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 journalists Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei.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
383 episodes transcribedThe U.S. immigration detention system is spread out across federal facilities, private prisons, state prisons, and county jails. It’s grown under both...
To this day, America continues to grapple with the legacy of slavery. On this week’s episode, we explore the creation of slave patrols, which were cre...
How Bad Bunny became the global voice of a generation in crisis — and what it means when resistance becomes profitable.Guests:Carina Del Valle Schorsk...
Freedom of the press. The right to assembly. And the right to free speech. The first amendment includes some of the most fundamental and most debated...
In 1871, Ku Klux Klan violence in South Carolina got so bad that the governor sent a telegram to President Ulysses S. Grant warning that he was facing...
Political rebellions, family feuds, and power grabs – the founding of the Supreme Court has about as much drama as a Hollywood movie. In this week’s e...
The key to good communication is in the delivery – literally. This week on America in Pursuit, how the creation of the U.S. postal service transformed...
Iran has been here before. For decades the country has gone through cycles of protest and repression at the hands of the Islamic Republic. What makes...
Forget guns and generals — the real victor of the Revolution had wings. This week on America in Pursuit the story of how a deadly swarm of mosquitoes...
Ramtin talks with filmmaker Ken Burns about the revolution that made the U.S., and the surprising lessons he thinks it holds for us today.Guests:Ken B...
The anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is just around the corner. Wanna get up to speed on the past 250 years? Check out our new miniserie...
On January 3rd, the U.S. military apprehended Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and brought him to the U.S. for trial to face federal drug trafficki...
Octavia Butler gave us a new kind of science fiction: not only as one of the first writers to use history to talk about the future, and not only as on...
As a kid, Ramtin fell in love with Frank Herbert's 1965 epic sci-fi novel, Dune. Today, he joins NPR's Books We’ve Loved crew, Andrew Limbong and B.A....
Christmas wasn't always a national shopping spree — or even a day off work. But when Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol in 19th-century Londo...
What if the real story of human history is a story itself? To kick off our winter book club, we talk with bestselling author Tamim Ansary about his bo...
Rund takes Ramtin on a tour of the enduring world of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice... and our two hosts make a bet.Guests:John Mullan, professor o...
What's better than holiday hot chocolate? If just thinking about it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, well – that’s by design. Chocolate's big histor...
Rund Abdelfatah and Cristina Kim try to unravel the mystery of a Soviet scientist who was helping to spread the word about nuclear winter theory—until...
How quickly can a government fall? Chile was once one of Latin America's oldest democracies, but that all changed in a matter of hours after a militar...
