Unsung History

For several decades in the 20th Century, American universities, including elite institutions, took nude photos of their students, sometimes as often as twice a year, in order to evaluate their posture. In some cases students had to achieve a minimum posture grade in order to graduate. How did that practice develop, and how did it end? This week we’re discussing Americans’ obsession with posture with Dr. Beth Linker, the Samuel H. Preston Endowed Term Professor in the Department of the History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Slouch: Posture Panic in Modern America. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Debutante Intermezzo,” composed and performed by Howard Kopp in 1916; the audio is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is from “The posture of school children, with its home hygiene and new efficiency methods for school training,” from 1913, by Jessie H. Bancroft; the image is in the public domain and is available via Wikimedia Commons. Additional sources: Correct Posture League.; Will Educate Children and Adults to Stand Up StraightCollege Slouch" Proved By Orthopedic TestsThe Rise and Fall of American PostureThe Great Ivy League Nude Posture Photo ScandalIt’s Not Too Late to Fix Your PostureSix ways to improve your postureRebecca NewmanLearn how to correct your posture in only 60 secondsRon KaspriskeHow to promote good posture and avoid becoming hunched over Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

In the fall of 1983, the LAPD, under Chief of Police Darryl Gates and in collaboration with the LA Unified School District, launched Project DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), sending 10 police officers into 50 elementary schools to teach kids how to say no to drugs. By the time DARE celebrated its 10-year anniversary, there were DARE officers in all 50 states, teaching 4.5 million students. The program was praised by presidents and supported by major corporate sponsors, but in the 1990s social scientists started to question its effectiveness, eventually leading to a precipitous decline in the numbers of school districts participating in the program. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Max Felker-Kantor, Associate Professor of History at Ball State University and author of Dare to Say No: Policing and the War on Drugs in Schools. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Back to the 80s” by Roman Oriekhov from Pixabay; it is available via the Pixabay Content License. The episode image is “Children from Sterling Heights Elementary school recite the pledge of allegiance at the Drugs Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) graduation on Kadena Air Base (AB), Okinawa, Japan,” taken on February 28, 2003; the image is released to the public and is available via the National Archives (NAID: 6642856). Additional Sources: “D.A.R.E.’s Story as a Leader in Drug Prevention Education,” D.A.R.E. America.“DARE Marks a Decade of Growth and Controversy : Youth: Despite critics, anti-drug program expands nationally. But some see declining support in LAPD,” by Jim Newton, Los Angeles Times, September 9, 1993.“How effective is drug abuse resistance education? A meta-analysis of Project DARE outcome evaluations,” by ST Ennett, NS Tobler, CL Ringwalt, and RL Flewelling, American Journal of Public Health 1994;84(9):1394-1401. “Just Say No to D.A.R.E.,” by Dennis P. Rosenbaum, Criminology and Public Policy, 6(4), 815-824.“DARE: The Anti-Drug Program That Never Actually Worked,” by Rosie Cima, Priceonomics.“Just Say No?” by Scott Lilienfeld and Hal Arkowitz, Scientific American Mind, 15552284, Jan/Feb2014, Vol. 25, Issue 1.“A brief history of DARE, the anti-drug program Jeff Sessions wants to revive,” by Christopher Ingraham, The Washington Post, July 12, 2017.“Proclamation 5854 -- National D.A.R.E. Day, 1988,” by Ronald Reagan, September 8, 1988, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.“Proclamation 8648—National D.A.R.E. Day, 2011,” by Barack Obama, April 11, 2011, The American Presidency Project. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

When Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901, his eldest child, 17-year-old Alice, rose quickly to celebrity status. The public loved hearing about the exploits of the poker-playing, gum-chewing “Princess Alice,” who kept a small green snake in her purse. By the time she died at age 96, Alice, whose Dupont Circle home included an embroidered pillow with the phrase “If you can’t say something good about someone, sit right here by me,” was such an institution in DC politics that she was known as The Other Washington Monument. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Michael Patrick Cullinane, Professor of U.S. History and the Lowman Walton Chair of Theodore Roosevelt Studies at Dickinson State University in North Dakota, author of several books on Theodore Roosevelt, and host of the The Gilded Age and Progressive Era Podcast. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Alice Blue Gown,” from the musical comedy “Irene,” composed by Harry Tierney with lyrics by Joseph McCarthy; the soloist is Edith Day, and the recording from February 2, 1920, is in the public domain and available via the LIbrary of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is a photograph of Alice Roosevelt with a family parrot, taken around 1904; the photograph is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress. Additional Sources: Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker, by Stacy A. Cordery, Penguin Books, 2008.“'Princess' Alice Roosevelt Longworth,” by Myra MacPherson, The Washington Post, February 21, 1980.“From a White House Wedding to a Pet Snake, Alice Roosevelt’s Escapades Captivated America,” by Francine Uenuma, Smithsonian Magazine, November 18, 2022.“Alice Roosevelt Longworth at 90,” by Sally Quinn, The Washington Post, February 12, 1974.“Alice Roosevelt Longworth: Presidential Daughter and American Celebrity,” by Lina Mann, The White House Historical Association, October 10, 2017.“A Presidential Daughter You Could Pick On: Alice Roosevelt Longworth was the sassiest offspring ever to occupy the White House,” by Carol Felsenthal, Politico, December 3, 2014.“The Last Time America Turned Away From the World,” by By John Milton Cooper, The New York Times, November 21, 2019.“The ‘First Daughter’ in Asia: Alice Roosevelt’s 1905 Trip,” The Association for Asian Studies. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

In August 1943, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt set off in secrecy from San Francisco on a military transport plane, flying across the Pacific Ocean. It wasn’t until she showed up in New Zealand 10 days later that the public learned about her trip, a mission to the frontlines of the Pacific Theater in World War II to serve as "the President's eyes, ears and legs." Eleanor returned to New York five weeks and nearly 26,000 miles later, having seen an estimated 400,000 troops on her trip and producing a detailed report on American Red Cross activities in the Southwest Pacific for Norman Davis, Chairman of the American Red Cross. Joining me in this episode is journalist Shannon McKenna Schmidt, author of The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt's Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode audio is from the December 7, 1941, episode of Over Our Coffee Cups, a weekly 15-minute radio show hosted by Eleanor Roosevelt on the NBC Blue network; in 1942, these recordings were donated to the Library of Congress as a gift from the sponsor, the Pan-American Coffee Bureau; the audio clip can be accessed on the C-SPAN website. The episode image is “Eleanor Roosevelt, General Harmon, and Admiral Halsey in New Caledonia,” taken on September 16, 1943; the image is in the public domain and is available via the National Archives, NAID: 195974. Additional Sources: “This Is What Eleanor Roosevelt Said to America’s Women on the Day of Pearl Harbor,” by Lily Rothman, Time Magazine, Originally published December 7, 2016, and updated on December 6, 2018.“ER and the Office of Civilian Defense,” Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project.“In the South Pacific War Zone (1943),” Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project.“Eleanor Roosevelt: American Ambassador to the South Pacific,” by Glenn Barnett, Warfare History Network, July 2006.“A First Lady on the Front Lines,” by Paul M Sparrow, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, August 26, 2016.“Eleanor Roosevelt and World War II,” National Park Service.“Eleanor Roosevelt: South Pacific Visit [video],” clip from The Roosevelts by Ken Burns, September 13, 2014. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Journalist Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore traveled the world in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, writing books and hundreds of articles about such places as Alaska, Japan, China, India, and helping shape the journal of the National Geographic Society into the photograph-heavy magazine it is today. Scidmore is perhaps best known today for her long-running and eventually successful campaign to bring Japanese cherry trees to Potomac Park in Washington, DC. Joining me in this episode is writer Diana Parsell, author of Eliza Scidmore: The Trailblazing Journalist Behind Washington's Cherry Trees. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “My Cherry Blossom,” written by Ted Snyder and performed by Lanin’s Orchestra on May 12, 1921, in New York City; audio is in the public domain and is available via the Discography of American Historical Recordings. The episode image is "Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore [signature]," The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library Digital Collections, 1895 - 1910. Additional Sources: “Cherry blossoms’ champion, Eliza Scidmore, led a life of adventure,” by Michael E. Ruane, The Washington Post, March 13, 2012.