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The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present

The received idea of Native American history–as promulgated by books like Dee Brown’s mega-bestselling 1970 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee–has been that American Indian history essentially ended with the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Not only did one...

How Industrialists Plotted to Overthrow FDR Over The New Deal in 1934

FDR launched the New Deal immediately after his 1933 inauguration, but it was not universally popular. Some hated it bitterly. Critics from the right thought it was part of a long-term plan to push America into Soviet-style socialism. Critics from the left like...

Making Your Death Memorable: The Oldest Tombs We Can Trace To One Person

What are the oldest known tombs that can reliably be traced to a person? These are surprisingly tricky to track down. While archeologists constantly find human remains at an excavation site, there are almost never any identifying marks about the person. This is...

The Kremlin Letters: Stalin’s Wartime Correspondence with Churchill and Roosevelt

From 1941 to 1945, Joseph Stalin exchanged more than six hundred messages with Allied leaders Churchill and Roosevelt. The correspondence ranged from intimate personal greetings to weighty salvos about diplomacy and strategy, and they reveal political machinations and...

Why The Printing Press Appeared in the Middle East 400 Years After Europe

Why were there no printing presses in the Middle East until four centuries after Europe? Did it have to do with Islam prohibiting this technology? Was the calligraphy lobby too strong? Or is the answer more complicated? The global spread of the printing press began...

Last Night on the Titanic: Conclusion

In the final episode in this series, Veronica and Scott discuss the enduring legacy of the Titanic and why a disaster that happened 107 years ago still captures our...

Last Night on the Titanic: Doctors and Con Artists

The Titanic was filled with medical professionals either working as ship personnel or traveling in a non-professional capacity. There were also plenty of con artists aboard, hoping to worm their way into the wills of wealthy widows. Learn about their stories in this...

Last Night on the Titanic: The Musicians

The musicians of the Titanic famously continued playing as the ship went down, a testimony to practicing one’s craft until their dying breath. But did it really happen like this? Varying accounts exist as to whether the band played until the end and also about...

Last Night on the Titanic: The Trend Setters

Many Titanic passengers were known for setting the styles. In this episode we will profile the two Luciles: famed fashionistas Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon and Lucile Polk Carter. We will also look at John Jacob Astor IV, perhaps the world’s richest man at the time. He...

Last Night on the Titanic: The Life Savers

Mr. Rogers once said, “When there is a disaster, always look for the helpers; there will always be helpers. Many died on the night of the Titanic’s sinking, but many more would have died if not for the heroic efforts of such helpers as the “unsinkable” Molly...