HISTORY This Week

Route 66 Goes on the Run

November 11, 1926. The country’s state highway officials meet to give America’s roads numbers, and a patchwork of dirt, gravel and wooden planks running from Chicago to L

How Biddy Mason Found Her Freedom in Los Angeles

November 8, 1864. Election Day. Abraham Lincoln watches from a White House window, convinced he might lose. Three thousand miles away in Los Angeles, a Confederate hotbed

Salem’s First Witch Trial

Happy Halloween! Today, we're bringing back a particularly spooky episode from the archives... June 10, 1692. Bridget Bishop is loaded into a two-wheeled cart and brough

1066: The Brother Who Broke England (w/ Greg Jenner)

October 28, 1065. The king’s council meets in Oxford and throws a man out of England. His name is Tostig Godwinson, and the north of England already hates him. His own br

Introducing: Platypus Economics

From world events to everyday decisions, economics explains it all. Platypus Economics makes it clear, useful, and actually fun. Available now: link.pscrb.fm/f0281/PE_HTW

Venus, Earth’s Evil Twin

October 22, 1975. After traveling millions of miles through space, a Soviet spacecraft plunges through thick clouds of sulfuric acid to land on Venus. Its goal: take a ph

Audubon’s Birds Come Home to Roost

October 12, 1820. John James Audubon—a failed shopkeeper, grist miller, and steamboat investor—sets off from Cincinnati on a flatboat down the Ohio River. He is bankrupt.

The Freemasons Get Away With Murder (Probably)

October 7, 1827. A body washes up on the shore of Lake Ontario. A Rochester newspaperman named Thurlow Weed believes he knows whose it is: William Morgan, a down-on-his-l

Free preview: The Real Blackbeard (HTW+)

A 5-min sample of our full interview about who Blackbeard really was, and the truth behind his pirate friends. Subscribe to HTW+ at htwpod.com or in your Apple Podcasts a

How Did Nixon Fumble the First TV Debate?

September 26, 1960. John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon meet in a CBS studio in Chicago for the first televised debate between presidential nominees. Kennedy arrives tan, r

From History's Greatest Mysteries: The Ark of the Covenant

Introducing History's Greatest Mysteries–a new History Channel podcast from Rewind Studios–available wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Wednesday. One of

The Man Who Taught America to Fear Fat

September 24, 1955. President Eisenhower is asleep in his bed at his in-laws’ house in Denver. At around 2 AM in the morning, he’s jolted awake by chest pains. No one rea

The Uprising: Why the Peasants Loved Their King (w/ Paul Greengrass and Dan Jones)

1381. In the English countryside, one peasant has had enough. His resistance leads tens of thousands of armed peasants to march on London. They’re furious about taxes, ab

Saladin at the Gates of Jerusalem

September 20, 1187. It’s daytime outside the walls of Jerusalem. Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt, ponders his next attack. His troops encircle and lay siege to the city. The

Blindspot: The Road to 9/11

On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, we're bringing you Blindspot: The Road to 9/11 – a collaboration between the History Channel and WNYC Studios. This was adapted from the

9/11: Rescue on the Water

September 11, 2001. On a clear and sunny day, Captain Richard Thornton is piloting his ferry boat back and forth between New Jersey and New York City. But when he hears a

The Radium Girls Fight Back

September 12, 1922. Twenty-four-year-old Mollie Maggia has a toothache. In less than a year, this otherwise healthy young woman will be dead. Others like her will soon fo

Free preview: How Las Vegas Made America a Gambling Nation (HTW+)

A five-minute taste of our full interview on how Las Vegas became Las Vegas. Subscribe to HTW+ to hear the rest at htwpod.com or in your Apple Podcasts app.

Did Homer Write the Odyssey? (Was He Even Real?)

August, sometime in the 500s BCE. In Athens, the Great Panathenaia is in full swing: chariot races, boat races, a hundred cattle slaughtered for the feast. And at the cen

The Wire That Connected the World

August 17, 1858. New York City wakes to a hundred-gun salute. Church bells ring, flags fly from public buildings, and by nightfall, fireworks light up the sky. The city i