Throughline

We the People: Search and Seizure

02 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Fourth Amendment is the part of the Bill of Rights that prohibits "unreasonable searches and seizures." But — what's unreasonable? That question...

The Ghost in Your Phone (Throwback)

25 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It's hot. A mother works outside, a baby strapped to her back. The two of them breathe in toxic dust, day after day. And they're just two of thousands...

Ralph Nader, Consumer Crusader

18 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Whether it's pesticides in your cereal or the door plug flying off your airplane, consumers today have plenty of reasons to feel like corporations mig...

The 14th Amendment

11 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Of all the amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the 14th is a big one. It's shaped all of our lives, whether we realize it or not: Roe v. Wade, Brown ...

The Land of the Fee (Throwback)

04 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tipping is a norm in the United States—and it's always been controversial. The practice took off after the Civil War, as employers sought cheap labo...

A History of Hezbollah

28 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Hezbollah is a Lebanese paramilitary organization and political party that's directly supported by the Islamic Republic of Iran. In the wake of the Oc...

The Great Textbook War

21 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What is school for? Over a hundred years ago, a man named Harold Rugg published a series of textbooks that encouraged students to confront the thornie...

Radiolab: Worst. Year. Ever

19 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What was the worst year to be alive on planet Earth? We make the case for 536 AD, which set off a cascade of catastrophes that is almost too horrible ...

A Symphony of Resistance (Throwback)

14 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2011, the world was shaken by the Arab Spring, a wave of "pro-democracy" protests that spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The effe...

The Rise of the Right Wing in Israel

07 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For most of its early history, Israel was dominated by left-leaning, secular politicians. But today, the right is in power. Its politicians represent ...

The Right to An Attorney

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Most of us take it for granted that if we're ever in court and we can't afford a lawyer, the court will provide one for us. And in fact, the right to ...

Dance Yourself Free (Throwback)

22 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Beyonce's Renaissance brought house music back to mainstream audiences. But even when it wasn't gracing the Grammys, house never went away. Born from ...

Love, Throughline

15 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We asked you to call us with your stories of looking for love in the 21st century — and man, did you come through. We heard the whole range of human...

The Scent of History

08 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What if we told you that the key to time travel has been right in front of our eyes this whole time? Well, it has: it's in our noses. Today on the sho...

James Baldwin's Shadow (Throwback)

01 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

James Baldwin believed that America has been lying to itself since its founding. An insightful commentator on Black identity, American democracy, and ...

Bonus: The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In October of 1983, Grenada's Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was assassinated in a coup, along with seven of his cabinet members and supporters. Six da...

The Man Who Cured Aging

25 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1899, Elie Metchnikoff woke up in Paris to learn that he had defeated old age. At least, that's what the newspaper headlines said. Before long he w...

The Right to Bear Arms

18 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In April 1938, an Oklahoma bank robber was arrested for carrying an unregistered sawed-off shotgun across state lines. The robber, Jack Miller, put fo...

When Things Fall Apart (Throwback)

11 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Climate change, political unrest, random violence: modern society can often feel like what the filmmaker Werner Herzog calls "a thin layer of ice on t...

The Nostalgia Bone (2021)

04 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

They say "everything old becomes new again." Today, that's baggy jeans, shag haircuts, 90s music, TV sitcoms – the latest version of finding comfort...

Editing Reality (2023)

28 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We live in divided times, when the answer to the question 'what is reality?' depends on who you ask. Almost all the information we take in is to some ...

Apology: The Way Back (2023)

21 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our society is saturated in apologies. They're scripted, they're public, and they often feel less than sincere. Political, corporate, celebrity apolog...

Dare to Dissent

14 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sometimes, the most dangerous and powerful thing a person can do is to stand up not against their enemies, but against their friends. As the United St...

The Lord Of Misrule

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On November 18, 1633, a book went to press in London. Its author, Thomas Morton, had been exiled from the Puritan colonies in Massachusetts for the cr...

A.D.A. Now! (2020)

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Americans with Disabilities Act is considered the most important civil rights law since the 1960s. Through first-person stories, we look back at t...

