エピソード

  • California's 'Bum Blockade'
    2025/05/08
    The story of the Los Angeles police chief who, faced with one of the largest internal migrations in American history, tried to close California's borders to stop it.

    To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.

    Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    NPR Privacy Policy
    続きを読む 一部表示
    52 分
  • Motherhood
    2025/05/01
    Baby bonuses, childless cat ladies: the rhetoric around motherhood is politically charged right now. And the fantasy of an ideal mother remains powerful, even as real-life parents struggle to reconcile its demands. Today on the show, three myths of motherhood, and the people who have fought to break them down. This episode originally ran in 2023 as The Labor of Love.

    Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    NPR Privacy Policy
    続きを読む 一部表示
    51 分
  • The Deadly Story of the U.S. Civil Service
    2025/04/24
    When James Garfield won the Presidency in 1880, Charles Guiteau got ready to accept his new government job. No one had actually offered him a job – but he'd campaigned for Garfield, so he assumed he'd be rewarded. That was the spoils system, and it was how the government worked.

    But President Garfield didn't hire him. Guiteau was furious. And on July 2, 1881, he followed Garfield to a Washington D.C. train station and shot him.

    Today on the show: how an assassination meant to restore the spoils system instead led to its end, and birthed the modern federal workforce.


    An earlier version of this episode incorrectly said that Abram Garfield fought a fire with his brothers. In fact, he fought the fire with his neighbors.

    Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    NPR Privacy Policy
    続きを読む 一部表示
    50 分
  • The Alien Enemies Act
    2025/04/17
    In March 2025, President Trump issued an executive order invoking a centuries-old law: the Alien Enemies Act. The Act allows a president to detain or deport citizens of foreign adversaries to the United States, but only in the case of a "declared war" or "invasion." Now, the Trump administration and the courts are locked in a battle over whether the president's use of the Act, under which people have already been deported, is legal. Today on the show: where the Alien Enemies Act came from, how presidents have used it before, and what that tells us about what's to come.

    Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    NPR Privacy Policy
    続きを読む 一部表示
    49 分
  • When Things Fall Apart
    2025/04/10
    Climate disaster, political unrest, random violence: Western society can often feel like what the filmmaker Werner Herzog calls "a thin layer of ice on top of an ocean of chaos and darkness." But is that actually true — or the way it has to be? Today on the show, what really happens when things fall apart. This episode originally published in 2023.

    Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    NPR Privacy Policy
    続きを読む 一部表示
    49 分
  • Get Rich Quick: The American Lottery
    2025/04/03
    Want to get rich quick? You're not alone. Right now, Americans spend over $100 billion, yes billion, every year on lottery tickets. Today on the show, in collaboration with Scratch and Win from WGBH, how the mafia, Sputnik, medical equipment, and the electoral college led to American's obsession with playing the numbers.

    Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    NPR Privacy Policy
    続きを読む 一部表示
    50 分
  • We the People: The Right to Remain Silent
    2025/03/27
    The Fifth Amendment. You have the right to remain silent when you're being questioned in police custody, thanks to the Fifth's protection against self-incrimination. But most people end up talking to police anyway. Why? Today on Throughline's We the People: the Fifth Amendment, the right to remain silent, and how hard it can be to use it.

    Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    NPR Privacy Policy
    続きを読む 一部表示
    49 分
  • Sesame Street
    2025/03/20
    Big Bird, politics, and the ABCs: how a television show made to represent New York City neighborhoods like Harlem and the Bronx became beloved by families around a divided country. This episode originally ran in 2022 as "Getting to Sesame Street."

    To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.

    Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    NPR Privacy Policy
    続きを読む 一部表示
    49 分