UnTextbooked | A history podcast for the future
62 episodes - English - Latest episode: 5 months ago - ★★★★★ - 63 ratingsUnTextbooked is brought to you by teen change-makers who are looking for answers to big questions. Have you ever wondered if protests really can save lives, why assimilation required Native American kids to attend boarding schools, how Black-led organizations for mutual aid began, how the fear of communism led the United States to plan the overthrows of many leaders in Latin America, or why Brazilian cars run on sugar? Or maybe you've questioned when Asian Americans will stop being seen as "perpetual foreigners," how African heritage influences Black activism, or what resilience looks like for Iranian women?
Your textbooks probably didn't teach you how American Jews were an integral part of the Civil Rights Movement, if history’s greatest leaders were generalists or specialists, how a Black teenager and his young lawyer changed America’s criminal justice system, or if either the US or the USSR won the Cold War. Did you know some of the forgotten BIPOC women of history were spying in aid of the French Resistance, that there's more to being a leader than going down with your battleship, or that there is a long history of gender expression in Native American cultures that goes beyond the male/female binary? Listen in as we interview famous authors and historians who have the answers.
Context is the key to understanding topics like British imperialism, segregation, racism, criminal justice, identifying as non-binary and so much more. These intergenerational conversations bring the full power of history to you with the depth and vividness that most textbooks lack. Real history, to help you find answers to your big questions. UnTextbooked makes history unboring forever.
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Episodes
What Do Our Clothes Reveal About History, Economics, and Gender?
December 07, 2023 09:00 - 25 minutesThe clothes we wear say a lot about how we express ourselves. But an investigation into how these clothes ended up in our closets reveals a complex history dating back 400 years ago at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Producer Ashley Kim sits down with Sofi Thanhauser, the author of “Worn: A People’s History of Clothing” to learn how clothing can teach us about economics, gender and imperialism. Sofi Thanhauser teaches in the writing department at Pratt Institute. She has received fel...
Why is Spoken Word Poetry Not Seen as ‘Real’ Literature? With Dr. Joshua Bennett
November 30, 2023 09:00 - 25 minutesSpoken word poetry is an oral tradition dating back centuries. So why is this form of poetry not always taken seriously? Producer Sydne Clarke sits down with Dr. Joshua Bennett, the author of "Spoken Word: A Cultural History". His nonfiction debut is a personal investigation into the history of spoken word, specifically the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. This is a cultural hub that started in the Lower East Side living room of Miguel Algarin. Bennett has authored several books of poetry, including ...
PTSD, Poetry and Brotherhood in World War One
November 16, 2023 09:00 - 21 minutesIn World War One, millions of soldiers saw industrial warfare unlike anything they’ve seen before: artillery shells, flame throwers, poison gas. Those who saw the war on the frontlines came home with psychological wounds the world had never quite seen before. At one military hospital in Scotland named Craiglockhart, early psychiatrists treat PTSD and soldiers turn to poetry and brotherhood to heal. UnTextbooked producer Faith Stanley sits down to talk with journalist and author Charles Glas...
What IS Venture Capital? Does it really run the tech world?
November 09, 2023 09:00 - 26 minutesEntrepreneurs like Elon Musk and products like Chat GPT have been fueled by Venture Capital. In fact, some argue that Venture Capital has shaped our modern technology more than any other entity. But what is Venture Capital and what makes it unique? This week, UnTextbooked producer and college student Oliver Wang talks to author Sebastian Mallaby to learn about the shadow history of venture capital. What once started as a way to liberate eight scientists from a difficult boss now is a medium...
The Many Contradictions of Longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover
November 02, 2023 08:00 - 27 minutesJ. Edgar Hoover was a man of contradictions. As the Director of the FBI from 1924 to 1972, he spearheaded homophobic, racist, and anti-communist policies – which arguably shaped half a century of the United States. But he also had an intimate personal relationship with a man and he believed in the role of government to support social conservatism. Beverly Gage is the author of “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century”, which won a Pulitzer Prize in Biography. She is a ...
The ‘Stunt Work’ That Launched Women Into Investigative Journalism
October 26, 2023 08:00 - 29 minutesWomen including Ida B. Wells and Nellie Bly were on the front edge of investigative journalism in the 1800s. But even with these historical trailblazers, why were women excluded from reporting hard news until recent history? Producer Jordan Pettiford sits down with author, journalist and professor Brooke Kroeger to find out. Brooke has authored six books and her most recent book is “Undaunted: How Women Changed American Journalism”. Listen to new episodes every Thursday. Follow the show o...
Is Freedom of Speech Around the World Backsliding?
October 19, 2023 08:00 - 28 minutesFrom banned books to freedom of speech in academic settings, censorship is a topic that affects the everyday lives of young people. This week, UnTextbooked producer and college student Karly Shepherd talks to Eric Berkowitz, human rights lawyer, journalist and author. His latest book “Dangerous Ideas: A Brief History of Censorship from the Ancients to Fake News” covers about 2,000 years of censorship history. Censorship has existed since the dawn of language, consistently targeting themes l...
UnTextbooked is back with Season Four!
October 19, 2023 08:00 - 1 minuteThis season, we talk to an original member of the Black Panther Party. We explore the extremely contradictory life of longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. We talk to Smithsonian curators about the historical connection of Disneyland to American identity. Plus, we cover topics including censorship, fast fashion, women in journalism, PTSD, Internet hackers, and more. History is full of gems to discover and pitfalls to avoid. But you wouldn’t know it when sitting in a high school history cla...
UnTextbooked Out of the Studio: Reimagining a New Vision for Education at the ASU+GSV Summit
September 21, 2023 08:00 - 39 minutesUnTextbooked heads to sunny San Diego, California, for the ASU+GSV Summit and we brought our microphones with us! Host Gabe Hostin and founding producer Victor Ye talked to innovative EdTech leaders, teachers and social entrepreneurs to discuss how we can collaboratively write a new chapter in the history of education. Plus, they ask the question, what else do we need to unlearn? This week’s guests: Steven Hernandez, ESQ, Executive Director for the Connecticut Commission on Women, Childre...
Introducing: History Detective
April 06, 2023 08:00 - 14 minutesBonus Episode in Partnership with History Detective: On this episode of History Detective, host Kelly Chase introduces us to Tarenorerer, the Tasmanian First Nations female warrior who led her tribe against the British colonists. About History Detective: History Detective is a podcast for teachers, students and lovers of history. It delves into stories from the past that don’t always get told in the textbooks. Every episode will include an original song that compliments the topic. This is a ...
Introducing: Getting Smart
March 09, 2023 09:00 - 33 minutesBonus Episode in Partnership with Getting Smart: On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast Nate McClennen is joined by three incredible students who recently competed in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, an event co-hosted with Society for Science. Check out our podcast episode with Maya Ajmera to hear more about Society for Science. The students are Christine Ye, a student at Eastlake High School Aseel Rawashdeh, a student at Anderson High School, and Elijah Burks, a student at Caddo P...
Introducing: Changing Course
February 16, 2023 09:00 - 39 minutesBonus Episode in Partnership with Changing Course: Host Jonathan Santos Silva speaks with leaders and educators from The Center for Black Educator Development in Philadelphia, PA, about how to create safe spaces that value and invest in young Black leaders. The Center is the first teaching academy in Philadelphia dedicated to investing in the next generation of Black teachers, starting as early as high school. Guided by the lens that excellent education is a political act, Sharif El-Mekki and...
Best of Season 3
February 02, 2023 09:00 - 23 minutesWe’re wrapping up this incredible third season of UnTextbooked by looking back at the great work of our team of young producers. They covered topics and questions that really matter, including the rise of authoritarianism, mass incarceration, unprecedented changes in the Supreme Court, and much more! Each topic highlights how history isn’t just in the past, but also present in all of our lives. In this episode, our host Gabe Hostin and our Youth Program Coordinator CeCe Payne discuss excerpt...
Is the current Supreme Court a threat to justice?
January 26, 2023 09:00 - 38 minutesIn 2020, the Supreme Court was on the verge of transformation. Seismic events like the death of former Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the appointment of conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett, and a polarizing presidential election laid the groundwork for major changes in decision-making seen today. On this episode of UnTextbooked, producer Karly Shepherd interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Linda Greenhouse to discuss the Supreme Court’s increasing politicizati...
How do democracies die?
