History Unplugged Podcast

Alfred Beach built America’s first operational subway in secret beneath 1860s Manhattan, decades before the city’s official electric subway line in 1904. He designed and commissioned a 300-foot-long, eight-foot-diameter tunnel 20 feet underground, built with a tunneling machine he invented for this purpose. The car moved quietly and silently, pushed by a 50-ton, steam-powered fan nicknamed "the Western Tornado," which pushed and pulled the single subway car through its sealed tube. Beach envisioned a clean, quiet pneumatic railway that would shoot passengers up and down Broadway, revolutionizing urban transit. The entire city would enjoy this steampunk system of transportation. He was the right man for the job. As the editor of Scientific American magazine and the head of the nation’s leading patent agency, Beach was intimately connected with many of the nineteenth century’s most important inventors and inventions. When Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, the first person he showed it to was Alfred Beach. But his dream was derailed by powerful political enemies, most notably Boss Tweed and the corrupt machine of Tammany Hall. Dreams of the project died after an economic crash in 1873. Today’s guest is Matthew Algeo, author of New York’s Secret Subway: The Underground Genius of Alfred Beach and the Origins of Mass Transit. We look at a pivotal moment in the origin story of mass transportation in America, and themes that resonate strongly today: infrastructure gridlock, public-private conflict, and the long-standing resistance to bold transit reform.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s a divide between Scotland and Ireland as fierce as the Protestant/Catholic split during the Thirty Years’ War or the battles between Sunnis and Shias in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. It’s the debate over who invented whisky. Both Ireland and Scotland claim to have originated the spirit. Ireland cites its early monastic traditions and the term "uisce beatha" (Gaelic for "water of life") as evidence of whisky production dating back to the 12th century. Scotland, however, argues that its distillation practices, documented in the 1494 Exchequer Rolls mentioning "aqua vitae," predate Ireland’s clear records and point to their refined techniques in the Highlands. Irish advocates emphasize that their missionaries spread distillation knowledge to Scotland, while Scots counter that their innovations in barrel aging and malting set whisky apart as a distinctly Scottish craft. The argument often hinges on differing definitions of what constitutes "whisky," with no definitive proof resolving the dispute, leaving both sides to proudly defend their heritage. Whisky stands out from other alcohols, like beer, due to its intricate production process, which relies on advanced distillation technology to create a high-potency spirit from fermented grains. The use of oak barrels for aging imparts complex flavors, such as vanilla, caramel, and smoky notes, giving whisky its distinctive depth and character. Today’s guest is Noah Rothbaum, a world-renowned drinks expert and author of The Whiskey Bible: A Complete Guide to the World’s Greatest Spirit. He reveals the history and lore of whisky. We discuss the possibly 5,000-year history of distillation and whisky, how phylloxera wiped out Europe’s vineyards and decimated the market for wine in the early 19th century but kickstarted interest in spirits, how Americans created a separate and distinct spirit, and the future of the drink.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The cavalry 'wings' that probed ahead of the Roman Army played a key role in its campaigns of conquest, masking its marching flanks and seeking to encircle enemies in battle. However, at the very beginning of Rome’s history, it didn’t even have a cavalry, and relied on Greek-style phalanx formations instead. It began as a small cavalry arm provided by the citizen nobility, but this had proved inadequate before the end of the Republic, and Julius Caesar's cavalry was largely made up of hired allies. During the Early Principate, the armies under Augustus continued in this vein, incorporating large numbers of non-citizen auxiliary cavalry units. The provinces came under increasing attack throughout and following the chaotic mid-3rd century, and Rome took lessons from its 'barbarian' enemies in how to improve its military mobility, adopting both new, heavily armored shock cavalry and horse-archers, and vitally shaping the tactics employed during the Dominate. Today’s guest is Mike Bishop, author of “Roman Cavalry Tactics.” We discuss how the cavalry grew to become the dominant force in Roman field armies by the twilight of the Western Empire. Eight newly commissioned artwork plates and a rich selection of artefact photographs and archaeological sources provide vivid detail and insight, helping to bring to the life the evolving tactics, clothing and weaponry of Rome's cavalry from the 2nd century BC through to the 5th century AD.