HISTORY This Week
The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios
This week, something big happened. You might have never heard of it, but this moment changed the course of history. A HISTORY Channel original podcast, HISTORY This Week gives you insight into the people—both famous and unknown—whose decisions reshaped the world we live in today. Through interviews with experts and eyewitnesses, each episode will give you a new perspective on how history is written. Stay up-to-date at historythisweekpodcast.com and to get in touch, email us at historythisweek@history.com.HISTORY This Week is a production of Back Pocket Studios in partnership with the History Channel.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Apr 9, 2026 • 26min
A Good, Not Great Lake (from Points North)
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.
Apr 6, 2026 • 31min
Oil Fields, Bags of Cash, a Presidency Exposed
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.
Mar 30, 2026 • 39min
William Parker’s War on Slave Catchers
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.
Mar 23, 2026 • 33min
The First Robot
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.
13 snips
Mar 16, 2026 • 41min
HTW Live: Busting the Myths of Irish Immigration — Recorded at the Tenement Museum
Tyler Anbinder, historian of Irish immigration and author of Plentiful Country, unpacks new research that reframes famine-era migration. He breaks down who actually emigrated, how many climbed the occupational ladder, the role of peddlers and saloon owners, and why these stories matter for today’s immigration debates.
Mar 12, 2026 • 11min
From Radio Diaries: Orson Welles and the Blind Soldier
Orson Welles appears through Radio Diaries to investigate the 1946 beating and blinding of Isaac Woodard. Corrine Johnson, Richard Gergel, Laura Williams, and James L. Felder Sr. offer eyewitness memory, legal context, family perspective, and NAACP reaction. The story follows the bus attack, Woodard’s affidavit, and how Welles used his platform to demand accountability.
Mar 9, 2026 • 37min
Axis Sally’s Nazi Radio
Michael Flamm, a history professor who contextualizes Mildred Gillars' life, and Richard Lucas, biographer of Axis Sally, explore how a struggling Maine actress became a Nazi radio voice. They trace her rise in Berlin, the propaganda tactics she used to target American soldiers, her capture and treason trial, and questions about coercion, ambition, and culpability.
8 snips
Mar 2, 2026 • 37min
Stalin Is Dead! | Сталин мертв!
Sheila Fitzpatrick, historian of Soviet Russia and author of The Death of Stalin, guides listeners through Stalin’s collapsing final days. She recounts late-night dacha intrigues, the discovery of his unconscious body, the Politburo’s secret plotting, and the swift power plays that followed. Short, vivid scenes paint the chaos and rapid unmaking of a dictatorship.
Feb 23, 2026 • 30min
Disneyland on a Deadline
Leslie Iwerks, documentary director/producer, and Mark Catalina, fellow filmmaker, join Becky Cline, director of the Walt Disney Archives, and Tom Fitzgerald, senior creative exec at Imagineering. They tell the story of Walt Disney’s high-stakes gamble to build Disneyland in 12 months. Hear about rare construction footage, engineering fixes for leaky rivers, inventive ride solutions, and the frantic final push before opening.
8 snips
Feb 16, 2026 • 36min
How To Dig a Train Tunnel Under the Hudson River
Polly Desjarlais, transit museum content and research manager; Jill Jonnes, historian and author on Penn Station’s construction; and Andy Sparberg, transit historian and former LIRR manager, trace the daring struggle to bore under the Hudson. They describe muddy riverbeds, compressed-air tunneling and sandhog life. The tale covers secret politics, the 1905 Weehawken sinkhole, the inch-by-inch breakthrough, and why those 115-year-old tunnels still matter.
