Journey Through Time
by Goalhanger
Latest episode
79. McCarthyism: Paving The Way For Trump (Ep 6)
79. McCarthyism: Paving The Way For Trump (Ep 6)
About this podcast
Forgotten stories from history and how they shaped the way we live today.
Hear about the ordinary people from history and the extraordinary impact they’ve had on the present. Hosted by historians David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell, Journey Through Time will show how everyday actions have the most remarkable unintended consequences that ripple through time.
From the first woman to run for President to the unknown story of how the world came to the brink of nuclear war in 1983, this podcast is for everyone, not just history lovers.
To hear more Goalhanger podcasts, go to www.goalhanger.com
Episodes
The newest 50 of 81 episodes
- 79. McCarthyism: Paving The Way For Trump (Ep 6) · 40 min · Episode 79How did the McCarthy-era blacklist impact Hollywood for many decades to come? What happened when McCarthy’s right-hand-man Roy Cohn met a cocky young real estate developer called…
- 78. McCarthyism: The Fall of Joseph McCarthy (Ep 5) · 42 min · Episode 78What happened when Joseph McCarthy turned his communist-catching energy on the army? What film, directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando, is viewed as an allegory for…
- 77. McCarthyism: The Crucible, High Noon, and Hollywood’s Revenge (Ep 4) · 47 min · Episode 77How did the most celebrated writers and directors in America take aim at McCarthyism in works such as High Noon and The Crucible? Why did Roy Cohn, the man who went on to be…
- 76. McCarthyism: Spies, Lies, And Smears (Ep 3) · 37 min · Episode 76Who is Joseph McCarthy, the young senator who gives his name to these trials? Had Communist agents really infiltrated the US Government? Who were the Rosenbergs, America's most…
- 75. McCarthyism: Hollywood on Trial (Ep 2) · 36 min · Episode 75What happened when the House of Un-American Activities Committee started to prosecute some of the biggest names in Hollywood? Who were the infamous ‘Hollywood Ten’? Why did the…
- 74. McCarthyism: How The Red Scare Gripped America (Ep 1) · 45 min · Episode 74What was the second Red Scare where government employees, creatives, and intellectuals were prosecuted for holding ‘un-American’ views? What are the 19th century origins of…
- 73. Chernobyl: An Explosion That Brought Down A Superpower (Ep 6) · 37 min · Episode 73Did Chernobyl cause the collapse of the Soviet Union? How did the disaster fuel the fight for independence? What happened when war came to the Exclusion Zone after Russia invaded…
- 72. Chernobyl: Soviet Secrets Are Still Coming Out (Ep 5) · 24 min · Episode 72Who were the bio-robots, the 3,000 young reservists drafted in to fight the radiation? Why was an absurdly inadequate, yet enormous, structure built at pace to contain the…
- 71. Chernobyl: Three Men Who Saved Europe (Ep 4) · 42 min · Episode 71What were the two "nightmare scenarios” that would have led to enormous damage in the weeks following the explosion? What happened when three heroic men waded into radioactive…
- 70. Chernobyl: The Battle Against Nuclear Fallout (Ep 3) · 45 min · Episode 70Who were the doomed firefighters, first on the scene after the Chernobyl explosion? What forced the Soviets to come clean about the disaster? How did the USSR sacrifice…
- 69. Chernobyl: The Countdown To Catastrophe (Ep 2) · 29 min · Episode 69Why was reactor four two years overdue a critical safety test? What happened in the seconds and minutes leading up to the explosion? Who was the first victim of the Chernobyl…
- 68. Chernobyl: The Worst Nuclear Disaster In History (Ep 1) · 39 min · Episode 68How did a routine safety test turn into the worst nuclear disaster in history? How did Soviet secrecy, impossible targets, and corner-cutting set the stage for Chernobyl? Why did…
- 67. The Spanish Civil War: The Death of Democracy (Ep 6) · 36 min · Episode 67How did the Spanish Civil War inspire resistance movements throughout the 20th century? Why does Spain contain thousands of hidden mass graves? What is the legacy of the conflict…
- 66. The Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Picasso and The Nazis (Ep 5) · 31 min · Episode 66How did Pablo Picasso capture the horror of aerial bombing? Why did Hitler use a small Spanish town to test the Blitzkrieg? What was Stalin’s role in the Spanish Civil War?…
- 65. The Spanish Civil War: Orwell V Stalin (Ep 4) · 24 min · Episode 65What were Barcelona’s ‘May Days’? How did Orwell manage to escape Stalinist agents? Why did communists and anarchists begin to fight each other? How did the Spanish Civil War…
