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Infinitesimal Impossibilities 03: The Warlord‘s Cook
About this Episode
The Infinitesimal Impossibilities subseries returns with a story in which Molly and Alex look at one of the most ruthless dictators of the 20th century...from the perspective of his personal chef. It's all drawn from the work of Polish journalist Witold Szablowski in his incredible 2020 book, How to Feed a Dictator (which it should be noted, Alex misdated during this first episode as being 2016).
Uganda's infamous Idi Amin is discussed through the eyes of his personal chef, Otonde Odera, who not only managed to survive the murderous regime's rise and fall, but managed to be both Idi Amin and Amin's predecessor Milton Obote's favorite cook and, ostensibly, member of the help.
Molly explores Otonde Odera's roller coaster of a life story and the dictator's methodology of ensuring loyalty is examined throughout this tale, a tale that ultimately leaves us on a melancholy note. Is it better to be feared, loved, or both? What is more terrifying: the dictator mad man who flies into a rage at the slightest provocation or the cold, calculating psychopath? What do you do when you're trapped in circumstances that are still arguably better than the alternatives? What does it feel like to be on the receiving end of a madman's wrath? These questions are examined and, despite their heavy nature, we managed to keep it all relatively light.
And yes, the question of Idi Amin's supposed cannibalism is addressed.
History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon and PayPal:
David Adamcik
Elias Borota
Matthew Dakus
Nathan Diehl
Gavin Edwards
Kevin Gony
Nathan Grote
Peter Hauck
Devin Hreha
Mike Kalnins
Benjamin Lee
Trevor Lindborg
Jose Martinez
Mike Mayleben
Judy McCoid
Monica
Kostas Moros
Ryan Mortenson
Ben Mullen
Molly Pan
Jean Peters
Edmund Plamowski
PJ Rader
Gleb Radutsky
Jon Andre Saether
Alison Salo
Sam
Emily Schmidt
Julian Schmidt
Cameron Smith
Brian Steggeman
Jared Cole Temple
Steve Uhler
F. You
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support.
Uganda's infamous Idi Amin is discussed through the eyes of his personal chef, Otonde Odera, who not only managed to survive the murderous regime's rise and fall, but managed to be both Idi Amin and Amin's predecessor Milton Obote's favorite cook and, ostensibly, member of the help.
Molly explores Otonde Odera's roller coaster of a life story and the dictator's methodology of ensuring loyalty is examined throughout this tale, a tale that ultimately leaves us on a melancholy note. Is it better to be feared, loved, or both? What is more terrifying: the dictator mad man who flies into a rage at the slightest provocation or the cold, calculating psychopath? What do you do when you're trapped in circumstances that are still arguably better than the alternatives? What does it feel like to be on the receiving end of a madman's wrath? These questions are examined and, despite their heavy nature, we managed to keep it all relatively light.
And yes, the question of Idi Amin's supposed cannibalism is addressed.
History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon and PayPal:
David Adamcik
Elias Borota
Matthew Dakus
Nathan Diehl
Gavin Edwards
Kevin Gony
Nathan Grote
Peter Hauck
Devin Hreha
Mike Kalnins
Benjamin Lee
Trevor Lindborg
Jose Martinez
Mike Mayleben
Judy McCoid
Monica
Kostas Moros
Ryan Mortenson
Ben Mullen
Molly Pan
Jean Peters
Edmund Plamowski
PJ Rader
Gleb Radutsky
Jon Andre Saether
Alison Salo
Sam
Emily Schmidt
Julian Schmidt
Cameron Smith
Brian Steggeman
Jared Cole Temple
Steve Uhler
F. You
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support.
Hosts & Guests
No transcript available for this episode.
