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HISTORY This Week

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Feb 7, 2022 • 31min

Black Baseball Goes Pro

Feb 13, 1920. For over thirty years, Black baseball players have been locked out of the major leagues. So on this day in Kansas City, Rube Foster, a former pitcher and now a team owner, is trying to make his own league just for Black players. He has gathered owners of other Black baseball teams, who currently play each other in one-off matchups or face independent teams in random games around the country. But Foster wants them to get organized, and soon, the Negro National League would be born. But up to this point, how did Black baseball survive after segregation became the unofficial policy of the major leagues? And how did Black players, owners, and managers join together to create something that no baseball fan could ignore? To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Jan 31, 2022 • 31min

The Great Comic Book Scare

February 4, 1955. In a New York courtroom, the Comics Czar takes the stand. He’s in charge of enforcing a new code, meant to keep comic books from corrupting America’s youth, and he’s here to prove that his work has cleaned up the industry. But that afternoon, a noted psychologist named Fredric Wertham argues that his work has not nearly gone far enough. When the hearing comes to a close, the committee is left to decide: what is the future of the comic book? Why did one of the country’s leading psychologists see them as a major threat to American children? And what can the Great Comic Book Scare teach us about moral panics?Special thanks to our guests, David Hajdu, author of The Ten-Cent Plague, and Jeremy Dauber, author of American Comics. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Jan 24, 2022 • 30min

Surviving Auschwitz (Replay)

History repeats itself this week with an episode from the HISTORY This Week archives: January 27, 1945. Four Russian soldiers arrive at Auschwitz, one of Nazi Germany's largest concentration and extermination camps. The soldiers have come to liberate the survivors inside, but they are not met with the celebration and rejoicing they expect. On this day, what did liberation actually mean for its survivors - and is the full story being forgotten?Thank you to Mindu Hornick and Bill Harvey for sharing their personal story of surviving Auschwitz and to Fulwell 73 for helping make it happen. Thank you to Jeremy Dronfield, author of the Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz, and to the work of Robert Jan Van Pelt, curator for the international exhibit, "Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away."Archival material accessed at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of The Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archives of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives & Records Administration and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of Thomas P. Headen. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Jan 17, 2022 • 21min

The Apple Ad That Changed the World (Replay)

History repeats itself this week with an episode from the HISTORY This Week archives: January 22, 1984. Apple launches the very first Macintosh computer, unveiling the machine to the public in a showstopping Super Bowl commercial. Not only was the ad itself revolutionary, but the product it launched almost single-handedly brought computers into the mainstream. The Macintosh PC would change technology, and the world as we know it forever.Special thanks to Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, author and producer of the “Making the Macintosh” digital archive. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Jan 10, 2022 • 20min

The Great Boston Molasses Flood (Replay)

History repeats itself this week with an episode from the HISTORY This Week archives: January 15, 1919. Boston PD receives a call: “Send all available rescue personnel...there's a wave of molasses coming down Commercial Street." The bizarre flood decimated Boston's North End. How did it happen? And why does it still affect us all today?Special thank you to our guest Stephen Puleo, author of Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Jan 3, 2022 • 37min

Declaring War on Poverty (Replay)

History repeats itself this week with an episode from the HISTORY This Week archives: January 8, 1964. In his State of the Union address, Lyndon Johnson unveils his War on Poverty, an effort to tackle subpar living conditions and create jobs across the United States. Johnson discovers that declaring war—even one on an idea—always comes with great costs. Why did LBJ pick poverty as one of his major initiatives? And what issues did he face in waging this war?  This episode features Doris Kearns Goodwin (presidential historian and executive producer of The HISTORY Channel’s documentary series, Lincoln and Roosevelt) and Guian McKee (associate professor in Presidential Studies at UVA’s Miller Center)." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Dec 27, 2021 • 26min

Best Stories of 2021

In this year-end episode, Sally interviews the rest of the HISTORY This Week team about their favorite stories of the year and the most interesting information that didn’t make it into the episodes. We’ll be bringing you some of our favorite classic History This Week episodes throughout the month of January and will be back with season three in February 2022.Episode links:Watergate from the InsideMore Than a Home RunPop Music Pirates To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Dec 20, 2021 • 26min

Twenty Thousand Hertz: The Gift

December 24, 1906. It’s Christmas Eve, but inventor Reginald Fessenden is working. Tonight, instead of sending a typical radio message in morse code, he broadcasts something new: music. It's the first in a series of breakthroughs in audio reproduction—a story that takes us from World War II home radios to the acoustics lab of another pioneer: Dr. Amar Bose. How did we get from tapped dots and dashes to the high-quality speakers we use today? This episode comes from the podcast Twenty Thousand Hertz. You can listen to more episodes of Twenty Thousand Hertz at https://apple.co/3pWdq29. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Dec 13, 2021 • 32min

Pursuing Trivia with Ken Jennings

(EPISODE 100!) December 15, 1979. Two Canadian journalists are hanging out, drinking a beer, when they come up with an idea for a new game to test random knowledge – Trivial Pursuit. But this is far from the first time trivia has been gamified, and to explore the history behind these quizzing contests, we turned to the expert: Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings. What are the origins of trivia? And what is it about recalling trivial facts that keeps people coming back for more? Special thanks to Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs and the host of the podcast Omnibus. Thanks also to Professor Peter Burke, author of What is the History of Knowledge? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Dec 6, 2021 • 34min

How Lincoln Almost Lost it All

December 11, 1862. Union Army engineers are urgently constructing a bridge, one that will carry soldiers into the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia, a Confederate stronghold. Union leaders are banking on the element of surprise and are desperate for a victory. But, by the time it’s over, more than a thousand Union soldiers will perish in one of the worst defeats of the Civil War. How does the failed Battle of Fredericksburg threaten the future of the Emancipation Proclamation and Abraham Lincoln’s very presidency? And how does Lincoln manage to save both?Special thanks to our guest Professor John Matteson, author of "A Worse Place Than Hell: How the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg Changed a Nation." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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