Slate History
A feed with the best history coverage from Slate’s wide range of podcasts. From narrative shows like Slow Burn, One Year, and Decoder Ring, to timely analysis from ICYMI and What Next, you’ll get the fascinating stories and vital context you need to understand where we came from and where we're going.
51
Hear Me Out: Teaching Civics Can’t Save Democracy
We’re already struggling to give students basic skills.
40 min
52
Hear Me Out: Columbus Day Is Worth Celebrating
It’s an important date in history — whatever you choose to call it.
35 min
53
One Year: 1955 - The Hiroshima Maidens
A decade after the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb, 25 Japanese women put their lives in the hands of American surgeons.
50 min
54
A Word: Black Grief, White Grievance
Why white feelings often seem to matter more than Black lives.
24 min
55
What Next: Can Marriage Fix America?
Why is this institution being touted as an economic cure-all?
20 min
56
One Year: 1955 - The Cutter Incident
In 1955, the polio vaccine was rightly heralded as a miracle. A medical mystery threatened to derail it.
32 min
57
The Waves: The Afghan Women Left Behind - Gende...
What one family’s experience trying to get from Afghanistan to America says about the nation’s gender politics.
45 min
58
What Next: Wait, China’s Taking Our Pandas Back?
A story of soft (and cuddly) power.
27 min
59
Gabfest Reads: Zadie Smith Knows You're a Fraud
Zadie Smith’s new book The Fraud goes deep into a 19th century criminal trial whose politics speak to modern times.
27 min
60
A Word: School of Destruction
How one southern university’s history is a bitter lesson in race and power.
25 min
61
One Year: 1955 - Siberia, USA
The Communist-hunting housewives who spawned a far-right conspiracy theory about an American gulag.
51 min
62
Hear Me Out: Bring Back The Draft
It’s the best way to compensate for faltering recruitment.
33 min
63
A Word: Wrong from the Beginning
Writer Michael Harriot says white-washing Black history is a desperate effort that’s bound to fail.
31 min
64
One Year: 1955 - The Weather Girls
In the 1950s, women weathercasters were idolized and lusted over. They were also seen as a major threat.
41 min
65
One Year: 1955 - The Crockett Craze
How Walt Disney created the first baby-boom phenomenon totally by accident.
53 min
66
Hear Me Out: Overconfidence Is Killing The Supr...
Partisanship isn’t the problem.
36 min
67
One Year: 1955 - The Team Nobody Would Play
In 1955, a team of Black Little Leaguers battled the white establishment in the Deep South.
53 min
68
Amicus - Citizen Justice: The Environmental Leg...
Judge Margaret M. McKeown of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on her book about a Supreme Court Justice, public advocate and conservation champion.
53 min
69
One Year: 1955 Trailer
The new season of One Year covers 1955.
1 min
70
Decoder Ring: Think Catchphrases Are Dead? Eat ...
Bless up: It’s a whole episode about “Doh!”, “Dealbreaker!” and “Did I do that?”
36 min
71
Hear Me Out: Affirmative Action Failed Poor Bla...
It was a band-aid on the shark bite of inequality.
32 min
72
What Next: Florida Public Schools' New Anti-Wok...
How right-wing propaganda made it into Florida classrooms.
23 min
73
What Next: It’s Hot as Hell. Why Are Pools Closed?
Americans are hot,sweaty, and eager to learn how to swim. But public pools across the country are closed.
22 min
74
Decoder Ring: The Quest for a Homemade Hovercraft
With his scouting days long over, a Slate producer enlists his dad for one last merit badge.
38 min
75
Decoder Ring: A Brief History of Making Out
Is deep kissing a universal human behavior?
32 min