American History Tellers

By Wondery

Society & Culture History Kids & Family

What's American History Tellers about?

The Cold War, Prohibition, the Gold Rush, the Space Race. Every part of your life - the words you speak, the ideas you share - can be traced to our history, but how well do you really know the stories that made America? We'll take you to the events, the times and the people that shaped our nation. And we'll show you how our history affected them, their families and affects you today. Hosted by Lindsay Graham (not the Senator). From Wondery, the network behind American Scandal, Tides of History, American Innovations and more. New episodes come out every Wednesday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. Listen ad-free on Wondery+ or on Amazon Music with a Prime membership or Amazon Music Unlimited subscription.

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Wondery Presents: The Vanished

11.28.2022

The Vanished is a true crime podcast that explores the stories of those who have gone missing. The Vanished goes beyond conventional news reports to take a deep dive into the story of a different missing person each week. Host ...

American History Tellers episodes:

11.28.2022 Wondery Presents: The Vanished The Vanished is a true crime podcast that explores the stories of those who have gone missing. The Vanished goes beyond conventional news reports to take a deep dive into the story of a different missing person each week. Host ...
11.23.2022 Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 \| Friends We Have Lost \| 3 In 1793, Philadelphia served as the nation’s temporary capital, and the yellow fever epidemic crippled the federal government. After fleeing the capital, President George Washington struggled to make decisions and govern the young nation. Meanwhile, Philadelphia was running out of ...
11.16.2022 Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 \| Fears & Falsehoods \| 2 In September 1793, yellow fever continued to ravage Philadelphia. As the death toll mounted, Dr. Benjamin Rush raced to find a cure. Rush used an aggressive and controversial treatment to battle the grisly disease, sparking a political backlash. Soon Treasury ...
11.14.2022 Wondery Presents: This Job is History Where the oddest jobs from the past meet a comedian from the present… and it’s awkward! On this weekly show, Chris Parnell (SNL, Rick and Morty) welcomes guests who have held some of human history’s most unexpected and downright bizarre ...
11.09.2022 Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 \| Outbreak \| 1 In the hot and humid summer of 1793, a deadly epidemic struck Philadelphia, then the capital of the United States. Thousands suffered high fevers, yellow skin, and bloody vomit. Many died within days. At first, the cause of the illnesses ...
11.02.2022 The Age of Pirates \| Women of the High Seas \| 4 During the Golden Age of Piracy, two female pirates became infamous despite their short careers. Anne Bonny and Mary Read went down as some of the fiercest pirates in popular mythology.. Dr. Rebecca Simon is a historian of early modern ...
11.01.2022 Amazon Music Presents MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories A hiker terrorized for days by two unknown figures… A man stalked through the woods while camping, who barely escaped with his life… two cops who quit their job at a local theater because of unexplained encounters with an alleged ...
10.26.2022 The Age of Pirates \| Blackbeard and the Flying Gang \| 3 In 1717, the pirate known as Blackbeard launched an attack along the Atlantic seaboard, disrupting international trade and striking terror into sea captains and colonial governors. Working with his sidekick, the “Gentleman Pirate” Stede Bonnet, Blackbeard blockaded the busy port ...
10.19.2022 The Age of Pirates \| Captain Kid's Adventure \| 2 As England waged war against France in 1689, Scottish sailor William Kidd led a deadly mutiny aboard a French privateer in the Caribbean. It was his first act in becoming one of the most feared sea captains of his generation. ...
10.12.2022 The Age of Pirates \| A Gold Chain Or A Wooden Leg \| 1 At the end of the 17th century, pirates stalked the coast of North America and the waters of the Caribbean, attacking merchant vessels from every nation. But they were more than just armed robbers of the high seas. They were ...
10.05.2022 Encore: The Walker Affair \| The Last Filibuster \| 3 When he escaped Nicaragua in 1857, American William Walker was a failed despot responsible for the death of thousands of people and the destabilization of Central America. But he returned to New Orleans with fanfare, greeted by cheering crowds and ...
09.28.2022 Encore: The Walker Affair \| Nicaragua's Yankee President \| 2 In 1855, William Walker faced a criminal trial in the United States for his illegal, and unsuccessful, invasion of Mexico. But he emerged from court fully acquitted, and to some, a national hero. Emboldened by his popularity, Walker set his ...
09.21.2022 Encore: The Walker Affair \| The Gray-Eyed Man of Destiny \| 1 In the mid-1800s, the United States was full of adventurers and entrepreneurs looking to take advantage of the country’s ever-expanding boundaries. One of them was a young lawyer and newspaper editor from Tennessee named William Walker. Hoping to establish his ...
09.14.2022 Civil War \| Finding Freedom \| 8 During the Civil War, Black people in America took the opportunity to free themselves and to serve the Union cause. At great personal risk, tens of thousands of refugees -- men, women and children -- fled Southern slave owners for ...
09.07.2022 Civil War \| Bind Up the Nation's Wounds \| 7 In early 1865, after four long years of bloodshed, the Confederacy was on the brink of defeat. General William Tecumseh Sherman marched his army through South Carolina, where Union soldiers sought vengeance against the secessionist state that started the war. ...
08.31.2022 Civil War \| March To The Sea \| 6 In 1864, Ulysses S. Grant took charge of the entire Union Army and laid out his ambitious plans to finally win the war. Grant pursued Lee in Virginia in a campaign unrivaled in the history of the war for its ...
08.24.2022 Civil War \| Gettysburg \| 5 In the summer of 1863, General Robert E. Lee made a daring bid for victory. He marched his army north to invade Pennsylvania. For three sweltering days, two massive armies locked in combat in the Battle of Gettysburg, the defining ...
08.17.2022 Civil War \| The Fires at Home \| 4 As the Civil War raged on, families on the homefront faced increasingly heavy tolls, enduring crippling economic turmoil, food shortages and explosive class tensions. Meanwhile, Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis waged their own battles with congressmen and governors over ...
08.10.2022 Civil War \| Emancipation \| 3 The Civil War began as an effort to hold the country together. Few Northern soldiers marched into battle to end slavery. But tens of thousands of enslaved men, women, and children took matters into their own hands, using the chaos ...
08.03.2022 Civil War \| First Blood \| 2 On April 19th, 1861, an angry mob of Confederate sympathizers in Baltimore tried to stop a regiment of Union soldiers rushing to protect the capitol. Soon, four soldiers and 12 locals lay dead, and dozens more were wounded. It was ...
07.27.2022 Civil War \| The Gathering Storm \| 1 Over the first decades of the 19th century, Americans fought over whether slavery should be allowed to expand into newly settled western territories. The debate grew so fierce that it led to a bloody attack right on the floor of ...
07.20.2022 Encore: The Age of Jackson \| A Nation Divided \| 7 The Age of Jackson was a time of intense change and tremendous growth in the United States. But it was not without controversy. In the years leading up to the Civil War, slavery and the rising abolitionist movement divided the ...
07.13.2022 Encore: The Age of Jackson \| Manifest Destiny \| 6 In 1845, newly inaugurated President James Polk made America’s westward expansion a centerpiece of his administration. Before long, the phrase “Manifest Destiny” was used to describe this growing sense of inevitability the United States would extend its territory across the ...
07.06.2022 Encore: The Age of Jackson \| The Little Magician \| 5 During the last years of Andrew Jackson’s presidency, the American economy flourished. But when his successor, Martin Van Buren, took office, he inherited a financial crisis. Before he became president, Van Buren’s political skill had earned him the nickname “The ...
06.29.2022 Encore: The Age of Jackson \| Great White Father \| 4 During his military career, Andrew Jackson won several ruthless victories over indigenous people. After becoming president in 1829, he waged political war against them, too. Jackson championed “Indian removal” – the forced displacement of Native Americans to make way for ...
06.22.2022 Encore: The Age of Jackson \| King Mob \| 3 On Andrew Jackson’s inauguration day, citizens mobbed the White House, breaking furniture and fine china. It was a sign of troubles to come. Elected as a populist president, Jackson was dogged by chaos and controversy from his first days in ...
06.15.2022 Encore: The Age of Jackson \| Good Feelings \| 2 In the summer of 1817, President James Monroe toured the country in an effort to unify the ever-growing United States. His optimistic presidency ushered in what became known as “The Era of Good Feelings.” But in reality, it was barely ...
06.08.2022 Encore: The Age of Jackson \| Washington Burns \| 1 In 1814, British troops burned down the White House. That fire would be extinguished, and the Executive Mansion would be rebuilt. But another fire smoldered on – a fire that would eventually consume the United States. This is Antebellum America: ...
06.01.2022 The Great Mississippi Flood \| Media Storm \| 4 In 1927, a slow-moving catastrophe like the Great Mississippi Flood was perfect material for a relatively new medium: radio. Over the airwaves, the flood became the first natural disaster that Americans could follow almost in real time, day by day, ...
05.25.2022 The Great Mississippi Flood \| Master of Emergencies \| 3 Herbert Hoover’s management of the flood relief garnered widespread praise and put him in position to secure the Republican nomination for President. But the African-American press told a different story, one of rampant racial abuse in Red Cross camps throughout ...
05.18.2022 The Great Mississippi Flood \| Dirty Water \| 2 Early in the morning on April 22nd, 1927, flood waters from a break in the Mound Landing levee entered the town of Greenville, Mississippi. Within hours, the town was submerged in 10 feet of water. Thousands of residents fought to ...
05.11.2022 The Great Mississippi Flood \| When the Levee Breaks \| 1 In the winter and spring of 1927, record-setting rain fell across the central United States. The Mississippi River swelled to capacity, and by April, the water breached major levees. It was the start of the most catastrophic river flood in ...
