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

Thursday

Nikole Hannah-Jones and the Country We Have (2021)

A painting by artist Sidney King depicting a Dutch ship with 20 enslaved African people arriving at Point Comfort, VA in 1619, marking the beginning of slavery in America. ASSOCIATED PRESS hide caption

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Throughline

Nikole Hannah-Jones and the Country We Have (2021)

Is history always political? Who gets to decide? What happens when you challenge common narratives? In this episode, Throughline's Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei explore these questions with Nikole Hannah-Jones, an investigative journalist at the New York Times and the creator of the 1619 Project.

Nikole Hannah-Jones and the Country We Have (2021)

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Wednesday

History

'Throughline': There's more to the board game Monopoly than you might think

Monopoly is one of the best-selling board games in history — sales went up during the COVID-19 pandemic. The game is built on powerful American lore: anyone can rise from rags to riches.

'Throughline': There's more to the board game Monopoly than you might think

Listen · 6:50
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Thursday

Student Loans: The Fund-Eating Dragon

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

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Jacquelyn Martin/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Throughline

Student Loans: The Fund-Eating Dragon

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

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Thursday

The Long Hot Summer (2020)

The Kerner Commission in session, in Washington DC, 1967. Underwood Archives/Getty Images hide caption

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Underwood Archives/Getty Images

Throughline

The Long Hot Summer (2020)

Things in the U.S. feel tense right now. Two years after a police officer killed George Floyd outside a Minneapolis corner store, videos of police violence still appear regularly – and protests follow. Maybe the closest parallel to what's happening today is the so-called "long hot summer" of 1967, when more than 150 cities across the country experienced civil unrest.

The Long Hot Summer (2020)

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Thursday

Throughline Presents: School Colors

A family walks towards Rochdale Village housing co-op and complex in Queens on April 28, 2022. (NPR/Cassandra Geraldo) Cassandra Giraldo/Cassandra Giraldo hide caption

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Cassandra Giraldo/Cassandra Giraldo

Throughline

Throughline Presents: School Colors

School District 28 is located in one of the most racially and ethnically diverse places in the U.S.: Queens, N.Y. But the neighborhood served by this school district has two sides – a Northside and a Southside. To put it simply, the Southside is Black and the farther north you go, the fewer Black people you see. But it wasn't always like this.

Throughline Presents: School Colors

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Wednesday

History

'Throughline': The history of abortion after 1973

NPR's history podcast Throughline explores how opponents of abortion rights banded together, built power and launched one of the most successful grassroots campaigns of the past century.

'Throughline': The history of abortion after 1973

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Thursday

The story of 'Monopoly' and American capitalism

The Monopoly Ultimate Banking Game from Hasbro is displayed at Toy Fair in New York, in 2016. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) Mark Lennihan/AP hide caption

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Mark Lennihan/AP

Throughline

The story of 'Monopoly' and American capitalism

There's more to Monopoly than you might think. It's one of the best-selling board games in history — despite huge economic instability, sales actually went up during the pandemic — and it's been an iconic part of American life at other pivotal moments: a cheap pastime during the Great Depression; a reminder of home for soldiers during WWII; and an American export during its rise as a global superpower. It endured even as it reflected some of the ongoing inequities in American society, from segregation and redlining to capitalism run rampant. That's because Monopoly is also built on powerful American lore – the idea that anyone, with just a little bit of cash, can rise from rags to riches. Writer Mary Pilon, the author of The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World's Favorite Board Game, describes Monopoly as "the Great American Dream in a board game – or, nightmare."

The story of 'Monopoly' and American capitalism

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Thursday

The Evangelical Vote (2019)
Angela Hsieh

Throughline

The Evangelical Vote (2019)

When Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, the door opened on one of those rare opportunities to tip the balance of the highest court in the U.S. It was the opportunity that one particular voting bloc had been waiting for: evangelical Christians. Now, we await a ruling in a case that has the potential to overturn Roe v. Wade – an outcome evangelical Christians have spent decades voting and lobbying for. So how did this religious group become such a powerful force in U.S. politics? In this episode, we examine how white evangelicalism in particular became linked to conservative political issues...beginning with a roaming Irish pastor in the 1800s.

