Beyonce's Renaissance brought house music back to mainstream audiences. But even when it wasn't gracing the Grammys, house never went away. Born from the ashes of disco in the late 1970s and '80s, house was by and for the Black, queer youth DJing and dancing in Chicago's underground clubs. Since then it's become the soundtrack of parties around the world, and laid the groundwork for one of the most popular musical genres in history: electronic dance music. Today on the show, the origins of house music — and its tale of Black cultural resistance — told by the people who lived it.
In the U.S., flavored cigarettes have been banned since 2009, with one glaring exception: menthols. That exception was supposed to go away in 2023, but the Biden administration quietly delayed the ban on menthols. Why? Well, an estimated 85 percent of Black smokers smoke menthols — and some (potentially suspect) polls have indicated that a ban on menthols would chill Biden's support among Black people. Of course, it's more complicated than that. The story of menthol cigarettes is tied up in policing, advertising, influencer-culture, and the weaponization of race and gender studies. Oh, and a real-life Black superhero named Mandrake the Magician.
A survey of historians and presidential experts ranks President Biden in 14th place all-time, just ahead of Woodrow Wilson and Ronald Reagan. Former President Donald Trump came in last.
For a time, the phrase "America First" seemed an artifact of the prewar world. But the idea that the U.S. would do better by holding the rest of the world at arm's length never entirely disappeared.
The scoring records of two Black American college basketball stars from the 1970s and 1980s are overlooked by the NCAA as Caitlin Clark takes the mantle as women's scoring champion.
To celebrate the history of Black romance, Gene and Parker are joined by reporter Nichole Hill to explore the 1937 equivalent of dating apps — the personals section of one of D.C.'s Black newspapers. Parker attempts to match with a Depression-era bachelor, and along the way we learn about what love meant two generations removed from slavery.
Longshot candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued an apology to the Kennedy family Sunday night after his super PAC ran an ad repurposing one from former President John F. Kennedy's 1960 campaign.
Happy Lunar New Year! According to the Chinese lunisolar calendar, the new year began Saturday. For many, like our host Regina G. Barber, this calendar and its cultural holidays can feel completely detached from the Gregorian calendar. Growing up, she associated the former with the Spring Festival and getting money in red envelopes from relatives, and the other with more American traditions. But the Chinese calendar has a deep, centuries-long shared history with the Gregorian calendar.
To learn more about this shared history, Gina talks to scientists and historians, who spill the tea about the science behind calendars, and how both calendars and the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration played a key role in the rise and fall of empires.
Created by cartoonist Naji al-Ali in 1969, Handala is a 10-year-old Palestinian refugee with his back to the world. The war in Gaza has renewed interest in this representation of Palestinian struggle.
Come on an adventure inside the research facility holding the Civil War-era document that could bar former President Donald Trump from the White House.
When Georgia's first African American congressman became the first Black man to speak on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, his argument presaged the Trump v. Anderson case by more than 150 years.
What if we told you that the key to time travel has been right in front of our eyes this whole time? Well, it has: it's in our noses. Today on the show, the science — and politics — of smell, and how it links our past and our present.
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Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech is well known, but there are several other key speeches that also resonate as historical signposts of the Civil Rights Movement.
Babe Ruth would have been 129 this week. Baseball has changed over the years, but one thing that has endured is fans' fascination with one of the greatest sluggers ever to set foot on the diamond.
