Slate History

By Slate Podcasts

Society & Culture History

What's Slate History about?

A feed with the best history coverage from Slate’s wide range of podcasts. From narrative shows like Slow Burn, One Year, and Decoder Ring, to timely analysis from ICYMI and What Next, you’ll get the fascinating stories and vital context you need to understand where we came from and where we're going.

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What Next: Can Marriage Fix...

09.28.2023

Why is everyone—on the left and the right—suddenly touting the benefits of a married two-parent family? And what is it about this institution that appeals to a certain class of politicians and pundits as means to address American poverty, even ...

Slate History episodes:

09.28.2023 What Next: Can Marriage Fix America? Why is everyone—on the left and the right—suddenly touting the benefits of a married two-parent family? And what is it about this institution that appeals to a certain class of politicians and pundits as means to address American poverty, even ...
09.28.2023 One Year: 1955 - The Cutter Incident Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine transformed America and the world in ways that seemed unimaginable. But in 1955, there was a moment when everything was in doubt. This week, Josh Levin talks with Dr. Paul Offit about the medical mystery that ...
09.28.2023 The Waves: The Afghan Women Left Behind - Gender And U.S. Immigration On this week’s episode of The Waves, Host Kat Chow turns to Afghanistan, two years since the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country. She speaks with reporter Tanvi Misra, who recently published an article with Politico following a ...
09.27.2023 What Next: Wait, China’s Taking Our Pandas Back? Everybody loves pandas—and China knows it. As we say goodbye to the National Zoo’s pandas, we look back at 50 years of “panda diplomacy” and consider its uncertain future. Guest: E. Elena Songster, author of Panda Nation: The Construction and ...
09.23.2023 Gabfest Reads: Zadie Smith Knows You're a Fraud Emily Bazelon talks with author Zadie Smith about her new book, The Fraud. They discuss what happens when justice comes through an unjust symbol, how much Zadie does and doesn’t know about her characters, and more. Tweet us your questions ...
09.22.2023 A Word: School of Destruction Against the odds, a tight-knit group of Black families created the community of Shoe Lane in Newport News, Virginia in the early 20th century. Residents bought land, and often built their homes, expecting to hand down a thriving African American ...
09.21.2023 One Year: 1955 - Siberia, USA When Alaskans wanted their own mental-health facility, a rumor took hold all over America. This week, Evan Chung traces the origins of that far-right conspiracy theory: that the government was building a concentration camp where Americans would get imprisoned for ...
09.19.2023 Hear Me Out: Bring Back The Draft On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… the conscription question. The U.S. military is having trouble meeting recruitment goals — and for the first time in recent history, the Army has actually failed to meet its minimum. Joe Plenzler, a ...
09.15.2023 A Word: Wrong from the Beginning The teaching of Black history has been under increasing political attack in recent years. But the version of African American history taught –even to Black people– has always been incomplete. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson is joined ...
09.14.2023 One Year: 1955 - The Weather Girls In the early days of television, women struggled to find their place. In 1955, they got it: forecasting the weather, on stations all across the country. But as these “weather girls” transformed the airwaves, a group of powerful men hatched ...
09.07.2023 One Year: 1955 - The Crockett Craze In 1955, the frontiersman Davy Crockett became the most famous man in America, more than a century after his death at the Alamo. This week, Evan Chung dives into a cultural phenomenon nobody saw coming. Not the kids in coonskin ...
09.05.2023 Hear Me Out: Overconfidence Is Killing The Supreme Court On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… supreme hubris. The Supreme Court is currently unpopular to a historic degree. That popularity is, of course, contingent on political opinion – and whether the court has bucked it recently. But most people ...
08.31.2023 One Year: 1955 - The Team Nobody Would Play The Cannon Street All-Stars dreamed of playing in the 1955 Little League World Series. Their biggest obstacle didn’t come on the field. In the year that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus, these Black ...
08.26.2023 Amicus - Citizen Justice: The Environmental Legacy of William O. Douglas In Amicus’ summer series of conversations about books that expanded our thinking about justice and the courts, beyond the churn of headlines, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Judge Margaret M. McKeown of the United States Court of Appeals for the ...
08.21.2023 One Year: 1955 Trailer Coming Thursday, August 31st, the fifth season of One Year covers 1955. A year when a team of 12-year-olds tried to integrate Little League, “weather girls” took the country by storm, and a conspiracy theory about Communist brainwashing infected the ...
