HISTORY This Week
This week, something big happened. You might have never heard of it, but this moment changed the course of history. A HISTORY Channel original podcast, HISTORY This Week gives you insight into the people—both famous and unknown—whose decisions reshaped the world we live in today. Through interviews with experts and eyewitnesses, each episode will give you a new perspective on how history is written. Stay up-to-date at historythisweekpodcast.com and to get in touch, email us at historythisweek@history.com. HISTORY This Week is a production of Back Pocket Studios in partnership with the History Channel.
Episodes
September 11, 2025 • 2 mins
With every episode, Lena Dunham and Alissa Bennett take you on a historical deep dive into the life of a woman society dismissed by calling her mad, sad, or just plain bad: Lindsay Lohan, Judy Garland, Winona Ryder, Mariah Carey, Lil Kim and many more. Join them for a rich, hilarious, and heartbreaking look into exactly what it means when we call a woman “crazy.”
The C-Word was originally published behind a paywall from 2019 - 202...
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September 8, 2025 • 31 mins
September 10, 1986. It’s just before 8am when Cliff Stoll’s pager jolts him awake. A computer at Lawrence Berkeley Lab has flagged a problem: a tiny 75-cent accounting error. But when Stoll rushes to his office, he realizes this isn’t about missing spare change. Someone has slipped into the lab’s network, tunneling thousands of miles away into U.S. military computers.
Cliff isn’t a spycatcher. He’s an astronomer. And yet, from th...
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September 1, 2025 • 28 mins
Sept 5, 1698. Tsar Peter the Great of Russia returns home from a year-long European tour. When noblemen, religious figures, and friends gather to welcome him home, Peter pulls out a straight razor, holds it to their throats, and…forcibly shaves their beards. This event will go down in history as a first step toward Russian geopolitical power. Before Peter’s reign, Russia was an isolated nation that was largely ignored by the rest o...
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August 25, 2025 • 37 mins
August 28, 1920. In the town of Tequila, fireworks burst overhead as people celebrate Mexico’s independence. Then… gunshots. Malachías Cuervo, heir to the famous tequila dynasty, has just reignited a bitter feud with his family’s rivals, the Sauzas.
For decades, his brother José Cuervo fought to rebuild the family business through drought, revolution, and political upheaval—turning a struggling operation into an empire. His tactfu...
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August 21, 2025 • 29 mins
August 24, 1914. A train pulls up to the lumber town of White River, Ontario, carrying a regiment of Canadian troops on board. On the tracks where they disembark is a small black bear cub. An army veterinarian decides to buy the bear and name her Winnipeg—Winnie for short—after the town where he's been living.
When the soldiers are deployed to the European front, Winnie is left at the London Zoo, where a child named Christopher R...
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August 18, 2025 • 33 mins
August 24, 394. On the walls of a fading Egyptian temple, a priest carves what will become the last known hieroglyph in history. At the same moment, in Alexandria, a fiery archbishop named Theophilus is rising to power. He mocks the ancient Egyptian gods, desecrates their temples, and sets out to stamp out “paganism” for good.
But Theophilus is fighting more than ancient religion—he clashes with monks, rivals, even fellow bishops...
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August 11, 2025 • 32 mins
August 15, 1915. American diplomat J. T. Du Bois publishes a letter in The New York Times. It’s not about diplomacy or foreign affairs. This letter is about sharks. It’s Du Bois’ attempt to prove to the American public that “Man-Eating Sharks” - as he calls them - are real.
Because in 1916? Most people think they’re a myth. Experts say that sharks aren’t dangerous. That they’re “rabbit” tame and too weak-jawed to pose any real th...
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August 4, 2025 • 41 mins
August 7, 1943. Off the coast of Venezuela, a Nazi U-boat is under siege. For nine days, it’s hunted by Allied aircraft across the Caribbean, until its engines fail and its commander gives the order: abandon ship. Forty-three German sailors plunge into shark-infested waters, and are pulled out by their enemy - the United States.
The Germans think the worst is behind them. Instead, they’re headed for a POW camp in the American hear...
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July 28, 2025 • 36 mins
July 29th, 1992. The Baltimore Sun runs a feature about a surprise candidate in the upcoming presidential race: Barbie. The 11.5-inch icon of girlhood and glamor is running for office – and flying off the shelves. But how did a plaything become important enough to make national news?
To answer that question, we take you on a journey through doll history, from French porcelain beauties to cherubs that stood for women’s suffrage. A...
