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.
Iran and the U.S., Part Three: Soleimani's Iran
The Iran-Iraq war, 9/11, and the story of Iranian Revolutionary Guard general Qassem Soleimani, from...
EscucharIran and the U.S., Part Two: Rules of Engagement
Military confrontations, early-morning attacks, and digital warfare: the story of Iran and the U.S....
EscucharWhat the Supreme Court Does in the Shadows
The Supreme Court is issuing its final decisions of the term this month. But it's been extraordinarily...
EscucharIran and the U.S., Part One
The U.S. and Iran have had a tense relationship for decades — but when did that begin? This week,...
EscucharAbortion Before Roe
Abortion wasn't always controversial. In fact, in colonial America it would have been considered a fairly...
EscucharThe First Department of Education
Whose job is it to educate Americans? Congress created the first Department of Education just after...
EscucharThe Woman Behind The New Deal
From Social Security and the minimum wage to exit signs and fire escapes, Frances Perkins transformed...
EscucharWe the People: Search and Seizure
The Fourth Amendment is the part of the Bill of Rights that prohibits "unreasonable searches and seizures."...
EscucharWar Crimes
On today's episode, we travel from the battlefields of the U.S. Civil War, through the rubble of two...
EscucharThe Tax Collector
Gangsters, banksters, and politicians. Today on the show, how the hunt for Al Capone helped turn the...
EscucharCalifornia's 'Bum Blockade'
The story of the Los Angeles police chief who, faced with one of the largest internal migrations in...
EscucharMotherhood
Baby bonuses, childless cat ladies: the rhetoric around motherhood is politically charged right now....
EscucharThe Deadly Story of the U.S. Civil Service
When James Garfield won the Presidency in 1880, Charles Guiteau got ready to accept his new government...
EscucharThe Alien Enemies Act
In March 2025, President Trump issued an executive order invoking a centuries-old law: the Alien Enemies...
EscucharWhen Things Fall Apart
Climate disaster, political unrest, random violence: Western society can often feel like what the filmmaker...
EscucharGet Rich Quick: The American Lottery
Want to get rich quick? You're not alone. Right now, Americans spend over $100 billion, yes billion,...
EscucharWe the People: The Right to Remain Silent
The Fifth Amendment. You have the right to remain silent when you're being questioned in police custody,...
EscucharSesame Street
Big Bird, politics, and the ABCs: how a television show made to represent New York City neighborhoods...
EscucharWinter is Coming
Dinosaurs, Carl Sagan, and nuclear war. There was a moment in the not-so-distant past when we learned...
EscucharWe the People: Succession of Power
The 25th amendment. A few years before JFK was shot, an idealistic young lawyer set out on a mission...
EscucharHealth Insurance in America
Millions of Americans depend on their jobs for health insurance. But that's not the case in many other...
EscucharThe Evolution of Presidential Power
What can and can't the president do — and how do we know? The framers of the U.S. Constitution left...
EscucharThe Anti-Vaccine Movement
The alleged link between vaccines and autism was first published in 1998, in a since-retracted study...
EscucharBirthright Citizenship
Wong Kim Ark was born in the U.S. and lived his whole life here. But when he returned from a trip to...
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