Hello and welcome history friends, patrons all to this new season of when diplomacy fails.

I hope you're excited to be back.

You should have listened to our previous state of the

podcast address by now, where I talked openly and honestly about the last few years, and what it

means for me, now, Dr. Zach. In this episode, I'll be presenting 1956 to you and explaining

how that PhD thesis series for patrons

will work. We also announced in the last episode that the age of Bismarck will be launching in

2024. That's this year, but first to give me some time to actually make that series,

we'll be drawing on projects new and old.

Let's start with what is technically old for some of you, but which is brand new for most of you.

Although you might know my business-like justification for returning to 1956, how do you know if it's

for you? Well, as far as I'm concerned,

1956's story is compelling enough to bring to everyone with few adjustments. My research,

observations and conclusions still hold up really well, so there's no need to rewrite or

even re-record everything. That said, I know there can be a disconnect from what I wrote

many years ago, so I've worked through the scripts and made sure everything is updated. I've also

cut down some of the episode fluff and combined the content of some episodes together with this one.

You may also note that the older teaser episodes for 1956 have been deleted, which should keep things nice and tidy.

Just because you'll be hearing from past Zach rather than current Dr. Zach in the 1956 series,

don't think I won't be eager to hear what you think.

The response to 1956 was really incredible when we first launched, but I also had a fair few

corrections and pieces of advice to consider, and I've tried to implement that in the newer version

...