HISTORY This Week

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• How Higgins and His Boats Won the War 01.06.2026 30min

  June 6, 1944. As thousands of Allied soldiers prepare to storm the beaches of Normandy, they climb down rope nets into small wooden landing craft bobbing in the dark waters of the English Channel. Within hours, these boats will carry them into the largest amphibious invasion in history.The craft are known as Higgins boats, named for their inventor, Andrew Higgins: a hard-driving New Orleans boatbuilder who built his reputation designing vessels that could speed through swamps, crash through obstacles, and go places other boats couldn't. Higgins was stubborn, abrasive, and relentless. The Navy repeatedly dismissed his ideas. He refused to go away.How does a small-time New Orleans boatbuilder force his way into the military industrial complex? And what exactly is so special about these boxy little Higgins boats?Special thanks to Dr. John Curatola, Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Historian at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. His book is Armies Afloat: How the Development of Amphibious Operations in Europe Helped Win World War II.You can find the rest of the books we used to research this episode at historythisweekpodcast.com.Check out new episodes of History's Greatest Machines with Dolph Lundgren on the HISTORY Channel, premiering on June 1st. Stream the next day at History.com.Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcastFollow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com
• WWII with Tom Hanks (Episode 1 – The Beginning) 27.05.2026 40min

  Search "World War II with Tom Hanks" wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop every Tuesday. World War II with Tom Hanks reexamines history’s most devastating conflict for a new century. Across twenty hours, the series traces the war’s full arc–from the rise of fascism to Hiroshima–uncovering the decisions, hidden networks, and lasting consequences that continue to shape our world. Episode 1 – The Beginning In September 1939, enabled by a secret pact between Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin, Germany invades Poland with its lightning style of tank warfare, plunging Europe back into war. Adolf Hitler can now pursue his longed-for racial war, as the world watches in horror, and the stage is set for global conflict. This episode features interviews with (in order of appearance): Dan Carlin, podcaster, Hardcore History Alexandra Richie, professor, Collegium Civitas Robert Citino, senior historian, National WWII Museum Cameron Zinsou, associate professor, Command and General Staff College Geoffrey Wawro, professor, University of North Texas Jadwiga Biskupska, associate professor, Sam Houston State University Simon Sebag Montefiore, historian and author Roger Moorhouse, historian and author Leah Wright Rigueur, associate professor, Johns Hopkins University James Bulgin, Imperial War Museum General Wesley Clark, US Army, Ret. Sean McMeekin, professor, Bard College
• The Secretary of War Who Feared the Bomb 25.05.2026 34min

  May 30, 1945. In Washington, Secretary of War Henry Stimson calls General Leslie Groves to his office and demands answers: which Japanese cities are about to become targets for the atomic bomb? What follows will pull Stimson—a deeply religious statesman who believed in restraint, but also in overwhelming force—into a profound crisis over morality, destruction, and what modern war is becoming.  How did Henry Stimson grapple with the bomb? And after helping usher in the atomic age, how did he reckon with what he’d done? Special thanks to Evan Thomas, journalist and New York Times bestselling author of Road to Surrender: Three Men and the Countdown to the End of World War II. You can find the rest of the books we used to research this episode at historythisweekpodcast.com. Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com
• Bonnie and Clyde’s Final Ride 18.05.2026 31min

  May 23, 1934. On a muggy Louisiana morning, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow speed toward the Texas border. They’ve been on the run for over a year—wanted for robbery and murder—and the lurid news accounts of their exploits have made them famous. But today, Bonnie and Clyde’s legendary crime spree comes to an end … in a hail of bullets. Why did some come to view these Depression Era outlaws as agents of chaos the country needed? And what was the real motivation behind their crimes? Special thanks to our guest, John Neal Phillips, author of Running With Bonnie and Clyde: The Ten Fast Years of Ralph Fults. ** This episode originally aired May 22, 2023. Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com
• The Berlin Airlift and the Birth of the New World Order (Part 2) 11.05.2026 28min

