The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

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   Number 1: Operation Sparrow: The Incredible True Story of the North American Spies Who Tricked Hitler and Won the War with Jason Bell (Hanover Square Press, 2026)

   Historians have always known that the success of the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day in June 1944 depended on deceiving the Germans about where the invasion would take place. Jason Bell’s book, Operation Sparrow: The Incredible True Story of the Spies Who Tricked Hitler and Won the War (Hanover Square Press, 2026), tells the story of how three secret agents got themselves captured in Hungary to convince the Third Reich that the Allied invasion was taking place a thousand miles away. March 16, 1944. Colonel Duke jumped into Hitler's Europe to lead Operation Sparrow, an OSS mission authorized by the president. Duke was forty-eight, twice the age of most paratroopers. He had played pro football for the New York Giants, flown fighter planes, and made his fortune in advertising before World War II made him a spy behind enemy lines. Within days, the three Sparrows were captured in Hungary. It wasn’t a failure. It was the plan. Under brutal Gestapo interrogation, Duke and his men set out to convince the Third Reich that the D-Day invasion would strike the Balkans, far from France. Survive torture while making a lie sound true—it was either genius or suicidal. Probably both. If the ruse held, Axis divisions would defend the wrong coast. If it broke, three Americans would be shot as spies—and the Wehrmacht would be poised to win D-Day. Of the tens of millions who fought in the war, the Sparrows were the only ones whose mission required capture by the Nazis. Drawing on recently declassified OSS files, Jason Bell brings their story to life. Operation Sparrow reveals:The American heroes who turned their own capture into a weaponThe Gestapo interrogation rooms that became a secret Allied battlefieldThe top-secret deception that kept Hitler's divisions away from NormandyMeticulously researched and told at the pace of a thriller, Operation Sparrow is narrative history for readers of Operation Mincemeat and Unbroken. Andrew O. Pace is a Senior Historian at SNA International in support of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). Dr. Pace is not an employee of DPAA, he supports DPAA through a partnership. The views presented are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of DPAA, DoW or its components. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

   September 30, 2026·32min
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   Number 2: Antisemitism, an American Tradition with Pamela S. Nadell (Norton, 2025)

   Pamela S. Nadell holds the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History and is Director of the Jewish Studies Program. A specialist in American Jewish history and women’s history, she teaches a variety of courses in Jewish civilization. Pamela Nadell’s books include America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today (W.W. Norton, 2019), named Jewish Book of the Year by the Jewish Book Council. Reviewed in the New York Times, America’s Jewish Women was praised as “a welcome addition to the American historical canon.” A past president of the Association for Jewish Studies, Nadell’s other titles include Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Women’s Ordination, 1889–1985 (Beacon Press, 1998). She consults for museums including the Weizman National Museum of American Jewish History and the Tree of Life Humanity Center. She lectures widely, frequently appears on podcasts, and has written for, among others, the Washington Post, The Conversation, and Hadassah Magazine. She has testified before Congress about antisemitism on college campuses several times, most recently in the December 2023 hearing with the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania. Pamela S. Nadell’s Antisemitism, an American Tradition (2025) argues that antisemitism is not a recent anomaly in the United States but a deep-rooted, recurring feature of American life from colonial times to the present. Nadell traces nearly four centuries of anti-Jewish hatred—from 17th‑century colonial prejudices and religious test oaths, through 19th‑century exclusion, the “high tide” of the 1930s, and into today’s surge—showing how old tropes about “evil Jews” keep reappearing in new forms. She foregrounds the experiences and voices of Jewish men, women, and children, documenting how antisemitism shaped everyday life, opportunities, and communal strategies. The book stresses that antisemitism cuts across politics, race, and religion; it is not confined to one party or movement but has appeared on multiple sides of American society. Alongside chronicling hate, Nadell highlights how Jews fought back—through advocacy, legal action, institution-building, and solidarity with other groups. Rather than treating U.S. antisemitism as a side note to European history, Nadell makes it the central subject across 400 years, insisting it is an “American tradition” in its own right. She explicitly aims to tell the story “through the eyes of its victims,” using personal and communal memories to show impact, not just ideology. The book connects classic Christian anti-Judaism and older stereotypes to modern conspiracy theories, showing how they reinforce each other rather than replacing one another. Antisemitism is often described as a millennia-old hatred rooted in late antique and medieval Christian Europe. Nadell’s contribution is to relocate and reframe that story within U.S. history. She demonstrates that when Europeans immigrated to America, they brought these ancient prejudices with them, and those ideas became embedded in American institutions and culture from the start. By documenting persistent patterns—test oaths, quotas, job discrimination, propaganda, violence—she challenges narratives of American exceptionalism that treat antisemitism as marginal or limited to extreme moments. Her work helps scholars and policymakers see contemporary spikes not as isolated outbreaks but as the latest phase of a long-standing American pattern. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

