15-Minute History

Welcome back to Sketches in History! This segment, just for kids, shows that history isn't just a story; it's an adventure. Join Lottie Archer as she dives into her extraordinary notebook, where sketches from history come to life!

In this episode, Lottie finds two things tucked beneath the lamp on her grandfather's desk: a folded newspaper with the headline HISS CONVICTED OF PERJURY and a black-and-white photograph of two men in suits at a table full of microphones, both of them looking like they've been sitting there a very long time. In this episode, your kids will discover what it means to stand up in front of a whole country and say something no one expects to hear, why the question of who is telling the truth can outlast a courtroom verdict, and how the word "testimony" can carry more weight than almost any other word in history.

Listen and subscribe to the 15-Minute History podcast to hear Sketches in History every other Thursday. Got a favorite historical moment? Share it with us at [email protected], and it might just make its way into the notebook!

It is August 3, 1948, and a former Communist Party member named Whittaker Chambers walks into a House committee room in Washington, D.C., and says something that no one in the room ever expected to hear.

Alger Hiss is a spy. Hiss was not some offhand bureaucrat. He had helped organize the United Nations and attended Yalta. He had been, for much of the 1940s, one of the most respected foreign policy figures in the American government: Harvard-educated, polished, and credentialed, exactly the kind of man that postwar Washington was built by. The question of who was telling the truth would consume the country for years and leave damage that ran in both directions.

Join us every Monday for episodes and discussions and on Thursdays for pop quizzes and Sketches in History!

Why are conspiracy theories everywhere online these days? Why is everyone mad at someone else for every problem in their lives? And what does history teach us about this kind of environment?

Join us every Thursday for pop quizzes and Sketches in History!

"We shall not fail now. Let us move forward steadfastly together into the storm and through the storm."

- Winston Churchill, February 1942

This Memorial Day, we're republishing our favorite episode where we brought together both parts of our original Storm of War series into one complete telling of the Second World War, with speeches from Churchill, Eisenhower, and others who led through it.

From Versailles to Hitler's rise, to the fall of France, to the Battle of Britain. We show you Moscow's frozen gates all the way to Stalingrad. Then, from Normandy to the bunker in Berlin.

Here is the full story, on the day we set aside to remember those who didn't return.

We honor them by remembering what they faced, what they won, and what it cost.

From all of us at 15-Minute History, have a very happy Memorial Day.

Jon didn't remember to publish a pop quiz yesterday--but it was the last day of school and his brain was a bit full. So please accept our apologies and listen to this episode about what historians choose to remember and why!

Our beloved interloper Dan returns to join us for a conversation about the Korean War and how it influenced later conflicts and the role of the military in political affairs. He also shares his thoughts on Lewis "Chesty" Puller and comments on the Marine Corps' role in the American military. You won't want to miss it!

Welcome back to Sketches in History! This segment, just for kids, shows that history isn't just a story, it's an adventure. Join Lottie Archer as she dives into her extraordinary notebook, where sketches from history come to life!

In this episode, Lottie finds a dented olive-green tin on her grandfather's desk, cold to the touch, with a folded note tucked underneath in careful pencil handwriting: "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." In this episode, your kids will discover what it means to keep moving when the temperature drops to thirty below, why a calm joke in the middle of a disaster can hold an entire army together, and how the kind of discipline that wins a battle in the Korean mountains is the same discipline you can build in your own life, one decision at a time.

Listen and subscribe to the 15-Minute History podcast to hear Sketches in History every other Thursday. Got a favorite historical moment? Share it with us at [email protected], and it might just make its way into the notebook!

The cold froze rifles in their hands, turned oil to sludge, and stiffened fingers until pulling a trigger became an exercise in willpower. Men slept in shallow foxholes they'd hacked out of frozen ground, ate C-rations turned to ice, and wrapped themselves in as many layers as they could. Decades later, the veterans of America's X Corps recalled the weather more than anything else.

Join us every Monday for episodes and discussions and on Thursdays for pop quizzes and Sketches in History!

Let's have a conversation about what historians may have missed about the Founders of the United States, what may have been glossed over, and the reasons for both.

Join us every Thursday for Pop Quizzes and Sketches in History, and be sure to tune in on Mondays for our episodes and discussions. We love to hear from you as well, so post your comments below!

How did the American home change once the soldiers returned from the war. How long did it take for the country to recognize that its injustices were choices? And why did American culture seem to break in the decades that followed the war?

Join us every Monday for episodes and discussions and on Thursdays for pop quizzes and "Sketches in History."