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Abortion Before Roe
Abortion wasn't always controversial. In fact, in colonial America it would have been considered a fairly common practice: a private decision made by…
11 months, 2 weeks ago
The First Department of Education
Episode 346
Whose job is it to educate Americans? Congress created the first Department of Education just after the Civil War as a way to help reunify a broken c…
11 months, 3 weeks ago
The Woman Behind The New Deal
From Social Security and the minimum wage to exit signs and fire escapes, Frances Perkins transformed how people in the U.S. lived and worked. Today …
11 months, 4 weeks ago
We the People: Search and Seizure
Episode 344
The Fourth Amendment is the part of the Bill of Rights that prohibits "unreasonable searches and seizures." But — what's unreasonable? That question …
1 year ago
War Crimes
On today's episode, we travel from the battlefields of the U.S. Civil War, through the rubble of two world wars, to the hallways of the Hague, to see…
1 year ago
The Tax Collector
Episode 342
Gangsters, banksters, and politicians. Today on the show, how the hunt for Al Capone helped turn the IRS into one of the U.S. government's most power…
1 year ago
California's 'Bum Blockade'
The story of the Los Angeles police chief who, faced with one of the largest internal migrations in American history, tried to close California's bor…
1 year ago
Motherhood
Episode 340
Baby bonuses, childless cat ladies: the rhetoric around motherhood is politically charged right now. And the fantasy of an ideal mother remains power…
1 year, 1 month ago
The Deadly Story of the U.S. Civil Service
Episode 339
When James Garfield won the Presidency in 1880, Charles Guiteau got ready to accept his new government job. No one had actually offered him a job – b…
1 year, 1 month ago
The Alien Enemies Act
In March 2025, President Trump issued an executive order invoking a centuries-old law: the Alien Enemies Act. The Act allows a president to detain or…
1 year, 1 month ago