The Anarchist Cookbook: Funny but Dangerous | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too and this is stuff you should. know um and this is the somebody gives. out even worse advice than we do. addition I'm glad you picked this one. thanks do you have any hisory with the.

Anarchist Cookbook yes did you have a. copy of it yes I could have told you. that did you no uh I mean I guess first. we should just tell people we're talking. about a book called the anarchist cook. book uh published in. 1971 that was uh or that is rather a. book that uh contains everything from. like how to make your own LSD to how to. find mushrooms to how to make a. bomb um and you know Dave points out.

that it was sort of a dorm room special. and I did not have one but uh you know I. had a couple of friends that had it and. it was just one of those things were. like hey got the Anarchist Cookbook it. meant you were like just an alternative. thinker and uh he's very silly thinking. back yeah uh and I think most of my. friends that had it it was all about. like the drug stuff it wasn't they. weren't like bomb makers you know right. yeah I actually had didn't even fully.

realized that there was like bomb making. instructions in there um yeah so it's a. it's almost like a I've seen it. described as a book of forbidden. knowledge yeah it's got such a bad. reputation that um it's in any court. case I was reading about this in any. court case where the book has been. confiscated as Contraband not a single. judge has ruled that that was illegal. they're like yeah get that book away. from them that's a terrible book.

and uh that it's also frequently or has. been in the past used as circumstantial. evidence to help prove cases against. people suspected of crimes they were. also caught with the Anarchist Cookbook. in their house and that was used against. them in their trials yeah and I think in. the UK I was trying to find specific uh. incidents of this but I'm pretty sure in. the UK at least for a while like it was. uh if you got caught with it or maybe if. it was if if something had gone wrong. when you got caught with it it was an.

extra charge or something I'm not I'm. not sure if it was officially banned. there it was kind of hard to a little. murky yeah but so I mean in in the real. world this book has been used in plots. that have resulted in real life deaths. like yeah Timothy McVey the Oklahoma. City bomber he uh had a copy a guy named. Thomas Spinx who bombed 10 abortion. clinics in the'80s he had a copy the. Boston Marathon bombers they had copies. the col Bine Shooters they had a copy.

like if it even if it didn't directly. teach them how to blow people up. necessarily it was still an. inspirational book for them right and um. the the craziest part about this whole. thing is that these people were buying. fully into a book written by an angry. 19-year-old who went on to grow up very. shortly after the publication book and.

denounced it almost immediately yeah and. uh a book that was you know kind of a a. copy paste. Fest of mostly information that was uh. readily available in fact I would say. completely I don't think anything that. he put in there was something that was. like truly forbidden no uh like you. could find all this stuff out cuz this. kid found all this stuff out and just. compiled it yeah even the the literal. recipe for LSD was copied and pasted.

from the Eli Lily patent that describes. in depth like anybody can buy the. Anarchist Cookbook or go online and. figure out exactly how to how to make. LSD based on these instructions if you. know what you're talking about chemistry. that's a big caveat but I mean it's not. like so yes every single part in this. book was already was accessible but it. was presented at least by the publisher. as you know again this book of forbidden. repressed knowledge that needs to be.

gotten in the hands of every American so. that we can stage an actual Revolution. and take back our country from the. forces of you know. evil yeah pretty funny I mean not funny. because it's it's been used but uh just. dorks like you and I having it around us. in college is sort of an embarrassing. Troke you know I had mine in high school. uh of course you are you're ahe of the. game my friend.

for. sure so um this book has been two two. million copies of the Anarchist Cookbook. has been sold uh in the I guess 50 yeah. more than 50 years since it was first. published uh and it came from again an. angry 19-year-old whose background and. then also the backdrop that he wrote. this book in really kind of inform what. you need to know about the Anarchist. Cookbook yeah totally as far as his. background his name is William Powell uh.

he was born uh in the States but moved. to uh England when he was three U son of. a philosophy Professor uh his father. would um was a philosophy teacher and. then would go on to uh work as in. leadership at the un uh his mom was a. therapist they weren't like you know. these uh radicals kind of enforcing. their opinions on their son uh he was. just a regular kid who moved to England. uh uh kind of didn't fit in there.

because he was bullied for being an. American uh then when he came back from. England he was bullied for having a. little bit of an English accent by. Americans in White Plains New York and. apparently even like teachers would make. fun of his accent and stuff and tease. him so he he started getting pretty. angry early on started getting in with a. bad crowd and skipping school and. busting cars and um yeah eventually I. believe they sent him to a boarding. school uh where he was expelled after he.