“Eliza Scidmore,” National Park Service.“Beyond the Cherry Trees: The Life and Times of Eliza Scidmore,” by Jennifer Pocock, National Geographic,March 27, 2012.“The Surprisingly Calamitous History of DC’s Cherry Blossoms,” by Hayley Garrison Phillips, Washingtonian, March 18, 2018.“Cherry Blossoms, Travel Logs, and Colonial Connections: Eliza Scidmore’s Contributions to the Smithsonian,” by Kasey Sease, Smithsonian Institution Archives, August 18, 2020.“Celebrating Eliza Scidmore: Nat Geo’s First Female Photographer,” by Kern Carter, Writers are Superstars, May 14, 2023.“The American Woman Who Reported On Japan’s Entry Into World War I,”“The woman who shaped National Geographic,” National Geographic, February 22, 2017.“Photo lot 139, Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore photographs relating to Japan and China,” National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

In 1812, when the United States was still a young nation and its State Department was tiny, American citizens began heading around the world as Christian missionaries. Early in the 19th Century, the US government often saw missionaries as experts on the politics, culture, and language of regions like China and the Sandwich Islands, but as the State Department expanded its own global footprint, it became increasingly concerned about missionary troubles. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Emily Conroy-Krutz, Associate Professor of History at Michigan State University and author of Missionary Diplomacy: Religion and Nineteenth-Century American Foreign Relations. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Jesus, Love of My Soul,” written by Charles Wesley and performed by Simeon Butler March and Henry Burr on February 25, 1916; the audio is in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is from the Jubilee Story of the China Inland Mission, Marshall Broomhall, Morgan & Scott, London, 1915; it is in the public domain. Additional Sources: “Were Christian missionaries ‘foundational’ to the United States?” by Emily Conroy-Krutz, The Washington Post, October 18, 2018.“Into All the World: the Story of Haystack [video,]” Chaplain Rick Spalding, Williams College, September 25, 2013.“American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions historical documents,” Global Ministries.“The life and letters of Samuel Wells Williams, LL.D., missionary, diplomatist, Sinologue,” by Frederick Wells Williams, 1889.“Missionary Movement - Timeline Movement,” The Association of Religion Data Archives.“The Foreign Missionary Movement in the 19th and early 20th Centuries,” by Daniel H. Bays, National Humanities center.“A History of the United States Department of State, 1789-1996,” Released by the Office of the Historian, July 1996.“About,” United States Department of State.“In 200-year tradition, most Christian missionaries are American,” by Daniel Lovering, Reuters, February 20, 2012. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

In 1931, Judge Samuel Seabury was leading an investigation for Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt into corruption in New York’s magistrate courts when a witness in the investigation named Vivian Gordon was found murdered in the Bronx. Because of the public demand for answers in this high-profile murder case, FDR could no longer keep his uneasy peace with Tammany Hall and expanded the scope of Seabury’s investigation. What Seabury’s team uncovered brought down Mayor Jimmy Walker and began to topple the Tammany Hall stranglehold on New York City politics. Joining me in this episode is writer Michael Wolraich, author of The Bishop And The Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is by Daniel Carlton on Pixabay and is available for use via the Pixabay Content License. The episode image is “Mid-town Manhattan, looking northeast toward Chrysler Building,” photographed by William Frange, ca. 1931; there are no known restrictions on publication and the image is available via the Library of Congress. Additional Sources: “The Politics and Iconography of Tammany in the Early American Republic,” by Keith Muchowski, Journal of the American Revolution, August 19, 2021“Boss Tweed’s Rise and Downfall | New York: A Documentary Film [video],” PBS.“The corrupt N.Y. congressman who was sentenced to prison — and escaped,” by George Bass, The Washington post, July 2, 2023.“The Case For Tammany Hall Being On The Right Side Of History,” NPR Fresh Air, March 5, 2014.“How an Unlikely Alliance Saved the Democrats 100 Years Ago,” by Terry Golway, Politico Magazine, September 17, 2018.“Franklin D. Roosevelt: Life Before the Presidency,” by William E. Leuchtenburg, UVA Miller Center.“Samuel Seabury,” Historical Society of the New York Courts.“The Insane 1930s Graft Investigation That Took Down New York’s Mayor—and Then Tammany Hall,” by Erin Blakemore, History.com, Originally posted April 17, 2019, and updated April 22, 2019.“The Dead Woman Who Brought Down the Mayor,” by Rachel Shteir, Smithsonian Magazine, February 25, 2013.