WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.279 This episode is supported by clear protein. And 00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:05.620 I've got to say, this one really surprised me. 00:00:05.820 --> 00:00:08.500 Most protein powders, thick, chalky, and you 00:00:08.500 --> 00:00:10.300 have to choke them down with some milk. Clear 00:00:10.300 --> 00:00:12.679 is totally different. It's a whey protein isolate 00:00:12.679 --> 00:00:15.419 that mixes clear and water. More like a sports 00:00:15.419 --> 00:00:17.760 drink than a heavy shake. You still get 20 grams 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:20.719 of protein per serving with zero sugar, zero 00:00:20.719 --> 00:00:23.199 lactose, and none of that bloated feeling you 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:25.300 get from traditional shakes. The flavors are 00:00:25.300 --> 00:00:27.579 actually good too. Strawberry watermelon and 00:00:27.579 --> 00:00:30.519 wild blue raspberry are my go -tos. It's been 00:00:30.519 --> 00:00:33.119 perfect for after workouts or even just that 00:00:33.119 --> 00:00:35.700 midday pick -me -up when you don't feel weighted 00:00:35.700 --> 00:00:37.859 down by food. And because you're a listener, 00:00:37.960 --> 00:00:40.579 you get 20 % off your order, the best discount 00:00:40.579 --> 00:00:42.920 they offer anywhere. Just head over to Clear 00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:45.520 Protein and use code ZERO SIGNAL at checkout. 00:00:45.859 --> 00:00:49.000 That's clear with a K, clearprotein .com, code 00:00:49.000 --> 00:01:01.280 ZERO SIGNAL. A show about what they won't say 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:03.719 and what you're probably already thinking. No 00:01:03.719 --> 00:01:07.519 fluff, no filters, no bullshit. Let's crack it 00:01:07.519 --> 00:03:09.710 open. in the night. Sleep! My name is Jim. My 00:03:09.710 --> 00:03:21.680 name is Otto. Please meet your Otto. The first 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:37.780 thing you notice is the sound. Not the guns. 00:03:38.199 --> 00:03:40.949 It's the fact that they have stopped. Your ears 00:03:40.949 --> 00:03:43.469 keep bracing for the next crack of a rifle, the 00:03:43.469 --> 00:03:45.909 next thud of a shell, the next short cut -off 00:03:45.909 --> 00:03:47.870 scream, and instead there's just wind moving 00:03:47.870 --> 00:03:50.270 over broken ground, rattling frozen grass and 00:03:50.270 --> 00:03:52.169 loose scraps of canvas. Down on the trench you 00:03:52.169 --> 00:03:54.509 hear a small sound again, boots scraping damp 00:03:54.509 --> 00:03:56.729 boards, someone coughing in the dark, the slow 00:03:56.729 --> 00:03:58.849 drip of melted frost working its way through 00:03:58.849 --> 00:04:01.490 sandbags. The trench itself creaks in size like 00:04:01.490 --> 00:04:03.689 an old ship in a black ocean, and then from somewhere 00:04:03.689 --> 00:04:05.629 down the line, through the fog and powder of 00:04:05.629 --> 00:04:07.909 smoke and winter air, you hear something that 00:04:07.909 --> 00:04:10.490 does not belong on the battlefield. Singing one 00:04:10.490 --> 00:04:12.870 voice at first then and a little shaky then another 00:04:12.870 --> 00:04:15.250 joins it then a third until the distance There's 00:04:15.250 --> 00:04:17.470 a rough uneven choir. You don't understand the 00:04:17.470 --> 00:04:19.550 words at first, but the tune hits you right in 00:04:19.550 --> 00:04:22.410 the chest Stalin is highly nished silent night. 00:04:22.410 --> 00:04:24.350 Holy night. You're standing at a trench that 00:04:24.350 --> 00:04:27.120 smells like wet earth gunpowder and sweat, soaked 00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:29.759 deep into wool, nauseating rod of things that 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:31.800 have been dead for far too long. It's December 00:04:31.800 --> 00:04:34.779 24th, 1914, somewhere along the western front. 00:04:34.920 --> 00:04:37.160 For months you've been told that the men opposite 00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:40.000 you are monsters, the hun, the brutes, the savages, 00:04:40.180 --> 00:04:42.100 the kind of enemy you can shoot without ever 00:04:42.100 --> 00:04:44.259 really letting your brain register the shape. 00:04:44.329 --> 00:04:46.810 of its face. You've watched artillery strip trees 00:04:46.810 --> 00:04:49.490 bare in an instant, leaving only splintered stumps 00:04:49.490 --> 00:04:51.689 like broken teeth against the sky. You've seen 00:04:51.689 --> 00:04:54.329 men you know yesterday become shapes you try 00:04:54.329 --> 00:04:56.329 not to think about when the trench goes quiet. 00:04:56.449 --> 00:04:59.009 You can tell outgoing from incoming artillery 00:04:59.009 --> 00:05:01.949 the way someone at home can tell rain from hail. 00:05:02.110 --> 00:05:04.550 And now your enemy is lighting candles and singing 00:05:04.550 --> 00:05:06.430 Christmas carols. Welcome back to Zero Signal. 