Podcast Episodes

How the Whitman Murders Redefined the American West

Season 6 Episode 5

May 30, 1855. Five thousand Native Americans come to Walla Walla to negotiate a treaty. However, it’s not exactly a fair negotiation – the territorial governor basically tells these tribes that they …

Published on 3 months, 2 weeks ago

A Vicious Beating on the Senate Floor

Season 6 Episode 4

May 22, 1856. Charles Sumner isn’t worried about making friends in the Senate. His rhetoric is inflammatory, almost intentionally. He’s an ardent abolitionist in a time when people are still enslaved…

Published on 3 months, 3 weeks ago

A Teenage Girl Saves France

Season 6

May 16, 1920. Tens of thousands of people surround St. Peter’s Basilica to honor Joan of Arc, a French peasant girl who died nearly five hundred years before. Joan’s feats in battle—and her visions o…

Published on 4 months ago

McDonald’s Before McDonald’s

Season 6 Episode 3

May 15, 1940. It’s opening day. San Bernardino, California is a city on the rise, and to meet this new demand for cheap, good food, two brothers have created a restaurant: McDonald’s Famous Barbecue.…

Published on 4 months ago

Cinco de Mayo’s Civil War Connection

Season 6 Episode 2

May 5, 1862. The French have landed in Mexico. Napoleon III wants to conquer the country and assert France’s imperial dominance in the Americas. In his way? The Mexican army, held up in the city of P…

Published on 4 months, 1 week ago

America’s Cold War Obsession with Greenland

Season 6 Episode 1

April 27, 1951. The United States has been putting pressure on Denmark for a long time. Because the small European kingdom has something the Americans really, really want: Greenland. 

Today, they sig…

Published on 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Trailer: America's Cold War Obsession with Greenland

HISTORY This Week returns with new episodes this Monday! We're kicking things off with a look at America's longtime fascination with Greenland, and how the U.S. military used the island to expand its…

Published on 4 months, 3 weeks ago

A Concubine Rises to Rule China

Season 5

April 27, 1856. In Beijing’s Forbidden City, one of the emperor’s consorts, a woman named Cixi, has given birth to a son – the emperor’s first heir. This landmark event is met with mass celebration. …

Published on 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Introducing: What We Spend

Imagine if you could ask someone anything you wanted about their finances. On What We Spend, people from across the country and across the financial spectrum are opening their wallets—and their lives…

Published on 4 months, 4 weeks ago

"Houston We’ve Had a Problem” (feat. Captain Jim Lovell)

Season 5

April 14, 1970. Apollo 13 is a quarter million miles from Earth, speeding towards the Moon, when a sudden explosion rocks the ship. Against all odds, the astronauts pull off one of the most remarkabl…

Published on 5 months ago