History That Doesn't Suck
HTDS is a bi-weekly podcast, delivering a legit, seriously researched, hard-hitting survey of American history through entertaining stories. To keep up with History That Doesn’t Suck news, check us out htdspodcast.com or follow on Facebook and Instagram: @Historythatdoesntsuck; on Twitter/X: @HTDSpod. Become a premium member to support our work, receive ad-free episodes and bonus episodes.
Episodes
188: World War II in Europe & The American Response (1939–40): Isolationism vs. Arsenal of Democracy
September 22, 2025 • 68 mins
“I have said not once but many times that I have seen war and that I hate war. … I hope the United States will keep out of this war. I believe that it will.”
This is the story of the first year of WWII in the European theater and the United States’ response.
Since the days of President George Washington, the United States has largely held to George Washington’s and Thomas Jefferson’s counsel to avoid “interweaving our destin...
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September 8, 2025 • 68 mins
“A great war can hardly be avoided any longer.”
This is the story of Nazi Germany’s aggressive territorial expansion and the start of WWII.
The Treaty of Versailles has long been a thorn in Adolf Hitler’s side. Its troublesome limits on troops and technology pose challenges for a man bent on taking lebensraum and building a Grossdeuschland by any means necessary. So he starts quietly building planes and submarines. Then he star...
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August 25, 2025 • 66 mins
“Comrade Stalin, now that he is general secretary, has concentrated immense power in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will always be capable of exercising this power with sufficient caution.”
This is the story of Joseph Stalin’s path to becoming the dictator of the USSR.
Ioseb (Joseph) Jughashvili, or little “Soso,” is a good student. A choir boy, in fact. But that changes as the Orthodox Georgian increasingly puts his fa...
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August 11, 2025 • 68 mins
“Being a Jew is not a crime, I am not a dog.”
This is the story of the start of the Holocaust.
Serving as the scapegoat for everything from a disappearing child to the Black Plague, European Jews are used to “anti-Jewry.” But as the nation state rises in the modern world, it brings the so-called “Jewish Question” to the fore: can one be a faithful Jew and modern citizen? As modern antisemitism rises and European Jews face pogrom...
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August 7, 2025 • 7 mins
Professor Greg Jackson is touring the country with a live version of the podcast telling the story of The Unlikely Union of American states. Starting Sep 19, 2025 through July 4, 2026, you can hear the Professor history-tell in person, with video and live musicians.
It’s not recorded for the podcast so get your tickets now at HTDSpodcast.com/live-shows
In 100 minutes Professor Jackson will take audiences on a remarkable 100-yea...
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July 28, 2025 • 67 mins
“There will be no more mercy now; anyone who stands in our way will be butchered.”
This is the story of Adolf Hitler and the collapse of the Weimar Republic.
A dropout. A failed applicant to Vienna’s prestigious Academy of Fine Arts. A decorated but low-ranking soldier who attempts to overthrow the state and is convicted of treason. But only a decade or so later, he’s the nation’s leader. Not just the Chancellor, not even a ...
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July 14, 2025 • 70 mins
“Italy, Gentlemen, wants peace, wants quiet, wants work, wants calm; we will give it with love, if that be possible, or with strength, if that be necessary.”
This is the story of Italy’s Benito Mussolini’s creation of fascism and rise to power in interwar Italy.
Benito starts life the way his father intended—as a socialist—and the often moving, young schoolteacher quickly emerges as a leading voice in the movement as he’s entrust...
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June 30, 2025 • 45 mins
This is the story of interwar preparation–not that the United States realized it was preparing for World War II, new technologies, innovation, and a constant pushing of the limits in the 1930s did indeed help Uncle Sam prepare for the fight to come.
To get us into an interwar mindset of praying for peace while preparing for war, Professor Jackson tells us the tale of the B-17 bomber and is then joined by GEN James E. Rainey, Comma...
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“If he is lost it will be the most universally regretted single loss we ever had. But that kid ain’t going to fail.”
This is the story of the high-fliers in early twentieth-century American aviation.
Wright brothers Orville and Wilbur stunned the nation and the world with their pioneering flight in 1903, and since then, aviation has spread its wings, so to speak. The Wright Brothers and other innovators like Glenn Curtiss are in...
