Throughline

Throughline

Throughline is a time machine. Each episode, we travel beyond the headlines to answer the question, "How did we get here?" We use sound and stories to bring history to life and put you into the middle of it. From ancient civilizations to forgotten figures, we take you directly to the moments that shaped our world. Throughline is hosted by Peabody Award-winning journalists Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei. Subscribe to Throughline+. You'll be supporting the history-reframing, perspective-shifting, time-warping stories you can't get enough of - and you'll unlock access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org/throughline

Episodes

Signed, Sealed & Delivered | America in Pursuit

January 27, 2026 • 10 mins
The key to good communication is in the delivery – literally. This week on America in Pursuit, how the creation of the U.S. postal service transformed our political culture and helped start a revolution, one letter at a time. 


To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.

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Iran Protests Explained

January 22, 2026 • 47 mins
Iran has been here before. For decades the country has gone through cycles of protest and repression at the hands of the Islamic Republic. What makes this cycle different? 

In this episode of Throughline from NPR, we speak to two Iranian experts about their view of the past, present, and future of Iran’s protest movement.

Guests:
Ali Alfoneh, senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington DC
<...
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The Deadliest Ally | America in Pursuit

January 20, 2026 • 10 mins

Forget guns and generals — the real victor of the Revolution had wings. This week on America in Pursuit the story of how a deadly swarm of mosquitoes shaped the American Revolution and changed the course of history.

To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.

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Ken Burns and the American Revolution

January 15, 2026 • 50 mins
Ramtin talks with filmmaker Ken Burns about the revolution that made the U.S., and the surprising lessons he thinks it holds for us today.

Guests:

Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker.

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Your 15-Minute Guide to 250 Years | America in Pursuit

January 13, 2026 • 15 mins

The anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is just around the corner. Wanna get up to speed on the past 250 years? Check out our new miniseries, "America in Pursuit." Every Tuesday from now until July 4th, we'll feature a special moment from the last two centuries of U.S. history, from the American Revolution to the AI Revolution. First up, what does U.S. history really mean?To access bonus episodes and listen ...

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El Libertador (Venezuela update)

January 8, 2026 • 54 mins
On January 3rd, the U.S. military apprehended Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and brought him to the U.S. for trial to face federal drug trafficking and weapons charges. Today, we’re bringing you an episode from our archive: the story of two leaders in Venezuela, separated by nearly two centuries, who shaped the country into what it is today. This episode originally ran in 2019 and has been updated.

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Winter Book Club: Octavia Butler’s Visionary Fiction

January 1, 2026 • 63 mins
Octavia Butler gave us a new kind of science fiction: not only as one of the first writers to use history to talk about the future, and not only as one of the first Black women to do it, but by sending, along with her warnings, a message of hope, survival, persistence, and repair.

To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.
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Winter Book Club: Why You'll Love 'Dune'

December 30, 2025 • 31 mins
As a kid, Ramtin fell in love with Frank Herbert's 1965 epic sci-fi novel, Dune. Today, he joins NPR's Books We’ve Loved crew, Andrew Limbong and B.A. Parker, to make the case for why he thinks you'll love it too.

To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.

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Winter Book Club: A Christmas Carol

December 25, 2025 • 49 mins
Christmas wasn't always a national shopping spree — or even a day off work. But when Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol in 19th-century London, the holiday went viral.


Guests:

Read more

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Winter Book Club: The Story of Us?

December 18, 2025 • 44 mins
What if the real story of human history is a story itself? To kick off our winter book club, we talk with bestselling author Tamim Ansary about his book, "The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History Of Human Culture, Conflict And Connection," about why the future of our species might depend on our ability to arrive at a story we all share. This episode originally ran in 2022.

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Pride, Prejudice, and Peer Pressure

December 11, 2025 • 52 mins
Rund takes Ramtin on a tour of the enduring world of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice... and our two hosts make a bet.

Guests:

John Mullan, professor of English Literature at University College London and author of What Matters in Jane Austen

Devoney Looser, professor of English at Arizona State University and author of Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive and Untamed Jane

Lizzie Dunford, dir...
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The Bitter History of Chocolate

December 4, 2025 • 52 mins
What's better than holiday hot chocolate? If just thinking about it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, well – that’s by design. Chocolate's big history sweeps across the globe, and today we’re going on that journey: from the pre–Columbus Americas, to an early 20th century reporter’s hunch about what cocoa production really takes, to a 21st century medical student’s story about his childhood on a farm that produces those holiday tre...
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The Mother of Thanksgiving

November 27, 2025 • 50 mins
On today's show, a Thanksgiving story you might never have heard -- not about Pilgrims or Native people, but instead about a woman who, as civil war loomed, pushed for a shared national holiday she thought would keep the United States together. This episode originally ran in 2024.

We’ve got a favor to ask: We know there are a lot of great NPR shows out there.. but we all know who's the best.  NPR is celebrating the best  p...
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What Happened to Vladimir Alexandrov?

November 25, 2025 • 14 mins
Rund Abdelfatah and Cristina Kim try to unravel the mystery of a Soviet scientist who was helping to spread the word about nuclear winter theory—until he disappeared. 

This is a peek at the kind of exclusive bonus content Throughline+ supporters get every month. Want more like this? Sign up via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline. And thank you!


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Democracy Dies in a Day

November 20, 2025 • 51 mins
How quickly can a government fall? Chile was once one of Latin America's oldest democracies, but that all changed in a matter of hours after a military coup on September 11, 1973. Some supported the coup; many did not. But for the next 17 years, all Chileans lived in the grip of brutal authoritarian rule. Today on the show, the story of a democracy’s collapse and rebirth, told through the eyes of four people who lived through it.
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The Creeping Coup

November 13, 2025 • 50 mins
On the surface, the story of Sudan’s war is about two generals vying for power. But it’s also about a vast web of international interests involving the U.S., China, Russia, and the UAE.  Today on the show, the story of how things in Sudan got to this point, and the effects of the conflict around the world. This episode originally ran in 2024 and has been updated.

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Winter is Coming

November 6, 2025 • 52 mins
Late last month, President Trump announced that the United States would be restarting nuclear weapons tests after a break of over 30 years. We’ve since learned that they won’t be the explosive kind of tests, but this sent us down a rabbit hole — where we found a story about dinosaurs, Carl Sagan, and nuclear war. Because there was a moment in the not-so-distant past when we learned what drove the dinosaurs extinct... and that disco...
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Prosecuting Genocide

October 30, 2025 • 50 mins

The word "genocide" can seem like it’s everywhere right now: So it can be easy to forget that, fundamentally, it's a legal term that dates to World War II — and wasn’t used in court for half a century afterwards. Today on the show, the story of what happened during the Bosnian War in the 1990s and the work that went into building the legal case to prove genocide.
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Throughline Dances

October 29, 2025 • 29 mins
Stuck in traffic? Glued to your desk chair? Folding yet another pile of your kids’ laundry? We GOT you!! Take a break, turn up the volume, and shake it out with this special episode of Throughline, a tribute to dance music, all songs composed by our very own Ramtin Arablouei.

To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.
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The Internet Under the Sea

October 23, 2025 • 50 mins
What powers the global internet? The answer might surprise you: not satellites, but hundreds of thin cables that run along the ocean floor. They’re an absolutely essential technology that’s also incredibly fragile — so fragile that in the beginning, most people thought they couldn't possibly work. Today on the show: the story of a man who did think they could work… and the lengths he went to to try and connect the world.

Gue...
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