Podcasts · History · Society & Culture
HISTORY This Week
The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios
300 episodes
Visit htwpod.com for ad-free listening and bonus content!This week, something big happened. You might have never heard of it, but this moment changed the course of history. A HISTORY Channel original podcast, HISTORY This Week gives you insight into the people—both famous and unknown—whose decisions reshaped the world we live in today. Through interviews with experts and eyewitnesses, each episode will give you a new perspective on how history is written. Stay up-to-date at historythisweekpodcast.com and to get in touch, email us at historythisweek@history.com.HISTORY This Week is a production of Back Pocket Studios in partnership with the History Channel.
Episodes page 3 of 6
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A Teenage Girl Saves France
May 16, 1920. Tens of thousands of people surround St. Peter’s Basilica to honor Joan of Arc, a French peasant girl who died nearly five hundred years before. Joan’s feats in battle—and her visions of God—have become…
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McDonald’s Before McDonald’s
May 15, 1940. It’s opening day. San Bernardino, California is a city on the rise, and to meet this new demand for cheap, good food, two brothers have created a restaurant: McDonald’s Famous Barbecue. You can order a…
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Cinco de Mayo’s Civil War Connection
May 5, 1862. The French have landed in Mexico. Napoleon III wants to conquer the country and assert France’s imperial dominance in the Americas. In his way? The Mexican army, held up in the city of Puebla. The Battle…
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America’s Cold War Obsession with Greenland
April 27, 1951. The United States has been putting pressure on Denmark for a long time. Because the small European kingdom has something the Americans really, really want: Greenland. Today, they sign a treaty that…
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Trailer: America's Cold War Obsession with Greenland
HISTORY This Week returns with new episodes this Monday! We're kicking things off with a look at America's longtime fascination with Greenland, and how the U.S. military used the island to expand its Cold War nuclear…
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A Concubine Rises to Rule China
April 27, 1856. In Beijing’s Forbidden City, one of the emperor’s consorts, a woman named Cixi, has given birth to a son – the emperor’s first heir. This landmark event is met with mass celebration. But in just five…
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Introducing: What We Spend
Imagine if you could ask someone anything you wanted about their finances. On What We Spend, people from across the country and across the financial spectrum are opening their wallets—and their lives—to tell you…
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"Houston We’ve Had a Problem” (feat. Captain Jim Lovell)
April 14, 1970. Apollo 13 is a quarter million miles from Earth, speeding towards the Moon, when a sudden explosion rocks the ship. Against all odds, the astronauts pull off one of the most remarkable survival missions…
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The Titanic’s First and Last Voyage
April 10, 1912. As the RMS Titanic pulls away from a crowded port on the south coast of England, it almost crashes. Just in time, it’s able to turn off its engines and prevent a collision with a smaller ship. Four days…
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148 Tornadoes in 18 Hours
April 3, 1974. Across America, many people wake up this morning thinking it will be a normal day. But in the next 24 hours, almost 150 tornadoes will hit the United States. It will be the largest tornado outbreak in…
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Was Ethel Rosenberg A Spy?