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“If this is to be a skyscraper… why not make it scrape the sky.”
This is the story of the race for the tallest building in New York City—in the world.
Erstwhile partners-turned-bitter rivals, architects William Van Alen and Craig Severance are both looking to build the tallest skyscraper in New York City. William is working with automobile titan Walter Chrysler to build his Chrysler Building; Craig is working with George Ohrstr...
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“Everybody says it can’t be done.”
This is the story of San Francisco’s two great bridges.
The bustling cities of Oakland and San Francisco are separated by less than ten miles of water, but for early twentieth-century Bay Area residents, it may as well be thirty—that’s the distance traveling around the Bay. Meanwhile, the mile of water across the Golden Gate Strait makes communities directly north of San Francisco likewise ...
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“I felt no distress whatever…I was perspiring freely and was as limber and helpless as a wet rag. It was an exhilarating experience.... It was then and there that I first conceived the idea of the reclamation of the desert.”
This is the story of the Hoover Dam.
A wild, precarious, and dangerous river, the Colorado tears across the American southwest’s otherwise arid and largely uninhabitable desert. Yet, if tamed, the Colorado...
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April 21, 2025 • 59 mins
This is a conversation to kick off the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. Retired U.S. Army Major General and history buff, Bill Rapp, drops some knowledge on how the colonies weren't exactly gung-ho for a full-blown revolution before April 1775. Turns out, they were mostly ticked off and feeling rebellious in response to intolerable British policies. But a tense situation and an itchy trigger finger set it off.
The epi...
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April 7, 2025 • 50 mins
A discussion of the recent HTDS narrative episodes on FDR and the New Deal. Think of it as a book club for additional insights into these latest chapters of the HTDS chronological story of America.
Professor Greg Jackson is joined by Professor Lindsey Cormack to discuss the government's response to the Great Depression and the legacy of the New Deal. They explore the causes of the Depression, the government's initial missteps, and...
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March 24, 2025 • 67 mins
“No matter how great and good a man may be, executive aggrandizement is not safe for democracy.”
This is the story of Franklin’s second term and his battle with the Supreme Court.
It’s no secret that SCOTUS hasn’t really been ruling in the New Deal’s favor. But with such an overwhelming victory at the polls, Franklin feels confident that he can circumvent that by upping the number of judges from nine to fifteen and appointing pe...
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March 10, 2025 • 67 mins
“I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet.”
This is the story of FDR’s first term after facing down the initial emergency.
100 days down, about 1,300 more to go—for this term at least. After the whirlwind of new bills and “alphabet agencies” (AAA, CCC, etc.), the nation is adjusting to and examining FDR’s New Deal. As they do, the NIRA is upsetting both ends of the spectrum: company owners do...
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February 24, 2025 • 63 mins
“[We] had forgotten to be Republicans or Democrats. We were just a bunch of men trying to save the banking system.”
This is the story of FDR’s first 100 days in office.
In early 1933, banks foreclose on thousands upon thousands of homes and farms every month. The banks have little choice–they too are failing! Meanwhile, unemployment is hovering near 25%. It’s a catastrophe. Capitalism itself and the American way of life appears ...
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February 10, 2025 • 67 mins
“First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-–nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
This is the story of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s journey to the White House.
Even as a young boy, Franklin admires his fifth cousin Theodore Roosevelt and wants to follow in his footsteps. He seems to have a knack for it too. He a...
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December 16, 2024 • 64 mins
"Too much praise cannot be given to the President for the prompt and resolute and skillful way in which he has set about reassuring the country after the financial collapse.”
This is the story of Herbert Hoover’s facing the early years of the Great Depression.
Just after the stock market crash of 1929, people aren’t expecting the worst. Most, including the experts, believe that this little downturn will blow over with time, just...
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December 2, 2024 • 32 mins
“There is a million dollars here for the asking!”
This is the story of Christmas in the 1920s.
Yeah, the whole decade—why not? One hundred years ago, people were just beginning (or reviving) traditions that are entrenched in our holiday celebrations today. Charitable giving at Christmas is ever present, and the winter of 1920 features the Great Humanitarian Herbert Hoover’s efforts to feed children in Europe with his “Invisible ...
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