American Carnage

By Jeff Stein and Rowley AmatoHistory

American Carnage episodes

May 26, 2024 John Brown's Christmas Raid
What was going through Brown's head at Harpers Ferry? The story of his remarkably successful raid into Missouri gives us clues.
The second of a two-part bonus series about Brown's final days in Kansas.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
40 min
May 26, 2024 Bleeding Kansas' Deadliest Day
In May 1858, a proslavery gang massacred 11 unarmed Free Staters in eastern Kansas. The incident sparked outrage, and led John Brown to embark one of his most daring exploits.
The first of a two-part bonus series about John Brown's final months in Kansas.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
36 min
March 12, 2024 Ep 5: A great white light
What was it, exactly, about John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry that contributed to the abolition of slavery?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 8 min
February 28, 2024 Ep 4: No ghost of a distinction
John Brown envisioned a mass slave uprising. So where were they?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 6 min
January 09, 2024 Ep 3: The stifled wails of widows
As John Brown and his men swing their steel broadswords on a moon-lit night, we look at the fierce debate among historians over whether even the most righteous forms of political violence can be justified.
[Subscribers can get EARLY ACCESS to Episode Four, "No Ghost of a Distinction" by throwing $3 our way at American Carnage on Patreon.]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
58 min
January 09, 2024 TRAILER | Episode 4: No ghost of a distinction
John Brown envisioned a mass slave insurrection. So where were they?

[Subscribers can get EARLY ACCESS to this full episode by throwing $3 our way at American Carnage on Patreon.]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
3 min
December 28, 2023 Ep 1: Pierced with the iron
What would you have been willing to do to free the slaves if you woke up tomorrow in early 19th Century America?

Host and co-writer Jeff Stein is the White House economics reporter for The Washington Post.
Co-writer Rowley Amato is an editor in New York City.
Sophia Kurzius is our producer.
Theme music by Ned Porter.
“John Brown’s Body” performed by Stephen Griffith.

Artwork by Elena Lacey.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
57 min
December 28, 2023 Ep 2: Standing on a volcano
[Audio quality tends to be better on head phones; apologies for any imperfections]

In a fight to the death on the cold, harsh Kansas prairie, John Brown finds himself at odds with his fellow antislavery settlers.

Quick correction: We refer in this episode to the Ruffian leader as "Benjamin Frank Stringfellow." It is in fact Benjamin Franklin Stringfellow.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
46 min