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

Grenada: Nobody's Backyard

Grenadians watch a landing U.S. convoy during the Grenada Invasion of 1983. Shepard Sherbell/Corbis via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Shepard Sherbell/Corbis via Getty Images

Throughline

Grenada: Nobody's Backyard

A Marxist revolution, a Cold War proxy battle, and a dream of a Black utopia. In 1983, Ronald Reagan ordered the U.S. military to invade the island of Grenada. Almost four decades later, many Americans don't remember why — or that it even happened. This week, Martine Powers, from Post Reports, brings us a story of revolution, invasion, and the aftermath of unresolved history.

Grenada: Nobody's Backyard

Listen · 58:14
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1021236625/1200556676" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

History

Despite Debt Risks, Cities Still Put In Bids To Host The Olympic Games

The eyes of the world are on Tokyo for the Summer Games. NPR's history podcast, Throughline, examines whether the cities that host the Games end up winning or losing.

Despite Debt Risks, Cities Still Put In Bids To Host The Olympic Games

Listen · 6:50
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1020612121/1020612126" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Olympics: Behind The Five Rings

The Olympics have become a huge commercial success, so why do cities like Tokyo often seem to come out on the losing end? Scott Halleran/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Scott Halleran/Getty Images

Throughline

Olympics: Behind The Five Rings

The Olympics originated in Ancient Greece, and were resurrected in the 1890's after a 1,500 year ban. Since then, the International Olympic Committee has been behind every Olympic Games. In this episode, we explore the story of how the IOC turned the Olympics into a huge commercial success and whether the cities that host the games end up winning or losing.

Olympics: Behind The Five Rings

Listen · 41:55
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1018150501/1200556718" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

The Most Sacred Right (2020)
Kaz Fantone

Throughline

The Most Sacred Right (2020)

Frederick Douglass dreamed of a country where all people could vote and he did everything in his power to make that dream a reality. In the face of slavery, the Civil War and the violence of Jim Crow, he fought his entire life for what he believed was a sacred, natural right that should be available to all people - voting.

The Most Sacred Right (2020)

Listen · 1:02:45
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1015989123/1200556765" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

Capitalism: God Wants You To Be Rich

The prosperity gospel is a mix of theology and capitalism that equates wealth with goodness, prosperity with virtue. It has helped shape the broader ideology of American capitalism we live with today. Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Throughline

Capitalism: God Wants You To Be Rich

In the New Testament, Jesus says it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. In the United States today, many Christians believe in something radically different. In what's known as the prosperity gospel, wealth is a sign of virtue and God's favor. The effects of this belief can be seen throughout American life from business to politics to social policy.

Capitalism: God Wants You To Be Rich

Listen · 50:30
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1013430166/1200556773" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Capitalism Has Become An Ideology In Today's America. Here's How It Happened

A demonstrator holds a sign reading "I love capitalism" during a protest against California's stay-at-home order in 2020. Capitalism started as an economic system; it has become an ideology in the modern United States. Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

History

Capitalism Has Become An Ideology In Today's America. Here's How It Happened

What started as an economic system has become an all-encompassing force. That wasn't inevitable. NPR's Throughline examines a project that has taken hundreds of years — and is still developing.

Capitalism: What Is It?

Listen · 54:04
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1012733811/1012751859" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

Capitalism: What Makes Us Free?

For decades, the New Deal shaped America's economic system, until Neoliberalism came along and eventually eclipsed the old system with one we still live with today. Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images

Throughline

Capitalism: What Makes Us Free?

What's the role of government in society? What do we mean when we talk about individual responsibility? What makes us free? 'Neoliberalism' might feel like a squishy term that's hard to define and understand. But this ideology, founded by a group of men in the Swiss Alps, is a political project that has dominated our economic system for decades. In the name of free market fundamentals, the forces behind neoliberalism act like an invisible hand, shaping almost every aspect of our lives.

Capitalism: What Makes Us Free?

Listen · 52:27
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1011062075/1200556777" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Capitalism: What Is It?

