Hello and welcome to this day, a history show from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

And it is Sunday, which is when we try and give you a little historical context for the stories playing out in the news today.

We're going to rerun an episode in a minute that we did about Oliver North, but first

here for a few minutes with very important recent developments is Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt.

Hello, Nikki. Hello, Jody. Look, obviously this is a week in which there has been a lot of news,

lots of heavy news, stuff we could weigh in on. I did a little of that in our newsletter, by the way,

if people want to go check that out. But there was a story earlier in this week that was about, I'd say, like a half-day

news cycle, maybe. If that, yeah. But something about it made me say, I have to get Nikki's

thoughts on this. And moreover, I will tell you, I didn't read that much more because I wanted

to basically get it from you, hear it from you and get your thoughts. But I take it that Oliver North

is back in the news. It's a kind of gossip meets politics story. And first, we should tell listeners

that you're a pretty big Ollie North watcher. Why is that? Bring us up the speed on what

Ollie North has been up to over the last

40 years. And then where are we now? Well, I'm an Oliver North Watcher because I was working on a

book about him that has transformed into another book, but it means that I've spent a couple

years looking at basically every existing piece of historical evidence around North.

And the big story that just broke is that

he was married in a secret ceremony in Virginia just a few days ago to a woman named Fawn Hall.

Now, for folks who know anything about Oliver North, they will remember the name Fon Hall because

when the Iran-Contra scandal breaks, North is the center of the story, but he's there with his secretary, a young woman, very attractive, blonde, who helps him in the cover-up.

So shredding papers, forging documents. She is by his side through all of this. And she becomes this kind of media figure.

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