00:05:06.670 --> 00:05:08.569 Tonight we're going back to a moment in history 00:05:08.569 --> 00:05:11.370 keeps trying to turn into a cute footnote. A 00:05:11.370 --> 00:05:13.800 little Did you know box in the corner of a page, 00:05:13.980 --> 00:05:19.120 the Christmas truce of 1914. As night falls on 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:22.600 Christmas Eve, Allied soldiers are surprised 00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:24.579 by what they are hearing over from the German 00:05:24.579 --> 00:05:30.500 trenches. Private Frank Sumter is one of the 00:05:30.500 --> 00:05:33.319 first to recognize what they are singing. And 00:05:33.319 --> 00:05:35.939 then we are the Germans singing Silent Night 00:05:35.939 --> 00:05:38.740 Holy Night. Our boys are just joined in, so we 00:05:38.740 --> 00:05:44.870 joined in with a song. The British sentries don't 00:05:44.870 --> 00:05:46.709 know what to make of what's happening across 00:05:46.709 --> 00:05:50.170 the narrow no man's land. Private Leslie Walkington 00:05:50.170 --> 00:05:55.290 was there. So then we began to pop our heads 00:05:55.290 --> 00:05:58.970 over the side and jump down quickly in case they 00:05:58.970 --> 00:06:03.290 shot, but they didn't shoot. And then we saw 00:06:03.290 --> 00:06:07.029 a German standing up waving his arms and we didn't 00:06:07.029 --> 00:06:09.990 shoot. We're in the midst of Christmas truths. 00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:13.199 First they were afraid of each other, and then 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:17.939 they started to talk and shaking hands. And once 00:06:17.939 --> 00:06:21.160 they did that, it just seemed to be friends. 00:06:22.439 --> 00:06:25.800 The British Khaki and the German Grey are soon 00:06:25.800 --> 00:06:29.360 gathering all mingled together. By Christmas 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:34.600 1914, every soldier knew that the enemy was sharing 00:06:34.600 --> 00:06:38.899 the same misery as they were. Both sides are 00:06:38.899 --> 00:06:41.339 well aware that consorting with the enemy is 00:06:41.339 --> 00:06:45.000 only one step away from treason. A crime punishable 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:48.879 by court -martial and execution. Men on both 00:06:48.879 --> 00:06:51.579 sides go to sleep that night, wondering if they 00:06:51.579 --> 00:06:53.819 will wake up the next morning to renewed fighting 00:06:53.819 --> 00:06:59.319 or a continued effort to defy the war. The fear 00:06:59.319 --> 00:07:01.860 of punishment is enough to get most of the soldiers 00:07:01.860 --> 00:07:05.779 back to fighting. How amazingly difficult it 00:07:05.779 --> 00:07:07.910 must have been. for these people to pick up shooting 00:07:07.910 --> 00:07:11.389 again, and with any kind of vigor, try and kill 00:07:11.389 --> 00:07:13.329 people in the opposite trench that they just 00:07:13.329 --> 00:07:15.850 celebrated Christmas with. Private Archibald 00:07:15.850 --> 00:07:18.350 Stanley remembers how his officer put an end 00:07:18.350 --> 00:07:32.970 to their armistice. On Christmas Eve and Christmas 00:07:32.970 --> 00:07:34.949 Day along the stretches of the Western Front, 00:07:35.189 --> 00:07:37.230 British and German soldiers did something no 00:07:37.230 --> 00:07:39.449 king ordered, no general planned, and no government 00:07:39.449 --> 00:07:41.730 wanted. They stopped. They put down their rifles, 00:07:42.050 --> 00:07:44.509 climbed up out of the earth like ghosts, and 00:07:44.509 --> 00:07:46.610 walked into one of the places on the map that 00:07:46.610 --> 00:07:48.629 supposedly belonged to nobody. It was called 00:07:48.629 --> 00:07:51.230 No Man's Land. Officially, this is treated like 00:07:51.230 --> 00:07:53.889 a sentimental hiccup, a one -off, a weird little 00:07:53.889 --> 00:07:56.110 snow globe moment inside the nightmare of World 00:07:56.110 --> 00:07:58.550 War I. Nice story, but it doesn't mean anything. 00:07:58.610 --> 00:08:00.870 But if you set with it and really look at it, 00:08:00.490 --> 00:08:02.889 It starts to sound a lot more dangerous than 00:08:02.889 --> 00:08:04.870 that because what happened that night is this 00:08:04.870 --> 00:08:07.389 the people doing the killing proved for a few 00:08:07.389 --> 00:08:09.910 hours that they could walk away from their scripts 00:08:09.910 --> 00:08:12.149 ignore the propaganda and recognize each other 00:08:12.149 --> 00:08:14.449 as human and the people running the war did not 00:08:14.449 --> 00:08:17.000 like what it revealed To see why, we have to 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:19.800 rewind a bit. Summer, 1914. The war kicks off 00:08:19.800 --> 00:08:22.259 with flags and brass bands, politicians giving 00:08:22.259 --> 00:08:24.920 speech from balconies, crowds packing train stations, 00:08:25.160 --> 00:08:27.300 cheering young men in new uniforms. We'll show 00:08:27.300 --> 00:08:29.379 them you'll be home by Christmas. Mothers and 00:08:29.379 --> 00:08:31.579 wives wiping tears from their eyes pretending 00:08:31.579 --> 00:08:33.919 they're not terrified. By December, those promises 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:36.480 are just a bad joke. The western front is now 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:39.200 a 400 -mile wound clawed into the earth, trenches 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:41.320 facing trenches, sometimes only a stone's throw 00:08:41.320 --> 00:08:43.399 apart. Between them, a strip of ground turned 00:08:43.399 --> 00:08:46.370 into mud and crater. wire. Bodies lying where 00:08:46.370 --> 00:08:48.570 they fell because anyone who tries to retrieve 00:08:48.570 --> 00:08:51.250 them gets cut down. No man's land. It's not poetry. 00:08:51.450 --> 00:08:53.830 It's a practical description. If you walk there, 00:08:53.929 --> 00:08:56.190 when everyone's doing what they're supposed to 00:08:56.190 --> 00:08:58.409 do, you die. It's as simple as that. Down in 00:08:58.409 --> 00:09:00.549 the trenches, life is a different flavor of hell. 00:09:00.750 --> 00:09:02.850 The walls ooze mud. The floor tries to steal 00:09:02.850 --> 00:09:05.149 your boots. Rats run over your legs while you 00:09:05.149 --> 00:09:07.529 sleep. Lice chew at your skin. You watch trench 00:09:07.529 --> 00:09:10.230 foot turn feet into pale, swollen things you 00:09:10.230 --> 00:09:12.350 don't even want to look at. You fall asleep with 00:09:12.350 --> 00:09:14.440 your chin on your knees, hip to hip with men 00:09:14.440 --> 00:09:16.980 who smell exactly like you do. Your whole world 00:09:16.980 --> 00:09:19.820 shrinks to this narrow, filthy corridor, a strip 00:09:19.820 --> 00:09:22.440 of gray sky, and the constant awareness that 00:09:22.440 --> 00:09:24.820 one shell, with bad manners, could drop your 00:09:24.820 --> 00:09:26.980 whole little universe into a crater. It's cold. 00:09:27.080 --> 00:09:29.519 It's wet. It's very obviously not going to be 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:31.600 over by Christmas. Then the calendar rolls into 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:33.820 late December, and that word, Christmas, floats 00:09:33.820 --> 00:09:36.059 up through all the mud and all of the noise. 00:09:36.259 --> 00:09:38.679 Back home, Christmas is warmth and light, crowded 00:09:38.679 --> 00:09:41.720 tables, crackling fires, wax dripping from candle 00:09:41.720 --> 00:09:44.179 stubs and little country churches. Here, it's 00:09:44.179 --> 00:09:46.960 a metal tin embossed with a royal profile. Cigarettes 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:49.480 from a princess, chocolate from a Kaiser, a card 00:09:49.480 --> 00:09:51.559 that says Merry Christmas in careful script, 00:09:51.659 --> 00:09:53.879 handed to a man whose odds of seeing New Year's 00:09:53.879 --> 00:09:56.100 are basically a coin flip. It's a strange kind 00:09:56.100 --> 00:09:58.019 of whiplash. With one hand, the machine pats 00:09:58.019 --> 00:10:00.220 you on the back and gives you treats. The other 00:10:00.220 --> 00:10:02.360 hand, it points you towards machine guns and 00:10:02.360 --> 00:10:04.679 tells you to climb. The first sign that something 00:10:04.679 --> 00:10:07.179 is going to break comes at dusk and it settles 00:10:07.179 --> 00:10:09.240 on Christmas Eve. On the German side, little 00:10:09.240 --> 00:10:11.779 evergreens, scraggly Christmas trees hacked from 00:10:11.779 --> 00:10:13.950 somewhere behind the start appearing at tops 00:10:13.950 --> 00:10:17.090 of trenches. Men wedges them into sandbags. Candles 00:10:17.090 --> 00:10:19.570 flicker on the branches, tiny halos of light 00:10:19.570 --> 00:10:21.950 around helmeted heads. The Germans start singing 00:10:21.950 --> 00:10:25.070 hymns, carols, patriotic songs. It's not polished, 00:10:25.169 --> 00:10:27.629 it's raw and shaky and soft. On the British side, 00:10:27.830 --> 00:10:29.610 heads peak up, careful and suspicious. You've 00:10:29.610 --> 00:10:31.590 been taught to hear death and everything. A glint 00:10:31.590 --> 00:10:33.830 of light, a cough, a patch of silence, a whirl 00:10:33.830 --> 00:10:35.809 of candles on the enemy's trench. That could 00:10:35.809 --> 00:10:38.309 be anything, a trick to draw fire, a distraction, 00:10:38.370 --> 00:10:40.490 but the bullets don't come. The song grows, the 00:10:40.490 --> 00:10:42.710 warm glow of candles runs a - the German's line, 00:10:42.789 --> 00:10:45.269 like someone hung a string of stars on the ground. 00:10:45.350 --> 00:10:47.269 So the British answer. One voice starts a carol 00:10:47.269 --> 00:10:49.549 on the allied side, the first Noel. Another joins 00:10:49.549 --> 00:10:52.210 in, O come, all ye faithful. Two different languages, 00:10:52.429 --> 00:10:54.710 but the same songs. The melodies cross over the 00:10:54.710 --> 00:10:57.049 wire and hang into the frozen air above the corpses. 00:10:57.230 --> 00:10:59.610 For a minute, the front sounds less like a graveyard 00:10:59.610 --> 00:11:01.509 and more like a fractured Christmas service. 00:11:01.690 --> 00:11:03.490 And then a shout rises above all of it, rolled 00:11:03.490 --> 00:11:05.590 in a German accent and rough English. Tommy, 00:11:05.669 --> 00:11:08.370 you no shoot, we no shoot. That sentence should 00:11:08.370 --> 00:11:10.409 not exist here. Once it's been thrown into the 00:11:10.409 --> 00:11:12.230 darkness, it just hangs there, daring someone 00:11:12.230 --> 00:11:13.970 to believe it. The truce doesn't happen with 00:11:13.970 --> 00:11:16.169 a whistle or an official order. It spreads like 00:11:16.169 --> 00:11:18.970 courage or insanity, or maybe both. In some sections, 00:11:19.250 --> 00:11:21.450 a single German soldier climbs out first. In 00:11:21.450 --> 00:11:23.629 others, it's a British soldier. Somewhere, a 00:11:23.629 --> 00:11:25.809 Scotsman in a kilt scrambles up, his bare knees 00:11:25.809 --> 00:11:28.169 flashing in the moonlight, and the German burst 00:11:28.169 --> 00:11:30.129 out laughing because they'd never seen anyone 00:11:30.129 --> 00:11:32.809 go to war with so much leg showing. Imagine taking 00:11:32.809 --> 00:11:34.570 that first step up a ladder. You've been told 00:11:34.570 --> 00:11:37.070 that poking your head up for more than a second 00:11:37.070 --> 00:11:39.529 is basically volunteering to donate your skull 00:11:39.529 --> 00:11:41.509 to the local sharpshooter. You've listened to 00:11:41.509 --> 00:11:43.850 bullets crack overhead so often your body flinches 00:11:43.850 --> 00:11:45.929 before your brain registers the sound. You watch 00:11:45.929 --> 00:11:48.490 men go over the top and vanish into the smoke 00:11:48.490 --> 00:11:50.730 only to be carried back in pieces. Now you're 00:11:50.730 --> 00:11:52.759 climbing out into the open air. with no weapon 00:11:52.759 --> 00:11:55.000 in your hands. The mud of no man's land grabs 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:57.299 at your boots. The ground crunches where it's 00:11:57.299 --> 00:11:59.440 frozen and squelches where it's not. You move 00:11:59.440 --> 00:12:01.879 past twisted barbed wire and shattered timber. 00:12:02.059 --> 00:12:03.980 You see the bodies up close for the first time, 00:12:04.039 --> 00:12:06.440 the stiff, unnatural angles, the torn wool and 00:12:06.440 --> 00:12:08.279 frozen fingers. You try not to look too hard 00:12:08.279 --> 00:12:10.580 at their faces. Opposite you, figures are climbing 00:12:10.580 --> 00:12:12.340 out of their trenches too. At first, they're 00:12:12.340 --> 00:12:15.000 just shapes. Then they're men, faces, stubble, 00:12:15.159 --> 00:12:17.480 teeth flashing and nervous grins, hands raised 00:12:17.480 --> 00:12:19.419 to show they're empty. You walk towards each 00:12:19.419 --> 00:12:21.580 other. If this is a trick, this is the most laugh 00:12:21.580 --> 00:12:23.700 - suicide attempt in history. But the closer 00:12:23.700 --> 00:12:25.960 you get, the more obvious it is. They're just 00:12:25.960 --> 00:12:27.500 as scared as you. Somewhere in the middle of 00:12:27.500 --> 00:12:29.360 the wasteland, you stop. You stick your hand 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:31.720 out. A German glove reaches out to grab it. The 00:12:31.720 --> 00:12:33.940 grip is firm but shaking. You both start laughing 00:12:33.940 --> 00:12:35.820 because your bodies don't know what else to do 00:12:35.820 --> 00:12:37.740 with all this energy that was supposed to go 00:12:37.740 --> 00:12:39.860 into killing each other and suddenly has nowhere 00:12:39.860 --> 00:12:42.059 to go. Then the floodgates open. Cigarettes appear 00:12:42.059 --> 00:12:44.259 from every pocket. Pipes, bottle of schnapps, 00:12:44.419 --> 00:12:46.600 bit of whiskey, chocolate wrapped in greasy paper, 00:12:46.799 --> 00:12:49.000 sausage. Someone pulls out a photo. Woman in 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:51.129 a dress standing in front of a doorway. Kids 00:12:51.129 --> 00:12:53.230 were kids with ridiculous haircuts. You can't 00:12:53.230 --> 00:12:55.370 understand everything he's saying, but when he 00:12:55.370 --> 00:12:59.730 taps the picture and says, You know exactly what 00:12:59.730 --> 00:13:02.049 he means. You dig out your own crumpled snapshots. 00:13:02.190 --> 00:13:03.870 You show him your wife, your sweetheart, your 00:13:03.870 --> 00:13:05.850 little brother. He nods like he understands every 00:13:05.850 --> 00:13:08.379 word you can say. In some sectors, conversation 00:13:08.379 --> 00:13:10.580 turns practical. They talk about the bodies strapped 00:13:10.580 --> 00:13:12.919 in the wire, lying face down in the mud for days, 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:15.320 swelling and freezing. Men from both armies agree, 00:13:15.500 --> 00:13:17.539 tonight we will bury them. So British and German 00:13:17.539 --> 00:13:20.019 soldiers move through no man's land as a single 00:13:20.019 --> 00:13:22.279 burial party. They lift the dead as carefully 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:24.580 as they can, as if the bodies might protest if 00:13:24.580 --> 00:13:26.379 they're handled too roughly. They dig shallow 00:13:26.379 --> 00:13:28.700 graves in the frozen earth. They stand in ragged 00:13:28.700 --> 00:13:31.059 circles, helmets off, heads bowed. An English 00:13:31.059 --> 00:13:33.259 chaplain reads a prayer. A German chaplain reads 00:13:33.259 --> 00:13:35.419 one too. The words are different. The ache underneath 00:13:35.419 --> 00:13:37.700 is the same. Here in this strip of land meant 00:13:37.700 --> 00:13:40.320 only for dying, they hold the only honest funeral 00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:42.440 these men will ever see. And somewhere in all 00:13:42.440 --> 00:13:44.779 this, a ball appears. Not a perfect stadium ball, 00:13:44.899 --> 00:13:47.159 just a scuffed -up lump of leather. One of the 00:13:47.159 --> 00:13:48.960 men has been hoarding like a treasure. It hits 00:13:48.960 --> 00:13:51.259 the ground, and a dozen soldiers, German, British, 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:53.659 Scottish, chase it without waiting for anyone 00:13:53.659 --> 00:13:56.159 to declare sides. Long coats fly open as they 00:13:56.159 --> 00:13:58.659 run. Boots skid and slide. Someone yells a curse 00:13:58.659 --> 00:14:00.620 in German that makes everyone laugh. The big 00:14:00.620 --> 00:14:02.399 German defender shoulders the British private 00:14:02.399 --> 00:14:04.620 aside and then, grinning, hauls him back to his 00:14:04.620 --> 00:14:06.950 feet. The shot It goes so widely off target that 00:14:06.950 --> 00:14:09.669 both trenches roar with laughter for a few minutes. 00:14:09.769 --> 00:14:11.450 The only thing flying through the air between 00:14:11.450 --> 00:14:13.610 the lines is that ball, not bullets. If you're 00:14:13.610 --> 00:14:15.669 in that mud, in that moment, it feels like the 00:14:15.669 --> 00:14:17.490 world is cracked and something bright is pouring 00:14:17.490 --> 00:14:19.509 through the split. If you're sitting at a desk 00:14:19.509 --> 00:14:21.769 miles away, reading a report that your frontline 00:14:21.769 --> 00:14:23.889 troops have climbed out of their fortifications, 00:14:24.149 --> 00:14:26.149 walked into no man's land, and shaked hands with 00:14:26.149 --> 00:14:27.830 the enemy and played football, it feels like 00:14:27.830 --> 00:14:29.570 a threat. Not from the Germans or the British, 00:14:29.669 --> 00:14:31.409 but from your own men. Because if they can just 00:14:31.409 --> 00:14:33.570 decide not to shoot today, what happens if they 00:14:33.570 --> 00:14:35.629 decide not to shoot tomorrow? or the day after. 