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History As It Happens

Feb 25, 2021

More news and information is available at your fingertips than ever before, but journalism is in serious trouble. The problems run deeper than perceived partisan bias, social media chaos, and cratering public trust. Maybe the biggest issue of all is advertising-based journalism cannot survive, and we are drowning...


Feb 23, 2021

What is fascism? The word brings to mind Mussolini, Hitler, and the catastrophes of the twentieth century. Nowadays, fascism -- like socialism -- is often hurled as an insult in American politics. NYU historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, the author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, explains fascism's roots and why the term...


Feb 18, 2021

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis joins the podcast to talk about conspiratorial thinking in American politics, from George Washington to QAnon. Wild theories and zany ideas have always been a part of the political landscape, even if the QAnon cult seems more outlandish than anything we have seen before.


Feb 16, 2021

To paraphrase Noam Chomsky, you are either for free speech or you are not. Few issues in American culture today stoke such controversy as free expression, one of America's most cherished traditions. But at a time of Big Tech control over social media platforms, cancel culture, political correctness, and safe...


Feb 11, 2021

The popular unrest following the arrest of opposition politician Alexei Navalny provoked a heavy-handed police crackdown in Russia, where more than 10,000 demonstrators were arrested. More than 20 years after assuming power, Vladimir Putin continues to grip the reins of control, with the maintenance of Russia's global...