How U.S. Unions Took Flight

23 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hot Labor Summer has continued into fall as workers in industries from retail and carmaking to healthcare and Hollywood have organized and gone on str...

A History of Hamas

16 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On October 7th, the organization Hamas, which is also the ruling government of Gaza, perpetrated an attack just across the border in Israel. The Israe...

Grenada: Nobody's Backyard (2021)

09 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A Marxist revolution, a Cold War proxy battle, and a dream of a Black utopia. In 1983, Ronald Reagan ordered the U.S. military to invade the island of...

The Supreme Court's Shadow Docket

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Roe. Brown. Obergefell. Dobbs. These Supreme Court decisions are the ones that make headlines, and eventually history books. But today, the vast major...

The Three Faces of Ataturk

26 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Authority, without any condition and reservation, belongs to the nation." A military commander named Mustafa Kemal uttered these words in 1923, on th...

The Dance of the Dead (2021)

19 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Long before it was a sugary moviefest, the Halloween we know was called Samhain. The Celts of ancient Ireland believed Samhain was a night when the ba...

The Contradictions of Abraham Lincoln

12 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1855, Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to his best friend, Joshua Speed. Speed was from a wealthy, slave-owning Kentucky family; Lincoln believed sla...

Two Miles Down The Road

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Deborah and Ken Ferruccio saw the toxic chemical spill while they were driving home late one summer night in 1978: a big smelly swath of brown oil on ...

Tenochtitlán: A Retelling of the Conquest (2021)

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a sense, 1521 is Mexico's 1619. A foundational moment that for centuries has been shaped by just one perspective: a European one. The story of how ...

David v Goliath

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the year 1258, more than 100,000 soldiers amassed outside the great Islamic city of Baghdad. They were the Mongol Army, led by the grandson of the ...

A Tale of Two Tribal Nations

14 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The word "reservation" implies "reserved" – as in, this land is reserved for Native Americans. But most reservation land actually isn't owned by tri...

Silicon Island (2022)

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a world where computer chips run everything from laptops to cars to the Nintendo Switch, Taiwan is the undisputed leader. It's one of the most powe...

How Korean Culture Went Global (2022)

31 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From BTS to Squid Game to high-end beauty standards, South Korea reigns as a global exporter of pop culture and entertainment. Just 70 years ago, it w...

By Accident of Birth (2022)

24 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In August of 1895, a ship called the SS Coptic approached the coast of Northern California. On that boat was a passenger from San Francisco, a young m...

The Characters That Built China (2022)

17 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today, China is a global superpower. But less than two hundred years ago, the nation was in a state of decline. After what became known as the 'centur...

The Lavender Scare

10 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One day in late April 1958, a young economist named Madeleine Tress was approached by two men in suits at her office at the U.S. Department of Commerc...

Getting to Sesame Street (2022)

03 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

American schools have always been more than where we go to learn the ABCs: They're places where socialization happens and cultural norms are developed...

The Hidden War

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How does a country go from its leader winning the Nobel Peace Prize to all-out war in just one year? That's the question surrounding Ethiopia, which h...

All Wars Are Fought Twice (2022)

20 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory," writes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen. Thi...

No Bad Ideas?

13 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Humans have always created. But historian Samuel W. Franklin argues that "creativity" didn't become a social value until the Cold War. Today, we're at...

The Legacy of Henry Kissinger

06 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Depending on where you stand, Henry Kissinger is either a foreign policy mastermind or a war criminal. Some see him as a brilliant strategist who made...

After Roe: A New Battlefield (2022)

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade transformed the landscape of abortion rights overnight. For the doctors, lawyers, feminists, and others wh...

The Labor Of Love

22 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There's a powerful fantasy in American society: the fantasy of the ideal mother. This mother is devoted to her family above all else. She raises the k...

Affirmative Action

15 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This conversation was recorded ahead of the Supreme Court's expected decision on affirmative action. As of publishing, no decision has been issued.The...

