HISTORY This Week

HISTORY This Week returns with new episodes this Monday! We're kicking things off with a look at America's longtime fascination with Greenland, and how the U.S. military used the island to expand its Cold War nuclear ambitions. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

April 27, 1856. In Beijing’s Forbidden City, one of the emperor’s consorts, a woman named Cixi, has given birth to a son – the emperor’s first heir. This landmark event is met with mass celebration. But in just five years time, the emperor will be dead and Cixi will be planning a coup to take power for herself. How will she ever succeed? Special thanks to our guests: Jung Chang, author of Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China, and Professor Ying-chen Peng, author of Artful Subversion: Empress Dowager Cixi's Image Making in Art. **This episode originally aired April 24, 2023. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Imagine if you could ask someone anything you wanted about their finances. On What We Spend, people from across the country and across the financial spectrum are opening their wallets—and their lives—to tell you everything: what they make, what they want, and—for one week—what they spend. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

April 14, 1970. Apollo 13 is a quarter million miles from Earth, speeding towards the Moon, when a sudden explosion rocks the ship. Against all odds, the astronauts pull off one of the most remarkable survival missions in NASA history. 55 years after this harrowing flight, Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell explains exactly what it took to save his spaceship. Special thanks to Captain Jim Lovell, John Uri, Steven Barber and Vanilla Fire Productions. **This episode originally aired April 13, 2020. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

April 10, 1912. As the RMS Titanic pulls away from a crowded port on the south coast of England, it almost crashes. Just in time, it’s able to turn off its engines and prevent a collision with a smaller ship. Four days later, though, a serious disaster will not be avoided, and the Titanic’s first voyage will be her last. But during her brief life, the vessel is a microcosm of the Gilded world around her. How did this opulent luxury liner come to exist? And how did it foretell the dangers of wealth, technology, and arrogance that shaped the world around it, and the world we live in now? Special thanks to our guests, Susie Milar and Gareth Russell, author of The Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era. **This episode originally aired April 4, 2022. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

April 3, 1974. Across America, many people wake up this morning thinking it will be a normal day. But in the next 24 hours, almost 150 tornadoes will hit the United States. It will be the largest tornado outbreak in the nation's history. Why did so many deadly tornadoes hit on this one day? And how did it spur life-saving changes that are still with us decades later? Thank you to our guests: Greg Forbes, former severe weather expert with the Weather Channel; and atmospheric sciences professor Jeff Trapp from the University of Illinois. **This episode originally aired March 29, 2021. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

March 29, 1951. The world is waiting for the jury’s verdict. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg have been accused of spying for the Soviet Union, conspiring to send atomic secrets to America’s enemy in the Cold War. Ethel and Julius are tried in court together, and after the jury finds both Rosenbergs guilty, they receive the same punishment – the death penalty. But while they were treated the same, these two individuals have very different stories. Today, who was Ethel Rosenberg, the only woman executed for espionage in U.S. history? And why is her guilt still a topic of debate today? Special thanks to Anne Sebba, author of Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy; Michael and Robert Meeropol, the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg; and Steven Usdin, journalist and author of Engineering Communism: How Two Americans Spied for Stalin and Founded the Soviet Silicon Valley. ** This episode originally aired March 28, 2022. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

March 20, 1703. Today, almost fifty men, scattered around the city of Edo, Japan, are waiting to die. They’re all former samurai who had served the same lord – and they all carried out a deadly revenge attack in his name. Their story will go down in history as the legend of the 47 Ronin. Why did these men decide that to be loyal samurai, they had to die? And how did this moment live on for centuries and become part of the national story of Japan? Thank you to our guest, Professor John Tucker, author of The Forty-Seven Ronin: The Vendetta in History and translator of Kumazawa Banzan: Governing the Realm and Bringing Peace to All Below Heaven. ** This episode originally aired Oct 15, 2021. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

March 14, 1991. The Birmingham Six have been in prison for 16 years. Each of these six Irishmen was found guilty of 21 counts of murder back in 1975 – held responsible for bombs detonated at two popular pubs in Birmingham, England. They were accused of being part of an IRA terror campaign, but have maintained their innocence since the moment they were arrested. It turns out... they were telling the truth. Today, the Birmingham Six will be set free. How were they imprisoned for a crime they never committed? And why have the actual bombers never been brought to justice? Special thanks to Ed Barlow, producer at the BBC and creator of the podcast series In Detail: The Pub Bombings. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

College holds a mythic place in American culture, but behind the polished campus tours and glossy brochures lies a far more complicated reality. Each episode of Campus Files uncovers a new story that rocked a college or university. Consider this your unofficial campus tour. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

March 3rd, 1907. Dr. Sigmund Freud invites a guest into his office, Dr. Carl Jung. This is a meeting of the minds, about... the mind. Psychology. Freud and Jung will spend the next 13 hours discussing the unconscious, the hidden forces in our brains that guide our thoughts and decisions. They're two of the first doctors to explore this mysterious terrain, and this marathon meeting will spark a true friendship – until it all comes crashing down. How did Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung help shape the way we understand the human mind, that elusive unconscious? And why did their friendship eventually fall apart? Special thanks to our guests, Satya Doyle Byock, Jungian psychotherapist and author of Quarter Life, The Search for Self in Early Adulthood, and director of the Salome Institute of Jungian Studies; Dr. James Hollis, Jungian psychoanalyst and author of A Life of Meaning: Relocating Your Center of Spiritual Gravity; and Dr. George Makari, psychiatrist, historian, and author of Revolution in Mind: The Creation of Psychoanalysis, and director of the DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

February 26, 1924. 10 Defendants enter a courtroom in Munich. They are being charged with an attempted coup. They tried to overthrow the government of the Weimar Republic… and almost succeeded. All eyes are on the second defendant to enter the room. When the judge reads this man’s name into the record, he identifies him as a Munich writer named Adolf Hitler. Today: Hitler’s first attempt to seize power. How did his 1923 coup fail? And why would Hitler later say that this failure was “perhaps the greatest good fortune of my life?” Thank you to Thomas Weber for speaking with us for this episode, author of the book Becoming Hitler: The Making of a Nazi. Thank you also to our guest Peter Ross Range, author of 1924: The Year that Made Hitler. We also read David King’s book The Trial of Adolf Hitler in researching this episode–it’s a great resource if you want to learn more about this story. **This episode originally aired February 21, 2022. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

February 24, 1893. Most homes don't have electricity. And yet, one of the technology's pioneers, Nikola Tesla, is about to give the world a glimpse into a fully electrified future. He takes the stage at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, and begins a demonstration. He shoots sparks out of his hands, makes himself glow, and turns on some lightbulbs. The lightbulb part doesn't sound that impressive, until you realize... they're not plugged into anything. He's holding these bulbs in his hands, and they're still radiating light. This is the promise of Tesla's future. Today, Nikola Tesla's pursuit of wireless power. How did his relentless quest shape our world? And how did it lead to his downfall? Special thanks to Marc Seifer, author of Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

February 23, 2005. New York City's culinary elite gather at Gotham Hall. Tuxedoed waiters pass around champagne flutes and decadent hors d'oeuvres, as famous chefs like Eric Ripert and Anthony Bourdain pose for photos and gossip with their peers before the night’s main event: an announcement that could change their lives and the fate of America's dining scene. Édouard Michelin takes the stage. His company, Michelin, is one of the world's largest manufacturers of tires, but they also produce a restaurant guide that has dictated the fortunes of European restaurants for over 100 years. Now, the Michelin Guide, and its coveted stars, will be coming to America. When Michelin descends on New York City, which restaurants win? Which lose? And how does the battle itself transform American food culture? Special thanks to Peter Esmond, the former general manager of Per Se and current sales leader at DoorDash; Eric Ripert, chef of Le Bernardin in New York City; and Kathleen Squires, a food and travel writer whose work appears in the Wall Street Journal, Conde Nast Traveler and more. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

February 15, 1935. The American Medical Association, the AMA, is holding an emergency meeting in Chicago. The crisis? The possibility that the federal government is about to pass universal health insurance. Health insurance is a new concept in America at this time, but President Franklin Roosevelt's administration is looking to include it in a package that will include another piece of new legislation - Social Security. The AMA, which represents thousands of American doctors, fears that government-backed insurance could dictate how doctors care for patients, and how much money they're allowed to make. The AMA's resistance is the beginning of a nearly 20-year battle against this initiative. How does the AMA eventually use never-before-seen tactics to fight against a national healthcare program? And how is that program ultimately defeated? Special thanks to Marcella Alsan, Angelopoulos Professor of Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a Professor of Public Health at the Chan School of Public Health at Harvard. Her working paper on this topic is titled, Why Doesn’t the United States Have National Health Insurance? The Role of the American Medical Association. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

February 11, 2005. FBI agents bust down the door of a cinder block house near the University of Kentucky campus. Amid flash grenades and screaming teens, they arrest three students – plus a fourth student in a nearby dorm. The crime? Stealing almost $750,000 of rare books and manuscripts from the library at Transylvania University. Why did four freshmen decide to actually go through with their real life version of Ocean’s Eleven? And how did they plan to get away with it? Special thanks to our guests, BJ Gooch, retired special collections librarian; Eric Borsuk, whose memoir is called American Animals: A True Crime Memoir; and Tom Lecky, rare book and manuscript specialist. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com ** This episode originally aired February 6, 2023. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

January 28, 1986. It's freezing in Central Florida, a historically cold day. That's bad news for citrus growers, and for NASA, which is scheduled to launch the Space Shuttle Challenger from Cape Canaveral this morning. Engineers have ben cautioning NASA that cold temperatures can make space launches dangerous. And yet, NASA decides to move ahead. They consider it an "acceptable risk" and send seven astronauts hurtling into the sky. What went wrong with the Space Shuttle Challenger? And if engineers knew what could happen, why wasn’t this disaster avoided? Special thanks to Adam Higginbotham, author of Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

To further celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we're re-releasing our classic episode about the Children's Crusade, an effort to bring the youth of Birmingham, Alabama into the Civil Rights Movement in order to affect change across the country. April 20, 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. walks out of Alabama’s Birmingham Jail after being held for a week for peacefully protesting. He spent most of that time writing a letter that passionately defends the civil rights movement’s nonviolent tactics. But despite King’s passion, the movement’s progress has stalled. King needs a major victory in Birmingham, but he’s running out of people willing to risk their livelihoods and safety for this cause. So a new tactic starts taking shape: recruiting young people to protest. After all, kids have the least to lose and the most to gain from a more equal future. But King says the risk is too high. So what changes his mind about putting kids on the front lines? And how did the Children’s March shift Americans’ support of civil rights? Special thanks to our guests: Children’s Crusade participants Jessie Shepherd, Janice Wesley Kelsey, and Charles Avery. And Ahmad Ward, former head of education at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and current Executive Director at Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com ** This episode originally aired April 17, 2023. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

January 15, 1969. It's been less than a year since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Friends, family, and followers are gathered at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Dr. King preached. They are there to remember him on his birthday, honor his legacy, and present a goal: an official celebration of his birthday every year, a holiday to commemorate his life and his struggle. Getting a holiday passed may sound like a bureaucratic formality, but it would become a years-long battle, mainly led by his widow, Coretta Scott King. And without an assist from a musical legend, it may have never come to be. Why was this holiday so controversial? And how did a still-popular song change the tide in this battle? Special thanks to Kevin Gaines, Julian Bond Professor of Civil Rights and Social Justice at the University of Virginia; and Crystal Sanders, historian and associate professor of African American studies at Emory University. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

January 15, 1939. It's finally working! After countless mechanical issues, the first operational ski lift in the state of Utah is taking people up the mountain so they can glide down its slopes. Skiing conditions are ideal in the town of Alta, and this lift will allow this relatively new sport to explode in popularity. But as beautiful as Alta is, there's also a looming threat... avalanches. Alta is in one of the most avalanche-prone areas in the entire country. It used to be a small mining town, and its residents have been dealing with avalanches for years, mourning their dead and rebuilding again and again. But now, with Alta becoming a haven for skiing, drastic measures will be needed to keep thousands of visitors safe. How did the Alta Ski Area become the testing ground for all things avalanche control? And how did rangers find their answer to the avalanche in a deadly weapon of war? Special thanks to Craig Gordon, avalanche forecaster with the U.S. Forest Service’s Utah Avalanche Center; Andrea Huskinson, former Alta Ski Area communication manager; and Jonathan Morgan, assistant director of the Alta Avalanche Program. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices