Episodios

  • Why Super PACs have more power than ever in elections

    Why Super PACs have more power than ever in elections
    Feb 26 2026
    What’s one thing people across the U.S. can agree on? Hint – it’s about money. Voters from all political parties overwhelmingly see unlimited spending in elections as a threat to our democracy. So if most people don’t like all this money in politics, then who does? The answer, on this episode of Throughline.

    Guests:

    Michael Kang, Class of 1940 Professor of Law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.

    Henrik Schatzinger, professor of political science at Ripon College and author of forthcoming book Super PACs in the City: How Outside Money is Reshaping Local Elections

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    50 m
  • How the Civil War changed how we vote

    How the Civil War changed how we vote
    Feb 24 2026
    When President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in the middle of the Civil War, he was not just changing the terms of peace, he was risking his own political future and forcing the nation to confront what its democracy really stood for. On this week’s episode, how the presidential election of 1864 changed the way we vote and who we are as a country.


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    16 m
  • Who profits from migrant detention?

    Who profits from migrant detention?
    Feb 19 2026
    The U.S. immigration detention system is spread out across federal facilities, private prisons, state prisons, and county jails. It’s grown under both Democratic and Republican presidents. And it’s been offered up as a source of revenue for over a century, beginning with the first contracts between the federal government and sheriffs along the Canadian border. This episode originally published in September 2025.

    Guest:

    Brianna Nofil, assistant professor of history at The College of William and Mary author of The Migrant's Jail: An American History of Mass Incarceration

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    50 m
  • The lasting legacy of the slave patrols

    The lasting legacy of the slave patrols
    Feb 17 2026
    To this day, America continues to grapple with the legacy of slavery. On this week’s episode, we explore the creation of slave patrols, which were created to control the movement of enslaved Black people in the 1700s, and how those patrols shaped American society and modern policing. To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.

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    17 m
  • How Bad Bunny took Puerto Rican independence mainstream

    How Bad Bunny took Puerto Rican independence mainstream
    Feb 12 2026
    How Bad Bunny became the global voice of a generation in crisis — and what it means when resistance becomes profitable.

    Guests:

    Carina Del Valle Schorske, writer, translator and wannabe backup dancer. She wrote a New York Times Magazine profile about Bad Bunny you can read here.

    Vanessa Díaz, professor of Chicano/a and Latino/a Studies at Loyola Marymount University. She’s been teaching a Bad Bunny college course 2023 and is the co-creator of the Bad Bunny Syllabus Project. She is also the co-author of P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance.

    Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, professor of Puerto Rican, Caribbean and Latin American History at University of Wisconsin, Madison. He’s the author of Puerto Rico: A National History. He is also the author of the history visualizers for Bad Bunny’s DTMF album.

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    49 m
  • The right to free speech

    The right to free speech
    Feb 10 2026
    Freedom of the press. The right to assembly. And the right to free speech. The first amendment includes some of the most fundamental and most debated rights. In this episode, we explore how the meaning of free speech has changed throughout history and continues to evolve today.

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    21 m
  • The Man Who Took On The Klan

    The Man Who Took On The Klan
    Feb 5 2026
    In 1871, Ku Klux Klan violence in South Carolina got so bad that the governor sent a telegram to President Ulysses S. Grant warning that he was facing a state of war. Grant sent him Amos Akerman: a former Confederate soldier and slaveholder who became the U.S. government’s most zealous warrior against the KKK.

    Guests:

    Bernard Powers, director of the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston at the College of Charleston in South Carolina

    Guy Gugliotta, author of Grant's Enforcer, Taking Down the Klan

    Kidada Williams, professor of history at Wayne State University and author of I Saw Death Coming, A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction

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    49 m
  • Becoming Supreme | America in Pursuit

    Becoming Supreme | America in Pursuit
    Feb 3 2026
    Political rebellions, family feuds, and power grabs – the founding of the Supreme Court has about as much drama as a Hollywood movie. In this week’s episode, the story of how the Supreme Court went from the weakest branch in the government to the powerful arbiter it is today.
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    14 m