- 64. The Spanish Civil War: A Nazi Training Ground (Ep 3) · 24 min · Episode 64What were Barcelona’s ‘May Days’? How did Orwell manage to escape Stalinist agents? Why did communists and anarchists begin to fight each other? How did the Spanish Civil War…
- 63. The Spanish Civil War: Fighting Fascism With Hemingway And Orwell (Ep 2) · 35 min · Episode 63Why did 35,000 foreign volunteers join the International Brigades? How did the conflict lead to the first racially integrated military unit in US history? What was women’s role…
- 62. The Spanish Civil War: A Nation In Flames (Ep 1) · 42 min · Episode 62What caused Spain to collapse into civil war in 1936? How did Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin become involved in the conflict? Why did western democracies do nothing to aid Spain’s…
- 61. A Christmas Carol: From Alastair Sim To The Muppets (Ep 3) · 44 min · Episode 61In what significant ways did the bestselling book ‘A Christmas Carol’ change Victorian behaviour around Christmas? From Christmas movies to the office Christmas party, what…
- 60. A Christmas Carol: The Radical Message Hidden In A Holiday Classic (Ep 2) · 32 min · Episode 60How did the three Ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future manage to save Scrooge, Tiny Time, and the Christmas spirit? What deadly social problem was Dickens looking to…
- 59. A Christmas Carol: The Book That Brought Back Christmas (Ep 1) · 58 min · Episode 59Why had the Victorians stopped celebrating Christmas? How did the wretchedness of a London school for poor children inspire Charles Dickens’ famous Christmas tale? What does the…
- 58. Black GIs: Brown Babies and Broken Hearts (Ep 5) · 39 min · Episode 58What does the hysteria around white women sleeping with Black GIs tell us about race and class in wartime Britain? Why were Black GIs banned from marrying their British…
- 57. Black GIs: American Mutiny On British Streets (Ep 4) · 28 min · Episode 57What happened when Black GIs went on strike over their violent treatment at the hands of the white Military Police? Why did the American Army start fighting itself in the heart…
- 56. Black GIs: The Battle of Bamber Bridge (Ep 3) · 36 min · Episode 56How did an altercation over the wrong uniform lead into a full scale gun battle with Americans shooting their fellow soldiers on the streets of Bamber Bridge? What caused the…
- 55. Black GIs: We Ain’t No Slaves, This Is England (Ep 2) · 40 min · Episode 55How did the American army try to enforce segregation by stealth on British towns? Why did the British public perceive the white American GIs as ‘over paid, over fed, over sexed…
- 54. Black GIs: When Jim Crow Came To Britain (Ep 1) · 35 min · Episode 54What happened when 1.5 million American GIs, including 130,000 African Americans, were stationed in the UK during WWII? How did the Jim Crow segregation laws work in the American…
- Introducing: The Rest Is Science · 12 minForget what you think you know about reality. The Rest Is Science is a mind-bending new show from Goalhanger that tears down familiar ideas… time, randomness, beauty, it will…
- 53. Harriet Tubman: The Woman Who Led An Army (Ep 4) · 42 min · Episode 53How did Harriet Tubman free over 750 enslaved people in the Combahee River Raid? Despite her valiant efforts in the Civil War, why did Harriet have to fight the government to…
- 52. Harriet Tubman: How Most Wanted Woman Never Got Caught (Ep 3) · 42 min · Episode 52What surprising tactics did Harriet use to avoid detection on her many missions to rescue enslaved people in the south? Who was John Brown, the fierce abolitionist willing to use…
- 51. Harriet Tubman: The Underground Railroad From Slavery To Freedom (Ep 2) · 43 min · Episode 51Why did Harriet Tubman risk her freedom and become the only formerly enslaved person to return to the slaveholding south? How did the secret Underground Railroad guide people…
- 50. Harriet Tubman: The Freedom Fighter Who Escaped From Slavery (Ep 1) · 42 min · Episode 50Who was Harriet Tubman? How did Harriet make the perilous journey escaping north to freedom? What was the Underground Railroad, the secret chain of people guiding enslaved people…
- 49. The Paris Commune: France Wages War On Its Own Capital (Ep 4) · 49 min · Episode 49How many people were slaughtered in the street-to-street battle for Paris known as the ‘bloody week’? Why did the German Chancellor help the French government start a civil war?…
