Written by 
Portrait of Sarah Josepha Hale painted by James Reid Lambdin, circa 1831. James Reid Lambdin/Wikimedia Commons hide caption toggle caption James Reid Lambdin/Wikimedia Commons Portrait of Sarah Josepha Hale painted by James Reid Lambdin, circa 1831. James Reid Lambdin/Wikimedia Commons The Thanksgiving story most of us hear is about friendship and unity. And that’s what […]
Today on the show, we’re taking you behind the scenes. We’ll tell you how Throughline was born, some of what goes into making our episodes, and a little bit about how we make our special sauce — the Throughline rizz, as the kids say. If you want more of these behind-the-scenes conversations become a Throughline+ […]
What is it, why do we have it, and why hasn’t it changed? Born from a rushed, fraught, imperfect process, the origins and evolution of the Electoral College might surprise you and make you think differently about not only this upcoming presidential election, but our democracy as a whole. If you would like to read […]
The question of settlements has loomed over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades, and has only intensified in the past year. According to a UN report, since October 7, 2023, there has been a record surge in settlement activities and increased settler violence against Palestinians. Today on the show: how the settlement movement grew from a […]
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images Bill Pugliano/Getty Images Today on the show, two stories of building power in swing states: from the top down, and the bottom up. First, how a future Supreme Court justice helped launch a program to challenge voters at the Arizona polls in the early 1960s, in a county that’s become a hotbed […]
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images/Getty Images Stephen Maturen/Getty Images/Getty Images Drunken brawls, coercion, and lace curtains: believe it or not, how regular people vote was not something the Founding Fathers thought much about. Americans went from casting votes at wild parties in the town square to doing so in private booths, behind a drawn curtain. In this […]
References to God and Christianity are sprinkled throughout American life. Our money has “In God We Trust” printed on it. Most presidents have chosen to swear their oath of office on the Bible. Christian nationalists want more. Christian nationalist beliefs are rooted in the idea that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, […]
Today, the city of Jerusalem is seen as so important that people are willing to kill and die to control it. And that struggle goes back centuries. Nearly a thousand years ago, European Christians embarked on what became known as the First Crusade: an unprecedented, massive military campaign to take Jerusalem from Muslims and claim […]
MAHMOUD ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images MAHMOUD ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images Hezbollah is a Lebanese paramilitary organization and political party that’s directly supported by the Islamic Republic of Iran. In the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, and Israel’s invasion of Gaza, there have been escalating attacks between Hezbollah and […]
Climate change, political unrest, random violence – Western society can often feel like what the filmmaker Werner Herzog calls, “a thin layer of ice on top of an ocean of chaos and darkness.” In the United States, polls indicate that many people believe that law and order is the only thing protecting us from the […]