Throughline
NovoThe dramatic race to discover Insulin
- Episódios
- 471
- Publicação
- semanal
- Último episódio
- 22 out 2026
Sobre o podcast
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 shaped our world. Throughline is hosted by Peabody Award-winning journalist Rund Abdelfatah.
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Episódios 471
The dramatic race to discover Insulin
Looksmaxxing, weight loss, and muscle building have fueled a massive craze for injectable peptides. Some natural and some synthetic. These injectables have unleashed a multi-billion-dollar gray-market industry …
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Looksmaxxing, weight loss, and muscle building have fueled a massive craze for injectable peptides. Some natural and some synthetic. These injectables have unleashed a multi-billion-dollar gray-market industry online and a high-stakes frontier for the pharmaceutical industry. Today, we reach back to the quest to manufacture the first peptide-based medicine: Insulin.
Guests:
Alison Li, historian of science and medicine, author of J. B. Collip and the Development of Medical Research in Canada: Extracts and Enterprise
Grant Maltman, curator of Banting House National Historic Site
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NPR Privacy PolicyCan the polygraph test really spot a lie?
From dating shows to police interrogation rooms, the polygraph test has long been marketed as a way to detect deception. But can it really? And who decided we needed a truth machine in the first place? In this …
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From dating shows to police interrogation rooms, the polygraph test has long been marketed as a way to detect deception. But can it really? And who decided we needed a truth machine in the first place? In this episode, a Throughline listener sends us on a quest to uncover the story of the lie detector.
Guests:
Ken Alder, professor of history at Northwestern University and author of The Lie Detectors: The History of an American Obsession
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NPR Privacy PolicyIs the death penalty cruel and unusual?
The Eighth Amendment. What is cruel and unusual punishment? Who gets to define and decide the amendment's boundaries? And how did the Constitution's authors imagine it might change? In this hour, the shifting …
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The Eighth Amendment. What is cruel and unusual punishment? Who gets to define and decide the amendment's boundaries? And how did the Constitution's authors imagine it might change? In this hour, the shifting definition of cruel and unusual punishment.
This episode was originally published in January 2025.
Guests:
John Bessler, law professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, and adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. Author of The Death Penalty's Denial of Fundamental Human Rights.
Carol Steiker, law professor at Harvard Law School and author of Courting Death: the Supreme Court and Capital Punishment.
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NPR Privacy PolicyWhy does everything get a standing ovation now?
Call it standing ovation inflation: these days, it feels like it's mandatory to stand and clap for live performances. Has our please clap era gone too far? That's what one Throughline listener wanted to know …
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Call it standing ovation inflation: these days, it feels like it's mandatory to stand and clap for live performances. Has our please clap era gone too far? That's what one Throughline listener wanted to know. So we traced the winding road from Shakespeare’s epilogues to Broadway divas to ridiculously long film festival ovations… and how they helped engineer the way we applaud.
Guests:
Roger Gilbert, professor in the Department of Literatures in English at Cornell
Kyle Buchanan, reporter and columnist for the New York Times
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NPR Privacy PolicyFour Seasons of Ceasefire in Gaza
NPR’s Anas Baba is one of the last remaining journalists in Gaza working full-time for an American news organization. A year into the ceasefire, more than 1400 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, nearly …
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NPR’s Anas Baba is one of the last remaining journalists in Gaza working full-time for an American news organization. A year into the ceasefire, more than 1400 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, nearly 5,000 injured. And those numbers rise nearly every day. What has the last year looked and felt like on the ground? In this episode, Baba takes us through four seasons of ceasefire—as both a resident trying to survive and a reporter trying to document reality.
Guests:
Anas Baba, NPR Gaza reporter
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NPR Privacy PolicyHow To Avoid The End of the World
We live in a moment with almost daily reminders of how fragile life on Earth is whether it be from climate change, nuclear weapons or AI. In this episode, we bring you a story from the not-so-distant past when …
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We live in a moment with almost daily reminders of how fragile life on Earth is whether it be from climate change, nuclear weapons or AI. In this episode, we bring you a story from the not-so-distant past when we learned what drove dinosaurs to extinction. And how it might have helped us avoid the same end. This episode was originally published in March 2025.
