Pitch, please: three history podcasters tell us why we should listen to their shows

This week, Leah sat down with the hosts of three history podcasts to learn about their shows. Martine Powers from The Washington Post's The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop, Tim Harford from Pushkin's Cautionary Tales and Ramtin Arablouei from NPR's Throughline.

First, Martine Powers tells us about The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop.

In 1979, there was a revolution on the Caribbean island of Grenada. The new prime minister was a young, charismatic, socialist named Maurice Bishop. Bishop introduced a wave of social reforms, like free public healthcare and paid maternity leave. Though he was a popular leader at home, U.S president Ronald Reagan was not a fan. 

Less than five years after he took power, Bishop was executed in a coup. Days later, the U.S. invaded Grenada. In the chaos that followed, the bodies of Bishop and his supporters disappeared, never to be seen again. The Washington Post set out to solve the mystery. What happened to the bodies of Bishop and his supporters?

Then Tim Hartford tells us how voice actors and sound design bring history to life on Cautionary Tales. He also shares a clip from an episode where a competition goes terribly awry.

Finally, Ramtin Arablouei tells Leah about how Throughline has evolved over the years. From documentary style episodes about reality TV to an episode about music that was designed to fall asleep to. Throughline is just scratching the surface of what it aims to achieve.

Featured podcasts: The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop, Cautionary Tales and Throughline.