  May 12, 1949. After eleven months under Soviet blockade, the people of West Berlin flood into the streets to celebrate. The lights are back on. The autobahn is open. The siege is over. But just months earlier, West Berlin seemed doomed. Surrounded deep inside Soviet-controlled territory, more than two million Berliners are suddenly cut off from food, fuel, electricity, and supplies after Joseph Stalin seals the city’s borders. Many fear the Western Allies will abandon Berlin altogether. Instead, American and British leaders gamble on something unprecedented: supplying an entire city by air. In this episode, how the Berlin Airlift became the largest sustained airlift in history—and the first major showdown of the Cold War. Along the way: the flamboyant American commander known as “Howlin’ Mad” Howley, Soviet attempts to break the city’s spirit, pilots landing in near-zero visibility every few minutes, and the high-stakes crisis that helped create NATO and reshape the postwar world. Special thanks to Giles Milton, author of  Checkmate in Berlin: The Cold War Showdown That Shaped the Modern World.  You can find the rest of the books we used to research this episode at historythisweekpodcast.com.
• Introducing: Family Lore 07.05.2026 37min

  Family Lore is a weekly narrative podcast that celebrates and investigates ancestral mystique. Each episode begins with a guest sharing a fascinating family legend, followed by a historical deep-dive to uncover the truth and meaning behind the tale. Available now: link.pscrb.fm/f0281/FLFD
• Surviving the Mad Propagandist of Nazi Berlin (Part 1) 04.05.2026 32min

  May 9th, 1942. In the Lustgarten, a sprawling park in the center of Berlin, a strange new attraction opens to the public. It’s a maze of tents, glowing under red lightbulbs. Inside: a staged vision of the Soviet Union. Filthy streets, starving children, torture chambers. A horror show. The man behind it all is Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s minister of propaganda, and the most powerful figure in Berlin. Posters, radio broadcasts, films, classrooms… his message is everywhere. The enemy is at the gates. The war must be won. No matter the cost. And Berliners are watching. Some believe it. Some look away. Some quietly resist. Because beyond the spectacle, the war is beginning to close in. Bombs fall on the city. Neighbors disappear. Truth itself becomes something the regime can manufacture. This is life inside Nazi Berlin at the center of World War II. How do ordinary people live under a system built on propaganda and fear? And when the story begins to crack… what happens next? Special thanks to Ian Buruma, professor of human rights and journalism at Bard College, and author of Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939-1945. For more on this story, search for “Inside the Nazis’ Supernatural Obsession” on Apple, Spotify, or wherever else you listen to HISTORY This Week (aired Jun 2, 2025). Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com
• Parting the Desert Between Two Seas 27.04.2026 33min

  April 25, 1859. About 150 people have gathered on the shores of Lake Manzala in Egypt. And one of them, a mustachioed, retired French diplomat, steps forward. He raises his pickaxe and strikes a ceremonial blow. The audacious goal is to cut through the desert to connect the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, creating a new trade route between the East and the West. Changing global trade and geopolitics forever. Today: the Suez Canal. Why did the tremendous efforts of a Frenchman end up enriching the British Empire? And how, decades later, did the canal play an unexpected role in the birth of modern Egypt? ​​Thank you to our guests, Ibrahim El-Houdaiby and Professor Aaron Jakes, for speaking with us for this episode. Thank you also to Dr. Bella Galil for talking with us. If you want to read more about the Suez Canal, Zachary Karabell's Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal is a great resource.  ** This episode originally aired April 25, 2022. Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com
• One Eco-Arson After Another: The Earth Liberation Front 20.04.2026 31min

  April 20th, 2004. A quiet suburban development outside Seattle. Brand-new homes. Fresh lawns not yet grown in. Then, in the middle of the night—sirens. Flames ripping through two houses. Investigators quickly find the cause: homemade incendiary devices. And a message, left behind at another site: “urban sprawl has become a central issue in the struggle to protect the earth.” Signed, the Earth Liberation Front. The ELF is already known to authorities: a shadowy network of environmental activists who operate in secret, striking targets they see as destroying the planet. But this attack feels different. Closer to home. Today: one man’s journey into the Earth Liberation Front. From suburban childhood to underground cells…from protest to arson. What draws someone into a movement like this? How does activism turn into sabotage? And when it comes to defending the Earth…how far is too far? Special thanks to Matthew Wolfe, author of Fires in the Night: The Earth Liberation Front, the FBI, and a Secret History of Eco-Sabotage. Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com
• Jefferson’s Trade War Shuts Down America 13.04.2026 25min

  April 18, 1806. In his study, President Thomas Jefferson signs a law that doesn’t look like an act of war. It bans imports. Leather. Silk. Glass. Playing cards. A strange list. A quiet move. But Jefferson is trying to confront one of the most powerful empires in the world, without firing a shot. Britain is stopping American ships at sea. Boarding them. Taking sailors by force. The country is furious. War feels close. Jefferson has another idea. How did Jefferson—an avatar of individual liberty—become the president who suspended due process, militarized the coastline, and nearly tore his country apart? And what can his legacy teach us about the prevailing winds of global trade? Special thanks to Harvey Strum, professor of History and Political Science at Russell Sage College in Albany and Troy, New York; and Lawrence Hatter,  associate professor of Early American History at Washington State University. Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com
• A Good, Not Great Lake (from Points North) 09.04.2026 22min

  This episode comes from Points North, a podcast about the land, water, and inhabitants of the Great Lakes. You can listen to Points North wherever you get your podcasts. Lake Champlain is more than 16 times smaller than Lake Ontario, the smallest Great Lake. But in 1998, Congress designated Lake Champlain as the sixth Great Lake, teeing off a historical and cultural fight over which lakes can really call themselves Great. Radio excerpts in this episode were originally broadcast on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and “Weekend Edition”. TV excerpts from “NBC Nightly News”.
• Oil Fields, Bags of Cash, a Presidency Exposed 06.04.2026 28min

  April 7, 1922. A cabinet secretary signs a secret deal and locks it in his desk. The land in question holds one of the largest untapped oil reserves in the country. Officially, it belongs to the U.S. Navy. Unofficially, it’s just been handed to a private oilman – no bidding, no oversight, no witnesses. For Albert Fall, it’s a win-win. For the oil industry, it’s a jackpot. But big money is hard to hide. Within days, the deal leaks. At first, no one seems to care. The economy is booming. The president is popular. Washington shrugs. Then, investigators start asking a simple question: where did Albert Fall get all of this new money? Before Watergate, there was Teapot Dome. How did a secret oil deal become the biggest political scandal of its time? And how did it change the way the U.S. government polices itself? Special thanks to Joshua Kastenberg,  professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law; and Jack McElroy, author of  Citizen Carl: The Editor Who Cracked Teapot Dome, Shot a Judge, and Invented the Parking Meter.  Other sources include: The Teapot Dome Scandal by Laton McCartney, Tempest Over Teapot Dome by David Stratton, and Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana by J. Leonard Bates. Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com
• William Parker’s War on Slave Catchers 30.03.2026 35min

  April 3, 1851. A man who escaped slavery is grabbed off the streets of Boston and thrown into a carriage. He fights back, shouting to the crowd, but it doesn’t matter. Under a new federal law, even the North isn’t safe. The Fugitive Slave Act has turned cities like Boston into hunting grounds. Freedom seekers are being captured, and ordinary citizens are being forced to help. But across the North, resistance is growing. In Pennsylvania, a man named William Parker is building a network to fight back. When slavecatchers come to his door, that resistance explodes into violence. How did one law push the country dramatically closer to war? And what happens when the people targeted by this law refuse to surrender? Special thanks to  Dr. Iris Leigh Barnes, director of the Hosanna School Museum; Christy Coleman, public historian and museum executive; Kellie Carter Jackson,  chair of the Africana Studies Department at Wellesley College; and Jamahl Wimberley, who provided the voice of William Parker. Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com
• The First Robot 23.03.2026 29min

  March 29th, 1923. A new play opens in Berlin, and quietly changes the future. Onstage are workers who never tire, never complain, and never stop. They’re faster, stronger, and more efficient than humans in every way. They’re called robots. A sci-fi play born out of war and industrialization sparks a global obsession and a lasting fear. Because from the very beginning, the robot wasn’t just a technological breakthrough. It was a rebellion waiting to happen. How did a playwright invent the robot? Why did his idea spread so quickly? And what does it reveal about the way we think about the future of science? Special thanks to Dennis Jerz, Professor of English and Media at Seton Hill University; John Jordan, author of Robots; and Jitke Cejkova, editor of R.U.R. and the Vision of Artificial Life. Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com
• HTW Live: Busting the Myths of Irish Immigration — Recorded at the Tenement Museum 16.03.2026 37min

