World War Two · SEASON 9
How to Launch the Apocalypse - Q3 1939
Episode 27 · 2026-08-08

- Documentary
- War & Politics
Episode overview
The moment when the collapse of democracy, diplomacy, and collective security culminated in an attack that would engulf the world. In July and August 1939, Adolf Hitler turned the destruction of German democracy into the instrument for launching a European war. While Nazi Germany armed Danzig, mobilized reservists, prepared its U-boats, introduced civilian rationing, and manufactured stories of Polish aggression, Britain, France, Poland, the United States, and the Soviet Union made a final series of increasingly desperate attempts to prevent catastrophe.
27 minutes
Season 9 episodes
1. How to End Democracy in 60 Days - Death of Democracy Q1 19332026-01-31
2. How Legal Immunity Becomes Absolute Power - Q2 19332026-02-07
3. How to Make the Economy Look Better Than It Is - Q3 19332026-02-14
4. How to Use a Tariff War to Disrupt the World - Q4 19332026-02-21
5. How to Not Clean up the Swamp - Q1 19342026-02-28
6. How to Serve Retribution and Become Popular - Q2 19342026-03-07
7. How to Go From President to King - Death of Democracy 07 - Q3 19342026-03-14
8. How To Indoctrinate the Children - Q4 19342026-03-21
9. How Radio Killed Democracy - Death of Democracy 09 - Q1 19352026-03-28
10. How To Distract From the Economy - Q2 19352026-04-04
11. How to Legalize Scapegoating - Q3 19352026-04-11
12. How to Tank the Economy for War - Q4 19352026-04-18
13. How to Stage (and Win) an International Crisis - Q1 19362026-04-25
14. How to Declare a Live Person Legally Dead - Q2 19362026-05-02
15. How to Make Nazi Germany Look Normal - Q3 19362026-05-09
16. How Hitler Indoctrinated a Generation - Q4 19362026-05-23
17. How the Nazis Got Rich Preparing Germany for War - Q1 19372026-05-30
18. How Hitler Tested His Next War in Spain - Q2 19372026-06-06
19. How to Make Dissent Disappear - Q3 19372026-06-13
20. How to Make War Inevitable - Q4 19372026-06-20
21. How to Steal a Country Without a European War - Q1 19382026-06-27
22. How Hitler Targeted Czechoslovakia - Q2 19382026-07-04
23. How WW2 Really Started: Appeasement! - Q3 19382026-07-11
24. How to Set a Militia Free on a Minority - Q4 19382026-07-18
25. How to Provoke a War - Q1 19392026-07-25
26. How to Make Aggression Sound Like Defense - Q2 19392026-08-01
27. How to Launch the Apocalypse - Q3 19392026-08-08
28. How Not to Be A Nazi - Epilogue2026-08-15