In the winter of 1846, Irish immigrants in America began to hear troubling news from their home country: a potato famine was ravaging the countryside and driving desperate farmers and families into the cities. Soon more than 1 million people would perish.
Learning of the horror and despair, Americans became determined to respond to the crisis. In March 1847 ... Show More
Feb 2025
Buffalo Soldiers | The Brass Letters | 1
<p>In the spring of 1865, with the Civil War finally over, American lawmakers began to debate whether Black soldiers would have a permanent place in the peacetime Army. Some 180,000 Black men had fought in the Union ranks, but never before in the nation’s history had they been al ... Show More
38m 35s
Feb 2025
History Daily: David Bowie Becomes Ziggy Stardust
<p>February 10, 1972. When his music career begins to stagnate, David Bowie reinvents himself with an alien alter-ego he names Ziggy Stardust.</p><p>You can listen ad-free in the Wondery or Amazon Music app. Or for all that and more, go to IntoHistory.com</p><p>History Daily is a ... Show More
15m 42s
Feb 2025
Buffalo Soldiers | Cadets of Courage | 2
<p>In May 1870, James Webster Smith arrived in West Point, New York, in the hopes of becoming the first Black cadet to attend the U.S. Military Academy. While facing West Point’s famously difficult curriculum, he was forced to endure an onslaught of racial prejudice from his whit ... Show More
38m 8s
Mar 2025
237. The Great Famine: The Irish Exodus to America (Ep 2)
The legacy of the Great Famine continues to shape not only Ireland, but the Irish diaspora in America, Canada, and the UK. In the mid-1800s, starving families fled the country in search of survival, gathering at the docks to board “coffins ships” sailing to Liverpool and the east ... Show More
43m 58s
Jun 2025
Oceanos: Rescue off the Wild Coast | “Just A Precaution” | 1
<p>On the night of August 3, 1991, the cruise ship <em>Oceanos</em> sets sail from South Africa’s eastern cape with 571 people aboard—despite a massive storm barreling up the coast. Soon, a breach in the hull knocks out power, and the ship begins taking on water. As senior office ... Show More
40m 31s
Sep 17
The Penal Laws: An Irish Apartheid?
<p><em>This podcast opens a broader series on the 1798 Rebellion, but also works as a stand alone episode.</em></p><p>For over a century, Irish Catholics and Presbyterians were subjected to the Penal Laws. Although the vast majority of the population, they were banned from voting ... Show More
47m 19s
Nov 11
Tsunami in Thailand | Overtaken | 2
<p>As the wave barreled ashore on Thailand’s west coast, people were sucked under a powerful wall of water that was so strong it ripped the clothes off their backs. It separated husbands from wives, and parents from their children. Six miles out to sea, fisherman Wimon Thong ... Show More
30m 14s