“Jimmy Walker May Have Been NYC's Most Corrupt Mayor, but Damn Was He Fun,” Avenue Magazine, December 2, 2021.“Jazz Age Mayor and Villager, Jimmy Walker,” by Sarah Bean Apmann, Off the Grid, June 18, 2020. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Starting in November 1861, the Union Army held the city of Beaufort, South Carolina, using the Sea Islands as a southern base of operations in the Civil War. Harriet Tubman joined the Army there, debriefing freedom seekers who fled enslavement in nearby regions and ran to seek the Union Army’s protection in Beaufort. With the intelligence Tubman gathered, she and Colonel James Montgomery led 150 Black soldiers on a daring raid along the Combahee RIver in June 1863, destroying seven rice plantations in the heart of the Confederate breadbasket, causing $6 million worth of damages and liberating 756 people from enslavement on the rice fields. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Edda Fields-Black, Associate Professor of HIstory at Carnegie Mellon University and author of COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is "Dangerous," by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License. The episode image is Mcpherson & Oliver, photographer. “2nd South Carolina Infantry Regiment raid on rice plantation, Combahee, South Carolina,” by Mcpherson and Oliver, published in Harper’s Weekly, July 4, 1863; the image is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress. Additional Sources: “Port Royal, Battle of,” by Stephen R. Wise, Encyclopedia of South Carolina, Originally published June 20, 2016, and updated August 22, 2022.“Nov. 7, 1861: The Port Royal Experiment Initiated,” Zinn Education Project.“The Port Royal Experiment,” The Lowcountry Digital History Initiative (LDHI).“Port Royal Experiment: Reconstruction Era in Beaufort, South Carolina with Park Ranger Chris Barr [video],” National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT), August 23, 2022.“Life on the Sea Islands (Part I),” by Charlotte Forten Grimké, The Atlantic, May 1864.“Life on the Sea Islands (Part II),” by Charlotte Forten Grimké, The Atlantic, June 1864.“Harriet Tubman’s Great Raid,” by Paul Donnelly, The New York Times, June 7, 2013.“After the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman Led a Brazen Civil War Raid,” by Alexis Clark, History.com, Originally published November 1, 2019, and updated August 29, 2023. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Today, Americans consume 400 pounds of ice a year, each. That would have been unfathomable to people in the 18th century, but a number of innovators and ice barons in the 19th and 20th centuries changed the way we think about the slippery substance. Joining me in this episode is writer Dr. Amy Brady, author of Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks–A Cool History of a Hot Commodity. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “All She Gets from the Iceman is Ice,” written by Arthur J. Lamb and Alfred Solman and performed by Ada Jones in 1908; the song is in the public domain and is available via the Internet Archive. The episode image is: “Girls deliver ice. Heavy work that formerly belonged to men only is being done by girls. The ice girls are delivering ice on a route and their work requires brawn as well as the partriotic ambition to help," taken on September 16, 1918; image is in the public domain and is available via the National Archives (NAID: 533758; Local ID: 165-WW-595A(3)). Additional Sources: “The Stubborn American Who Brought Ice to the World,” By Reid Mitenbuler, The Atlantic, February 5, 2013.“Tracing the History of New England’s Ice Trade,” by Devin Hahn and Amy Laskowski, The Brink: Pioneering Research from Boston University, February 4, 2022.“The Bizarre But True Story of America's Obsession With Ice Cubes,” by Reid Mitenbuler, Epicurious, September 26, 2016.“The Surprisingly Cool History of Ice, by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie, Mental Floss, February 10, 2016.“Keeping your (food) cool: From ice harvesting to electric refrigeration,” by Emma Grahn, National Museum of American History, April 29, 2015.“When Everyone Wanted to Be the Iceman,” by Kelly Robinson, Atlas Obscura, August 23, 2019.“The History of Human-Made Ice,” by Amy Brady, Discover Magazine, December 2, 2023.“The Dawn of New York's Ice Age,” by Edward T. O'Donnell, The New York Times, July 21, 2005.“The History of the Refrigerator,” by Mary Bellis, ThoughtCo, Updated on October 31, 2019.“A Chilling History: on the science and technology of portable coolers,” by Laura Prewitt, Science History Institute, July 24, 2023.No chill: A closer look at America’s obsession with ice,” by Haley Chouinard, Business of Home, December 23, 2020.“Climate-Friendly Cocktail Recipes Go Light on Ice,” by Amy Brady, Scientific American, July 1, 2023. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

If you’re like most Americans – or most people on earth – you have a pair of jeans, or maybe five, in your wardrobe. There’s a decent chance you’re wearing jeans right now. These humble pants were invented by a Reno tailor in the 1870s in response to a frustrated customer whose husband kept wearing through his pants too quickly. How, then, did they become a global phenomenon expected to exceed $100 billion in sales by 2025? Joining me to help answer that question is historian, writer, and screenwriter, Dr. Carolyn Purnell, author of Blue Jeans. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Blue Jeans,” composed by Josef Pasternack and performed by the Peerless Quartet in 1921; audio is in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is “Five Idaho farmers, members of Ola self-help sawmill co-op, in the woods standing against a load of logs ready to go down to their mill about three miles away,” photographed by Dorothea Lange in Gem County, Idaho, in October 1939 for the Farm Security Administration; the image is in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress. Additional Sources: “The Origin of Blue Jeans,” by Joseph Stromberg, Smithsonian Magazine, September 26, 2011.“The History of Denim,” Levi Strauss & Co., July 4, 2019.“Riveted: The History of Jeans [video],” PBS American Experience Season 34, Episode 1, February 7, 2022. “Durable and enduring, blue jeans turn 150,” by Jessica Green, NPR Weekend Edition Sunday, May 23, 2023.“Behind 150 years of the world’s most famous denim jeans,” by Gordon Ng, Vogue Singapore, May 3, 2023.“How Denim Became a Political Symbol of the 1960s,” by Brandon Tensley, Smithsonian Magazine, December 2020.“Throwback Thursday: Levi’s — Right For School?” Levi Strauss & Co., September 24, 2015. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

In January 1942, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia sent New York City police out on an important mission; their objective: to find and destroy tens of thousands of pinball machines. But some of pinball’s most important innovations, including the development of flippers, happened in the decades that it was banned in New York and many other US cities. This week we dig in to the fun – and sometimes surprising – history of pinball. Joining me in this episode is illustrator and cartoonist Jon Chad, author of Pinball: A Graphic History of the Silver Ball. I’m also joined by a special guest co-host, my son, Teddy. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Caterpillar,” by Gvidon, available for use under the Pixabay content license. The episode image is “Playing the pinball machine at the steelworkers' Serbian Club in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania,” photographed by Jack Delano, 1941, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives. Additional Sources: The Backstory: The Comte d’Artois, pinball’s original wizard, lived life at full tiltBrendan KileyThe Human Side of Louis XVI and Marie AntoinetteBagatelle patent model patented by Montague RedgraveBaffle Ball“Bally MFG Company, est. 1932That Time America Outlawed PinballHow the Mob Made Pinball Public Enemy #1 in the 1940sAllison McNearneyChicago once waged a 40-year war on pinballHow One Perfect Shot Saved Pinball From Being Illegal‘These Things Are Works of Art’: Chicago’s History as the Manufacturing Center for Pinball MachinesAn Industry Suffers as Few People Play a Mean Pinball AnymoreInside America's Last Great Pinball FactoryThe Inside Story of Pinball's Renaissance,A Look At The Unlikely Resurgence Of Pinball In The Mobile Age [video]Pinball Map Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

In 1812, the United States Congress voted to provide $50,000 to assist victims of a horrific earthquake in the far-away country of Venezuela. It would be another nine decades before the US again provided aid for recovery efforts after a foreign rapid-onset natural disaster, but over time it became much more common for the US to help in such emergencies. This disaster relief, provided via a three-pronged response from the State Department, the military, and the voluntary sector, especially represented by the American Red Cross, serves both humanitarian and diplomatic functions for the United States. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Julia Irwin, the T. Harry Williams Professor of History at Louisiana State University and author of Catastrophic Diplomacy: US Foreign Disaster Assistance in the American Century. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Palloncini sweet and happy piano song,” by Pastichio_Piano_Music, available for use under the Pixabay Content License. The episode image is “Personnel of Commander Carrier Division 15, showing the prime minister of Ceylon the supplies that the US Navy was delivering to flood victims in his country in early 1958,” Image courtesy of Naval History and Heritage Command. Additional Sources: How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr, Picador USA, 2020.“The City of Earthquakes,” by Horace D. Warner, The Atlantic, March 1883.“Founding and early years of the ICRC (1863-1914),” International Committee of the Red Cross, May 12, 2020.“A Brief History of the American Red Cross,” American Red Cross. “American Empire,” American Yawp.“December 28, 1908: The Tsunami of Messina,” by David Bressan, Scientific American History of Geology, December 28, 2012.By David Bressan on December 28, 2012“USAID History,” United States Agency for International Development.“Where We Work,” United States Agency for International Development. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

In 1938, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally developed the potent psychedelic LSD, although it would be several years before Hofmann realized what he’d created. During the Cold War, the CIA launched a top-secret mind control project, code-named MKUltra, experimenting with LSD and other psychedelic substances, drugging military personnel, CIA employees, and civilians, often without their consent or even their knowledge. At the same time, the CIA was funding university research on psychedelics, involving scientists like Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson and counterculture luminaries like Ken Kesey and Allen Ginsberg. Although mid-20th Century scientists had seen therapeutic promise in psychedelics, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act in 1970, which classified LSD, along with psilocybin, MDMA, and peyote, as Schedule I drugs, defined by the DEA as having “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Joining me in this episode is Dr. Benjamin Breen, Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and author of Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is Psychedelic Atmospheric Dream Guitar, by Sonican, available for use via the Pixabay Content License. The episode image is a photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash; free to use under the Unsplash License. Additional Sources: Your employer may be adding another health benefit to its roster: psychedelic drugsPsychedelics gave terminal patients relief from their intense anxietyPeople were using psychedelic drugs in Bronze Age Europe, study findsPrehistoric peyote use: alkaloid analysis and radiocarbon dating of archaeological specimens of Lophophora from Texas'Apparently Useless': The Accidental Discovery of LSDThe Evolutionary Origins of PsychedelicsA brief history of psychedelic psychiatryMargaret Mead: Human Nature and the Power of CultureHistory of CIAWhat We Know About the CIA’s Midcentury Mind-Control ProjectThe CIA’s Appalling Human Experiments with Mind ControlAmerican Trip: Set, Setting, and the Psychedelic Experience in the Twentieth CenturyWhat to know about Colorado’s psychedelic law Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

In 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, the last slave ship landed in the United States from Africa. The transatlantic slave trade had been illegal in the US since 1808, but Alabama enslaver Timothy Meaher and his friends were so sure they could get away with it that they made a bet and hired Meaher’s neighbor, William Foster, to captain a voyage to Africa. Foster and his crew smuggled 110 terrified kidnapped Africans to Mobile Bay, taking them from a homeland they loved to cruel enslavement in the deep South, and changing their lives forever. Joining me in this episode is historian Dr. Hannah Durkin, author of The Survivors of the Clotilda: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the American Slave Trade. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Slow Thoughtful Sad Piano (This Cold Feeling),” by Ashot Danielyan; the music is available via the Pixabay content license. The episode image is “Abaché and Kazoola ‘Cudjoe’ Lewis,” by Emma Langdon Roche from Historic Sketches of the South, published in 1914 and now in the public domain. Additional Sources: Historical Context: The Constitution and SlaveryThe Slave Trade ClauseCongress votes to ban slave trade: March 2, 1807The Execution of Nathaniel GordonSome Economic Aspects of the Domestic Slave Trade, 1830-1860The Atlantic Slave Trade Continued Illegally in America Until the Civil WarHistorical TimelineThe Clotilda Descendants AssociationThe ‘Clotilda,’ the Last Known Slave Ship to Arrive in the U.S., Is FoundLast survivor of transatlantic slave trade discoveredExploring the Clotilda, the last known slave ship in the U.S., brings hopePeñalozaDescendants of Alabama slave owner say they're ‘figuring out next steps’ to make amends Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

In 1830, amid the Second Great Awakening in the burned-over district of New York State, Joseph Smith, Jr., and Oliver Cowdery ordained each other as the first two elders in what they then called the Church of Christ. Within eight years, the Governor of Missouri issued an executive order that members of the church, by then known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints “must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state,” driving 10,000 of the faithful to flee to Illinois. This week we discuss the turbulent–and often violent–history of Mormonism and look at the religion’s complicated relationship with the country in which it originated. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Benjamin E. Park, Associate Professor of History at Sam Houston State University and author of American Zion: A New History of Mormonism. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “O My Father,” Composed by Evan Stephens with lyrics by Eliza R. Snow; performed by Trinity Mixed Quartet on September 18, 1923; the audio is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is "The Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA,” Photo by David Iliff; License: CC BY-SA 3.0. Additional Sources: Timeline: The Early History of the MormonsThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Fast FactsMormonism: Guide to Materials and ResourcesThe Joseph Smith PapersDoctrine and Covenants 132The Brink of War: One hundred fifty years ago, the U.S. Army marched into Utah prepared to battle Brigham Young and his Mormon militiaHow Mormonism Went MainstreamLatter-day Saint membership passed 17 million in 2023, according to a new church statistical reportThe Mormon Poetess Dead Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Almost as soon as there were radio stations, there were college radio stations. In 1948, to popularize FM radio, the FCC introduced class D non commercial education licenses for low-watt college radio stations. By 1967, 326 FM radio signals in the United States operated as “educational radio,” 220 of which were owned and operated by colleges and universities. The type of programming that these stations offered varied widely, from lectures and sporting events, to various kinds of musical shows, but toward the late 1970s, a new genre of college rock appeared on the scene. Record labels took note as college DJs discovered up-and-coming new artists, although they sometimes stopped playing those artists once they made it big. Joining this week’s episode is historian Dr. Katherine Rye Jewell, a Professor at Fitchburg State University and author of Live from the Underground: A History of College Radio. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “College Days by Charles Hart, et al., 1919, in the public domain and retrieved from the Library of Congress. The episode image is “Don Jackson, a senior, delivering a news broadcast at the Iowa State College radio station,” photographed by Jack Delano at Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa in May 1942; photograph in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information. Additional Sources: The Development of RadioMarconi’s First Wireless TransmissionMarconi's first radio broadcast made 125 years agoRadio's First Voice...Canadian!History of Commercial RadioWhich college radio station was the first in the United States?About WRUC 89.7Celebrating 90 Years of Broadcasting at Curry CollegeWhat Is "College" Rock?Shawn PersingerWhen college radio went mainstream—and 20 bands that came with it10 Legendary Bands that Wouldn’t Be Legendary without College RadioU2 Rock Fordham University: On the Ground at the ‘Secret’ SetAll that is left is R.E.M. Steeple – Celebrating the beginning of Athens’ legendary bandJoe Vitale60 Songs That Explain the ’90s’: R.E.M. and the Leap From College-Rock Gods to Mainstream IconsREM: The band that defined, then eclipsed college rockHistory TimelineHistoryLeft of the dial: College radio daysTechnology and the Soul of College RadioThe Enduring Relevance of College RadioCollege Radio Maintains Its Mojo Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

What makes a Christmas movie a Christmas movie? How do Christmas movies react to – and help us heal from – collective trauma? How can a British Christmas movie feel quintessentially American? We discuss all that and more this week at the 20th Anniversary of Love Actually, with G. Vaughn Joy, a film historian, writer, podcast host, and PhD candidate at University College London. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The first mid-episode musical selection is “The First Noel,” from Christmas Songs and Carols (1912) by Trinity Choir; in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The second mid-episode musical selection is “Jingle Bells,” from Favorite Colleges Songs (1916) by Victor Male Chorus; in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is from a publicity poster for Love Actually. Films Discussed: It’s a Wonderful LifeThe Bishop’s WifeA Christmas StoryDie HardLove ActuallyThe HolidayRed Nose Day ActuallyKlaus Additional Sources: From Fiction to Film: ‘The Greatest Gift’ and ‘It’s a Wonderful LifeHow World War II shaped ‘It’s a Wonderful LifeWhat ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ Teaches Us About American HistoryHow A Christmas Story Went from Low-Budget Fluke to an American TraditionWhat’s That Building? The real-life locations from ‘A Christmas StoryA Christmas Story HouseLove ActuallyFILM REVIEW; Tales of Love, the True and the Not-So-TrueLove Actually Is the Least Romantic Film of All TimeChristopher Orr25 Surprising Facts About ’Love Actually’ for Its 20th AnniversaryThe Visible Magic of Asking ‘Why?’ A Contemporary History Approach to Klaus (2019) Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Stories of the Civil Rights Movement don’t often center the fundraisers, often Black women, whose tireless efforts made the movement possible; today we’re featuring one of those women. Mollie Moon, born in 1907, the founder and first chairperson of the National Council of Urban League Guilds, raised millions of dollars for the Civil Rights Movement, using her charm and connections to throw charity galas, like her famed Beaux Arts Ball, where everyone wanted to be seen. Her long service to the movement eventually earned her the President's Volunteer Action Award from President George H. W. Bush in 1989. Joining this episode to tell us all about Mollie Moon and the funding of the Civil Rights Movement is Dr. Tanisha C. Ford, professor of history in The Graduate Center, at CUNY, and author of Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money, and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Crazy Blues,” composed by Perry Bradford and performed by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1921; the recording is in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is from the cover of Our Secret Society; Image: Harper Collins. Additional Sources: Socialite Mollie Moon Used Fashion Shows to Fund the Civil Rights MovementMollie Moon, 82, Founding Head Of the Urban League Guild, DiesMollie Moon: A Real VoiceRiver Campus LibrariesHenry Lee Moon (1901-1985)Louise Thompson and the Black and White FilmHarlem Community Art CenterNational Urban League GuildFunding a Social Movement: The Ford Foundation and Civil Rights, 1965-1970 Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

In the ravages of post-World War II Europe, some Jewish women survivors of the Holocaust found the beginnings of a new life when they met – and married – American (and Canadian and British) men serving with the Allied forces. These women were part of a much larger group of war brides, who came to the United States in such large numbers that they required a change in immigration law, but these Jewish war brides faced additional challenges, from language barriers to the memory of the trauma they’d experienced to finding a community in their new home. Dr. Robin Judd, Associate Professor of History at the Ohio State University and author of Between Two Worlds: Jewish War Brides after the Holocaust, joins this episode to help us explore the story of these women. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Hava Nagila - Orchestra Clarinet,” by JuliusH, available for use via the Pixabay content license. The episode image is “Hanns Ann Alexander wedding 1946,” taken on May 19, 1946, and posted on Flickr by David Lisbona; the image was adapted for use under CC BY 2.0 DEED. Additional Sources: Displaced PersonsComing To America: The War Brides Act of 1945Here Came The War Brides 60 Years Ago, a Vast Wave of British Women Followed Their New Loves to a New LandBand of SistersAmerica Denied Refugees After the End of World War II—Just As We Are TodayStatement by the President Upon Signing the Displaced Persons ActFlory Jagoda: Singer Songwriter, Storyteller, and Composer Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Scholar Merze Tate, born in Michigan in 1905, overcame the odds in what she called a “sex and race discriminating world,” to earn graduate degrees from Oxford University and Harvard University on her way to becoming the first Black woman to teach in the History Department at Howard University. During her long career, Tate published 5 books, 34 journal articles and 45 review essays in the fields of diplomatic history and international relations. Her legacy extends beyond her publications, as the fellowships she endowed continue to support students at her alma maters. Joining me in this episode is historian Dr. Barbara Savage, the Geraldine R. Segal Professor Emerita of American Social Thought and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Merze Tate: The Global Odyssey of a Black Woman Scholar. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is "Trio for Piano Violin and Viola," by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License. The episode image is “Portrait of Merze Tate;” photograph taken by Judith Sedwick in 1982 and housed in the Black Women Oral History Project Collection at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America; there are no known copyright restrictions. Additional sources: Merze Tate CollectionWho was Dr. Merze Tate?Merze Tate: Her Legacy ContinuesWMU's Merze Tate broke color barriers around the world [video]Merze TateVernie Merze Tate (1905-1996)Merze TateDiplomatic Historian Merze Tate Dies At 91Merze Tate College Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands