Breaking History

Breaking History

Sometimes the news moves so fast, you have to look closely to know if you’ve seen it before. And that’s what this show is about. Breaking History breaks down the news, by breaking down history. We cover everything from LBJ and the Roman Republic to Donald Trump and the chaos at Columbia. This twice a month show from The Free Press delivers the best historians, authors, and reporters by mining the archives of human experience to figure out the present. George Santayana wrote, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Tune in to Breaking History to resist the repetition.

Episodes

The Birth of Cool: How Air Conditioning Changed Everything

August 20, 2025 • 29 mins
How did air conditioning go from a niche invention for factories to a force that reshaped cities, industries, and even human behavior? In this episode of Breaking History, we dive deep into the surprising, often overlooked story of AC with author Salvatore Basile—author of Cool: How Air Conditioning Changed Everything. Hear how Willis Carrier’s revolutionary breakthrough changed the world. ------ Producers: Poppy Damon &...
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Restless Nation | The Red-Green Alliance: The Making of Modern Iran (Part 2)

August 6, 2025 • 88 mins
In our last episode, we traced the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty and the forces building toward Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. This week, we turn to the man who brought that monarchy to an end: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. From exile in a quiet French chateau, Khomeini launched a revolution that shattered 2,500 years of Persian monarchy. But he didn’t do it alone. Liberals and leftists, both inside Iran and across the West,...
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BONUS | Eli Lake & Josh Hammer on Russiagate: Do the New Documents Support Treason?

July 30, 2025 • 69 mins
Do the new Russiagate releases justify Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s accusation of “treasonous conspiracy”? In this bonus episode, Eli Lake and commentator Josh Hammer get into the nitty gritty of the newest document releases in one of the most polarizing political controversies of the 21st century: Russiagate. Listen to ⁠Boundless Insights⁠ wherever you get your podcasts for smart, honest conversations about...
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Restless Nation | The Making of Modern Iran (Part 1)

July 16, 2025 • 71 mins
Breaking History dives into the paradox at the heart of modern Iran: How a nation born in revolt, from the tobacco protests of the 1890s to the 1979 Revolution, has time and again empowered autocrats in the name of democracy. This week we trace the cycles of reform and repression that still shape Iran today. Producer: Poppy Damon A special thanks to our sponsors: Go to ⁠groundnews.com/BreakingHistory⁠ to get 40% off the unli...
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America Has Always Been a Dangerous Idea

July 3, 2025 • 56 mins
As our nation turns 249 this week, we explore the radical and enduring power of the Declaration of Independence. More than just a break from the British Empire, the Declaration was a bold statement of universal human rights, an idea so dangerous it has sparked revolutions and inspired liberation movements around the world ever since, from Vietnam to Israel, from China to the Black Panther Party. We trace its intellectual origins, u...
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BONUS: David Albright and Eli Lake on Iran’s Nuclear Program

June 19, 2025 • 48 mins
Eli Lake and nuclear weapons expert David Albright discuss the Islamic Republic’s arsenal and whether or not Israel can destroy it on its own. This episode was originally a subscriber-only livestream. Livestreams are one of the many benefits of becoming a paid subscriber to The Free Press. (Thank you to everyone who joined us live!) Go to groundnews.com/BreakingHistory to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and stay...
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The Buckley Stops Here: Trump And The Death of Conservative Civility

June 18, 2025 • 57 mins
William F. Buckley, one of the founding fathers of the American right, would have turned 100 this year. He, more than any other figure, is responsible for creating the American conservative movement that fueled the Reagan revolution more than 40 years ago. But what happened to that revolution in the era of Donald Trump?  Producers: Alex Miller, Bobby Moriarty, Poppy Damon Go to groundnews.com/BreakingHistory to get 40% off t...
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BONUS: Haviv Rettig Gur and Eli Lake on Israel's Strike

June 13, 2025 • 83 mins
This was recorded as a Free Press livestream. To be part of these conversations as they happen live, become a part of The Free Press. You can do that by going to TheFP.com and subscribing now. The world woke up today to a changed Middle East. Israel struck key nuclear and military facilities throughout Iran. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed retaliation. And Donald Trump urged Iran to agree to a nuclear deal. As Iran begins its co...
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BONUS: Conversations with Coleman & Bari Weiss

June 11, 2025 • 69 mins
 We’re sharing the latest episode of Conversations with Coleman, a podcast that joined The Free Press network this week. Coleman Hughes engages deep thinkers and curious minds in sharp, surprising, and unfiltered chats. In this relaunch episode he sits down with Free Press founder Bari Weiss and asks her about her critics, rising antisemitism, the woke right, and more. Hope you enjoy it & stay tuned for more Breaking History here...
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Partition’s Ghost: How Pakistan Became a Deep State

May 28, 2025 • 55 mins
Last month, two nuclear powers exchanged blows after terrorists mowed down 26 tourists in Kashmir, yet it didn’t turn into a hot war. We got lucky. But sadly, the next India-Pakistan war seems like only a matter of time.  In this week’s Breaking History, Eli Lake explores the origin story of the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan. How did Pakistan become a true ‘deep state nation’ post-partition? And why does it really r...
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Vulgarians at the Gate: How Censors Lost the Culture War

May 14, 2025 • 70 mins
*Explicit Content Warning* Since Donald Trump won the presidential election, American institutions are shedding what remains of wokeness nearly everywhere. From Columbia University to Facebook, the old guardrails have crumbled. Something similar happened nearly 60 years ago. After police and prosecutors drove the revolutionary comic Lenny Bruce into bankruptcy and overdose, America began its slide into vulgarity. Despite the b...
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How North Korea Got the Nuke

April 30, 2025 • 59 mins
As Iranian nuclear ambitions force their way back onto America’s agenda, it’s worth looking at the story of North Korea, the original ‘madman’ nation that bullied its way to the nuclear table. ******* Producers: Alex Miller, Poppy Damon and Bobby Moriarty ******* Buy tickets for SAPIR Debate“Is Donald Trump Good for the Jews?” at  sapirjournal.org/sapirdebate. Listen to Unpacking Israeli History Learn more ab...
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The Opium War: The Original Trade War

April 16, 2025 • 52 mins
It’s been two weeks since President Donald Trump declared war on the global economic system his predecessors painstakingly built up since 1945. Then he partially reversed course, paused most of the tariffs, and focused on China. In this episode, we dive into the last time the world’s most populous country was in a trade war with the world’s richest country. What do the British Empire’s Opium Wars of the 1800s tell us about America’...
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Orientalism: How One Book Fueled 50 Years of Campus Unrest

April 2, 2025 • 48 mins
Pro-Palestine protests have been a feature of Columbia's campus since October 7. Now, Donald Trump has issued an ultimatum to the university: get control of your campus or lose $400 million in Federal funding. But the target of the measures wasn't just security, but the Middle East Department too, which Columbia has agreed to place into five years of 'academic receivership'.  This week we take a deeper look at the ideology behin...
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Luigi Mangione & The History of Bourgeois Terrorism

March 19, 2025 • 44 mins
Luigi Mangione appears in court this week. He stands accused of murdering a healthcare CEO in cold blood. It’s not the first time a well heeled winner has been celebrated for his embrace of political violence. Today we look at the West German woman who paved the way. We dive into the phenomenon of breaking rad. Eli Lake tells the story of Ulrike Meinhof and the infamous Red Army Faction.  ******* And a note from our sponsors: G...
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How A Strange Group of Heroes Defeated Russia

March 5, 2025 • 41 mins
Ronald Reagan’s speech in front of the Berlin Wall in 1987 is legendary for its six simple words: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” And two years later the wall fell. In another two years, the Soviet Union came crashing down. Many factors led to these moments. Among them: the failures of communism, the bravery of dissidents, and America’s role in challenging the “evil empire,” at least that’s what Reagan called it.  The dissi...
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Why We Can't Escape JFK Conspiracy Theories

February 19, 2025 • 48 mins
Every now and again, a work of art is so profound that it breaches the boundary between fact and fiction and affects current events. And if you had to rank the most politically resonant artworks American pop culture has produced in the last 50 years, the 1991 film JFK would top the list. More than any document, this film codified the murder of JFK as a conspiracy in the minds of the American people. Directed by the most celebrated...
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Paradise Burning

February 5, 2025 • 47 mins
Last month, L.A. burned. It was one of the most predictable disasters on record. A century of development on land whose ecosystems were forged in wildfire; years of increasingly regular blazes; months of low rainfall. The National Weather Service even issued an explicit warning: This was coming. Unfortunately, when Chekhov’s fire arrived, everything that could go wrong, did. A key reservoir was being repaired when the blazes began...
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Trump’s Populism Isn’t a Sideshow. It’s as American as Apple Pie.

January 22, 2025 • 35 mins
Donald Trump, just sworn in as the 47th president, was reelected to be a wrecking ball, a middle finger, the people’s punch to the Beltway’s mouth. And while this populist moment feels “unprecedented,” it’s not. The rebuke of the ruling class is encoded in our nation’s DNA.  We have seen populist leaders like Donald Trump before. He stands on the shoulders of Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot, Alabama governor George Wallace, and Lo...
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Introducing: Breaking History

January 14, 2025 • 2 mins
Sometimes the news moves so fast, you have to look closely to know if you’ve seen it before. And that’s what this show is about. Breaking History breaks down the news, by breaking down history. We cover everything from LBJ and the Roman Republic to Donald Trump and the chaos at Columbia. This twice a month show from The Free Press delivers the best historians, authors, and reporters by mining the archives of human experience to fig...
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