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Showing episodes and shows of
Ray Agostinelli
Shows
The Runners Up Club
Howard K. Smith: An Anchorman Before His Time
The post-war era found most Americans turning to the famously well-trusted "Uncle" Walter Cronkite on CBS for their eyes on the world, while the gloriously opinionated Howard K. Smith, his ratings rival, was Edward R. Murrow's truer heir, and progenitor of today's primetime news anchors.
2025-12-25
16 min
The Runners Up Club
Greg Norman: Prophecies Fulfilled
The likable Australian golfer's frequent appearances in the runner-up slot raises questions about the perils of catastrophic thinking and self fulfilling prophecies in sports. But also lessons in flipping the script in life.
2025-10-12
17 min
The Runners Up Club
Catherine Littlefield Greene: The Heart of the Gin
A Rhode Island aristocrat who became a widowed plantation owner in the Reconstruction Era South may have been more instrumental to the invention of the cotton gin than Eli Whitney.
2025-08-31
14 min
The Runners Up Club
Beech-Nut Baby Food: Bad Apples Spoil the Barrel
A long-standing Mohawk Valley food company forfeited any chance to upend rival Gerber’s at the top of the baby food market in a case of spectacularly wrong-headed and unethical management.
2025-06-15
14 min
The Runners Up Club
Minerva: The Handcuff Queen
This pioneering escapologist captivated audiences in her brief but brilliant time under the Vaudeville lights. She aroused Harry Houdini’s ire when she stole his signature trick. Did he retaliate by trying to blind her?
2025-04-05
11 min
The Runners Up Club
Antoine Bechamp: The First Anti-Vaxxer?
Louis Pasteur’s bitter rival staked everything on a discredited theory of the role that germs play in the body. If his theories regain a measure of respectability, as many believe they already have, will statues of Antoine Bechamp appear beside those of Pasteur?
2025-03-22
14 min
The Runners Up Club
George "Bugs" Moran: Capone's Nemesis and Near Miss
In Gangland Chicago, Al Capone emerged as Public Enemy Number 1. Despite being massively outgunned, particularly on one particular Valentine's Day, his rival Adelard Cunin, known to history as Bugs Moran, gave him a hard run for his dirty money.
2024-12-28
14 min
The Runners Up Club
Mothra: Queen of the Kaiju
Did a lepidopteran girl-monster like Mothra ever have a chance against a reptilian guy-monster like Godzilla? In the skies over Tokyo, absolutely. In the teenage brains of testosterone-addled mid-century monster movie fans. Not so much.
2024-11-27
13 min
The Runners Up Club
Hydrox: Oreo's Inspiration and Victim
In a cautionary tale for all of today’s artisanal food-makers, a small bakery sees its innovative new cookie concept copied by a much larger rival. Losing market share is bad enough but being transformed in the public imagination from original to knockoff may sting even more.
2024-10-26
17 min
The Runners Up Club
Harold Lloyd: Tramps Over Glasses
In the 1920’s, Harold Lloyd’s silent film stardom outshone Charlie Chaplin's. Today, we remember The Little Tramp while The Glasses Character is a cinephile’s trivia question answer.
2024-09-30
15 min
The Runners Up Club
Tally Ho: A Playing Card Innovator Is Outpaced by The Bike
In the world of playing card design, there’s the classic Bicycle deck and then there’s everything else. Is it any wonder a fox-hunting dandy didn’t emerge as the nation’s most popular? Probably not.
2024-09-30
16 min
The Runners Up Club
IIiodor: The Madder Monk of Russia
Pre-Revolutionary Russia was the sort of place where more than one “holy man” had a legitimate claim to the title The Mad Monk. Rasputin won.
2024-09-29
12 min
The Runners Up Club
Broad Gauge Rail: An Engineering Genius’s Lost Cause
In an early standards war played out across the fields of Industrial England, an engineering genius loses out to a more widely adopted, though possibly inferior, system.
2024-09-29
14 min
The Runners Up Club
Gabriel Metsu: The Forgotten Dutch Master
Few artists create a style so distinct that it is recognizable to an untrained eye. Johannes Vermeer is one. Meet the now-obscure artist who Vermeer displaced from the pantheon of Dutch Masters.
2024-09-29
11 min
The Runners Up Club
Eulace Peacock: Hamstrung Champion
Jesse Owens’ greatest rival might have claimed a share of the sprinter’s four gold medals and a place beside him in history exposing the idiocy of Hitler’s Aryan racism… but for a common muscle pull.
2024-09-29
12 min
The Runners Up Club
Introduction to The Runners Up Club
A short intro to The Runners Up Club podcast, a series about second- and third-bests, from near misses to no chancers. It's an idiosyncratic series produced by, one hopes, people who are not idiots.
2024-09-29
04 min
The Next Level
Conditioning a Miracle Mindset and The Power of Forgiveness with JJ Virgin
For the full show notes visit http://jeffa.co/092 We all have a particular journey in life, lessons to learn, and a path that leads us to those lessons. Before I came across personal development, and the art and science of maintaining your mindset, food was my medicine. It still is the foundation of my lifestyle, and being nimble in thought, feeling, and action is the #1 skill I continue to zero in on and develop in my every day life, and especially when life presents it's unique challenges. My guest today has a long track...
2017-09-11
42 min
The Next Level
049: Unpacking Addiction and The Ultramarathon Mindset with Charlie Engle
When I learned more about today's guest through his book Running Man, I was utterly amazed Charlie Engle is an author, ultramarathon runner, and just an all around inspiration. In his early years, Charlie fell into a crack and alcohol addiction that nearly destroyed his life. Now 24 years sober, Charlie is a runner who has accomplished some seriously impressive physical feats. He was one of three team members in the film Running the Sahara which was narrated by Matt Damon. In the film Charlie, along with Ray Zahab and Kevin Lin ran 50 miles a day for 111 days straight! Just...
2016-11-14
41 min