January 19, 2023 09:00 - 35 minutesIs our democracy in danger? In the years after Trump’s presidency, it’s tempting to say “not anymore,” but nowadays threats to democracy are no longer as obvious as a military coup or revolution. Instead, a democracy in danger manifests in much more subtle ways including: the steady decline of longstanding political norms and weakening of essential institutions such as the United States press and its courts system, both of which are already in jeopardy. On this episode of UnTextbooked, pro...
Did the American Civil War ever truly end?
January 12, 2023 09:00 - 36 minutesAlthough the American Civil War ended many years ago, the fight for “a more perfect union” never quite did. A few months after the union army’s victory, confederate-style, white supremacist resistance emerged even stronger than before. On this episode of UnTextbooked, producer Arya Barkesseh interviews Dr. Jeremi Suri, who argues that opposition to the union army’s victory started almost immediately after the war ended, preventing Lincoln’s vision of a genuinely united country from actuall...
How did citizen protests help end the Cold War?
January 05, 2023 09:00 - 43 minutesThe Cold War was marked by a bitter rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. Although former WWII NATO allies, what emerged was an atmosphere of constant fear for national security and a dangerous nuclear arms race. On this episode of UnTextbooked, producer Lap Nguyen and Professor Susan Colbourn unpack the power of citizen protest and the crucial factors that eventually brought the contentious war to a peaceful end. BOOK: Euromissiles: The Nuclear Weapons that Nearly Destr...
How does naval domination control who runs the world?
December 22, 2022 09:00 - 33 minutesIn the 1930s, six naval powers roamed the world’s oceans: Great Britain, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan. Each nation was subject to the Washington Naval Treaty, which granted 60% of the world’s battleships to the Royal and US Navy, 20% to Japan, and 20% to France and Italy. However by 1945, the United States Navy had expanded to a fleet larger than that of all the great powers. What exactly did that mean in the wake of WWII? On this episode of UnTextbooked, producer Wi...
Was the fall of the USSR inevitable?
December 15, 2022 09:00 - 43 minutesBy 1945, the Soviet Union was a founding member of the United Nations and a global superpower controlling half of Europe. By 1991, with five thousand nuclear missiles at its disposal and an army four million strong, the USSR was a formidable rival for the United States. But by the end of the year, the union would meet its untimely demise. Most historians have argued that the fall of the USSR was inevitable, but Vlad Zubok author of Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union sees things differe...
Is the U.S. government spying on its own citizens?
December 08, 2022 09:00 - 40 minutesAs human beings, our privacy is one of our most basic needs and most sacred rights. However, in the modern information age, these rights are constantly under attack. How does the American federal government collect our data and what happens when the institutions meant to protect our privacy opts to instead use that information for their gain? On this episode of UnTextbooked, producer Victor Ye interviews Robert Scheer to discuss how we can best protect ourselves in an era where the U.S. go...
What does history teach us about the future of technology?
December 01, 2022 09:00 - 31 minutesTechnology plays a vital role in our society day-to-day, but what exactly is our role when it comes to managing our tech? How do our internal biases impact the products we create? Can technological advances actually be “neutral” as a product of human imagination? These are all questions to consider as we take a look at how human and computational infrastructures overlap. On this episode of UnTextbooked, producer Caroline Somers interviews Professor Thomas S. Mullaney to discuss the impact o...
What was the gay bar and how did it shape gay identity?
November 24, 2022 09:00 - 28 minutesThe gay bar has long since been a locale of sexual expression, community, and most importantly, identity. If the gay bar was what Atherton Lin describes as, “a place where we hoped we could find ourselves,” what does it mean for queer identity when the spaces that once shaped and defined it are steadily vanishing in urban centers world-wide? In his wistful personal and cultural memoir, Gay Bar: Why We Went Out (named one of the best books of 2021 by the New York Times, NPR, and Vogue), essa...
Is mass incarceration doing more harm than good?
November 17, 2022 09:00 - 35 minutesMore American residents are behind bars than any other nation. While the U.S. Criminal Justice System was established to regulate peace and order, it has since become the catalyst for criminalizing of people of color. Fueled by initiatives like Nixon’s “War on Drugs” campaign, which unfairly targeted communities of color, mass incarceration has steadily been on the rise. Despite the staggering amount of people behind bars, the crime rates haven’t exactly been on the decline, raising the quest...
