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
ThroughlineOctavia Butler: Visionary Fiction
Octavia Butler's alternate realities and 'speculative fiction' reveal striking, and often devastating parallels to the world we live in today. She was a deep…
ThroughlineMarcus Garvey: Pan-Africanist
Decades before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey attracted millions with a simple, uncompromising message: Black people deserved nothing…
ThroughlineThe Lasting Power Of Whitney Houston's National Anthem
Why does Whitney Houston's 1991 Super Bowl national anthem still resonate 30 years later? Listen to this episode from our friends at It's Been A Minute with…
ThroughlineWhat Happened After Civilization Collapsed
What happens after everything falls apart? The end of the Bronze Age was a moment when an entire network of ancient civilizations collapsed, leaving behind…
ThroughlineThe Anatomy Of Autocracy: Masha Gessen
Russian-born journalist Masha Gessen talks to us about how the rule of the people becomes the rule of the one, the role of the media, and what we can learn…
ThroughlineThe Anatomy of Autocracy: Timothy Snyder
When a mob of pro-Trump supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, they also incited a defining moment in United States history. Now what?…
ThroughlineImpeachment
When Andrew Johnson became president in 1865, the United States was in the midst of one of its most volatile chapters. The country was divided after fighting a…
ThroughlineOutside/In: Everybody Knows Somebody
In the mid-1980's a woman who didn't consider herself a feminist was asked to solve perhaps the biggest problem women face. How she and a small group of people…
ThroughlineOutside/In: War of the Worlds
The Sunni-Shia divide is a conflict that most people have heard about - two sects with Sunni Islam being in the majority and Shia Islam the minority. Exactly…
ThroughlineOutside/In: The Dark Side Of The Moon
50 years ago the world watched as man first landed on the moon, an incredible accomplishment by the engineers and scientists of NASA. But what if some of those…
ThroughlineOutside/In: Rules of Engagement
The US and Iran have been in some state of conflict for the last 40 years, since the Iranian revolution. This week, we look at three key moments in this…
ThroughlineSupreme
When, why, and how did the Supreme Court get the final say in the law of the land? The question of the Court's role, and whether its decisions should reign…
ThroughlineThe Modern White Power Movement
It has been nearly twenty years since 9/11 and during that time much of the media coverage and government attention has been directed at the threat of radical…
ThroughlineThe Spotted Owl
The story of how the Endangered Species Act went from unanimous passage under a Republican president to becoming a deeply partisan wedge. The act was passed to…
ThroughlineThe Invention of Race
The idea that race is a social construct comes from the pioneering work of anthropologist Franz Boas. During a time when race-based science and the eugenics…
ThroughlineBONUS: Louder Than A Riot
This week we're bringing you something extra, an episode from the NPR Music series, Louder Than A Riot. The series examines the relationship between hip hop…
ThroughlineThe Shadows of the Constitution
The Constitution is like America's secular bible, our sacred founding document. In her play, What the Constitution Means to Me, Heidi Schreck goes through a…
ThroughlineBush v. Gore and Why It Matters in 2020
In the 2000 presidential election, results weren't known in one night, a week, or even a month. This week, we share an episode we loved from It's Been A Minute…
ThroughlineThe Most Sacred Right
Frederick Douglass dreamed of a country where all people could vote and he did everything in his power to make that dream a reality. In the face of slavery…
ThroughlineHow We Vote
Drunken brawls, coercion, and lace curtains. Believe it or not, how regular people vote was not something the founding fathers thought much about, or planned…
ThroughlineThe Electoral College
What is it, why do we have it, and why hasn't it changed? Born from a rushed, fraught, imperfect process, the origins and evolution of the Electoral College…
Throughline(mis)Representative Democracy, A New Series From Throughline
America has never been a country of one person, one vote. And that's by design. Our system was built by a select few, for a select few. We were never all…
ThroughlineThe United States vs. Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday helped shape American popular music with her voice and unique style. But, one song in particular has become her greatest legacy — "Strange…
ThroughlineThe Everlasting Problem
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…
ThroughlineThe Evangelical Vote
With the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the president is hoping to fill the seat with a more ideologically conservative justice. And evangelical Christians…
ThroughlineJames Baldwin's Fire
In a moment when America is undertaking an uncomfortable reckoning with its racial inequality and violence, we wanted to look back at someone who concentrated…
ThroughlineThe Postal Service
The US Postal Service has played a role throughout American history - from the Declaration of Independence to today's mail-in voting. It was conceived of by…
ThroughlineReframing History: Mass Incarceration
The United States imprisons more people than any other country in the world, and a disproportionate number of those prisoners are Black. What are the origins…
ThroughlineReframing History: Bananas
The banana is a staple of the American diet and has been for generations. But how did this exotic tropical fruit become so commonplace? How one Brooklyn-born…
ThroughlineReframing History: The Commentator
Today the foundations of philosophy are seen as a straight line from Western antiquity, built on thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle. But, between the 8th…
ThroughlineReframing History: The Litter Myth
There is more waste in the world today than at any time in history, and the responsibility for keeping the environment clean too often falls on individuals…
ThroughlineAmerica's Caste System
"Race" is often used as a fundamental way to understand American history. But what if "caste" is the more appropriate lens? In conversation with Pulitzer Prize…
ThroughlineA.D.A. Now!