Guests:
David Sepkoski, Thomas M. Siebel Chair in History of Science at the University of Illinois and author of Catastrophic Thinking: Extinction and the Value of Diversity.
Owen Brian Toon, professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Alec Nevala-Lee, novelist, critic, and biographer and author of the forthcoming book Collisions: A Physicist's Journey from Hiroshima to the Death of the Dinosaurs.
Ann Druyan, co-writer and co-creator of the television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.
Andrew Revkin, science and environmental journalist.
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NPR Privacy PolicyForty years of what if
On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff. All seven astronauts onboard died. Brian Russell, an engineer who worked on the shuttle, had spent months warning NASA that …
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On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff. All seven astronauts onboard died. Brian Russell, an engineer who worked on the shuttle, had spent months warning NASA that freezing temperatures could cause a critical seal to fail. In this episode, Brian Russell takes us to the intense meeting where NASA had to decide whether to launch and the 40-year weight of a tragedy he tried to prevent.
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NPR Privacy PolicyDemocratic Socialism. Hope or Hopeless?
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is having a big moment. Its candidates and its membership are both surging. Before Zohran Mamdani and AOC, there was its founder, Michael Harrington, a.k.a 'the man …
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The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is having a big moment. Its candidates and its membership are both surging. Before Zohran Mamdani and AOC, there was its founder, Michael Harrington, a.k.a 'the man who discovered poverty.' In this episode, we dig into Harrington’s evolution from devout Catholic to revolutionary socialist to Democratic party loyalist, and ask: did his push to compromise delay the dream or pave the way for it?
Guests:
Maurice Isserman, Professor of History at Hamilton College
and author of The Other American: The Life of Michael Harrington.
Doug Greene, author of A Failure of Vision: Michael Harrington and the Limits of Democratic Socialism.
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NPR Privacy PolicyHow two swing states changed American voting
Today on the show, the balance of Congressional power is up for grabs in this midterm election. It could be determined by a small number of voters in a few battleground states. Blueprints from the past could be …
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Today on the show, the balance of Congressional power is up for grabs in this midterm election. It could be determined by a small number of voters in a few battleground states. Blueprints from the past could be the guide for big wins. The GOP has embraced a block-the-vote strategy set in motion in Arizona in the 1960s. And the Democrats are embracing a grassroots power base set up in Michigan in the 1970s.
Guests:
John A. Jenkins, author of The Partisan: The Life of William Rehnquist
Tova Wang, Director of Research Projects in Democratic Practice at the Ash Center at the Harvard Kennedy School and author of The Politics of Voter Suppression: Defending and Expanding Americans' Right to Vote.
Ismael Ahmed, co-founder of the Arab American Center for Economic and Social Services.
Sally Howell, Professor of History with a focus on Arab American studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
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Correction: An earlier version of this episode incorrectly said that Michigan voters could send the first Arab American to the Senate. South Dakotan James Abourezk became the first Arab American U.S. senator in 1973.
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NPR Privacy PolicyHow baseball got its beat
Major League Baseball’s postseason is just a few weeks away, and here on Throughline we know the power of a good walk-up song. But how did baseball become such a musical sport? And where did the idea for walk …
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Major League Baseball’s postseason is just a few weeks away, and here on Throughline we know the power of a good walk-up song. But how did baseball become such a musical sport? And where did the idea for walk up-music come from?
Guests:
John Thorn, author and Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball
Nancy Faust, former organist for the Chicago White Sox
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Correction: An earlier version of this episode incorrectly said that the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1952. The team moved ahead of the 1958 season.
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NPR Privacy PolicyIs it time for a Luddite Renaissance?
Calling someone a "Luddite" is usually an insult – shorthand for someone who is behind the times. But the real Luddites weren't just afraid of change; they were a labor movement fighting to save their jobs from …
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Calling someone a "Luddite" is usually an insult – shorthand for someone who is behind the times. But the real Luddites weren't just afraid of change; they were a labor movement fighting to save their jobs from being replaced by machines. Today, with the rise of AI, many feel the same kind of existential threat and some are even pushing for a Luddite Renaissance. In this episode, Throughline takes on a listener's question to explore what the 19th-century Luddite rebellion can teach us about technology and human agency.
Guests:
Katrina Navickas, history professor at the University of Hertfordshire and author of the book Protest and the politics of space and place, 1789–1848
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NPR Privacy PolicyThe school report that changed public education
In 1966, the federal government commissioned a massive survey aimed at solving educational inequality. Instead, the explosive Coleman Report unleashed a 60-year debate over race, resources, and what education …
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In 1966, the federal government commissioned a massive survey aimed at solving educational inequality. Instead, the explosive Coleman Report unleashed a 60-year debate over race, resources, and what education in America is actually for. This is the story of how the report came together… and the policy whirlwind that followed.
Guests:
Victoria Cain, Associate Professor of History, Northeastern University
Thomas Kane, Walter H. Gale Professor of Education and Economics, Harvard University
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NPR Privacy PolicyThe SAT's 100-year grip on higher ed
For generations, the SAT has loomed large in the lives of teenagers. The quest for a perfect or near-perfect score has filled many test takers with dread. In this episode, a listener's question makes us …
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For generations, the SAT has loomed large in the lives of teenagers. The quest for a perfect or near-perfect score has filled many test takers with dread. In this episode, a listener's question makes us wonder... who decided the SAT was the best and brightest way to filter students? And how did it become the pathway to higher education in America?
Guests:
Nicholas Lemann, author of The Big Test and Higher Admissions
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NPR Privacy PolicyThe pillage that fueled America's tech booms
Cobalt mining is one of the world's most dangerous jobs. And it's also one of the most essential: cobalt is what powers the batteries in your smartphone, your laptop, the electric car you felt good about …
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Cobalt mining is one of the world's most dangerous jobs. And it's also one of the most essential: cobalt is what powers the batteries in your smartphone, your laptop, the electric car you felt good about buying. More than three-quarters of the world's cobalt supply lies in the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose abundant resources have drawn greed and grifters for centuries. This week on our series Hidden Histories, we reveal the fight for control of those resources, and for the dignity of the people who produce them. (This episode originally aired in 2023)
Guests:
Siddharth Kara, author of Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives
Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost
Ramona Austin, art historian and former curator at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Dallas Museum of Art
Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, African and global studies Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina and former UN ambassador for the Democratic Republic of Congo
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NPR Privacy PolicyHow Korean culture went global
This year, K-pop Demon Hunters picked up a couple of Oscars, the pop group BTS made its triumphant return to sold out crowds, and K-pop took center stage at the World Cup final. It’s all part of Korea’s 50-year …
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This year, K-pop Demon Hunters picked up a couple of Oscars, the pop group BTS made its triumphant return to sold out crowds, and K-pop took center stage at the World Cup final. It’s all part of Korea’s 50-year game plan to achieve global cultural dominance. This week on our Hidden Histories series, we dig into the government policy that leveraged sports, screens, and sex to transform Korea’s economy and influence.
