historian

Published 2025-10-16 throughline historian episodes

Israel and Hamas have agreed to a plan to end fighting in Gaza, just over two years after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023 and Israel’s subse…

Al Capone and the transformation of the IRS

Published 2026-04-02 fdr capone throughline

Gangsters, banksters, and politicians. Today on the show, how the hunt for Al Capone helped turn the IRS into one of the U.S. government's most powerful tools —…

Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (with Hillel Cohen)

Published 2024-02-13 historian hillel current

How far back should you go to understand the current moment in the relationship between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors and the attack of October 7? Some w…

Genius Grant Goes to Science Historian

Published 2014-09-18 16th 15th genius

New MacArthur Fellow Pamela Long studies the scientific revolution as a result of the interactions of academics and hands-on infrastructure engineers in the 15t…

Space Historian

Published 2016-12-14 balloons altitude historian

Self-described 'professional space history nerd' Amy Shira Teitel joins Dr Karl to talk about spaceflight before NASA in her book 'Breaking the Chains of Gravit…

Busting Gravity with Space Historian Amy Shira Teitel

Published 2017-10-15 teitel shira busting

Self-described 'professional space history nerd' Amy Shira Teitel and Dr Karl talk about spaceflight before NASA. Her book 'Breaking the Chains of Gravity' cove…

You're Wrong About Prohibition

Published 2021-05-12 adchoices prohibition historian

For most of us, Prohibition seems like a peculiar American experiment—a doomed attempt by straight-laced religious conservatives to ban alcohol, and, with it, f…