Listen free for 30 days
-
Leatherface vs. Tricky Dick
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as Political Satire
- Narrated by: Jerry Bradshaw
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for £18.29
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Surrounded by Enemies
- What if Kennedy Survived Dallas?
- By: Bryce Zabel
- Narrated by: Edd Hall
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If President John Kennedy had survived the ambush at Dealey Plaza in Dallas a half-century ago, what other twists might history have taken? In his meticulously researched novel, Surrounded by Enemies: What If Kennedy Survived Dallas, author Bryce Zabel delivers a supercharged but plausible alternative narrative of the turbulent 1960s after our charismatic president escapes unscathed on November 22, 1963.
-
-
Intelligent and thoughtful
- By Derrick on 01-11-14
-
Shocking the Conscience
- A Reporter's Account of the Civil Rights Movement
- By: Simeon Booker, Carol Mcabe Booker
- Narrated by: Ronald Clarkson
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Within a few years of its first issue in 1951, Jet, a pocket-sized magazine, became the "bible" for news of the civil rights movement. It was said, only half-jokingly, "If it wasn't in Jet, it didn't happen." Writing for the magazine and its glossy, big sister Ebony, for 53 years, longer than any other journalist, Washington bureau chief Simeon Booker was on the front lines of virtually every major event of the revolution that transformed America.
-
-
Till to Obama
- By Susan on 14-08-18
-
The Last Honest Man
- The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys—and One Senator's Fight to Save Democracy
- By: James Risen, Thomas Risen - contributor
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Senator Frank Church of Idaho was an unlikely hero. He led congressional opposition to the Vietnam War and had become a scathing, radical critic of what he saw as American imperialism around the world. But he was still politically ambitious, privately yearning for acceptance from the foreign policy establishment that he hated and eager to run for president. Despite his flaws, Church would show historic strength in his greatest moment, when in the wake of Watergate he was suddenly tasked with investigating abuses of power in the intelligence community.
-
Scorpions' Dance
- The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate
- By: Jefferson Morley
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scorpions' Dance by intelligence expert and investigative journalist Jefferson Morley reveals the Watergate scandal in a completely new light: as the culmination of a concealed, deadly power struggle between President Richard Nixon and CIA Director Richard Helms. After the Watergate burglary on June 17, 1972, Nixon was desperate to shut down the FBI's investigation. He sought Helms' support and asked that the CIA intervene—knowing that most of the Watergate burglars were retired CIA agents, contractors, or long-term assets. The two now circled each other like scorpions.
-
Ticking Clock
- Behind the Scenes at 60 Minutes
- By: Ira Rosen
- Narrated by: Ira Rosen, L. J. Ganser
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When producer Ira Rosen walked into the 60 Minutes offices in June 1980, he knew he was about to enter television history. His career catapulted him to the heights of TV journalism, breaking some of the most important stories in TV news. But behind the scenes was a war room of clashing producers, anchors, and the most formidable 60 Minutes figure: legendary correspondent Mike Wallace.
-
Barack and Joe
- The Making of an Extraordinary Partnership
- By: Steven Levingston, Michael Eric Dyson
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The extraordinary partnership of Barack Obama and Joe Biden is unique in American history. The two men, their characters and styles sharply contrasting, formed a dynamic working relationship that evolved into a profound friendship. Their affinity was not predestined. Obama and Biden began wary of each other: Obama an impatient freshman disdainful of the Senate's plodding ways; Biden a veteran of the chamber and proud of its traditions.
-
Surrounded by Enemies
- What if Kennedy Survived Dallas?
- By: Bryce Zabel
- Narrated by: Edd Hall
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If President John Kennedy had survived the ambush at Dealey Plaza in Dallas a half-century ago, what other twists might history have taken? In his meticulously researched novel, Surrounded by Enemies: What If Kennedy Survived Dallas, author Bryce Zabel delivers a supercharged but plausible alternative narrative of the turbulent 1960s after our charismatic president escapes unscathed on November 22, 1963.
-
-
Intelligent and thoughtful
- By Derrick on 01-11-14
-
Shocking the Conscience
- A Reporter's Account of the Civil Rights Movement
- By: Simeon Booker, Carol Mcabe Booker
- Narrated by: Ronald Clarkson
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Within a few years of its first issue in 1951, Jet, a pocket-sized magazine, became the "bible" for news of the civil rights movement. It was said, only half-jokingly, "If it wasn't in Jet, it didn't happen." Writing for the magazine and its glossy, big sister Ebony, for 53 years, longer than any other journalist, Washington bureau chief Simeon Booker was on the front lines of virtually every major event of the revolution that transformed America.
-
-
Till to Obama
- By Susan on 14-08-18
-
The Last Honest Man
- The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys—and One Senator's Fight to Save Democracy
- By: James Risen, Thomas Risen - contributor
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Senator Frank Church of Idaho was an unlikely hero. He led congressional opposition to the Vietnam War and had become a scathing, radical critic of what he saw as American imperialism around the world. But he was still politically ambitious, privately yearning for acceptance from the foreign policy establishment that he hated and eager to run for president. Despite his flaws, Church would show historic strength in his greatest moment, when in the wake of Watergate he was suddenly tasked with investigating abuses of power in the intelligence community.
