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.
126
Hear Me Out: Race Isn’t Real. The Census Should...
Checking a box is oversimplifying.
39 min
127
One Year: 1990 - Bush vs. Broccoli
When the president declared war on a vegetable, the country lost its mind.
36 min
128
Hear Me Out: The Oppressed Still Have Moral Duties
Fighting fire with fire has its limits.
30 min
129
One Year: 1990 - Mandrake the Magician
How a single dad with a secret identity took on Big Tobacco.
46 min
130
One Year: 1990 - Pizzastroika
As the Cold War reached its climax, Pizza Hut got tangled up in geopolitics—and made a lot of dough.
53 min
131
What Next: Moms for Liberty Tanked at the Polls...
Parental-Rights groups tend to burn brightly but briefly.
20 min
132
A Word: Rebirth of a Nation
Reconstruction was supposed to usher in a multi-racial democracy. What happened?
35 min
133
Decoder Ring: The Forgotten Video Game About Sl...
In 1992, the company behind The Oregon Trail tried to simulate Black history. It did not go well.
43 min
134
Hear Me Out: It’s Time To Sunset Social Security
It’s a transfer of wealth, and not to the people who need it.
43 min
135
Decoder Ring: The Dating Manual Unlike Any Other
The Rules became a controversial bestseller and sparked instant debate. But was the advice any good?
33 min
136
What Next: Can Hamas Actually Be Destroyed?
What Hamas’s history tells us about Gaza’s future.
25 min
137
Decoder Ring: Mailbag - The Recorder, Limos, an...
We answer your questions about the ubiquitous musical instrument, ‘80s automotive luxury, and more.
36 min
138
Decoder Ring: When Art Pranksters Invaded Melro...
In the mid-1990s, an artist collective smuggled its provocative work onto the set of the hit TV show.
37 min
139
Decoder Ring: The Fast Decline of the Slow Dance
The rise and fall of an awkward rite of passage.
41 min
140
Hear Me Out: Teaching Civics Can’t Save Democracy
We’re already struggling to give students basic skills.
40 min
141
Hear Me Out: Columbus Day Is Worth Celebrating
It’s an important date in history — whatever you choose to call it.
35 min
142
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
143
A Word: Black Grief, White Grievance
Why white feelings often seem to matter more than Black lives.
24 min
144
What Next: Can Marriage Fix America?
Why is this institution being touted as an economic cure-all?
20 min
145
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
146
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
147
What Next: Wait, China’s Taking Our Pandas Back?
A story of soft (and cuddly) power.
27 min
148
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
149
A Word: School of Destruction
How one southern university’s history is a bitter lesson in race and power.
25 min
150
One Year: 1955 - Siberia, USA
The Communist-hunting housewives who spawned a far-right conspiracy theory about an American gulag.
51 min