08.09.2023 Decoder Ring: Think Catchphrases Are Dead? Eat My Shorts. Once you start listening for catchphrases in everyday life—you can’t stop hearing them. From the radio era’s “Holy mackerel!” to Fonzie’s “Ayyy!” to Urkel’s multiple go-to lines on Family Matters, we explore the irresistible quotables from sitcoms, movies and social ...
08.08.2023 Hear Me Out: Affirmative Action Failed Poor Black Kids On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… almost affirmative. We don’t yet know what the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action is going to do, tangibly, to college admissions — or how long those impacts will last. But, based on ...
08.07.2023 What Next: Florida Public Schools' New Anti-Woke Partner In July, Florida approved the use of Prager U materials in its classrooms. The organization claims its videos offer an alternative to the prevailing left-wing ideology in the classroom. Its founder told a sympathetic audience that what they offer is ...
08.03.2023 What Next: It’s Hot as Hell. Why Are Pools Closed? The temperature is going up, but the number of open, public pools isn’t. It’s not just a summer bummer; it’s turning into a public health crisis. Guest: Mara Gay, member of the New York Times editorial board, focused on New ...
08.02.2023 Decoder Ring: The Quest for a Homemade Hovercraft When Slate’s Evan Chung was a kid, he was obsessed with a mysterious advertisement that ran for decades in the scouting magazine Boys’ Life. Under the enticing headline “You Can Float on Air,” the ad assured Evan—and generations of scouts—that ...
07.26.2023 Decoder Ring: A Brief History of Making Out Kissing—the romantic, sexual, steamy kind—is so ingrained in us that it just seems like a fact of life. Like breathing or eating, we just do it. But what if it’s not like that at all? In this episode, we’re going ...
07.22.2023 Political Gabfest Reads: How the British Empire Twisted the Truth David Plotz talks with author David Grann about his new book, The Wager. The non-fiction book tells the harrowing story of a shipwreck off the coast of Patagonia in 1742. They discuss how the British Empire twisted fact and fiction, ...
07.21.2023 A Word: Justice Delayed, Justice Denied? Oklahoma’s legendary “Black Wall Street” was destroyed in the Tulsa Massacre of 1921. Hundreds of victims were murdered and dumped in mass graves, and dozens of homes and businesses were burned to the ground. More than a century later, three ...
07.20.2023 The Waves: Why Barbie Lives On On this week’s episode of The Waves, it’s all about Barbie. Slate senior producer Cheyna Roth sits down with M.G. Lord, author of Forever Barbie and co-host of “LA Made: The Barbie Tapes” from LAist and So Cal Public Radio. ...
07.19.2023 Decoder Ring: What's Really Going On Inside a Mosh Pit? The mosh pit has a reputation as a violent place where (mostly) white guys vent their aggression. There’s some truth to that, but it’s also a place bound by camaraderie and—believe it or not—etiquette. In this episode, we explore the ...
07.15.2023 Slow Burn: Season 8 Live Announcement & Bonus Conversation Join host Joel Anderson and special guests for Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Thomas LIVE in D.C. (July 25, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.) You’ll see a live performance of an extended story from the season (spoiler: it will be a…slam dunk). ...
07.14.2023 A Word: Black Dolls Matter Barbie is more than a toy. She’s an icon, and now the focus of a blockbuster film. For generations, Barbie has helped define all-American beauty, often leaving girls who weren’t blonde, thin, and white feeling invisible. But that began to ...
07.12.2023 Decoder Ring: The Great Parmesan Cheese Debate Parmesan is a food—but it’s not just a food. Italy’s beloved cheese is often paired with a deep craving for tradition and identity. But its history also involves intrepid immigrants, lucrative businesses and an American version that’s probably available in ...
07.04.2023 Hear Me Out: Insurrection Is A Force For Good On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… don’t you know they’re talking ‘bout a revolution? July 4th celebrates one of the least bloody milestones of the American Revolution. But we have a complicated relationship with overthrowing the powers that be ...
06.21.2023 Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Thomas - Ep. 4: A National Disgrace Anita Hill’s accusations launched urgent and heated conversations about racism and sexual harassment. They also stoked an anger in Clarence Thomas that’s never stopped raging. Season 8 of Slow Burn is produced by Joel Anderson, Sophie Summergrad, Sam Kim, and ...
06.20.2023 Hear Me Out: Descendants Of Slaves Don’t Need Reparations On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… an archaeology of grievances. In honor of the third Juneteenth being celebrated as a national holiday, it’s worth unpacking symbolic gestures like Juneteenth — and, as many states are finding out, like Reparations. ...
06.20.2023 How To!: Find the Gems in All Your Junk Most people have something they’re holding on to. For Lesley and Alex, that’s some old baseball and basketball cards that are collecting dust in their attic. For Kathy, that’s a house full of antiques. They’ve all been wanting to pare ...