Before Roe: The Physicians' Crusade (2022)

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Abortion wasn't always controversial. In fact, in colonial America it would have been considered a fairly common practice: a private decision made by ...

The Ghost in Your Phone

01 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's hot. A mother works outside, a baby strapped to her back. The two of them breathe in toxic dust, day after day. And they're just two of thousands...

The Freedom of Speech

25 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Book bans, disinformation, the wild world of the internet. Free speech debates are all around us. What were the Founding Fathers thinking when they cr...

History Is Over (2021)

18 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As the end of the 20th century approached, Radiohead took to the recording studio to capture the sound of a society that felt like it was fraying at t...

Mythos and Melodrama in the Philippines

11 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Corruption. Wealth. Authoritarianism. Torture. These are the words many people associate with Ferdinand Marcos, the former dictator of the Philippines...

What's Your Worth?

04 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The credit score: even if you don't think much about it, that three-digit number can change your life. A high score can mean the keys to a new apartme...

Cinco de Mayo and the Rise of Modern Mexico (2022)

27 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Does history have a border? That is the question at the heart of Cinco de Mayo, May 5th, a holiday that symbolizes Mexico's fight for autonomy, even a...

The Way Back

20 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our society is saturated in apologies. They're scripted, they're public, and they often feel less than sincere. Political, corporate, celebrity apolog...

Past is Prologue: Talking Taxes

13 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Benjamin Franklin said the only certainties in life are death and taxes. Sifting through receipts, deciphering confusing codes, and filling out forms ...

Student Loans: The Fund-Eating Dragon (2022)

06 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

At the start of the 20th century, only the most privileged could afford to go to college. Today, millions of students pursue higher ed — and owe $1....

Throughline Presents: Louder Than A Riot

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Louder Than A Riot breaks down how hip-hop history is told. Who gets to be remembered and who gets left out? Decades before hip-hop's current renaissa...

The Mystery of Inflation (2022)

30 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rising interest rates. Layoffs. A shrinking dollar. Over the past year, the US economy has been squeezed: The same amount of money gets you less stuff...

Everyone Everywhere All At Once

23 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This year's Oscars were one of the most diverse in history, in all kinds of ways. Everything Everywhere All At Once swept some of the biggest categori...

Meltdown (2020)

16 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when an accident puts the public at risk? In the early hours of March 28, 1979, a system malfunction set off what would become the worst ...

A More Perfect Human

09 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The dream of AI — artificial intelligence — has been around for centuries: the idea of an intelligent machine without free will popped up in ancie...

Dance Yourself Free

02 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ever since Beyonce's Renaissance dropped last summer, house music has found its way back to mainstream audiences, prompting some to ask "Is house back...

Of Rats and Men (2022)

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rats. Love 'em or hate 'em, (though you probably hate 'em), they're part of our world. And they've been out in full force: In New York City, health da...

Throughline Presents: White Lies

16 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It all started with a photograph. A photograph from 1991 of a prison takeover in rural Alabama. A photograph of a group of men on the roof of that pri...

The Whiteness Myth

09 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1923, an Indian American man named Bhagat Singh Thind argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that he was a white man and was therefore eligible to be...

The Real Black Panthers (2021)

02 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1968, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover said the Black Panther Party "without question, represents the greatest threat to the internal security of the c...

When Things Fall Apart

26 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Climate change, political unrest, random violence - Western society can often feel like what the filmmaker Werner Herzog calls, "a thin layer of ice o...

Extremist Futures

19 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's 2074 and a suicide bomber has killed the President of the United States. Months later Marines open fire on protesters killing dozens. The Second ...

Do Not Pass Go (2022)

12 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There's more to Monopoly than you might think. It's one of the best-selling board games in history — despite huge economic instability, sales actual...

Nancy Pelosi (2019)

09 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nancy Pelosi is the highest-ranking woman in American politics. She made her first run for public office at 47 years old and went on to become Speaker...

The Monster of We (2021)

05 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Are most modern problems caused by selfishness or a lack of it? Ayn Rand, a Russian American philosopher and writer, would say it's the latter — tha...

