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.
151
What Next: Moms for Liberty Tanked at the Polls...
Parental-Rights groups tend to burn brightly but briefly.
20 min
152
A Word: Rebirth of a Nation
Reconstruction was supposed to usher in a multi-racial democracy. What happened?
35 min
153
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
154
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
155
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
156
What Next: Can Hamas Actually Be Destroyed?
What Hamas’s history tells us about Gaza’s future.
25 min
157
Decoder Ring: Mailbag - The Recorder, Limos, an...
We answer your questions about the ubiquitous musical instrument, ‘80s automotive luxury, and more.
36 min
158
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
159
Decoder Ring: The Fast Decline of the Slow Dance
The rise and fall of an awkward rite of passage.
41 min
160
Hear Me Out: Teaching Civics Can’t Save Democracy
We’re already struggling to give students basic skills.
40 min
161
Hear Me Out: Columbus Day Is Worth Celebrating
It’s an important date in history — whatever you choose to call it.
35 min
162
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
163
A Word: Black Grief, White Grievance
Why white feelings often seem to matter more than Black lives.
24 min
164
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
165
What Next: Can Marriage Fix America?
Why is this institution being touted as an economic cure-all?
20 min
166
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
167
What Next: Wait, China’s Taking Our Pandas Back?
A story of soft (and cuddly) power.
27 min
168
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
169
A Word: School of Destruction
How one southern university’s history is a bitter lesson in race and power.
25 min
170
One Year: 1955 - Siberia, USA
The Communist-hunting housewives who spawned a far-right conspiracy theory about an American gulag.
51 min
171
Hear Me Out: Bring Back The Draft
It’s the best way to compensate for faltering recruitment.
33 min
172
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
173
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
174
One Year: 1955 - The Crockett Craze
How Walt Disney created the first baby-boom phenomenon totally by accident.
53 min
175
Hear Me Out: Overconfidence Is Killing The Supr...
Partisanship isn’t the problem.
36 min