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July 21, 2025 • 48 mins
July 23rd, 1892. Henry Clay Frick is one of America’s leading industrialists. To Alexander Berkman, he’s one of America’s leading villains. Berkman is an anarchist, along with his partner, Emma Goldman. They believe the current order of things needs to change, and one way to make change is through violence.
Frick is meeting with his associates in his Pittsburgh office when Berkman bursts into the room and draws his gun. The men lo...
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July 14, 2025 • 38 mins
July 17, 1674. During renovations at the Tower of London, construction workers digging beneath a stone staircase make a chilling discovery—two child-sized skeletons buried ten feet underground. And King Charles II believes he knows who they are.
The remains reignite one of the most enduring mysteries in British history: the fate of the Princes in the Tower. For over 500 years, historians have debated what happened to King Edward V...
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July 10, 2025 • 48 mins
When we first aired "Operation Mincemeat" back in 2020, it was a daring WWII thriller that felt almost too wild to be true. Now, it’s not just history — it’s a hit Broadway musical. This week, we're revisiting our original episode about the ingenious Allied ruse that helped turn the tide of the war. And we’re adding a twist: an interview with Natasha Hodgson, co-creator and star of Operation Mincemeat, the musical. She joins us to ...
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July 7, 2025 • 35 mins
July 7, 1938. Superman has the villain in his grasp. They soar through the air, then slam into the ground. This villain wants to start a war. Our hero won’t let that happen.
At this point, Superman only has two comic book appearances. And yet, his legend is already beginning to grow. Kids read about heroics at the community pool, sitting on their stoops, late at night under their covers. Soon enough, Superman becomes America’s her...
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June 30, 2025 • 33 mins
July 7, 2007. In a dramatic ceremony featuring pop stars, fireworks, and smoke cannons, the Colosseum is named one of the seven new wonders of the world. It’s an appropriately over-the-top blowout for an arena which, centuries before, was home to its own lavish events. How did spectacles once unfold on the floor of this ancient arena? And how did the Romans use games to entertain people and to control them?
Special thanks to our g...
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June 23, 2025 • 35 mins
June 28, 1928. Louis Armstrong is in the studio recording what he hopes will be another hit. His career is on the rise, but he’s not a household name yet. But he’s about to lay down a track – “West End Blues” – that won’t just change his career, but the entire genre of jazz.
But Armstrong didn’t compose “West End Blues” – it was written by his mentor, a man only remembered by people who are really into the history of jazz, a corn...
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June 16, 2025 • 34 mins
June 22, 1611. It’s been a long, cold winter. Henry Hudson and his crew have been stranded in the Canadian Arctic for months, living on the ice in wooden shacks - starving, sick, and ready to go home.
And yet, Hudson wants to carry on and search for the Northwest Passage, a theoretical trading route to the Pacific that could bring him untold fortunes. His crew has had enough.
How does this journey go so wrong? And what happens wh...
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June 12, 2025 • 26 mins
June 9, 1954. Senator Joseph McCarthy has accused the United States Army of having communists within its midst. After rising to power during a time of great fear in America, McCarthy's name has become synonymous with anti-communism – and with baseless, life-ruining accusations. But today, five simple words will take down one of the most notorious men in American political history.
What made McCarthy so powerful in the first place...
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June 9, 2025 • 40 mins
June 14, 1938. It’s 8:30 PM at Lake Worth Casino in Fort Worth, Texas. All eyes are on a huge high-dive platform, 40 feet in the air. And at the top? A woman… on a horse.
Horse diving is one of the most popular acts in America, and Sonora Carver is one of its stars. She’s been doing it for years, traveling the country to perform one of the more unbelievable stunts in sideshow history.
But a few years back, Carver suffered a deva...
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June 2, 2025 • 37 mins
June 4, 1941. Reinhard Heydrich transmits a message to all regional governors in the Third Reich: prepare for “action against occult teachings.”
Heydrich is carrying out the orders of Adolf Hitler, who is furious at his Deputy Führer, Rudolf Hess. Inspired by a horoscope reading, Hess decided to fly a secret mission to Great Britain and sue for peace. But Hess crash-lands in Scotland—the plan doesn’t pan out—and his failure become...
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May 26, 2025 • 35 mins
May 30, 1855. Five thousand Native Americans come to Walla Walla to negotiate a treaty. However, it’s not exactly a fair negotiation – the territorial governor basically tells these tribes that they have no choice but to live on reservations in order to maintain peace.
This moment comes in the wake of a violent time in the Pacific Northwest, a period started by the killing of Christian missionaries—namely, Marcus and Narcissa Whit...
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