Backstory

Alienstock, the event jokingly conceived by college student Matty Roberts to storm Area 51 on September 20, is officially canceled. When more than 500,000 planned to attend and another 500,00 indicated they were interested in the Facebook event back in July, the U.S. Air Force took notice and issued a strongly worded statement that discouraged the plan.   But that hasn’t stopped an unknown number of people from planning to descend on rural Nevada this weekend, leading the FAA to shut down airspace above Area 51 as a precaution. This interest in the unknown isn’t new and to shed some light, BackStory is republishing our 2018 episode about UFOs in American History. In “Close Encounters,” Nathan, Brian and Ed discuss the things in the sky we struggle to explain – unidentified flying objects. Image: Grainy B&W image of supposed UFO, Passaic, New Jersey. July 30, 1952. Source: www.cia.gov via Wikimedia Commons BackStory is funded in part by our listeners. You can help keep the episodes coming by supporting

The 13th of any month is more likely to occur on a Friday than any other day of the week and it’s happened as many as three times in a single calendar year. So, why is it considered bad luck?  In this episode, Joanne, Nathan and Brian explore stories of superstition and the surprising roles the number 13 has played across American history. Image: Triskaidekaphobia stock photo. Source: iStock by Getty Images BackStory is funded in part by our listeners. You can help keep the episodes coming by supporting the show: https://www.backstoryradio.org/support

This morning, China published a short list of products exempted from its tariffs on American made goods. This list comes about a month before scheduled talks between Chinese negotiators and Trump administration officials.   The current U.S. trade war with China is not unlike previous conflicts. In this segment from BackStory’s 2015 show, “They Might Be Giants: China and the U.S.,” host emeritus Peter Onuf talks to historian John Haddad about how Americans smuggling opium into China during the 19th century led the Chinese to crack down on trade that was already very restrictive. And learn how the Opium Wars were a turning point in Chinese history that still influences them today.   Image: President Nixon gamely tries out his chopsticks at a banquet given in his honor, 1972. Source: White House Photo Collection.   BackStory is funded in part by our listeners. You can help keep the episodes coming by supporting the show: https://www.backstoryradio.org/support

In 2016, protests broke out at Standing Rock - a reservation in North and South Dakota - to block the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Indigenous peoples and other activists opposed the pipeline because they believed it violated sacred sites and threatened to contaminate the Missouri River, a major source of drinking water in the region. Taking social media by storm, the #noDAPL movement quickly became an international headline. On this episode, Nathan sits down with historian and activist Nick Estes to talk about his experience at Standing Rock, the history of Indigenous resistance, and the current state of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Estes’ new book is called “Our History is the Future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance.” Image: Protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline by Fibonacci Blue via Flickr. (Used under CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) BackStory is funded in part by our listeners. You can help keep t

Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas this week, and east coast states from Florida to North Carolina are bracing for its impact. In preparation, governors are declaring states of emergency to allow emergency management teams to coordinate and act quickly. But in this segment from BackStory's 2012 show, "Weathering the Storm," host emeritus Peter Onuf learns from Oxford University professor Gareth Davies that responses to disasters are often fraught with politics. Image: Poseidon by Mark Rain (www.azrainman.com). Source: Flickr (CC BY 2.0)   BackStory is funded in part by our listeners. You can help keep the episodes coming by supporting the show: https://www.backstoryradio.org/support

To mark the Labor Day holiday Brian presents a compilation of BackStory’s best stories about work and workers. Why were so many employers keen on hiring children in the 19th century? When was computing considered women’s work? And what happened when almost a million Mexicans were expelled from the US to free up jobs for white workers? Image: John Vachon photo of a Minneapolis employment agency, 1939. Source: Library of Congress BackStory is funded in part by our listeners. You can help keep the episodes coming by supporting the show: https://www.backstoryradio.org/support 

On August 28, 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom - a demonstration held by civil rights leaders and attended by approximately 250,000 people – took place. It was during this protest, one of the largest in U.S. history, that Martin Luther King made his now famous speech at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial where he uttered the words, “I have a dream.”   In this segment from BackStory’s 2013 episode “Fierce Urgency of Now: The 1963 March on Washington,” Ed talks with historian David Blight about the continuing impact of the Civil War in shaping the context within which the march took place, and the particular importance of the Emancipation Proclamation in King’s speech, which had been issued 100 years before the march. Image: Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," August 28th, 1963. Source: Library of Congress   BackStory is funded in part by our listeners. You can help keep the episodes coming by supporting the show: https://www.backstoryradio.org/suppor

