Accessibility links
Julie Caine Julie Caine is supervising senior editor for NPR's Throughline.
Headshot of Julie Caine
Stories By

Julie Caine

Thursday

The Deadly Story of the U.S. Civil Service
Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Throughline

The Deadly Story of the U.S. Civil Service

When James Garfield won the Presidency in 1880, Charles Guiteau got ready to accept his new government job. No one had actually offered him a job – but he'd campaigned for Garfield, so he assumed he'd be rewarded. That was the spoils system, and it was how the government worked.

The Deadly Story of the U.S. Civil Service

Listen · 49:31
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1246832478/1269205844" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

The Alien Enemies Act
AP

Throughline

The Alien Enemies Act

In March 2025, President Trump issued an executive order invoking a centuries-old law: the Alien Enemies Act. The Act allows a president to detain or deport citizens of foreign adversaries to the United States, but only in the case of a "declared war" or "invasion." Now, the Trump administration and the courts are locked in a battle over whether the president's use of the Act, under which people have already been deported, is legal. Today on the show: where the Alien Enemies Act came from, how presidents have used it before, and what that tells us about what's to come.

The Alien Enemies Act

Listen · 49:02
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1245273514/1269167694" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

When Things Fall Apart
KenCanning/Getty Images

Perspective

Throughline

When Things Fall Apart

Climate disaster, political unrest, random violence: Western society can often feel like what the filmmaker Werner Herzog calls "a thin layer of ice on top of an ocean of chaos and darkness." But is that actually true — or the way it has to be? Today on the show, what really happens when things fall apart. This episode originally published in 2023.

When Things Fall Apart

Listen · 49:01
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1198920734/1269016380" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

Get Rich Quick: The American Lottery
Julie Caine for NPR

Throughline

Get Rich Quick: The American Lottery

Want to get rich quick? You're not alone. Right now, Americans spend over $100 billion, yes billion, every year on lottery tickets. Today on the show, in collaboration with Scratch and Win from WGBH, how the mafia, Sputnik, medical equipment, and the electoral college led to American's obsession with playing the numbers.

Get Rich Quick: The American Lottery

Listen · 49:41
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1242489340/1268826246" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

We the People: The Right to Remain Silent
Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

Throughline

We the People: The Right to Remain Silent

The Fifth Amendment. You have the right to remain silent when you're being questioned in police custody, thanks to the Fifth's protection against self-incrimination. But most people end up talking to police anyway. Why? Today on Throughline's We the People: the Fifth Amendment, the right to remain silent, and how hard it can be to use it.

We the People: The Right to Remain Silent

Listen · 48:36
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1241163687/1268492593" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Sesame Street
Hulton Archive/Children's Television Workshop/Getty Images

Throughline

Sesame Street

Big Bird, politics, and the ABCs: how a television show made to represent New York City neighborhoods like Harlem and the Bronx became beloved by families around a divided country. This episode originally ran in 2022 as "Getting to Sesame Street."

Sesame Street

Listen · 48:47
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1239646567/1268124374" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

Winter is Coming
Getty Images

Throughline

Winter is Coming

Dinosaurs, Carl Sagan, and nuclear war. There was a moment in the not-so-distant past when we learned what drove the dinosaurs extinct — and that discovery, made during the Cold War, may have helped save humans from the same fate. In this episode, we'll take a journey from prehistoric times to the nuclear age and explore how humans contend with fears of the end.

Winter is Coming

Listen · 51:01
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1238261970/1267813369" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

We the People: Succession of Power
Library of Congress

Throughline

We the People: Succession of Power

The 25th amendment. A few years before JFK was shot, an idealistic young lawyer set out on a mission to convince people something essential was missing from the Constitution: clear instructions for what should happen if a U.S. president was no longer able to serve. On this episode of our ongoing series We the People, the story behind one of the last amendments to the Constitution, and the man who got it done.

We the People: Succession of Power

Listen · 47:46
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1236242665/1267491757" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Health Insurance in America
Mario Tama/Getty Images

Throughline

Health Insurance in America

Millions of Americans depend on their jobs for health insurance. But that's not the case in many other wealthy countries. How did the U.S. end up with a system that's so expensive, yet leaves so many people vulnerable? On this episode, how a temporary solution created an everlasting problem. This episode originally ran in 2020 as The Everlasting Problem.

Health Insurance in America

Listen · 52:58
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1234145475/1267097621" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

The Evolution of Presidential Power
Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images

Throughline

The Evolution of Presidential Power

What can and can't the president do — and how do we know? The framers of the U.S. Constitution left the powers of the executive branch powers deliberately vague, and in doing so opened the door for every president to decide how much power they could claim. Over time, that's become quite a lot. This episode originally ran in 2020 and has been updated with new material.

The Evolution of Presidential Power

Listen · 51:40
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1232637594/1266733632" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

The Anti-Vaccine Movement
Scott Eisen/Getty Images

Throughline

The Anti-Vaccine Movement

The alleged link between vaccines and autism was first published in 1998, in a since-retracted study in medical journal The Lancet. The claim has been repeatedly disproven: there is no evidence that vaccines and autism are related. But by the mid-2000s, the myth was out there, and its power was growing, fueled by distrust of government, misinformation, and high-profile boosters like Jim Carrey and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. In this episode: the roots of the modern anti-vaccine movement, and of the fears that still fuel it – from a botched polio vaccine, to the discredited autism study, to today.

The Anti-Vaccine Movement

Listen · 48:48
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1231104444/1266379017" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

The History of Birthright Citizenship

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

toggle caption
Julie Caine/Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco

Throughline

The History of Birthright Citizenship

Wong Kim Ark was born in the U.S. and lived his whole life here. But when he returned from a trip to China in August of 1895, officials wouldn't let him leave his ship. Citing the Chinese Exclusion Act, which denied citizenship to Chinese immigrants, they told him he was not, in fact, a citizen of the United States.

The History of Birthright Citizenship

Listen · 57:44
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1229439880/1265969354" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

The Kingdom Behind Glass
KOLA SULAIMON/Getty Images

Throughline

The Kingdom Behind Glass

Who owns stolen art? Today on the show, the bloody journey of a Benin Bronze from West Africa to the halls of one of England's most elite universities — a tale of imperialism, betrayal, and the making of the modern world.

The Kingdom Behind Glass

Listen · 48:24
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1227850875/1265598666" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

We The People: Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Alexander Aksakov/Getty Images

Throughline

We The People: Cruel and Unusual Punishment

The Eighth Amendment. What is cruel and unusual punishment? Who gets to define and decide its boundaries? And how did the Constitution's authors imagine it might change? Today on Throughline's We the People: the Eighth Amendment, the death penalty, and what cruel and unusual really means.

We The People: Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Listen · 47:58
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1226281141/1265202515" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Ralph Nader, Consumer Crusader (Throwback)
Keystone/Getty Images

Throughline

Ralph Nader, Consumer Crusader (Throwback)

Whether it's pesticides in your cereal or the door plug flying off your airplane, consumers today have plenty of reasons to feel like corporations might not have their best interests at heart. At a moment when the number of product recalls is high and trust in the government is low, we're going to revisit a time when a generation of people felt empowered to demand accountability from both companies and elected leaders — and got results. Today on the show, the story of the U.S. consumer movement and its controversial leader: the once famous, now infamous Ralph Nader.

Ralph Nader, Consumer Crusader (Throwback)

Listen · 46:39
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1224897141/1264857645" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">