he drove a teacher's ditch into a car or. I guess put it in neutral and pushed it. yeah car into a ditch um that'll get you. expelled pretty much every time um he. also said that he was molested during. this time as well at the boarding school. so like he had a lot of reason to be. angry this stuff like really impacted. him and he also said later on he became. an educator which is pretty amazing. considering what we're about to describe. him doing as a teenager um but he.

believes looking back that he had an. undiagnosed learning disability that. made it on top of all like the social. mistreatment made his academic career. like that much harder and frustrating as. well so you put all that together you. have a kid who's ripe. for um being antisocial I guess yeah for. sure uh he eventually would go to New. York City when he was 17 uh on his own. and lived on the Lower East Side East.

Village area in the bowy uh and in the. 1960s this was'. 67 uh you talked about sort of what was. going on around him this was a New York. that was uh in the middle of um. protesting Vietnam uh he was even you. know attempted to be drafted at least uh. to go to Vietnam and fight but he showed. up drunk and stoned uh at the draft. board hoping to get out of it uh which I. guess he did right he did I think he was.

interviewed four different times before. they gave him a section 4f yeah which is. what he wanted it's exactly what he. wanted and this is another thing this is. part of that backdrop that I was. referring to that was really important. to understand this was a time where if. you were uh like a there was I think a. 20 something year window in age if you. were this in in that window if that's. how old you were there was a chance that. you were going to be forced to go fight. in Vietnam and possibly die and possibly.

kill other people and this was reality. and a lot of people were not okay with. that so this this pushing back on that. whole sentiment. um kind of formed this basis of like. this. revolutionary you know sense that like. this the stakes were so high for what. could happen to you if if the government. just insu decided you're going over. there there now that that to the people.

who were opposed to it there's like. there's no response to this except for a. bloody Revolution yeah exactly so uh his. you know sort of living situation. certainly didn't uh quell any of this he. was um roommate to a guy named Steve. Hancock who was the older brother of one. of his former uh boarding school Pals. and he was a genuine like Anarchist. Steve Hancock was he managed a bookstore. called book Masters uh got William.

Powell a job there um he started digging. into you know all those sort of. revolutionary um guide books like from. Shay Gava and and Abby Hoffman and other. um you know supposed Anarchist leaders. of the time uh and Steve Hancock was a. big influence on him he was sort of uh. he was a member of the industrial. workers of the world I think we've. talked about them at some point yeah. Eugene Debs was one of the founding. members remember him he he ran for. president as a socialist from prison oh.

yeah yeah yeah so Hancock was a member. of this group and he told William Powell. about this idea for Distributing Flyers. about making LSD about making uh Molotov. cocktails and that was what the original. Anarchist Cookbook was going to be from. poell once he kind of launched into this. thing was just a series of Flyers but it. kind of quickly escalated to book level. Okay cool so um just one more thing. about him working at book Masters uh.

apparently he met Valerie Solange the. woman who shot Andy Warhol yeah when she. came around pedaling copies of her scum. Manifesto and he was like I like this. and actually got a few copies and put. them in the window that nuts I think. this is a week before she shot Andy. Warhol too well that all totally tracks. with his sort of State of Mind at the. time you know yeah and speaking of state. of mind so he is um completely hooked on. speed at this time he's doing tons of. drug drugs just living the anarchist.

anti-government anti-war. lifestyle um in New York which was I. don't know if you said it or not this. was basically like the center of the. anti-war movement in. 1967-68 right yeah and like this whole. idea I I should say not everybody I said. earlier everybody who was opposed to it. was like the only way you can solve this. is a bloody Revolution not true there. was a lot of peaceful activism that did. not think that but the people there was.

a lot more militancy than say you'll see. today in America it was inspired by the. idea that you could be drafted and sent. to kill people and be killed and those. people were the ones who are like we. need to we need to overthrow the. government and so that's what William. Powell was essentially doing when he sat. down to write this book he wanted to put. the information where if you put it all. together you could overthrow the. government or start a revolution into. the hands of as many people as possible.

and that's that was the the Anarchist. Cookbook that he sat down and wrote or. like you said he sat down and copied and. pasted he wrote a lot too um and maybe. we'll get to some of that actual writing. after a break sure all right we'll be. right back. [Music].

all right so uh poell decides to put. this book together uh he goes to the New. York Public Library uh Library I said it. like I was seven years old MH started. researching uh this book and cuz he you. know hopefully we've made it clear that. this guy was not a weapons expert and. didn't know how to make bombs and was. not a gorilla fighter or true Revolution. AR he was uh he was sort of inspired to.

collect this information uh and the. forward of the book uh kind of says it. all here uh which he wrote uh this is a. book for the people of the United States. of America it is not written for the. members of Fringe political groups such. as the weathermen or the Minutemen uh. those radical groups don't need this. book they already know everything that's. in here and the real if the real people. of America the silent majority are going. to survive they must educate themselves. that is the purpose of this book yeah so.

there you have it so um you said that he. had like zero experience in guilla. Warfare hand to hand combat making bombs. um um converting like weapons into other. newer deadlier types of weapons but if. you read his writing he sounds like he's. been there done that and now he's come. to tell you how to do it yourself that's. the way it reads he sounds like a total. tough guy and when you stop step back. and and realize like no this guy just.

did a lot of research and then presented. it as if he knew what he was talking. about it actually kind of funny yes but. we don't pretend like no no no like. we've done you know like we haven't like. hung out with porcupines or you know. we're always clear about that we've. never we've never you know given our. expertise on economic policy to any. government like thank goodness we're not. experts right so this guy he presented. William Powell presented himself as an. expert. and that's just how the book reads but.

when you step back and think about it. like that it's actually kind of funny. some of the stuff that's in there like. one thing he did do was draw a lot of. stuff and he's wasn't a very good artist. to begin with but one of the pictures. that stood out to. me and this is only funny if you look it. a certain way it's also very much not. funny but there's a a section on gats or. gats I can't I can't remember how you. pronounce it which is two pieces of wood. that you hold in your hands and then a. piece of like piano.

wire between them and you strangle. somebody with this and there's a drawing. that I guess William po did of somebody. you know strangling a guy he's coming at. him from behind with his knee in his. back like strangling him with the Gat. and um just the way that this this. picture reads and all this the text. around it is just the idea that this kid. had never done or even seen anything. like that but is presenting it like this. is how you do it it it's it's just so.

Preposterous and ridiculous that people. actually took this seriously it'd be. like taking life or death advice from. holding Coffield basically yeah was. there uh I didn't see that drawing was. there a speech bubble that. said pretty pretty much yeah there it. was implied for sure okay one other. thing that stuck out to me too Chuck was. he would just toss out percentages very. confidently and if you stop and read it. you're like I don't think that's true. one of them was if in hand toand combat.

first of all you fight to the death. that's how you fight hand toand combat. you're you're not trying to knock the. guy out that was a piece of advice in. this but he also says that if you can. get your opponent knocked off balance. you nine to one you can kill him in the. next move so nine times out of 10 your. next move is going to kill the guy where. where did that percentage come from. where did that ratio come from you can. just tell he's just making this stuff up. and um when you take it like that he. just made all of it up essentially and.

the stuff he didn't make up he like you. said just copied and pasted from. legitimate sources which is what really. actually made the book dangerous yeah or. I mean at the very least he may have. gotten that from someone who made that. up you know I mean who knows uh so there. are a lot of different things you can. you know we've kind of mentioned a few. of the things there's a lot of drug. stuff uh like we mentioned how to make. LSD and uh how to uh. generate uh psychedelic mushrooms and.

stuff um but there's also a lot of you. know uh weapon stuff um how to kill. somebody with piano wire and two pieces. of wood uh like you mentioned how to uh. how to modify guns like how to make your. own silencer or how to convert a shotgun. into a grenade launcher that was a big. one uh yeah that was a real big one and. this is the stuff that like you know in. the I guess maybe since the 60s but at. least in the 90s was it was my. experience and it sounds like yours is.

when you know your friend had it on the. bookshelf and they're like look at this. man you know check this out and it was. never like let's build a silencer for a. a pistol no none of us had pistols it. was just like check this thing out man. like this is a dangerous book yeah and. let's do some nutmeg and smoke some. banana peels because this book is saying. yeah that was in there too pretty buzzed. from it yeah yeah that was yeah so um if. you've ever heard of smoke smoking. banana peels it's this isn't where it.

came from but it the Anarchist Cookbook. cribed it from I think the Berkeley Barb. some alternative. newsletter like a couple years before. smoking banana peels was all the rage in. like. 1967 and then everybody finally figured. out it doesn't do a thing to you uh it. was all just basically a hoax but it. made it or more expensive than just. buying weed you need like 200 bananas or. something but allegedly it gave you like. a totally different trip than weed or.

