UnTextbooked is brought to you by teen change-makers who are looking for answers to big questions. Have you ever wondered if protests really can save lives, why assimilation required Native American kids to attend boarding schools, how Black-led organizations for mutual aid began, how the fear of communism led the United States to plan the overthrows of many leaders in Latin America, or why Brazilian cars run on sugar? Or maybe you've questioned when Asian Americans will stop being seen as "perpetual foreigners," how African heritage influences Black activism, or what resilience looks like for Iranian women?
Your textbooks probably didn't teach you how American Jews were an integral part of the Civil Rights Movement, if history’s greatest leaders were generalists or specialists, how a Black teenager and his young lawyer changed America’s criminal justice system, or if either the US or the USSR won the Cold War. Did you know some of the forgotten BIPOC women of history were spying in aid of the French Resistance, that there's more to being a leader than going down with your battleship, or that there is a long history of gender expression in Native American cultures that goes beyond the male/female binary? Listen in as we interview famous authors and historians who have the answers.
Context is the key to understanding topics like British imperialism, segregation, racism, criminal justice, identifying as non-binary and so much more. These intergenerational conversations bring the full power of history to you with the depth and vividness that most textbooks lack. Real history, to help you find answers to your big questions. UnTextbooked makes history unboring forever.
On April 13, 1919, thousands of Indians gathered in Amritsar, Punjab to celebrate Baisakhi - a religious holiday. Such gatherings had been banned by the British colonial government, but the people gathered anyway to celebrate and to protest British imperialism. What followed was the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre; British General Reginald Dyer ordered his troops to open fire without warning on the crowd of unarmed protesters. They fired until they ran out of ammunition, killing 379 and wounding more ...
Nov 23, 2020•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast
During the Cold War, the United States feared the rise of Communism across the world. But in Latin America, the United States took action. In 1970, Salvador Allende won the Chilean presidency with just a third of the vote. He was a socialist who started shaking things up across the country. Within just a couple years, a military coup removed him from power, and Augusto Pinochet, the American-backed strongman, replaced him. The ensuing Pinochet regime left thousands of Chileans dead and missing. ...
Nov 19, 2020•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast
Pop culture misremembers the Golden Age of piracy, and usually portrays pirates as apolitical agents of chaos. But historians now believe that many pirates followed a democratic and egalitarian structure that put them directly at odds with the world’s biggest governments. In the 1700’s, life as a European sailor left a lot to be desired. Wages were low, conditions were dangerous, and captains could be cruel. A lot of sailors wanted out. Pirates, on the other hand, were recruiting disenchanted sa...
Nov 16, 2020•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast
In 1987, the historian Paul Kennedy published a massive, nearly 700 page book called The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. In normal circumstances, the book might have been lumped in with the rest of academic writing that’s seen only by scholars…if it weren’t for the book’s conclusion, which flew in the face of American exceptionalism and certainly upset some people. In that final section of the book, Kennedy suggests that the United States had begun a period of relative decline that began in t...
Nov 12, 2020•24 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast
James Marion Sims has a complicated legacy. He was a surgeon in the 19th century who, for decades, was heralded as the ‘Father of American Gynecology’ for his contributions to the field, including inventing the speculum. But those innovations came at the expense of the poor and enslaved women that he performed experimental surgeries on. Not much is known about the Black enslaved women and poor Irish immigrants he experimented on, but without their contributions, gynecology would not be what it i...
Nov 09, 2020•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast
For decades, experts have warned that the average American diet is potentially harmful. Americans tend to eat food that is laden with too much sodium, fat, and added sugars, and it's making people sick. What’s insidious about this is that a lot of Americans don’t even know that the food they’re eating is unhealthy. A lot of foods are deceptively sweeter, saliter, and fattier than one would assume. And those added ingredients make processed foods addictive. UnTextbooked producer and host, Gabe Ho...
Nov 06, 2020•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast
As a kid, UnTextbooked producer Gavin Scott loved listening to his grandfather tell stories about their people. He used to like to imagine what his home was like back before white settlers came. As much as Gavin enjoyed learning about his culture, he sometimes felt out of place as the only gay person he knew of in his small hometown. So when he had the opportunity to work on this podcast, he decided to research LGBT Native Americans to learn more about people who were like him. He learned about ...
Nov 02, 2020•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast
Picture this: You’re nineteen years old, it’s a summer afternoon, and you’re driving around your hometown. You notice a group of other teenagers on the side of the road. As you get closer you realize that two of them are your cousin and nephew. You can tell by body language that things are getting heated, tempers are flaring. So you pull over. You get out of your car. You step in between your family and the other teenagers that are trying to fight them, and in the process you put your hand on th...
Oct 29, 2020•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast
There’s a certain mythos around the founders of the United States. George Washington gets this treatment to the extreme. He’s painted riding brilliant white horses, standing up in boats, and puffing out his chest as he presides over the signing of the Constitution. He’s essentially an American folk hero. What’s odd is that this mythical understanding of a real person conceals the truth of what real leadership looks like. At least, that’s the perspective of General Stanley McChrystal, who rose th...
Oct 26, 2020•34 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast
Democracy: a small word and a big concept foundational to the United States. Ideally, we’re a country of pluralism and self determination, but the reality is often different. Many dark chapters exist in our history: Slavery and the extermination of Native Americans, Disenfranchisement and voter suppression. Japanese internment and white supremacy. And yet, many of the ideals that surround the founding of our country do slowly bend us towards justice. So how is it that one nation could be founded...
Oct 19, 2020•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast
Women of color have been at the forefront of many movements, yet are often neglected, demonized, or ignored. Your history class probably didn’t teach you about Josephine Baker, who was not only a famous Black dancer and entertainer, but also a spy aiding in the French Resistance. You likely didn’t learn about Claudette Colvin either. She was the Black, pregnant fifteen year old whose civil disobedience kicked off the Montgomery Bus Boycott. We live in a world of whitewashed feminism, so there’s ...
Oct 19, 2020•36 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast
As the ashes of the Third Reich settled, a divided Germany struggled to come to terms with what just occurred. Generations of German philosophers, politicians, academics, and common citizens slowly and collectively decided to confront the horrific actions of the Nazis. They called this process “Vergangenheitsaufarbeitung”, or “working off the past”, though it has several names. Step by step, through a feeling of collective guilt and moral responsibility, they were able to make amends with the wo...
Oct 19, 2020•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast
UnTextbooked is a history podcast for the future. Brought to you by teen changemakers who are looking for answers to big questions. We interview famous historians who have some of the answers. These intergenerational conversations bring the full power of history to you with the depth and vividness that most textbooks lack. Real history, to help you find answers to your big questions. UnTextbooked makes history unboring forever. Full episodes coming Fall 2020. Subscribe now in your favorite podca...
Sep 23, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast
