The day the nation's capital welcomed the KKK
In 1925, 30,000 Klansmen descended on Washington, D.C. The city cheered their arrival.
Sep 17, 2018•5 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 search for the anonymous author of a 1996 political novel
Before an unnamed senior official in the Trump administration published the opinion piece, “I am part of the resistance inside the Trump administration" in the New York Times, another mysterious anonymous author lit up Washington.
Sep 14, 2018•6 min
The surprise hurricane that devastated the Florida Keys
In 1935, the Florida Keys ignored the threat of a looming hurricane. When the Category 5 storm made landfall, it left a wake of death and destruction.
Sep 13, 2018•4 min
How a solar eclipse made Albert Einstein famous
It may be hard to believe, but one single event rocketed Einstein to fame.
Sep 12, 2018•5 min
The rookie pilot who was ready to give her life on Sept. 11
Heather Penney was among the first female combat pilots in the country. On Sept. 11, 2001, she got a mission: Bring down the fourth hijacked plane hurtling towards Washington.
Sep 11, 2018•5 min
Abraham Lincoln says he owes everything to his ‘angel mother’ and ‘mama’
President Abraham Lincoln had two loving and supportive mothers in his lifetime. The second helped him cope with the tragic loss of the first.
Sep 10, 2018•5 min
The story of the real Charlotte of ‘Charlotte's Web’
This episode is co-hosted by Madeline Daly, who won Retropod trivia last Saturday at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.
Sep 07, 2018•6 min
Roe v. Wade’s forgotten loser
Dallas prosecutor Henry Wade never intended to become a central figure in Supreme Court history.
Sep 06, 2018•5 min
The French aviators who almost beat Charles Lindbergh
In 1927, the world watched as two French aviators attempted the world’s first transatlantic flight.
Sep 05, 2018•5 min
The campus massacre before Kent State
The first mass police shooting on a U.S. college campus happened two years before the Ohio National Guard opened fire on student protesters at Kent State University.
Sep 04, 2018•5 min
The time the United States illegally deported 1 million Mexican Americans
In 1931, President Herbert Hoover started a program that would result in the illegal deportation of 1.8 million people to Mexico by the end of the 1930s. Of those people, 60 percent were U.S. citizens.
Sep 03, 2018•6 min
The Quaker abolitionist who was disowned for condemning slave owners
Benjamin Lay wrote one of the first treatises against slavery in Colonial America, a time when many prosperous Pennsylvania Quakers were slave owners. But for speaking out, the Quakers disowned him.
Aug 31, 2018•7 min
Ida B. Wells, the woman who never gave up
Ida B. Wells was an investigative journalist, an anti-lynching activist, a suffragette and a teacher.
Aug 30, 2018•6 min
How a Supreme Court clerk changed the decision on Clay v. United States
Muhammad Ali was so close to going to jail for evading the draft. He has a Supreme Court clerk to thank for his freedom.
Aug 29, 2018•6 min
Colonel Blood, the scoundrel who tried to steal Great Britain's crown jewels
Thomas Blood had somewhat of a shady past. According to Ireland’s History magazine, he had a reputation for espionage and conducting terrorist campaigns — though many of his plans were foiled just in time.
Aug 28, 2018•4 min
Being a maverick almost stopped John McCain from becoming a public servant
At the Naval Academy, McCain was in a group called the “Bad Bunch” as he rebelled against his father’s expectations.
Aug 27, 2018•5 min
Paul Jennings, the former slave who disputed a legend from history
According to James Madison’s Virginia mansion Montpelier, Paul Jennings’ account reveals, “how the racial and gender hierarchies of the time complicate the way we understand roles in historic events.”
Aug 24, 2018•4 min
What Operation Pied Piper taught us about family separations
Millions of British children were evacuated from London and other cities to escape the horrors of war. But the family separations seemed to impart long-term trauma that was in many cases as severe as if they had stayed behind and faced the bombs.
Aug 23, 2018•5 min
Reagan's most historic speech took a few years to make an impact
When President Reagan told Mr. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” it was not seen as a historic moment. It took the actual fall of the wall to resurrect the speech and drill the quote into our consciousness.
Aug 22, 2018•4 min
A president’s lions and the emoluments clause
The greatest emoluments-clause dilemma of the 1800s involved two lions.
Aug 21, 2018•5 min
How Harry S. Truman went from being a racist to desegregating the military
When Harry Truman became president in 1945, Southern members of Congress were delighted. They thought he’d be sympathetic to segregationists. He proved them wrong.
Aug 20, 2018•6 min
The long-lost 'Laws of Baseball'
On display in Washington, D.C. are the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and another document that details a fundamental institution in American life: baseball.
Aug 17, 2018•5 min
The congressman who shot a waiter
A hungry congressman didn’t get the breakfast he ordered. So he shot the waiter.
Aug 16, 2018•5 min
The time Truman met with Stalin and it went well
Back in 1941, a get-together that should have been fraught with uneasiness didn't turn out that way, which is surprising given the participants: President Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin.
Aug 15, 2018•5 min
Meet Paul Manafort’s century-old forefather, who also liked fancy suits
Samuel Cutler Ward, also known as the “King of the Lobby,” is credited with shaping the craft of lobbying. And like lobbyist and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, he also had some seriously expensive tastes.
Aug 14, 2018•5 min
An aviation flop was a stamp collector’s dream and the U.S. Postal Service’s nightmare
A stamp collector’s discovery of the “Inverted Jenny” stamp created a headache for the U.S. Postal Service.
Aug 13, 2018•5 min
How Mister Rogers talked to children and families about tragedy
Mister Rogers’s approach to dealing with tragedy began with the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.
Aug 10, 2018•6 min
The storied past of Alderson federal women’s prison
The Alderson Federal Prison Camp has a history filled with powerful women who both pushed for the walls to be built there and served time within them.
Aug 09, 2018•4 min
Rebels, turn out your dead!
During the American Revolution, more patriots died as prisoners of war in or around New York City than died in combat.
Aug 08, 2018•5 min
The Saturday Night Massacre
The one night that changed President Nixon’s fate has stuck with us as a reminder of the limits of presidential power.
Aug 07, 2018•5 min
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