I Wish I’d Asked My Grandparents This…

Bro History

News, Society & Culture, Politics, History

4 • 929 Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How many stories died with our grandparents because we didn’t ask in time? In this Bro History segment, we get personal: a 1950s interfaith marriage (Methodist → Catholic conversion), Irish/Polish/Ukrainian roots, Puerto Rican and Palestinian family lines, language barriers, Alzheimer’s, and the regrets that come with unanswered questions. We talk about identity across faiths and borders, what we’d ask our grandparents today—from the Naqba to Cold War escapes—and why you should call yours now. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – 1950s taboo? Henry’s Catholic–Methodist grandparents & a conversion 01:05 – NYC then vs now: Irish UWS, German Upper East Side 02:00 – How they met: Army base in Lawton, OK → marriage → NYC 03:00 – “Did her parents care?” Interfaith in practice, not theory 03:50 – The regret: we waited too long to ask real questions 05:00 – Danny’s side: tracing lineage envy, Ellis Island vs no records 06:00 – Puerto Rican roots, indigenous/Afro-Caribbean threads, losing language 08:00 – Palestinian father’s side, displacement, Jordan, U.S. arrival 10:00 – Only-in-America pairing: Catholic Puerto Rican x Muslim Palestinian 11:00 – Naming, faith, and why the relationship didn’t survive 13:30 – Interfaith realities: Christian–Jewish common, Christian–Muslim rare 15:00 – Stakes of belief vs secular mixes; community & raising kids 17:00 – Growing up Catholic as a community center vs diverse church worlds 19:00 – What we’d ask: prejudice, context, and uncomfortable truths 22:00 – Henry’s European grandfather: expelled from Kyiv, smuggled out by servants 26:00 – Bike-racing champion, Poland to America pre-WWII 29:00 – Don Manolo: the Cuban refugee who slapped Castro’s brother (wild story) 31:30 – Call your grandparents. Seriously. Before memory fades. 33:00 – Boomers aren’t just “ok boomer”: moon landings, Vietnam, and real grind 📺 This is a segment from a longer Bro History recording. Full episodes drop early & ad-free on our Substack. Links to our other stuff on the interwebs: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BroHistory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://brohistory.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ #339 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey folks, get ready for a new season of Blowback, coming Monday, September 22nd.
0:05.5	This time around, we're covering the Cold War Showdown in Africa.
0:09.9	When apartheid South Africa invades the newly independent nation of Angola,
0:14.6	revolutionary Cuba sends its own army to defend its African ally,
0:19.2	while the United States backs a warlord whose only goal
0:22.6	is power.
0:23.6	Subscribe now at blowback.
0:25.1	Show and get the entire season when it drops.
0:28.1	Add free.
0:29.4	Blowback.
0:29.9	Show.
0:32.9	All right.
0:33.9	So we were talking about how Catholics and Protestants, at one point, there was this taboo between intermarriage faith.
0:43.7	And something that's interesting about my family is that my grandfather came from a very typical Irish Catholic family.
0:51.5	So they immigrated here in 1880 or 1890. So my great-grandparent, my great-great-grandfather and
1:00.6	great-great-grandmother were from Ireland. And my great-grandfather was born in New York. But my
1:08.2	grandfather came from an Irish-Catholic background, grew up in the Upper West Side of New York, which at one time, at one point was a very Irish neighborhood.
1:20.1	It's funny how, if you look at old cities, the neighborhoods were completely different.
1:28.1	The Upper East Side was a very German town.
1:31.4	There are still relics of the old German town that existed in the Upper East Side.
1:37.2	Now it's just a bunch of yuppies or yucky, yuppie transplants or old people.
1:42.8	But my grandmother was this, essentially she, her family, you can trace her history back to so far that I can't trace it anymore, but they're all American old stock.
	...

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