Throughline

The past is never past. Every headline has a history. Join us every week as we go back in time to understand the present. These are stories you can feel and sounds you can see from the moments that shaped our world.

The Mother of Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving story most of us hear is about friendship and unity. And that's what Sarah Josepha...

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Behind the Scenes of Throughline

Today on the show, we're taking you behind the scenes. We'll tell you how Throughline was born, some...

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The Electoral College (Throwback)

What is it, why do we have it, and why hasn't it changed? Born from a rushed, fraught, imperfect process,...

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A History of Settlements

The question of settlements has loomed over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades, and has only...

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The Swing State Power Brokers

Today on the show, two stories of building power in swing states: from the top down, and the bottom...

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How We Vote (Throwback)

Drunken brawls, coercion, and lace curtains: believe it or not, how regular people vote was not something...

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A History of Christian Nationalism

References to God and Christianity are sprinkled throughout American life. Our money has "In God We...

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The Battle For Jerusalem

Today, the city of Jerusalem is seen as so important that people are willing to kill and die to control...

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A History of Hezbollah (Throwback)

Hezbollah is a Lebanese paramilitary organization and political party that's directly supported by the...

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When Things Fall Apart (Throwback)

Climate change, political unrest, random violence - Western society can often feel like what the filmmaker...

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The Conspiracy Files

9/11 was an inside job. Aliens have already made contact. COVID-19 was created in a lab.Maybe you rolled...

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How U.S. Unions Took Flight (Throwback)

Airline workers — pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, baggage handlers, and more — represent a...

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Water in the West

What does it mean to do the greatest good for the greatest number? When the Los Angeles Aqueduct opened...

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We The People: Canary in the Coal Mine

The Third Amendment. Maybe you've heard it as part of a punchline. It's the one about quartering troops...

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We The People: Equal Protection

The Fourteenth Amendment. Of all the amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the 14th is a big one. It's...

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We The People: Legal Representation

The Sixth Amendment. Most of us take it for granted that if we're ever in court and we can't afford...

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Tested: Questions of a Physical Nature

In 1966, the governing body of the Olympic track and field event started mandatory examinations of all...

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We the People: Gun Rights

The Second Amendment. In April 1938, an Oklahoma bank robber was arrested for carrying an unregistered...

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We The People: Free Speech

The First Amendment. Book bans, disinformation, the wild world of the internet. Free speech debates...

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The Creeping Coup

Sudan has been at the center of a deadly and brutal war for over a year. It's the site of the world's...

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The Roots of Poverty in America

The United States is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, yet over 10 percent of people –...

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Road to Rickwood: The Holy Grail of Baseball

Birmingham, Alabama was one of the fiercest battlegrounds of the Civil Rights Movement. And in order...

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Pop Music's First Black Stars

Today, the U.S. popular music industry is worth billions of dollars. And some of its deepest roots are...

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The Lavender Scare (Throwback)

One day in late April 1958, a young economist named Madeleine Tress was approached by two men in suits...

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