-
Scorpions' Dance
- The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate
- By: Jefferson Morley
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scorpions' Dance by intelligence expert and investigative journalist Jefferson Morley reveals the Watergate scandal in a completely new light: as the culmination of a concealed, deadly power struggle between President Richard Nixon and CIA Director Richard Helms. After the Watergate burglary on June 17, 1972, Nixon was desperate to shut down the FBI's investigation. He sought Helms' support and asked that the CIA intervene—knowing that most of the Watergate burglars were retired CIA agents, contractors, or long-term assets. The two now circled each other like scorpions.
-
Ticking Clock
- Behind the Scenes at 60 Minutes
- By: Ira Rosen
- Narrated by: Ira Rosen, L. J. Ganser
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When producer Ira Rosen walked into the 60 Minutes offices in June 1980, he knew he was about to enter television history. His career catapulted him to the heights of TV journalism, breaking some of the most important stories in TV news. But behind the scenes was a war room of clashing producers, anchors, and the most formidable 60 Minutes figure: legendary correspondent Mike Wallace.
-
Barack and Joe
- The Making of an Extraordinary Partnership
- By: Steven Levingston, Michael Eric Dyson
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The extraordinary partnership of Barack Obama and Joe Biden is unique in American history. The two men, their characters and styles sharply contrasting, formed a dynamic working relationship that evolved into a profound friendship. Their affinity was not predestined. Obama and Biden began wary of each other: Obama an impatient freshman disdainful of the Senate's plodding ways; Biden a veteran of the chamber and proud of its traditions.
-
The Hitler Virus
- The Insidious Legacy of Adolf Hitler
- By: Peter Wyden
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In spring 1945, as the Russians moved on Berlin and it became clear the Nazi cause was lost, Adolf Hitler assured his most trusted henchmen that even if he were to die, "the seed of National Socialism will grow again one day [in]…a radiant rebirth." Several times after the war, the distinguished author Peter Wyden, himself a victim of the Nazis, returned to Germany to discover, to his dismay, that Hitler's prediction was all too true. In this unsettling audiobook, Wyden documents the reality that the "Hitler virus" is still very much alive.
-
-
What an eye opener!
- By Steven Waite on 22-10-21
-
Come On, Man!
- The Truth About Biden's No-Good, Horrible, Very Bad Presidency, and How to Return America to Greatness
- By: Joe Concha
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Come On, Man!, Joe Concha reminds us what’s really going on in the White House. Though Biden may seem like a doddering idiot, stumbling from one mistake to the next, his blunders always hew closely to progressive dreams for American policy. Dreams like saving the planet by attacking Elon Musk and strengthening the middle class by making gas prices higher than Hunter Biden in a motel room. Come On, Man! shows the real reason why we’re here—no malarkey, guaranteed!
-
The Place to Be
- Washington, CBS, and the Glory Days of Television News
- By: Roger Mudd
- Narrated by: Roger Mudd
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Roger Mudd joined CBS in 1961 and rose to fame as the congressional correspondent, covering the historic Senate filibuster debate over the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Mudd was there to see Dan Rather going toe-to-toe with the Nixon White House, Marvin Kalb deciphering the State Department, Daniel Schorr bird-dogging Watergate, Lesley Stahl and Connie Chung staking out all the president's men, George Herman presiding over Face the Nation, Bob Schieffer covering the Pentagon like a police reporter.
-
Rather Outspoken
- My Life in the News
- By: Dan Rather, Digby Diehl - contributor
- Narrated by: Dan Rather
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rather - who has won every prestigious journalism award in his distinguished career - discusses all the big stories from his decades of reporting. This very personal accounting includes (but is certainly not limited to) his dismissal from CBS, the Abu Ghraib story, the George W. Bush Air National Guard controversy, his coverage of the JFK assassination, the origin of "Hurricane Dan", as well as inside stories about all the top personalities Dan has either interviewed or worked with over his remarkable career.
-
-
The voice of truth - Great book
- By jeffrey on 16-06-12
-
Miami
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is where Fidel Castro raised money to overthrow Batista and where two generations of Castro's enemies have raised armies to overthrow him, so far without success. It is where the bitter opera of Cuban exile intersects with the cynicism of U.S. foreign policy. It is a city whose skyrocketing murder rate is fueled by the cocaine trade, racial discontent, and an undeclared war on the island 90 miles to the south.
-
-
Fascinating book but some narration issues
- By "paraxylene" on 27-12-21
-
Secret City
- The Hidden History of Gay Washington
- By: James Kirchick
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 26 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For decades, the specter of homosexuality haunted Washington. The mere suggestion that a person might be gay destroyed reputations, ended careers, and ruined lives. At the height of the Cold War, fear of homosexuality became intertwined with the growing threat of international communism, leading to a purge of gay men and lesbians from the federal government. In the fevered atmosphere of political Washington, the secret “too loathsome to mention” held enormous, terrifying power.
