Podcast
History As It Happens
Hosted by Martin Di Caro · EN
Discover how the past shapes the present with the best historians in the world. Everything happening today comes from something, somewhere. History As It Happens features interviews with today's top scholars and thinkers, interwoven with audio from history's archive.
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207episodes
Episodes
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Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Iran, Israel, and U.S. Hegemony
3d ago00:30:31Summary readyThis special episode features an exclusive interview with United States Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat and potential 2028 presidential candidate. Congress' attempts to end the Trump administration's Iran war fiasco have thus far come up short. The same goes for the movement to end U.S. weapons and bulldozer shipments to the Israeli government, which has used American military hardware to destroy Gaza and southern Lebanon, killing tens of thousands of people in the process. In this conversation with Sen. Van Hollen, we cover the War Powers Act and Iran, unrestrained executive power, the Libya intervention of 2011, Israel and AIPAC, the genocide in Gaza, the future of U.S. hegemony, and more. Subscribe today to support our important work! Subscriptions begin at only $5 per month. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
SummaryQuagmires
6d ago00:44:29Summary readySubscribe to enjoy ad-free listening, early access, and all of our bonus content! The American way of war is broken. Like many of his White House predecessors, Donald Trump is stuck in a stalemate of his own making. In Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq — to name four major wars — the president who went to war was unable to extricate the U.S. from the morass. It was up to his successor to salvage something from the wreckage of U.S. credibility and prestige. Our guest is Will Walldorf, who teaches in the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University. He is a Senior Fellow at Defense Priorities, a Washington think tank. His latest book is To Shape Our World For Good: Master Narratives and Forceful Regime Change in United States Foreign Policy, 1900-2011. Recommended reading: Trump Needs to Defy History to End the Iran War by Will Walldorf (Foreign Policy) Subscribe today to support our important work! Subscriptions begin at only $5 per month. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
SummaryCrushing Cuba, 1959 to Present
1w ago01:07:44Summary readySubscribe for ad-free listening and early access! The Trump administration is attempting to topple Cuba's government through economic warfare. An oil embargo and other punitive measures have led to severe consequences, including massive blackouts and water shortages. Ordinary Cubans are suffering, yet both they and their communist government are persevering — at least for now. The New York Times reports the CIA has established a secret task force to increase the pressure. The Cold War may be over, but U.S.-Cuba relations are frozen in time. What explains more than six decades of hostility? Historian Alexander Aviña is our guest. He's an associate professor of Latin American history in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. Further reading/listening: Timeline of U.S.-Cuba relations (Council on Foreign Relations) Flirting with Armageddon w/ Max Hastings on the Cuban Missile Crisis Subscribe today to support our important work! Subscriptions begin at only $5 per month. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
SummaryBlood and Soil: What is Ethnic Nationalism?
2w ago00:45:38Summary readyThe world is aflame with endless wars and racial strife. Some societies are tearing themselves apart as mass migration fuels a nationalist backlash. Since the nineteenth century, ethnic nationalism has been a potent force, galvanizing peoples — imagined nations — around shared myths and historical truths. Our guest is Sune Haugbølle, an expert on global political sociology. He specializes in social memory, the history of radical movements, and transnational solidarity at Roskilde University in Denmark. He is the author of War and Memory in Lebanon (Cambridge Middle East Studies). Further listening: The Nakba: 1947-present w/ historian Mark LeVine Subscribe today to History As It Happens Premium for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content! Subscribe today to support our important work! Subscriptions begin at only $5 per month. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
SummarySudan's Unrelenting Agony
2w ago00:34:18Summary readySubscribe today to History As It Happens Premium for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content! This is the 70th year of Sudanese independence, but there is little to celebrate and much to lament as the country continues to tear itself apart. Three major civil wars have consumed 43 years of Sudan's seven decades, not counting the many years of violence and genocide in Darfur from 2003. The current war has entered its fourth year with no prospect of peace. Recent fighting has drawn the world's attention to the central Sudanese city of El Obeid, where thousands of desperate civilians are sheltering from a feared onslaught by the genocidal Rapid Support Forces. Alex de Waal returns to the podcast to discuss the driving forces behind the violence and why the world is incapable or unwilling to stop it. Alex de Waal is the Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation and one of the foremost experts on Sudan and the Horn of Africa. He is the co-author of The Sudans: Africa's Search for Peace, Democracy, and Two Viable States. Subscribe today to support our important work! Subscriptions begin at only $5 per month. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
