This Day

It's May 5th. This day in 1985, President Reagan visits a German military cemetery in Bitburg, where a number of SS Soldiers were buried.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why the visit to the cemetery had been a controversial decision for months, why Reagan still went ahead with the visit -- and how the attempt to clean up the mess afterwards didn't go any better.

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This Day In Esoteric Political H...

The Trump administration is targeting health and scientific research -- often based on whether it includes keywods like "women." This presents the risk that a science vacuum will emerge, which could take years or decades to unwind.

Today, as part of our "Some Sunday Context" series, we go back to a moment when there was a huge dearth of research and information about women's health -- and grassroots efforts to fix it.

In Bos...

It's May 1st. This day in 1861, the Civil War is breaking out and President Lincoln issues a desperate call for more military volunteers.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how Lincoln's appeal galvanized the sides of the conflict, with Northern volunteers feeling called to duy and Southerners framing the battle as "northern agression."

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[[This is an episode from the This Day archives -- we'll be back with a new conversation real soon!]]

It's May 5th. This day in 1960, a British theater critic named Kenneth Tynan is hauled before a Senate sub-committee to answer questions about what is seen as his anti-American work.

It's a moment that captures the cultural and political swirl of the late 50s, which is the subject of Benjamen Walker's new audio series "Not A...

We're reaching the 100 day mark of Donald Trump's second term in office. 100 days has traditionally been a benchmark for assessing how productive and impactful a presidency is.

Today, Jody Niki and Kellie get together for a "Some Sunday Context" conversation to look back at where the idea of "first 100 days" came from, and run through some of the more eventful starts to American presidencies -- from FDR to Lincoln to poor W...

It's April 23rd. This day in 1778, John Paul Jones leads the only American raid on British soil in the Revolutionary War.

Jody, Niki and Kellie discuss Jones's spotty past, and what brought him to the port of Whitehaven, where he launched a scheme to raid the town. It did not go well, but the day wasn't a total failure, as he later stumbled into one of America's great naval victories...

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It's April 22nd. This Day in 1978, former First Lady Betty Ford is in the Long Beach Naval Hospital, being treated for addiction to pain killers and alcohol. Outside, a spokesperson shares the news with the country.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie look at the life of Betty Ford, from dancer to First Lady -- and why it was so significant that she shared her addiction and hospitalization with the American public.

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The eyes of the world are on the images coming from a prison in El Salvador. The photos are being used as propoganda for U.S. deportation efforts; and are shocking those who care about abuse and the judicial process. For some, they are reminiscint of the photos that emerged during the Iraq War from the Abu Ghraib prison. Niki shares her thoughts as part of our "Some Sunday Context" series -- and then we return to our episo...

It's April 1775. This day in 1775, the Revolutionary War is sparked when British troops enter the towns of Lexington and Concord. But later that same day there's a third battle in a third town that is often forgotten.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss what happened in the town of Menotomy, how the fighting there was much more brutal than in Lexington and Concord -- and why it has been written out of the tidy story of the Revol...

It's April 17th. In 1914, at the mining town of Ludlow, Colorado tensions are ratcheting up to a moment when the national guard and private police would descend upon an encampment of striking workers, killing dozens including women and children.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how things got so heated in Ludlow -- and the public outrage that boiled over in the wake of the massacre.

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The Trump administration is going after universities -- threatening to withhold funding in an attempt to bring them under ideological control. It's a very rocky moment, but the history of the relationship between federal funding and research institutions has often been rocky.

Today on our "Some Sunday Context" series, Jody, Niki, and Kellie look at the way that universities have taken federal money, and what kinds of string...

It's April 9th. This day in 1917, a German man by the name of Robert Prager is attacked and lynched during a time of rising anti-immigrant sentiment in The United States.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie talk about the pervasive suspicion of Germans in the run-up to World War I, and how Prager's lynching was cheerleaded by the media, the government, and larger society.

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It's April 8th. And it's Girl Scouts Cookies season. This day in 1917, a troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma is baking cookies to raise funds in support of the WWI efforts. Within a decades, a full-blown cookie empire would be born.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss the role the cookie sales play in the larger project of the Girl Scouts, how the First Lady has always been the main booster -- and of course, which cookie flavors are the...

How will this week be remembered in the history books? Will it be the week that Trump's tarrifs changed everything, or the week in which Democrats found some new energy? Jody shares his thoughts as part of our "Some Sunday Context" series -- and then we take a listen to our archive episode about Strom Thurmond's fillibuster. This was, of course, the week that New Jersey Senator Cory Booker broker Thurmond's record.

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It's April 3rd. In 2015, Starbucks announces that it is bringing its "Race Together" initiative to a close, after it was relentlessly mocked and critced online and in stores.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie look back at the very-Obama-era effort by the coffee chain to spark conversations about racial inequality by having their baristas write #racetogether on customer's cups. Customers were not feeling it.

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It's April 1st. This day, Jimmy Carter performed on of the most unbelievable acts in presidential history.

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And don’t forget about Oprahdemics, hosted by Kellie, coming soon from Radiotopia.

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We are turning five! For today's "Some Sunday Context" conversation, Jody, Niki, and Kellie mark five years of the show and run through five big themes and lessons from five years of covering American history.

00:00 Happy 5th Anniversary!
3:30 Theme One: People Are Petty!
7:10 Theme Two: Near Catastrophe
10:30 Theme Three: Backlash Defines Everything
14:30 Theme Four: Americans Hate Paying Taxes
17:20...

It's March 27th. This day in 1976, Schoolhouse Rock premieres the song "I'm Just A Bill," an animated look at the process by which legislation gets passed -- or languishes in the halls of Congress.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie talk about how the song came together, the legislation at the heart of the process, and whether lawmaking still happens the same way.

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This Day In Es...

It's March 25th. This day in 1980, a church in Tucson announces that it will provide sanctuary to immigrants -- in open defiance of US law.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss the roots of the church sanctuary movement, the conviction of eight leaders including Reverand John Fife, and the ongoing role of religious progressivism.

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And don’t forget about Oprahdemics, hosted ...