This month marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans to land on what would become British North America. It wasn’t the first time Africans set foot in what became the United States - they’d arrived some 100 years earlier with Spanish colonists. But 1619 looms large in American history because it marks the beginning of slavery’s development in the Virginia colony and later the entire nation.  Image: "Landing Negroes at Jamestown from Dutch man-of-war, 1619," illustration in Harper's Weekly Magazine, January 1901. Source: Library of Congress BackStory is funded in part by our listeners. You can help keep the episodes coming by supporting the show: https://www.backstoryradio.org/support

On Friday's episode, BackStory digs into the complicated history of 1619 and the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans to the English colonies.  In this preview, BackStory travels to Hampton, Virginia to meet with members of the Tucker family. Using oral history and official records, they’ve traced their lineage back to William Tucker, the first African American born in British North America in 1624.  Image: BackStory producer Melissa Gismondi speaks to Walter Jones, Vincent Tucker and Verrandall Tucker, at the Tucker family cemetery in Hampton, VA.

This week, NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo was fired for his involvement in the 2014 death of Eric Garner. The incident helped to stimulate the Black Lives Matter movement, and sparked public debate about the limits of and accountability for law enforcement. With these debates once again at the fore, BackStory revisits a segment originally published in 2016. In it, producer Nina Earnest explores how the professionalization of the Los Angeles Police Department ended up putting the department above the law they were supposed to enforce. BackStory is funded in part by our listeners. You can help keep the episodes coming by supporting the show: https://www.backstoryradio.org/support

Today, Americans generally view Buddhists favorably, according to the Pew Research Center. Meanwhile, terms like “zen” and “mindfulness” are often used as buzzwords to evoke the religion. However, over the last century, Buddhism wasn’t always viewed as a peaceful practice by a mainstream population. On this episode, Brian, Joanne, and Nathan, explore the ways the religion adapted and evolved throughout the 20th century into a distinctive form of “American Buddhism.” Image: Lama in meditation, Sikkim, between 1965 and 1979. Source: Library of Congress BackStory is funded in part by our listeners. You can help keep the episodes coming by supporting the show: https://www.backstoryradio.org/support

On the heels of what may have been the biggest single-day sweep of undocumented immigrants last week in Mississippi, this week the Trump administration released a new "Public Charge" rule. The idea of a public charge – an individual who isn’t considered capable of self-sufficiency – became a part of U.S. immigration law after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The new rule will make it harder for immigrants who fail the public charge test to obtain a Green Card.    Efforts to curb immigration in the U.S. are nothing new. This episode from BackStory’s archives looks at the origins of illegal immigration and how the government’s deportation powers have grown over time.   Image: Detention pen--on roof of main building, Ellis Island, where emigrants held for deportation may go in fine weather. Circa 1902. Source: Library of Congress   BackStory is funded in part by our listeners. You can help keep the episodes coming by supporting the show: https://www.backstoryradio.org/support 

It’s an age-old question: What makes a man? Americans have thought about it for generations. So this week on BackStory, we go back into the archives to look at past segments that explore the changing perceptions of American manhood. We’ll look at why so many men started growing beards in 19th century America, and we’ll explore how ideas about the perfect male body used to be very different from what you might think of today. Image: The “Manly art of self-defense” Newsboys’ Protective Association, Cincinnati, Ohio, August 1908. Source: Library of Congress BackStory is funded in part by our listeners. You can help keep the episodes coming by supporting the show: https://www.backstoryradio.org/support 

At least 31 people were killed this past weekend in mass shootings in the U.S. The violence that took place during the early morning hours of August 4 in Dayton, Ohio was the nation’s 251st mass shooting of 2019.    As the U.S. and its leaders once again debate gun control, BackStory revisits a segment originally published in 2013. In it, UCLA legal scholar Adam Winkler talks to Brian about the day in 1967 that 30 Black Panthers walked into the California State House in Sacramento carrying loaded guns. They were protesting a gun control bill that they said deprived them of their 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, but ended up being the target of early gun control laws.   Image: “The racist dog policemen must withdraw immediately from our communities, cease their wanton murder and brutality ...” from a Black Panther Party poster featuring Huey P. Newton, approximately 1965. Source: Yanker Poster Collection, Library of Congress.   BackStory is funded in part by our listeners. You can help keep the episodes comin

