Shows / Throughline
Throughline
Throughline is a time machine. Each episode, we travel beyond the headlines to answer the question, "How did we get here?" We use sound and stories to bring history to life and put you into the middle of it. From ancient civilizations to forgotten figures, we take you directly to the moments that shaped our world. Throughline is hosted by Peabody Award-winning journalist Rund Abdelfatah.
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Episodes
ThroughlineEveryone Everywhere All At Once
This year's Oscars were one of the most diverse in history, in all kinds of ways. Everything Everywhere All At Once swept some of the biggest categories…
ThroughlineMeltdown (2020)
What happens when an accident puts the public at risk? In the early hours of March 28, 1979, a system malfunction set off what would become the worst nuclear…
ThroughlineA More Perfect Human
The dream of AI — artificial intelligence — has been around for centuries: the idea of an intelligent machine without free will popped up in ancient Taoist…
ThroughlineDance Yourself Free
Ever since Beyonce's Renaissance dropped last summer, house music has found its way back to mainstream audiences, prompting some to ask "Is house back?" But…
ThroughlineOf Rats and Men (2022)
Rats. Love 'em or hate 'em, (though you probably hate 'em), they're part of our world. And they've been out in full force: In New York City, health data show…
ThroughlineThroughline Presents: White Lies
It all started with a photograph. A photograph from 1991 of a prison takeover in rural Alabama. A photograph of a group of men on the roof of that prison…
ThroughlineThe Whiteness Myth
In 1923, an Indian American man named Bhagat Singh Thind argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that he was a white man and was therefore eligible to become a…
ThroughlineThe Real Black Panthers (2021)
In 1968, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover said the Black Panther Party "without question, represents the greatest threat to the internal security of the country."…
ThroughlineWhen Things Fall Apart
Climate change, political unrest, random violence - Western society can often feel like what the filmmaker Werner Herzog calls, "a thin layer of ice on top of…
ThroughlineExtremist Futures
It's 2074 and a suicide bomber has killed the President of the United States. Months later Marines open fire on protesters killing dozens. The Second American…
ThroughlineDo Not Pass Go (2022)
There's more to Monopoly than you might think. It's one of the best-selling board games in history — despite huge economic instability, sales actually went up…
ThroughlineNancy Pelosi (2019)
Nancy Pelosi is the highest-ranking woman in American politics. She made her first run for public office at 47 years old and went on to become Speaker of the…
ThroughlineThe Monster of We (2021)
Are most modern problems caused by selfishness or a lack of it? Ayn Rand, a Russian American philosopher and writer, would say it's the latter — that…
ThroughlineThe New Gilded Age (2022)
Philanthropic foundations are a fundamental part of our society: they support media, the arts, education, medical research, and more. NPR, and even this show…
ThroughlineGod Wants You To Be Rich (2021)
In the New Testament, Jesus says it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. In the United…
ThroughlineRoad to Partition
What happens when a nation splits apart? It's a question many of us are asking ourselves today. It happened 75 years ago with Partition, when India and…
Throughline400 Years of Sweetness
In the 1970s, a savvy CEO named Dwayne Andreas hit on an idea: take surplus corn from America's heartland, process it into a sweetener, and start selling it to…
ThroughlineThe Nostalgia Bone (2021)
The global pandemic spawned a different type of epidemic, one of an entirely different nature: a nostalgia outbreak. Longing for 'simpler times' and 'better…
ThroughlineLa Última Copa: El sueño del pibe
Ésta semana te presentamos un episodio muy especial de nuestros amigos en NPR y Futuro Media — su primer episodio del podcast La Última Copa, en Español. Todo…
ThroughlineThe Last Cup: The Kid's Dream
This week we're bringing you something special from our friends at NPR and Futuro Media: the first episode of the podcast, The Last Cup. From his earliest…
ThroughlineQatar's World Cup
Football, aka soccer, is life. At least, it is for many people across the globe. There are few things that are universally beloved but this sport comes close…
ThroughlineDreams, Creatures, and Visions
We are in the season of chaos. It can feel like everything is happening at once: You might be sprinting across an airport; or around your kitchen, with a few…
ThroughlineThe Most Sacred Right (2020)
Born into slavery in the early 1800s, Frederick Douglass would live to see the Civil War, Emancipation, Black men getting the right to vote, and the beginning…
ThroughlineThe State of Disunion
Is the U.S. on the brink of civil war? It's a question that has been in the air for a while now, as divisions continue to worsen. Beyond the political speeches…
ThroughlineThe Woman Question
What's happening in Iran right now is unprecedented. But the Iranian people's struggle for gender equality began generations before the death of 22-year-old…
ThroughlineThe Dance of the Dead (2021)
Halloween — the night of ghost stories and trick-or-treating — has religious origins that span over two thousand years. Over time, the Catholic Church, pagan…
ThroughlineSilicon Island
In a world where computer chips run everything from laptops to cars to the Nintendo Switch, Taiwan is the undisputed leader. It's one of the most powerful tech…
ThroughlineEditing Reality
We live in divided times, when the answer to the question 'what is reality?' depends on who you ask. Almost all the information we take in is to some extent…
ThroughlineFive Fingers Crush the Land (2021)
Over one million Uyghur people have been detained in camps in China, according to estimates, subjected to torture, forced labor, religious restrictions, and…
ThroughlineGetting to Sesame Street
