It's Groundhog Day, and Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, meaning his prediction is six more weeks of winter weather. Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., the House Rules Committee is meeting on Monday in an effort to fully reopen the government. And Americans are living longer than ever; in 2024, U.S. life expectancy reached 79 years old, the highest mark in coun ... Show More
Feb 5
Government Reopens and California Lawmakers Pressure Insurance Companies
In Washington, the government has, in fact, reopened from after a partial shutdown. Also, President Trump is suggesting the federal government take control of some state elections, which at the moment is illegal. Meanwhile, in New York City, companies are throwing their hat in th ... Show More
5m 49s
Jan 29
Challenger Explosion 40th Anniversary and Amazon Layoffs
Forty years ago today, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after taking off at Cape Canaveral's Kennedy Space Center; New Hampshire Public Radio spoke to people who knew Christa McAuliffe, who was going to be the first teacher in space. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve ... Show More
8m 31s
Jul 2025
How Did the Cowboy Gallop into American History?
Cowboy culture didn't start in the Wild West. Learn about the Spanish, Indigenous, and Black history of cowboys in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/cowboys.htmSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
6 m
Jun 2021
Episode 4: Chisholm Trail
Today, I-35 is one of the country's main freight highways, but before it existed, a different path fed America: The Chisholm Trail. 1 out of 4 of the cowboys driving cattle up to Kansas along the Chisholm Trail were Black men, and Texas' history is filled with forgotten stories o ... Show More
33m 45s
Oct 2020
Felicia Angeja Viator, "To Live and Defy in LA: How Gangsta Rap Changed America" (Harvard UP, 2020)
In 1985, Greg Mack, a DJ working for Los Angeles radio station KDAY, played a song that sounded like nothing else on West Coast airwaves: Toddy Tee’s “The Batteram,” a hip hop track that reflected the experiences of a young man growing up in 1980s Compton. The song tells about th ... Show More
1h 17m
Aug 2025
The Code They Killed For — Honor, Manhood, and the American Gunfighter
<p>When you picture a gunfighter, you probably think of a Hollywood cowboy — spurs jangling, six-shooter on his hip, squaring off at high noon in a dusty frontier town. But gunfighters weren’t just products of Hollywood. They were real men who lived and died by a code: one rooted ... Show More
51m 21s
Dec 2020
LA County Sheriff’s Gangs Pt. 3: Wild West Roots/Jump Out Boys
By the 1850s, Los Angeles was one of the most dangerous places to live in the West. Extrajudicial killings, unchecked racial violence, and vigilante groups like the Los Angeles Rangers prevailed. This “Wild West” culture seeped into and was propagated by the Sheriff’s Department ... Show More
40m 51s
Jan 2025
Black Cowboys & Rodeo Culture, with Ron Tarver & Ivan McClellan
Top shot © Ron Tarver Cowboy lore has deep roots in American culture. Yet, black cowboys have lived pretty much under the radar until recently, when songs by pop culture icons Lil Nas X and Beyoncé went viral and catapulted the black western aesthetic into the limelight. In today ... Show More
1h 27m