Podcast Episodes

Road to Rickwood: The Holy Grail of Baseball

Birmingham, Alabama was one of the fiercest battlegrounds of the Civil Rights Movement. And in order to understand the struggle, you don't have to look any further than Rickwood Field, the oldest bas…

Published on 1 year, 5 months ago

Pop Music's First Black Stars

Today, the U.S. popular music industry is worth billions of dollars. And some of its deepest roots are in blackface minstrelsy and other racist genres. You may not have heard their names, but Black m…

Published on 1 year, 6 months ago

The Lavender Scare (Throwback)

Episode 297

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 Commerce. They took her to a private room, turned on a t…

Published on 1 year, 6 months ago

A History of Zionism

Episode 296

Since October 7th, the term Zionism has been everywhere in the news. It's been used to support Israel in what it calls its war against Hamas: a refrain to remind everyone why Israel exists and why it…

Published on 1 year, 6 months ago

The Whiteness Myth (Throwback)

Episode 295

In 1923, an Indian American man named Bhagat Singh Thind told the U.S. Supreme Court that he was white, and therefore eligible to become a naturalized citizen. He based his claim on the fact that he …

Published on 1 year, 6 months ago

The Rules of War

Episode 294

International courts investigating alleged war crimes have made headlines often in recent months. An arrest warrant has been issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin; arrest warrants have also bee…

Published on 1 year, 7 months ago

Mythos and Melodrama in the Philippines (Throwback)

Episode 293

Welcome to the "Epic of Marcos." In this tale of a family that's larger than life, Ferdinand Marcos, the former dictator of the Philippines, is at the center. But the figures that surround him are ju…

Published on 1 year, 7 months ago

The Mandela Effect

For nearly thirty years, the South African government held a man it initially labeled prisoner number 46664, the anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela. But in 1994, Mandela transformed from the coun…

Published on 1 year, 7 months ago

The Labor Of Love (Throwback)

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 kids, volunteers at the school, cleans the house, …

Published on 1 year, 7 months ago

We the People: Search and Seizure

The Fourth Amendment is the part of the Bill of Rights that prohibits "unreasonable searches and seizures." But — what's unreasonable? That question has fueled a century's worth of court rulings that…

Published on 1 year, 7 months ago