In American history, schools have not just been places to learn the ABCs – they're places where socialization happens and cultural norms are developed…
ThroughlineHow Korean Culture Went Global
From BTS to Squid Game to high-end beauty standards, South Korea reigns as a global exporter of pop culture and entertainment. How does a country go from a…
ThroughlineAmerican Socialist (2020)
It's been over a century since a self-described socialist was a viable candidate for president of the United States. And that first socialist candidate, Eugene…
ThroughlineDrone Wars (2021)
Unseen, they stalk their targets from thousands of feet in the air. Operators are piloting them from military bases halfway across the world. At any moment…
ThroughlineAfghanistan: The Rise of the Taliban (2021)
How did a small group of Islamic students go from local vigilantes to one of the most infamous and enigmatic forces in the world? The Taliban is a name that…
ThroughlineAfghanistan: The Center of the World (2021)
Afghanistan has, for centuries, been at the center of the world. Long before the U.S. invasion — before the U.S. was even a nation — countless civilizations…
ThroughlineThe Mystery of Inflation
Gas. Meat. Flights. Houses. The price of things have gone up by as much as nine percent since last year. The same amount of money gets you less stuff. It's…
ThroughlineNikole Hannah-Jones and the Country We Have (2021)
Is history always political? Who gets to decide? What happens when you challenge common narratives? In this episode, Throughline's Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin…
ThroughlineStudent Loans: The Fund-Eating Dragon
At the start of the 20th century, only the most privileged could afford to go to college. Today, millions of students pursue higher ed — and owe $1.7 trillion…
ThroughlineThe Long Hot Summer (2020)
Things in the U.S. feel tense right now. Two years after a police officer killed George Floyd outside a Minneapolis corner store, videos of police violence…
ThroughlineThroughline Presents: School Colors
School District 28 is located in one of the most racially and ethnically diverse places in the U.S.: Queens, N.Y. But the neighborhood served by this school…
ThroughlineDo Not Pass Go
There's more to Monopoly than you might think. It's one of the best-selling board games in history — despite huge economic instability, sales actually went up…
ThroughlineThe Evangelical Vote (2019)
When Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, the door opened on one of those rare opportunities to tip the balance of the highest court in the U.S. It…
ThroughlineAfter Roe: A New Battlefield
The Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade transformed the landscape of abortion rights overnight. For the doctors, lawyers, feminists, and others who had…
ThroughlineBy Accident of Birth
In August of 1895, a ship called the SS Coptic approached the coast of Northern California. On that boat was a passenger from San Francisco, a young man named…
ThroughlineThe Modern White Power Movement (2020)
The recent shooting in Buffalo, New York, which authorities are investigating as a hate crime, has yet again highlighted the threat posed by domestic terrorism…
ThroughlineThe Characters That Built China
Today, China is a global superpower. But less than two hundred years ago, the nation was in a state of decline. After what became known as the 'century of…
ThroughlineBefore Roe: The Physicians' Crusade
Abortion wasn't always controversial. In fact, in colonial America it would have been considered a fairly common practice: a private decision made by women…
ThroughlineBonus: The Forgotten Mothers of Civil Rights History
MLK Jr., Malcolm X and James Baldwin are household names, but what about their mothers? This hour, author Anna Malaika Tubbs explores how these three women…
ThroughlineThe Shadows of the Constitution (2020)
The Constitution is like America's secular Bible, our sacred founding document. As the Supreme Court debates the future of Roe v. Wade, many of us are looking…
ThroughlineCinco de Mayo and the Rise of Modern Mexico
Does history have a border? That is the question at the heart of Cinco de Mayo, May 5th, a holiday that symbolizes Mexico's fight for autonomy, even as it's…
ThroughlineThe New Gilded Age
Philanthropic foundations are a fundamental part of our society: they support media, the arts, education, medical research, and more. NPR, and even this show…
ThroughlineForce of Nature (2021)
Rivers on fire, acid rain falling from the sky, species going extinct, oil spills, polluted air, and undrinkable water: For so long, we didn't think of our…
ThroughlineThe Everlasting Problem (2020)
Health insurance for millions of Americans is dependent on their jobs. But it's not like that everywhere. So how did the U.S. end up with such a fragile system…
ThroughlineCapitalism: What Makes Us Free? (2021)
What's the role of government in society? What do we mean when we talk about individual responsibility? What makes us free? 'Neoliberalism' might feel like a…
ThroughlineThe Land of the Fee (2021)
Tipping is a norm in the United States—and it's always been controversial. The practice took off after the Civil War, as employers sought cheap labor from…
ThroughlineAll Wars Are Fought Twice
"All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory," writes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen. This week on…
ThroughlineOur Own People (2021)
A Japanese American activist whose early political awakenings came while incarcerated in the concentration camps of World War II America, Kochiyama dedicated…
ThroughlineUkraine's Dangerous Independence
Months before Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, he published an essay on the Kremlin website called "On The Historical Unity…
ThroughlineOf Rats and Men
Rats. Love 'em or hate 'em, (though you probably hate 'em), they're part of our world. And during the pandemic, they've been out in full force: fewer humans…
ThroughlineThere Are No Utopias
It may seem bleak, but Robin D.G Kelley's view of the world says there is no promise of liberation, only struggle. Kelley has spent his career bringing to life…