SummarySaudi Nukes (Bonus)
3w ago00:07:05Summary readySubscribe now to listen to the entire 17-minute episode (or preview 7 minutes). The precarious international consensus on nuclear non-proliferation is cracking. The Trump administration announced a civilian nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia — long sought by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — which experts fear could lead to the Saudis pursuing nuclear weapons in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The deal allows for the kingdom to enrich uranium and reprocess plutonium on its own soil. In this episode, Joe Cirincione explains the potential danger to the U.S.-led nuclear order. Recommended reading: Trump's Saudi pact could be the worst nuclear deal in history by Joe Cirincione (MS Now) Subscribe today to support our important work! Subscriptions begin at only $5 per month. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
SummaryIran Update w/ Trita Parsi (Bonus)
3w ago00:05:34Summary readySubscribe now to listen to the entire 16-minute episode (or preview 5 minutes). President Trump seems helpless. All the bombs and missiles he flings at Iran cannot solve his problems — problems he created by attacking Iran on the magical belief that the Islamic regime would crumble and be replaced by people whom Trump could control. It was a fantasy, and now, as the war enters its sixth month, Iran maintains a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz. The situation is in limbo, floating somewhere between war and peace — with little hope that a new nuclear accord with Iran is possible. Trita Parsi is co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He is an expert on US-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign policy, and the geopolitics of the Middle East. Subscribe today to support our important work! Subscriptions begin at only $5 per month. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
SummaryJoseph Ellis' "Tragic Side"
3w ago00:34:18Summary readyBecome a subscriber for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. Was it possible for the leaders of the new American republic to end slavery entirely? Was the violent dispossession of Native peoples inevitable? These questions are integral to the eminent historian Joseph Ellis' new book about what he calls the two major failures of the revolutionary generation, "The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding." Other questions to consider while listening are whether the Constitution consisted of compromises over slavery or capitulations to Southern slave interests. Also, whether Native Americans' views of land and property could ever be compatible with those of land-hungry white settlers. Further listening (America250 series): Episode 1 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky Episode 2 w/ Kate Carté Episode 3 w/ Alan Taylor Episode 4 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky Episode 5 w/ Jim Oakes Episode 6 w/ Sean Wilentz Episode 7 w/ H.W. Brands Episode 8 w/ Alan Taylor Subscribe today to support our important work! Subscriptions begin at only $5 per month. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
SummaryCongress' Slide Into Irrelevance
3w ago00:38:02Summary readySubscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. Is Congress irreparably broken or temporarily stuck as it fails to act as a co-equal branch of government willing to check a rogue executive? And how did it get this way? In the aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate, the winds of political change swept young, ambitious reformers into the halls of Congress, and they left an important legislative legacy. But in the decades since, Congress' potential to affect meaningful change — and prevent unnecessary wars — has been whittled away. Maya Kornberg is here to explain why. Maya Kornberg is a senior research fellow at NYU Law's Brennan Center for Justice, and the author of Stuck: How Money, Media, and Violence Prevent Change in Congress. Further listening: Iran and the Laws of War w/ Adil Haque Obama and Libya w/ Jeremi Suri Subscribe today to support our important work! Subscriptions begin at only $5 per month. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
SummaryLiberal Patriotism
4w ago00:36:48Summary readyThe podcast needs your support. Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. Have too many liberals and leftists given up on patriotism? Have they forgotten the tradition of social movements striving for equal political and economic rights as expressed in the country's founding ideals? Historian Michael Kazin says these ideals can be used "as both a benchmark against which to measure how far we have fallen short and a means of articulating the Constitution's vision of a more perfect union." Michael Kazin teaches history at Georgetown University and is the author of "What It Took To Win: A History of the Democratic Party." Further reading: The Left Needs to Rediscover its Patriotism by Michael Kazin (The Atlantic) Howard Zinn's History Lessons by Michael Kazin (Dissent) Help make History As It Happens sustainable. Become a subscriber today. Subscribe today to support our important work! Subscriptions begin at only $5 per month. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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