The Evangelical Vote (2019)

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Thursday

After Roe: A New Battlefield

Opponents of abortion rights parade past the U.S. Supreme Court in 1992. Marcy Nighswander/AP hide caption

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Marcy Nighswander/AP

Throughline

After Roe: A New Battlefield

The Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade transformed the landscape of abortion rights overnight. For the doctors, lawyers, feminists, and others who had fought for nationwide legalization, Roe was the end of a long battle. But for the growing movement against abortion rights, it was the beginning of a new battle: to protect the fetus, challenge abortion providers, and ultimately overturn Roe. This is the story of how opponents of abortion rights banded together, built power, and launched one of the most successful grassroots campaigns of the past century.

After Roe: A New Battlefield

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Thursday

By Accident of Birth

Painted portrait of Wong Kim Ark in the Asian American Community Heroes Mural, located in San Francisco's Chinatown. Julie Caine/Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco hide caption

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Julie Caine/Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco

Throughline

By Accident of Birth

In August of 1895, a ship called the SS Coptic approached the coast of Northern California. On that boat was a passenger from San Francisco, a young man named Wong Kim Ark who was returning home after visiting his wife and child in China. He'd taken trips like this before, and expected to come back to the city he was born in, to his life and friends. But when the ship docked, officials told him he couldn't get off. The customs agent barred him according to the Chinese Exclusion Act, which denied citizenship to Chinese immigrants. Though Wong Kim Ark had been born in the U.S. and lived his whole life there, the agent said he was not a citizen.

By Accident of Birth

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Monday

History

Abortion was once common practice in America. A small group of doctors changed that

Abortion wasn't always controversial. In fact, in colonial America it would have been considered a fairly common practice. But in the mid-1800s, a small group of physicians set out to change that.

Abortion was once common practice in America. A small group of doctors changed that

Listen · 8:06
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Thursday

The Modern White Power Movement (2020)
Connie Jin

Throughline

The Modern White Power Movement (2020)

The recent shooting in Buffalo, New York, which authorities are investigating as a hate crime, has yet again highlighted the threat posed by domestic terrorism in the U.S. At the center are violent extremists – the most lethal and persistent of whom are white supremacists and anti-government militias. They're part of a deeply interconnected movement which, since the 1980s, has pursued a mission to topple the U.S government with guerrilla warfare. Today, this movement is made up of highly-organized groups with paramilitary capabilities, but it hasn't always been this way. This week, we trace the rise of the modern white power movement.

The Modern White Power Movement (2020)

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Thursday

The Characters That Built China

Two craftsmen printing a book in kanji, the Chinese logographic system, circa 1800. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

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Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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The Characters That Built China

Today, China is a global superpower. But less than two hundred years ago, the nation was in a state of decline. After what became known as the 'century of humiliation' at the hands of Western imperialist powers, its very survival was in question. A movement arose to fight off foreign interference and preserve Chinese culture in the face of intense pressure from a rapidly-changing world. And the key to that movement was language.

The Characters That Built China

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Thursday

Before Roe: The Physicians' Crusade

A depiction of the first ovariotomy, which was performed in 1809. Library of Congress hide caption

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Library of Congress

Throughline

Before Roe: The Physicians' Crusade

Abortion wasn't always controversial. In fact, in colonial America it would have been considered a fairly common practice: a private decision made by women, and aided mostly by midwives. But in the mid-1800s, a small group of physicians set out to change that. Obstetrics was a new field, and they wanted it to be their domain—meaning, the domain of men and medicine. Led by a zealous young doctor named Horatio Storer, they launched a campaign to make abortion illegal in every state, spreading a potent cloud of moral righteousness and racial panic that one historian later called "the physicians' crusade." And so began the century of criminalization.

Before Roe: The Physicians' Crusade

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Thursday

The Shadows of the Constitution (2020)

The Preamble to the US Constitution. Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty hide caption

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Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty

Throughline

The Shadows of the Constitution (2020)

The Constitution is like America's secular Bible, our sacred founding document. As the Supreme Court debates the future of Roe v. Wade, many of us are looking more closely at the Constitution, trying to discern how it protects us. In her play, "What the Constitution Means to Me," Heidi Schreck goes through her own process of discovering what the Constitution is really about: who wrote it, who it was for, who it protected and who it didn't. Through Heidi's personal story, we learn how both the document itself and the way it's been interpreted have affected generations of Americans — and how those effects are far from ended.

The Shadows of the Constitution (2020)

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