15-Minute History

Episoder

• 
  Pop Quiz | Air Conditioning 23.07.2026 3min

  The Europeans may envy America's mighty air conditioners, but what would our country look like without this wondrous invention?Join us every Thursday for new Pop Quizzes this summer!
• 
  The War of 1812 (Part 1): Humiliation, Hawks, and Heroism (Republish) 20.07.2026 19min

  During the summer break, the 15-Minute History team will be republishing some of your favorite episodes. This episode originally aired on November 17, 2025.---Detroit falls without a fight. War Hawks demand blood. But on a blood-slick deck, four words become legend: Don’t give up the ship.The War of 1812 is often dismissed as a minor conflict, overshadowed by the Revolution and the Civil War. But this overlooked war forged American identity through fire and defiance on land and sea. Join us as we launch our two-episode exploration of the War of 1812. In this first installment, we experience the gathering storm of grievances - from British impressment and economic strangulation to frontier clashes with Tecumseh's confederacy - that propelled a young nation into battle, the early disasters that followed, and the pivotal moment on Lake Erie when the tide of the war turned.
• 
  Pop Quiz | Summer Reading List 16.07.2026 3min

  Jon didn't give his students a reading list this summer, but if he had, what books would he have assigned?Join us every Monday for rebroadcast episodes this summer and on Thursdays for new Pop Quizzes!(Even when they're late--Jon got his dates mixed up because he's a teacher on summer break...)
• 
  John Adams | "I Know I Am Right" (Repost) 13.07.2026 14min

  During the summer break, the 15-Minute History team will be republishing some of your favorite episodes. This episode originally aired on November 3, 2025.---In the popular mind, John Adams' life and one term as President of the United States is often treated as a footnote alongside the careers of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. But Adams left an indelible mark on his country's history. So as we continue our look into the revolutionary period, this episode shares three elements from his life that capture the essence of this fascinating man.
• 
  Pop Quiz | Extremism and the "Political Pendulum" 09.07.2026 3min

  How do we know when a political party goes "too far" on policy? And what happens when there is a backlash against their ideas?Join us every week this summer for rebroadcast episodes and new pop quizzes!
• 
  Theodore Roosevelt | A Strenuous Life (Republish) 08.07.2026 21min

  During the summer break, the 15-Minute History team will be republishing some of your favorite episodes. This episode originally aired on January 26, 2026.---"You must make your body." An asthmatic boy in wire-rimmed spectacles nods. Decades later, shot in the chest, he'll deliver a 90-minute speech: "It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."Theodore Roosevelt is often reduced to caricature - the Rough Rider, the big game hunter, the face on Mount Rushmore. But this oversimplified image misses the man who transformed personal weakness into national strength.Join us as we explore the strenuous life of America's youngest president. We witness the sickly child who willed himself strong, the grieving widower who fled to the Dakota Badlands, the politician who charged up San Juan Hill, and the president who shattered monopolies, protected 230 million acres of wilderness, and built a canal while Congress debated. From a second-floor gymnasium to the White House, Roosevelt proved that privilege demanded action, that strength meant nothing without service, and that the worst sin was wasting your life in comfortable mediocrity.
• 
  Summer Special | America's 250th Birthday! 04.07.2026 21min

  To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we've re-recorded an episode from season 1 entitled "Their Safety and Happiness," which looks at the historical and philosophical roots of the document. Joe and Jon then have a new discussion about America's best moments in history, the Declaration's role in our history, and dangerous fun involving fireworks!We hope you all have a happy Independence Day--and that you wake up tomorrow with the same number of fingers and toes!
• 
  Pop Quiz | Sanctuary Cities 02.07.2026 4min

  A political question this week -- what are sanctuary cities and where do they come from?Join us on Mondays this summer for rebroadcast episodes and on Thursdays for new Pop Quizzes. Stay tuned for some additional original content in the coming weeks!
• 
  Summer Special | Their Safety and Happiness 29.06.2026 12min

  To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we've re-recorded an episode from season 1 entitled "Their Safety and Happiness," which looks at the historical and philosophical roots of the document.We hope you all have a happy Independence Day!
• 
  Pop Quiz | Preventing World War 25.06.2026 4min

  Winston Churchill's insights into the Second World War's outbreak are a fascinating combination of prediction and justification. He knew Germany was a threat, but his postwar memoirs also include knowledge learned during and after the conflict that make it difficult for historians to judge how much he knew as Hitler rose to power. In this episode, Joe asks about how the war could have been prevented and what Churchill knew, and when he knew it.Join us every Thursday this summer for pop quizzes, and on Mondays for rebroadcast episodes!
• 
  More Security, Less Cost | A Discussion on the "New Look" 22.06.2026 26min

  How did the Central Intelligence Agency both flourish and decline during the Cold War? What effects did both the Suez Crisis and Hungarian Revolution have on the wider world? And how might the world look different in a few years now that the post-Cold War international order is breaking down?
• 
  Sketches in History | Thirteen Days in October 19.06.2026 12min

  Welcome back to Sketches in History! This segment, just for kids, shows that history isn't just a story; it's an adventure. Join Lottie Archer as she dives into her extraordinary notebook, where sketches from history come to life!In this episode, Lottie finds a torn piece of paper tucked beneath a heavy book on her grandfather's desk: a handwritten note in small, slanted pencil, with no name and no date, just two sentences and a small drawing that looks like a sun, or maybe a star. In this episode, your kids will discover what it looks like when an entire country decides it is done being afraid, why students with a piece of paper and a list of sixteen demands can change the sound of a city street, and what sovereignty really means when you tear a symbol out of your own flag because it was never yours to begin with.Listen and subscribe to the 15-Minute History podcast to hear Sketches in History every other Thursday. Got a favorite historical moment? Share it with us at 15minutehistory@gmail.com, and it might just make its way into the notebook!
• 
  More Security, Less Cost | The "New Look" 15.06.2026 17min

  Presidents have always had to balance economic costs with national security. In the 1950s, Dwight Eisenhower took what he called a "new look" at defense policy, which made fundamental changes to how the United States confronted worldwide threats--and had dramatic consequences for allies, enemies, and innocent bystanders.Join us every Monday for episodes and discussions, and on Thursdays for pop quizzes and Sketches in History!
• 
  Pop Quiz | A Republic in Danger 12.06.2026 7min

  How close has America actually come to falling apart? Not in the way politicians throw the word "crisis" around today, but in real, documented, military-was-deployed, states-were-leaving moments. In this Pop Quiz episode, Jon walks through the moments that nearly broke the republic, what these moments had in common, and the one thread that kept pulling us back from the edge each time. Join us every Thursday for pop quizzes and Sketches in History!
• 
  The Witness & the Spy | A Discussion on Hiss, Chambers, and the Rosenburgs 08.06.2026 20min

  Join us as we discuss the trial of Alger Hiss, why Whittaker Chambers became disillusioned with communism, the Rosenbergs, and the effects of the Red Scare on American society.Join us every Monday for episodes and discussions and on Thursdays for pop quizzes and Sketches in History!
• 
  Sketches in History | The Witness and the Secret 04.06.2026 12min

  Welcome back to Sketches in History! This segment, just for kids, shows that history isn't just a story; it's an adventure. Join Lottie Archer as she dives into her extraordinary notebook, where sketches from history come to life!In this episode, Lottie finds two things tucked beneath the lamp on her grandfather's desk: a folded newspaper with the headline HISS CONVICTED OF PERJURY and a black-and-white photograph of two men in suits at a table full of microphones, both of them looking like they've been sitting there a very long time. In this episode, your kids will discover what it means to stand up in front of a whole country and say something no one expects to hear, why the question of who is telling the truth can outlast a courtroom verdict, and how the word "testimony" can carry more weight than almost any other word in history.Listen and subscribe to the 15-Minute History podcast to hear Sketches in History every other Thursday. Got a favorite historical moment? Share it with us at 15minutehistory@gmail.com, and it might just make its way into the notebook!
• 
  The Witness and the Spy | Hiss, Chambers, and the Rosenbergs 01.06.2026 16min

  It is August 3, 1948, and a former Communist Party member named Whittaker Chambers walks into a House committee room in Washington, D.C., and says something that no one in the room ever expected to hear. Alger Hiss is a spy. Hiss was not some offhand bureaucrat. He had helped organize the United Nations and attended Yalta. He had been, for much of the 1940s, one of the most respected foreign policy figures in the American government: Harvard-educated, polished, and credentialed, exactly the kind of man that postwar Washington was built by. The question of who was telling the truth would consume the country for years and leave damage that ran in both directions.Join us every Monday for episodes and discussions and on Thursdays for pop quizzes and Sketches in History!
• 
  Pop Quiz | Conspiracies and Grievances 28.05.2026 8min

  Why are conspiracy theories everywhere online these days? Why is everyone mad at someone else for every problem in their lives? And what does history teach us about this kind of environment?Join us every Thursday for pop quizzes and Sketches in History!
• 
  Storm of War | A Memorial Day Special 25.05.2026 43min

  "We shall not fail now. Let us move forward steadfastly together into the storm and through the storm."- Winston Churchill, February 1942This Memorial Day, we're republishing our favorite episode where we brought together both parts of our original Storm of War series into one complete telling of the Second World War, with speeches from Churchill, Eisenhower, and others who led through it.From Versailles to Hitler's rise, to the fall of France, to the Battle of Britain. We show you Moscow's frozen gates all the way to Stalingrad. Then, from Normandy to the bunker in Berlin.Here is the full story, on the day we set aside to remember those who didn't return.We honor them by remembering what they faced, what they won, and what it cost.From all of us at 15-Minute History, have a very happy Memorial Day.
• 
  Pop Quiz | What Historians Remember 22.05.2026 5min

  Jon didn't remember to publish a pop quiz yesterday--but it was the last day of school and his brain was a bit full. So please accept our apologies and listen to this episode about what historians choose to remember and why!