Each week, Sean Carroll hosts conversations with some of the most interesting thinkers in the world. From neuroscientists and engineers to authors and television producers, Sean and his guests talk about the biggest ideas in science, philosophy, culture and more. Start listening now at:  http://wondery.fm/MindscapeAB

Whale deaths are reaching record numbers in 2019. According to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Association, gray whale deaths are “notably greater than the average” and have led the NOAA to declare the occurrence an Unusual Mortality Event (UME). In addition, NOAA considers the death rates of North Atlantic right whales an urgent conservation crisis leading the U.S. to begin working with Canada this month to help protect the species.   This week, BackStory revisits our two episodes on the history of whales and America. We’re re-releasing part one, “Thar She Blows” on July 31. In this episode, Brian, Nathan and Joanne explore how Native American whalers faced stereotypes within the industry, how whaling went from boom to bust, and learn how a real white whale named Mocha Dick became the inspiration for Herman Melville’s novel.   In part two, “Thar She Blows Again” (releasing on Aug. 2), Ed joins the rest of the team to uncover the story of Cabin Boys who were women in disguise, find out why a traveling

Whale deaths are reaching record numbers in 2019. According to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Association, gray whale deaths are “notably greater than the average” and have led the NOAA to declare the occurrence an Unusual Mortality Event (UME). In addition, NOAA considers the death rates of North Atlantic right whales an urgent conservation crisis leading the U.S. to begin working with Canada this month to help protect the species.   This week, BackStory revisits our two episodes on the history of whales and America. We’re re-releasing part one, “Thar She Blows” on July 31. In this episode, Brian, Nathan and Joanne explore how Native American whalers faced stereotypes within the industry, how whaling went from boom to bust, and learn how a real white whale named Mocha Dick became the inspiration for Herman Melville’s novel.   In part two, “Thar She Blows Again” (releasing on Aug. 2), Ed joins the rest of the team to uncover the story of Cabin Boys who were women in disguise, find out why a traveling

This month, the US Women’s Soccer Team won the Women’s World Cup for the fourth time since the tournament was established in 1991. But alongside the celebrations were calls for female players to be paid the same as their male counterparts. So, on this episode of BackStory, we’re revisiting past segments that explore the issue of sports and equality throughout American history. Image: Althea Gibson, U.S. and Wimbledon tennis champion, gives some pointers on the game which has brought her international fame, December 1957. Source: World Telegram & Sun photo by Ed. Ford via Library of Congress BackStory is funded in part by our listeners. You can help keep the episodes coming by supporting the show: https://www.backstoryradio.org/support 

On Monday, hundreds of thousands of people surged through the capital of Puerto Rico in the largest protest the island has ever seen. It is the latest in a series of demonstrations calling for the resignation of Puerto Rico's governor, Ricardo A. Rosselló, who is expected to finally resign today. While the recent unrest was sparked by the publication of messages between Rosselló and his friends and advisors in which they mocked an obese man, a poor man, a gay pop star, and several women, it was a demonstration of the long-simmering resentment over economic recession, corruption, and the management of recovery since Hurricane Maria. In this segment from BackStory's 2018 show, "After Hurricane Maria," Brian, Ed and Nathan take a look at the historical relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States, going back to the roots of the difficulties the island faces today, exploring the politics of the post-recovery process and looking at why many still don't see Puerto Ricans as Americans. BackStory is fu

We’ll hear from flight director Gene Kranz about what it was like in Mission Control during the moon landing. And we’ll explore a kind of Apollo nostalgia that has crept into movies and other forms of pop culture. Plus, stay tuned throughout the episode to hear from our listeners about their memories of the moon landing. Image: New York City welcomes Apollo 11 crewmen in a showering of ticker tape down Broadway and Park Avenue in a parade termed as the largest in the city's history. Source: NASA BackStory is funded in part by our listeners. You can help keep the episodes coming by supporting the show: https://www.backstoryradio.org/support