Why do Americans measure things in inches and pounds while the rest of the world uses centimeters and kilograms? The answer becomes clear when George Washington and Thomas Jefferson’s vision for the future clashes with a band of marauding pirates.

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New York City in the mid 1800s was run by violent gangs, corrupt politicians, and grifting opportunists who operated with no fear of punishment. It was like a powder keg ready to blow, and all it took to light the fuse, and change the future of law enforcement, was a performance of Shakespeare.

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If not for inventor Thomas Edison's iron grip over the nascent film industry, and a few defiant trailblazers, movies as we know them might have never come to be.

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The Battle of Antietam during the American Civil War remains the bloodiest day in American history. That day, and the future of the United States, could have turned out very differently, if not for a single note and three cigars.

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In 1910, a brutal murder in London sparks a transatlantic manhunt and the rise of a cultural obsession.

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The course of history never follows a straight line. These are the epic stories that have shaped the world we now live in. From Ballen Studios, join us - for the most heart pounding podcast in history.

New episodes every Wednesday.

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