April 19, 1951. General Douglas MacArthur's plane touches down in DC just after midnight. He’s coming home from fighting the Korean War. Over twelve thousand people are there to greet this person who the American people consider to be a national war hero. It’s quite the welcome for a general who has just been fired by the President of the United States. How, ... Show More
Aug 24
Did Homer Write the Odyssey? (Was He Even Real?)
August, sometime in the 500s BCE. In Athens, the Great Panathenaia is in full swing: chariot races, boat races, a hundred cattle slaughtered for the feast. And at the center of it, a competition in which performers recite the work of one poet, and one poet only: Homer. But nobody ... Show More
41m 1s
Sep 2022
174 - The Pacific, August 1945
<p>In this episode, we are looking at the closing weeks of the war in 1945. August would see the Russians enter the war with Japan, the atomic bombs dropped, and an attempted coup in Japan. The culmination of which would be the final declaration of surrender by Japan's Emporer Hi ... Show More
42m 6s
Oct 2024
The Korean War: everything you wanted to know
On today's Everything You Wanted to Know episode, we're covering the Korean War, exploring how the nation came to be divided in two, what the impact of fighting was on the peninsular's civilian population, and how close the clash came to going nuclear. In conversation with Spence ... Show More
37m 47s
Oct 2025
189: World War II in Europe & the American Response (1941): Production & Preparation
"At long last, Mr. President.”—Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill This is the story of the second year of WWII and the United States’ response. As the war enters its second full year, things are looking dire for Britain: Germany has forced France into submission, the Blitz is i ... Show More
1h 2m