LSD so you know the hippies were like. let's try anything we can and then. nutmeg actually does have psychedelic. properties but you have to take so much. of it that you would just be hating life. um from taking that much nutmeg do you. remember the other one I'm sure this got. around was the uh toothpaste on a. cigarette yeah and bleach you had to mix. it with bleach oh so see I didn't know. that part no wonder it never did. anything tooth he s bleach yeah which.

that doesn't do anything either yeah by. the way don't try any of this dumb stuff. that we're kind of jokingly reminiscing. about hearing uh it was a dumb thing to. uh hear back then and spread around and. it certainly is now so none of all of. this stuff is is very much not. recommended yeah that's you saying that. reminds me of um there's this great line. from Malcolm in the Middle where I can't. remember his mom's name but his mom was. like scolding his dad about like filling.

the kidss heads with all these stories. of like misspent Youth and his dad goes. those are cautionary tales and she said. cautionary tales don't end with it was. so cool. right that was such a good show it. really was a great show uh but speaking. of cautionary uh there there was uh he. did you know lay out a little Caution. here and there uh use care caution. Common Sense this book is not for. children or morons m mhm uh was one of.

even though plenty of children and. morons got it into their hands um but he. you know he he was a uh sort of a. dramatic writer he uh I don't I'm not. going to say he was like untalented as a. writer um but it's kind of hard to judge. the book on those terms at all even you. know yeah and I don't think a single. writer in the history of the world has. ever looked back at what they wrote At. 19 and was like this is great oh God. yeah yout it's always cringey so. considering that he was 19 when he wrote. it it's actually prettyy good writing.

yeah no good point so um yeah like you. said he did Issue some warnings and and. that kind of thing not necessarily as. like a COA I don't get the impression. that William Powell ever even considered. um covering his own rear no or that I. don't even know how much he thought. about this stuff ahead of time like. people actually doing some of this stuff. you know yeah I I don't know if he he. just. if it was like an like a bit of a lark.

like that where he was like I'm just. going to do this and didn't think it. through or if he actually was like. really trying to help people sort of. Revolution I'm I'm not exactly sure. which way it went but from what I've. seen most people site that he was. actually quite serious when he when he. wrote this book yeah for sure um but the. you know they call it a cookbook there. were a lot of kind of um quote unquote. cookbooks that some featured real. recipes for things but some didn't it. was more like a collection kind of thing. M um this had plenty of recipes for.

druggy stuff um pot brownies uh. marijuana butter uh how to make. marijuana mints and so there were. genuine uh sort of drug- based recipes. in there but just because if you've. never heard of the Anarchist Cookbook it. is not just like a cookbook obviously no. uh he also had warnings against sniffing. glue or shooting heroin which is pretty. sensible and levelheaded yeah look at. that kid so we put all this together and.

I think it's like a couple hundred pages. right I remember it being semi thick and. like large large page format right yeah. I think so that's what they call in the. publishing world right large page. format yeah you really just wanted to. have it the spine showing on your. bookshelf yeah or when you carried it. around campus like you made sure that. your arm wasn't covering the title right. oh man I never saw anyone actually. carrying them around so um he he he.

tried to enter the publishing world with. this manuscript he sent it to 30. different houses he got 30 different. rejection letters um some like what is. wrong with you others like this isn't. quite the fit with our ethos um and then. somehow some way he came into contact. with a guy named Lyall Stewart and Lyall. Stewart was a publisher who just. basically wanted to be a provocative. publisher and the Anarchist Cookbook. just fell into his lap and he was like. thank you God um and he ran with it oh.

yeah big time um he didn't change a word. he was like this is perfect as it is. yeah uh all your drawings are great. you're such a good little drawer. boy uh and he just he wanted it I think. he loved this the idea that um the idea. of the book and I think any thoughts to. changing it were uh quickly squashed in. his mind of like no sort of the genius. of this book to him at least mhm was. just how taboo it was and uh it should.

look like you know crazy rantings uh. because one there's a quote from him uh. that I think is pretty um telling of. like who this guy is and also kind of. smart for a book publisher sure was that. uh I'm paraphrasing but like people. don't buy a bestseller like this to read. it they buy it to to have it and just. show it on the bookshelf exactly to. carry it around campus yeah with your. arm not covering up the title. so um with with in the hands of Lyall.