06.14.2023 Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Thomas - Ep. 3: I’m Their Guy When Clarence Thomas got nominated to the Supreme Court, his behavior during the 1980s would get put under a microscope. To understand who Thomas was then and who he is today, you need to hear how he treated the women ...
06.07.2023 Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Thomas - Ep. 2: Smiling Faces Clarence Thomas went to Yale Law School because he thought it was a good fit for his left-wing politics. But when he got there, it seemed like all the white liberals thought he was only there because he was Black. ...
06.02.2023 A Word: My Father, the Spy Every family has secrets. As a girl, Leta McCollough Seletzky learned that her father, Marrell McCollough– was on the scene of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. But it would be years before she learned that he was there as a ...
05.31.2023 Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Thomas - Ep. 1: America’s Blackest Child Growing up in Georgia, Clarence Thomas wanted to make his mark. His goal was to become his hometown’s first Black Catholic priest. But in the 1960s, he abandoned that dream. Instead, he embraced campus activism and the teachings of Malcolm ...
05.30.2023 Hear Me Out: “Thank You For Your Service” Feels Cheap On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… empty thanks? Memorial Day is meant to commemorate those who lost their lives in serving this country. Around such a heavy day — and on many others — the common refrain of “thank ...
05.26.2023 A Word: Reckoning on Campus The murder of George Floyd prompted a number of American colleges and universities to reckon with their historic roles in slavery. Three years later, many institutions have abandoned those efforts. One that’s still going strong is the Hard Histories Project ...
05.23.2023 Hear Me Out: Policing Can’t Be Reformed And Must Be Abolished On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… imagine a world without police. Three years after George Floyd’s murder, we’ve seen some incremental change in how we try to prevent police brutality. But it still happens, all too often — and ...
05.19.2023 A Word: The Ballot, the Bullet, and the Truth Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925, and he remains one of the most polarizing figures of the civil rights movement. An enduring myth from that era is that he and Martin Luther King Jr. were diametrically opposed politically. ...
05.12.2023 A Word: Dungeons, Dragons, and Diversity The persistent stereotype that role-playing, tabletop game players are overwhelmingly white is rooted in race, housing, and history. The suburban homes where people could dedicate a surface to a sprawling, multiplayer board game used to be almost exclusively white. And ...
05.10.2023 Decoder Ring: Who Owns the Tooth Fairy? We pride ourselves on being grounded, rational beings, but flitting amongst us is a mystery: the Tooth Fairy. This flying piece of folklore is alive and well in the 21st century, handed down to kids in whatever way their parents ...
05.05.2023 A Word: Becoming “The Black Mozart” Even classical art can be revolutionary. That was true for violinist Joseph Bologne. He was a biracial musical prodigy who worked and charmed his way into the center of 18th-century French society. But the new film “Chevalier” shows how even ...
05.04.2023 What Next: Charles In Charge It’s the first British coronation in 70 years and along with the celebration, questions abound: What kind of king will Charles be? Who is Charles anyway? And why even have a king? Guest: Imogen West-Knights, writer and Slate contributor If ...
05.03.2023 What Next: America’s Rich History of Gun Control When the Supreme Court struck down New York’s concealed carry law last year, it set a precedent that gun control laws should be judged against “historical tradition.” But judged against actual American history, it’s the on-going repeal of gun control ...
05.03.2023 Decoder Ring: Why You Can’t Find a Damn Parking Spot Parking is one of the great paradoxes of American life. On the one hand, we have paved an ungodly amount of land to park our cars. On the other, it seems like it’s never enough. Slate’s Henry Grabar has spent ...
05.02.2023 Hear Me Out: The Iraq War Was a Necessary Evil On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… Mission Accomplished? This year marks the 20th anniversary of then-President Bush’s infamous address aboard an aircraft carrier, declaring that the war had been won and Iraqis were free. We know now, of course, ...
04.26.2023 Decoder Ring: The Artist Who Was Both Loved and Disdained We bring you a special episode from Sidedoor, a podcast about the treasures that fill the vaults of the Smithsonian. This story is inspired by “Big Band,” a defining work by the painter LeRoy Neiman. Neiman was a character, a ...
04.22.2023 Political Gabfest Reads: The Art of Writing Political Satire David Plotz talks with author Alexandra Petri about her new book, Alexandra Petri’s US History: Important American Documents. They discuss how to transform staid history documents into rollicking parodies, how Petri found her “voice” multiple times, and her grander ambitions ...
04.19.2023 Decoder Ring: The Curious Case of Columbo's Message to Romania Part 2 Last week, we put on the proverbial raincoat and made like Columbo to investigate Peter Falk’s claim that he recorded a special Cold War message telling Romanians to “put down their guns.” This week, we’re back on the case, and ...