How did guns divide the United States?
November 10, 2022 09:00 - 30 minutesThe Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has roots in strong firearm regulation and gun safety policy, but over the years, it’s become a mantra for gun rights advocates. On this episode of UnTextbooked, producer Ellie Carver-Horner interviews Professor Adam Winkler about how over time, the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (the right to bear arms) historically caused a major divide in the United States and the impact of that extreme split today. BOOK: Gunfight: The Battle Ove...
What is religious racism and how has it progressed from past to present?
November 03, 2022 08:00 - 39 minutesThe first amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees that everyone has the right to practice his or her own religion or no religion at all. A similar guarantee exists in Canada under its Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, this right to religious freedom hasn’t necessarily been assured for practitioners of traditional African religions throughout history in North America and beyond. On this episode of UnTextbooked, producer Jordan Pettiford interviews Dr. Danielle Boaz to d...
Are we telling U.S. Indigenous history wrong?
October 27, 2022 08:00 - 29 minutesThere are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations in the United States today, nearly three million people, but their stories have largely been omitted from the nation’s history. On this episode of UnTextbooked, producer Gavin Scott interviews acclaimed historian and activist, Professor Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and takes a look at U.S. History through the lens of Indigenous Peoples and unpacks what we’ve been missing as a nation without their perspective. BOOK: An Indi...
What is causing the global fall of democracy?
October 20, 2022 08:00 - 34 minutesThroughout the world, democratic progress has not only halted, but receded over the past few years and the United States has been one of the main perpetrators. On this episode of UnTextbooked, producer Oliver Wang interviews Former Deputy National Security Advisor of the United States (Obama Administration), Ben Rhodes to discover who is to blame for the global fall of democracy and how we might return to a truly democratic identity. BOOK: After the Fall: The Rise of Authoritarianism in th...
Season Three: New Questions, New Answers
October 20, 2022 08:00 - 1 minuteUntextbooked is a movement of curious students from around the world -- and we are BACK with new episodes and new questions. What perspectives do we miss in history class? What historical forces shape our lives today? We study up on topics that interest us -- indigenous history, the status of democracy, future of technology -- and then reach out to scholars to have a conversation for the podcast. Listen every Thursday wherever you listen to podcasts. Hit the follow button on Spotify or the...
Best of Season 2
March 10, 2022 02:51 - 13 minutesWe’ve completed our second season of UnTextbooked! Our team of young producers have done phenomenal work exploring topics and questions that really matter, including episodes about the War on Terror, Native American boarding schools, population control, and much more. In this episode our editor Bethany Denton shares excerpts from four of her favorite Season 2 episodes: Is every presidency doomed to fail? Can the War on Terror ever truly end? Does population control work? Why were Native Ameri...
Did anyone win the Cold War?
December 07, 2021 07:00 - 18 minutesThe Cold War was a decades-long military conflict that dominated geopolitics in the latter half of the 20th century. And as Americans, we often see it framed as a binary conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union; one that ended around the time the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. But historian Odd Arne Westad, author of The Global Cold War, thinks that version of the story is incomplete. The US and USSR never engaged in direct combat with one another, so the Cold War was fought i...
Did segregation in America ever really end?
December 02, 2021 19:00 - 18 minutesThe United States is still reckoning with its history of racism. For a century after slavery ended, US businesses, banks, schools, and neighborhoods were segregated by race. It took a series of Supreme Court cases and acts of Congress to legally ban discrimination based on race, but discrimination isn’t just a switch that can be turned from “on” to “off.” The legacy of these unfair laws still affect Black Americans today. One example of this is is a method of housing discrimination called “r...
When will Asian Americans stop being seen as "perpetual foreigners"?
November 29, 2021 19:00 - 26 minutesThere is a fundamental duality in how Asian Americans are perceived in our country. They’ve at times been held up as the “model minority”, affirming this idea that the American Dream is alive and well if only immigrants could work harder. At other times they’ve been regarded as threatening and perpetually foreign. A recent example of this is the dramatic rise in anti-Asian violence in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic. On this episode of UnTextbooked, producer Victor Ye interviews Dr. Erika...
What does American cuisine tell us about the United States?
