The Lord Of Misrule (Throwback)
Thu, 28 Nov 2024
By the time his book went to press in London, on November 18, 1633, Thomas Morton had been exiled fr...
The Mother of Thanksgiving
Thu, 21 Nov 2024
The Thanksgiving story most of us hear is about friendship and unity. And that's what Sarah Josepha ...
Behind the Scenes of Throughline
Thu, 14 Nov 2024
Today on the show, we're taking you behind the scenes. We'll tell you how Throughline was born, some...
The Electoral College (Throwback)
Thu, 07 Nov 2024
What is it, why do we have it, and why hasn't it changed? Born from a rushed, fraught, imperfect pro...
A History of Settlements
Thu, 31 Oct 2024
The question of settlements has loomed over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades, and has on...
The Swing State Power Brokers
Thu, 24 Oct 2024
Today on the show, two stories of building power in swing states: from the top down, and the bottom ...
How We Vote (Throwback)
Thu, 17 Oct 2024
Drunken brawls, coercion, and lace curtains: believe it or not, how regular people vote was not some...
A History of Christian Nationalism
Thu, 10 Oct 2024
References to God and Christianity are sprinkled throughout American life. Our money has "In God We ...
The Battle For Jerusalem
Thu, 03 Oct 2024
Today, the city of Jerusalem is seen as so important that people are willing to kill and die to cont...
A History of Hezbollah (Throwback)
Thu, 26 Sep 2024
Hezbollah is a Lebanese paramilitary organization and political party that's directly supported by t...
When Things Fall Apart (Throwback)
Thu, 19 Sep 2024
Climate change, political unrest, random violence - Western society can often feel like what the fil...
The Conspiracy Files
Thu, 12 Sep 2024
9/11 was an inside job. Aliens have already made contact. COVID-19 was created in a lab.Maybe you ro...
How U.S. Unions Took Flight (Throwback)
Thu, 05 Sep 2024
Airline workers — pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, baggage handlers, and more — represent a...
Water in the West
Thu, 29 Aug 2024
What does it mean to do the greatest good for the greatest number? When the Los Angeles Aqueduct ope...
We The People: Canary in the Coal Mine
Thu, 22 Aug 2024
The Third Amendment. Maybe you've heard it as part of a punchline. It's the one about quartering tro...
We The People: Equal Protection
Thu, 15 Aug 2024
The Fourteenth Amendment. Of all the amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the 14th is a big one. It'...
We The People: Legal Representation
Thu, 08 Aug 2024
The Sixth Amendment. Most of us take it for granted that if we're ever in court and we can't afford ...
Tested: Questions of a Physical Nature
Tue, 06 Aug 2024
In 1966, the governing body of the Olympic track and field event started mandatory examinations of a...
We the People: Gun Rights
Thu, 01 Aug 2024
The Second Amendment. In April 1938, an Oklahoma bank robber was arrested for carrying an unregister...
We The People: Free Speech
Thu, 25 Jul 2024
The First Amendment. Book bans, disinformation, the wild world of the internet. Free speech debates ...
The Creeping Coup
Thu, 18 Jul 2024
Sudan has been at the center of a deadly and brutal war for over a year. It's the site of the world'...
The Roots of Poverty in America
Thu, 11 Jul 2024
The United States is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, yet over 10 percent of people –...
Road to Rickwood: The Holy Grail of Baseball
Thu, 04 Jul 2024
Birmingham, Alabama was one of the fiercest battlegrounds of the Civil Rights Movement. And in order...
Pop Music's First Black Stars
Thu, 27 Jun 2024
Today, the U.S. popular music industry is worth billions of dollars. And some of its deepest roots a...
The Lavender Scare (Throwback)
Thu, 20 Jun 2024
One day in late April 1958, a young economist named Madeleine Tress was approached by two men in sui...
A History of Zionism
Thu, 13 Jun 2024
Since October 7th, the term Zionism has been everywhere in the news. It's been used to support Israe...
The Whiteness Myth (Throwback)
Thu, 06 Jun 2024
In 1923, an Indian American man named Bhagat Singh Thind told the U.S. Supreme Court that he was whi...
The Rules of War
Thu, 30 May 2024
International courts investigating alleged war crimes have made headlines often in recent months. An...
Mythos and Melodrama in the Philippines (Throwback)
Thu, 23 May 2024
Welcome to the "Epic of Marcos." In this tale of a family that's larger than life, Ferdinand Marcos,...
The Mandela Effect
Thu, 16 May 2024
For nearly thirty years, the South African government held a man it initially labeled prisoner numbe...
The Labor Of Love (Throwback)
Thu, 09 May 2024
There's a powerful fantasy in American society: the fantasy of the ideal mother. This mother is devo...
The 4th Amendment: Search and Seizure
Thu, 02 May 2024
The Fourth Amendment is the part of the Bill of Rights that prohibits "unreasonable searches and sei...
The Ghost in Your Phone (Throwback)
Thu, 25 Apr 2024
It's hot. A mother works outside, a baby strapped to her back. The two of them breathe in toxic dust...
Ralph Nader, Consumer Crusader
Thu, 18 Apr 2024
Whether it's pesticides in your cereal or the door plug flying off your airplane, consumers today ha...
The 14th Amendment
Thu, 11 Apr 2024
Of all the amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the 14th is a big one. It's shaped all of our lives,...
The Land of the Fee (Throwback)
Thu, 04 Apr 2024
Tipping is a norm in the United States—and it's always been controversial. The practice took off a...
A History of Hezbollah
Thu, 28 Mar 2024
Hezbollah is a Lebanese paramilitary organization and political party that's directly supported by t...
The Great Textbook War
Thu, 21 Mar 2024
What is school for? Over a hundred years ago, a man named Harold Rugg published a series of textbook...
Radiolab: Worst. Year. Ever
Tue, 19 Mar 2024
What was the worst year to be alive on planet Earth? We make the case for 536 AD, which set off a ca...
