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Anya Steinberg Anya Steinberg is a Producer for Throughline. She joined the show in 2021 as an intern. Since then, she’s reported and produced dozens of episodes. Some of her favorites to work on have been: the 400 year history of sugar, a profile of Nelson Mandela, and the story of the water wars between Los Angeles and the Owens Valley.
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Anya Steinberg

Thursday

Editing Reality (2023)
Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Throughline

Editing Reality (2023)

We live in divided times, when the answer to the question 'what is reality?' depends on who you ask. Almost all the information we take in is to some extent edited and curated, and the line between entertainment and reality has become increasingly blurred. Nowhere is that more obvious than the world of reality television. The genre feeds off our most potent feelings – love, hope, anxiety, loneliness – and turns them into profit... and presidents. So in this episode, we're going to filter three themes of our modern world through the lens of reality TV: dating, the American dream, and the rage machine.

Editing Reality (2023)

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Thursday

Apology: The Way Back (2023)
Planet Flem

Throughline

Apology: The Way Back (2023)

Our society is saturated in apologies. They're scripted, they're public, and they often feel less than sincere. Political, corporate, celebrity apologies – they can all feel performed. It's not even always clear who they're for. So what purpose do these apologies serve? Because real apologies are not just PR stunts. Not just a way to move on. At their best, they're about acknowledgement and accountability, healing and repair. So how did apology go from a process to a product – and how can we make it work again?

Apology: The Way Back (2023)

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Thursday

Dare to Dissent
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Throughline

Dare to Dissent

Sometimes, the most dangerous and powerful thing a person can do is to stand up not against their enemies, but against their friends. As the United States heads into what will likely be another bitter and divided election year, there will be more and more pressure to stand with our in-groups rather than our consciences.

Dare to Dissent

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Thursday

The Lord Of Misrule

A 19th-century engraving of Cpt. Miles Standish and his men observing the 'immoral' behavior of the Maypole festivities of 1628 at Merrymount. ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images hide caption

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ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images

Throughline

The Lord Of Misrule

On November 18, 1633, a book went to press in London. Its author, Thomas Morton, had been exiled from the Puritan colonies in Massachusetts for the crimes of drinking, carousing, and – crucially – building social and economic ties with Native people. Back in England, Morton wrote down his vision for what America could become. A very different vision than that of the Puritans.

The Lord Of Misrule

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Thursday

A.D.A. Now! (2020)
The Tom Olin Collection

Throughline

A.D.A. Now! (2020)

The Americans with Disabilities Act is considered the most important civil rights law since the 1960s. Through first-person stories, we look back at the making of this movement, the history of how disability came to be seen as a civil rights issue in the first place, and what the disability community is still fighting for more than 30 years later.

A.D.A. Now! (2020)

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Thursday

National

Red Lake Reservation is rare because the tribal nation owns all of its land

NPR's history podcast Throughline looks at how the Red Lake Reservation in Minnesota avoided the fate of most U.S. reservations. The Red Lake Band of Chippewa still owns all the reservation land.

Red Lake Reservation is rare because the tribal nation owns all of its land

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How U.S. Unions Took Flight
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Throughline

How U.S. Unions Took Flight

Hot Labor Summer has continued into fall as workers in industries from retail and carmaking to healthcare and Hollywood have organized and gone on strike. Public support for the U.S. labor movement is close to the highest it's been in 60 years. And that's no surprise to people who work in one particular industry: the airlines.

How U.S. Unions Took Flight

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Wednesday

How the history of Leech Lake and Red Lake went down totally different paths

Nate Taylor (left) and Sylvia Fred (right), two of the co-founders of the Endazhi-Nitaawiging Charter School on Red Lake Reservation standing in front of the construction site for a new school building. Sequoia Carrillo/NPR hide caption

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Code Switch

How the history of Leech Lake and Red Lake went down totally different paths

The word "reservation" implies "reserved" – as in, this land is reserved for Native Americans. But most reservation land actually isn't owned by tribes. That's true for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe in northern Minnesota, where the tribe owns just a tiny fraction of its reservation land. But just northwest of Leech Lake is Red Lake: one of the only reservations in the country where the tribe owns all of its land.

How the history of Leech Lake and Red Lake went down totally different paths

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Thursday

A History of Hamas

GAZA CITY, GAZA- Palestinian Hamas militants are seen during a military show in the Bani Suheila district on July 20, 2017 in Gaza City, Gaza. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images) Chris McGrath/Getty Images hide caption

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Throughline

A History of Hamas

On October 7th, the organization Hamas, which is also the ruling government of Gaza, perpetrated an attack just across the border in Israel. The Israeli government says that the attack killed around 1200 people, most of them civilians. And Hamas also kidnapped hundreds more, including women and children, and took them back to Gaza as hostages. In response, Israel has bombarded and invaded Gaza. More than 11,000 people have been killed, and many more displaced. Since that day we've heard from many of you, our listeners, with questions about Hamas. So we took a few weeks to talk to experts on all sides to answer those questions – people who know the history deeply, and have even participated in it. Today on the show: the origins of Hamas, the context in which it developed, and what it represents to Palestinians, Israelis, and the rest of the world.