- 48. The Paris Commune: Can The City Of Lights Govern Itself? (Ep 3) · 33 min · Episode 48How many of the radical reforms that the Paris Commune implemented in their 72 day existence influence French laws to this day? Why did the communards tear down a statue of…
- 47. The Paris Commune: The City That Ate Its Zoo (Ep 2) · 33 min · Episode 47How did pet dogs, street rats, and the zoo’s elephants make their way onto the menu of Parisian fine dining restaurants? Why did Paris feel so slighted by the national government…
- 46. The Paris Commune: France’s Bloodiest Revolution (Ep 1) · 42 min · Episode 46What was the Paris Commune of 1871? How was the first German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, trying to radically reshape the map of Europe? How did the resulting Franco-Prussian…
- 45. The Gunpowder Plot: Why Do We Remember The Fifth Of November? (Ep 4) · 46 min · Episode 45How did the remaining conspirators manage to blow themselves up? Why is the defeat of the Gunpowder Plot still celebrated 400 years later? What are the parallels between this…
- 44. The Gunpowder Plot: Conspirators Caught Red-Handed (Ep 3) · 56 min · Episode 44Once Parliament was blown up, how were the plotters planning on seizing power? How did the King manage to stop the plan to blow up parliament just in time? What is the Monteagle…
- 43. The Gunpowder Plot: The Recruitment of Guy Fawkes (Ep 2) · 32 min · Episode 43How did a series of plots to depose and kill King James I ultimately fail? Who was Robert Catesby, the mastermind behind the Gunpowder Plot? Why was Guy Fawkes recruited into the…
- 42. The Gunpowder Plot: Britain’s Most Famous Traitors (Ep 1) · 35 min · Episode 42As Queen Elizabeth I lay dying, why were the nation’s high profile Catholics rounded up and imprisoned? Why has history overlooked James I, the first king of Scotland and…
- 41. Salem Witch Trials: The Legacy (Ep 3) · 45 min · Episode 41How did the executions for witchcraft finally come to an end? What does a community do to reckon with the aftermath of all this violence? Why have the Salem Witch Trials become…
- 40. How The Salem Witch Trials Became Deadly (Ep 2) · 54 min · Episode 40Now the witch trials have been set up, what evidence is used to send many innocent people to their death? Why are young women shrieking and convulsing at the sight of those…
- 39. What Started The Salem Witch Hunt? (Ep 1) · 44 min · Episode 39What were the Salem Witch Trials that resulted in the deaths of more than 20 innocent people? Why was this puritan community in New England so vulnerable to being gripped by a…
- 38. The Man Behind Big Brother: Why We’re Hooked on Reality TV (Ep 4) · 43 min · Episode 38What did it feel like to be at the centre of the most popular Reality TV moment of the century? Why was the nation captivated by Big Brother? What can we learn about a country…
- 37. From The Kardashians to Donald Trump: The History of Reality TV (Ep 3) · 53 min · Episode 37What unbelievable and ethically dubious Reality TV concepts made it onto our screens in the 2000s? What was behind Big Brother’s game changing popularity? How did Trump’s time on…
- 36. The Art of Manipulation: The History of Reality TV (Ep 2) · 57 min · Episode 36Who was Lance Loud, America's first openly gay TV celebrity? What ethically dubious tactics did producers pioneer in MTV's hit show 'The Real World' to manipulate participants…
- 35. Why We’re Obsessed With The Traitors: The History of Reality TV (Ep 1) · 34 min · Episode 35What was David's experience on Celebrity Traitors like? How can we trace the origins of this beloved show back to WWII? How has Reality TV shaped the modern world? Join David…
- 34. Cotton Will Bring The World To its Knees: The Craziest Gamble in History (Ep 3) · 57 min · Episode 34Why did the Confederate states think that stopping the global supply of cotton would force Britain to join their side in the American Civil War? What extraordinary humanitarian…
- 33. Prince Albert’s Dying Wish: Stopping An American-British War (Ep 2) · 33 min · Episode 33Why did Britain and America nearly go to war over the capture of two Confederate officers from a British Ship? What did President Lincoln’s Emergency War Cabinet respond to…
- 32. From Lincoln to Obama: A History of the Special Relationship (Ep 1) · 1 h 1 min · Episode 32David has just come off stage with Barack Obama - what does the 44th President think about the ‘Special Relationship’ between the UK and the US? What is the history of this…
- 31. Martin Luther King: I Have A Dream (Ep 2) · 1 h 3 min · Episode 31Harry Belafonte, Josephine Baker, Bob Dylan, and which other celebrities joined the 250,000 marching on Washington in August 1963? How were the American Nazi Party planning to…
