Throughline
ఛానెల్ వివరాలు
Throughline
Throughline is a time machine. Each episode, we travel beyond the headlines to answer the question, "How did we get here?" We use sound and stories to bring history to life and put you into the middle of it. From ancient civilizations to forgotten figures, we take you directly to the moments that sh...
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450 ఎపిసోడ్లు
The Chinafication of Walmart
We think of Walmart as ultra-American, but its business relationship with China has fundamentally changed how American retail operates.
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In the summer of 2020, teenager Antonio Mays Jr. traveled a thousand miles to join a racial justice movement after the killing of George Floyd. Less t...
Route 66 and the quest to connect America
Route 66 turns 100 this year. It's considered America’s most nostalgic road trip. With wide open road, sunsets that fill the whole sky, dirt-kissed Ch...
How wheelchairs, a river, and a spaceship challenged the status quo
Stories of resistance from three places: Denver, Colorado where the Gang of 19 put their bodies on the line for the right to use public transportation...
The ongoing battle over asylum in America
The U.S. has long professed to be a country where people can seek refuge. That's the promise etched into the base of the Statue of Liberty. But it's n...
American history through song
There are many ways to look at and understand American history. In this series, we’ve shared stories about how this country was founded and how it con...
The story of July 4th is messier than you remember
Devastating compromises. Midnight rides. A nailbiter vote. Statue toppling riots… and the very real possibility of death. This July 4th, we're taking...
The genius and murkiness of the Constitution
What does the Constitution mean to me? That’s a question writer and actor Heidi Schreck asked herself years ago, when she started working on her one-w...
From Hormuz to Suez: the chokepoints of global power
Oil may dominate the headlines about the Middle East, but the real power often flows through water. Three narrow passages - the Suez Canal, the Strait...
Prosperity gospel and the American dream
A lot of our everyday lives are shaped by the idea that if we really believe in something, it will happen. But where does that idea come from? And wha...
How the Supreme Court claimed supreme power
The Supreme Court's 2025-26 term has been punctuated with some high-stakes cases: birthright citizenship, voting rights, presidential powers and conse...
Captain America and the nation's conscience
What does it mean to be American? For one superhero, it means donning yourself in the colors of the American flag, sticking up for the little guy, and...
The shifting line between free speech and a criminal threat
Threats against public officials have become much, much more common. This includes everyone from the president of the United States to members of Cong...
The uncensored war
As the U.S. escalated its intervention in Vietnam in the 1960s, the media's coverage ramped up too. Soon, the war permeated the homes of millions of A...
The World Cup was supposed to bring world peace
World Cup tickets are going for as high as $45,000. Not in most of our budgets. How did things get so out of hand when the tournament's founder intend...
Bayard Rustin and the March on Washington
When people remember the March on Washington they often recall the giant crowds or Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. Less known is the...
History's playbook for taming the beast of inflation
Gas. Meat. Flights. Houses. The cost of living is up. Inflation is rearing its head again. And as it rises higher, inflation risks devastating economi...
Yuri Kochiyamas’s lifetime of activism
Civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama lived a life dedicated to social justice for people of all backgrounds. Not only a pillar of the Asian-American m...
Prediction markets are making a 150-year comeback
Prediction market sites allow users to put money on everything from the war in Iran to the winner of the Super Bowl. But where did these markets come...
Frances Perkins Goes To Washington
This week, we explore the life of the first woman Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, and how in the midst of the Great Depression she helped reshape...
War by remote control, how drones changed modern warfare
Drones are swarming battlefields in Ukraine, Iran, and beyond. Drone warfare is cheap, efficient, autonomous — and changing warfare forever. Today on...
Four voices from the Great Depression
A glimpse into life during the Great Depression from the people that lived it.
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How our memory of war can shape the future
All wars are fought twice: first on the battlefield, the second time in memory," writes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen. This week on...
The origins of the Socialist Party of America
Rapid industrialization reshaped American life in the mid-19th century. But as corporations grew larger and more powerful, working conditions for many...
Gladiators, real housewives and the pull of reality TV
People used to say "believe your eyes." But these days that's not so easy to do. What we scroll through every day blurs the line between entertainment...
The fight that shook America
Jack Johnson was the first world Black heavyweight champion, but winning the title was only part of the battle. Every time Johnson stepped into a boxi...
The billionaires' utopia blueprint
Starbase. Prospera. California Forever. Mars. From private cities to interstellar colonies, tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel have back...
Why the wall was built
As the United States expanded into a global superpower, it simultaneously strengthened its national borders and began to limit who could come in and o...
The original clickbait king
When we call something "clickbait," we don't mean it as a compliment. But let's be real: we also click. It's hard to resist a spicy story, and 19th-ce...
How the US became America
In the late 1890s, the United States fought wars and backed independence movements around the world. By the time the fighting was over, the US emerged...
Will AI destroy us... or save us?
Like it or not, artificial intelligence is deeply rooted in our lives. Its invisible architecture stretches everywhere from dating apps to medical car...
Who gets to be an American citizen?
The 14th Amendment guaranteed equal citizenship after the Civil War, but who exactly counted as a citizen? Today on the show, the story of Wong Kim Ar...
Al Capone and the transformation of the IRS
Gangsters, banksters, and politicians. Today on the show, how the hunt for Al Capone helped turn the IRS into one of the U.S. government's most powerf...
What the banana tells us about US history
What do bananas have to do with American history? On this week’s episode, how the sweet fruit became an American staple because of one entrepreneur wh...
How Saudi Arabia shaped Silicon Valley
Elon Musk. Donald Trump. Bill Gates. Sam Altman. Larry Ellison. Alex Karp. Jared Kushner. Mr. Beast. Jeffrey Epstein… Those are just a few of the peo...
The Ojibwe Nation
In the face of United States westward expansion in the 19th century, Native people fought to preserve their land and way of life. Today on the show: t...
Why is Cuba in crisis?
Cuba is on the brink of collapse – a scenario that 13 U.S. presidents have tried to engineer with no success. Today on the show, the making of the Cub...
The confederates who left the USA
After the Civil War, while America was rebuilding itself, some Southerners made a different kind of move — they packed up and left. Today on the show:...
3 key moments that led to the U.S.-Iran war
Military confrontations, early-morning attacks, and digital warfare: the story of Iran and the U.S. from the 1979 Iranian revolution to the fraught mo...
Everyone should have a voice
The story of Frederick Douglass’s fight for universal suffrage from the Civil War to the rise of Jim Crow.
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