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Ed Ayers
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Brave New World
In the 1930s, 16 African-American families from the South rejected the American experiment and looked to Communist Uzbekistan for a chance to build a new world.
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November 11, 2016
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The Loyal Opposition
On the Loyalists who fled during the Revolutionary War – like Jacob Bailey, who saw freedom from tyranny with the British in Nova Scotia.
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November 11, 2016
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Over Troubled Waters
Looking for an easy buck, con artists in the early 1900s infamously "sold" the Brooklyn Bridge to immigrants fresh off the boat.
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October 20, 2016
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Mo' Money, Mo' Problems
The story of America's oldest counterfeiters and why the Civil War spurred the Secret Service into hunting them down.
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October 20, 2016
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The Reason in the Riot
Senator Fred Harris describes his experience on the Kerner Commission, tasked with explaining the causes of urban riots in 1967.
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August 18, 2016
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Please (Don’t) Be Seated
The story of an unofficial, integrated delegation from Mississippi that attempted to claim seats at the 1964 Democratic National Convention and was denied.
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July 22, 2016
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Reefer Madness in Mexico City
Historian Isaac Campos traces the origins of the idea that marijuana causes violent madness…and finds the trail leads south, to Mexico.
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May 20, 2016
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Contagion
How prior generations of Americans responded to the threat of infectious disease.
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February 19, 2016
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Invisible Cities
On John Winthrop’s oft-misunderstood use of the phrase “a city upon a hill” to describe the New World.
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January 22, 2016
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Invisible Cities, Continued
The 19th century recovery of John Winthrop's sermon, "A City on a Hill."
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January 22, 2016
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Rumming with the Devil
A perusal of Benjamin Franklin’s "Drinker’s Dictionary," and a chat about how the drink of choice in revolutionary America switched from cider to rum.
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January 1, 2016
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Liquid Poison
American Indians and the tumult in their cultures precipitated by the arrival of alcohol.
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January 1, 2016
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Islam and the U.S.
What does it mean to be Muslim in America? And how has the practice of Islam in the U.S. changed over time?
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December 18, 2015
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American Spirit: A History of the Supernatural
On the occasion of Halloween, an exploration of previous generations' fascination with ghosts, spirits, and witches.
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October 30, 2015
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Never Never Land
The legacy of Operation Pedro Pan, a plan to save Cuban children from communist indoctrination by leaving their families and resettling in the United States.
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October 2, 2015
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City Men on the Beard “Frontier”
A brief discussion of the fierce 19th century debates over beards, and how booming American cities created the perfect climate for all that facial hair to grow.
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August 28, 2015
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Homespun Wisdom
A discussion of the patriotic attempt to spurn European fashion and spin cloth at home in the time leading up to the Revolutionary War.
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August 28, 2015
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Nose Knows Best
Nasology was a 19th century pseudoscience which claimed to explain personality traits based on the shape of a person’s nose.
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July 10, 2015
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Route Cause
On the 1870s skirmish between John D. Rockefeller and the upstart competitors who built the country’s first long-distance oil pipeline.
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June 5, 2015
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Green Sprigs of Courage
How the mythologizing of the Union Army’s Irish Brigade helped dispel anti-Irish sentiment.
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March 3, 2015
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