HISTORY This Week HISTORY

April 5, 1918. The first mention of a new influenza outbreak in Kansas appears in a public health report. That strain, later called the Spanish Flu, would go on to kill at least 50 million people worldwide. In a time before widespread global travel, how did this disease spread so far, so fast? And what does it teach us about fighting pandemics today?


Special thanks to Dr. Jeremy Brown, author of Influenza: The 100-Year Hunt to Cure the Deadliest Disease in History. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

March 28, 1939. Two teams are facing off for the final game of World Professional Basketball Tournament in Chicago, the first professional tournament to feature both white and black basketball teams. This is several years before the start of the NBA, and Jim Crow segregation was still the law of the land in many parts of the country. The New York Rens, an all-black team, have made it to this championship, but their road to the top was anything but easy. Who were the Rens? And how did they fight segregation and change the history of basketball?


Special thanks to Susan Rayl, African American Sports Historian & Associate Professor at the State University of New York at Cortland. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

March 19, 1931. Las Vegas is a small, desert town of a few thousand. And it’s not doing so well. In fact, people are worried it might turn into a ghost town. But then something big happens: Nevada decides to legalize gambling. And the ground begins to shift beneath the city...but no one notices, at least not at first. So, how did Vegas become Vegas?

Special thanks to our guest Professor Michael Green from UNLV's Department of History. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

The Ides of March, 44 BC. Ancient Rome’s most powerful dictator, Julius Caesar, is running late to a senate meeting. When he arrives, senators surround him and stab him 23 times. The assassination of Caesar has been told and re-told for centuries, but the facts are wilder than the legend. What really happened on the Ides of March? And why do we tell this story over and over?
 
Special thanks to Professor Barry Strauss, historian and author of The Death of Caesar and Ten Caesars. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

March 7th, 1985. “We Are the World” hits the shelves. It's an instant hit, breaking the top of the charts and making music history. This one song has the star power of 45 of the biggest singers of the era: Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan - just to name a few. And with their power combined, the song raised millions of dollars to help combat a devastating famine in Ethiopia and Sudan. What did it take to bring all these icons together, and did this song actually make a difference?


Special thanks to our Guests: Ken Kragen, creator and organizer of "We Are the World" and USA For Africa
Alex de Waal, Executive Director, World Peace Foundation at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

February 28, 1953. Two scientists, James Watson and Francis Crick, burst into a bar and exclaim that they have discovered the secret of life. But there was another person involved in the discovery of DNA’s double helix, a scientist named Rosalind Franklin. Why didn’t she get any credit, and what does her story tell us about the politics of discovery itself?


Special thanks to Michelle Gibbons, Ph.D., author of "Reassessing Discovery: Rosalind Franklin, Scientific Visualization, and the Structure of DNA". For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy