October 4, 1915. President Woodrow Wilson designates Dinosaur National Monument as a national historic site. That’s a big deal, right? There must’ve been a grand ribbon-cutting ceremony, maybe even a parade. But no. In 1915, nobody really cares about dinosaurs. But that is all about to change. And when it does, it is largely because of two paleontologists. T ... Show More
Mar 30
William Parker’s War on Slave Catchers
April 3, 1851. A man who escaped slavery is grabbed off the streets of Boston and thrown into a carriage. He fights back, shouting to the crowd, but it doesn’t matter. Under a new federal law, even the North isn’t safe. The Fugitive Slave Act has turned cities like Boston into hu ... Show More
38m 49s
Mar 23
The First Robot
March 29th, 1923. A new play opens in Berlin, and quietly changes the future. Onstage are workers who never tire, never complain, and never stop. They’re faster, stronger, and more efficient than humans in every way. They’re called robots. A sci-fi play born out of war and indust ... Show More
32m 40s
Mar 16
HTW Live: Busting the Myths of Irish Immigration — Recorded at the Tenement Museum
March 18, 1879. A crowd gathers around an indoor track in Brooklyn, NY, as an Irish immigrant named Bartholomew O’Donnell attempts a strange feat: walking 80 miles in 26 hours. Newspapers claim he’s eighty years old. Lap after lap, he circles the track: smoking a pipe, sipping ho ... Show More
40m 56s
Aug 2024
The day the dinosaurs died
What happened in the days, even hours, after an asteroid set off the fifth extinction? A New Jersey quarry, and site of a new museum founded by paleontologist Ken Lacovara, sheds light on the mystery. Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Mantua Tow ... Show More
49m 41s
Aug 2023
Old Things Considered: La Brea, Megalodon, Dino Footprints, Surviving History. Aug 25, 2023, Part 2
<h2>How Early Humans May Have Transformed L.A.’s Landscape Forever</h2><p>Join us on a time traveling adventure, as we go back 15,000 years to visit what’s now southern California. During the last Ice Age, saber-toothed cats, wooly mammoths, and dire wolves prowled the landscape, ... Show More
47m 16s
May 2019
Dinopocalypse Redux
<p>Using high-powered ballistics experiments, fancy computer algorithms, and good old-fashioned ancient geology, scientists have woven together a theory about the extinction of the dinosaurs that is so precise, so hot, so <em>instantaneous</em>, as to seem unimaginable. Today, we ... Show More
45m 22s
Jul 2021
Dinosaurs: did they have penises? ft. Dustin Growick
<p>Today’s episode is about DINOSAURS! We’re joined by dino expert Dustin Growick to talk about dinosaur penises, why some dinosaurs are so large and others so small, and of course, we have to talk about BIRDS! Are birds dinosaurs? Yes. Yes, they are. We are surrou ... Show More
1h 8m