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Modern France and Britain were forged in the fires of the Hundred Years War, a century-long conflict that produced deadly English longbowmen, Joan of Arc’s heavenly visions, and a massive death toll from Scotland to the Low Countries. The traditional beginning and end of the Hundred Years' War are conventionally marked by the start of open conflict in 1337, when Edward III of England laid claim to the French throne – and France invalidated English claims to continental lands -- and its conclusion with the French victory at the Battle of Castillon in 1453, the fall of the last English holdings on the continent. But Michael Livingston, today’s guest and author of “Blood Crowns: A New History of the Hundred Years War” argues redefines the scope and length of the Hundred Years War, arguing it really lasted from 1292–1492. And it didn’t just engulf England and France, but into regions like the Low Countries, Italy, and the Holy Roman Empire. It spread to the whole European continent and, eventually, the globe as the war's end spurred European powers to pursue their imperial ambitions abroad. The Hundred Years' War was also a period of significant military innovation, particularly with the English longbow and the introduction of gunpowder Livingston revises our understanding of the Two Hundred Years War as one that set the stage for a new global imperial order with ripple effects across the centuries.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

America saw a significant reverse-migration in the 1800s and 1900s, with 20–50% of Italian immigrants returning to Italy as ritornati and tens of thousands of Americans, including ideologues and workers, moving to Germany, Italy, and the USSR in the 1930s seeking political or economic opportunities. Some of these American expatriates were drawn to revolutionary movements in Europe and Asia, blending idealism with political activism Today’s guest is David Mayers, author of Seekers and Partisans: Americans Abroad in the Crisis Years, 1935–1941. We discuss alienated Americans who went abroad during the interwar years in search of a new home and/or to further deeply personal causes. They include John Robinson, a black aviator who in 1935 led the Ethiopian air force against the Italian invasion; Agnes Smedley, who joined the Chinese communists during the Sino-Japanese war; Helen Keller, an advocate of the seeing- and hearing-impaired; Ezra Pound, a lauded poet who championed Mussolini; and Anna Louise Strong, drawn to Stalin's USSR.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

12,000 years ago, human history changed forever when the egalitarian groups of hunter-gathering humans began to settle down and organize themselves into hierarchies. The few dominated the many, seizing control through violence. What emerged were “Goliaths”: large societies built on a collection of hierarchies that are also terrifyingly fragile, collapsing time after time across the world. Today, we live in a single, global Goliath—one that is precariously interdependent—under threat from nuclear war, climate change, and the existential risks of AI. The next collapse may be our last. Today’s guest is Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse. He conducts a historical autopsy on our species, from the earliest cities to the collapse of modern states like Somalia. Drawing on historical databases and the latest discoveries in archaeology and anthropology, he uncovers groundbreaking revelations:  More democratic societies tend to be more resilient. A modern collapse is likely to be global, long-lasting, and more dire than ever before  Collapse may be invisible until after it has occurred. It’s possible we’re living through one now. Collapse has often had a more positive outcome for the general population than for the 1%. All Goliaths contain the seeds of their own demise.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, enslaved people feared running away to the North, as their return was mandated, and they faced brutal punishment or even death upon return to deter others from escaping. But that changed during the Civil War. Black slaves in Confederate Virginia began hearing rumors that they could receive their freedom if they reached the Union’s Fort Monroe. Union General Benjamin Butler found a loophole in the Fugitive Slave Act that allowed slaves who fled to Northern lines to be treated as "contraband of war"—seized enemy property—under the Confiscation Act of 1861. This meant they would be set free instead of being returned to slaveholders. Butler did this to deplete the Confederacy's labor force and bolster Union morale by offering refuge to escaping enslaved people. Word spread across the state.  In a short time, nearly a thousand former slaves formed a camp outside the fort. Many worked to sustain the camps, growing crops like corn or cotton on nearby abandoned lands to feed themselves and generate resources. Men, women, and even children contributed to the war effort through various tasks, such as building fortifications, digging trenches, or serving as cooks, nurses, or laborers for Union troops. Freedpeople established schools, often with the help of Northern missionaries or organizations like the American Missionary Association, teaching literacy to adults and children. Other contraband camps sprang up, and by the end of the war, 800,000 former slaves had established over 200 of them. Today’s guest is Tom Zoellner, author of “The Road Was Full of Thorns: Running Toward Freedom in the American Civil War.” We discuss how these camps fostered interracial interactions that shifted public opinion toward abolition, highlighting the agency of enslaved people in their own liberation. The Emancipation Proclamation was a delayed response to these grassroots movements, not a singular heroic act. The camps’ role in challenging slavery’s legal and social foundations helped reshape the trajectory of the Civil War.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1864, the American Civil War reached a critical juncture with Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign, including the brutal battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, which claimed over 60,000 casualties, surpassing Gettysburg as the Americas’ deadliest clash. Abraham Lincoln faced a contentious re-election against George B. McClellan, while Confederate General Jubal Early’s troops came within five miles of the White House. Abolitionists pushed for emancipation, and desperate Confederate plots, like the attempt to burn New York City’s hotels, marked the war’s final months, culminating in Lincoln’s assassination by John Wilkes Booth in April 1865. Today’s guest is Scott Ellsworth, author of “Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America.” We explore how the staggering losses of 1864 shaped Lincoln’s strategy of attrition amid political uncertainty. These include lesser-known moments, like the Washington Arsenal explosion that killed 21 workers and Early’s near-invasion of Washington, D.C., which could have altered the war’s course. We also examines the November 1864 Confederate plot to destabilize New York and the conspiracy behind Lincoln’s assassination, including the unresolved question of Confederate government involvement. Reflecting on the war’s toll—over 620,000 dead and four million African-Americans freed but facing new struggles—Ellsworth illuminates how these events reshaped America’s identity.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Camp David, nestled in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains, spans about 125 acres, making it significantly smaller than other presidential getaways like Lyndon B. Johnson’s sprawling 2,700-acre Texas ranch or the vast 1,000-acre Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Compared to grand diplomatic venues like the White House or international summit locations such as Versailles, its compact, rustic layout with a single main lodge and a handful of cabins offers a more intimate, secluded setting for negotiations. This modest size fosters privacy and informality, as seen during the 1978 Camp David Accords, but lacks the expansive facilities of larger estates or formal state venues. If that’s the case, why has it played host to the most important diplomatic summits of the 20th century? Because the hidden retreat is the one place the President, First Family, and invited guests can gather in absolute secrecy for relaxation, rejuvenation, and world-changing decisions. Today’s guest is Charles Ferguson, author of “Presidential Seclusion: The Power of Camp David.” We look at the importance of Camp David on diplomacy and world history. Written by the former Camp David Historian, this personalized tour of the exclusive retreat makes tree-shrouded trails, majestic vistas, and rooms where history happened over the last 80 years.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In August 1942, over 7,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, in a largely forgotten landing, with only a small fraction surviving unscathed. The raid failed due to poor planning and lack of underwater reconnaissance, which left the Allies unaware of strong German coastal defenses and underwater obstacles. Inadequate submersible technology prevented effective pre-landing surveys, leading to heavy casualties and the inability to secure a foothold. Scientists had a rudimentary grasp of mixing air for prolonged underwater survival, with limited rebreather technology, poor understanding of oxygen toxicity, and inadequate gas supply systems. Two summers before D-Day, the Allies realized they desperately needed underwater intelligence to succeed in another beach invasion and win the war. Led by controversial biologists J.B.S. Haldane and Dr. Helen Spurway, an ingenious team of ragtag scientists worked in makeshift labs throughout the London Blitz. Amid a rain of bombs, they pioneered groundbreaking advances in underwater reconnaissance through painful and potentially fatal self-experiments. Their discoveries enabled the safe use of miniature submarines and breathing apparatuses, ultimately allowing the Allies to take the beaches of Normandy. Blast-injury specialist Dr. Rachel Lance, author of Chamber Divers: The Untold Story of the D-Day Scientists Who Changed Special Operations Forever, joined us a few years ago to discuss the CSS Hunley, a Confederate submersible used during the American Civil War, the first submarine to sink an enemy ship in combat. We explore these experiments while bringing to life the men and women whose brilliance and self-sacrifice shaped the war’s outcome, including the danger they faced in their quest to enable Allied troops to breathe underwater.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Allied Intervention into the Russian Civil War remains one of the most ambitious yet least talked about military ventures of the 20th century. Coinciding with the end of the first World War, some 180,000 troops from several countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Italy, Greece, Poland, and Romania, among others, were sent to fight alongside Russian “Whites” against the Red Army. Despite one victory for the Allied troops – independence for the Latvians and the Estonians – the two-year long attempt at reversing the 1917 Russian Revolution ended in humiliating defeat. To explore this crucial event of the early 20th century is today’s guest, Anna Reid, author of “A Nasty Little War: The Western Intervention into the Russian Civil War.” What was originally aimed to prevent Germany from exploiting the power vacuum in Eastern Europe left by the Russian Revolution ultimately morphed into the Allies’ gamble to destroy Communist ideology. It was a mixture of good intentions and self-delusion, flag-waving and empty promises, cover-ups, exaggerations, and downright lies from politicians.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

During World War II, the U.S. and Japan were locked in bitter hatred, fueled by propaganda portraying each other as ruthless enemies, exemplified by dehumanizing "Tokyo Woe" posters in the U.S. and Japanese depictions of Americans as barbaric invaders. After the war, the feelings seemed to turn 180 degrees overnight. By the early 1950s, American servicemen in the occupying forces learned about Japanese tea ceremonies and traditions during the U.S. occupation, fostering cultural appreciation. By the 1950s, dishes like teriyaki and sukiyaki became popular in America, with Kyu Sakamoto’s 1963 hit song “Sukiyaki” topping U.S. charts, signaling a growing fascination with Japanese culture. This led the way to the Japanese automotive and electronics invasion a decade later, with brands like Nikon, Canon, and Toyota crushing the domestic market. How did sentiments between the nations change so quickly? Much of it has to do with the success of the American occupation of Japan after the war, which rebuilt Japan’s economy and fostered mutual respect. To explain this period is today’s guest, Christopher Harding, author of “A Short History of Japan.” We look at Japan’s own view of its past, the transformative policies of General Douglas MacArthur’s administration that democratized and modernized Japan, the role of cultural exchanges in softening mutual perceptions, and how Japan’s rapid post-war recovery laid the groundwork for its emergence as a global economic power by the 1960s.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Iliad is the world’s greatest epic poem—heroic battle and divine fate set against the Trojan War. Its beauty and profound bleakness are intensely moving, but great questions remain: Where, how, and when was it composed and why does it endure?  To explore these questions is today’s guest, Robin Lane Fox, a scholar and teacher of Homer for over 40 years. He’s the author of “Homer and His Iliad” and he addresses these questions, drawing on a lifelong love and engagement with the poem. He argues that the poem is the result of the genius and single oral poet, Homer, and that the poem may have been performed even earlier than previously supposed a place, a date, and a method for its composition—subjects of ongoing controversy. Lane Fox considers hallmarks of the poem; its values, implicit and explicit; its characters; its women; its gods; and even its horses.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the 1930s, New Deal-era technocrats devised a solution to homelessness and poverty itself. They believed that providing free or low-cost urban housing projects could completely eliminate housing scarcity. Planners envisioned urban communities that would propel their residents into the middle class, creating a flywheel of abundance where poverty was eradicated. However, once construction began after World War II, these projects quickly became dangerous, poorly maintained slums, serving as breeding grounds for crime and decay. By the 1970s, crime rates were so high that levels of violence rivaled those of war zones in Sub-Saharan Africa. What happened? Why did so many of the best and brightest who promoted housing projects—like First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt or city planner Robert Moses—create one of the worst government debacles of the 20th century? Why didn’t they foresee that housing projects would become hotbeds of crime, completely destroying the social fabric of the neighborhoods they aimed to help? Today’s guest is Howard Husock, author of “The Projects: A New History of Public Housing.” He explains how we got here, detailing the tragic rise and fall of public housing and the pitfalls of other subsidy programs. He takes us inside a progressive movement led by a group of New York City philanthropists, politicians, and business magnates who first championed public housing as a solution to urban blight. We explore everything that went wrong and what can be done to avoid these same mistakes in the future.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the popular narrative goes, the Civil War was won when courageous Yankees triumphed over the South. But an aspect of the war that has remained little-known for 160 years is the Alabamian Union soldiers who played a decisive role in the Civil War, only to be scrubbed from the history books. One such group was the First Alabama Calvary, formed in 1862. It went on raids that destroyed Confederate communications and also marched with Sherman’s forces across the South. They aided the fall of Vicksburg and the burning of Atlanta. Today’s guest is Howell Raines, author of “Silent Cavalry: How Union Soldiers from Alabama Helped Sherman Burn Atlanta—and Then Got Written Out of History.” As Raines has pieced together, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s decisive effort to burn Atlanta was facilitated by an unsung regiment of 2,066 yeoman farmers and former slaves from Alabama—including at least one member of Raines’s own family. So why have the best-known Civil War historians, including Ken Burns and Shelby Foote, given only passing – or no – attention to this regiment of southerners who chose to fight for the North – a regiment that General Sherman hailed as one of the finest in the Union? We explore this question through an account of Alabama’s Mountain Unionists and their exploits, along with investigating why they and others like them were excised from the historical record.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Frederick Douglass made the strongest arguments for abolition in antebellum America because he made the case that abolition was not a mutation of the Founding Father’s vision of America, but a fulfillment of their promises of liberty for all. He had a lot riding on this personally – Douglas was born into slavery in Maryland around 1818, escaped to the North in 1838, and became a renowned public speaker in Europe and the United States, captivating audiences with his powerful oratory and firsthand accounts of enslavement. Initially, in the 1840s, Douglass denounced the United States as a hypocritical nation that failed to uphold its ideals of liberty due to its support of slavery. He was part of the same radical abolitionist faction as William Lloyd Garrison, who publicly burned a copy of the U.S. Constitution in 1854 a Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society event, calling it “a covenant with death” and “an agreement with hell” due to its protections for slavery. But by the 1850s, Douglas’s views evolved to see the Constitution as an antislavery document that could be leveraged to fulfill the promise of freedom for all. His transformation reflected a strategic shift, advocating for reform within the system while maintaining his fierce commitment to abolishing slavery and securing equal rights. He was also a critic of Abraham Lincoln who later became friends with the president. Douglass disagreed with Abraham Lincoln's initial hesitancy to prioritize abolition and his gradual approach to emancipation, but agreed with Lincoln's eventual commitment to the Emancipation Proclamation and the use of Black soldiers in the Civil War, seeing these as critical steps toward ending slavery and aligning with the Constitution's promise of liberty. In “Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln,” Jonathan W. White, today’s guest, assembled Frederick Douglass’s most meaningful and poignant statements about Abraham Lincoln, including a dozen newly discovered documents that have not been seen for 160 years. We see the anger Douglass directed at Lincoln throughout much of the Civil War as he moved slowly, but methodically, toward emancipation. Douglass’s writings also reveal how three personal interactions between these two led to powerful feelings of friendship and mutual admiration. After Lincoln’s assassination—as Jim Crow laws spread across the South—Douglass expressed greater appreciation for Lincoln’s statesmanship during the Civil War and praised him as a model for postwar America.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Free time, one of life’s most important commodities, often feels unfulfilling. But why? And how did leisure activities transition from strolling in the park for hours to “doomscrolling” on social media for thirty minutes? Despite the promise of modern industrialization, many people experience both a scarcity of free time and a disappointment in it. Here to explain why this is today’s guest  Gary Cross, author of “Free Time: The History of an Elusive Ideal.”  We discuss a broad historical explanation of why our affluent society does not afford more time away from work and why that time is often unsatisfying.  We begin with a survey of the past 250 years to understand the roots of our conception of free time and its use. By the end of the nineteenth century, a common expectation was that industrial innovations would lead to a progressive reduction of work time and a subsequent rise in free time devoted to self-development and social engagement. However, despite significant changes in the early twentieth century, both goals were frustrated, thus leading to the contemporary dilemma. Cross touches on leisure of all kinds, from peasant festivals and aristocratic pleasure gardens to amusement parks, movie theaters and organized sports to internet surfing, and even the use of alcohol and drugs. This wide-ranging cultural and social history explores the industrial-era origins of our modern obsession with work and productivity, but also the historical efforts to liberate time from work and cultivate free time for culture.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan are known for discoveries, but it was Captain James Cook who made global travel truly possible. Cook was an 18th-century British explorer who mapped vast regions of the Pacific, including New Zealand and Australia’s eastern coast, with unprecedented accuracy. He meticulously conducted soundings to measure ocean depths and created highly detailed maps, providing accurate navigational charts that guided explorers and sailors for generations. His three voyages (1768–1779) also advanced scientific knowledge through detailed observations of astronomy, natural history, and indigenous cultures, earning him enduring recognition as one of history’s greatest navigators. Pacific Islanders literally worshipped him. In January 1779, when he sailed into a volcanic bay known by Hawaiians as “the Pathway of the Gods,” Cook beheld thousands of people seemingly waiting for him on shore. Once he came on land, people prostrated themselves and chanted “Lono,” the name of a Hawaiian deity. Today’s guest is Hampton Sides, author of “The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook.” We take a look at Cook’s third and final voyage (1776–1779), detailing his exploration of the Pacific, encounters with indigenous cultures, and tragic death in Hawaii Cook was a brilliant yet complex navigator grappling with the moral and cultural challenges of European exploration in an era of expanding empires.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the early twentieth century, anarchists like Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman championed a radical vision of a world without states, laws, or private property. Militant and sometimes violent, anarchists were heroes to many working-class immigrants. But to many others, anarchism was a terrifyingly foreign ideology. Determined to crush it, government officials launched a decades-long “war on anarchy,” a brutal program of spying, censorship, and deportation that set the foundations of the modern surveillance state. The lawyers who came to the anarchists’ defense advanced groundbreaking arguments for free speech and due process, inspiring the emergence of the civil liberties movement. Today’s guest is Michael Willrich, author of “American Anarchy: The Epic Struggle between Immigrant Radicals and the US Government at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century.” We look at this tumultuous era and parallels with contemporary society.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Horse racing was the most popular sport in early America, drawing massive crowds and fueling a cultural obsession with horses’ speed and pedigree. In the early 1800s, every town in America with a few thousand people had a horse racing track, with major cities drawing crowds of up to 50,000. In the midst of this was Alexander Keene Richards (1827–1881), one of the nineteenth century’s most significant Thoroughbred importers and breeders. Richards was like automotive designer Carroll Shelby, Matt Damon’s character in Ford v. Ferrari, who revolutionized the sport by blending innovation with a relentless drive to perfect the breeding and training of Thoroughbreds. Today’s guest is Gary Odell, author of Reinventing the American Thoroughbred: The Arabian Adventures of Alexander Keene Richards. We explore how Richards traveled thousands of miles on expeditions into the heart of the Syrian desert to obtain Arabian stock of the purest blood. He became the first American to venture into the desert to bargain directly with nomadic tribesmen for their horses. The Civil War interrupted Richards’s equine breeding experiment. After the war, he was bankrupt and spent the rest of his life attempting to rebuild his Thoroughbred facility. But Richards’ willingness to look globally for solutions—traveling to the Middle East for superior bloodlines—parallels today’s international talent scouting and cross-cultural exchanges in sports, fostering a legacy of globalized athletic improvement that shapes how American sports, from horse racing to other disciplines, prioritize scientific innovation and cultural adaptability.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.