Retropod

Latest Episodes:

The time the United States illegally deported 1 million Mexican Americans Sep 03, 2018

Show notes

In 1931, President Herbert Hoover started a program that would result in the illegal deportation of 1.8 million people to Mexico by the end of the 1930s. Of those people, 60 percent were U.S. citizens.

The Quaker abolitionist who was disowned for condemning slave owners Aug 31, 2018

Show notes

Benjamin Lay wrote one of the first treatises against slavery in Colonial America, a time when many prosperous Pennsylvania Quakers were slave owners. But for speaking out, the Quakers disowned him.

Ida B. Wells, the woman who never gave up Aug 30, 2018

Show notes

Ida B. Wells was an investigative journalist, an anti-lynching activist, a suffragette and a teacher.

How a Supreme Court clerk changed the decision on Clay v. United States Aug 29, 2018

Show notes

Muhammad Ali was so close to going to jail for evading the draft. He has a Supreme Court clerk to thank for his freedom.

Colonel Blood, the scoundrel who tried to steal Great Britain's crown jewels Aug 28, 2018

Show notes

Thomas Blood had somewhat of a shady past. According to Ireland’s History magazine, he had a reputation for espionage and conducting terrorist campaigns — though many of his plans were foiled just in time.

Being a maverick almost stopped John McCain from becoming a public servant Aug 27, 2018

Show notes

At the Naval Academy, McCain was in a group called the “Bad Bunch” as he rebelled against his father’s expectations.

Paul Jennings, the former slave who disputed a legend from history Aug 24, 2018

Show notes

According to James Madison’s Virginia mansion Montpelier, Paul Jennings’ account reveals, “how the racial and gender hierarchies of the time complicate the way we understand roles in historic events.”

What Operation Pied Piper taught us about family separations Aug 23, 2018

Show notes

Millions of British children were evacuated from London and other cities to escape the horrors of war. But the family separations seemed to impart long-term trauma that was in many cases as severe as if they had stayed behind and faced the bombs.

Reagan's most historic speech took a few years to make an impact Aug 22, 2018

Show notes

When President Reagan told Mr. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” it was not seen as a historic moment. It took the actual fall of the wall to resurrect the speech and drill the quote into our consciousness.

A president’s lions and the emoluments clause Aug 21, 2018

Show notes

The greatest emoluments-clause dilemma of the 1800s involved two lions.