00:14:35.769 --> 00:14:38.110 The Christmas truce wasn't planned. It wasn't 00:14:38.110 --> 00:14:40.110 approved. It completely broke the rules of the 00:14:40.110 --> 00:14:42.169 game. So the people who wrote the rules reacted 00:14:42.169 --> 00:14:44.509 fast. On both sides, orders calmed down. No more 00:14:44.509 --> 00:14:46.309 fraternizing with the enemy. No more climbing 00:14:46.309 --> 00:14:48.690 out of the trenches except to attack. No more 00:14:48.690 --> 00:14:51.429 sharing cigarettes. No more swiping badges. No 00:14:51.429 --> 00:14:53.809 more joint burials. No more shouted greetings. 00:14:53.990 --> 00:14:56.419 In some places... They start using the word treason. 00:14:56.559 --> 00:14:58.899 Think about that. Talking to the man in the opposite 00:14:58.899 --> 00:15:01.340 trench. Treason. Helping bury a body that's been 00:15:01.340 --> 00:15:03.500 rotting between your lines. Treason. Realizing 00:15:03.500 --> 00:15:05.840 the beast you've been ordered to kill has a wallet 00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:08.240 full of family photos just like you. Treason. 00:15:08.340 --> 00:15:10.379 From the point of view of the war machine, mercy 00:15:10.379 --> 00:15:12.480 is a security breach. It's one thing for generals 00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:14.980 to play at peace and conferences. They can control 00:15:14.980 --> 00:15:17.759 that. It's quite another thing when frozen, terrified, 00:15:17.899 --> 00:15:20.019 exhausted men at the bottom of the ladder start 00:15:20.019 --> 00:15:22.039 creating their own ceasefire in the middle of 00:15:22.039 --> 00:15:23.960 the night. The truth is a glitch in the system. 00:15:24.629 --> 00:15:26.629 Tighten discipline, crack down on letters home 00:15:26.629 --> 00:15:28.929 that tell the wrong kind of a story, turn up 00:15:28.929 --> 00:15:31.409 the volume on propaganda, hammer home again and 00:15:31.409 --> 00:15:33.769 again that the other side is not like you, not 00:15:33.769 --> 00:15:36.129 human the way you are, not worth the same grief, 00:15:36.309 --> 00:15:38.509 the same tears, the same prayers. Over time, 00:15:38.629 --> 00:15:41.029 the official story of war quietly pushes the 00:15:41.029 --> 00:15:43.029 truth into the background, but it is remembered, 00:15:43.250 --> 00:15:45.169 it is softened. Isn't that nice? Those chaps 00:15:45.169 --> 00:15:46.809 had a little football match in the middle of 00:15:46.809 --> 00:15:49.169 a war. People are basically good after all. Anyway, 00:15:49.269 --> 00:15:51.250 back to the big battles and the heroic charges. 00:15:51.470 --> 00:15:53.940 What gets sanded off is the sharp edge. The fact 00:15:53.940 --> 00:15:56.259 that thousands of men proved in real time that 00:15:56.259 --> 00:15:58.360 the war only worked as long as they all agreed 00:15:58.360 --> 00:16:01.019 to keep doing it. After 1940, there's no second 00:16:01.019 --> 00:16:03.240 Christmas like this. The war eats that memory 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:06.299 and keeps marching. More shells, more gas, more 00:16:06.299 --> 00:16:09.100 bullets, more names carved into stone. The system 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:10.980 has seen what happens when soldiers look each 00:16:10.980 --> 00:16:12.799 other in the eye and it doesn't intend to let 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:15.139 it happen again. So what do we do with that? 00:16:15.240 --> 00:16:17.500 Where's the conspiracy here? It's not one evil 00:16:17.500 --> 00:16:20.059 mastermind stroking a cat in a dark room. Something 00:16:20.059 --> 00:16:22.539 much more subtle. A network of decisions big 00:16:22.539 --> 00:16:24.419 and small. that all point in the same direction. 00:16:24.559 --> 00:16:26.659 Keep the work going, keep the machinery running, 00:16:26.820 --> 00:16:29.620 and bury anything that might remind people they 00:16:29.620 --> 00:16:32.019 could refuse. What scares the war machine isn't 00:16:32.019 --> 00:16:34.620 the enemy guns, it's empathy, recognition. That 00:16:34.620 --> 00:16:37.320 quiet, dangerous moment when a man in one uniform 00:16:37.320 --> 00:16:39.580 looks at a man in another uniform and thinks, 00:16:39.679 --> 00:16:41.539 I had been born in your town instead of mine, 00:16:41.659 --> 00:16:43.259 I might be wearing the same coat as you. The 00:16:43.259 --> 00:16:45.779 Christmas truce is one long, luminescent moment 00:16:45.779 --> 00:16:47.779 of recognition. And that's why it gets turned 00:16:47.779 --> 00:16:49.919 into a postcard instead of a warning sign. Now 00:16:49.919 --> 00:16:51.620 fast forward to right now. We live in a world 00:16:51.620 --> 00:16:53.799 with more more information and more connection 00:16:53.799 --> 00:16:56.000 than those men in the trenches could have ever 00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:58.139 dreamed of. We don't need to risk our lives climbing 00:16:58.139 --> 00:17:00.460 out of the trench to see the faces of the other 00:17:00.460 --> 00:17:02.919 side. We can see them on our phones, families 00:17:02.919 --> 00:17:05.900 sheltering in basements, kids in makeshift classrooms, 00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:08.579 soldiers, warriors filming themselves between 00:17:08.579 --> 00:17:10.640 attacks. You think that would make it harder 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:13.480 to dehumanize people. But the logic of the system 00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:15.700 hasn't changed much. It just upgraded its tools. 00:17:15.940 --> 00:17:17.859 The minute a war starts, the narrative hardens. 00:17:17.980 --> 00:17:20.660 The labels roll out. Evil, terrorist, Nazi, or 00:17:20.660 --> 00:17:23.359 scum. Wars designed to smear whole groups of 00:17:23.359 --> 00:17:26.180 people into one ugly, faceless thing. Wars designed 00:17:26.180 --> 00:17:28.880 to make sure you never let your heart relax enough 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:31.400 to wonder what they're freed of or who they miss. 00:17:31.700 --> 00:17:34.400 Algorithms amplify the loudest, angriest voices. 00:17:34.539 --> 00:17:36.640 Peace sounds like weakness. Nuance sounds like 00:17:36.640 --> 00:17:38.940 betrayal. And yet, under all that, the same old 00:17:38.940 --> 00:17:41.220 dangerous truth is still there. If we see each 00:17:41.220 --> 00:17:43.400 other, clearly, gets harder to keep killing each 00:17:43.400 --> 00:17:45.079 other. Now I want to turn a corner, because all 00:17:45.079 --> 00:17:47.299 of this, the truce, the candles on the trench 00:17:47.299 --> 00:17:49.700 lines, the carols drifting over no man's land, 00:17:49.940 --> 00:17:51.900 happens on Christmas. I'm not just a conspiracy 00:17:51.900 --> 00:17:54.299 guy, I'm also a Christian. So I can't tell this 00:17:54.299 --> 00:17:56.180 story without talking about Christ, because at 00:17:56.180 --> 00:17:58.339 the center of Christmas is another story, one 00:17:58.339 --> 00:18:01.019 so familiar we can almost recite it without thinking, 00:18:01.140 --> 00:18:03.980 which is exactly why it slips past us. A young 00:18:03.980 --> 00:18:05.759 woman, pregnant before the wedding completes, 00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:08.380 a confused fiance, trying to trust what he's 00:18:08.380 --> 00:18:10.859 been told in a dream, a long forced trip, because 00:18:10.859 --> 00:18:13.240 some emperor far away wants everyone counted 00:18:13.240 --> 00:18:15.980 and taxed. No room, no guest room, just a place 00:18:15.980 --> 00:18:18.339 with animals and straw. The son of God. You take 00:18:18.339 --> 00:18:20.680 this story seriously. God enters the world not 00:18:20.680 --> 00:18:23.440 as a general, not as a king, not as a billionaire, 00:18:23.660 --> 00:18:26.240 but as a crying helpless baby, born into poverty, 00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:29.039 born under occupation, laid in a feeding trough. 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:31.819 The first people who hear about him aren't governors 00:18:31.819 --> 00:18:33.859 or priests, they're shepherds, men on the edges 00:18:33.859 --> 00:18:35.940 of society, working the night shift. They're 00:18:35.940 --> 00:18:38.480 the ones the angels tell a savior is born. Peace 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:41.410 on earth. Beginning, the Christian story is about 00:18:41.410 --> 00:18:43.630 God stepping into the dirt, into danger, into 00:18:43.630 --> 00:18:46.089 what we would call no man's land. The place where 00:18:46.089 --> 00:18:48.450 suffering and fear and injustice pile up. Fast 00:18:48.450 --> 00:18:51.170 forward 30 plus years, and that same child, grown 00:18:51.170 --> 00:18:53.589 into a man, is hanging on a Roman cross, naked, 00:18:53.829 --> 00:18:55.789 bleeding, between two criminals. He talks about 00:18:55.789 --> 00:18:58.130 loving enemies, not just neighbors. He says things 00:18:58.130 --> 00:19:00.309 like blessed are the peacemakers, and if someone 00:19:00.309 --> 00:19:02.349 strikes you on the cheek, turn the other. He 00:19:02.349 --> 00:19:04.589 tells his followers to pray for those who persecute 00:19:04.589 --> 00:19:06.549 him. He forgives the people killing him when 00:19:06.549 --> 00:19:08.730 they're still doing it. From the world's perspective, 00:19:08.910 --> 00:19:11.349 This is complete insanity. From a Christian perspective, 00:19:11.509 --> 00:19:13.930 this is God's logic written in blood. Now, what 00:19:13.930 --> 00:19:16.490 does this have to do with the trenches of 1914, 00:19:16.690 --> 00:19:19.750 with Ukraine and Russia in 2025, with you listening 00:19:19.750 --> 00:19:22.430 to this episode? It's this, Christians believe 00:19:22.430 --> 00:19:25.049 that at the cross, Jesus stepped into the ultimate 00:19:25.049 --> 00:19:27.750 no man's land between a holy God and rebellious 00:19:27.750 --> 00:19:30.329 humanity, between people and their enemies, between 00:19:30.329 --> 00:19:32.750 every dividing wall we build and let all that 00:19:32.750 --> 00:19:35.269 hatred, all that violence, all that sin crash 00:19:35.269 --> 00:19:37.450 onto him. He simply absorbed it and then he rose 00:19:37.450 --> 00:19:40.019 again. Not just to say, look, miracles are real, 00:19:40.160 --> 00:19:42.900 but to open up a new way of being human. A way 00:19:42.900 --> 00:19:46.140 where reconciliation isn't a naive fantasy. It's 00:19:46.140 --> 00:19:47.980 the natural fruit of knowing you've been forgiven. 00:19:48.099 --> 00:19:50.440 The Christmas truce is like a small flickering 00:19:50.440 --> 00:19:52.480 picture of that. In the middle of a world organized 00:19:52.480 --> 00:19:54.559 around hatred and fear, light leaks through. 