A Symphony of Resistance (Throwback)
Thu, 14 Mar 2024
In 2011, the world was shaken by the Arab Spring, a wave of "pro-democracy" protests that spread thr...
The Rise of the Right Wing in Israel
Thu, 07 Mar 2024
For most of its early history, Israel was dominated by left-leaning, secular politicians. But today,...
The Right to An Attorney
Thu, 29 Feb 2024
Most of us take it for granted that if we're ever in court and we can't afford a lawyer, the court w...
Dance Yourself Free (Throwback)
Thu, 22 Feb 2024
Beyonce's Renaissance brought house music back to mainstream audiences. But even when it wasn't grac...
Love, Throughline
Thu, 15 Feb 2024
We asked you to call us with your stories of looking for love in the 21st century — and man, did y...
The Scent of History
Thu, 08 Feb 2024
What if we told you that the key to time travel has been right in front of our eyes this whole time?...
James Baldwin's Shadow (Throwback)
Thu, 01 Feb 2024
James Baldwin believed that America has been lying to itself since its founding. An insightful comme...
Bonus: The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop
Tue, 30 Jan 2024
In October of 1983, Grenada's Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was assassinated in a coup, along with s...
The Man Who Cured Aging
Thu, 25 Jan 2024
In 1899, Elie Metchnikoff woke up in Paris to learn that he had defeated old age. At least, that's w...
The Right to Bear Arms
Thu, 18 Jan 2024
In April 1938, an Oklahoma bank robber was arrested for carrying an unregistered sawed-off shotgun a...
When Things Fall Apart (Throwback)
Thu, 11 Jan 2024
Climate change, political unrest, random violence: modern society can often feel like what the filmm...
The Nostalgia Bone (2021)
Thu, 04 Jan 2024
They say "everything old becomes new again." Today, that's baggy jeans, shag haircuts, 90s music, TV...
Editing Reality (2023)
Thu, 28 Dec 2023
We live in divided times, when the answer to the question 'what is reality?' depends on who you ask....
Apology: The Way Back (2023)
Thu, 21 Dec 2023
Our society is saturated in apologies. They're scripted, they're public, and they often feel less th...
Dare to Dissent
Thu, 14 Dec 2023
Sometimes, the most dangerous and powerful thing a person can do is to stand up not against their en...
The Lord Of Misrule
Thu, 07 Dec 2023
On November 18, 1633, a book went to press in London. Its author, Thomas Morton, had been exiled fro...
A.D.A. Now! (2020)
Thu, 30 Nov 2023
The Americans with Disabilities Act is considered the most important civil rights law since the 1960...
How U.S. Unions Took Flight
Thu, 23 Nov 2023
Hot Labor Summer has continued into fall as workers in industries from retail and carmaking to healt...
A History of Hamas
Thu, 16 Nov 2023
On October 7th, the organization Hamas, which is also the ruling government of Gaza, perpetrated an ...
Grenada: Nobody's Backyard (2021)
Thu, 09 Nov 2023
A Marxist revolution, a Cold War proxy battle, and a dream of a Black utopia. In 1983, Ronald Reagan...
The Supreme Court's Shadow Docket
Thu, 02 Nov 2023
Roe. Brown. Obergefell. Dobbs. These Supreme Court decisions are the ones that make headlines, and e...
The Three Faces of Ataturk
Thu, 26 Oct 2023
"Authority, without any condition and reservation, belongs to the nation." A military commander name...
The Dance of the Dead (2021)
Thu, 19 Oct 2023
Long before it was a sugary moviefest, the Halloween we know was called Samhain. The Celts of ancien...
The Contradictions of Abraham Lincoln
Thu, 12 Oct 2023
In 1855, Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to his best friend, Joshua Speed. Speed was from a wealthy, ...
Two Miles Down The Road
Thu, 05 Oct 2023
Deborah and Ken Ferruccio saw the toxic chemical spill while they were driving home late one summer ...
Tenochtitlán: A Retelling of the Conquest (2021)
Thu, 28 Sep 2023
In a sense, 1521 is Mexico's 1619. A foundational moment that for centuries has been shaped by just ...
David v Goliath
Thu, 21 Sep 2023
In the year 1258, more than 100,000 soldiers amassed outside the great Islamic city of Baghdad. They...
A Tale of Two Tribal Nations
Thu, 14 Sep 2023
The word "reservation" implies "reserved" – as in, this land is reserved for Native Americans. But...
Silicon Island (2022)
Thu, 07 Sep 2023
In a world where computer chips run everything from laptops to cars to the Nintendo Switch, Taiwan i...
How Korean Culture Went Global (2022)
Thu, 31 Aug 2023
From BTS to Squid Game to high-end beauty standards, South Korea reigns as a global exporter of pop ...
By Accident of Birth (2022)
Thu, 24 Aug 2023
In August of 1895, a ship called the SS Coptic approached the coast of Northern California. On that ...
The Characters That Built China (2022)
Thu, 17 Aug 2023
Today, China is a global superpower. But less than two hundred years ago, the nation was in a state ...
The Lavender Scare
Thu, 10 Aug 2023
One day in late April 1958, a young economist named Madeleine Tress was approached by two men in sui...
Getting to Sesame Street (2022)
Thu, 03 Aug 2023
American schools have always been more than where we go to learn the ABCs: They're places where soci...
The Hidden War
Thu, 27 Jul 2023
How does a country go from its leader winning the Nobel Peace Prize to all-out war in just one year?...
All Wars Are Fought Twice (2022)
Thu, 20 Jul 2023
"All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory," writes Pu...
No Bad Ideas?
Thu, 13 Jul 2023
Humans have always created. But historian Samuel W. Franklin argues that "creativity" didn't become ...
The Legacy of Henry Kissinger
Thu, 06 Jul 2023
Depending on where you stand, Henry Kissinger is either a foreign policy mastermind or a war crimina...
After Roe: A New Battlefield (2022)
Thu, 29 Jun 2023
The Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade transformed the landscape of abortion rights overnight. ...
The Labor Of Love
Thu, 22 Jun 2023
There's a powerful fantasy in American society: the fantasy of the ideal mother. This mother is devo...
Affirmative Action
Thu, 15 Jun 2023
This conversation was recorded ahead of the Supreme Court's expected decision on affirmative action....
Before Roe: The Physicians' Crusade (2022)
Thu, 08 Jun 2023
Abortion wasn't always controversial. In fact, in colonial America it would have been considered a f...
The Ghost in Your Phone
Thu, 01 Jun 2023
It's hot. A mother works outside, a baby strapped to her back. The two of them breathe in toxic dust...
The Freedom of Speech
Thu, 25 May 2023
Book bans, disinformation, the wild world of the internet. Free speech debates are all around us. Wh...
History Is Over (2021)
Thu, 18 May 2023
As the end of the 20th century approached, Radiohead took to the recording studio to capture the sou...
Mythos and Melodrama in the Philippines
Thu, 11 May 2023
Corruption. Wealth. Authoritarianism. Torture. These are the words many people associate with Ferdin...
What's Your Worth?
Thu, 04 May 2023
The credit score: even if you don't think much about it, that three-digit number can change your lif...
Cinco de Mayo and the Rise of Modern Mexico (2022)
Thu, 27 Apr 2023
Does history have a border? That is the question at the heart of Cinco de Mayo, May 5th, a holiday t...
The Way Back
Thu, 20 Apr 2023
Our society is saturated in apologies. They're scripted, they're public, and they often feel less th...
Past is Prologue: Talking Taxes
Thu, 13 Apr 2023
Benjamin Franklin said the only certainties in life are death and taxes. Sifting through receipts, d...
Student Loans: The Fund-Eating Dragon (2022)
Thu, 06 Apr 2023
At the start of the 20th century, only the most privileged could afford to go to college. Today, mil...
Throughline Presents: Louder Than A Riot
Tue, 04 Apr 2023
Louder Than A Riot breaks down how hip-hop history is told. Who gets to be remembered and who gets l...
The Mystery of Inflation (2022)
Thu, 30 Mar 2023
Rising interest rates. Layoffs. A shrinking dollar. Over the past year, the US economy has been sque...
Everyone Everywhere All At Once
Thu, 23 Mar 2023
This year's Oscars were one of the most diverse in history, in all kinds of ways. Everything Everywh...
Meltdown (2020)
Thu, 16 Mar 2023
What happens when an accident puts the public at risk? In the early hours of March 28, 1979, a syste...
A More Perfect Human
Thu, 09 Mar 2023
The dream of AI — artificial intelligence — has been around for centuries: the idea of an intell...
Dance Yourself Free
Thu, 02 Mar 2023
Ever since Beyonce's Renaissance dropped last summer, house music has found its way back to mainstre...
Of Rats and Men (2022)
Thu, 23 Feb 2023
Rats. Love 'em or hate 'em, (though you probably hate 'em), they're part of our world. And they've b...
Throughline Presents: White Lies
Thu, 16 Feb 2023
It all started with a photograph. A photograph from 1991 of a prison takeover in rural Alabama. A ph...
The Whiteness Myth
Thu, 09 Feb 2023
In 1923, an Indian American man named Bhagat Singh Thind argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that h...
The Real Black Panthers (2021)
Thu, 02 Feb 2023
In 1968, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover said the Black Panther Party "without question, represents the...
When Things Fall Apart
Thu, 26 Jan 2023
Climate change, political unrest, random violence - Western society can often feel like what the fil...
Extremist Futures
Thu, 19 Jan 2023
It's 2074 and a suicide bomber has killed the President of the United States. Months later Marines o...
Do Not Pass Go (2022)
Thu, 12 Jan 2023
There's more to Monopoly than you might think. It's one of the best-selling board games in history —...
Nancy Pelosi (2019)
Mon, 09 Jan 2023
Nancy Pelosi is the highest-ranking woman in American politics. She made her first run for public of...
The Monster of We (2021)
Thu, 05 Jan 2023
Are most modern problems caused by selfishness or a lack of it? Ayn Rand, a Russian American philoso...
The New Gilded Age (2022)
Thu, 29 Dec 2022
Philanthropic foundations are a fundamental part of our society: they support media, the arts, educa...
God Wants You To Be Rich (2021)
Thu, 22 Dec 2022
In the New Testament, Jesus says it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for...
Road to Partition
Thu, 15 Dec 2022
What happens when a nation splits apart? It's a question many of us are asking ourselves today. It h...
400 Years of Sweetness
Thu, 08 Dec 2022
In the 1970s, a savvy CEO named Dwayne Andreas hit on an idea: take surplus corn from America's hear...
The Nostalgia Bone (2021)
Thu, 01 Dec 2022
The global pandemic spawned a different type of epidemic, one of an entirely different nature: a nos...
La Última Copa: El sueño del pibe
Sat, 26 Nov 2022
Ésta semana te presentamos un episodio muy especial de nuestros amigos en NPR y Futuro Media — su...
The Last Cup: The Kid's Dream
Thu, 24 Nov 2022
This week we're bringing you something special from our friends at NPR and Futuro Media: the first e...
Qatar's World Cup
Thu, 17 Nov 2022
Football, aka soccer, is life. At least, it is for many people across the globe. There are few thing...
Dreams, Creatures, and Visions
Thu, 10 Nov 2022
We are in the season of chaos. It can feel like everything is happening at once: You might be sprint...
The Most Sacred Right (2020)
Thu, 03 Nov 2022
Born into slavery in the early 1800s, Frederick Douglass would live to see the Civil War, Emancipati...
The State of Disunion
Thu, 27 Oct 2022
Is the U.S. on the brink of civil war? It's a question that has been in the air for a while now, as ...
The Woman Question
Thu, 20 Oct 2022
What's happening in Iran right now is unprecedented. But the Iranian people's struggle for gender eq...
The Dance of the Dead (2021)
Thu, 13 Oct 2022
Halloween — the night of ghost stories and trick-or-treating — has religious origins that span o...
Silicon Island
Thu, 06 Oct 2022
In a world where computer chips run everything from laptops to cars to the Nintendo Switch, Taiwan i...
Editing Reality
Thu, 29 Sep 2022
We live in divided times, when the answer to the question 'what is reality?' depends on who you ask....
Five Fingers Crush the Land (2021)
Thu, 22 Sep 2022
Over one million Uyghur people have been detained in camps in China, according to estimates, subject...
Getting to Sesame Street
Thu, 15 Sep 2022
In American history, schools have not just been places to learn the ABCs – they're places where so...
How Korean Culture Went Global
Thu, 08 Sep 2022
From BTS to Squid Game to high-end beauty standards, South Korea reigns as a global exporter of pop ...
American Socialist (2020)
Thu, 01 Sep 2022
It's been over a century since a self-described socialist was a viable candidate for president of th...
Drone Wars (2021)
Thu, 25 Aug 2022
Unseen, they stalk their targets from thousands of feet in the air. Operators are piloting them from...
Afghanistan: The Rise of the Taliban (2021)
Thu, 18 Aug 2022
How did a small group of Islamic students go from local vigilantes to one of the most infamous and e...
Afghanistan: The Center of the World (2021)
Thu, 11 Aug 2022
Afghanistan has, for centuries, been at the center of the world. Long before the U.S. invasion — b...
The Mystery of Inflation
Thu, 04 Aug 2022
Gas. Meat. Flights. Houses. The price of things have gone up by as much as nine percent since last y...
Nikole Hannah-Jones and the Country We Have (2021)
Thu, 28 Jul 2022
Is history always political? Who gets to decide? What happens when you challenge common narratives? ...
Student Loans: The Fund-Eating Dragon
Thu, 21 Jul 2022
At the start of the 20th century, only the most privileged could afford to go to college. Today, mil...
The Long Hot Summer (2020)
Thu, 14 Jul 2022
Things in the U.S. feel tense right now. Two years after a police officer killed George Floyd outsid...
Throughline Presents: School Colors
Thu, 07 Jul 2022
School District 28 is located in one of the most racially and ethnically diverse places in the U.S.:...
Do Not Pass Go
Thu, 30 Jun 2022
There's more to Monopoly than you might think. It's one of the best-selling board games in history —...
The Evangelical Vote (2019)
Thu, 23 Jun 2022
When Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, the door opened on one of those rare opportunit...
After Roe: A New Battlefield
Thu, 16 Jun 2022
The Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade transformed the landscape of abortion rights overnight. ...
By Accident of Birth
Thu, 09 Jun 2022
In August of 1895, a ship called the SS Coptic approached the coast of Northern California. On that ...
The Modern White Power Movement (2020)
Thu, 02 Jun 2022
The recent shooting in Buffalo, New York, which authorities are investigating as a hate crime, has y...
The Characters That Built China
Thu, 26 May 2022
Today, China is a global superpower. But less than two hundred years ago, the nation was in a state ...
Before Roe: The Physicians' Crusade
Thu, 19 May 2022
Abortion wasn't always controversial. In fact, in colonial America it would have been considered a f...
Bonus: The Forgotten Mothers of Civil Rights History
Tue, 17 May 2022
MLK Jr., Malcolm X and James Baldwin are household names, but what about their mothers? This hour, a...
The Shadows of the Constitution (2020)
Thu, 12 May 2022
The Constitution is like America's secular Bible, our sacred founding document. As the Supreme Court...
Cinco de Mayo and the Rise of Modern Mexico
Thu, 05 May 2022
Does history have a border? That is the question at the heart of Cinco de Mayo, May 5th, a holiday t...
The New Gilded Age
Thu, 28 Apr 2022
Philanthropic foundations are a fundamental part of our society: they support media, the arts, educa...
Force of Nature (2021)
Thu, 21 Apr 2022
Rivers on fire, acid rain falling from the sky, species going extinct, oil spills, polluted air, and...
The Everlasting Problem (2020)
Thu, 14 Apr 2022
Health insurance for millions of Americans is dependent on their jobs. But it's not like that everyw...
Capitalism: What Makes Us Free? (2021)
Thu, 07 Apr 2022
What's the role of government in society? What do we mean when we talk about individual responsibili...
The Land of the Fee (2021)
Thu, 31 Mar 2022
Tipping is a norm in the United States—and it's always been controversial. The practice took off a...
All Wars Are Fought Twice
Thu, 24 Mar 2022
"All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory," writes Pu...
Our Own People (2021)
Thu, 17 Mar 2022
A Japanese American activist whose early political awakenings came while incarcerated in the concent...
Ukraine's Dangerous Independence
Thu, 10 Mar 2022
Months before Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, he published an ess...
Of Rats and Men
Thu, 03 Mar 2022
Rats. Love 'em or hate 'em, (though you probably hate 'em), they're part of our world. And during th...
There Are No Utopias
Thu, 24 Feb 2022
It may seem bleak, but Robin D.G Kelley's view of the world says there is no promise of liberation, ...
Marcus Garvey: Pan-Africanist (2021)
Thu, 17 Feb 2022
Black people deserve nothing less than everything: This was Marcus Garvey's simple, uncompromising m...
Pirates of the Senate
Thu, 10 Feb 2022
The fight over the filibuster brings up some deeper questions that we as a country are facing. How d...
A Story Of Us?
Thu, 03 Feb 2022
We've been seeing a lot of debate recently about how history should be taught. For example, some bel...
Russia's Longest Leader: Vladimir Putin (2019)
Thu, 27 Jan 2022
As tensions between Ukraine and Russia escalate, we decided to take a look at the man who has been r...
Throughline Sleeps
Tue, 25 Jan 2022
Life can be tough. Every day brings new challenges. And in order to get through the waking hours we ...
The Way We Dream
Thu, 20 Jan 2022
Our dreams can haunt us: literally. Recurring dreams about failing tests or running late are a commo...
Bayard Rustin: The Man Behind the March on Washington (2021)
Thu, 13 Jan 2022
Bayard Rustin, the man behind the March on Washington, was one of the most consequential architects ...
The Anatomy of Autocracy: Timothy Snyder (2021)
Thu, 06 Jan 2022
When a mob of pro-Trump supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 they also i...
The Electrical Grid (2020)
Thu, 30 Dec 2021
Today, electricity in the U.S. is a utility we notice only when it's suddenly unavailable. But over ...
Bonus: On Our Watch
Tue, 28 Dec 2021
What happens to police officers who use excessive force, tamper with evidence or sexually harass som...
American Socialist (2020)
Thu, 23 Dec 2021
American workers are reaching a breaking point. We're seeing a wave of resignations and labor strike...
The Monster of We
Thu, 16 Dec 2021
Are most modern problems caused by selfishness or a lack of it? Ayn Rand, a Russian American philoso...
History Is Over
Thu, 09 Dec 2021
As the end of the 20th century approached, Radiohead took to the recording studio to capture the sou...
A Symphony of Resistance (2021)
Thu, 02 Dec 2021
The Arab Spring erupted eleven years ago when a wave of "pro-democracy" protests spread throughout t...
Fighting Fires and Family Secrets
Thu, 25 Nov 2021
Uncontrollable western wildfires and a hidden family history — two puzzles that can only be solved...
Nikole Hannah-Jones and the Country We Have
Thu, 18 Nov 2021
Is history always political? Who gets to decide? What happens when you challenge common narratives? ...
Aftermath (2020)
Thu, 11 Nov 2021
In 1927, the most destructive river flood in U.S. history inundated seven states, displaced more tha...
Bonus: The Deep History of Dune
Tue, 09 Nov 2021
Rund and Ramtin speak to sci-fi writer and Princeton historian, Haris Durrani, about why the lore of...
Drone Wars
Thu, 04 Nov 2021
Unseen, they stalk their targets from thousands of feet in the air. Operators are piloting them from...
The Dance of the Dead
Thu, 28 Oct 2021
Halloween — the night of ghost stories and trick-or-treating — has religious origins that span o...
The Stars (2020)
Thu, 21 Oct 2021
Astrology has existed for thousands of years and has roots that span the globe. But is it a science ...
The Nostalgia Bone
Thu, 14 Oct 2021
The global pandemic has spawned a different type of epidemic, one of an entirely different nature: a...
Tenochtitlan: A Retelling of The Conquest
Thu, 07 Oct 2021
In a sense, 1521 is Mexico's 1619. A foundational moment that has for a long time been shaped by jus...
Bonus: Soul Train
Tue, 05 Oct 2021
When Soul Train was first nationally syndicated in October 1971, there was nothing else like it on T...
The Shadows of the Constitution (2020)
Thu, 30 Sep 2021
The Constitution is like America's secular bible, our sacred founding document. In her play, What th...
Bonus: We're Not Broken
Tue, 28 Sep 2021
This week we're featuring an episode from Life Kit that focuses on myths surrounding autism, how to ...
The Supreme Court (2020)
Thu, 23 Sep 2021
When, why, and how did the Supreme Court get the final say in the law of the land? The question of t...
Afghanistan: The Rise of the Taliban
Thu, 16 Sep 2021
How did a small group of Islamic students go from local vigilantes to one of the most infamous and e...
Afghanistan: The Center of the World
Thu, 09 Sep 2021
Afghanistan has, for centuries, been at the center of the world. Long before the U.S. invasion - bef...
The Aftermath of Collapse: Bronze Age Edition (2021)
Thu, 02 Sep 2021
What happens after everything falls apart? The end of the Bronze Age was a moment when an entire net...
Octavia Butler: Visionary Fiction (2021)
Thu, 26 Aug 2021
Octavia Butler's alternate realities and 'speculative fiction' reveal striking, and often devastatin...
El Libertador and Venezuela's Rise and Fall (2019)
Thu, 19 Aug 2021
Venezuela is facing an economic and humanitarian crisis as extreme poverty and violence have forced ...
Lives of the Great Depression (2020)
Thu, 12 Aug 2021
The Great Depression was a revolutionary spark for all kinds of things — health insurance, social ...
Stories of How We Cope With Chaos (2021)
Thu, 05 Aug 2021
You've been looking at screens for what feels like forever. Now it's time to sit back, close your ey...
Grenada: Nobody's Backyard
Thu, 29 Jul 2021
A Marxist revolution, a Cold War proxy battle, and a dream of a Black utopia. In 1983, Ronald Reagan...
Olympics: Behind The Five Rings
Thu, 22 Jul 2021
The Olympics originated in Ancient Greece, and were resurrected in the 1890's after a 1,500 year ban...
Home/Front: Marla's War
Tue, 20 Jul 2021
What do we owe innocent civilians who are killed or injured in war? This is one of the thorniest eth...
The Most Sacred Right (2020)
Thu, 15 Jul 2021
Frederick Douglass dreamed of a country where all people could vote and he did everything in his pow...
Bonus: Do The Golden Arches Bend Toward Justice?
Mon, 12 Jul 2021
This week we're featuring an episode from Code Switch, Do The Golden Arches Bend Toward Justice?. Ca...
Capitalism: God Wants You To Be Rich
Thu, 08 Jul 2021
In the New Testament, Jesus says it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for...
Capitalism: What Makes Us Free?
Thu, 01 Jul 2021
What's the role of government in society? What do we mean when we talk about individual responsibili...
Bonus: The Vanishing of Harry Pace
Tue, 29 Jun 2021
This week we're featuring an episode from Radiolab's latest new series, The Vanishing of Harry Pace....
Capitalism: What Is It?
Thu, 24 Jun 2021
What do we mean when we talk about capitalism? Our economic system might seem inevitable, but it's a...
Before Stonewall (2019)
Thu, 17 Jun 2021
In 1969, a gay bar in New York City called The Stonewall Inn was raided by police. It was a common f...
Who is NPR (For)?
Thu, 10 Jun 2021
Who is the media meant to serve? And why does it matter today, arguably, more than ever? 50 years ag...
The Supreme Court
Thu, 03 Jun 2021
When, why, and how did the Supreme Court get the final say in the law of the land? The question of t...
Palestine
Fri, 28 May 2021
The recent violence that engulfed Gaza and Jerusalem began with an issue that's plagued the region f...
A Symphony of Resistance
Thu, 20 May 2021
The Arab Spring erupted ten years ago when a wave of "pro-democracy" protests spread throughout the ...
Five Fingers Crush The Land
Thu, 13 May 2021
Over one million Uyghur people have been detained in camps in China, according to estimates, subject...
Operation Nemesis
Thu, 06 May 2021
An estimated 1.5 million Armenian Christians were killed by the Ottoman government during World War ...
James Baldwin's Shadow
Thu, 29 Apr 2021
James Baldwin believed that America has been lying to itself since its founding. He wrote, spoke, an...
Force of Nature
Thu, 22 Apr 2021
Rivers on fire, acid rain falling from the sky, species going extinct, oil spills, polluted air, and...
The Real Black Panthers
Thu, 15 Apr 2021
The Black Panther Party's battles for social justice and economic equality are the centerpiece of th...
Policing in America
Thu, 08 Apr 2021
Black Americans being victimized and killed by the police is an epidemic. As the trial of Derek Chau...
Our Own People
Thu, 01 Apr 2021
"Build bridges, not walls." Solidarity was at the heart of Yuri Kochiyama's work. A Japanese-America...
The Land of the Fee
Thu, 25 Mar 2021
Tipping is a norm in the U.S. But it hasn't always been this way. A legacy of slavery and racism, ti...
Chaos
Thu, 18 Mar 2021
What happens when teenagers are shipwrecked on a deserted island? Can you find the fingerprint of Go...
N95
Thu, 11 Mar 2021
The N95 respirator has become one of the most coveted items in the world during the pandemic, especi...
Levittown: Where the Good Life Begins
Thu, 04 Mar 2021
In this episode from WNYC's La Brega, Alana Casanova-Burgess traces back the story of the boom and b...
Bayard Rustin: The Man Behind the March on Washington
Thu, 25 Feb 2021
Bayard Rustin, the man behind the March on Washington, was one of the most consequential architects ...
Octavia Butler: Visionary Fiction
Thu, 18 Feb 2021
Octavia Butler's alternate realities and 'speculative fiction' reveal striking, and often devastatin...
Marcus Garvey: Pan-Africanist
Thu, 11 Feb 2021
Decades before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey attracted millions with a sim...
The Lasting Power Of Whitney Houston's National Anthem
Sun, 07 Feb 2021
Why does Whitney Houston's 1991 Super Bowl national anthem still resonate 30 years later? Listen to ...
What Happened After Civilization Collapsed
Thu, 04 Feb 2021
What happens after everything falls apart? The end of the Bronze Age was a moment when an entire net...
The Anatomy Of Autocracy: Masha Gessen
Thu, 28 Jan 2021
Russian-born journalist Masha Gessen talks to us about how the rule of the people becomes the rule o...
The Anatomy of Autocracy: Timothy Snyder
Thu, 21 Jan 2021
When a mob of pro-Trump supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, they also incite...
Impeachment
Thu, 14 Jan 2021
When Andrew Johnson became president in 1865, the United States was in the midst of one of its most ...
Outside/In: Everybody Knows Somebody
Thu, 07 Jan 2021
In the mid-1980's a woman who didn't consider herself a feminist was asked to solve perhaps the bigg...
Outside/In: War of the Worlds
Thu, 31 Dec 2020
The Sunni-Shia divide is a conflict that most people have heard about - two sects with Sunni Islam b...
Outside/In: The Dark Side Of The Moon
Thu, 24 Dec 2020
50 years ago the world watched as man first landed on the moon, an incredible accomplishment by the ...
Outside/In: Rules of Engagement
Thu, 17 Dec 2020
The US and Iran have been in some state of conflict for the last 40 years, since the Iranian revolut...
Supreme
Thu, 10 Dec 2020
When, why, and how did the Supreme Court get the final say in the law of the land? The question of t...
The Modern White Power Movement
Thu, 03 Dec 2020
It has been nearly twenty years since 9/11 and during that time much of the media coverage and gover...
The Spotted Owl
Thu, 26 Nov 2020
The story of how the Endangered Species Act went from unanimous passage under a Republican president...
The Invention of Race
Thu, 19 Nov 2020
The idea that race is a social construct comes from the pioneering work of anthropologist Franz Boas...
BONUS: Louder Than A Riot
Mon, 16 Nov 2020
This week we're bringing you something extra, an episode from the NPR Music series, Louder Than A Ri...
The Shadows of the Constitution
Thu, 12 Nov 2020
The Constitution is like America's secular bible, our sacred founding document. In her play, What th...
Bush v. Gore and Why It Matters in 2020
Thu, 05 Nov 2020
In the 2000 presidential election, results weren't known in one night, a week, or even a month. This...
The Most Sacred Right
Thu, 29 Oct 2020
Frederick Douglass dreamed of a country where all people could vote and he did everything in his pow...
How We Vote
Thu, 22 Oct 2020
Drunken brawls, coercion, and lace curtains. Believe it or not, how regular people vote was not some...
The Electoral College
Thu, 15 Oct 2020
What is it, why do we have it, and why hasn't it changed? Born from a rushed, fraught, imperfect pr...
(mis)Representative Democracy, A New Series From Throughline
Thu, 08 Oct 2020
America has never been a country of one person, one vote. And that's by design. Our system was built...
The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Thu, 08 Oct 2020
Billie Holiday helped shape American popular music with her voice and unique style. But, one song in...
The Everlasting Problem
Thu, 01 Oct 2020
Health insurance for millions of Americans is dependent on their jobs. But it's not like that everyw...
The Evangelical Vote
Thu, 24 Sep 2020
With the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the president is hoping to fill the seat with a more ideologi...
James Baldwin's Fire
Thu, 17 Sep 2020
In a moment when America is undertaking an uncomfortable reckoning with its racial inequality and vi...
The Postal Service
Thu, 10 Sep 2020
The US Postal Service has played a role throughout American history - from the Declaration of Indepe...
Reframing History: Mass Incarceration
Thu, 03 Sep 2020
The United States imprisons more people than any other country in the world, and a disproportionate ...
Reframing History: Bananas
Thu, 27 Aug 2020
The banana is a staple of the American diet and has been for generations. But how did this exotic tr...
Reframing History: The Commentator
Thu, 20 Aug 2020
Today the foundations of philosophy are seen as a straight line from Western antiquity, built on thi...
Reframing History: The Litter Myth
Thu, 13 Aug 2020
There is more waste in the world today than at any time in history, and the responsibility for keepi...
America's Caste System
Thu, 06 Aug 2020
"Race" is often used as a fundamental way to understand American history. But what if "caste" is the...
A.D.A. Now!
Thu, 30 Jul 2020
This month marks the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is considered th...
Lives Of The Great Depression
Thu, 23 Jul 2020
The Great Depression was a revolutionary spark for all kinds of things — health insurance, social ...
Borinquén
Thu, 16 Jul 2020
Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory in 1898 and for much of the next fifty years Puerto Ricans fough...
The Long Hot Summer
Thu, 09 Jul 2020
Starting in 1965, summer after summer, America's cities burned. There was civil unrest in more than ...
Mecca Under Siege
Thu, 02 Jul 2020
Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, is effectively canceled this year, due to concerns arou...
There's Something About Mary
Thu, 25 Jun 2020
When a cook who carried typhoid fever refused to stop working, despite showing no symptoms, the auth...
Why 2020 Isn't Quite 1968
Thu, 18 Jun 2020
Protests, racial divisions, political polarization, and a law-and-order president – it's easy to d...
Presidential Power
Thu, 11 Jun 2020
What can and can't the president do, and how do we know? When the framers of the U.S. constitution l...
American Police
Thu, 04 Jun 2020
Black Americans being victimized and killed by the police is an epidemic. A truth many Americans are...
Hong Kong
Thu, 28 May 2020
Last week, the Chinese government made the latest and perhaps the most serious move yet to crack dow...
Conspiracy
Thu, 21 May 2020
Since the beginning of the pandemic, conspiracy theories about the coronavirus have exploded. But co...
The Mask
Thu, 14 May 2020
The N95 respirator has become one of the most coveted items in the world, especially by medical pro...
Endless War
Thu, 07 May 2020
North Korea's famous for being a black box, one of the most secretive and authoritarian countries in...
Meltdown
Thu, 30 Apr 2020
In the early hours of March 28, 1979, a system malfunction began what would become the worst nuclear...
Aftermath
Thu, 23 Apr 2020
In 1927, the most destructive river flood in U.S. history inundated seven states, displaced more tha...
Buzzkill
Thu, 16 Apr 2020
In the whole of human history, no predator has killed more of us than the lowly mosquito. And this k...
Throughline Presents: Code Switch
Thu, 09 Apr 2020
The Principal Chief of Cherokee Nation told his people to stay strong during this pandemic, and to r...
A Race To Know
Thu, 02 Apr 2020
For nearly as long as there has been a United States there has been a census, it is in some ways how...
1918 Flu
Thu, 26 Mar 2020
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic it's tempting to draw comparisons to the most severe pandem...
American Socialist
Thu, 19 Mar 2020
It's been over a century since a self-described socialist was a viable candidate for President of th...
Savarkar And India
Thu, 12 Mar 2020
In the past few weeks Delhi has become the latest place in India convulsed with religious violence a...
Public Universal Friend
Thu, 05 Mar 2020
America in the run-up to the Revolutionary War wasn't just a period of dramatic political change, it...
The Invisible Border
Thu, 27 Feb 2020
Today, the border that divides Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is "soft", in most place...
The Stars
Thu, 20 Feb 2020
Astrology has existed for thousands of years and has roots that span the globe. But is it a science ...
Becoming America
Thu, 13 Feb 2020
When the United States of America was founded, it was only a union of a small number of states. By t...
She Got Next
Thu, 06 Feb 2020
There are more female candidates in this presidential campaign cycle than at any other time in Ameri...
Vaccination
Thu, 30 Jan 2020
It's a longstanding fight in the U.S., whether people can opt out of vaccination if that means jeopa...
Soleimani's Iran
Thu, 23 Jan 2020
When Qassem Soleimani was assassinated by the United States on January 3rd, the Iranian Revolutionar...
Everybody Knows Somebody
Thu, 16 Jan 2020
In the mid-1980's a woman who didn't consider herself a feminist was asked to solve perhaps the bigg...
There Will Be Bananas
Thu, 09 Jan 2020
The banana is a staple of the American diet and has been for generations. But how did this exotic tr...
Fear of Technology
Thu, 02 Jan 2020
Artificial intelligence, gene modification, and self-driving cars are causing fear and uncertainty a...
Russia's Vladimir Putin
Thu, 26 Dec 2019
Vladimir Putin has been running Russia since 2000 when he was first elected as President. How did a ...
Planned Obsolescence
Thu, 19 Dec 2019
Have you ever wondered why your smartphone or toaster oven doesn't seem to last very long, even thou...
America's Opioid Epidemic
Thu, 12 Dec 2019
A record number of Americans have died from opioid overdoses in recent years. But how did we get her...
The Electrical Grid
Thu, 05 Dec 2019
Today, electricity in the U.S. is a utility we notice only when it's suddenly unavailable. But over ...
Conspiracy Theories
Thu, 28 Nov 2019
This week we're revisiting one of our favorite episodes about one of our favorite topics: Conspiracy...
A Year Of Wonders
Thu, 21 Nov 2019
As extreme weather wreaks havoc around the globe we look at a natural disaster more than 200 hundred...