Capitalism is an economic system, but what do we really mean when we talk about capitalism? And how does it affect our lives? Alfred Gescheidt/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Alfred Gescheidt/Getty Images

Analysis

Throughline

Capitalism: What Is It?

What do we mean when we talk about capitalism? Our economic system might seem inevitable, but it's a construction project hundreds of years in the making and no part of it is natural or left to chance. This week, we kick off our series on the past, present and future of capitalism with Kristen Ghodsee, Vivek Chibber, and Bryan Caplan, who debate how an economic system became an all-encompassing force that rules our lives and our minds.

Capitalism: What Is It?

Listen · 56:53
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1008906741/1200556785" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Before Stonewall (2019)

A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. Peter Keegan/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Peter Keegan/Getty Images

Throughline

Before Stonewall (2019)

In 1969, a gay bar in New York City called The Stonewall Inn was raided by police. It was a common form of harassment in those days but what followed, days of rebellion as patrons fought back, was anything but ordinary. Today, that event is seen as the start of the gay civil rights movement, but gay activists and organizations were standing up to harassment and discrimination years before. On this episode from our archives, the fight for gay rights before Stonewall.

Before Stonewall (2019)

Listen · 40:55
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1006306204/1200556789" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

Who is NPR (For)?

Luke Medina NPR hide caption

toggle caption
NPR

Throughline

Who is NPR (For)?

Who is the media meant to serve? And why does it matter today, arguably, more than ever? 50 years ago, National Public Radio began as a small, scrappy news organization with big ideals and a very small footprint. Over the subsequent years of coverage and programming, NPR has grown and evolved into a mainstream media outlet, with a mission of serving audiences that reflect America. This week, Michel Martin, host of Weekend All Things Considered, talks to us about her time at NPR and the importance of representing all voices in news.

Who is NPR (For)?

Listen · 36:45
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1004079815/1200556793" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

The Supreme Court

Kaz Fantone NPR hide caption

toggle caption
NPR

Throughline

The Supreme Court

When, why, and how did the Supreme Court get the final say in the law of the land? The question of the Court's role, and whether its decisions should reign above all the other branches of government, has been hotly debated for centuries. And that's resulted in a Supreme Court more powerful than anything the Founding Fathers could have imagined possible.

The Supreme Court

Listen · 58:39
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1002482606/1200556797" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Wednesday

History

The Historical Perspective Behind The Latest Israel-Hamas Conflict

The recent Gaza-Israel violence began with an issue that's plagued the region for a century: settlements. NPR's history podcast Throughline relays the back story of settlements and displacement.

The Historical Perspective Behind The Latest Israel-Hamas Conflict

Listen · 7:16
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1002368775/1002368776" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Asia

Who The Uyghurs Are And Why China Is Targeting Them

NPR's history podcast Throughline bring us the story of why the Uyghur people have become the target of what many are calling a genocide in China.

Who The Uyghurs Are And Why China Is Targeting Them

Listen · 8:01
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1001936433/1001936478" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

Palestine

Smoke and flames rise after Israeli fighter jets' airstrike hit an area in Khan Yunis, Gaza on May 13, 2021. Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Throughline

Palestine

The recent violence that engulfed Gaza and Jerusalem began with an issue that's plagued the region for a century now: settlements. In East Jerusalem, Palestinian residents are facing forced removal by Israeli settler organizations. It's a pattern that has repeated over the history of this conflict. Historian Rashid Khalidi guides us through the history of settlements and displacement going back to the age of European colonialism.

Palestine

Listen · 54:04
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1000247156/1200556801" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

A Symphony of Resistance

An anti-government protester is carried on shoulders before a speech by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Tahrir Square February 10, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt. Chris Hondros/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Chris Hondros/Getty Images

Throughline

A Symphony of Resistance

The Arab Spring erupted ten years ago when a wave of "pro-democracy" protests spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The effects of the uprisings reverberated around the world as regimes fell in some countries, and civil war began in others. This week, we remember the years leading up to the Arab Spring, and its lasting impact on three people who lived through it.

A Symphony of Resistance

Listen · 56:30
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/997660501/1200556805" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript