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

Subscribe to Throughline+. You'll be supporting the history-reframing, perspective-shifting, time-warping stories you can't get enough of - and you'll unlock access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org/throughline
285 Episodes
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In 2011, the world was shaken by the Arab Spring, a wave of "pro-democracy" protests that spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The effects of the uprisings reverberated around the world as regimes fell in some countries, and civil war began in others. This week, we revisit the years leading up to the Arab Spring and its lasting impact on three people who lived through it.To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
For most of its early history, Israel was dominated by left-leaning, secular politicians. But today, the right is in power. Its politicians represent a movement that uses a religious framework to define Israel and its borders, and that has aggressively resisted a two-state solution with Palestinians. And its government – led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — is waging a war in Gaza which, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, has killed over 30,000 people, many of them children. The government launched the war in response to the October 7th, 2023 Hamas-led attack that, according to Israeli authorities, killed over 1,200 Israelis with an additional 250 being taken hostage.This is not the first time that tension has erupted into violence. But the dominance of right-wing thinkers in Israeli politics is pivotal to how the war has unfolded. On today's episode: the story of Israel's rightward shift.Correction: In a previous version of this episode, we said incorrectly that Benjamin Netanyahu was born in 1948. He was born in 1949.To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
The Right to An Attorney

The Right to An Attorney

2024-02-2955:133

Most of us take it for granted that if we're ever in court and we can't afford a lawyer, the court will provide one for us. And in fact, the right to an attorney is written into the Constitution's sixth amendment. But for most of U.S. history, it was more of a nice-to-have — something you got if you could, but that many people went without. Today, though, public defenders represent up to 80% of people charged with crimes. So what changed? Today on the show: how public defenders became the backbone of our criminal legal system, and what might need to change for them to truly serve everyone.To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Beyonce's Renaissance brought house music back to mainstream audiences. But even when it wasn't gracing the Grammys, house never went away. Born from the ashes of disco in the late 1970s and '80s, house was by and for the Black, queer youth DJing and dancing in Chicago's underground clubs. Since then it's become the soundtrack of parties around the world, and laid the groundwork for one of the most popular musical genres in history: electronic dance music. Today on the show, the origins of house music — and its tale of Black cultural resistance — told by the people who lived it.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Love, Throughline

Love, Throughline

2024-02-1558:284

We asked you to call us with your stories of looking for love in the 21st century — and man, did you come through. We heard the whole range of human experience in your stories, but one theme rang out loud and clear: dating, and especially online dating, is a struggle.The data backs this up. Despite the fact that meeting someone today doesn't require much more than swiping on your phone, people who are looking for long-term relationships are lonelier than ever.Why is it like this? How did love – this thing that's supposed to be beautiful, magical, transformative – turn into a neverending slog? We went searching for answers, and we found them in surprising places. On today's show: a time-hopping, philosophical journey into the origins of modern love.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
The Scent of History

The Scent of History

2024-02-0855:416

What if we told you that the key to time travel has been right in front of our eyes this whole time? Well, it has: it's in our noses. Today on the show, the science — and politics — of smell, and how it links our past and our present.For sponsor-free episodes of Throughline, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughlineLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
James Baldwin believed that America has been lying to itself since its founding. An insightful commentator on Black identity, American democracy, and racism, he saw something deep and ugly and stubborn in American culture, and never hesitated to call it by its name — to bear witness, regardless of what it cost him. As the United States continues to reckon with all aspects of its history, writer and professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr. guides us through the meaning and purpose of James Baldwin's work, and how his words can help us navigate our current moment.For sponsor-free episodes of Throughline, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
In October of 1983, Grenada's Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was assassinated in a coup, along with seven of his cabinet members and supporters. Six days later, the United States invaded the island country, and took control of it. The bodies of those eight people were never found. Annie Bain's husband, Grenada's Minister of Housing, was one of the people killed alongside the Prime Minister. For 40 years, she's sought answers about what happened. And now, she's convinced that someone knows. This week we're sharing an episode from the Washington Post's podcast: The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
The Man Who Cured Aging

The Man Who Cured Aging

2024-01-2553:585

In 1899, Elie Metchnikoff woke up in Paris to learn that he had defeated old age. At least, that's what the newspaper headlines said. Before long he was inundated with mail from people begging him to help them live forever. The only problem? He didn't know how to do it. At the time, Metchnikoff was one of the world's most famous scientists. And he believed aging was a disease he could cure. He dedicated his life to that quest, spending his days interviewing centenarians, pulling gray hair out of colleagues and old dogs, and boiling strawberries — all in the pursuit of eternal youth. If you've ever had yogurt for breakfast, you likely have Metchnikoff to thank.Today on the show: Elie Metchnikoff's quest, his life — and his deathLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
The Right to Bear Arms

The Right to Bear Arms

2024-01-1854:569

In April 1938, an Oklahoma bank robber was arrested for carrying an unregistered sawed-off shotgun across state lines. The robber, Jack Miller, put forward a novel defense: that a law banning him from carrying that gun violated his Second Amendment rights.For most of U.S. history, the Second Amendment was one of the sleepier ones. It rarely showed up in court, and was almost never used to challenge laws. Jack Miller's case changed that. And it set off a chain of events that would fundamentally change how U.S. law deals with guns.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Climate change, political unrest, random violence: modern society can often feel like what the filmmaker Werner Herzog calls "a thin layer of ice on top of an ocean of chaos and darkness." In the United States, polls indicate that many people believe law and order is the only thing protecting us from the savagery of our neighbors. This idea is often called "veneer theory." But is it true?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
The Nostalgia Bone (2021)

The Nostalgia Bone (2021)

2024-01-0401:00:223

They say "everything old becomes new again." Today, that's baggy jeans, shag haircuts, 90s music, TV sitcoms – the latest version of finding comfort in nostalgia and familiarity in what came before. We constantly look for safety in the permanence of the past, or at least, what we think the past was. But, when it first appeared, nostalgia itself wasn't considered a feeling; it was a deadly disease. This episode traces the history of nostalgia from its origins as an illness to the dominating emotion of our time. And in doing so, we wrestle with its eternal paradox to both hold us back and keep us going.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Editing Reality (2023)

Editing Reality (2023)

2023-12-2856:319

We live in divided times, when the answer to the question 'what is reality?' depends on who you ask. Almost all the information we take in is to some extent edited and curated, and the line between entertainment and reality has become increasingly blurred. Nowhere is that more obvious than the world of reality television. The genre feeds off our most potent feelings – love, hope, anxiety, loneliness – and turns them into profit... and presidents. So in this episode, we're going to filter three themes of our modern world through the lens of reality TV: dating, the American dream, and the rage machine.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Our society is saturated in apologies. They're scripted, they're public, and they often feel less than sincere. Political, corporate, celebrity apologies – they can all feel performed. It's not even always clear who they're for. So what purpose do these apologies serve? Because real apologies are not just PR stunts. Not just a way to move on. At their best, they're about acknowledgement and accountability, healing and repair. So how did apology go from a process to a product – and how can we make it work again?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Dare to Dissent

Dare to Dissent

2023-12-1454:2912

Sometimes, the most dangerous and powerful thing a person can do is to stand up not against their enemies, but against their friends. As the United States heads into what will likely be another bitter and divided election year, there will be more and more pressure to stand with our in-groups rather than our consciences.So a group of us here at Throughline decided to tell some of the stories of people who have stood up to that kind of pressure. Some are names we know; others we likely never will. On today's episode: what those people did, what it cost them, and why they did it anyway.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
The Lord Of Misrule

The Lord Of Misrule

2023-12-0753:289

On November 18, 1633, a book went to press in London. Its author, Thomas Morton, had been exiled from the Puritan colonies in Massachusetts for the crimes of drinking, carousing, and – crucially – building social and economic ties with Native people. Back in England, Morton wrote down his vision for what America could become. A very different vision than that of the Puritans. But the book wouldn't be published that day. It wouldn't be published for years. Because agents for the Puritan colonists stormed the press and destroyed every copy.Today on the show, the story of what's widely considered America's first banned book, the radical vision it conjured, and the man who outlined that vision: Thomas Morton, the Lord of Misrule.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
A.D.A. Now! (2020)

A.D.A. Now! (2020)

2023-11-3001:02:30

The Americans with Disabilities Act is considered the most important civil rights law since the 1960s. Through first-person stories, we look back at the making of this movement, the history of how disability came to be seen as a civil rights issue in the first place, and what the disability community is still fighting for more than 30 years later.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Hot Labor Summer has continued into fall as workers in industries from retail and carmaking to healthcare and Hollywood have organized and gone on strike. Public support for the U.S. labor movement is close to the highest it's been in 60 years. And that's no surprise to people who work in one particular industry: the airlines.Airline workers — pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, baggage handlers, and more — represent a huge cross-section of the country. And for decades, they've used their unions to fight not just for better working conditions, but for civil rights, charting a course that leads right up to today. In this episode, we turn an eye to the sky to see how American unions took flight.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
A History of Hamas

A History of Hamas

2023-11-1653:3614

On October 7th, the organization Hamas, which is also the ruling government of Gaza, perpetrated an attack just across the border in Israel. The Israeli government says that the attack killed around 1200 people, most of them civilians. And Hamas also kidnapped hundreds more, including women and children, and took them back to Gaza as hostages. In response, Israel has bombarded and invaded Gaza. More than 11,000 people have been killed, and many more displaced. Since that day we've heard from many of you, our listeners, with questions about Hamas. So we took a few weeks to talk to experts on all sides to answer those questions – people who know the history deeply, and have even participated in it. Today on the show: the origins of Hamas, the context in which it developed, and what it represents to Palestinians, Israelis, and the rest of the world.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
A Marxist revolution, a Cold War proxy battle, and a dream of a Black utopia. In 1983, Ronald Reagan ordered the U.S. military to invade the island of Grenada. Forty years later, many Americans don't remember why — or that it even happened. This week, Martine Powers, from Post Reports, brings us a story of revolution, invasion, and the aftermath of unresolved history.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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Comments (299)

Arpita Sen Gupta

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Feb 24th
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Leah

That song is incredible

Feb 8th
Reply

Louis Macareo

This was nauseating.

Feb 6th
Reply

Habia Khet

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Feb 4th
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Rob Kosman

editing is too tight, it sound like he is speaking paragraphs on one breath, really hard to listen to....

Oct 15th
Reply

Aakash Amanat

Throughline" is a concept that has been a fundamental component of storytelling and narrative structure for centuries. Whether you're an avid reader, a film enthusiast, or a writer yourself, understanding the throughline is crucial to creating and appreciating compelling narratives. https://www.fyple.co.uk/company/printing-mart-t76coh1/ In essence, the throughline represents the core thread or main storyline that runs through a story, connecting all the elements and events together. It's the spine of the narrative, the path that characters follow, and the central theme or message that the story conveys. A strong throughline is essential for engaging an audience and guiding them through the plot. https://www.mylocalservices.co.uk/Packaging+Mart-London-3211232.html

Sep 21st
Reply

Roberto Ocampo

Prob one of my fave pod episode all time.

Aug 5th
Reply

TH3N0RTHSID3

Great episode! The only thing I felt that you missed was covering the move to HBO. I would have been interested in learning thoughts from the original crew about that move and what consequences that has had for the show. Questions like "Did this move detract from the show's original mission?" would have been insightful.

Aug 4th
Reply

squogg

The lack of creativity used to make this episode engaging kinda made me laugh. This was more of a conversation than the usual Throughline-style episode where you're captivated by the topic by way of storytelling, sound design and production.

Jul 19th
Reply

squogg

Can't even begin to count how many times Molly Michelmore says, "Right?" She says it so much that Ramteen and Rund are doing it now too. So grating.

Apr 25th
Reply (1)

Ex muslim India

people feelings got hurt in smallest criticism or a cartoon about false prophet muhammad and it's hate manual quran(full of hatred towards non muslim, abuse cursus and threat non believers).. and they spread islamic terrorism , Our felings also got hurt, about Slaughtering of Cow. your victim card will not work.. your stupidity and hypocrisy will be openly exposed.. now we are agressive and assertive.. we will stand for us..we will snatch back our right.. and in-human crazy saitannic cult Islam will be shown it's right place gutter

Apr 6th
Reply

squogg

This made me want to go to a club and dance myself silly. I miss that feeling of letting go of everything and just dancing the night away. Clearly need to get back to it. Thanks for the reminder :)

Mar 11th
Reply

Marcus Watt

as a longtime researcher into this history, it really saddens me to see political correctness redeploy a narrative with Europeans as evil. the Mexica living in peaceful bliss. absurd

Feb 8th
Reply (1)

Hayley The best

this is brilliant.

Feb 6th
Reply

squogg

I'm completely flabbergasted! I had no idea that the Stanford Prison Experiment was basically a sham. Hearing the audio of the experimenters coaxing the "guards" and lying to them in order to get the results they want is disgusting.

Jan 28th
Reply (1)

Shawna

such an important topic!!! thanks for talking about this!!!

Jan 14th
Reply

Shawna

thanks for sharing about the "Hello Girls"

Jan 7th
Reply

Shawna

I never knew this deep and ancient history . thank you for educating me today!!! much appreciated

Dec 31st
Reply

sogol khanof

It's maybe good for you to learn after these many years that "Persian Gulf" has only one name and it's "Persian Gulf"!

Nov 17th
Reply (1)

APK886

Oh my…in tears listening to this one. Sesame St. and Mr. Rogers were my whole childhood. This hits the feels right on.

Nov 16th
Reply
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