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Throughline

#73
Language: en-us History Society & Culture
Last Checked: 2024-12-05 02:31:06

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...