The night America burned
The deadliest wildfire in U.S. history wasn’t in California.
Mar 06, 2019•4 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
Was Mary Todd Lincoln a leaker?
President Abraham Lincoln had to worry about the first lady being a leaker, and it was quite a scandal.
Mar 05, 2019•4 min
The forbidden question
If the order for a nuclear attack is issued, the soldiers operating the launch machine have no choice but to fire. Or do they?
Mar 04, 2019•4 min
The best birthday card ever
In 1926, the United States received a birthday card signed by 5.5 million Polish people.
Mar 01, 2019•3 min
The houses built by slaves
Buildings that stand as symbols of American democracy - the White House, Mount Vernon and Monticello, to name a few - were erected with the labor of those who were not free.
Feb 28, 2019•3 min
How are you, Grandmama?
A dog and a cadaver deserve credit for their contributions to the invention of the telephone.
Feb 27, 2019•4 min
The crooked picture
Jesse James, the most famous outlaw in history, was eventually foiled by a picture hanging crooked on a wall.
Feb 26, 2019•4 min
The Limping Lady
President Trump made history when he nominated a woman to become director of the Central Intelligence Agency. But while a woman leading the CIA was once unthinkable, female spies have made enormous, overlooked contributions in espionage.
Feb 25, 2019•4 min
And the winner is...
Oscars night is probably the one moment around the world when people become really interested in envelopes.
Feb 22, 2019•5 min
What hath God wrought?
The history of social media began in 1844, when Samuel F.B. Morse sent a message from Washington to Baltimore. It said, "What hath God wrought?"
Feb 21, 2019•4 min
The ice queen
Sonja Henie won three Olympic gold medals and 10 world championships, and turned her star power into as career as one of Hollywood's biggest movie stars. Meet figure skating's first megastar.
Feb 20, 2019•5 min
The electric rivalry
To understand the gruesome history of the death penalty, it is essential to comprehend how badly Thomas Edison wanted to zap George Westinghouse.
Feb 19, 2019•4 min
All the Presidents' Ghosts
Whether you believe in this stuff or not, the many accounts that have spilled out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue over two centuries give ghosts an undeniable place in the country’s history.
Feb 18, 2019•4 min
The spy plane
Historians and national security analysts have been re-examining one particular forgotten moment in the history of U.S. and North Korea conflict.
Feb 15, 2019•4 min
Before the Lovings, another interracial couple fought to marry
The Kinneys married in Washington, D.C., in 1874. Then, they were arrested back home in Virginia for violating the state’s laws. They fought the ruling in higher and higher courts but never won the right to stay married in their home state.
Feb 14, 2019•4 min
Dr. Spock
Dr. Spock - not the guy from Star Trek - was at one time America's most beloved pediatrician. A whole generation of children was raised on his medical advice. But not even his popularity could save him from being indicted by the federal government.
Feb 13, 2019•5 min
The first female Marine
During World War I, the Marines Corps needed help on the home front while men were fighting overseas. Opha May Johnson was the first woman in line.
Feb 12, 2019•3 min
Philadelphia's plumbing revolution: wood pipes
In 1812, Philadelphia was outfitted with the latest in plumbing technology - a network of wooden pipes to carry water throughout the city.
Feb 11, 2019•4 min
Jim Crow and the rise of blackface
Back in the 1830s, Jim Crow wasn't yet a symbol of inequality. He was a fictional character in minstrel shows who, to entertain his audiences, performed in blackface.
Feb 08, 2019•5 min
The Wicked Bible
A full year after the King James Bible was printed in 1631, people discovered an error.
Feb 07, 2019•4 min
How the State of the Union went from speech to spectacle
The president's State of the Union started as a simple report on the condition on the nation; overtime, the address became a moment to rally Congress and the public.
Feb 06, 2019•6 min
Winifred Stanley, a forgotten equal pay pioneer
The woman who first introduced equal pay legislation in Congress had to fight to be taken seriously — and often failed.
Feb 05, 2019•3 min
The Soviet officer who stopped World War III
In 1983, Stanislav Petrov, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Union’s Air Defense Forces, trusted his gut and averted a global nuclear catastrophe.
Feb 04, 2019•5 min
How 'Broadway Joe' redefined the NFL
A few days before his team took the field as huge underdogs in Super Bowl III, New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath made what was seen as an insane prediction at the time: "The Jets will win Sunday," he said. "I guarantee it."
Feb 01, 2019•6 min
The godmother of the open office
If you work in an office without offices, with just about everyone working in a large spare space full of stylish desks, straight lines and papers stored in a credenza, then you have met Florence Knoll Bassett.
Jan 31, 2019•6 min
The Confederate spy who evaded capture
After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, John Surratt traveled across three continents, wore disguises and used fake names for nearly two years to escape authorities.
Jan 30, 2019•7 min
The rise of supermarkets
If you’re like most Americans, you probably visit a grocery store once or twice a week. But you probably don’t know that one single grocery item is responsible for the rise of supermarkets as we know them.
Jan 29, 2019•4 min
How the Doomsday Clock came to be
Over the past seven decades, the Doomsday Clock has served as a metaphorical measure of humankind’s proximity to global catastrophe. Every year, scientists and nuclear experts set the clock's time after grappling over the state of geopolitical affairs.
Jan 28, 2019•4 min
Pinball’s sordid past
Pinball was once so vilified that it was banned in cities across the United States.
Jan 25, 2019•6 min
The man inside the minds of a million consumers
In the 1950s, Lester Wunderman became the king of direct mail advertising — the ancestor of today’s online targeted ads.
Jan 24, 2019•5 min
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