00:19:54.680 --> 00:19:57.500 A few candles, a few carols, a few empty hands 00:19:57.500 --> 00:19:59.559 extended in risk and trembling. For a night, 00:19:59.720 --> 00:20:02.220 the men in the trenches live as if Jesus was 00:20:02.220 --> 00:20:04.200 serious when he said, love your enemies. They 00:20:04.200 --> 00:20:06.299 don't have the theology sorted out. They're not 00:20:06.299 --> 00:20:08.720 angels. They'll go back to fighting, but for 00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:10.920 those hours, they're living closer to the kingdom 00:20:10.920 --> 00:20:13.519 of God than all the dignitaries giving speeches 00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:15.880 in warm buildings miles away. So now I want to 00:20:15.880 --> 00:20:18.299 speak directly as a Christian to a very particular 00:20:18.299 --> 00:20:21.059 no man's land, to Ukraine, to Russia. Somehow, 00:20:21.319 --> 00:20:23.500 someday, a soldier in a trench near one of the 00:20:23.500 --> 00:20:26.039 Ukrainian towns where a conscript sitting in 00:20:26.039 --> 00:20:28.259 a dugout near Belgrade, where a mother hiding 00:20:28.259 --> 00:20:30.579 with her kids in a basement in Kharkiv. Ever 00:20:30.579 --> 00:20:32.920 hear these words? This is for you. You have been 00:20:32.920 --> 00:20:35.799 given so many names for each other, Nazi, Orc, 00:20:36.039 --> 00:20:39.640 Fascist, Terrorist, You've been told again and 00:20:39.640 --> 00:20:42.500 again that the people on the other side are monsters. 00:20:42.680 --> 00:20:44.779 That their lives are worthless. That their deaths 00:20:44.779 --> 00:20:47.380 count more as wins than as tragedies. You've 00:20:47.380 --> 00:20:49.539 been told that God is on your side and not on 00:20:49.539 --> 00:20:51.539 theirs. That he blesses your bullets more than 00:20:51.539 --> 00:20:53.859 theirs. But the Jesus I follow is not a tribal 00:20:53.859 --> 00:20:55.980 mascot. He doesn't belong to one flag. He was 00:20:55.980 --> 00:20:58.480 born under occupation. He lived among ordinary 00:20:58.480 --> 00:21:01.400 people pushed around by empires. He healed the 00:21:01.400 --> 00:21:03.819 servant of an enemy officer. He told a story 00:21:03.819 --> 00:21:06.009 where the good guy was from a hated group. He 00:21:06.009 --> 00:21:08.670 died forgiving forgiveness. He died praying forgiveness 00:21:08.670 --> 00:21:10.789 over the men who hammered the nails. So hear 00:21:10.789 --> 00:21:13.069 this from one Christian voice, far away, but 00:21:13.069 --> 00:21:15.390 trying to be honest. Jesus loves the people in 00:21:15.390 --> 00:21:17.349 the other trench as much as he loves you. He 00:21:17.349 --> 00:21:19.369 shed the same blood for them that he shed for 00:21:19.369 --> 00:21:22.089 you. He hears Russian prayers and Ukrainian prayers. 00:21:22.230 --> 00:21:25.009 He weeps over Russian widows and Ukrainian widows. 00:21:25.109 --> 00:21:27.150 He listens to the terrified breath of soldiers 00:21:27.150 --> 00:21:29.990 on both sides who whisper, Lord have mercy, even 00:21:29.990 --> 00:21:32.109 if they're not sure who they're talking to. Not 00:21:32.109 --> 00:21:34.849 here to tell you what orders to follow or disobey. 00:21:34.990 --> 00:21:37.130 I don't know your life, your risk, the pressures 00:21:37.130 --> 00:21:39.589 crushing you. I will not sit in safety and say, 00:21:39.769 --> 00:21:41.910 just put your guns down and walk away. Like, 00:21:41.910 --> 00:21:44.009 this isn't a choice that could cost you everything, 00:21:44.190 --> 00:21:46.250 including your life. But as a Christian, I can 00:21:46.250 --> 00:21:48.690 say this. Your soul is not state property. Your 00:21:48.690 --> 00:21:51.170 heart does not belong to any president or general 00:21:51.170 --> 00:21:54.230 or party. Belongs to God only. And in Christ, 00:21:54.289 --> 00:21:56.589 you are allowed, commanded even, to see your 00:21:56.589 --> 00:21:58.609 enemy as someone you could one day call brother 00:21:58.609 --> 00:22:00.349 or sister. You are allowed to pray for them. 00:22:00.390 --> 00:22:02.450 You are allowed to ask God to protect their children 00:22:02.450 --> 00:22:05.599 and yours. You are allowed to refuse. the truth. 00:22:33.420 --> 00:22:35.500 less than human. He can help you pray for your 00:22:35.500 --> 00:22:37.359 enemies through clenched teeth and wet eyes. 00:22:37.420 --> 00:22:39.920 He can keep you from becoming what this war is 00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:42.039 trying to turn you into. So to the Ukrainian 00:22:42.039 --> 00:22:44.160 soldiers listening in the dark, checking your 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:46.220 phone between incoming rounds, Christ is with 00:22:46.220 --> 00:22:48.259 you in that hole. He sees your fear. He knows 00:22:48.259 --> 00:22:50.640 you're exhausted. He knows you're angry. He doesn't 00:22:50.640 --> 00:22:52.599 despise any of that. He has stood in the garden 00:22:52.599 --> 00:22:54.640 sweating blood and saying, Father, if there is 00:22:54.640 --> 00:22:56.900 any other way, he understands. To the Russian 00:22:56.900 --> 00:22:59.240 conscript who didn't want to be here, who feels 00:22:59.240 --> 00:23:01.759 used, who feels trapped between fear and dying 00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:04.240 and fear of her fusing, Christ is also with you. 00:23:04.299 --> 00:23:06.579 Not as a stamp of approval in every command you 00:23:06.579 --> 00:23:09.000 receive, but as the one who knows what it is 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:11.279 to stand before corrupt power and stay truthful. 