05.04.2022 Lewis and Clark \| The Journey and the Journals \| 4 The Lewis and Clark expedition changed the course of American history. But after its bold, charismatic leader, Meriwether Lewis, ended his life in an apparent suicide, the expedition was largely forgotten. Not until the 20th century would the exploits of ...
04.27.2022 Lewis and Clark \| The Long Way Home \| 3 After 18 months and over two thousand miles, Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery had reached the Pacific Ocean. Now, they would have to find their way back. And in a last-ditch bid for glory, they would split up the ...
04.20.2022 Lewis and Clark \| Across the Rockies \| 2 In the spring of 1805, Lewis and Clark resumed their journey up the Missouri River in search of the Pacific. But to reach the ocean, they would have to cross the towering Rocky Mountains. It was a forbidding task, and ...
04.13.2022 Lewis and Clark \| Into the Wild \| 1 In 1803, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began a westward journey that would transform America. Their mission was to head up the Missouri River and find a route through the uncharted west to the Pacific Ocean. The journey was ...
04.06.2022 The Fight for Women's Suffrage \| Portrait of a Struggle \| 6 For Alice Paul and other leading white suffragists, image was important. They published their own newspapers and staged dramatic public protests to gain press attention and shape public opinion. But all too often, white suffrage activists refused to make room ...
03.30.2022 The Fight for Women's Suffrage \| The 19th Amendment \| 5 As America entered World War I, the suffrage movement split into a two-pronged attack. Alice Paul and her National Woman’s Party took their protests to the White House gates. Meanwhile, Carrie Chapman Catt and her group, the National American Woman ...
03.23.2022 The Fight for Women's Suffrage \| Silent Sentinels \| 4 In March 1913, thousands of suffrage activists converged on Washington, D.C. for a new form of protest. They were going to march down Pennsylvania Avenue to demand an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote. Their ...
03.16.2022 The Fight for Women's Suffrage \| Passing the Torch \| 3 As the 20th century dawned, a new generation of women rose to take control of the suffrage cause. These young activists were going to college, delaying marriage, and pursuing careers. Their political savvy helped the movement win victories at the ...
03.09.2022 The Fight for Women's Suffrage \| The Trial of Susan B. Anthony \| 2 On Election Day 1872, Susan B. Anthony walked into a polling place in Rochester, New York and boldly cast her ballot. Her action was an escalation in women’s fight for the vote. Days later, she was arrested for voting illegally. ...
03.02.2022 The Fight for Women's Suffrage \| Created Equal \| 1 On July 19th, 1848, 300 female and male delegates gathered in a church in Seneca Falls, New York for America’s first women’s rights convention. After two days, 100 of the attendees signed the Declaration of Sentiments, a radical manifesto affirming ...
02.23.2022 The Plot to Steal Lincoln's Body \| The Manhunt \| 3 By 1876, criminal boss Big Jim Kennally was ready to put his Lincoln body-snatching plan into motion. But his gang of thieves needed one more member before they could attempt the heist. Soon, they found their new recruit: a former ...
02.16.2022 The Plot to Steal Lincoln's Body \| The Roper \| 2 By 1876, criminal boss Big Jim Kennally was ready to put his Lincoln body-snatching plan into motion. But his gang of thieves needed one more member before they could attempt the heist. Soon, they found their new recruit: a former ...
02.09.2022 The Plot to Steal Lincoln's Body \| The Counterfeiters \| 1 In the 1870s, a gang from Chicago hatched one of the most audacious criminal plots in American history. They planned to steal the body of Abraham Lincoln from his tomb in Springfield, Illinois, then hold the president’s corpse for ransom. ...
02.02.2022 Billy the Kid \| Man, Myth, Legend \| 4 Billy the Kid has become one of the most iconic figures of the American West. But many details of his life remain unknown or heavily debated among scholars and historians, from his childhood prior to his arrival in New Mexico, ...
01.26.2022 Billy the Kid \| Dead or Alive \| 3 With the bloody Lincoln County War finally over, Billy the Kid tried to make a truce with his arch enemy, Jimmy Dolan. But his plan backfired, and he wound up forced to go on the run, implicated in a murder ...
01.19.2022 Billy the Kid \| The Lincoln County War \| 2 In 1877, Billy the Kid was saved from a life of crime by a wealthy Englishman named John Tunstall, who saw potential in the teenage outlaw. Soon, however, Billy was drawn into a vicious war between Tunstall and a rival ...
01.12.2022 Billy the Kid \| Born to Lose \| 1 Henry McCarty was born in an Irish slum in New York City in 1859. By the time he died from a lawman’s bullet twenty-one years later in New Mexico, he was notorious throughout the world under a different name: Billy ...
01.05.2022 Philippine-American War \| The Path to Independence \| 5 The Philippine-American War marked the emergence of America as a global power. But what has been the legacy of the war in the country in which it was fought? How did the war set the stage for Philippine independence, and ...

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