• Throughline

  • By: NPR
  • Podcast

Throughline

By: NPR
Listen for free

  • Summary

  • Throughline is a time machine. Each episode, we travel beyond the headlines to answer the question, "How did we get here?" We use sound and stories to bring history to life and put you into the middle of it. From ancient civilizations to forgotten figures, we take you directly to the moments that shaped our world. Throughline is hosted by Peabody Award-winning journalists Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei.

    Subscribe to Throughline+. You'll be supporting the history-reframing, perspective-shifting, time-warping stories you can't get enough of - and you'll unlock access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org/throughline
    Copyright 2019-2021 NPR - For Personal Use Only
    Show More Show Less
Social Sciences World
Show More Show Less
Episodes
  • Motherhood

    Motherhood
    May 1 2025
    Baby bonuses, childless cat ladies: the rhetoric around motherhood is politically charged right now. And the fantasy of an ideal mother remains powerful, even as real-life parents struggle to reconcile its demands. Today on the show, three myths of motherhood, and the people who have fought to break them down. This episode originally ran in 2023 as The Labor of Love.

    Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    NPR Privacy Policy
    Show More Show Less
    51 mins
  • The Deadly Story of the U.S. Civil Service

    The Deadly Story of the U.S. Civil Service
    Apr 24 2025
    When James Garfield won the Presidency in 1880, Charles Guiteau got ready to accept his new government job. No one had actually offered him a job – but he'd campaigned for Garfield, so he assumed he'd be rewarded. That was the spoils system, and it was how the government worked.

    But President Garfield didn't hire him. Guiteau was furious. And on July 2, 1881, he followed Garfield to a Washington D.C. train station and shot him.

    Today on the show: how an assassination meant to restore the spoils system instead led to its end, and birthed the modern federal workforce.

    Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    NPR Privacy Policy
    Show More Show Less
    50 mins
  • The Alien Enemies Act

    The Alien Enemies Act
    Apr 17 2025
    In March 2025, President Trump issued an executive order invoking a centuries-old law: the Alien Enemies Act. The Act allows a president to detain or deport citizens of foreign adversaries to the United States, but only in the case of a "declared war" or "invasion." Now, the Trump administration and the courts are locked in a battle over whether the president's use of the Act, under which people have already been deported, is legal. Today on the show: where the Alien Enemies Act came from, how presidents have used it before, and what that tells us about what's to come.

    Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    NPR Privacy Policy
    Show More Show Less
    49 mins

What listeners say about Throughline

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
No Reviews are Available