The New Gilded Age (2022)

29 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Philanthropic foundations are a fundamental part of our society: they support media, the arts, education, medical research, and more. NPR, and even th...

God Wants You To Be Rich (2021)

22 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the New Testament, Jesus says it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. In the Un...

Road to Partition

15 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when a nation splits apart? It's a question many of us are asking ourselves today. It happened 75 years ago with Partition, when India an...

400 Years of Sweetness

08 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1970s, a savvy CEO named Dwayne Andreas hit on an idea: take surplus corn from America's heartland, process it into a sweetener, and start sell...

The Nostalgia Bone (2021)

01 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The global pandemic spawned a different type of epidemic, one of an entirely different nature: a nostalgia outbreak. Longing for 'simpler times' and '...

La Última Copa: El sueño del pibe

26 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ésta semana te presentamos un episodio muy especial de nuestros amigos en NPR y Futuro Media — su primer episodio del podcast La Última Copa, en E...

The Last Cup: The Kid's Dream

24 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week we're bringing you something special from our friends at NPR and Futuro Media: the first episode of the podcast, The Last Cup. From his earl...

Qatar's World Cup

17 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Football, aka soccer, is life. At least, it is for many people across the globe. There are few things that are universally beloved but this sport come...

Dreams, Creatures, and Visions

10 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We are in the season of chaos. It can feel like everything is happening at once: You might be sprinting across an airport; or around your kitchen, wit...

The Most Sacred Right (2020)

03 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Born into slavery in the early 1800s, Frederick Douglass would live to see the Civil War, Emancipation, Black men getting the right to vote, and the b...

The State of Disunion

27 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 divisions continue to worsen. Beyond the political...

The Woman Question

20 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What's happening in Iran right now is unprecedented. But the Iranian people's struggle for gender equality began generations before the death of 22-ye...

The Dance of the Dead (2021)

13 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Halloween — the night of ghost stories and trick-or-treating — has religious origins that span over two thousand years. Over time, the Catholic Ch...

Silicon Island

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In a world where computer chips run everything from laptops to cars to the Nintendo Switch, Taiwan is the undisputed leader. It's one of the most powe...

Editing Reality

29 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We live in divided times, when the answer to the question 'what is reality?' depends on who you ask. Almost all the information we take in is to some ...

Five Fingers Crush the Land (2021)

22 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Over one million Uyghur people have been detained in camps in China, according to estimates, subjected to torture, forced labor, religious restriction...

Getting to Sesame Street

15 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In American history, schools have not just been places to learn the ABCs – they're places where socialization happens and cultural norms are develop...

How Korean Culture Went Global

08 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From BTS to Squid Game to high-end beauty standards, South Korea reigns as a global exporter of pop culture and entertainment. How does a country go f...

American Socialist (2020)

01 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's been over a century since a self-described socialist was a viable candidate for president of the United States. And that first socialist candidat...

Drone Wars (2021)

25 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Unseen, they stalk their targets from thousands of feet in the air. Operators are piloting them from military bases halfway across the world. At any m...

Afghanistan: The Rise of the Taliban (2021)

18 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How did a small group of Islamic students go from local vigilantes to one of the most infamous and enigmatic forces in the world? The Taliban is a nam...

Afghanistan: The Center of the World (2021)

11 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Afghanistan has, for centuries, been at the center of the world. Long before the U.S. invasion — before the U.S. was even a nation — countless civ...

The Mystery of Inflation

04 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gas. Meat. Flights. Houses. The price of things have gone up by as much as nine percent since last year. The same amount of money gets you less stuff....

Nikole Hannah-Jones and the Country We Have (2021)

28 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Is history always political? Who gets to decide? What happens when you challenge common narratives? In this episode, Throughline's Rund Abdelfatah and...

Student Loans: The Fund-Eating Dragon

21 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

At the start of the 20th century, only the most privileged could afford to go to college. Today, millions of students pursue higher ed — and owe $1....

The Long Hot Summer (2020)

14 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Things in the U.S. feel tense right now. Two years after a police officer killed George Floyd outside a Minneapolis corner store, videos of police vio...