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Why is a soap opera Western like Yellowstone so wildly successful?

The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network.

So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today.

Listen to the American West with Dan Flores on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Music wherever you get your podcasts. This is our American stories, and our next story comes to us from a man who's simply known

as the History Guy.

His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people of all ages on YouTube.

The History Guy is also heard right here on Our American Stories.

Today, the History Guy remembers rubles, cola, and a kitchen that changed history.

It is a forgotten moment during the Cold War that deserves to be remembered.

Here's the history guy.

Soft drinks are hard business. The total worldwide beverage market value in 2018 was estimated

at $2.2 trillion. The Coca-Cola company's net operating revenues in 2016 were over $40 billion.

The industry is so lucrative that it represents one of the longest-lasting wars in modern

history.

The Cola Wars.

While beverage industry giants Pepsi and Coke have been competing since their creation

in the 19th century, The Kola Wars referred to particularly

aggressive advertising against each other since the 1980s. That war took an odd turn in 1990,

when PepsiCo purchased a fleet of war ships. Yes, actual warships that gave them at the time

the sixth largest submarine navy in the world. That odd event had to do

...