305 episodes
Throughline Throughline
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- History
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4.6 • 14.2K Ratings
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The past is never past. Every headline has a history. Join us every week as we go back in time to understand the present. These are stories you can feel and sounds you can see from the moments that shaped our world.Subscribe to Throughline+. You'll be supporting the history-reframing, perspective-shifting, time-warping stories you can't get enough of - and you'll unlock access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org/throughline
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Ralph Nader, Consumer Crusader
Whether it's pesticides in your cereal or the door plug flying off your airplane, consumers today have plenty of reasons to feel like corporations might not have their best interests at heart. At a moment where we're seeing unprecedented product recalls, and when trust in the government is near historic lows, we're going to revisit a time when a generation of people felt empowered to demand accountability from both companies and elected leaders — and got results. Today on the show, the story of the U.S. consumer movement and its controversial leader: the once famous, now infamous Ralph Nader.
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The Union Strike That Changed The History of Flight (Throughline+)
Following the 1964 Civil Rights Act, it was actually flight attendants and their unions who were some of the first to use provisions in that act to challenge discrimination in the workplace. Producer and reporter Cristina Kim talks to fellow producer Peter Balonen-Rosen about making Throughline's episode about the U.S. labor movement (https://n.pr/3NLZFzG) and they share a deleted scene from the episode about a pivotal flight attendant strike in the 1990s.
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The 14th Amendment
Of all the amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the 14th is a big one. It's shaped all of our lives, whether we realize it or not: Roe v. Wade, Brown v. Board of Education, Bush v. Gore, plus other Supreme Court cases that legalized same-sex marriage, interracial marriage, access to birth control — they've all been built on the back of the 14th.
The amendment was ratified after the Civil War, and it's packed full of lofty phrases like due process, equal protection, and liberty. But what do those words really guarantee us?
Today on the show: how the 14th Amendment has remade America – and how America has remade the 14th.
Clarification: A previous version of this episode did not make clear that the 14th amendment guarantees equal protection and due process to all people in the United States, regardless of citizenship.
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The Land of the Fee (Throwback)
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 formerly enslaved people: if tips were expected, companies could get away with paying laughably low wages. But the practice was always controversial, and has been vehemently challenged since it first came to the U.S. from Europe. We speak with Nina Martyris, a journalist who's written about the history of tipping in the United States, to find out how tipping—once deemed a "cancer in the breast of democracy"— went from being considered wholly un-American to becoming a deeply American custom.
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A History of Hezbollah
Hezbollah is a Lebanese paramilitary organization and political party that's directly supported by the Islamic Republic of Iran. In the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, and Israel's invasion of Gaza, Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging missile fire across the border they share, causing growing fears of a regional conflict with the U.S. and Israel on one side and Iran along with its allies in Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthi rebels of Yemen on the other.
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The Great Textbook War
What is school for? Over a hundred years ago, a man named Harold Rugg published a series of textbooks that encouraged students to confront the thorniest parts of U.S. history: to identify problems, and try and solve them. And it was just as controversial as the fights we're seeing today. In this episode: a media mogul, a textbook author, and a battle over what students should – or shouldn't – learn in school.
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Customer Reviews
Thanks for the tip, Radiiolab
On Radiolab’s suggestion I went to check out this podcast and instantly fell in love with it. Narrative journalism takes a tremendous amount of resources to produce and I wish there were more of it—especially of this caliber. I’m also having fun reading the critical reviews by thick-browed, television addicts who are triggered by public radio. You’re obviously doing something right, Throughline! ❤️
Informative but unbalanced
I just listened to "land of the Fee" episode and found the historical perspective. Interesting. However, the peace really only looked at the negative sides of the tipping economy. It did not speak to the meritorious benefits of tipping and how and otherwise unskilled or poorly educated worker can make very good money, much more than they could an hourly rate. for example, I know servers who can make $200 or more in a four hour shift.
Getting More & More Political
This is a great show, with the exception of a few recent episodes where it is clear your political opinions are taking over the story telling. Quit, please.