March 29, 1951. The world is waiting for the jury’s verdict. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg have been accused of spying for the Soviet Union, conspiring to send atomic secrets to America’s enemy in the Cold War. Ethel and…
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Revenge of the Ronin
March 20, 1703. Today, almost fifty men, scattered around the city of Edo, Japan, are waiting to die. They’re all former samurai who had served the same lord – and they all carried out a deadly revenge attack in his…
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Six Men, Two Bombs, One Grave Injustice
March 14, 1991. The Birmingham Six have been in prison for 16 years. Each of these six Irishmen was found guilty of 21 counts of murder back in 1975 – held responsible for bombs detonated at two popular pubs in…
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Introducing: Campus Files
College holds a mythic place in American culture, but behind the polished campus tours and glossy brochures lies a far more complicated reality. Each episode of Campus Files uncovers a new story that rocked a college…
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Freud & Jung: The Original Dream Team
March 3rd, 1907. Dr. Sigmund Freud invites a guest into his office, Dr. Carl Jung. This is a meeting of the minds, about... the mind. Psychology. Freud and Jung will spend the next 13 hours discussing the unconscious,…
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Hitler Stands Trial
February 26, 1924. 10 Defendants enter a courtroom in Munich. They are being charged with an attempted coup. They tried to overthrow the government of the Weimar Republic… and almost succeeded. All eyes are on the…
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Tesla Electrifies the World
February 24, 1893. Most homes don't have electricity. And yet, one of the technology's pioneers, Nikola Tesla, is about to give the world a glimpse into a fully electrified future. He takes the stage at the Franklin…
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America’s Restaurants Meet the Michelin Man
February 23, 2005. New York City's culinary elite gather at Gotham Hall. Tuxedoed waiters pass around champagne flutes and decadent hors d'oeuvres, as famous chefs like Eric Ripert and Anthony Bourdain pose for photos…
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When America Almost Had Universal Healthcare
February 15, 1935. The American Medical Association, the AMA, is holding an emergency meeting in Chicago. The crisis? The possibility that the federal government is about to pass universal health insurance. Health…
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Anatomy of a Campus Heist
February 11, 2005. FBI agents bust down the door of a cinder block house near the University of Kentucky campus. Amid flash grenades and screaming teens, they arrest three students – plus a fourth student in a nearby…
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Could the Challenger Disaster Have Been Prevented?
January 28, 1986. It's freezing in Central Florida, a historically cold day. That's bad news for citrus growers, and for NASA, which is scheduled to launch the Space Shuttle Challenger from Cape Canaveral this morning.…
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MLK Bonus: The Civil Rights Children's Crusade
To further celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we're re-releasing our classic episode about the Children's Crusade, an effort to bring the youth of Birmingham, Alabama into the Civil Rights Movement in order to…
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The Hit Song that Gave Us MLK Day
January 15, 1969. It's been less than a year since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Friends, family, and followers are gathered at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Dr. King preached. They are…
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How to Stop an Avalanche? Blow Up a Mountain
January 15, 1939. It's finally working! After countless mechanical issues, the first operational ski lift in the state of Utah is taking people up the mountain so they can glide down its slopes. Skiing conditions are…
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Declaring War on Poverty (feat. Doris Kearns Goodwin)
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…
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A New Year, A New Cuba
New Year's Eve, 1958. Cuba's president, Fulgencio Batista, is throwing his annual New Year's Eve party at his home in Havana. It's usually a blowout. But this year, the vibes... aren't so great. Government officials…
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The Surprising History of Christmas Gifts (HTW Classic)
Christmas Eve, 1913. For months, newspapers have been trumpeting an urgent message: Do your Christmas shopping early. It would be easy to assume this was the work of greedy department stores and slick ad companies. But…
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Nosferatu Rises Again (feat. Robert Eggers)
**For this HTW special feature, Sally interviews director Robert Eggers about his new historically inspired film, Nosferatu.** Winter, 1476. Vlad III is a prince in Wallachia, in present-day Romania. He is a violent…
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The President and the King
December 21, 1970. Elvis has entered the building. And today, that building is the White House. He's brought a gift for President Nixon, a framed Colt .45 pistol, which White House security won't be thrilled with. But…
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Bill W.'s Last Drink and the Birth of Alcoholics Anonymous
December 11, 1934. Bill Wilson is on the subway, working his way through his third beer, heading to Towns Hospital. He isn’t injured, and he isn’t what would be traditionally classified as “sick.” But he knows he has a…
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How the Vietnam War Broke Our Trust in Government
