American History Tellers

Latest Episodes:

The Irish Famine Relief Mission | Ship of Hope | 1 Jan 29, 2025

Show notes

In the winter of 1846, Irish immigrants in America began to hear troubling news from their home country: a potato famine was ravaging the countryside and driving desperate farmers and families into the cities. Soon more than 1 million people would perish.

Learning of the horror and despair, Americans became determined to respond to the crisis. In March 1847, a crucial relief mission departed from Boston, carrying hundreds of barrels of food and aid across the Atlantic Ocean directly to the shores of Ireland.

It would eventually become the first global humanitarian mission of its kind, setting a precedent for America’s growing role in the world, and strengthening the unique bond between Ireland and the U.S.

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History Daily: The End of the Siege of Leningrad Jan 27, 2025

Show notes

January 27, 1944. Soviet forces defeat the German army outside Leningrad, ending an 872-day siege.

You can listen ad-free in the Wondery or Amazon Music app. Or for all that and more, go to IntoHistory.com

History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.

Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.

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The Wright Brothers | Controlling the Skies | 4 Jan 22, 2025

Show notes

Before the Wright Brothers made their historic flight at Kitty Hawk in December 1903, other air enthusiasts had tried to find the answer to powered, controlled human flight. And once Wilbur and Orville succeeded, many budding aviators flocked to the skies by building on their technology. Soon, despite their best efforts, the Wright Brothers would find it was nearly impossible to maintain a grip on the emerging aviation industry. Today, Lindsay is joined by historian and author Lawrence Goldstone. He’s the author of Birdmen: The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies.

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The Wright Brothers | Coming Down to Earth | 3 Jan 15, 2025

Show notes

In the summer of 1908, Wilbur Wright amazed crowds in France with his aerobatic flying demonstrations, and Orville made daring flights at a U.S. Army base in Virginia. The press in Europe and America raved and skeptics were silenced. But then, on September 17th, a horrific crash in Virginia left one man dead and Orville seriously wounded, threatening to destroy everything the Wright brothers had built.

Order your copy of the new American History Tellers book, The Hidden History of the White House, for behind-the-scenes stories of some of the most dramatic events in American history—set right inside the house where it happened.

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History Daily: The Sole Survivor of the Retreat from Kabul Jan 13, 2025

Show notes

January 13, 1842. William Brydon is the last man standing after a disastrous British army retreat during the First Anglo-Afghan War.

You can listen ad-free in the Wondery or Amazon Music app. Or for all that and more, go to IntoHistory.com

History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.

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The Wright Brothers | Fliers or Liars | 2 Jan 08, 2025

Show notes

By 1903, inventors and adventurers in Britain and France were launching their own experimental aircraft skyward. In the U.S., crowds gathered outside Washington, D.C. to see Samuel Langley of the Smithsonian Institution test his highly-anticipated “aerodrome”, only to watch the machine crash in the Potomac River. But on December 17th, 1903, on the sand dunes of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Wilbur Wright climbed onto the lower wing of his homemade “Flyer” to make history.

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The Wright Brothers | The Art of the Bird | 1 Jan 01, 2025

Show notes

In the late-1890s, two brothers from Ohio, Wilbur and Orville Wright, became obsessed with what Wilbur described as “the problem of flight.” With no formal training or funding, they threw themselves into studying the mechanics of birds, determined to design a new method of flying for humans. They soon began building a glider in the small workshop above their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio.

It wasn’t long before the Wright brothers would travel to North Carolina’s Outer Banks to test their glider. Facing swarming mosquitoes and biting winds, they would risk their lives in their quest to be the first pilots to the sky.

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History Daily: Winston Churchill’s Famous “Some Chicken” Speech Dec 30, 2024

Show notes

December 30, 1941. In a rousing speech to the Canadian Parliament, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill celebrates his success in holding off Nazi Germany in the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.

You can listen ad-free in the Wondery or Amazon Music app. Or for all that and more, go to IntoHistory.com

History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.

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Encore: Boston Molasses Disaster | A Deadly Deluge | 1 Dec 25, 2024

Show notes

On January 15, 1919 a giant storage tank holding more than two million gallons of molasses collapsed, sending a deadly wave crashing into the streets of Boston’s busy North End. The flood was over in minutes, but it left death and destruction in its wake. Victims and their families demanded justice, initiating a long, and contentious court case that raised questions about a possible anarchist bombing, faulty building plans, and a rush for profit in the World War I economy.

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Transcontinental Railroad | The Iron Road | 5 Dec 18, 2024

Show notes

Chinese laborers did much of the toughest work building the Central Pacific Railroad. That included blasting tunnels through the granite of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to eventually connect to the Union Pacific line at Promontory Point, Utah, in 1869. Today, Lindsay is joined by Sue Lee, historian and former executive director of the Chinese Historical Society of America. She and historian Connie Young Yu edited Voices from the Railroad: Stories by descendants of Chinese railroad workers.

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