Stewart like the this book would take on. its life finally right it would go from. the rantings of a a 19-year-old kid to a. legitimately published book that was. also heavily promoted by a guy who knew. how to just play the media to get free. exposure essentially and so he held a um. a press conference where somebody. supposedly an angry anarchist who um was. mad that this kid was sharing this.

forbidden information with the world. through a smoke bomb into the press. conference and everybody like like. jumped for cover and William Powell. later said that he noticed that Lyall. Stewart didn't dock or anything like. that he just kept his his position. behind the podium during the press. conference pretty much and he was like. ly Stewart was just the kind of guy who. would who would think to Stage something. like that just to just to show how. seriously anarchistic this book was.

during the press conference like that's. the kind of promotion that this book got. from him yeah absolutely um if you're. wondering like all right where is uh our. old friend Jay Edgar Hoover and the FBI. and all this uh they were on it uh big. time they they took this book seriously. um they you know you used to hear rumors. again these are probably just rumors. that never happened about like there was. a list and like where'd you buy it from.

and like did you use a credit card that. kind of thing because now you're on a. list if you own a copy of this thing uh. it probably didn't go that far but uh. they did question uh his parents uh they. questioned his dad's colleagues at the. UN they never questioned Powell um like. sat him down in person because they. thought it would you know it would hit. the news what they what they wanted to. do was kind of quash the thing without. giving it even more publicity right um. but that didn't stop the media from. running with it for sure um there was a.

a headline that Dave who helped us with. this he dug up from UPI that said new. Anarchist Cookbook contains recipe for. sabotage destruction yeah and so as. people are reading this they become. genuinely scared of this book so like. you said Jer Hoover is in charge of the. FBI I don't know if we said it or not. but it was published at the beginning in. 1971 so Richard Nixon is President this. is not a time where people were cool. with Free Speech when it came to you.

know making bombs and stuff like that um. so everybody was like you guys need to. investigate this and and just get rid of. this people were literally sending. clippings of like book reviews um to J G. Hoover with like notes written in the. margin I think one was danger. exclamation point what are you going to. do about this and what's astounding to. me is not a single head got cracked as. far as I can tell and in fact the FBI. was like we've investigated it and this. is all protected by the first amendment.

is as as reprehensible as we think it is. yeah which is you know uh a real victory. in a way again as as dumb as a book as. it ended up being uh it is a victory for. free speech in this country to not have. the government even at that time yeah. especially at that time yeah come in and. like put their neck on everyone's throat. which is kind of surprising yeah it's. surprising and it's also ironic because. it was exactly that kind of like. censorship mentality that William Powell. was raging against yeah he tested it and.

the system The Establishment actually. passed yeah it's pretty interesting. there they're like we're going to. protect your crummy book you little. revolutionary. [Laughter]. Yoko uh should we take another break. yeah all right I think anytime you say. the word yok that's our Q it is all. right we'll be right back and talk about. kind of uh when this book was in the. wrong hands what happened right after. this. [Music].

all right Chuck so you said this book. ended up in the wrong hands I guess we. said at the very outset that it did so. it's not really big twist in the story. but uh I think the first time blood was. actually shed like life was lost because. of the Anarchist Cookbook or at least in.

part was uh in September of. 1976 when a group of Croatian. Independence gorillas hijacked a flight. from New York to Chicago and was like. this plane's going to Paris now and. they're like do you know how many. refueling stops we're going to have to. make and they said we don't care just do. it and supposedly as far as hijackings. go it was really polite I think some of. the people who were actually hostages. later told the Press like it was almost. ridiculous how polite and apologetic.

these these um terrorists were um and it. turned out that the bombs they had. strapped to themselves were like Silly. Putty an alarm clock were not bombs but. one of the demands that they had was. that the the like Washington Post and. some of the other papers had to print. their Manifesto or else they would set. off a real bomb at Grand Central Station. and that one actually did turn out to be. real yeah um the bomb squad came in uh. from New York City's.