This month marks the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is considered the most important civil rights law since the 1960s. Through…
ThroughlineLives Of The Great Depression
The Great Depression was a revolutionary spark for all kinds of things — health insurance, social safety nets, big government — all of which were in response…
ThroughlineBorinquén
Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory in 1898 and for much of the next fifty years Puerto Ricans fought fiercely about this status. Should they struggle for…
ThroughlineThe Long Hot Summer
Starting in 1965, summer after summer, America's cities burned. There was civil unrest in more than 150 cities across the country. So in 1967, Lyndon Johnson…
ThroughlineMecca Under Siege
Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, is effectively canceled this year, due to concerns around the spread of the coronavirus. But, for two weeks in…
ThroughlineThere's Something About Mary
When a cook who carried typhoid fever refused to stop working, despite showing no symptoms, the authorities forcibly quarantined her for nearly three decades…
ThroughlineWhy 2020 Isn't Quite 1968
Protests, racial divisions, political polarization, and a law-and-order president – it's easy to draw comparisons between 2020 and 1968. But, Adam Serwer, who…
ThroughlinePresidential Power
What can and can't the president do, and how do we know? When the framers of the U.S. constitution left vague the powers of the executive branch they opened…
ThroughlineAmerican Police
Black Americans being victimized and killed by the police is an epidemic. A truth many Americans are acknowledging since the murder of George Floyd, as…
ThroughlineHong Kong
Last week, the Chinese government made the latest and perhaps the most serious move yet to crack down on Hong Kong's semi-autonomy. It's just the latest such…
ThroughlineConspiracy
Since the beginning of the pandemic, conspiracy theories about the coronavirus have exploded. But conspiracy theories themselves are nothing new - in fact…
ThroughlineThe Mask
The N95 respirator has become one of the most coveted items in the world, especially by medical professionals. But how did this seemingly simple mask become…
ThroughlineEndless War
North Korea's famous for being a black box, one of the most secretive and authoritarian countries in the world. It has a nuclear stockpile. A history of…
ThroughlineMeltdown
In the early hours of March 28, 1979, a system malfunction began what would become the worst nuclear accident in American history. What ensued punctured the…
ThroughlineAftermath
In 1927, the most destructive river flood in U.S. history inundated seven states, displaced more than half a million people for months, and caused about $1…
ThroughlineBuzzkill
In the whole of human history, no predator has killed more of us than the lowly mosquito. And this killing spree, which we still struggle in vain to stop…
ThroughlineThroughline Presents: Code Switch
The Principal Chief of Cherokee Nation told his people to stay strong during this pandemic, and to remember how much they've endured over a long history that…
ThroughlineA Race To Know
For nearly as long as there has been a United States there has been a census, it is in some ways how we know ourselves. And in every single census there has…
Throughline1918 Flu
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic it's tempting to draw comparisons to the most severe pandemic in recent history - the 1918 flu. But as much as we can…
ThroughlineAmerican Socialist
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…
ThroughlineSavarkar And India
In the past few weeks Delhi has become the latest place in India convulsed with religious violence as Hindu mobs burned Muslim neighborhoods, mosques and…
ThroughlinePublic Universal Friend
America in the run-up to the Revolutionary War wasn't just a period of dramatic political change, it was also a time of great religious and social instability…
ThroughlineThe Invisible Border
Today, the border that divides Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is "soft", in most places you could almost forget that it's there. But for decades…
ThroughlineThe Stars
Astrology has existed for thousands of years and has roots that span the globe. But is it a science or a religion or just a kind of personality test? And why…
ThroughlineBecoming America
When the United States of America was founded, it was only a union of a small number of states. By the beginning of the 20th century, the United States had…
ThroughlineShe Got Next
There are more female candidates in this presidential campaign cycle than at any other time in American history. But women were running for the highest office…
ThroughlineVaccination
It's a longstanding fight in the U.S., whether people can opt out of vaccination if that means jeopardizing the greater public's health. In this episode, we…
ThroughlineSoleimani's Iran
When Qassem Soleimani was assassinated by the United States on January 3rd, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander suddenly became a household name. But in…