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
335 episodes transcribedThe 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 eu...
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 h...
The Constitution is like America's secular bible, our sacred founding document. In her play, What the Constitution Means to Me, Heidi Schreck goes thr...
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...
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 sl...
Drunken brawls, coercion, and lace curtains. Believe it or not, how regular people vote was not something the founding fathers thought much about, or...
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...
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...
Billie Holiday helped shape American popular music with her voice and unique style. But, one song in particular has become her greatest legacy — "Stra...
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 frag...
With the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the president is hoping to fill the seat with a more ideologically conservative justice. And evangelical Christ...
In a moment when America is undertaking an uncomfortable reckoning with its racial inequality and violence, we wanted to look back at someone who conc...
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...
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...
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 Brookl...
Today the foundations of philosophy are seen as a straight line from Western antiquity, built on thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle. But, between th...
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 indivi...
"Race" is often used as a fundamental way to understand American history. But what if "caste" is the more appropriate lens? In conversation with Pulit...
This month marks the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is considered the most important civil rights law since the 1960s....
The Great Depression was a revolutionary spark for all kinds of things — health insurance, social safety nets, big government — all of which were in...