00:23:11.400 --> 00:23:13.220 He was beaten by soldiers too. He knows that 00:23:13.220 --> 00:23:15.660 uniform doesn't tell your whole story. To the 00:23:15.660 --> 00:23:17.740 mothers and fathers in both countries, lying 00:23:17.740 --> 00:23:20.259 awake and staring at the ceiling, replaying last 00:23:20.259 --> 00:23:22.460 words and worrying over quiet phones, the God 00:23:22.460 --> 00:23:24.960 who watched his own son die is not indifferent 00:23:24.960 --> 00:23:27.660 to your grief and he is not far. My prayer for 00:23:27.660 --> 00:23:30.319 you, for Ukrainian and for Russians, is not a 00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:32.630 cheap thoughts and prayers line. It is that the 00:23:32.630 --> 00:23:34.670 spirit of Christ would protect your humanity 00:23:34.670 --> 00:23:37.190 in a place designed to destroy it. That he would 00:23:37.190 --> 00:23:40.089 open ways of peace that no one else can see right 00:23:40.089 --> 00:23:42.710 now. That he would raise up brave voices and 00:23:42.710 --> 00:23:45.170 quiet acts that push back against this terrible 00:23:45.170 --> 00:23:47.710 war. And if you were a follower of Jesus on either 00:23:47.710 --> 00:23:49.910 side of that front, I want to remind you directly, 00:23:50.029 --> 00:23:52.450 your first flag is the cross. Long after these 00:23:52.450 --> 00:23:54.910 borders are redrawn and these leaders are gone 00:23:54.910 --> 00:23:56.890 and these headlines are history, Christ will 00:23:56.890 --> 00:23:59.130 still be king. He will stand side by side with 00:23:59.130 --> 00:24:01.269 believers from the other side in a king. them 00:24:01.269 --> 00:24:03.470 where nobody remembers where the old trenches 00:24:03.470 --> 00:24:05.670 used to be. So don't let this war fright your 00:24:05.670 --> 00:24:07.930 theology. Let Jesus do that. Let him teach you 00:24:07.930 --> 00:24:10.009 how to carry a cross even while you're forced 00:24:10.009 --> 00:24:12.549 to carry a rifle. Let him teach you how to long 00:24:12.549 --> 00:24:15.170 for justice without losing mercy. Let him teach 00:24:15.170 --> 00:24:17.490 you how to look across your own no man's land 00:24:17.490 --> 00:24:20.069 and see a person for whom he died. As we land 00:24:20.069 --> 00:24:22.630 this episode, I want you, wherever you are, to 00:24:22.630 --> 00:24:25.109 hold onto one image in your mind. A dark, ruined 00:24:25.109 --> 00:24:27.789 field. The sky above it scarred by old shellfire. 00:24:27.910 --> 00:24:30.190 Candles flickering along the edges of two trenches. 00:24:30.279 --> 00:24:32.680 Men climbing out of the earth with trembling 00:24:32.680 --> 00:24:35.579 legs and empty hands, German, British, Scottish, 00:24:35.640 --> 00:24:37.819 walking towards each other across ground that 00:24:37.819 --> 00:24:39.839 has only ever known death. In the middle they 00:24:39.839 --> 00:24:42.500 meet, not as heroes, not as saints, just as men 00:24:42.500 --> 00:24:45.059 who, for one night, dared to believe that the 00:24:45.059 --> 00:24:47.440 message sung in those carols might be more than 00:24:47.440 --> 00:24:49.960 just words. The God of everything, the God we 00:24:49.960 --> 00:24:52.619 call Christ, the Holy Redeemer. I believe that 00:24:52.619 --> 00:24:55.259 night he was not in the palaces or the war room. 00:24:55.319 --> 00:24:57.660 He was out there in no man's land, standing by 00:24:57.660 --> 00:24:59.579 the bodies being finally buried, standing Standing 00:24:59.579 --> 00:25:01.599 by the soldier who couldn't bring himself to 00:25:01.599 --> 00:25:04.059 aim low the next day. Standing by the ones who 00:25:04.059 --> 00:25:06.259 said brother in a language they barely spoke. 00:25:06.460 --> 00:25:09.160 And today I believe he is still in No Man's Land. 00:25:09.259 --> 00:25:11.680 all over this world. Between nations, between 00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:14.000 neighbors, between husbands, between wives who 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:16.500 haven't spoken kindly in months. Between churches 00:25:16.500 --> 00:25:18.839 split over lesser things than life and death. 00:25:18.940 --> 00:25:21.000 That's where Jesus goes. Into that gap. Into 00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:23.220 the place everyone else has written off as hopeless. 00:25:23.400 --> 00:25:25.900 He steps in and stretches out his arms on a cross 00:25:25.900 --> 00:25:28.180 in a trench in a living room and says, Peace 00:25:28.180 --> 00:25:30.460 I leave with you. By peace I give to you. Not 00:25:30.460 --> 00:25:33.299 as the world gives. So wherever you are, whoever 00:25:33.299 --> 00:25:35.920 you are, may you know that peace. May you know 00:25:35.920 --> 00:25:38.339 that peace. May you meet Christ in your own no 00:25:38.339 --> 00:25:40.759 man's land. And may you, in his strength, dare 00:25:40.759 --> 00:25:43.319 to see an enemy, and even if only in your heart 00:25:43.319 --> 00:25:45.920 for now, whisper the most dangerous words in 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:48.019 any war. Brother, this is Zero Sigma. I wish 00:25:48.019 --> 00:25:50.740 everyone listening and all our loyal fans a Merry 00:25:50.740 --> 00:25:53.259 Christmas. In the name of Jesus, the Prince of 00:25:53.259 --> 00:25:56.079 Peace, may God have mercy on Ukraine. May God 00:25:56.079 --> 00:25:58.779 have mercy on the Russian soldiers. May this 00:25:58.779 --> 00:26:01.519 new year that is quickly approaching find true 00:26:01.519 --> 00:26:04.119 peace. May he teach all of us how to live like 00:26:04.119 --> 00:26:06.460 the troops he began at the cross is more than 00:26:06.460 --> 00:26:10.380 just a story. in 1940 demonstrated it to everyone 00:26:10.380 --> 00:26:12.680 in the world. Hopefully one day, hopefully one 00:26:12.680 --> 00:26:15.259 day soon, we can pit down our rifles and treat 00:26:15.259 --> 00:26:16.559 each other with kindness and love.