  March 18, 1879. A crowd gathers around an indoor track in Brooklyn, NY, as an Irish immigrant named Bartholomew O’Donnell attempts a strange feat: walking 80 miles in 26 hours. Newspapers claim he’s eighty years old. Lap after lap, he circles the track: smoking a pipe, sipping hot tea, and pushing through the night. O’Donnell came to New York thirty years earlier, fleeing the Great Potato Famine. Like many Irish immigrants, he spent decades doing manual labor and trying to get ahead in a city that often viewed newcomers with suspicion. For generations, stories like his shaped how historians understood famine-era Irish immigrants. In this special live episode recorded at the Tenement Museum ahead of St. Patrick’s Day, Sally speaks with historian Tyler Anbinder, author of Plentiful Country: The Great Potato Famine and the Making of Irish New York, about what new research reveals about the lives of Irish immigrants in America, and what their story can tell us about immigration today. Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com
• From Radio Diaries: Orson Welles and the Blind Soldier 12.03.2026 9min

  Why did Orson Welles take on a murder mystery? Listen for yourself. This week, we're sharing a special preview of Orson Welles and the Blind Soldier from the podcast Radio Diaries. In this series, we learn how Welles used his platform to shed light on a crime in a small, southern town. A crime that became a spark for the budding Civil Rights movement. For more, visit radiodiaries.org
• Axis Sally’s Nazi Radio 09.03.2026 34min

  March 10, 1949. Defendant Mildred Gillars arrives at a courthouse to hear her verdict. To trial-watchers, she’s known as Axis Sally—the American woman who broadcast Nazi propaganda from Berlin during World War II. In taunting tones, she spent years pushing anti-Semitic and anti-Allies messages aimed at weakening the morale of American soldiers. But Gillars insists that she’s misunderstood, even innocent. That she’s an artist, she loves her country, and was forced to do what she did… or die. How did a struggling actress from Maine become a potent weapon of the Nazis? And is there a way to understand the choices that she made? Special thanks to our guests, Richard Lucas, author of Axis Sally: The American Voice of Nazi Germany, and Michael Flamm, professor of history at Ohio Wesleyan University. Thanks also to the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress. ** This episode originally aired March 6, 2023. Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com
• Stalin Is Dead! | Сталин мертв! 02.03.2026 33min

  March 5, 1953. The Premier of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, is on his deathbed, and he’s turning blue. At the end of his life, Stalin is surrounded by his closest advisors, but these comrades aren’t hoping for his quick recovery. For days, they’ve been sneaking away from their vigil, plotting. The moment Stalin’s heart stops, they leap into action. What happens when a tyrant falls? And what role did the inner circle play in bringing an end to Stalin?  Special thanks to our guest, Sheila Fitzpatrick, historian and author of The Death of Stalin. -- Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com
• Disneyland on a Deadline 23.02.2026 26min

  March 1, 1951. Two Texas horse trainers sit down to lunch with Walt Disney. They assume he wants to use their animals in a movie. Instead, Walt leans in and tells them about something that doesn’t exist yet. Not a carnival. Not an amusement park. Something movie-like in the real world. And if he’s going to build it, he’ll need horses. At that moment, Disneyland is just an idea in Walt’s head. But within a few years, he’ll clear 160 acres of orange groves in Anaheim and attempt to build that dream in barely twelve months. The budget will balloon. The rivers will drain into the soil. The rides will be welded together overnight. And Walt will stake his company — and his personal fortune — on opening the gates on time. Why was Disneyland such a gamble? And how did Walt essentially invent a whole new form of live entertainment?   Special thanks to our guests: Leslie Iwerks,  director of Disneyland Handcrafted; Mark Catalina, producer of Disneyland Handcrafted;  Becky Cline, director of the Walt Disney Archives; and Tom Fitzgerald, chief storytelling executive and senior creative executive  at Walt Disney Imagineering. Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com
• How To Dig a Train Tunnel Under the Hudson River 16.02.2026 33min

  February 14, 1905. A stick of dynamite detonates under the Hudson River — and the ground above swallows a locomotive whole. It's the latest setback in an audacious plan to tunnel beneath the river and bring trains into Manhattan. The Pennsylvania Railroad is the largest corporation in the world, but the goopy riverbed keeps fighting back. How did they finally make it across? And why are these 115-year-old tunnels still the most critical infrastructure in America today? Special thanks to our guests: Polly Desjarlais, content and research manager at the New York Transit Museum; Jill Jonnes, author of Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and Its Tunnels; and Andy Sparberg, former LIRR manager, transit historian, and author of From a Nickel to a Token: The Journey from Board of Transportation to MTA. -- Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com