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What the HELL Were You Thinking?

What the HELL Were You Thinking?

By: Dave Bledsoe
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About this listen

 All the things that made the world the way it is now. Welcome to the podcast takes your nostalgia, tells you the history behind it and makes you ask What the HELL Were You Thinking. Host Dave Bledsoe takes the history, politics and pop culture of the past fifty years and explains what it was like to live through it and why it is still ruining the world today. So join Dave, his hapless Producer Gavin St James every Monday for time capsule of truth! Find us at whatthehellpodcast.com, @whatthehellpodcast.bsky.social and the show name on Facebook.Copyright 2023 © Dave Bledsoe. All rights reserved Art World
Episodes
  • Episode 517: Atom Bomb Baby

    Episode 517: Atom Bomb Baby
    Jan 26 2026
    Show Notes Episode 517: Atom Bomb Baby This week Host Dave Bledsoe goes into his laboratory to work on his experiments. (His lab is a bar and he is mixing toxic cocktails to drink alone. Again.) On the show this week we examine the second leg of the Boomer Tripod, which explains why Boomers are the way they are. (Standing in line at the Walmart return counters muttering racisms at an audible level.): The Atomic Age. Along the way we learn WAY TOO MUCH about Dave and his youthful “nocturnal emissions”. (Eew. Just Eew!) Then we dive right into those heady years following World War Two when America was in love with the Atom. We explore all the ways people tried to make the bomb work in civilian applications and all the things people imagined we would power with a nuclear reactor. (We could have had atomic cars!) Then we take a look at the atom in pop culture. From atomic beauty queens to atomic labs under the Christmas tree, the atom was cool until it wasn’t. (Funny how nuclear war can ruin a good time!!) Our Sponsor this week is The Junior Manhattan Project Home Set, the future bright because it glows from atomic radiation! We open the show with a little cartoon explaining the atom and close with Unexpected Visitors who sing us a little love song! Show Theme: Hypnostate Prelude to Common Sense The Show on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/whatthehellpodcast.bsky.social The Show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whatthehellpodcast/ The Show on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjxP5ywpZ-O7qu_MFkLXQUQ The Show on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatthehellwereyouthinkingpod/ Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/kHmmrjptrq Our Website: https://www.whatthehellpodcast.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Whatthehellpodcast The Show Line: 347 687 9601 Closing Music:https://youtu.be/FNYCq452aEA?si=zjYQBx7QQf_ZKFr2 Buy Our Stuff: https://www.seltzerkings.com/shop Citations Needed: The Manhattan Project an Interactive History https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Events/1945-present/public_reaction.htm The Atomic Automobile https://www.damninteresting.com/the-atomic-automobile/ America’s Crazy Attempts to Build Nuclear-Powered Aircraft https://nationalinterest.org/feature/americas-crazy-attempts-build-nuclear-powered-aircraft-13352 Atomically Bad Ideas for the Atomic Bomb https://www.ripleys.com/stories/atomic-bomb-ideas How Uranium Fever Shaped the 1950s Southwest https://yesterdaysamerica.com/how-uranium-fever-shaped-the-1950s-southwest/ 4 Atomic-Themed 1950s Beauty Queens https://www.mentalfloss.com/culture/fashion-beauty/4-atomic-themed-1950s-beauty-queens Comics and the atomic bomb from 1945 to 1955 https://www.tcj.com/comics-and-the-atomic-bomb-from-1945-to-1955/ Pop Music and the Bomb https://thebulletin.org/2018/12/pop-music-and-the-bomb/ Toy Geiger Counter by Bell Products (1955-1956) https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/toys/bell-products-geiger-counter.html 7 Retro Toys From the Atomic Age https://www.mentalfloss.com/fun/toys/retro-atomic-age-toys Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    40 mins
  • Episode 516: Red, Red Whine

