Accessibility links
Ramtin Arablouei Ramtin Arablouei is co-host and co-producer of NPR's podcast Throughline.
Ramtin Arablouei, co-host and co-producer of Throughline.
Stories By

Ramtin Arablouei

Thursday

Cinco de Mayo and the Rise of Modern Mexico (2022)

Brothers Ricardo Flores Magón and Enrique Flores Magón at Los Angeles Federal Court after being arrested on federal charges for their political activities. UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections hide caption

toggle caption
UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections

Throughline

Cinco de Mayo and the Rise of Modern Mexico (2022)

Does history have a border? That is the question at the heart of Cinco de Mayo, May 5th, a holiday that symbolizes Mexico's fight for autonomy, even as it's come to be associated with sales and cervezas and margaritas in the U.S. Cinco de Mayo is part of a much deeper story of two nations — Mexico and the U.S. — trying to define themselves at a time when old empires were crumbling and borders were in flux. A story that culminated in a revolution in Mexico that was at the forefront of a worldwide movement against predatory capitalism and foreign domination. So in this episode, we're going back to the first Cinco de Mayo and exploring how it helped shape the future on both sides of the border.

Cinco de Mayo and the Rise of Modern Mexico (2022)

Listen · 50:30
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1171642332/1200556198" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

The Way Back
Planet Flem

Throughline

The Way Back

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 them work again?

The Way Back

Listen · 52:35
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1170705584/1200556202" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Past is Prologue: Talking Taxes
Nora Carol Photography/Getty Images

Throughline

Past is Prologue: Talking Taxes

Benjamin Franklin said the only certainties in life are death and taxes. Sifting through receipts, deciphering confusing codes, and filling out forms is an annual ritual that's about much more than money. The history of the income tax and the battle over who should pay how much is about what we value as a nation. In this conversation with historian Molly Michelmore we'll explore the past, present, and future of the income tax.

Past is Prologue: Talking Taxes

Listen · 50:24
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1169247885/1200556206" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Student Loans: The Fund-Eating Dragon (2022)

From 2011, at an Occupy DC protest in Washington. A man holds a sign and a ball and chain, representing his college loan debt. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Jacquelyn Martin/ASSOCIATED PRESS hide caption

toggle caption
Jacquelyn Martin/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Throughline

Student Loans: The Fund-Eating Dragon (2022)

At the start of the 20th century, only the most privileged could afford to go to college. Today, millions of students pursue higher ed — and owe $1.7 trillion in debt.

Student Loans: The Fund-Eating Dragon (2022)

Listen · 50:41
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1167195874/1200556210" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Wednesday

Movies

What is the Bechdel test? A shorthand for measuring representation in movies

In 1985, graphic novelist Alison Bechdel came up with criteria for whether she'd watch a movie. It's become known as the Bechdel test, and it's surprisingly hard for films to pass these days.

What is the Bechdel test? A shorthand for measuring representation in movies

Listen · 7:01
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1168116147/1168116148" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Tuesday

Throughline Presents: Louder Than A Riot

MC Sha-Rock. Amanda Howell Whitehurst/Amanda Howell Whitehurst for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Amanda Howell Whitehurst/Amanda Howell Whitehurst for NPR

Throughline

Throughline Presents: Louder Than A Riot

Louder Than A Riot breaks down how hip-hop history is told. Who gets to be remembered and who gets left out? Decades before hip-hop's current renaissance of women rappers, there was MC Sha-Rock. Despite her influence on future generations, her contribution to the craft of hip-hop is not widely known. In this episode, we break down legacy: who gets to leave one in hip-hop and who gets left out.

Throughline Presents: Louder Than A Riot

Listen · 56:10
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1167122429/1200556214" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

The Mystery of Inflation (2022)
Francesco Carta fotografo/Getty Images

Throughline

The Mystery of Inflation (2022)

Rising interest rates. Layoffs. A shrinking dollar. Over the past year, the US economy has been squeezed: The same amount of money gets you less stuff. It's inflation: a concept that's easy to feel but hard to understand. Its causes are complex, but it isn't some kind of naturally-occurring phenomenon — and neither are the ways in which governments try to fight it.

The Mystery of Inflation (2022)

Listen · 49:58
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1165958037/1200556218" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Monday

History

'Throughline' examines artificial intelligence — and these days AI is everywhere

Robots. Androids. The Terminator. C3P0. We've given a lot of names to AI: artificial intelligence. Some believe it's the key to humanity's future, others the first step towards our downfall.

'Throughline' examines artificial intelligence — and these days AI is everywhere

Listen · 6:57
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1166180083/1166180084" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Everyone Everywhere All At Once
imaginima/Getty Images

Throughline

Everyone Everywhere All At Once

This year's Oscars were one of the most diverse in history, in all kinds of ways. Everything Everywhere All At Once swept some of the biggest categories, notching incredible victories for Asian and Asian American actors, directors, and writers. At the same time, huge gaps persist – to take just one example, only seven women have ever been nominated for Best Director, and only three have won.

Everyone Everywhere All At Once

Listen · 49:00
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1164983078/1200556222" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Meltdown (2020)

The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant two days after a meltdown forced a temporary closure of the plant. Bettmann/Bettmann Archive hide caption

toggle caption
Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

Throughline

Meltdown (2020)

What happens when an accident puts the public at risk? In the early hours of March 28, 1979, a system malfunction set off what would become the worst nuclear accident in American history. What ensued punctured the public's belief in the safety of nuclear energy and became a cautionary tale about the consequences of communication breakdown during a crisis. This week, the fallout of a catastrophic event, and its ramifications for the public trust.

Meltdown (2020)

Listen · 51:23
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1163200986/1200556226" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Friday

Music News

'Throughline,' NPR's history podcast, digs into the origins of house music

Since Beyoncé's Renaissance album dropped last summer, house music has found its way back to mainstream audiences. Some are asking, "Is House back?" The truth is it never went away.

'Throughline,' NPR's history podcast, digs into the origins of house music

Listen · 6:42
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1162511184/1162511185" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

A More Perfect Human
Yuichiro Chino/Getty Images

Throughline

A More Perfect Human

The dream of AI — artificial intelligence — has been around for centuries: the idea of an intelligent machine without free will popped up in ancient Taoist scrolls, Buddhist fables, and the tales of medieval European courts. But it wasn't until the 20th century that science caught up to our imaginations.

A More Perfect Human

Listen · 52:06
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1161883646/1200556269" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

From the Warehouse to the world: Chicago and the birth of house music

BBoy B, Flash, 38 Slugs and Skol's 'Frankie Knuckles' tribute mural is displayed in the Fulton Market neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois on July 6, 2019. Raymond Boyd/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Raymond Boyd/Getty Images

Music Features

From the Warehouse to the world: Chicago and the birth of house music

For the people who were there when it was invented in small clubs and basement parties in Chicago in the 1980s, house music was a force of nature. Four decades later, its impact is bigger than ever.

Dance Yourself Free
John M Lund Photography Inc/Getty Images

Throughline

Dance Yourself Free

Ever since Beyonce's Renaissance dropped last summer, house music has found its way back to mainstream audiences, prompting some to ask "Is house back?" But the truth is, it never went away. Born out of the ashes of disco in the underground clubs of Chicago by Black queer youth in the late 1970s and 80s, house music has been the continued soundtrack of parties around the world, and laid the groundwork for one of the most popular musical genres in history – electronic dance music. And yet, the deeper you dig into the origins of house music, the more clear it becomes that the history of house, like the history of rock and roll, is a complicated tale of Black cultural resistance.

Dance Yourself Free

Listen · 50:18
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1160259231/1200556273" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Of Rats and Men (2022)
New York Public Library Digital Collection

Throughline

Of Rats and Men (2022)

Rats. Love 'em or hate 'em, (though you probably hate 'em), they're part of our world. And they've been out in full force: In New York City, health data show rat sightings doubled in the past year. It turns out they're a lot like us: They've colonized the whole planet; they're incredibly adaptable; they go wherever the resources are. And, they share one-fourth of our genome—meaning that when you look in the mirror, you're kinda seeing a rat staring back at you. So for this episode, we dove into the history of our rodent doppelgängers. What we found was a story that spans thousands of years and nearly every continent on Earth, from the fields of ancient Mongolia to the palaces of Victorian England to the laboratories of 20th century Maryland... and probably to a burrow near you.

Of Rats and Men (2022)

Listen · 51:26
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1158719975/1200556277" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">