will undoubtedly argue over the details of the crashes caused until the end of time, there's a general consensus that the 1920s rise in the stock market makes sense at first, but not past early 1928. By this point, a number of investments stop reflecting realistic value. Why is that? To start, we have overinvestment in companies behind the era's exciting and still-growing technologies, like radio, cars, and the telephone. We also have more middle and working-class Americans in the market, too. An unspecified number, but across all the various investment opportunities available to this nation, trained by the previous decades' war

bonds to put their money in securities, it's possibly as high as several million average American families. Not that that is a bad thing in and of itself. The problem is on ethical brokers. Now, that is not to disparage all brokers, but all professions have their bad eggs, and here in the 1920s, some are offering less than honest investment trusts. Broker-turned-writer Matthew Josephson describes these trusts as the means, quote, by which artful financiers passed on to the public the bulk of their much-mortgaged and pyramid-ed holdings while keeping voting control in their own hands." Close quote.

Yikes. But the most famous invisible contribution to the crash are stocks bought on the margin. Now, without minimizing this, let's note that we often carry an inflated sense of both the number of Americans buying on the margin and the degree to which they do so. Of the NYSE's total 1,549,000 accounts in 1929, 560,000 are margin accounts. If we assume each account represents one American family in this era of 4.11 people per U.S. household, which isn't perfect, but it's something, this suggests that only 2.3 million Americans out of the nation's 125 million inhabitants, or less than 2%, are directly tied to a margin account.

And what is that margin? We often hear a meager 10% when discussing this history, but that is in fact quite rare. Even without government regulation, and that is indeed the case with pre-29 margin-bought stocks, most brokers want at least 25% and are typically requiring 50%. That sounds a little less crazy than the scintillating 10% soundbite that we often get with a surface level treatment of this history. But again, let's not minimize it either. On the margin buys are still plenty risky. Riskier still as some speculative investments are

made with bank-borrowed money, money that the banks in turn borrowed from their local Federal Reserve banks. Furthermore, you don't have to have one of these accounts to feel the impact. If you work for a small company whose owner is playing on the margin and goes bust, you might be out of a job. And so the dominoes fall. As for the stockbrokers overseeing these accounts, most aren't worried. If you ask them about the possible catastrophe awaiting an over-leveraged on-the-margin account holder,

they'd likely answer that, even with fluctuations. Stock values rise so fast, it's not a worry. But some financial gurus see a bubble forming by early 1929. This includes members of the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors, leadership at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and even some on Wall Street. They all think something should be done, but disagree on what?

First, the Federal Reserve Board doesn't want to increase the discount rate. Oh, what's that? The discount rate is the rate of interest that a Federal Reserve Bank charges when making a loan to a bank. By raising it, the Fed can make credit more expensive, creating a little borrowing domino effect

that, in theory, will disincentivize banks and citizens from taking risky loans. But the Fed has already done this over the past year or so, and thus far, raising the discount rate to 5% has only punished Main Street, farmers, construction, and so forth. It's slowing business, but not speculation. As such, the Federal Reserve Board wants to leave the discount rate alone and asks its Federal Reserve banks to stop loaning money to banks if that loan is going to fund speculation.

But the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and those on Wall Street disagree with this categorical approach, calling instead for the discount rate to go up from 5% to 6%. Ah, this would be the power struggle we foreshadowed earlier. In February 1929, the Federal Reserve Board moves forward with this plan. It doesn't touch the discount rate and starts pressuring Federal Reserve Banks not to give loans ultimately intended for speculation. The impact is that call money, that is, money banks loan to brokers that is payable on demand, hence callable, starts to dry up. Stocks dip and march as a result.

A panic looms. This is when National City Bank Chairman and, as of January, one of the directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Sunshine Charlie Mitchell, steps in. Yes, we met this boisterous banker at the Morgan Bank meeting in this episode's opening. Whether a villain selfishly guarding his own portfolio or a hero hoping to spare the nation a panic, and both narratives exist, Sunshine Charlie announces that National Citibank will put up 25 million to cover broker loans and encourage the public not to stop their margin investments.