November 25, 2021 19:00 - 23 minutesAmerican food is unlike anything else in the world. And it goes a lot deeper than hamburgers and pizza. The thing that makes American food special is the stunning variety of options and how accessible it is to the average consumer. Also some regional American dishes that are impossible to find anywhere else on the planet Dr. Paul Freedman is a historian who thinks that all of these factors--standardization, variety, and regionality--can tell us a lot about American culture and identity. On th...
Why do Brazilian cars run on sugar?
November 22, 2021 19:00 - 21 minutesIt’s no secret that society will eventually have to transition away from fossil fuels. Some governments and businesses think the answer is biofuels,like ethanol. Ethanol is a type of alcohol—the same type of alcohol that humans have been producing for millenia. And so, in much of the world, the techniques to produce ethanol are already known and exploited. All it takes is the fermentation of sugary crop, like potatoes, corn, or sugarcane. The result is a clear liquid fuel that can power e...
What does resilience look like for Iranian women?
November 18, 2021 19:00 - 18 minutesFor centuries, Iran had a strict social hierarchy that prevented women—particularly upper class women—from participating in public life. This started to change in the early 20th century when Iranians became disillusioned with the ruling class and had a constitutional revolution. This new constitution established a parliament, public schools, and also opened the door for women to start asserting their own rights to education and employment. Following the constitutional revolution was a period...
How did tolerance become an American value?
November 15, 2021 19:00 - 24 minutesThere’s a lot of evidence that America is more divided than ever. Our politics, media, and ideologies are so polarized that it puts a stress on our unity as a country. But Dr. Denis Lacorne says that, in spite of that tension, America’s strength comes from our nation’s commitment to tolerance. The trick is figuring out the balance of tolerating the intolerant. On this episode of UnTextbooked, producer Karly Shepherd interviews Dr. Lacorne about his book The Limits of Tolerance. They explore t...
Is every presidency doomed to fail?
November 11, 2021 19:00 - 24 minutesThe Founders of the United States envisioned the presidency as an office that would be minimal in reach. They didn’t want the USA to be a monarchy. But incrementally, the executive branch has expanded. And now, scholars like Dr. Jeremi Suri argue that the modern presidency is crushed by its own power and unable to be fully wielded by the President, leading to decades of broken promises and deep disillusionment amongst citizens. On this episode, UnTextbooked producer Lap Nguyen interviews P...
How did Black Americans forge a cultural identity?
November 08, 2021 19:00 - 19 minutesUnTextbooked producer Sydne Clarke thinks that African American history is often oversimplified or overlooked. Often that history is taught as things that happened to African Americans. We don’t often hear about the ways in which African Americans fought for and took care of themselves. Dr. Leslie Alexander studies Black resistance movements, particularly in America. In her research Dr. Alexander has discovered communities and people who were vital to Black activism, but are often forgotten ...
Were history’s greatest leaders generalists or specialists?
November 04, 2021 18:00 - 13 minutesThe Greek poet Archilochus said “a fox knows many things, a hedgehog knows one big thing.” This phrase inspired a famous essay by a 20th century philosopher named Isaiah Berlin, who said that pretty much all people can be categorized as either “foxes” or “hedgehogs”. Foxes tend to be agile and perceptive, whereas hedgehogs tend to be resolute and hyper-focused on their end goal. Historian John Lewis Gaddis took Berlin’s framework one step further. In his book On Grand Strategy, Dr. Gaddis c...
Is there an American Empire?
November 01, 2021 18:00 - 21 minutesWith a name like “The United States of America”, it can be easy to forget that this country’s borders extend well beyond the fifty states of the union. In fact, millions of American citizens live on US territory well outside those borders. It’s not just Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands, and the North Mariana Islands, but the many military bases we occupy across the globe too. “Empire” might not always be a word associated with the USA, but some historians think th...
Does population control work?
October 28, 2021 18:00 - 23 minutesA hundred years ago, there were roughly 2 billion people in the world. Today, there are almost 8 billion. This rapid quadrupling of the world’s population has people asking, is the planet overpopulated? Some say, yes. Others say that it’s not so simple. This isn’t a new question. Researchers in the 19th and 20th centuries warned that unfettered population growth would lead to famine, poverty, and climate destruction. Some governments and aid agencies took those warnings to heart, and impleme...
