When the Western artist George Catlin journeyed to the Southern Plains in 1834, the animal that caught his attention there was the wild horse, which covered the country in immense herds.

Little known to Catlin or to Thomas Jefferson who longed to know more about horses in their natural state.

Horses were so successful in the Western wilds because they

were original natives of North America. Eventually, a trade in wild horses dominated the southern

west. It became an unexpected success and mustangers, a working class phenomenon of the West.

Learn more on episode 11 of the American West with Dan Flores, the latest show from the

Meat Eater podcast network hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you

by Velvet Buck, Wine with a Backbone.

By focusing on deep time, wild animals, and the West's unique environments,

this podcast is a look at a West available nowhere else.

Tune in now to the American West on Apple, IHeart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Every now and again, a work of art is so profound that it reaches across the transom and

actually affects current events.

Well, if you had to rank the most politically resonant pieces of American pop culture in the last 50 years,

I would say this film tops the list. Now, we're through the looking glass here, people.

White is black and black is white. Directed by the most celebrated

filmmaker in America at the time, Oliver Stone. JFK, a masterpiece, featured the biggest movie

star on Earth, Kevin Costner, saying things like this.

President Kennedy was murdered by a conspiracy that was planned in advance at the highest levels of our government,

and it was carried out by fanatical and disciplined cold warriors in the Pentagon and CIA's covert operation apparatus.

It was a full frontal attack on the American state as we know it,

a three-hour video essay explaining just how and why the U.S. government,

...