Huh. So much for the Federal Reserve Board winning the power struggle. The market stabilizes. But it's still just a band-aid. One that the head of the Bank of Manhattan company, Paul M. Warburg, warns won't hold. President Herbert Hoover has concerns, but firmly believes, like his predecessor, Calvin Coolidge, that the president shouldn't directly interfere with American business. Andrew Mellon, who's now serving the third president

in a row as Secretary of the Treasury, advises investors to focus on stable stocks. In August, the frustrated Federal Reserve Board decides it will try raising the discount rate to 6% after all. Yeah, it only hurts business. Even as the summer brings the red flags of lower factory output and declining railway freight traffic, stocks only go up, up, and up, all the way up to Labor Day 1929.

No one taking their well-earned day off knows it, but that's the last day of the roaring 20s. From there on, the stock exchange's cracks only become increasingly visible. And does late September's arrest of fraud-committing English businessman Clarence Hattry, and the subsequent freezing of his enormous holdings on the London stock market, which are said to cause a withdrawal of call loans in New York, also play a role in pushing the NYSE toward a crash? Well it didn't help, and historians will argue about how much it hurt. The New York Stock Exchange continues

down. On October 4th, the New York Times reports that, quote, fear is in the saddle, close quote. The bubble is unstable and indisputably that includes overvalued utility stocks as the public is about to realize, thanks in part to one honoring Massachusetts man. It's Friday afternoon, October 11, 1929. The Massachusetts Public Utilities Commission is just getting seated for a meeting at the brand new three tower Art Deco style skyscraper on Battery March Street in Boston, known as the Public Service Building. Sounds pretty run of the mill, but under his Ponsonet eyeglasses and bushy but well-trimmed

mustache, Commission Chairman Henry Atwell's seething. Today, the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston is seeking permission to split its stock, quadrupling shares to take its current price of $100 per share down to $25. It's a great way to get more small-time investors, and honestly, pretty routine. But Henry doesn't like it. The representative steps forward and takes the floor. He states simply that, by vote of the stockholders

to change the par value of its stock, the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston now seeks the approval of this department, as provided in section 8 of chapter 164 of the General Laws. Henry asks why. The rep is surprised. Splitting stocks so ordinary, he didn't come expecting a challenge. Confused, he simply answers, it is the fashion.

It says that Boston Edison is about the only company that has not done it in Massachusetts. That's not sufficient for Henry today. The bespectacled mustachioed chairman chastises the Edison rep. There are serious objections, it seems to us, to making the change at this time. Due to the action of speculators, the price of the stock has risen to such a point that no one would find it to his advantage to buy it. Wow.

Henry isn't just saying no, he's saying that the Edison Company stock is overvalued. Substantially. He continues, no public interest will be served. On the other hand, it is likely to encourage the belief in the minds of many innocent people that it is the forerunner of substantial increases in dividends, without their hopes being realized. As a consequence, it is ordered that the change is disapproved and the petition denied. Let me be clear.

Henry is not to blame for the crash in two weeks. As we've seen, the bubble has been growing for at least two years, aided by pyramid-ed and mortgage-filled investment trusts, unregulated margin accounts, maybe Britain's dishonest investor and businessman Clarence Hattry, and of course, overvalued stocks, none of which the uncertain Fed appears able to rein in. But while we've addressed those overvalued tech stocks, we're now adding utilities to that category. And it's only a matter of time until all of these factors, each playing their major and minor roles, explode like a ticking time bomb.