-
Unmasking Obama
- The Fight to Tell the True Story of a Failed Presidency
- By: Jack Cashill
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While the major media were spinning their collective fairy tale about the Obama presidency, the alternative conservative media - America's "samizdat" - were telling the truth.
-
Keep Talking
- A Broadcasting Life
- By: David Dimbleby
- Narrated by: David Dimbleby
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Dimbleby has interviewed prime ministers and presidents, made award-winning documentaries, chaired Question Time for 25 years, and anchored the BBC's live coverage of historic national and world events. Keep Talking is David's wry look at his own extraordinary career, and the people, events and controversies he has encountered along the way. As a broadcaster for the BBC, David had an obligation to appear a neutral observer.
-
-
Fantastic insight into journalism of the last 60 years
- By N Saker on 06-11-22
-
The Kennedy Brothers
- The Rise and Fall of Jack and Bobby
- By: Richard D. Mahoney
- Narrated by: Peter Altschuler
- Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Books about the Kennedys are legion. Yet missing until now has been the exploration of the bond between Jack and Bobby, and the part that it played in their rise and fall. Richard D. Mahoney gives us Jack and Bobby in all their hubris and humanity, youthfulness and fatalism. Here is American history as it unfolds. The Kennedy Brothers is a fresh and masterful account of the men whose legacy continues to hold the American imagination.
-
-
quote - unquote
- By Finbarr OCallaghan on 13-11-21
-
After Henry
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Hess
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her latest forays into the American scene, Joan Didion covers ground from Washington to Los Angeles, from a TV producer's gargantuan "manor" to the racial battlefields of New York's criminal courts. At each stop she uncovers the mythic narratives that elude other observers: Didion tells us about the fantasies the media construct around crime victims and presidential candidates; she gives us new interpretations of the stories of Nancy Reagan and Patty Hearst; she charts America's rollercoaster ride through evanescent booms and hard times that won't go away.
-
CIA Rogues and the Killing of the Kennedys
- How and Why US Agents Conspired to Assassinate JFK and RFK
- By: Patrick Nolan, Dr. Henry C. Lee - foreword
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In CIA Rogues and the Killing of the Kennedys, Patrick Nolan fearlessly investigates the CIA’s involvement in the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy - why the brothers needed to die and how rogue intelligence agents orchestrated history’s most infamous conspiracy. Nolan furthers the research of leading scholars who agree that there remain serious unanswered questions regarding the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy.
-
-
fantastic read
- By Keith on 18-10-18
-
The Conviction of Richard Nixon
- The Untold Story of the Frost/Nixon Interviews
- By: James Reston Jr.
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Conviction of Richard Nixon, Reston provides a fascinating, fly-on-the-wall account of his involvement in the Nixon interviews as David Frost's Watergate adviser. Written in 1977 immediately following those celebrated television interviews and published now for the first time, The Conviction of Richard Nixon explains how a British journalist of waning consequence drove the famously wily and formidable Richard Nixon to say, in an apparent personal epiphany, "I have impeached myself."
Summary
The Watergate scandal was a horror show. What better way to satirize it than with a horror movie?
Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre premiered in October 1974, mere weeks after the resignation and pardon of Richard Nixon brought an uncertain end to the most corrupt and criminal presidency in American history. The film had been conceived, written, shot, edited, and produced precisely as Watergate was playing out, and those responsible for Chain Saw unhesitatingly spoke of the horrors of contemporary politics as having directly inspired the ones they created for the film.
Leatherface vs. Tricky Dick presents a fascinating minute-by-minute exploration of the many uncanny connections between The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Watergate, as well as other ways the film comments on contemporary politics via satire and (very) dark humor. Listen and discover Chain Saw’s response to the White House horrors, the Saturday Night Massacre, and more, as well as how Leatherface’s masks relate to all those Nixon masks worn throughout “our long national nightmare”.
More from the same
What listeners say about Leatherface vs. Tricky Dick
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Gareth Walters
- 07-05-23
Compelling and entertaining
Tobe Hooper’s approach is a tough nut to crack. Genius auteur, or accidental, one-hit wonder? Arch provocateur, or disengaged journeyman? The jury remains divided but this, along with American Twilight and Scout Tafoya’s Cinemaphagy: On the Psychedelic Classical Form of Tobe Hooper, form a growing body of work in favor of the maestro’s more intellectual inclinations. Martin Harris makes a compelling case for Texas Chainsaw Massacre being more than “a film about meat” and provides a hugely entertaining history lesson along the way. Highly recommended for fans of Hooper and TCM, 70s US history, and great writing.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Jenni Z
- 25-06-21
Not as Silly as I Feared
I was expecting this to be some far-reaching, fantastical nonsense somebody dreamed up, making loose, tenuous connections. I was truly surprised by the solid research, logic, and sometimes even confirmation from the screenwriters about deliberate connections. Very interesting read.