Episodes

  • What Makes Us Free?

    What Makes Us Free?
    Jul 10 2025
    What's the role of government in society? What do we mean when we talk about individual responsibility? What makes us free? 'Neoliberalism' might feel like a squishy term that's hard to define and understand. But this ideology, founded by a group of men in the Swiss Alps, is a political project that has dominated our economic system for decades. In the name of free market fundamentals, the forces behind neoliberalism act like an invisible hand, shaping almost every aspect of our lives. This episode originally ran as "Capitalism: What Makes Us Free?"

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    49 mins
  • Does America Need a Hero?

    Does America Need a Hero?
    Jul 3 2025
    Captain America: an all-American superhero. Clad in red, white, and blue, he carries only a shield. And he fights only when he must. When it's right.

    But what happens when what's right isn't so clear? And how does a comic book hero designed to represent America's values survive in a changing world?

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    51 mins
  • Iran and the U.S., Part Three: Soleimani's Iran

    Iran and the U.S., Part Three: Soleimani's Iran
    Jun 29 2025
    The Iran-Iraq war, 9/11, and the story of Iranian Revolutionary Guard general Qassem Soleimani, from his rise to power, to his assassination, by the U.S., to the power his legacy wields now.

    This episode originally ran as Soleimani's Iran. You can find more of Throughline's coverage into the origins of the conflict in the Middle East here.

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    46 mins
  • Iran and the U.S., Part Two: Rules of Engagement

    Iran and the U.S., Part Two: Rules of Engagement
    Jun 28 2025
    Military confrontations, early-morning attacks, and digital warfare: the story of Iran and the U.S. from the 1979 Iranian revolution to the fraught moment we're in today.

    This episode originally ran as Rules of Engagement. You can find more of Throughline's coverage into the origins of the conflict in the Middle East here.

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    47 mins
  • What the Supreme Court Does in the Shadows

    What the Supreme Court Does in the Shadows
    Jun 26 2025
    The Supreme Court is issuing its final decisions of the term this month. But it's been extraordinarily active since January, in part because the Trump administration has submitted over a dozen emergency applications asking the court to rule quickly on controversial issues. Those cases are part of what's known as the court's "shadow docket." And increasingly, it's affecting all of our lives. This episode originally published in 2023 and has been updated.

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    48 mins
  • Iran and the U.S., Part One: Four Days in August

    Iran and the U.S., Part One: Four Days in August
    Jun 24 2025
    The U.S. and Iran have had a tense relationship for decades — but when did that begin? This week, we feature our very first episode about an event from August 1953 — when the CIA helped to overthrow Iran's prime minister.

    This episode originally ran as Four Days in August.

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    36 mins
  • Abortion Before Roe

    Abortion Before Roe
    Jun 19 2025
    Abortion wasn't always controversial. In fact, in colonial America it would have been considered a fairly common practice: a private decision made by women, and aided mostly by midwives. But in the mid-1800s, a small group of physicians set out to change that. Obstetrics was a new field, and they wanted it to be their domain—meaning, the domain of men and medicine. Led by a zealous young doctor named Horatio Storer, they launched a campaign to make abortion illegal in every state, spreading a potent cloud of moral righteousness and racial panic that one historian later called "the physicians' crusade." And so began the century of criminalization. This episode originally ran as Before Roe: The Physicians' Crusade.

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    52 mins
  • The First Department of Education

    The First Department of Education
    Jun 12 2025
    Whose job is it to educate Americans? Congress created the first Department of Education just after the Civil War as a way to help reunify a broken country. A year later, it was basically shut down. But the story of that first department's birth – and death – set the stage for everything that's come since.

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    48 mins