The Megyn Kelly Show - BONUS: Doug Brunt Reveals Details About His Forthcoming Book on His "Dedicated" Podcast

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

In this bonus special edition episode from the "Dedicated" podcast, author Doug Brunt (and Megyn Kelly's husband) reveals details about his forthcoming new book, "The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I."You can discover more about Rudolf Diesel and preorder at this link:https://tinyurl.com/282eafxv

Welcome to Dedicated with Doug Brunt. Today we have some breaking news. There's a reason I'm taking a few months off from this show this summer, which is that I have a new book coming out. This one is my first nonfiction book. It's narrative nonfiction, sort of like a David Graham or Eric Larson style of book. And it's about Rudolf Diesel. The name of the book is The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel. And he invented the diesel engine, which he first showed to the world in 1897. So I'll give you the quick tease of the book. September 29, 1913, less than a year before the outbreak of World War I, Rudolf Diesel is traveling on an overnight passenger ferry from Belgium to Britain. And at some point during the

night, when he's crossing the North Sea, he disappears. And in the morning, they hold the ship at sea for a search, and they can't find him. They find only his hat and his coat neatly folded on the deck of the ship, under the rail by the stern in the back of the ship. And he's disappeared. So newspapers and people around Europe and America begin to speculate about how he died. Some think it was an accident, that he fell over the rail in the night, maybe he was sleepwalking. Others think it might have been suicide, that he jumped off the ship in the night. And other newspapers speculate that it might have been murder, and they identify two suspects. One is Kaiser Wilhelm II, the emperor of Germany. And the reason they think that Germany and the Kaiser might have been involved is that

Germany and Britain were in a massive naval arms race at this time. The nationalism and militarism at the turn of the century in Europe was at a peak. And the two countries, Germany and Britain, were edging closer to war. And in the years just prior to 1913, the diesel engine had emerged as the only possible engine for the submarine or the U-boat. And the navies of every major power in Europe were scrambling for diesel power. And Rudolph was still the main expert in this technology, which is still very new. And the reason for his trip across the North Sea was that he was going to the founding of a brand new diesel engine manufacturing company

in Great Britain, whose purpose was to build diesels for the Royal Navy submarine program. So understandably, the Kaiser would be angry. The other suspect was the founder of Standard Oil and the world's richest man, John Rockefeller. And he found the diesel engine also to be a threat because he had just lost the kerosene market for revenues to the electric light bulb. Standard Oil, which was founded in 1870, all the early money that Standard Oil made from 1870 to the turn of the century was from kerosene for illumination. Gasoline was a waste byproduct that was a nuisance that they tossed away. But by the early 1900s, the electric light bulb, largely pioneered by Thomas Edison, had replaced kerosene illumination. So Rockefeller

had just lost his whole revenue model off of kerosene and was now counting on the combustion engine and gasoline for future revenue. But the diesel engine didn't need petroleum or gasoline. It could run on vegetable oil or peanut oil. And that's true even to this day. Just a few years ago, Willie Nelson, the musician, was traveling on an American tour, and his tour bus was powered by diesel, as is every bus and every truck and every train, by the way. He was traveling on his tour bus and the engine he fueled with recycled kitchen grease. So he was an advocate of the diesel engine,

thinking that he didn't want nations to have to fight wars around the world for energy. So today, everyone knows the word diesel. You pass it every day at a filling station or on a train or a truck or a car. But the history of the man Rudolph Diesel has been scrubbed, and deliberately scrubbed for reasons you'll learn in this book. He's one of the most fascinating figures of the man, Rudolf Diesel, has been scrubbed and deliberately scrubbed for reasons you'll learn in this book. He's one of the most fascinating figures of the 20th century. And this book will expand your perspective of the last hundred years. I spent the last four years doing research and archives around Europe and America. And this book not only lets you get to know Rudolf Diesel, but it solves the mystery of what happened to him. And it's crazier than you can imagine.

Jay Winnick, he wrote an early review of the book, and he wrote, Equal parts Walter Isaacson and Sherlock Holmes. The mysterious case of Rudolph Diesel yanks back the curtain on the greatest keeper of the 20th century in this riveting history. So please check it out. Pre-orders are huge for writers, and I promise you'll be happy you did. We tried to make it real easy for you. We pasted the link to go to the order page in the episode description, so you can click from right there and pre-order a copy of the book. I promise you will love it. It's like a white-knuckle thrill ride, but you'll also learn a ton. I learned a ton doing the research on this book. There's a lot of eye-opening stuff about technology and engines and war

through the 20th century that Diesel is sort of right under the surface of so much of what was going on and how the mystery of his disappearance is unbelievable. So please check it out. Please pre-order. And I promise, promise, promise you will love it. Thank you.