A history of hats in the House
In the early days of the House, some congresspeople thought hats had no place atop the heads of representatives debating the great issues of the day. Hats, they argued, weren’t dignified.
Jan 23, 2019•6 min
Retropod
The Washington Post
Retropod is a show for history-lovers, featuring stories about the past, rediscovered. Host Mike Rosenwald introduces you to history’s most colorful characters - forgotten heroes, overlooked villains, dreamers, explorers, world changers.
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Episodes
The last person to set foot on the moon
When Eugene Cernan walked on the moon, he didn’t know he’d be the last astronaut to make the journey.
Jan 22, 2019•5 min
How Martin Luther King Jr. got his name
The name on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth certificate was not Martin. Nor did the document include the middle name Luther.
Jan 21, 2019•6 min
Tenure for life
When Alexander Hamilton argued in favor of lifetime tenures for Supreme Court justices, he probably didn’t foresee them living past their prime.
Jan 18, 2019•7 min
The hatchet wielding leader of the anti-alcohol movement
More than a century ago, Carry Amelia Nation — hatchet in hand — chopped the country toward temperance.
Jan 17, 2019•6 min
A bridge of ice at Niagara Falls
Once upon a time, people walked between the U.S. and Canada over a frozen Niagara Falls. But one day, that all changed forever.
Jan 16, 2019•5 min
The only person Hitler loved
Adolf Hitler's mother may be the only person he genuinely cared for.
Jan 15, 2019•5 min
A history of the U.S.-Mexico border
For decades, the boundary between Mexico and the United States was little more than an imaginary line in the sand.
Jan 14, 2019•7 min
A presidential emergency that didn't end well
When a steel industry strike threatened military production during the Korean War, and Congress couldn’t come to an agreement, President Truman had a solution — declare a national emergency.
Jan 11, 2019•7 min
How Lego took over the toy world
Lego started as a company that made wooden toys, and grew into an empire of plastic building blocks.
Jan 10, 2019•7 min
The summer men rebelled against their shirts
It doesn't seem like a big deal today, but 1930s America lived in fear of the male nipple.
Jan 09, 2019•6 min
The researcher whose rats predicted the Internet
John Calhoun’s rodent experiments revolutionized the way we think about social behavior and the impact of growing populations.
Jan 08, 2019•7 min
One of the greatest astronomers of her generation
Nancy Grace Roman was one of NASA’s first female astronomers and was a key figure in the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Jan 07, 2019•6 min
How one World War II veteran lived to be a centenarian
At 112-years-old, Richard Overton was the oldest living World War II veteran.
Jan 04, 2019•5 min
A wooden mallet with a colorful history of being shattered
Throughout American history, speakers of the House have pounded their gavels so hard in search of order that they wind up smashing the gavel itself into smithereens.
Jan 03, 2019•6 min
The rabble rouser who inspired Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Dorothy Kenyon was an early leader in the legal fight for women's rights.
Jan 02, 2019•7 min
Mourning Bobby Kennedy
We're taking a little break over the holidays to look back on some of the best Retropod episodes from 2018. Today, we look back on the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.
Jan 01, 2019•6 min
The story of the real Charlotte of ‘Charlotte's Web’
We're taking a little break over the holidays to look back on some of the best Retropod episodes from 2018. Today, an episode co-hosted by Madeline Daly, who won our Retropod trivia contest at the 2018 National Book Festival.
Dec 31, 2018•7 min
The day Martin Luther King Jr. died
We're taking a little break over the holidays to look back on some of the best Retropod episodes from 2018. Today, our episode marking the date Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, 50 years ago this April.
Dec 28, 2018•8 min
Doughnuts, the most patriotic of the junk foods
We're taking a little break over the holidays to look back on some of the best Retropod episodes from 2018. Today, doughnuts. They aren’t just delicious. They also helped America win a war.
Dec 27, 2018•4 min
Ida B. Wells, the woman who never gave up
We're taking a little break over the holidays to look back on some of the best Retropod episodes from 2018. Today, Ida B. Wells, who was an investigative journalist, an anti-lynching activist, a suffragette and a teacher.
Dec 26, 2018•7 min
Big Bird and the genius inside
We're taking a little break over the holidays to look back on some of the best Retropod episodes from 2018. Today, the story of Caroll Spinney and his iconic character Big Bird.
Dec 25, 2018•7 min
The military’s famous Santa Tracker began with a wrong number
In the 1950s, a child trying to call Santa Claus accidentally called NORAD and changed Christmas Eve forever.
Dec 24, 2018•6 min
The Christmas Truce
During the first Christmas of World War I, a miracle took place all along the Europe’s Western Front.
Dec 21, 2018•6 min
A piece of punctuation that failed to leave its mark
A new punctuation mark called the interrobang found its way onto some typewriters in the 1960s, but it never caught on.
Dec 20, 2018•6 min
President Grant fired his own special prosecutor
In 1875, Ulysses S. Grant hired a special prosecutor to investigate the Whiskey Ring scandal. Furious with his findings, Grant had him fired.
Dec 19, 2018•6 min
The first presidential press conference
Before 1913, the presidential press conference didn’t exist. But a president who liked reporters changed that.
Dec 18, 2018•5 min
The astronomer who took gay rights to the Supreme Court
After being fired from his job for being gay, Frank Kameny took his battle for equality to the nation’s highest court.
Dec 17, 2018•6 min
The policeman who arrested a president
After receiving complaints about carriages driving too fast, Washington D.C. policeman William H. West arrested a presidential speed demon.
Dec 14, 2018•6 min
One of the ugliest speaker fights in congressional history
In 1859, the House went to war over Rep. John Sherman’s bid for leadership.
Dec 13, 2018•5 min
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