HISTORY This Week

Giles Milton, historian and author of Checkmate in Berlin, brings vivid first-hand narrative detail to the Berlin Airlift. He recounts Howley’s defiant command, the desperate daily shortages, and the massive logistics that made nonstop supply flights possible. The story covers Soviet harassment, record-breaking lift efforts, the jubilant May 12 celebrations, and how the crisis helped shape NATO and the postwar order.

Family Lore is a weekly narrative podcast that celebrates and investigates ancestral mystique. Each episode begins with a guest sharing a fascinating family legend, followed by a historical deep-dive to uncover the truth and meaning behind the tale. Available now: link.pscrb.fm/f0281/FLFD To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ian Buruma, professor of human rights and journalism and author of Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939-1945, guides listeners through life in Nazi Berlin. He describes Goebbels' staged Soviet Paradise spectacle, the weaponization of truth through posters and radio, everyday normalcy amid terror, acts of resistance like the Baum Group, and the city’s descent under bombing and total war.

April 25, 1859. About 150 people have gathered on the shores of Lake Manzala in Egypt. And one of them, a mustachioed, retired French diplomat, steps forward. He raises his pickaxe and strikes a ceremonial blow. The audacious goal is to cut through the desert to connect the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, creating a new trade route between the East and the West. Changing global trade and geopolitics forever. Today: the Suez Canal. Why did the tremendous efforts of a Frenchman end up enriching the British Empire? And how, decades later, did the canal play an unexpected role in the birth of modern Egypt? ​​Thank you to our guests, Ibrahim El-Houdaiby and Professor Aaron Jakes, for speaking with us for this episode. Thank you also to Dr. Bella Galil for talking with us. If you want to read more about the Suez Canal, Zachary Karabell's Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal is a great resource.  ** This episode originally aired April 25, 2022. Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

April 20th, 2004. A quiet suburban development outside Seattle. Brand-new homes. Fresh lawns not yet grown in. Then, in the middle of the night—sirens. Flames ripping through two houses. Investigators quickly find the cause: homemade incendiary devices. And a message, left behind at another site: “urban sprawl has become a central issue in the struggle to protect the earth.” Signed, the Earth Liberation Front. The ELF is already known to authorities: a shadowy network of environmental activists who operate in secret, striking targets they see as destroying the planet. But this attack feels different. Closer to home. Today: one man’s journey into the Earth Liberation Front. From suburban childhood to underground cells…from protest to arson. What draws someone into a movement like this? How does activism turn into sabotage? And when it comes to defending the Earth…how far is too far? Special thanks to Matthew Wolfe, author of Fires in the Night: The Earth Liberation Front, the FBI, and a Secret History of Eco-Sabotage. Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A look at Jefferson’s bold ban on British imports and how economic pressure became a tool of statecraft. The story of maritime seizures and forced enlistment that provoked national outrage. A deep dive into the sweeping embargo that crippled trade, sparked smuggling, and militarized borders. An exploration of how coercive commerce reshaped politics and industry in early America.

Tom Berry, Suzanne Fleek-Green, Ellen Marsden, Fred Upton, Chris Gilchrist and others, plus longtime senator Patrick Leahy, weigh in. They trace how a 1998 law briefly dubbed Lake Champlain a Great Lake, stir Midwest outrage, and then shifted to secure Sea Grant research funding. The conversation follows political maneuvering, scientific priorities, and a compromise that preserved funding without changing maps.

A secret no-bid oil lease hands vast naval reserves to private oilmen. Leaked payments and sudden wealth spark a Senate showdown. Senators confront cash-filled bags and unravel a culture of political patronage and corruption. The scandal reshapes government oversight and legal precedent.

Kellie Carter Jackson, chair of Africana Studies at Wellesley and historian of slavery and resistance, explores William Parker’s defiant network against slave catchers. Short scenes cover daring rescues, the violent Christiana confrontation, the Fugitive Slave Act’s reach, and Parker’s flight to Canada. Tense, vivid, and packed with resistance and risk.

Dennis Jerz, Professor of English and Media and scholar of drama and technology, traces how Karel Čapek’s play birthed the word 'robot'. Short scenes and theatrical tricks that stunned 1923 Berlin. The rise of mechanical workers, their rebellion, and how that vision shaped metal‑robot imagery and later sci‑fi reactions are explored in lively, bite-sized discussion.