Guests:
Michael Kim, professor at Yonsei University in Seoul
John Dimoia, professor of Korean history at Seoul National University
Heijin Lee, professor of women and gender studies at the University of Hawaii
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NPR Privacy PolicyThe blatant betrayal that erased the Tupperware queen from history
Brownie Wise revolutionized how we store our food. She was one of the first female corporate executives in U.S. history. But she’s not a household name. This week on our series Hidden Histories, the rise and …
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Brownie Wise revolutionized how we store our food. She was one of the first female corporate executives in U.S. history. But she’s not a household name. This week on our series Hidden Histories, the rise and fall of the queen of plastics—and one of corporate America's most dramatic betrayals. (This episode originally aired in 2025)
Guests:
Alison Clarke, author of Tupperware, the Promise of Plastic in 1950s America
Bob Kealing, author of Life of the Party: The Remarkable Story of How Brownie Wise Built, and Lost, a Tupperware Party Empire
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NPR Privacy PolicyLies, theft, and cover-up: the history of Monopoly you've never heard
Monopoly is one of the best-selling board games of all time. It heralds free market economics and celebrates the American dream. That's a far cry from the original intent. This week on our series Hidden …
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Monopoly is one of the best-selling board games of all time. It heralds free market economics and celebrates the American dream. That's a far cry from the original intent. This week on our series Hidden Histories, we go back in time to reveal the swindling and cover ups that robbed Monopoly's inventor of her fair share and turned her scathing critique of capitalism into her worst nightmare. (This episode originally aired in 2022)
Guests:
Mary Pilon, author of The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World's Favorite Board Game
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NPR Privacy PolicyThe song that fueled protests and a legacy of hope
In our final installment of AP250, how We Shall Overcome became the anthem of generations of protestors. Today on the show, we revisit an episode from the NPR archives about the legacy of hope found in the …
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In our final installment of AP250, how We Shall Overcome became the anthem of generations of protestors. Today on the show, we revisit an episode from the NPR archives about the legacy of hope found in the lyrics of this timeless song.
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NPR Privacy PolicyThe lightbulb conspiracy is both real and everywhere
Over the next few episodes, we present Hidden Histories: stories that will make you rethink how the world works. First up, the conspiracy behind the lightbulb—and how it came to shape the entire consumer …
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Over the next few episodes, we present Hidden Histories: stories that will make you rethink how the world works. First up, the conspiracy behind the lightbulb—and how it came to shape the entire consumer economy. If you ever wondered why your tech outdates so quickly or just plain fails, you can thank the lightbulb. (This episode originally aired in 2019.)
Guests:
Sally Helm, former NPR Planet Money correspondent
Markus Krajewski, author of The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy
Giles Slade, author of Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America
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NPR Privacy PolicyThe license to be funny in America
One of the most fundamental aspects of American democracy has been the public’s ability to critique power, whether that’s through protest, legislation, or a really funny joke. Today, we take a romp into the …
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One of the most fundamental aspects of American democracy has been the public’s ability to critique power, whether that’s through protest, legislation, or a really funny joke. Today, we take a romp into the history of American comedy, showing no matter how crude, rude, or distasteful the humor may be, Americans have a constitutional right to stand up.
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NPR Privacy PolicyThe architect of modern China
From impoverishment to global superpower, China’s supremacy happened at a breakneck speed thanks to the visionary strategy of the man who took power in 1978. Over the next decade, under leader Deng Xiaoping’s …
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From impoverishment to global superpower, China’s supremacy happened at a breakneck speed thanks to the visionary strategy of the man who took power in 1978. Over the next decade, under leader Deng Xiaoping’s firm leadership, China flirted with capitalism and transformed its socio-economic and political systems, effectively becoming the world’s factory.
Guests:
Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King's College London and author of several books, including Xi: A Study in Power
Dan Wang, a writer specializing in contemporary China and author of Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future
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NPR Privacy PolicyThe Chinafication of Walmart
We think of Walmart as ultra-American, but its business relationship with China has fundamentally changed how American retail operates. In this episode, how one retailer helped turn China into the world’s …
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We think of Walmart as ultra-American, but its business relationship with China has fundamentally changed how American retail operates.
In this episode, how one retailer helped turn China into the world’s factory, eventually becoming the single largest U.S. importer of Chinese consumer goods.
