The Opium War: The Original Trade War
It’s been two weeks since President Donald Trump declared war on the global economic system his predecessors painstakingly built up since 1945. Then he partially reversed course, paused most of the ta...
16 Apr 202552min
Orientalism: How One Book Fueled 50 Years of Campus Unrest
Pro-Palestine protests have been a feature of Columbia's campus since October 7. Now, Donald Trump has issued an ultimatum to the university: get control of your campus or lose $400 million in Federal...
2 Apr 202548min
Luigi Mangione & The History of Bourgeois Terrorism
Luigi Mangione appears in court this week. He stands accused of murdering a healthcare CEO in cold blood. It’s not the first time a well heeled winner has been celebrated for his embrace of political ...
19 Mar 202544min
How A Strange Group of Heroes Defeated Russia
Ronald Reagan’s speech in front of the Berlin Wall in 1987 is legendary for its six simple words: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” And two years later the wall fell. In another two years, the ...
5 Mar 202541min
Why We Can't Escape JFK Conspiracy Theories
Every now and again, a work of art is so profound that it breaches the boundary between fact and fiction and affects current events. And if you had to rank the most politically resonant artworks Ameri...
19 Feb 202548min
Paradise Burning
Last month, L.A. burned. It was one of the most predictable disasters on record. A century of development on land whose ecosystems were forged in wildfire; years of increasingly regular blazes; months...
5 Feb 202547min
Trump’s Populism Isn’t a Sideshow. It’s as American as Apple Pie.
Donald Trump, just sworn in as the 47th president, was reelected to be a wrecking ball, a middle finger, the people’s punch to the Beltway’s mouth. And while this populist moment feels “unprecedented,...
22 Jan 202535min
Introducing: Breaking History
Sometimes the news moves so fast, you have to look closely to know if you’ve seen it before. And that’s what this show is about. Breaking History breaks down the news, by breaking down history. We cov...
14 Jan 20252min
