279 episodes

The past is never past. Every headline has a history. Join us every week as we go back in time to understand the present. These are stories you can feel and sounds you can see from the moments that shaped our world.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

Throughline Throughline

    • History
    • 4.6 • 13.9K Ratings

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

The past is never past. Every headline has a history. Join us every week as we go back in time to understand the present. These are stories you can feel and sounds you can see from the moments that shaped our world.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

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    The Lord Of Misrule

    The Lord Of Misrule

    On November 18, 1633, a book went to press in London. Its author, Thomas Morton, had been exiled from the Puritan colonies in Massachusetts for the crimes of drinking, carousing, and – crucially – building social and economic ties with Native people. Back in England, Morton wrote down his vision for what America could become. A very different vision than that of the Puritans. But the book wouldn't be published that day. It wouldn't be published for years. Because agents for the Puritan colonists stormed the press and destroyed every copy.Today on the show, the story of what's widely considered America's first banned book, the radical vision it conjured, and the man who outlined that vision: Thomas Morton, the Lord of Misrule.

    • 49 min
    A.D.A. Now! (2020)

    A.D.A. Now! (2020)

    The Americans with Disabilities Act is considered the most important civil rights law since the 1960s. Through first-person stories, we look back at the making of this movement, the history of how disability came to be seen as a civil rights issue in the first place, and what the disability community is still fighting for more than 30 years later.

    A.D.A. Now! (2020)

    A.D.A. Now! (2020)

    The Americans with Disabilities Act is considered the most important civil rights law since the 1960s. Through first-person stories, we look back at the making of this movement, the history of how disability came to be seen as a civil rights issue in the first place, and what the disability community is still fighting for more than 30 years later.

    • 58 min
    How U.S. Unions Took Flight

    How U.S. Unions Took Flight

    Hot Labor Summer has continued into fall as workers in industries from retail and carmaking to healthcare and Hollywood have organized and gone on strike. Public support for the U.S. labor movement is close to the highest it's been in 60 years. And that's no surprise to people who work in one particular industry: the airlines.Airline workers — pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, baggage handlers, and more — represent a huge cross-section of the country. And for decades, they've used their unions to fight not just for better working conditions, but for civil rights, charting a course that leads right up to today. In this episode, we turn an eye to the sky to see how American unions took flight.

    • 47 min
    A History of Hamas

    A History of Hamas

    On October 7th, the organization Hamas, which is also the ruling government of Gaza, perpetrated an attack just across the border in Israel. The Israeli government says that the attack killed around 1200 people, most of them civilians. And Hamas also kidnapped hundreds more, including women and children, and took them back to Gaza as hostages. In response, Israel has bombarded and invaded Gaza. More than 11,000 people have been killed, and many more displaced. Since that day we've heard from many of you, our listeners, with questions about Hamas. So we took a few weeks to talk to experts on all sides to answer those questions – people who know the history deeply, and have even participated in it. Today on the show: the origins of Hamas, the context in which it developed, and what it represents to Palestinians, Israelis, and the rest of the world.

    • 51 min
    What Americans Get Wrong About Canada (Throughline+)

    What Americans Get Wrong About Canada (Throughline+)

    Throughline fellow Sasha Crawford-Holland talks to producer and reporter Cristina Kim about why Canada has gotten an outsized favorable reputation—and what's wrong with that—and about how Canadians in the 1920s adopted the dangerous and racist rhetoric and practices they saw in a controversial American film.

    To access bonus episodes like this and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, sign up for Throughline+ at plus.npr.org

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5
13.9K Ratings

13.9K Ratings

bailindsey ,

The Absolute Best!

I look forward to listening to each episode of Throughline. I either learn something new or I am corrected on something I was sure I thought I knew. Whichever it is I am enlightened. The hosts Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei are so good at making me feel I am included in the conversation. Special kudos for the History of Hamas episode. It brought together for me what I have seen, what I have read and what I have heard regarding the Middle East conflict.

cydwel ,

What’s with the Audio Drops?

Usually, the audio quality of “Throughline” is impeccable. But the latest ADA episode - in Througline+ no less! - had periodic audio drops that took out so many words that it made it unlistenable. Obviously, this isn’t what I’m paying extra for.

Ku meli ,

Thank you!

I really appreciate your tale of two tribes episode. We don’t often hear this history and I appreciate the representation.

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