Amid the market's recent decline, word of Henry's commission turning down a stock split spreads fear, especially as investment trusts, such as those held at Sunshine Charlie's National City Bank, are heavily invested in such public utilities. As Boston's Edison stock plummets following this revelation, it's hard not to wonder what else is overvalued. On Wednesday, October 16th, the New York Times quotes Yale University professor and economist

Irving Fisher who reassures that stock markets appear to be at quote, a permanently high plateau, close quote, and that he expects to continue quoting, to see the stock market a good deal higher than it is today within a few months. Yet that same day, a federal report shows a continued decline in steel, automobiles, and freight loads. Small-time investors from mechanics to hotel clerks are getting calls from their brokers saying that it's time to cover that margin. On Monday October 21st the market drops again. Seeing this, Great War General of the Army's Black Jack Pershing telegraphs his broker,

confidential. What do you think of the general's situation? Would you hold, sell, or buy Anaconda? Prices bounce back on the 22nd, but on Wednesday the 23rd, they drop again. In a single day, the Dow Jones falls by 6% from 326 to 305. And that brings us back to where we started this episode. October 24th, Black Thursday. Brokers are calling for cash on those margin accounts. Stocks hit a freefall as a visiting Winston Churchill observes the NYSE trading floor from the visitor's gallery. Anxious investors fill the streets between the stock exchange, the House of Morgan, and the steps of Federal Hall.

Manhattan traffic freezes amid fears that a man 400 feet up on a skyscraper is about to jump to his death. It's actually a workman taking a smoke break, but the mistake captures the forlorn city's disposition. Then, Sunshine Charlie and his banker buddies pool resources. Stock market VP Richard Dick Whitney uses their funds to restore confidence in the market, which closes the day stabilized at a 2% loss. The next morning, it looks like the worst is past. President Herbert Hoover issues a statement declaring,

The fundamental business of the country, that is, the production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis. Wall Street agrees. It rallies. But the rally doesn't look so good during Saturday's brief trading window. Blue chip stocks, the best of the best, head downward. That means that the big investors are losing faith. But that's nothing compared to what follows. October 28, 1929 is devastating. To quote historian William Klingeman, shaken by the

events of the previous week, the public simply refused to buy, and those who still held stocks refused to keep them any longer. And this time, the team of super bankers aren't coming to the rescue. It would be impossible to pool such funds. The market drops like a rock. The Dow Jones falls 38 points closing at 261 for a loss of 13%. In a single day, dubbed the Black Monday, $14 billion in securities have vanished into thin air. The next day, October 29, 1929, a record-obliterating 16 million plus shares change hands on the NYSE as the Dow closes

at nearly a 12% loss of $230. We're far beyond margin accounts as another 10 billion vaporizes and companies like General Electric, Chrysler, and others go for pennies on the dollar. To put that another way, between Black Monday and Black Tuesday alone, the stock market lost about 80% of the total cost for the U.S. to fight World War I. And this deadly 1-2 combo from the bear has simply slaughtered the bull. Around the country, stories of suicides fill the papers. Some are real, but respectfully also exaggerated. Of the 100

Americans who attempt or do take their lives between Black Thursday and the end of 1929, it's just half, 50%, who do so as a result of the crash and only two of those jump to their deaths on Wall Street. Still, every life lost is precious and among those investors who do hang in there are those who nonetheless feel as though their lives are lost. It's a late October day, 1929. George Mahales is in his Spartanburg, South Carolina restaurant, the Dixie Lunch. And oh, does it smell good.

I trust that George is making some authentic Greek food from his upbringing in Athens, but if that's not your thing, don't worry. This limping veteran cooked his way through the Great War. I'm sure his burgers are every bit as good as his Euros. But in truth, George's mind isn't on his restaurant. See, last month a smiling customer came in showing off how much money he'd made investing in the stock market. As George puts it, I'd bit with what you folks call hook, line, and sinker. He invested, and it went so well so fast he took a loan from his brother to buy more and

on the margin. Why not? His stocks are only going up. It's just like his mother told him, you'll get rich in America someday. And it looks like Mama was right. So you'll have to forgive George if he's American daydreaming more than minding his grill. The phone rings, snapping George back to the present. Wouldn't you know it's his broker. But the war vet quickly realizes that this is not a friendly call. He says that George must put up more cash.

