Sidedoor

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III has spent a lifetime thinking about how history gets told. Before becoming the head of the Smithsonian, he was a curator, someone whose job is deciding which stories, people, and objects help us make sense of ourselves. So as America approaches its 250th birthday, Lizzie wanted to know: if you had to tell the story of the United States through just a handful of things, where would you begin...

A screw. A stuffed possum. A shoe-sizing device. What could any of these objects possibly tell us about the history of the United States?

When we think of historic artifacts, we tend to picture the extraordinary: Abraham Lincoln's pocket watch, the original Kermit the Frog, Martin Luther King Jr.'s draft of the "I Have a Dream" speech. But the story of America can just as easily be found in the everyday objects that shape our lives.

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Everyone thought ghosts lived in the basement of Stockton, California's old Daguhoy Lodge. So, nobody went down there. But when one man refused to be spooked, he made a discovery that would bring the ghosts back to life. 

In this episode, we explore how an accidental discovery resurrected the stories of a nearly forgotten generation of Filipino immigrants who came to work in the fields. Why did these men leave behind steamer tr...

How did a car with chopped suspension and hydraulics become a symbol of pride and self-expression for an entire community? We'll cruise back in time to see how lowriders emerged from the post-WWII car craze and became a powerful symbol of Mexican American pride. It's a long road with a few speed bumps, but lowriders are now more popular than ever (especially in Japan!)

So, lean your seat back and see how chrome, paint, and a dose of...

At the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, archivists are working with Native communities to correct the historical record … one photo at a time.

In this episode, we go inside the archives, where century-old photographs once labeled “Indian man” or “woman in costume” are being reexamined and renamed so they can be reconnected to living descendants. It’s a painstaking effor...

A long time ago, in movie theaters not far away, Star Wars: A New Hope revolutionized American entertainment. In honor of May the 4th, we explore how a scrappy space fantasy reinvented a tale as old as time — and gave Americans hope in a time of difficulty. We'll also trace the journey of two bickering droids from a galaxy far, far away to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. 

Guests: 

Ryan Lintelman...

As we approach the nation's 250th birthday, we are looking back at some of the most important moments in American history. One of those moments is when Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag. But, as we discovered, there’s actually no proof that Ross sewed the first flag. In fact, we don't even know what the first American flag even looked like! 

In this episode of Sidedoor, we unravel this vexillological tall tale to f...

When a Smithsonian archaeology intern opened a dusty box of bones in a Panamanian warehouse, she didn't expect to find a mystery, let alone a potential crime scene. But Nina Hirai’s discovery of a tapir skull riddled with what appeared to be bullet holes sparked an investigation that would lead her several miles up the Panama Canal and nearly forty years into the past. Join us as we unspool the strange, unresolved story of a ...

What does it look like for something to be made in America? 

Through the photography of Christopher Payne, we journey across the past, present and future of American manufacturing to answer this question. From centuries-old textile mills to modern assembly lines, Payne’s photographs offer a rare, behind-the-scenes view of how everyday objects—from pencils to airplanes to marshmallow Peeps—are made. 

With t...

Something dark and invisible makes up as much as 90 to 95 percent of the universe—and it took a little girl staring out a bedroom window at the night sky to bring it to light. 

As a child, Vera Rubin built her own telescope. As an adult, she uncovered a problem no telescope could solve: stars at the edges of galaxies were moving just as fast as those near the center. The math contradicted everything astronomers expected t...

A string of unsolved murders in San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1970s led police to the door of a young Korean immigrant named Chol Soo Lee — who was quickly arrested and sentenced to life in prison. But when investigative journalist K.W. Lee started digging into the case, he discovered a world of twisted law and order that went far deeper than one man. The articles K.W. wrote about what he uncovered in Chinatown shocked Asi...

Orville and Wilbur Wright have been immortalized as the men opened the skies to human flight. But could they have achieved such great heights without the wind beneath their wings — their sister? Katharine Wright was her brothers' biggest champion, official spokesperson, closest confidante and the only one of the Wright siblings with a college degree. For years, Katharine, Wilbur and Orville were inseparable — until trag...

Clifton Chenier grew up in rural Louisiana, watching how his father’s accordion could magically turn front porches into dance parties. When he was old enough to play himself, Chenier began blending the Creole zydeco of his childhood with R&B and blues sounds of the 1940s and ’50s. His style packed dance halls across Louisiana and eventually carried zydeco to stages around the world. Through rare archival recordings ...

He’s a symbol of patriotism, protest, and power. But behind the red, white, and blue is a real man—and a disputed American origin story. How did a real guy go from meatpacker to meme, to personification of a nation and, eventually, the most famous Army recruiter in history?

I WANT YOU… to listen and find out.

Guests: 

Frank Blazich, curator of modern military history at the Smithsonian's National Musuem of Amer...

American newspaper publisher and all-around eccentric, Charles Francis Hall, was an unlikely candidate to become an Arctic explorer. Nevertheless, he made three trips to the frozen north, until he died there under suspicious circumstances. Sharpen your powers of deduction and join us on Sidedoor for an epic frozen whodunit, featuring shipwreck, romance, and a social media darling with a dark secret. We’re resharing this longt...

It started with a messy lab and a mysterious mold. But turning “mold juice” into the world’s first antibiotic would take a sick policeman, a market cantaloupe, and an extraordinary wartime collaboration between scientists, governments, and industry. This is the story of how penicillin changed the world.

Guests:

Kevin Brown, Trust Archivist to Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and curator of the Alexander Fleming...

A mystery hidden in time. Wrapped in gold. Stowed secretly in Lincoln's pocket. We dig into the family story of a secret message etched inside Abraham Lincoln's pocket watch. Is this a tall tale or a hidden piece of history waiting to be discovered? Join us as we dive into this incredible tale of family lore, historical detective work, and the Smithsonian's decision to open a priceless artifact.  

Guests: 

Lisa Kathleen Gra...