Older episodes

Slate History

What's Slate History about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Slate History episodes:

What Next: Can Marriage Fix America?

One Year: 1955 - The Cutter Incident

The Waves: The Afghan Women Left Behind - Gender And U.S. Immigration

What Next: Wait, China’s Taking Our Pandas Back?

Gabfest Reads: Zadie Smith Knows You're a Fraud

A Word: School of Destruction

One Year: 1955 - Siberia, USA

Hear Me Out: Bring Back The Draft

A Word: Wrong from the Beginning

One Year: 1955 - The Weather Girls

One Year: 1955 - The Crockett Craze

Hear Me Out: Overconfidence Is Killing The Supreme Court

One Year: 1955 - The Team Nobody Would Play

Amicus - Citizen Justice: The Environmental Legacy of William O. Douglas

One Year: 1955 Trailer

Decoder Ring: Think Catchphrases Are Dead? Eat My Shorts.

Hear Me Out: Affirmative Action Failed Poor Black Kids

What Next: Florida Public Schools' New Anti-Woke Partner

What Next: It’s Hot as Hell. Why Are Pools Closed?

Decoder Ring: The Quest for a Homemade Hovercraft

Decoder Ring: A Brief History of Making Out

Political Gabfest Reads: How the British Empire Twisted the Truth

A Word: Justice Delayed, Justice Denied?

The Waves: Why Barbie Lives On

Decoder Ring: What's Really Going On Inside a Mosh Pit?

Slow Burn: Season 8 Live Announcement & Bonus Conversation

A Word: Black Dolls Matter

Decoder Ring: The Great Parmesan Cheese Debate

Hear Me Out: Insurrection Is A Force For Good

Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Thomas - Ep. 4: A National Disgrace

Hear Me Out: Descendants Of Slaves Don’t Need Reparations

How To!: Find the Gems in All Your Junk

Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Thomas - Ep. 3: I’m Their Guy

Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Thomas - Ep. 2: Smiling Faces

A Word: My Father, the Spy

Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Thomas - Ep. 1: America’s Blackest Child

Hear Me Out: “Thank You For Your Service” Feels Cheap

A Word: Reckoning on Campus

Hear Me Out: Policing Can’t Be Reformed And Must Be Abolished

A Word: The Ballot, the Bullet, and the Truth

A Word: Dungeons, Dragons, and Diversity

Decoder Ring: Who Owns the Tooth Fairy?

A Word: Becoming “The Black Mozart”

What Next: Charles In Charge

What Next: America’s Rich History of Gun Control

Decoder Ring: Why You Can’t Find a Damn Parking Spot

Hear Me Out: The Iraq War Was a Necessary Evil

Decoder Ring: The Artist Who Was Both Loved and Disdained

Political Gabfest Reads: The Art of Writing Political Satire

Decoder Ring: The Curious Case of Columbo's Message to Romania Part 2