George cleans out his bank account. He's still short, so he goes to his brother, who fronts him another thousand dollars. Then on October 29th, Black Tuesday, there's another call for more money. The only thing left that George can do is sell the cafe. He's ruined. To let George tell the story from here, I guess disappointment comes mighty hard to some people. But that almost killed me. I considered killing myself because I had nothing left. I found out what a fool I had been. I learned a lesson then.

It taught me that you've got to pay your debts to get along. Unsavory trusts, overvalued tech and utility stocks, maybe a Londoner's illegal shenanigans, and of course, those unregulated on-the-margin stocks. It all proved a cocktail that neither the Fed nor speakeasy saturated New York could choke down. As for which leaders get blamed, this includes Wall Street types like National City Bank Chairman Charles Mitchell. But not President Herbert Hoover. Not yet.

After all, Americans don't know that this crash marks the start of the Great Depression. And as I said before, this crash is neither the singular cause of the Depression nor does it explain this bleak economic period lasting for over a decade. But speaking of the President, the eyes of 125 million Americans will soon look to Bert, the great humanitarian, as the crash does indeed give way to an era far afield from his prediction of poverty's eradication. Amid failing crops, rampant unemployment deported U.S. citizens and an army of doughboy veterans marching to claim a promised bonus. What will the master of emergencies do? It's your move, President Hoover.

History That Doesn't Suck is created and hosted by me, Greg Jackson. Episode researched and written by Greg Jackson and recently engaged, Will King. More Margin Wedding Ring Woman, read by Riley Neuvala. Special thanks to the Massachusetts State Archives for access to the October 11, 1929 Massachusetts Public Utilities Commission meeting minutes. Production by Airship. Sound design by Molly Bach. Theme music composed by Greg Jackson. Arrangement and additional composition by Lindsey Graham of Airship. For a bibliography of all primary and secondary sources consulted in writing this episode, visit htdspodcast.com. HTS is supported by premium membership fans. You can join by clicking the link in the episode description.

I gratitude you kind souls providing additional funding to help us keep going. And a special thanks to our members whose monthly gift puts them at producer status. Andy Thompson, Anthony Pizzullo, Art Lane, Beth Chris Jansen, Bob Drazovich, Brian Goodson, Bronwyn Cohen, Kerry Begall, Charles and Shirley Clandinan, Charlie Magis, Chloe Tripp, Christopher Merchant, Christopher Pullman, David Defazio, David Rifkin, Denki, Durante Spencer, Donald Moore, Donna Marie Jeffcoat, Ellen Stewart, Ernie Lowe, George Sherwood, Gurwit Griffin, Henry Brungis, Jake Gilbreth, James G. Bledsoe, Janie McCreary, Jeff Marks, Jennifer Moods, Jennifer Magnolia, Jeremy Wells, Jessica Poppett, Joe Dovis, John Frugal-Dougal, John Booby, John Keller, John Oligaros, John Ridleyvich, John Schaeffer, John Schaff, Jordan Corbett,

Joshua Steiner, Justin M. Spriggs, Justin May, Kristen Pratt, Karen Bartholomew, Cassie Koneko, Kim R., Kyle Decker, Lawrence Neubauer, Linda Cunningham, Mark Ellis, Matthew Mitchell, Matthew Simmons, Melanie Jan, Nick Seconder, Nick Caffrel, Noah Hoff, Owen Sedlap, Paul Goehringer, Randy Guffrey, Rhys Humphries Wadsworth, Rick Brown, Sarah Trewitt, Samuel Legasse, Sharon Theisen, Sean Baines, Steve Williams, Creepy Girl, Tisha Black, and Zach Jackson. on Apple podcasts. AirWave History Plus is your ticket to ad-free listening bonus content and early episodes from dozens of the most popular history podcasts, including The Explorers,

American Revolution Podcast, The History of World War II, The American Miracle, Plotting Through the Presidents, The History of Egypt, The Age of Napoleon, My History Can Beat Up Your Politics, and more.

For your free trial, search AirWave History Plus on Apple podcasts and hit subscribe., search AirWave History Plus on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe. That's AirWave History Plus, available now on Apple Podcasts. AirWave History Plus, the essential audio destination for history lovers.