Episodes

  • A History of Settlements

    A History of Settlements
    Aug 28 2025
    The Israeli government recently approved a new settlement project in the occupied West Bank that would effectively cut it in half. The plan is illegal under international law and has been widely condemned. To get a sense of why settlements continue to be such a big issue for both Palestinians and Israelis, we wanted to bring you this episode about their history that’s part of our series, "The Cycle." This episode originally published in October 2024.

    Guests:
    Khaled El-Gindy, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C.

    Sara Yael Hirschhorn, author of City on a Hilltop, American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement

    Gideon Aran, former anthropology and sociology professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem

    Avi Shlaim, author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World

    Diana Buttu, former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization

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    53 mins
  • A Primer On The Federal Reserve's Independence

    A Primer On The Federal Reserve's Independence
    Aug 26 2025
    President Donald Trump has been loudly critical of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for years now. Since January, the President has accused him of playing politics by keeping interest rates high. Trump has also threatened to oust Powell — which would mark an extraordinary shift away from the independence of the central bank.Today from our friends at The Indicator from Planet Money: a short history of the Federal Reserve and why it’s insulated from day-to-day politics; how the Fed amassed a ton of power in recent years; and a Trump executive order that took some of that power away.

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    21 mins
  • The Queen of Tupperware

    The Queen of Tupperware
    Aug 21 2025
    Who ushered housewives into the workforce and plastic storage containers into America’s kitchens? Today on the show, the rise and fall of Brownie Wise, the woman behind Tupperware's plastic empire — and a revolution in women’s work.

    Guests:
    Alison Clarke, author of Tupperware, the Promise of Plastic in 1950s America
    Bob Kealing, author of Life of the Party: The Remarkable Story of How Brownie Wise Built, and Lost, a Tupperware Party Empire

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    49 mins
  • We the People: Succession of Power

    We the People: Succession of Power
    Aug 14 2025
    The 25th amendment. A few years before JFK was shot, an idealistic young lawyer set out on a mission to convince people something essential was missing from the Constitution: clear instructions for what should happen if a U.S. president was no longer able to serve. On this episode of our ongoing series We the People, the story behind one of the last amendments to the Constitution, and the man who got it done. This story originally published in March 2025.

    Guest:
    John Feerick, Norris Professor of Law at Fordham Law School and author of The Twenty-Fifth Amendment - Its Complete History and Applications.

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    48 mins
  • We the People: Cruel and Unusual Punishment

    We the People: Cruel and Unusual Punishment
    Aug 7 2025
    The Eighth Amendment. What is cruel and unusual punishment? Who gets to define and decide its boundaries? And how did the Constitution's authors imagine it might change? Today on Throughline's We the People: the Eighth Amendment, the death penalty, and what cruel and unusual really means. This episode was originally published in January 2025.

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    48 mins
  • We the People: The Right to Remain Silent

    We the People: The Right to Remain Silent
    Jul 31 2025
    The Fifth Amendment. You have the right to remain silent when you're being questioned in police custody, thanks to the Fifth's protection against self-incrimination. But most people end up talking to police anyway. Why? Today on Throughline's We the People: the Fifth Amendment, the right to remain silent, and how hard it can be to use it. This episode originally ran in March 2025.

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    49 mins
  • Embedded: The Network

    Embedded: The Network
    Jul 29 2025
    In the mid-1980s, an OBGYN in Brazil noticed that far fewer pregnant women at his hospital were dying from abortion complications. It wasn't a coincidence. Brazilian women had made a discovery that allowed them to safely have abortions at home, despite the country's abortion restrictions. That discovery eventually spread across the globe.

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    40 mins
  • We The People: Canary in the Coal Mine

    We The People: Canary in the Coal Mine
    Jul 24 2025
    The Third Amendment.

    Maybe you've heard it as part of a punchline. It's the one about quartering troops — two words you probably haven't heard side by side since about the late 1700s.

    At first glance, it might not seem super relevant to modern life. But in fact, the U.S. government has gotten away with violating the Third Amendment several times since its ratification — and every time it's gone largely unnoticed.

    In a time of escalating political violence, police forces armed with military equipment, and more frequent and devastating natural disasters, why the Third Amendment deserves a closer look. This episode originally ran in 2024.

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    47 mins