Podcast Episodes

History of the Self: Dreams

Episode 324

Our dreams can haunt us. But what are we to make of them? From omens and art to modern science, we tell the story of dreams and the surprising role they may play in our lives. (Originally ran as The …

Published on 11 months, 3 weeks ago

History of the Self: Aging

Defeating old age? In 1899, Elie Metchnikoff woke up in Paris to learn he had done just that. At least, that's what the newspaper headlines said. Before long he was inundated with mail from people be…

Published on 11 months, 4 weeks ago

History of the Self: Love

Episode 322

How did love – this thing that's supposed to be beautiful, magical, transformative – turn into a neverending slog? We went searching for answers, and we found them in surprising places. On today's sh…

Published on 1 year ago

Embedded: The Black Gate

In the Xinjiang region of western China, the government has rounded up and detained hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups. Many haven't been heard from in years, and more st…

Published on 1 year ago

History of the Self: Smell and Memory

Episode 322

"History" can seem big and imposing. But it's always intensely personal – it's all of our individual experiences that add up to historical events. Over the next few episodes, we're exploring the pers…

Published on 1 year ago

Going to the Source of L.A.'s Water

Throughline associate producer Anya Steinberg talks to supervising senior editor Julie Caine about her reporting trip to Owens Valley in northeastern California for the episode, "Water in the West," …

Published on 1 year ago

When Christmas Went Viral

Episode 321

Christmas wasn't always a national shopping spree — or even a day off work. But in 19th-century London, it went viral. When Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol, the book's tale of miserly Scr…

Published on 1 year ago

Seeking Asylum in the U.S.

Episode 320

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.

Today on the show, the s…

Published on 1 year ago

The Lord Of Misrule (Throwback)

Episode 319

By the time his book went to press in London, on November 18, 1633, Thomas Morton had been exiled from the Puritan colonies in Massachusetts. His crimes: drinking, carousing, and — crucially — buildi…

Published on 1 year, 1 month ago

The Mother of Thanksgiving

Episode 318

The Thanksgiving story most of us hear is about friendship and unity. And that's what Sarah Josepha Hale had on her mind when she sat down to write a letter to President Lincoln in 1863, deep into th…

Published on 1 year, 1 month ago