The Ricochet Podcast - Introducing "American History Tellers" from Wondery

Episode Date: January 25, 2018

This is a special announcement on behalf of our friends at Wondery podcast network. Introducing their new “American History Tellers” podcast: Every part of your life can be traced to our shared history, but how well do you know the real stories of our nation? American History Tellers takes you to the events, times, and the people that shaped America and Americans, and they’ll show you how American... Source

Hey everyone, James Lilacs here, but this is not the Ricochet Podcast. I got a question. How well do you really know your history? I'm talking about the stories that make up America and Americans. Everything from the words we speak, the ideas we share, the values we admire, and the freedoms we defend can all be traced to our shared history. Well, there's a new podcast called American History Tellers, brought to you by our friends at Wondery. American History Tellers puts you in the shoes of everyday people in the time, the place, or the event that made history. It's the Cold War, for example, or the Revolution, Prohibition, the Space Race, the Gold Rush. And they show you how our history affected them, their families, and how it affects you. American History Tellers is hosted by Lindsey Graham.

And in case you're wondering, no, not that Lindsey Graham. He's a history buff teaming up with Ph. with PhD historians to bring you a new take on history telling. They take a first person's perspective with sound design to get really history stuck in your mind. And what I love about this is when you find out about the space race, it was more than just putting guys up there. It was all the work that went before. When you found out about prohibition, you learn that it wasn't just about smashing bottles. It was the effect that it had on industries across the country. So here's a special preview of the first episode.

And be sure to subscribe to American History Tellers on the Apple Podcasts of your favorite listening app today. Imagine that it's 1951. You live in Rosebank, a leafy section of North Baltimore, about three miles north of Johns Hopkins University. One Friday morning, you're at home, having your second cup of coffee, when there's a knock at the door. You open it, and a man in a black suit flashes a badge.

Hello, sir, I'm from the FBI. Mind if I come in and ask you a couple of questions about your neighbor, the biologist at the university? Of course. The two of you sit down to chat. You know your neighbor occasionally works for the government, so this all feels routine. How long have you known him? The agent starts off with softballs. A couple of years.

What's his family like? We're not particularly close, but he's respectable, quiet, keeps to himself. He teaches Sunday school at the Baptist church around the corner. In fact, his parents were missionaries. He was born in China. Oh, China. Does he speak Chinese? You don't know. But sensing an opening, the agent gets a little more aggressive. The FBI has reason to believe that your neighbor has had contact with

communist organizations. Six years ago, it seems he was the faculty sponsor for a student dance organized by American Youth for Democracy, which is a well-known communist front. Can you think of any other times your neighbor has associated with communists? This is ridiculous. He's a staunch and loyal American citizen. He has no use whatsoever for communism or any other foreign ideology. Are you sure? How do you know? How can you know? The interview ends. You show the agent out and sit back down for a few minutes to collect your thoughts. Truth be told, you don't really know your neighbor all that well.

I mean, you like him, but he does sometimes express his views as slightly left of center. You remember during the war, he once asked you to sign a petition protesting segregation in the military. And in the newspapers, you've read that the civil rights movement is riddled with communists. You finish your coffee and think about your cousin's son, who's fighting the communists somewhere in the mountains of Korea. Your mind wanders a bit back to when you took your daughter to the movies last week. The newsreel before the matinee showed streams of Eastern European

refugees fleeing to the West, abandoning everything for a chance at freedom. You think about mushroom clouds and the treasonous scientists who stole atomic secrets and passed them on to Stalin. You resolve to watch your neighbor more carefully. After all, watch your neighbor more carefully.

After all, the nation is at war. From Wondery, this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham. And no, in case you were wondering, not that Lindsey Graham. I am, though, an American and deeply interested in our shared history. So on this show, I partnered with Ph.D. historians to take you to the events, the times, and the people that shaped America and Americans. Our values, our fights, and our dreams. We'll put you in the shoes of everyday citizens as the Cold War, the American Revolution, Prohibition, or the Gold Rush were happening.

And we'll show you how history affected them, their families, and affects you now. We're starting American History Tellers with a six-episode series about the Cold War. This is part one. There's an iconic photograph that you may have seen from 1945, near the end of the Second World War. The British, American, and Soviet leaders of the Grand Alliance, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt,

and Joseph Stalin, are sitting next to each other in wooden chairs, looking chilly under their February coats. FDR sports a cape. Churchill's got his trademark cigar. And if you look closely, you can see FDR's cigarette holder. They're sitting so close to one another that their elbows almost touch.

But they're each staring off in a different direction, lost in their own thoughts. There's another version of this photograph, one with a wider focus. In that one, a small army of advisors and diplomats mill around behind the three leaders. Few wear hats or topcoats, but most are bareheaded. They must have been cold. There's a set of arched doorways in the back and several Persian rugs scattered over the ground. The people in this photograph are gathered in a courtyard of the Lavadia Palace in Yalta,

a Soviet-controlled resort town on the Black Sea. For a week in February 1945, the grounds of this once-elegant palace were transformed into the meeting headquarters for a summit that would decide the fate of post-war Europe. Almost no one in this photograph seems happy. Even on the verge of victory against Hitler, Roosevelt is especially grim. And with the knowledge of hindsight, he doesn't look well. A stroke would kill him just two months later, leaving his vice president, Harry Truman, to see the United States through the end of the war. One person, though, has just the faintest hint of a smile, and that's Stalin.

Given everything that's happened later, it's hard to remember that Churchill, FDR, and Stalin gathered that day as allies. During the Second World War, the United States, the UK, and the Soviet Union came together in a grand alliance to defeat Germany and Japan. But within two years of that peace, the West would be locked in a conflict with the Soviet Union that threatened to destroy the entire world. This was the Cold War, the epic conflict that pitted the United States against the Soviet Union and capitalism against communism. Is this news? Mr. Khamershev himself? We must guard against the military-industrial complex. From Stepin to Trieste in the Adriatic,

an iron curtain has descended across... Mr. Gorbachev, you'd see champion... Tear down this wall. That was just a preview. To listen to the rest of this episode and more, search, listen, and subscribe to American History Tellers on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Or if you're listening to this on a smartphone, tap or swipe on the cover art to find a link that will take you there. American History Tellers.

Our history. Your story.