Guest:
Eileen Otis, Associate Professor of Sociology at Northeastern University and author of Walmart: Made in China
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NPR Privacy PolicyListen to "We Keep Us Safe" on NPR's Embedded podcast
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 than a week after he arrived in Seattle, he was shot and …
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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 than a week after he arrived in Seattle, he was shot and killed there. The case remains unsolved. In this eight-part series, hosts Sydney Brownstone of The Seattle Times and Will James of KUOW team up with NPR's Embedded to investigate Antonio's death, surfacing crucial evidence and eyewitness accounts.
Find "We Keep Us Safe" in the Embedded podcast feed. Listen to Embedded wherever you get your podcasts, including the NPR App, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Spotify, and via RSS.
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NPR Privacy PolicyRoute 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 Chevy trucks, and revving motorcycles. But Route 66 started …
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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 Chevy trucks, and revving motorcycles. But Route 66 started out as a muddy road to nowhere. Today on the show, we’ll meet a league of gilded-age bicyclists, a ragtag gang of cross-country runners, and the very stubborn highway commissioner who turned it into the “Main Street of America.”
Guests:
Susan Croce Kelly, author of Father of Route 66 and Route 66: the Highway and its People
CORRECTION: In a previous version of this episode, we incorrectly said the government ran out of funding for a road improvement project in the 1940s. That happened in the 1840s.
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NPR Privacy PolicyHow 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. Montgomery, Alabama, where a song quietly galvanized …
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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. Montgomery, Alabama, where a song quietly galvanized generations. And finally, on broadcast TV, where a 1966 prime-time show inspired Americans to dream bigger.
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NPR Privacy PolicyThe 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 never been that clear-cut. And in June, the Supreme Court …
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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 never been that clear-cut. And in June, the Supreme Court passed two rulings that could make seeking safe haven in the U.S. even more difficult.
Today on the show, the story of how the U.S. asylum system was forged in response to moments of crisis, and where it left gaps: from Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust, to Cuban and Haitian asylum seekers during the Cold War, to the precarious system of today.
This episode originally aired in December 2024.
Guests:
Maria Cristina Garcia, Professor of History at Cornell University, studying immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers
Ruth Wasem, former Immigration Policy Specialist at the U.S. Library of Congress' Congressional Research Service and author of the forthcoming book, The Struggle for Fairness: Forging the Immigration Act of 1965
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NPR Privacy PolicyAmerican 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 continues to evolve over time. Today, a journey through …
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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 continues to evolve over time. Today, a journey through American history, with the sounds of music.
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NPR Privacy PolicyThe 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 you inside the making of the Declaration of Independence and …
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Devastating compromises. Midnight rides. A nailbiter vote. Statue toppling riots… and the very real possibility of death. This July 4th, we're taking you inside the making of the Declaration of Independence and how, against all odds, a single document introduced the world to a new kind of nation.
Guests:
Walter Isaacson, professor at Tulane University and author of The Greatest Sentence Ever Written.
Denise Kiernan, author of Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the Declaration and Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution.
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NPR Privacy PolicyThe 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-woman play about the Constitution — a document that she loved …
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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-woman play about the Constitution — a document that she loved deeply. Today on the show, we ask the same question as we explore what the historical document means, and how it’s impacted generations of Americans.
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NPR Privacy PolicyFrom 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 of Hormuz, and Bab el-Mandeb – shape how the world moves …
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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 of Hormuz, and Bab el-Mandeb – shape how the world moves. In times of crisis, they've become chokepoints, disrupting global trade, rattling markets, and shifting the balance of power way beyond the region. In this episode, three stories from these waterways… how they've helped define the modern Middle East and, as we've seen recently with Hormuz, the economic currents that affect us all.
Guests:
Alex Von Tunzelmann, author of Blood and Sand: Suez, Hungary, and Eisenhower's Campaign for Peace
Harold Lee Wise, author of Inside the Danger Zone: The U.S. Military in the Persian Gulf, 1987-1988
Farea Al-Muslimi, Yemen and Gulf researcher at Chatham House in London
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