Welcome to Circa 1945: Breaking the Machine — a podcast of parables about the Holocaust, and what it would take to build a genocide-proof society.

We live in a culture obsessed with true crime. Podcasts. Documentaries. Netflix series. There’s an entire industry devoted to exploring the “criminal mind.”

And you know what? I get it. Especially for women, especially for survivors — many of us have been hurt, or scared, or stalked, and the fascination makes sense. We want to understand predators. We want to make sure it never happens to us again.

But here’s the thing. After a lifetime of being hurt by not one, not two, but many different people, my perspective is very different.

Where others see endless variety, I see only a few basic shapes. Where others are fascinated, I’m… bored.

Let me tell you why.

Imag ...