HISTORY This Week

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Trailer: America's Cold War Obsession with Greenland Apr 24, 2025

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HISTORY This Week returns with new episodes this Monday! We're kicking things off with a look at America's longtime fascination with Greenland, and how the U.S. military used the island to expand its Cold War nuclear ambitions.

A Concubine Rises to Rule China Apr 21, 2025

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April 27, 1856. In Beijing’s Forbidden City, one of the emperor’s consorts, a woman named Cixi, has given birth to a son – the emperor’s first heir. This landmark event is met with mass celebration. But in just five years time, the emperor will be dead and Cixi will be planning a coup to take power for herself. How will she ever succeed?

Special thanks to our guests: Jung Chang, author of Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China, and Professor Ying-chen Peng, author of Artful Subversion: Empress Dowager Cixi's Image Making in Art.

**This episode originally aired April 24, 2023.

Introducing: What We Spend Apr 17, 2025

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Imagine if you could ask someone anything you wanted about their finances. On What We Spend, people from across the country and across the financial spectrum are opening their wallets—and their lives—to tell you everything: what they make, what they want, and—for one week—what they spend.

"Houston We’ve Had a Problem” (feat. Captain Jim Lovell) Apr 14, 2025

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April 14, 1970. Apollo 13 is a quarter million miles from Earth, speeding towards the Moon, when a sudden explosion rocks the ship. Against all odds, the astronauts pull off one of the most remarkable survival missions in NASA history. 55 years after this harrowing flight, Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell explains exactly what it took to save his spaceship.

Special thanks to Captain Jim Lovell, John Uri, Steven Barber and Vanilla Fire Productions.

**This episode originally aired April 13, 2020.

To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com

The Titanic’s First and Last Voyage Apr 07, 2025

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April 10, 1912. As the RMS Titanic pulls away from a crowded port on the south coast of England, it almost crashes. Just in time, it’s able to turn off its engines and prevent a collision with a smaller ship. Four days later, though, a serious disaster will not be avoided, and the Titanic’s first voyage will be her last. But during her brief life, the vessel is a microcosm of the Gilded world around her. How did this opulent luxury liner come to exist? And how did it foretell the dangers of wealth, technology, and arrogance that shaped the world around it, and the world we live in now?

Special thanks to our guests, Susie Milar and Gareth Russell, author of The Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era.

**This episode originally aired April 4, 2022.

To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com

148 Tornadoes in 18 Hours Mar 31, 2025

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April 3, 1974. Across America, many people wake up this morning thinking it will be a normal day. But in the next 24 hours, almost 150 tornadoes will hit the United States. It will be the largest tornado outbreak in the nation's history. Why did so many deadly tornadoes hit on this one day? And how did it spur life-saving changes that are still with us decades later?

Thank you to our guests: Greg Forbes, former severe weather expert with the Weather Channel; and atmospheric sciences professor Jeff Trapp from the University of Illinois.

**This episode originally aired March 29, 2021.

To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com

Was Ethel Rosenberg A Spy? Mar 24, 2025

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March 29, 1951. The world is waiting for the jury’s verdict. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg have been accused of spying for the Soviet Union, conspiring to send atomic secrets to America’s enemy in the Cold War. Ethel and Julius are tried in court together, and after the jury finds both Rosenbergs guilty, they receive the same punishment – the death penalty. But while they were treated the same, these two individuals have very different stories. Today, who was Ethel Rosenberg, the only woman executed for espionage in U.S. history? And why is her guilt still a topic of debate today?

Special thanks to Anne Sebba, author of Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy; Michael and Robert Meeropol, the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg; and Steven Usdin, journalist and author of Engineering Communism: How Two Americans Spied for Stalin and Founded the Soviet Silicon Valley.

** This episode originally aired March 28, 2022.

To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com

Revenge of the Ronin Mar 17, 2025

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March 20, 1703. Today, almost fifty men, scattered around the city of Edo, Japan, are waiting to die. They’re all former samurai who had served the same lord – and they all carried out a deadly revenge attack in his name. Their story will go down in history as the legend of the 47 Ronin. Why did these men decide that to be loyal samurai, they had to die? And how did this moment live on for centuries and become part of the national story of Japan?

Thank you to our guest, Professor John Tucker, author of The Forty-Seven Ronin: The Vendetta in History and translator of Kumazawa Banzan: Governing the Realm and Bringing Peace to All Below Heaven.

** This episode originally aired March 15, 2021.

To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com

Six Men, Two Bombs, One Grave Injustice Mar 10, 2025

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March 14, 1991. The Birmingham Six have been in prison for 16 years. Each of these six Irishmen was found guilty of 21 counts of murder back in 1975 – held responsible for bombs detonated at two popular pubs in Birmingham, England. They were accused of being part of an IRA terror campaign, but have maintained their innocence since the moment they were arrested. It turns out... they were telling the truth.

Today, the Birmingham Six will be set free. How were they imprisoned for a crime they never committed? And why have the actual bombers never been brought to justice?

Special thanks to Ed Barlow, producer at the BBC and creator of the podcast series In Detail: The Pub Bombings.

To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com

Introducing: Campus Files Mar 06, 2025

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College holds a mythic place in American culture, but behind the polished campus tours and glossy brochures lies a far more complicated reality. Each episode of Campus Files uncovers a new story that rocked a college or university. Consider this your unofficial campus tour.

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