Throughline

NPR

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

  • 49 minutes 2 seconds
    The Alien Enemies Act
    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
    17 April 2025, 7:00 am
  • 49 minutes 1 second
    When Things Fall Apart
    Climate disaster, political unrest, random violence: Western society can often feel like what the filmmaker Werner Herzog calls "a thin layer of ice on top of an ocean of chaos and darkness." But is that actually true — or the way it has to be? Today on the show, what really happens when things fall apart. This episode originally published in 2023.

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

    NPR Privacy Policy
    10 April 2025, 7:00 am
  • 49 minutes 41 seconds
    Get Rich Quick: The American Lottery
    Want to get rich quick? You're not alone. Right now, Americans spend over $100 billion, yes billion, every year on lottery tickets. Today on the show, in collaboration with Scratch and Win from WGBH, how the mafia, Sputnik, medical equipment, and the electoral college led to American's obsession with playing the numbers.

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

    NPR Privacy Policy
    3 April 2025, 7:00 am
  • 48 minutes 36 seconds
    We the People: The Right to Remain Silent
    The Fifth Amendment. You have the right to remain silent when you're being questioned in police custody, thanks to the Fifth's protection against self-incrimination. But most people end up talking to police anyway. Why? Today on Throughline's We the People: the Fifth Amendment, the right to remain silent, and how hard it can be to use it.

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

    NPR Privacy Policy
    27 March 2025, 7:00 am
  • 48 minutes 47 seconds
    Sesame Street
    Big Bird, politics, and the ABCs: how a television show made to represent New York City neighborhoods like Harlem and the Bronx became beloved by families around a divided country. This episode originally ran in 2022 as "Getting to Sesame Street."

    To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.

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

    NPR Privacy Policy
    20 March 2025, 7:00 am
  • 51 minutes 1 second
    Winter is Coming
    Dinosaurs, Carl Sagan, and nuclear war. There was a moment in the not-so-distant past when we learned what drove the dinosaurs extinct — and that discovery, made during the Cold War, may have helped save humans from the same fate. In this episode, we'll take a journey from prehistoric times to the nuclear age and explore how humans contend with fears of the end.

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

    NPR Privacy Policy
    13 March 2025, 7:00 am
  • 47 minutes 46 seconds
    We the People: Succession of Power
    The 25th amendment. A few years before JFK was shot, an idealistic young lawyer set out on a mission to convince people something essential was missing from the Constitution: clear instructions for what should happen if a U.S. president was no longer able to serve. On this episode of our ongoing series We the People, the story behind one of the last amendments to the Constitution, and the man who got it done.

    Correction: In a previous version of this episode we incorrectly said that John F. Kennedy was the youngest president in US history. Kennedy at 43 was the youngest person to be elected president but Theodore Roosevelt, who took office at age 42 after William McKinley was assassinated, was the youngest person to serve as US president.

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

    NPR Privacy Policy
    6 March 2025, 8:00 am
  • 52 minutes 58 seconds
    Health Insurance in America
    Millions of Americans depend on their jobs for health insurance. But that's not the case in many other wealthy countries. How did the U.S. end up with a system that's so expensive, yet leaves so many people vulnerable? On this episode, how a temporary solution created an everlasting problem. This episode originally ran in 2020 as The Everlasting Problem.

    To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.

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

    NPR Privacy Policy
    27 February 2025, 8:00 am
  • 51 minutes 40 seconds
    The Evolution of Presidential Power
    What can and can't the president do — and how do we know? The framers of the U.S. Constitution left the powers of the executive branch powers deliberately vague, and in doing so opened the door for every president to decide how much power they could claim. Over time, that's become quite a lot. This episode originally ran in 2020 and has been updated with new material.

    To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.

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

    NPR Privacy Policy
    20 February 2025, 8:00 am
  • 48 minutes 48 seconds
    The Anti-Vaccine Movement
    The alleged link between vaccines and autism was first published in 1998, in a since-retracted study in medical journal The Lancet. The claim has been repeatedly disproven: there is no evidence that vaccines and autism are related. But by the mid-2000s, the myth was out there, and its power was growing, fueled by distrust of government, misinformation, and high-profile boosters like Jim Carrey and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. In this episode: the roots of the modern anti-vaccine movement, and of the fears that still fuel it – from a botched polio vaccine, to the discredited autism study, to today.

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

    NPR Privacy Policy
    13 February 2025, 8:00 am
  • 57 minutes 44 seconds
    Birthright Citizenship
    Wong Kim Ark was born in the U.S. and lived his whole life here. But when he returned from a trip to China in August of 1895, officials wouldn't let him leave his ship. Citing the Chinese Exclusion Act, which denied citizenship to Chinese immigrants, they told him he was not, in fact, a citizen of the United States.

    Today, the story of Wong Kim Ark, whose epic fight to be recognized as a citizen in his own country led to a Supreme Court decision affirming birthright citizenship for all.

    This episode originally ran as By Accident of Birth.

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

    NPR Privacy Policy
    6 February 2025, 8:00 am
  • More Episodes? Get the App