When Ed Helms was a kid growing up in the Brookwood Hills neighborhood of Atlanta in the 1980s, he imagined becoming Indiana Jones in real life. He voraciously read National Geographic magazines and the World Book Encyclopedia.
“For a brief moment at Oberlin [College in Ohio], I wanted to be an anthropology major,” he said in a recent Zoom interview with The Atlanta Journal Constitution. “But I followed my creative aspirations and wound up being a film major.”
The result: a long run as a “Daily Show” correspondent followed by iconic acting roles in “The Office” and “The Hangover” films.
Helms has recently scratched his history itch with a podcast and a book, both using the name “SNAFU,” exploring history’s greatest screwups.
As part of the Atlanta Film Festival, he will be at the Tara Theatre on Friday, May 2 at 7 p.m. for a talk and book signing with tickets at $35 for the talk and pre-signed copy of the book and $65 for a meet and greet, talk and a personally signed copy.
His “SNAFU” podcast, now in its third season, takes a deep dive on a particular topic each season such as the 1980s nuclear war scare, the discovery of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover’s secrets in 1971 and the battle over Prohibition in the 1920s.
“I’m insanely proud of the podcast,” Helms said. “It’s a cinematic audio experience. When you close your eyes, it should feel extremely immersive and vivid. We have a lot of score and sound effects and my narration is intercut with archival audio and interviews. It’s so much work.”
While researching the podcast, his team found all sorts of stories that were outrageous and fascinating but not expansive enough to merit a season on a podcast. So Helms suggested compiling them into a book. The result: 34 stories, averaging about 8 pages each.
“It’s very digestible and can be read in small chunks,” Helms said.
Stylistically, “SNAFU” is no dry textbook recitation. “I really try to put my comedy topspin on the stories,” he said.
At the same time, it isn’t like “The Daily Show.”
“This is not snarky,” he said. “I’m not trying to take down these things. I’m having cheeky fun with these stories.”
For instance, Helms describes how an Air Force pilot was forced to land an American spy plane in Chinese territory and was captured without incident. “If it were me,” Helms wrote, “I would have then vomited violently. Another famous idiom of mine: Never let your crew see you spew.”
Helms described their 10-day detention in China as “the world’s weirdest cross-cultural summer camp ― with some light torture thrown in.”
Helms said he didn’t want to tackle obvious big topics like 9/11 or World War II.
“I wanted this to be about things people may not necessarily know and would be surprised by,” he said.
Credit: GRAND CENTRAL
Credit: GRAND CENTRAL
Helms has a special interest in the Cold War, an overarching topic when he was a kid.
“The Cold War was so fraught with bad judgment and mistakes that led to ridiculous snafus,” he said.
There’s the CIA scientist in the 1950s who bought the world’s supply of LSD to do unethical experiments on mind control. A decade later, the same agency tested inserting audio equipment in live cats to spy on their enemies. And one of the wildest stories in the book features Russian spies Karl and Hana Koecher, who came stateside and got their intel in the bedroom via swinging parties.
“It was sexpionage,” Helms cracked. In the book, he noted, “It brings meaning to ‘Do what you love,’ right? Work, work, work! And boy, did Karl and Hana enjoy their job!”
And as an Atlantan who grew up not far from Coca-Cola headquarters, he couldn’t help but include a chapter on the cola wars, though it’s more focused on rival Pepsi than Coke.
Pepsi in the 1970s managed to get its soda into Russia via an exclusive deal that locked out Coke. But since the Russian ruble was worthless outside of the USSR, the two sides came up with a barter deal: Russian vodka in exchange for soda. But vodka sales slowed in the 1980s.
In 1989, Russia offered up 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate and a destroyer. In that very moment. “Pepsi would take possession of the sixth-largest naval fleet in the world,” Helms wrote.
Pepsi didn’t start its own military unit. It sold most of Russia’s leftovers for scrap, and once the Soviet Union collapsed, Coke got the last laugh: it would enter Russia and eventually outsell Pepsi.
Credit: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
Credit: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
Helms also featured a story about his fellow Georgian Jimmy Carter.
In 1952, a nuclear reactor in Deep River, Ontario was melting down. A cleanup was in order.
As a 28-year-old naval officer, Jimmy Carter was part of a team that came to disarm the reactor. Each person was given just 90 seconds in the reactor in a tag-team situation because the radioactivity was so intense. It worked and Carter escaped unscathed except for radioactive urine for several months.
“It was not only incredibly intricate but took incredible discipline,” Helms said. “It was very courageous.”
Scientists at the time were only just learning about the impact of radioactivity.
“It’s kind of a miracle he didn’t suffer adverse health effects,” Helms said.
Carter ended up having four healthy children and lived to 100, dying on Dec. 29, 2024. In editing, Helms was able to add, “RIP, Jimmy,” noting, “This is the rare case in which sending a future U.S. president into the heart of danger also changed the course of history … for the better.”
IF YOU GO
Ed Helms book signing and discussion for “SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screwups”
7 p.m. Friday. $35 for talk and pre-signed copy of the book, $65 for talk, meet and greet and personalized signed copy of the book. Tara Theatre, 2345 Cheshire Bridge Road NE, Atlanta. acapellabooks.com
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