The Siege of Mecca
Thu, 14 Nov 2019
On November 20th, 1979, a group of Islamic militants seized Islam's holiest site — the Masjid al-H...
Throughline Presents: Short Wave
Sat, 09 Nov 2019
NPR science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel shares the story of Nazi Germany's attempt to build a nucle...
No Friend But The Mountains
Thu, 07 Nov 2019
Over the decades the Kurds have been inspired by, allied with, relied upon and betrayed by the Unite...
ZOMBIES
Thu, 31 Oct 2019
Zombies have become a global phenomenon — there have been at least ten zombie movies so far this y...
The Dark Side Of The Moon
Thu, 24 Oct 2019
50 years ago the world watched as man first landed on the moon, an incredible accomplishment by the ...
A Borrowed Time
Thu, 17 Oct 2019
Over the past six months, demonstrations in Hong Kong have increasingly become more violent and more...
The Commentator
Thu, 10 Oct 2019
Today the foundations of philosophy are seen as a straight line from Western antiquity, built on thi...
High Crimes And Misdemeanors
Thu, 03 Oct 2019
When Andrew Johnson became president in 1865, the United States was in the middle of one of its most...
American Exile
Thu, 26 Sep 2019
For centuries, the United States has been a prime destination for migrants hoping for better economi...
Puerto Rico
Thu, 19 Sep 2019
Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory in 1898 and for much of the next fifty years Puerto Ricans fough...
Three Chords And The Truth
Thu, 12 Sep 2019
When Lil Nas X released his viral hit "Old Town Road" last year, he sparked a conversation about wha...
The Litter Myth
Thu, 05 Sep 2019
There is more waste in the world today than at any time in history, and the responsibility for keepi...
On The Shoulders Of Giants
Thu, 29 Aug 2019
When Colin Kaepernick stopped standing for the national anthem at NFL games it sparked a nationwide ...
Strange Fruit
Thu, 22 Aug 2019
Billie Holiday helped shape American popular music with her voice and unique style. But, her legacy ...
Mass Incarceration
Thu, 15 Aug 2019
The United States imprisons more people than any other country in the world, and a disproportionate ...
Scorched Earth
Thu, 08 Aug 2019
The term "concentration camp" is most associated with Nazi Germany and the systematic killing of Jew...
Huey Long Vs. The Media
Thu, 01 Aug 2019
Huey Pierce Long: you either loved him, or hated him. He combined progressive economic ideas with an...
Milliken v. Bradley
Thu, 25 Jul 2019
After the landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, public schools across the country were s...
Rules Of Engagement
Thu, 18 Jul 2019
After Iran shot down an American surveillance drone in June, tensions between the two countries have...
Four Days In August
Thu, 11 Jul 2019
The U.S. and Iran have had a tense relationship for decades — but when did that begin? Over the ne...
American Anthem
Thu, 04 Jul 2019
The Star-Spangled Banner is the official anthem for the United States, but there are plenty of songs...
Before Stonewall
Thu, 27 Jun 2019
Fifty years ago, a gay bar in New York City called The Stonewall Inn was raided by police, and what ...
The X On The Map
Thu, 20 Jun 2019
In 1965, Jimmie Lee Jackson was an unarmed black civil rights activist who was murdered in Marion, A...
Apocalypse Now
Thu, 13 Jun 2019
Evangelicals have played an important role in modern day American politics - from supporting Preside...
Mitch McConnell
Thu, 06 Jun 2019
Mitch McConnell has been described as "opaque," "drab," and even "dull." He is one of the least popu...
Savarkar's India
Thu, 30 May 2019
Right-wing Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi has won reelection as India's Prime Minister. As the poli...
A Dream Of Modern China
Thu, 23 May 2019
China is a world superpower today. But just over a century ago, the country was in complete turmoil ...
El Libertador
Thu, 16 May 2019
Venezuela is facing an economic and humanitarian crisis as extreme poverty and violence have forced ...
White Nationalism
Thu, 09 May 2019
The white nationalist ideas of Madison Grant influenced Congress in the 1920s, leaders in Nazi Germa...
Outbreak
Thu, 02 May 2019
More than 700 measles cases have been recorded in the U.S. in the recent outbreak, the worst being i...
Resistance Is Futile
Thu, 25 Apr 2019
Artificial intelligence, gene modification, and self-driving cars are causing fear and uncertainty a...
War Of The Worlds
Thu, 18 Apr 2019
The Sunni-Shia divide is a conflict that most people have heard about - two sects with Sunni Islam b...
Nancy Pelosi
Thu, 11 Apr 2019
Nancy Pelosi is the highest-ranking woman in American politics. She made her first run for public of...
Opioids In America
Thu, 04 Apr 2019
A record number of Americans have died from opioid overdoses in recent years. But how did we get her...
The Phoebus Cartel
Thu, 28 Mar 2019
Have you ever wondered why your smartphone or toaster oven doesn't seem to last very long, even thou...
The Border
Thu, 21 Mar 2019
In February, President Trump declared a national emergency at the US-Mexico border. Last year, he or...
The Moth
Thu, 14 Mar 2019
Vladimir Putin has been running Russia since 2000 when he was first elected as President. How did a ...
American Shadows
Thu, 07 Mar 2019
Conspiracy theories are a feature of today's news and politics. But they've really been a part of Am...
High Crimes And Misdemeanors
Thu, 28 Feb 2019
When Andrew Johnson became president in 1865, the United States was in the middle of one of its most...
The Forgotten War
Thu, 21 Feb 2019
President Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un are preparing to meet for a second nuclear summi...
On the Shoulders of Giants
Thu, 14 Feb 2019
When Colin Kaepernick stopped standing for the national anthem at NFL games it sparked a nationwide ...
Four Days in August
Thu, 07 Feb 2019
It's no secret that Iran and the U.S. have a history of animosity toward each other. But when and ho...
Introducing Throughline
Wed, 30 Jan 2019
NPR's new history podcast hosted by Ramtin Arablouei and Rund Abdelfatah. New episodes every Thursda...