The War Where the Only Casualty Was a Pig | Monday Madness

Could a pig really start a war between the United States and the British Empire? In 1859, it almost did. This is the absurd but true story of The Pig War—a bizarre military standoff that brought two global superpowers to the brink of conflict over a stolen potato.

Welcome to Monday Madness, the show where we prove American politics has never been boring. In this episode, we travel to the beautiful San Juan Islands, a disputed territory where American farmers and British ranchers lived in a tense peace. When an American farmer shoots a British-owned pig for raiding his garden, a simple argument over money spirals into an international crisis involving warships, cannons, and a future icon of the Civil War. Join hosts Stephen and Leah as they unpack one of the strangest and most forgotten "almost-wars" in history.