   September 25, 2026·52min
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   Number 3: Pablo F. Gomez, "Bloody Numbers: The Early Atlantic Slave Trade and the Invention of Modern Corporeality" (U Chicago Press, 2026)

   In my conversation with Professor Pablo F. Gómez about his new book, Bloody Numbers: The Early Atlantic Slave Trade and the Invention of Modern Corporeality, published by the University of Chicago Press in 2026. Our conversation explored the unsettling relationship between slavery, the body, measurement, and knowledge. What does it mean to measure a human body within a system that has already reduced that person to a commodity? And what happens when numbers that appear neutral become entangled with violence, commerce and exploitation? What stayed with me is the book’s invitation to think differently about numbers. Behind measurements of height, weight, health, disease and mortality were human beings whose lives could not be contained by the data recorded about them. These questions are not only historical. We live in an increasingly quantified world, where bodies, health, productivity and risk are constantly measured and transformed into data. So perhaps one question we should keep asking is: Who is doing the counting, why are they counting, and what happens to the people being counted? I invite you to listen to our conversation and reflect with us on the histories behind the numbers we encounter today. Amisah Bakuri (PhD) is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her work explores the intersections of religion, sexuality, gender, and migration, especially within African diasporic communities in the Netherlands. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

   September 20, 2026·53min
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   Number 4: Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann, "Pierogi: An American Story of Polish Food" (Columbia UP, 2026)

   Today, pierogi are the most recognizable Polish food in the United States and a symbol of Polish American identity. How did this humble dish attain such lofty status? In Pierogi: An American Story of Polish Food (Columbia UP, 2026), Professor Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann explores the surprising history of pierogi, tracing how Polish cuisine evolved in the multiethnic landscape of the United States. When Polish immigrants crossed the ocean, they brought with them their traditional cuisine, which came to signify enduring attachment to homeland, family, religion, and culture. In time, they as well as new generations and new immigrant waves gradually transformed Polish American culinary culture, reflecting food trends and changes in the United States, Poland, and the world. Pierogi takes readers into the kitchens where Polish American families, friends, and community organizations carry on the custom of cooking and eating together. Dr. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann highlights small- and large-scale pierogi producers who adapted traditional dishes for the US market and food celebrities who mainstreamed them, and she traces the symbolic representation of pierogi in popular culture. She also shares personal stories, from her family’s resourcefulness in communist-era Poland facing near-constant food shortages to her experiences as an immigrant to the United States in the 1980s. Drawing on sources from historical and recent cookbooks to interviews with Polish American entrepreneurs and community members, this book offers new insights for anyone interested in East Central European and American foodways. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

   September 18, 2026·49min
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   Number 5: Patrick Griffin, "The Age of Atlantic Revolution: The Fall and Rise of a Connected World" (Yale UP, 2023)

   David Gellman interviews Patrick Griffin on The Age of Atlantic Revolution: The Fall and Rise of a Connected World The Age of Atlantic Revolution was a defining moment in western history. Our understanding of rights, of what makes the individual an individual, of how to define a citizen versus a subject, of what states should or should not do, of how labor, politics, and trade would be organized, of the relationship between the church and the state, and of our attachment to the nation all derive from this period (c. 1750–1850). Historian Patrick Griffin shows that the Age of Atlantic Revolution was rooted in how people in an interconnected world struggled through violence, liberation, and war to reimagine themselves and sovereignty. Tying together the revolutions, crises, and conflicts that undid British North America, transformed France, created Haiti, overturned Latin America, challenged Britain and Europe, vexed Ireland, and marginalized West Africa, Griffin tells a transnational tale of how empires became nations and how our world came into being. Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

   September 10, 2026·1h
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