Why were Native American kids required to attend boarding schools?
October 25, 2021 18:00 - 26 minutesIn the spring of 2021, UnTextbooked producer Gavin Scott read a headline that made his heart sink. The remains of 215 indigenous children were discovered buried in a mass grave near the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia. Over the next few months, more mass graves were found outside of other Canadian residential schools. Before they died, these children had been part of a program of forced assimilation. For more than a century, thousands of indigenous children ...
Can protests save lives? How ACT UP helped tame the AIDS crisis.
October 21, 2021 18:00 - 28 minutesOne morning in 1991, Senator Jesse Helms’ house was covered with a giant fake condom in an act of protest. Helms had been a vocal opponent of funding AIDS research and he had introduced an infamous and popular bill amendment that prevented federal money from being spent on AIDS research. There were few treatments available at the time, and with no help from the government, HIV was actively spreading across the country. In 1991 alone, nearly 30,000 American died of AIDS, and the numbers wou...
Can the War on Terror ever truly end?
October 18, 2021 18:00 - 26 minutesThe War On Terror is the longest foreign war the United States has ever fought. So long that many of the soldiers fighting weren’t even alive when it started. But the WoT seems unusual for another reason—it’s not a war on a nation, or even an organization—it’s a war against a concept. September 11, 2001 was the alleged start date of this conflict, after the Twin Towers fell. President George W. Bush stood before congress announcing, “Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not e...
Season 2 is coming soon!
October 11, 2021 12:15 - 2 minutesSeason 2 of UnTextbooked is near! New episodes starting Monday, Octoberr 18th, 2021. Join us for 15 more interviews where young people ask historians the questions that matter most. Watch the video trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB46hxDFQ58 And come to our launch party: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEkcO6vqTkiGdRvraFhbERExj8gxGWbW2DR
Best of Season 1
February 04, 2021 20:00 - 16 minutesWe’ve wrapped our first season of UnTextbooked! Our producers have explored race, food, piracy, gender, medicine and so much more. In this episode, UnTextbooked editor Bethany Denton shares five of her favorite moments from the season: How a Black teenager and his young lawyer changed America's criminal justice system. Most Americans eat like kings without realizing it. Damnation to the governor and confusion to the colony. Germany addressed its racist past. Can America do the same? Hist...
Why did American Jews march for Black equality?
December 03, 2020 19:30 - 26 minutesThroughout this series, we’ve heard historians say that the way Americans think about race is changing, as evidenced by the unprecedented numbers of Americans marching after George Floyd’s death. And along with this surge in action are critical conversations about what it means to be an ally, and what it means to “perform” allyship. UnTextbooked producer Daniel Ardity noticed what he thought to be a lot of empty support for the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer of 2020--particularly w...
Why do so many Westerners fear the veil?
November 30, 2020 19:36 - 14 minutesPeople in the West have many harmful perceptions about Muslim women being submissive or oppressed. In fact, a study conducted by the Pew Research Center found that only 19% of Americans believed that Islam is respectful of women. These beliefs have been reinforced for centuries through media portrayals and stereotypes. One of those persistent stereotypes is that Muslim women are forced against their will to wear hijab, and as a result the veil has come to symbolize women’s oppression. These m...
Most Americans eat like kings without realizing it.
November 26, 2020 19:25 - 28 minutesIt’s undeniable that the way people eat has changed drastically in the last century. It took thousands of years for human societies to transition from hunter-gatherers to farmers. By contrast, it’s only been in the last hundred years or so that people have moved away from growing their own crops and raising their own livestock to getting most of their food from a restaurant or store. Food historian Rachel Laudan thinks that this recent and rapid transition is ultimately a good thing. She ta...
Why do we forget the cruelty of the British Empire?
November 23, 2020 19:30 - 14 minutesOn April 13, 1919, thousands of Indians gathered in Amritsar, Punjab to celebrate Baisakhi - a religious holiday. Such gatherings had been banned by the British colonial government, but the people gathered anyway to celebrate and to protest British imperialism. What followed was the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre; British General Reginald Dyer ordered his troops to open fire without warning on the crowd of unarmed protesters. They fired until they ran out of ammunition, killing 379 and wounding m...