A History of Hamas

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Thursday

The Supreme Court's Shadow Docket
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Throughline

The Supreme Court's Shadow Docket

Roe. Brown. Obergefell. Dobbs. These Supreme Court decisions are the ones that make headlines, and eventually history books. But today, the vast majority of the Court's work actually happens out of the public eye, on what's become known as the shadow docket. The story of that transformation spans more than a century, and doesn't fall neatly along partisan lines. Today on the show: how the so-called court of last resort has gained more and more power over American policy, and why the debates we don't see are often more important than the ones we do.

The Supreme Court's Shadow Docket

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Thursday

The Three Faces of Ataturk
ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images

Throughline

The Three Faces of Ataturk

"Authority, without any condition and reservation, belongs to the nation." A military commander named Mustafa Kemal uttered these words in 1923, on the eve of the founding of the Republic of Turkey. He would later rename himself Ataturk, "Father of the Turks." And he was outlining a vision for the future: a future where old empires were buried and new nations reigned supreme. That vision would resonate beyond the borders of the new Turkey, becoming a shining example for leaders around the world of how to build a single unified national identity — no matter the cost.

The Three Faces of Ataturk

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Thursday

The Dance of the Dead (2021)

Illustration by Hokyoung Kim. Illustration by Hokyoung Kim hide caption

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Illustration by Hokyoung Kim

Throughline

The Dance of the Dead (2021)

Long before it was a sugary moviefest, the Halloween we know was called Samhain. The Celts of ancient Ireland believed Samhain was a night when the barrier between worlds was thin, the dead could cross over, and if you didn't disguise yourself, evil fairies might spirit you away. Over time the holiday shape-shifted too, thanks to the Catholic Church, pagan groups, and even the brewing company Coors. From the Great Famine of Ireland to Elvira and the Simpsons, we present the many faces of Halloween.

The Dance of the Dead (2021)

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Thursday

The Contradictions of Abraham Lincoln

A researcher holding one of America's most priceless negatives, the glass plate made by famous civil war photographer Mathew Brady of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 just before the 16th President of the United States was assassinated. It is stored in the National Archives in Washington. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images) Three Lions/Getty Images hide caption

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Throughline

The Contradictions of Abraham Lincoln

In 1855, Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to his best friend, Joshua Speed. Speed was from a wealthy, slave-owning Kentucky family; Lincoln believed slavery was wrong. You are mistaken about this, Lincoln wrote to Speed. But, differ we must." One way for Lincoln to have dealt with his best friend, I suppose, would be to say you're a horrible person, you're morally wrong, and I shun you," says NPR's Steve Inskeep. "Lincoln did not take that approach, which I think might be a little controversial today."You might know Steve primarily for hosting NPR's Morning Edition. He also writes histories, and his newest book, "Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America," takes a long hard look at Lincoln the politician: the man who went out of his way to build political consensus, even with people whose views he considered noxious. It's a case for why we should collaborate, and yes, compromise with people across the aisle – not because it's nice or the right thing to do, but because it makes our government work. Today on Throughline, a conversation with Steve Inskeep about the contradictions of Abraham Lincoln.

The Contradictions of Abraham Lincoln

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Thursday

How everyday people started a movement that's shaping climate action to this day

Rev. Ben Chavis, right, raises his fist as fellow protesters are taken to jail at the Warren County PCB landfill near Afton, N.C., on Sept. 16, 1982. Greg Gibson/AP hide caption

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NPR's Climate Solutions Week

How everyday people started a movement that's shaping climate action to this day

Deborah and Ken Ferruccio saw the toxic chemical spill while they were driving home late one summer night in 1978: a big smelly swath of brown oil on the side of the road. Reverend Willie T. Ramey saw it too. He was a pastor at two local churches and a respected community leader. And not long after that highway spill, he agreed to meet the Ferruccios just after midnight in a barn in Warren County, North Carolina. The Ferruccios told Reverend Ramey they needed his help. Someone was dumping toxic waste in their county, and they needed to organize. Today on the show: how a group of local citizens in a poor, rural, majority Black community came together to fight an iconic battle for environmental justice – and how their work laid a path that leads right up to today.

How everyday people started a movement that's shaping climate action to this day

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Thursday

Tenochtitlán: A Retelling of the Conquest (2021)

Retreat of Hernando Cortes form Tenochtitlan, Mexico, 1520. Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images hide caption

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Throughline

Tenochtitlán: A Retelling of the Conquest (2021)

In a sense, 1521 is Mexico's 1619. A foundational moment that for centuries has been shaped by just one perspective: a European one. The story of how Hernán Cortés and a few hundred Spaniards conquered the mighty Aztec Empire, in the heart of what's now modern Mexico City, has become a foundational myth of European dominance in the Americas. And for a long time it was largely accepted as truth. But in recent decades researchers have pieced together a more nuanced, complicated version based on Indigenous accounts: a version that challenges what one historian calls "the greatest PR job in the history of the West." In this episode, the real story of the fall of Tenochtitlán.

Tenochtitlán: A Retelling of the Conquest (2021)

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