finest uh very sadly one person was. killed officer Brian Murray uh was. killed trying to diffuse the bomb a few. other people were injured uh upon being. charged the hijacker said we we got this. information on how to make this bomb. from the Anarchist Cookbook and that was. the first case like you said of like. real Bloodshed happening uh but but not. the first um you know like you mentioned. this was found on every. not every but like it seems like anytime.

you heard about someone uh committing. some awful violent act against either a. lot of people or planning something like. this uh this was sort of the the one of. the textbooks that they had on their. shelf exactly um and by this time so. this is. 1976 William Powell had completely. transformed into a different again more. grownup person um he became a Anglican. he became Rel. that same year by that time he'd already.

gone off to college graduated worked in. Alaska um discovered his his true love. of educating kids with learning. disabilities like what he would keep. doing for the rest of his life and um so. when this when it came out that like. this is this is actually like now like. costing people their lives he um he was. very upset about that he wanted to. distance him himself from the book um. the problem was as we'll see he never.

owned the copyright in addition to. knowing exactly how to promote. controversial material L Stewart also. knew how to rip off his authors too so. he owned the copyright to the Anarchist. Cookbook um William Powell just got a. couple thousand dollar from it and then. said okay see you later yeah he well a. couple of thousand dollars up front I. think he said he ended up making about. 50 Grand in royalties over the. years uh and that was despite him. wanting to pull it from print uh there.

was a period of about uh 11 years where. it was out of print um you know by this. point like in the 90s uh he he was. moving sort of all over the world with. his wife uh teaching in the Middle East. teaching in Africa uh really doing great. work yeah um but in 91 a couple of. things happened he was appointed by um. appointed as a CEO of an international. school in uh Tanzania and parents. complained and we're like hey do you. know who this guy is he wrote the.

Anarchist Cookbook and they you know. they protested this that was Anonymous. letter to the board and they protested. his hiring ironically it was that same. year that the book actually went out of. print for a little while which is what. he wanted more than anything um in 91 it. was bought by a guy a publisher uh named. step uh shras and he was a you know I'm. not sure how big time he was but. apparently he had a couple of thousand. books uh that he was publishing uh over. this 11-year period and that was not one.

of them he bought the rights and then. sat on it and said you know the public. shouldn't have this and I agree with. them oh wow I didn't know that yeah so. it was like an 11-year period where you. know it was out of print you could still. buy it of course uh if you knew someone. who had it or if it was in a bookstore. or something it's not like it was banned. but he he pulled it for a little over a. decade well um I think something that's. good to know about William Powell too by. this time you said he got forced out of. his position as CEO of that. International School in.

Tanzania um for being the author of The. Anarchist Cookbook uh very shortly after. he Departed the board got back in touch. with him it's like please come back like. we we don't care about this we're we we. we like what you're doing so much we. want you to come back so he came back. for eight more years as the head of that. school I think that says quite a bit. totally I don't know did you watch the. documentary no I haven't it's good. there's a documentary called American. Anarchist that like you just you really.

feel for this guy because it's a. situation where everyone does something. dumb or many things that are dumb when. they're teenagers and uh most of us are. able to escape those and leave those. firmly in the past and move on and grow. up like everyone does right and this was. a guy that was really doing great work. and really really really had so much. regret about this book but there was. just there was it was there was nothing. he could do about it and you could feel. this guy's pain of like my name is tied.

to this thing I just wish it would go. away uh but you never felt like well. like sometimes like yeah but you did it. so you deserve it um oh you never felt. like that no I always felt really bad. for the guy with the interviews CU man. because he just went on to do such great. work and special ed and like really turn. things around and uh kind of had this. stamp on him for the rest of his life he. had a hard time getting work you know a. lot of times that's one reason he kept. kind of moving around man that is really.

sad so he's a very empathetic figure huh. uh that's how he came across to me I. guess sympathetic figure so um yeah one. reason why he he was just like in agony. I guess over this book him not being. able to do anything about this book is. because after that Croatian separatist. um incident like it it ended up. inspiring more violence like more real. world violence throughout the ' 80s and. the '90s. I mean from the beginning of the ' 80s. to the end of the 9s there were some.

really. high-profile mass murders um that were. carried out like we said by people who. owned the Anarchist Cookbook so in one. way or another they were inspired or. even maybe directed in some cases um in. carrying out the the crimes that they. committed the atrocities even yeah and. he was putting out statements all along. he even uh uh contacted Amazon to try. and get a message kind of permanently. posted uh the central idea of the book.