    Episode 516: Red, Red Whine
    Jan 12 2026
    Episode 516: Red, Red Whine This week Host Dave Bledsoe woke up brutally hungover behind a trash dumpster in the Tacony neighborhood of Philadelphia meaning a whole New Year has started. (It’s tradition) On the show this week, we end our hiatus without actually going on hiatus. (Turns out Dave was just sad) We start our generational pivot with the first leg of the tripod that holds up the Baby Boomers, the Red Scare! Along the way we discover that Dave isn’t a communist (Turns out their parties are not his kind of parties) then we dive right into the history of international Communism with its bearded Daddy, Karl Marx. We breeze past the first Red Scare and honestly most of the second one, focusing on the major players. (Oddly, mostly Republicans) We talked about why they were looking for a communist under their beds (because they didn’t like Jews) and why they had to persecute anyone who might be a communist. (Again, they don’t like the Jews). Then we take a quick look at the impact of the Red Scare on American society and how it formed the Boomer generation. (It is why so many of them don’t like the Jews) Our sponsor this week is Your Local Communist Party, there are six of us, how scary can we be? We open with a 50s newsreel about international Communism and close with Kuerdas who prefer reds. Show Theme: Hypnostate Prelude to Common Sense The Show on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/whatthehellpodcast.bsky.social The Show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whatthehellpodcast/ The Show on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjxP5ywpZ-O7qu_MFkLXQUQ The Show on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatthehellwereyouthinkingpod/ Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/kHmmrjptrq Our Website: https://www.whatthehellpodcast.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Whatthehellpodcast The Show Line: 347 687 9601 Closing Music: https://youtu.be/K3eobcILO3Q?si=_9vnBoQtYy5gvSjA Buy Our Stuff: https://www.seltzerkings.com/shop Citations Needed: Britannica: Karl Marx https://www.britannica.com/biography/Karl-Marx Wikipedia: The Communist Manifesto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communist_Manifesto “Enemies from Within”: Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s Accusations of Disloyalty https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6456 Anti-Communism in the 1950s https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/anti-communism-1950s Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    34 mins
  • Episode 430: Carl's Worst Xmas Redux

    Episode 430: Carl's Worst Xmas Redux
    Dec 22 2025
    Show Notes Episode 430: Carl’s Worst Christmas Ever and Other Holiday Tales This week Host Dave Bledsoe tries some amazing eggnog some guy’s brother made with lighter fluid and starts telling stories. (Again) For our annual “Jesus, is it Christmas already?” episode, we dig into the vaults of Dave’s Brain to bring you lurid tales of Christmas’ gone wrong in every way possible. Be they marital infidelity, public masturbation or a singularly misfortunate ornament mishap, someone is not having a happy holiday. (This is why Dave doesn’t get invited to story hours at the library.) So gather your family around the fire (I mean the adult family, leave kids watching their Youtube or whatever) pour yourselves something from a bottle being passed around and get ready for stories of people having a MUCH worse Christmas than you are! Our sponsor this week is the Holiday Ornament Safety Council who remind you that decorations go on the tree, not inside you. We open with a heartwarming family gathering and close with Lord Weatherby who is freaking out. Show Theme: Hypnostate Prelude to Common Sense The Show on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheHell_Podcast The Show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whatthehellpodcast/ The Show on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjxP5ywpZ-O7qu_MFkLXQUQ Our Website: www.whatthehellpodcast.com Give us your money on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/Whatthehellpodcast The Show Line: 347 687 9601 Closing Music:https://youtu.be/T7OBPvc9ddA?si=dtGOwiq-8t-HRzSz We are a proud member of the Seltzer Kings Podcast Network! http://seltzerkings.com/ Citations Needed: 18 Christmas Disasters That'll Make You Feel Bad For Laughing https://www.buzzfeed.com/beckybarnicoat/christmas-disasters People Tell Us Their Worst Christmas Horror Stories https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgmm5p/people-tell-us-their-worst-christmas-horror-stories 24 Christmas disasters to make you feel better about burning the turkey, from poisoned guests to 7,000 acres of fire damage https://www.countrylife.co.uk/food-drink/24-christmas-disasters-make-feel-better-burning-turkey-poisoned-guests-7000-acres-fire-damage-209545 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    30 mins
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