American History Hotline

And everywhere that Mary went, the typhoid was sure to go. 

The story of Mary Mallon (AKA Typhoid Mary) is one we're living every day to a small degree: the balance between public safety and personal liberty. Luckily for us, we'll never be imprisoned for being an symptomatic carrier of a disease. Well, never say never. 

To learn more about the life of Mary Mallon we call up author Susan Campbell Bartoletti (Terrible Typho...

It can be scary to learn how much our democracy relies on norms and convention when the rule of law is put to the test. But, at least our Founding Fathers had an excellent understanding of authoritarianism when they drafted the U.S. Constitution. Are the guardrails they created enough to prevent a dictator, though? 

Bob calls up Jeffrey Rosen (former President and CEO of the National Constitution Center) to answer this questio...

During the Great Depression, millions of Americans were out of work, but they still managed to make it to the movies. In fact, Hollywood didn't just survive one of our country's greatest economic downturns, it thrived. 

So how did movie studios stay afloat when audiences could barely afford food? And why did people keep buying movie tickets during one of the darkest economic periods in U.S. history?

We dial up Rotten Tomatoes ...

She was just 16 years old when she rode nearly 40 miles through the night rallying the militia as the British attacked during the American Revolution.

Bob calls up Karen Romano Young (Sybil Ludington: Revolutionary War Hero) to get the story of Sybil Ludington. They explore what parts of her story are fact or fiction, and why she was nearly forgotten.

See omnystud...

In 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in the most infamous duel in American history. But what happened next?

Did Burr face murder charges? Was he convicted? And why did he go full Gary Busey? (You'll have to listen to understand that reference!) 

Bob calls up Yale historian Joanne Freem...

No, Benjamin Franklin did not invent Daylight Saving Time. But he did muse about its practicality in a 1784 essay. So, if Franklin didn't invent DST, where did all this springing forward come from? 

Bob calls up Chad Orzel (A Brief History of Timekeeping: The Science of Marking Time, from Stonehenge to Atomic Clocks) to get to the bottom of this question. 

Oh, and don't forget to change your clocks on March 8th! 

See ...

Was the Disney movie Balto actually based on a true story? A listener wants to know if this heroic snow dog was real—or just a Hollywood invention. 

To get answers, Bob calls up Dr. Nicole Burt of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. It turns out, the real Balto is actually IN her museum. What?! 

Bob and Nicole dive into the truth behind one of the most beloved animated films of the 1990s by exploring the real 1...

Roald Dahl is a beloved children’s author. Turns out, he was also a British spy during WWII! So how does one transition from seducing prominent Americans’ wives to writing Matilda? 

Well, we’re glad you asked! We called up the creator of a new docu-series called The Secret World of Roald Dahl to get all the dirt on this famous children’s author. 

Aaron Tracy, Creator of The Secret World of Roa...

In honor of President's Day, we're sharing some of the best conversations we've had about Honest Abe and General Washington. 

We speak with historian Alexis Coe (You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington) about George Washington myths, including whether or not his teeth were made of wood. 

We also speak with Julian Zelizer about which party Abraham Lincoln would belong to today.

Check out Julian's Subs...

You gotta keep 'em separated. That's a lot of people's opinion about mixing sports and politics. But as the world turns its eyes to Italy for the 2026 Winter Games, you have to wonder if this is the ideal place to make a political statement. 

To understand how acts of political activism have played out at the Olympics throughout history, we call up Jules Boykoff. He's the author of numerous books about the Olympics, including ...

Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball. That's a well known piece of history. But who integrated the NFL? 

Well, it's an amazing story with lots of binge drinking, miraculous comebacks and hot dog eating. Seriously. 

Just in time for the Super Bowl, we're calling up David Fleming, author of A Big Mess in Texas: The Miraculous, Disastrous 1952 Dallas Texans and the Craziest Untold Story in NFL History. He expl...

Who owns the White House? Is it the American people or the person who lives inside of it — AKA, the president? 

If the President of the United States of America controls the White House, does ANYONE have say over what he does with it (we're looking at you, preservation societies and Congress)?

Here to help us answer these questions (and weigh in on President Trump's renovations to the East Wing) is Robert Klara, author o...

Before he became president, Abraham Lincoln spent just one term in Congress. So how did "the best known two-time Senate loser in the country" become one of the greatest presidents in American history? 

Bob calls up historian and author Chris DeRose (Congressman Lincoln: The M...

For centuries, the story has been told the same way: Montezuma surrendered to Hernán Cortés, and a small band of Spaniards conquered the Aztec Empire.

But that story has always seemed a bit ... fishy. 

To get the TRUE story, Bob calls up historian Matthew Restall to debunk one of the most enduring myths of the Spanish conquest of the Americas. As it turns out, when you dig into Indigenous sources a whole new stor...

It takes decades to build a new subway line in the United States. Meanwhile, China is building entire high-speed rail networks in just a few years. So, how did America's once-great love of trains get derailed? 

We use New York City’s Second Avenue Subway as a test case to answer this bigger question: Why is building trains in America so hard compared to places like China?

Bob calls up Dan McNichol, author of Second ...

Could a new president ever be carved into Mount Rushmore? It depends on who you ask. We call up historian Matthew Davis (author of A Biography of a Mountain: The Making and Meaning of Mount Rushmore) to learn about the history of the monument and what its future might hold. 

It’s a story with a lot of surprising twists and turns, from the hills of Georgia to the sacred mountains of South Dakota. How does Mount Rushmore r...

What is the greatest movie of the 21st century?

The New York Times says it’s Parasite, but not everyone agrees. We call up Rotten Tomatoes correspondent Mark Ellis to debate the NYT’s list of the 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century and explore how cinema has changed in the past 25 years. Mark says it’s an era of “hopeless films in a time of hopelessness.” 

Grab some popcorn and silence your phone ...

Netflix’s Death by Lightning is gripping, dramatic and TRUE. Or is it? 

We call up historian and New York Times bestselling author Alexis Coe for a lightning round fact check of Netflix’s new James A. Garfield series Death by Lightning. What does the series gets right? What does it bend for dramatic effect? And how does it rank compared to other presidential biopic(esque) series? 

We'll hit all the highlights:

Was Johnny Appleseed a real person or just another American tall tale? We get to the core of the issue with author William Kerrigan (Johnny Appleseed and the American Orchard: A Cultural History) to see how one man's true story inspired an enduring folk legend. 

In this episode Bob and William explore how John Chapman's religious revival led him to pioneer apple nurseries across Pennsylvania and Ohio. Just like some hybrid app...