For more than a decade, the Explaining History Podcast has helped listeners around the world make sense of modern history. What began in 2012 as a simple experiment—short, accessible episodes explaining major historical events—has grown into a long-running library of carefully researched, thoughtful explorations of the 20th and 21st centuries.
This page introduces new listeners to the podcast, explains what makes it different from other history shows, and offers curated paths into more than a thousand episodes.
If you’re searching for a history podcast that goes deeper than anecdotes or trivia, this is where to begin.
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The looming showdown between the U.S. and Iran is shaping up to be a modern-day Battle of Tsushima, where a decisive defeat could unravel the very fabric of American power and prosperity. As ground troops are deployed, the specter of a catastrophic military failure looms large, threatening to ignite a seismic political crisis that could reshape global dynamics.
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Kharg Island, a strategic coral outcrop off Iran’s western coast, plays a pivotal role in Iran’s oil exports, handling 90% of crude oil exports. Seizing it could economically cripple Iran without American troops needing to land. However, history warns against such bold moves—Gallipoli and Dien Bien Phu show the perils of holding fortified positions against asymmetric warfare.
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The Question of Naming History has a way of naming things only after they have concluded. We look back at 1914 and 1939 as definitive starting points, but as we discuss in the latest Explaining History podcast, those living through the current conflagrations in Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, and Venezuela are left wondering: are we already in the midst of a global conflict? And if so, at what point do we give it a name? The historian Richard Overy, in his seminal work Blood and Ruins, suggests that the two World Wars might be viewed as a single, continuous struggle of…
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Jürgen Habermas, a towering figure in 20th-century philosophy, explored democracy’s essence, emphasizing reasoned discourse over coercion. Born in Düsseldorf, his life’s challenges shaped his views on communication and societal governance.
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Monica Sandler, a film historian at Ball State University, is completing her book, *The Oscar Industry*, focusing on the Oscars’ cultural significance. She discusses how the awards highlight artistic value within American culture, their historical ties to race and industry politics, and the impact of movements like #OscarsSoWhite and #MeToo.
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The Great Depression, far from being an American crisis, was a global catastrophe that affected every continent and economy between 1929 and 1932. As world trade plummeted by 66% and industrial production collapsed worldwide, unemployment soared catastrophically from Germany to Japan. This interconnected economic collapse was exacerbated by protectionist policies and competitive devaluations, reflecting the fragile international monetary system built on gold.
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Herbert Hoover’s ascent to the presidency in 1929 was marked by his self-made status and endorsement as a man of energy and executive ability. However, his presidency faced a dramatic shift as the Great Depression unfolded, highlighting the limitations of his associationalist philosophy.
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In the 1930s, Americans faced the Dust BowlDust Bowl Full Description:The Dust Bowl refers to the devastation of the Great Plains, where millions of acres of farmland were rendered useless by massive dust storms. While triggered by drought, the disaster was fundamentally man-made. Driven by high wheat prices and real estate speculation, farmers had removed the native deep-rooted grasses that held the soil together to plant monocultures. Critical Perspective:This event illustrates the “metabolic rift”—the rupture between human economy and natural systems. The market demanded maximum yield without regard for soil health, leading to desertification. It forced the displacement of hundreds of thousands of impoverished families, creating a class of climate migrants who were exploited as cheap labor in the West, a disaster wrought by capitalist agricultural expansion and federal land policies. This environmental catastrophe revealed profound social and economic vulnerabilities, deeply entwined with the Great Depression. Seen through the lens of radical political economics, the Dust Bowl highlighted capitalism’s systemic disruption of natural cycles, a manifestation of its inherent metabolic rift.
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In 1929, the stock market crash marked a turning point in American history, unfolding as a dramatic five-day saga of panic and economic restructuring. Beyond its single-event narrative, this period reveals the deep-rooted vulnerabilities of 1920s capitalism.
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In the latest Explaining History Podcast episode, Dennis Broe discusses his novel Pornocopia, highlighting the intertwined evolution of the gambling and pornography industries in post-war America. By 2024, global porn profits reached $76 billion, overshadowing Hollywood’s $8.5 billion. Broe’s work explores societal conditions influencing these industries and their effects on intimacy and human relationships.
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The fatwa issued by Khomeini in 1989 against Salman Rushdie’s novel escalated into a worldwide controversy. It highlighted the intersection of religious authority and free expression, leaving a lasting impact on debates about blasphemy and state power.
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As the Iran-Iraq WarIran-Iraq War Short Description (Excerpt):A brutal eight-year conflict (1980–1988) initiated by Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iran. While devastating, the war inadvertently strengthened the Islamic Republic, allowing it to suppress internal dissent under the guise of wartime patriotism. Full Description:The Iran-Iraq War was one of the 20th century’s bloodiest conflicts, featuring trench warfare and the use of chemical weapons. Saddam aimed to seize oil-rich territory and crush the revolutionary threat next door. Instead, Iran mobilized a massive volunteer force (“human waves”) fueled by religious fervor to defend the revolution. Critical Perspective:Khomeini famously called the war a “divine blessing.” It allowed the regime to militarize society and label any political opposition as treason. The war forged the identity of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and entrenched the narrative of Iran as a besieged fortress of Islam fighting against a corrupt world, a narrative that sustains the state to this day.
Read more dragged on into the sea, America’s dual policies fueled suspicion and hostility, setting the stage for the enduring tensions that would define U.S.-Iran relations for decades. -
In March 1917, the Tsar fell. Within days, Russian political exiles scattered across Europe began packing their bags. The only problem was getting home—and that meant going through London. The News Arrives When the February Revolution happened in 1917, one of the key challenges for governments around the world was trying to make sense of it. Russia was a difficult country to understand at the best of times. Under revolutionary conditions, it became almost impossible. Whose reports could be trusted? Which factions would prevail? And what would it all mean for the ongoing war against Germany? In Britain, the picture…
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The Iran-Iraq War, initiated by Iraq’s strategic invasion in 1980, was a brutal and prolonged struggle that reshaped the Middle East’s political landscape, leaving deep psychological and political scars that continue to impact Iranian society today.
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The 1941 invasion of Iran, orchestrated by Allied forces, was a critical yet often overlooked turning point in the country’s modern history. It led to the swift removal of Shah Reza Pahlavi, altering the geopolitical landscape and sowing seeds for later conflicts.
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*When we think of military incompetence in the First World War, our minds turn instinctively to the Western Front—to Haig, to Passchendaele, to the “lions led by donkeys” thesis. But the Habsburg army, which fought the Russians and the Italians across vast and challenging theaters, offers an even starker case study in structural weakness and strategic fantasy.* The Manpower Problem The Austro-Hungarian Empire was a patchwork of nations and ethnicities, and this presented unique challenges for military recruitment. As Alexander Watson writes in his superb Ring of Steel: > “The common army’s biggest problem with its men was it simply…
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In this expanded analysis, we trace the long arc of American intervention in the Middle East—from the calculated ambitions of the Project for a New American Century to the erratic, improvisational warfare of the Trump era. The assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei marks not a triumph of strategy, but the culmination of a decades-long decline in American statecraft. The Origins: Project for a New American Century The road to Tehran was always intended to run through Baghdad. As early as 1998, the neoconservative Project for the New American Century (PNAC) was calling for the invasion of Iraq . Its signatories—Dick Cheney,…
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Key History Topics
Global History: Key Topics
- The Rise and Fall of Neoliberalism
- The Partition of India
- The Great Depression and the Collapse of Global Trade
- The Cultural Revolution in China
- The Mexican Revolution
- The Creation of the United Nations
- The Iranian Revolution
- The Marshall Plan and the Reconstruction of Europe
- The First Indochina War
- The Global Anti Apartheid Movement
- The Holocaust: Bureacracy and Genocide
- Korea: War, Division, Development
- Operation Condor
- The Bandung Conference
- The Rwandan Genocide
- Stalin and the transformation of the USSR 1924-41
- Pakistan from Independence to Belt and Road
- The Civil Rights Movement
- The 1911 Revolution and the fall of the Qing dynasty
- Watergate and Nixon’s Legacy
- The Arab-Israeli War of 1948 and Its Aftermath
- Ghana’s Independence and the ‘Year of Africa’
- The West German Republic: From Ruins to Reunification
- The Space Race and the Cold War
- Bangladesh war of Liberation
- The Sykes Picot Agreement and the conquest of the Middle East
- The Collapse of Yugoslavia
- Deng Xiaoping and the transformation of China
- The Fall of France, 1940
- The Spanish Civil War: A Global Struggle
- Post War Australia 1945-75
- The Sri Lankan Civil War
Cultural History: Key Topics
- The Birth of Consumerism and Mass Culture
- Modernism and the shock of the new
- The Jazz Age
- The Birth of Cinema and the Hollywood Studio System
- The Culture of Weimar Germany
- Interwar Britain: Media, Modernism, and the Invention of a National Culture
- Culture and Imperialism in European colonies between the wars