is was that violence is an acceptable. means to bring about political change I. no longer agree with this uh I want to. State categorically I'm not in agreement. with the contents of the Anarchist. Cookbook and I would be very pleased and. relieved to see its publication. discontinued I consider it to be a. misguided and potentially dangerous. publication uh which should be taken out. of print uh so yeah I mean there was. nothing he could do about it because of. ly Stewart yeah not just Lyle Stewart. but after the guy who I guess sat on it.

yeah I think Lyall Stewart sought him. out and bought it back and it went back. into print and then Lyall Stewart sold. it to another publishing house that is. owns it now that is keeping it in print. as well and the the thing to understand. about this Anarchist Cookbook it's like. that Abby Hoffman steal this book thing. like the idea of it being pirated is. kind of part of its whole um. Jam you know so there's so many like.

ripoff copycat published versions of it. um that you can buy on Amazon and other. places like no problem they're like. illegitimate counterfeit copies of the. Anarchist Cookbook but it's still the. Anarchist Cookbook somebody else. publishing it as if it's in the public. domain and then even if all those people. stopped actually physically publishing. it it's all over the internet now um. like I was reading a pdf version of it. on the internet archive like it's just.

out there the way Dave put it was. perfect the Genie's out of the bottle. like this information is out there now. and unfortunately it'll probably. continue to keep inspiring people into. acts of violence because of that that. Spirit behind it that the government is. needs to be taken to task and overthrown. and the people need to rise up yeah and. despite every thing he tried to do it. just he put it out there and it wouldn't. go away uh he passed away in 2016. and um you know always had great regret.

about what he had put into the world. yeah there was one other thing there was. another um statement he made after I. think a a uh a school shooting where he. drew parallels between the work he was. doing and then the legacy of the book. where he was saying you know he works. with kids who have learning disabilities. and these kids are. alienated by their um their disability. essentially and he said no child should. have to earn the right to belong and.

then he turns around and essentially. empathizes with the kids who are you. know reading his book and then going on. and and shooting up their schools and. and saying like these kids I'm sure are. alienated and feel ostracized as well. and this book did not help them uh in. any way it did the opposite. probably yeah yeah he does seem like a a. pretty amazing guy um I mean just the. work that he he did afterwards is is. pretty remarkable I know he's like a a.

internationally renowned educator or he. was yeah so yeah in some ways he made up. for what he did and I guess if there's. any to take away from this if you're a. young person like we have always. encouraged people to be bold and use. their voice but uh you know maybe pump. the. brakes you know think about 10 years. from now what you want do you want that. attached to you 10 20 30 40 years from. now right yeah if you're writing. non-fiction that calls for violence um.

just stop and and ask somebody is this a. good idea right uh since Chuck said. right everybody you got anything else. nope since Chuck said right and then. nope it's definitely time for listener. now yeah I'm going to call this missed. opportunities uh this is. from uh AR or maybe just r no it's AR. okay uh AR is talking about our would a. love drug be ethical episode that just.

dropped and uh AR was a former musician. and thinks we missed a lot of. opportunities for band names and album. titles okay let's hear all right so here. we go uh you guys did mention uh cesco. and her as an Oregon saxophone combo I. don't remember that uh there were real. gyms in there though guys like lus. bucket yeah that's a good one okay uh. experimental love drug sure kind of on. the nose uh electric roses and. philosopher. yeah it's a little mouy yeah little.

little wordy that sounds like an album. title then if they're really wordy it's. usually an album title well here's some. album titles he uh or song titles he. felt like we missed um you're not good. at. loving that's a great one that needs a. parenthetical but like you know. parenthesis but you really are right uh. really low-key mellow. stuff I don't know about that uh if you. dose them that's pretty good. mhm uh and love is good enough that's a.

really good one that's a great one I. love that I can't believe there's not a. song called that already yeah well there. may be AR points out that the genres on. these guys run the gamut from EDM to. Country mhm and uh really big fan I've. turned on friends and family to the. podcast just wanted to say keep doing. what you're doing thanks a lot AR that. was a great email we appreciate that big. time and as always everybody if we ever. walk past a great band name or an album. name or a song title or something like. that we want to hear from you too you.

can wrap it up spank it on the bottom. and send it off to stuff podcast at. iheartradio.com. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts ihart. radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite shows. [Music].