

The Preamble
Sharon McMahon
The world feels complicated. The Preamble is where it starts to make sense. Hosted by Sharon McMahon — known for making sense of complex issues — she and her guests dive deep into the stories and ideas driving our future, bringing clarity and honesty to every headline. If you want real insight, bold conversation, and answers that matter, this podcast is your must-listen. Hit play, and join the movement that will shape history.
An Audacy Podcast.
An Audacy Podcast.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jul 17, 2023 • 34min
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee with David Treuer
Today, on Here’s Where It Gets Interesting, Sharon connects with author David Treuer who writes about the sweeping history of Native Americans in his book, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee. It’s a history that goes beyond what most Americans are taught about key events or standout figureheads. Native past and present doesn’t pivot solely around tragedy and suffering; and when we tell only those stories, it shapes how we think. David seeks to create a narrative of bounty; Native history may have a surplus of pain, but it also has a surplus of joy and culture.Special thanks to our guest, David Treuer, for joining us today. You can order The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee here.Hosted by: Sharon McMahonGuest: David TreuerExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny Snyder 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

Jul 14, 2023 • 37min
Home, Land, Security with Carla Power
On today’s episode of Here’s Where It Gets Interesting, journalist Carla Power talks with Sharon about radicalism. Her book, Home, Land, Security, seeks to define and clarify extremism; having radical ideas does not necessarily make a person a resort to political violence. So what, then, does? What are the roads that lead people into committing radically extreme acts, and what are the roads that lead them back out from a state of violence? What does it take to de-radicalize people inside terrorist groups?Special thanks to our guest, Carla Power, for joining us today. You can order Home, Land, Security here.Hosted by: Sharon McMahonGuest: Carla PowerExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny Snyder 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

Jul 12, 2023 • 40min
Built From the Fire with Victor Luckerson
Today on Here’s Where It Gets Interesting, Sharon talks with author Victor Lukerson about the Tulsa Race Massacre. Victor’s new book, Built From the Fire, brings to light the atmosphere and events in Oklahoma that make up the 1921 riot–or as Victor calls it–the pogrom, or organized extermination of an ethnic group. Learn about the violence and destruction white Tulsa wrecked on the prosperous black community of Greenwood, the community's perseverance, and the effects that are still felt today, a century later.Special thanks to our guest, Victor Luckerson for joining us today. You can order Built From the Fire here.Hosted by: Sharon McMahonGuest: Victor LuckersonExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny Snyder 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

Jul 10, 2023 • 38min
Until Justice Be Done with Kate Masur
Today on Here’s Where It Gets Interesting, Sharon talks with author Kate Masur, whose book, Until Justice Be Done, shines a light on what we can consider to be the first Civil Rights Movement–the movement for free Black Americans to gain equality from our country’s inception through Reconstruction after the Civil War. We often think of the fight to gain rights as a movement that happened in the 1950s and 1960s, but even in the early 1800s, there was an organized effort to resist racist laws and policy.Special thanks to our guest, Kate Masur, for joining us today. You can order Until Justice Be Done here.Hosted by: Sharon McMahonGuest: Kate MasurExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny Snyder 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

Jul 7, 2023 • 44min
Buried Apologies and a Path Forward
Disinterment and repatriation is important work, but it’s only just begun, and it’s not the only work that needs to be done to acknowledge and atone for the history of Indigenous boarding schools. The Federal Government has not yet provided a centralized place for survivors or descendants of survivors of Federal Indian boarding schools, or their families, to voluntarily detail their experiences in the boarding school system.Which means that there are still generations within the Indigenous community who continue to carry the invisible burden of these schools. The “road to healing” has started, maybe, but it's the indigenous people themselves who have taken the most significant steps forward.Note: We would like to issue a content warning for this episode. Some parts of this episode may not be suitable for younger audiences.Hosted by: Sharon McMahonExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny SnyderWritten and researched by: Heather Jackson, Amy Watkin, Mandy Reid, and KariMarisa AntonThank you to our guest K. Tsiannina Lomawaima and some of the music in this episode was composed by indigenous composer R. Carlos Nakai. 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

Jul 5, 2023 • 40min
Barriers to a Better Education
By the 1960s and early 1970s, activist movements across the country had begun to call for better national policies to support minority groups and the government made attempts to some of the wrongs of the past. But it didn’t always lead to success. So let’s dive in, and talk about the gap between the government’s policy intentions for Native American communities and its not-so-effective execution.Note: We would like to issue a content warning for this episode. Some parts of this episode may not be suitable for younger audiences.Hosted by: Sharon McMahonExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny SnyderWritten and researched by: Heather Jackson, Amy Watkin, Mandy Reid, and KariMarisa AntonThank you to our guest K. Tsiannina Lomawaima and some of the music in this episode was composed by indigenous composer R. Carlos Nakai. 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

Jul 3, 2023 • 35min
The Pendulum Swings Wildly
On today’s episode of Here’s Where It Gets Interesting, we are going to explore an explosive pendulum swing in the mindset of the American people, when the government basically told Native communities: “No more interventions. You’re on your own!” The ominous-sounding Termination Policy fundamentally changed the relationship between the Federal Government and Native Tribes, again, and its reverberations can be felt even today.Note: We would like to issue a content warning for this episode. Some parts of this episode may not be suitable for younger audiences.Hosted by: Sharon McMahonExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny SnyderWritten and researched by: Heather Jackson, Amy Watkin, Mandy Reid, and KariMarisa AntonThank you to our guest K. Tsiannina Lomawaima and some of the music in this episode was composed by indigenous composer R. Carlos Nakai. 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

Jun 30, 2023 • 38min
Beyond the Mainland
Today, we are going to explore the Native boarding school systems in Canada, and in our 49th and 50th states, Alaska and Hawaii. The US wasn’t the only nation setting up mandatory residential schools for Indigenous populations, and in the beginning, many of these programs mirrored those of the US with a focus to “civilize” Indigenous children. We’re not referring to merely hundreds of students who were taken from their families, but hundreds of thousands spanning decades. With many students unable to return home and schools operating “in loco parentis,” it would be years before the truth of these atrocities would come to light. Note: We would like to issue a content warning for this episode. Some parts of this episode may not be suitable for younger audiences.Hosted by: Sharon McMahonExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny SnyderWritten and researched by: Heather Jackson, Amy Watkin, Mandy Reid, and KariMarisa AntonThank you to our guest K. Tsiannina Lomawaima and some of the music in this episode was composed by indigenous composer R. Carlos Nakai. 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

Jun 28, 2023 • 34min
Less Education, More Forced Labor
In 1880, Richard Pratt opened the Carlisle School’s Outing Program. Pratt framed the programs as an opportunity to give boarding school students real-world experience and cultivate practical skills they learned at school, but in reality, the Outing Programs were nothing more than indentured servitude. By the 1930s, most programs were so corrupt that they were discontinued. Were the programs nixed due to a sudden change of heart? No, it was the result of an independent research organization and their publication of the Meriam Report.Note: We would like to issue a content warning for this episode. Some parts of this episode may not be suitable for younger audiences.Hosted by: Sharon McMahonExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny SnyderWritten and researched by: Heather Jackson, Amy Watkin, Mandy Reid, and KariMarisa AntonThank you to our guest K. Tsiannina Lomawaima and some of the music in this episode was composed by indigenous composer R. Carlos Nakai. 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

Jun 26, 2023 • 38min
Death in the Schools
In 1908, an anthropologist traveled to the Western states to examine an outbreak of tuberculosis and found that 20 percent–or one in every five–of the residents of Indian Country had contracted the disease. In an effort to contain it, authorities asked the anthropologist to trace the cause of the outbreak and he found it – in the Native American boarding schools. Educating native children was an enterprise that quickly turned lethal as epidemics and contagious illnesses swept through the schools. Sickness infected and killed scores of students.Hosted by: Sharon McMahonExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny SnyderWritten and researched by: Heather Jackson, Amy Watkin, Mandy Reid, and KariMarisa AntonThank you to our guest K. Tsiannina Lomawaima and some of the music in this episode was composed by indigenous composer R. Carlos Nakai. 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