December 1, 1969. Millions across America are tuned in to the same TV broadcast. They see a bland stage with some government workers behind desks. But there's also a large, plastic container filled with small blue…
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A Toxic Turkey Day
For this Thanksgiving, we're re-airing an HTW classic. This episode originally premiered November 23, 2020. November 24, 1966. Millions of spectators flood Broadway in New York City to watch the Macy’s Day Parade on…
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Thanksgiving Reconsidered
November 26, 1970. In Plymouth, Massachusetts, on the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival, protestors gather under a statue of Massasoit, the Wampanoag leader who had made peace with the Pilgrims, and partook in…
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New York Takes Out the Trash
November 18, 2022. New York City is at war... with rats. And today, Mayor Eric Adams is set to announce four new pieces of legislation aimed at combating this scurrying problem. Two of these laws will target garbage,…
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Alexander the Great Finds His Destiny
November 14, 332 BCE. Alexander the Great has conquered an unprecedented amount of territory in a relatively short amount of time. At just 24 years old, he's in control of Macedonia, much of Greece, and now, a huge…
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Japan’s First MLB Player Gets Pulled from the Game
November 4, 2009. It's Game 6 of the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies. The Yankees will clinch the series tonight on the back of one player, Hideki Matsui. He's a baseball player…
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Breaking the Mars Curse
Oct 27, 1972. The planet Mars has many victims. Specifically, spacecraft. There have been so many failed missions to Mars, that scientists are rumbling about a "Mars Curse". But one mission is defying the odds.…
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The Last Regular Day in Pompeii
October 24, 79 CE. Pompeii is one of the crown jewels of the Roman Empire, a bustling city that serves as a coastal retreat for Rome's elite. But Pompeii also has a large, often overlooked middle-class population. They…
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Presenting Gone South Season 4
Gone South, the Edward R. Murrow award-winning podcast, is back. Unlike previous seasons, writer and host Jed Lipinski brings listeners new episodes every week with no end in sight. Each episode of Gone South Season 4…
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Cats Go From Pest to Pet
October 18, 1887. At the Crystal Palace in London, hundreds of cats are ready to be judged. This is the first show put on by the National Cat Club, an organization seeking to bring order to the competitive cat world.…
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It's Saturday Night!
October 11, 1975. In Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City, Lorne Michaels and his cast and crew of 20-somethings scramble as the clock gets closer and closer to 11:30 PM. Wardrobes are being assembled,…
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An American Mutiny in WWII
October 9, 1944. In California, 50 U.S. sailors are on trial for the Navy’s most serious crime, mutiny. It’s a rarely used charge, yet these 50 sailors—all of whom are Black—face the death penalty if convicted. But…
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The Real Red Dead Redemption
October 5, 1871. In what some call the wildest town in the Wild West, bad blood has been building for a long time. Wild Bill Hickok, the sheriff of Abilene, Kansas, is facing down Phil Coe, a saloon owner with a…
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Cleveland Balloonfest '86
September 27, 1986. Just before sunrise in Cleveland’s Public Square, the city center is abuzz with thousands of volunteers working tirelessly to fill up balloons. The goal? To launch 1.5 million balloons into the sky…
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SEASON PREMIERE: Nixon Does Whatever It Takes to Win in ’68
September 16, 1968. Richard Nixon isn't exactly seen as a comedian. But tonight, he's trying to change that by appearing on Laugh-In, a TV show similar to Saturday Night Live. Nixon needs every vote he can get in the…
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HISTORY This Week – Series Trailer
What happened this week 50 years ago? 100 years ago? 1,000? Listen to HISTORY This Week every Monday to discover for yourself. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com
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9/11: Rescue on the Water (Replay)
HISTORY This Week returns with new episodes starting September 16th! In the meantime, listen to a favorite classic from the archives. September 11, 2001. On a clear and sunny day, Captain Richard Thornton is piloting…
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Love, Betrayal, and the Battle for Rome (Replay)
HISTORY This Week returns with new episodes starting September 16th! In the meantime, listen to a favorite classic from the archives. September 2, 31 BCE. Two camps prepare for battle off the coast of Greece. On one…
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The Deadly Puzzle of Yellow Fever (Replay)
HISTORY This Week returns with new episodes starting September 16th! In the meantime, listen to a favorite classic from the archives. August 27, 1900. Dr. Jesse Lazear, a U.S. Army surgeon, walks into Las Animas…
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The Man Who Stole the Mona Lisa (Replay)
HISTORY This Week returns with new episodes starting September 16th! In the meantime, listen to a favorite classic from the archives. August 21, 1911. On a Monday morning, a department store employee on a Paris street…
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