Hayes’s Dry White House
History Shorts
From 1877 to 1881, the White House served no alcohol — not at state dinners, not at receptions. For more than a century, the credit and the blame went to First Lady Lucy Hayes, remembered as "Lemonade Lucy." But the decision belonged to her husband, Rutherford B. Hayes, fresh off one of the most disputed elections in American history and determined to hold on to temperance voters. In this episode, we explore the politics behind the dry White House, the rumor of rum-spiked punch at state dinners, and how Lucy Hayes ended up with a nickname nobody seems to have used while she was alive....
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Trailer: The Historians — America’s Lone Hero Myth (H.W. Brands & Hampton Sides)
History Shorts
One name on the cover. One figure on the horse. One genius who saw it all and did it alone. This Friday, H.W. Brands and Hampton Sides sit down for The Historians to ask whether that story still holds — or whether we keep giving one person credit for the crowd standing next to him. A short preview of the full conversation, dropping November 6 on History Shorts. Listen to the complete episode this Friday wherever you get your podcasts, or at historyshortspodcast.com.
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The Statue of Liberty Crowdfunding Hustle
History Shorts
We remember the Statue of Liberty as a gift from France. The reality was a decade-long scramble for money on both sides of the Atlantic. In France, ordinary citizens paid for the statue through banquets, concerts, and a national lottery. In America, nobody wanted to pay for the pedestal. Congress wouldn't help, New York's governor vetoed state funds, and the statue's arm spent years as a tourist attraction charging admission. In this episode, we tell the story of the 19th-century crowdfunding hustle — and how Joseph Pulitzer, his newspaper, and more than a hundred thousand small donors...
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The Unsinkable Violet Jessop
History Shorts
Violet Jessop was a stewardess for the White Star Line, and she was aboard for three of its worst days at sea. In 1911, the Olympic collided with a British warship. In 1912, she watched the Titanic go down from Lifeboat 16, holding a stranger's baby. In 1916, as a wartime nurse, she survived the sinking of the hospital ship Britannic by jumping from a lifeboat being dragged toward the propellers. In this episode, we meet the working woman behind the "Miss Unsinkable" legend — the toothbrush she refused to leave behind, a mysterious phone call years later, and the thirty more years she spent...
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How to Turn History into Emotion: The Apollo Story, with John Monsky
History Shorts
In this episode of History Shorts, I sit down with John Monsky, the creator, writer, and narrator of the American History Unbound series. Monsky has developed a distinctive way of telling American history. Rather than focusing on debate, his productions immerse audiences in the lives of the people who lived through major moments. He combines live orchestras, Broadway performers, archival film and photography, historic flags and artifacts, and personal stories into large-scale performances that have filled Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, the Kennedy Center, and even the White House. On...
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The Battle of Grunwald
History Shorts
July 15, 1410. Before one of the largest battles of medieval Europe, the Teutonic Knights sent two naked swords to the King of Poland as an insult. By nightfall, their Grand Master was dead and their army destroyed. But the borders barely moved. In this episode, we tell the story of the Battle of Grunwald — and of the six-hundred-year fight over what it meant, from Matejko's canvas to a German victory named for revenge in 1914, to a postage stamp Nazi Germany refused to tolerate. 🎙️ History Shorts is a daily history podcast hosted by historian, author, and Smithsonian Magazine...
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When Spain was the Richest Empire in Europe.
History Shorts
In 1545, the Spanish found a mountain in the Andes that seemed to be made of silver. For the next century, Spain pulled more precious metal out of the Americas than anyone in history. And yet its king went bankrupt four times. In this episode, we follow the silver from the mines of Potosí — where Indigenous workers paid the true price — through Seville, to the bankers of Genoa and the markets of China, and ask how the richest nation on earth ended up so poor. 🎙️ History Shorts is a daily history podcast hosted by historian, author, and Smithsonian Magazine contributor Peter Zablocki....
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President Grant's Betrayal, w/ John Reeves
History Shorts
Ulysses S. Grant is remembered as the general who saved the Union, and a growing number of historians rank him among the better presidents for what he tried to do during Reconstruction. John Reeves is here to complicate that picture. Reeves is the author of The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee, A Fire in the Wilderness, and Soldier of Destiny, his account of Grant’s rise and his break with slavery. His new book is Grant’s Betrayal: Power, Corruption, and the Theft of the Black Hills (Pegasus Books). It argues that inside Grant’s White House there was a secret plan to take the Black Hills...
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Cleopatra’s Forgotten Daughter
History Shorts
When Cleopatra died in 30 BC, she left behind a ten-year-old daughter named for the moon. Cleopatra Selene was marched through Rome as a prisoner, raised by the woman her father had abandoned, and watched her brothers disappear from history. Then she became a queen. In this episode, we tell the story of the forgotten daughter who survived — and who, in a kingdom created by Rome, quietly kept her mother's Egypt alive on her coins, in her court, and in the name of her son. 🎙️ History Shorts is a daily history podcast hosted by historian and author of Eight Days in August, Peter Zablocki....
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WWII Operation Caesar
History Shorts
In February 1945, a brand-new German submarine slipped out of Norway bound for Japan, carrying jet engine parts, missile technology, two Japanese engineers, and about sixty-five tons of mercury. British codebreakers were reading its messages. Waiting off the coast was a small British submarine whose captain was about to attempt something no one had ever done in combat. In this episode: the only known battle in which one submerged submarine sank another — and the toxic cargo Norway is still trying to deal with eighty years later. 🎙️ History Shorts is a daily history podcast hosted by...
info_outlineViolet Jessop was a stewardess for the White Star Line, and she was aboard for three of its worst days at sea. In 1911, the Olympic collided with a British warship. In 1912, she watched the Titanic go down from Lifeboat 16, holding a stranger's baby. In 1916, as a wartime nurse, she survived the sinking of the hospital ship Britannic by jumping from a lifeboat being dragged toward the propellers. In this episode, we meet the working woman behind the "Miss Unsinkable" legend — the toothbrush she refused to leave behind, a mysterious phone call years later, and the thirty more years she spent at sea.
🎙️ History Shorts is a daily history podcast hosted by historian, author, and Smithsonian Magazine contributor Peter Zablocki. New episodes every day.
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