History : NPR

Chester Higgins' camera brings a 360 degree view to Black life

Several pyramids in the morning light in the royal burial grounds in Meroe, Sudan. Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York hide caption

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Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York

Chester Higgins' camera brings a 360 degree view to Black life

March 31, 2022 • Acclaimed African-American photographer Chester Higgins has made dozens of trips to Africa since the 1970's to document the continent's history and culture. Now 75, he has no plans on slowing down.

Chester Higgins Profile

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Beautifully Illustrated Antique Engraved Victorian Illustration of Luxurious Early American Railway Pullman Dining Car, 1877. Source: Original edition from my own archives. Copyright has expired on this artwork. Digitally restored. bauhaus1000/Getty Images hide caption

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bauhaus1000/Getty Images

Throughline

The Land of the Fee (2021)

March 31, 2022 • Tipping is a norm in the United States—and it's always been controversial. The practice took off after the Civil War, as employers sought cheap labor from formerly enslaved people: if tips were expected, companies could get away with paying laughably low wages. But the practice was always controversial, and has been vehemently challenged since it first came to the U.S. from Europe. We speak with Nina Martyris, a journalist who's written about the history of tipping in the United States, to find out how tipping—once deemed a "cancer in the breast of democracy"— went from being considered wholly un-American to becoming a deeply American custom.

The Land of the Fee (2021)

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Stone Age brain surgery? It might have been more survivable than you think

Empire of the Scalpel, by Ira Rutkow Simon & Schuster hide caption

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Simon & Schuster

Shots - Health News

Stone Age brain surgery? It might have been more survivable than you think

Fresh Air

March 29, 2022 • Medical historian Ira Rutkow points to physical evidence that suggests Stone Age people conducted — and survived — brain surgery. His new book is Empire of the Scalpel.

Stone Age brain surgery? It might have been more survivable than you think

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Vladimir Putin speaks with Russian oligarch Igor Sechin (center right) in 2009. AFP/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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AFP/AFP via Getty Images

Planet Money

How Putin Conquered Russia's Oligarchy

March 29, 2022 • In 2000, Vladimir Putin began targeting oligarchs who did not bend to his authority. The loyalists who remained — and new ones who subsequently got rich — became like ATM machines for the president.

Historians say explorers got it wrong: It's not Machu Picchu, it's Huayna Picchu

The Inca citadel known as Machu Picchu is pictured with the Huayna Picchu mountain in the background. Sergio Amiti/Getty Images hide caption

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Sergio Amiti/Getty Images

The Americas

Historians say explorers got it wrong: It's not Machu Picchu, it's Huayna Picchu

March 27, 2022 • A Peruvian historian and an American archaeologist say Hiram Bingham was given bad information when he arrived at the ancient Incan ruins — and we've all been going along with it.

Author Interviews

Remembering Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as secretary of state

Fresh Air

March 25, 2022 • Appointed by President Clinton in 1997, Albright advocated for the expansion of NATO into the former Soviet bloc countries of Eastern Europe. She died March 23. Originally broadcast in 2003 and 2018.

Remembering Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as secretary of state

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Edna Sims

Short Wave

Hal Walker: The Man Who Shot The Moon

March 25, 2022 • In addition to flying, landing, and returning from the moon in 1969 — NASA's Apollo 11 crew helped with a series of scientific experiments. One of them was to leave a special instrument with lots of little reflectors on the surface of the moon. The goal of that experiment was to beam a laser at the moon. Today on the show, Scientist-In-Residence Regina G. Barber talks to host Aaron Scott about the lunar laser ranging experiment — and how shooting that laser helped us better understand one of Einstein's theories.

Hal Walker: The Man Who Shot The Moon

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The gift Madeleine Albright leaves is showing us what's possible

Madeleine Albright is pictured in 2018 on the set of Madam Secretary. David M. Russell/CBS via Getty Images hide caption

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David M. Russell/CBS via Getty Images

Perspective

The gift Madeleine Albright leaves is showing us what's possible

March 24, 2022 • Today, as Ukraine defends itself against military forces from Russia, Albright's journey is especially important.

Nik Wheeler/Corbis Nik Wheeler/Corbis hide caption

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Nik Wheeler/Corbis

Throughline

All Wars Are Fought Twice

March 24, 2022 • "All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory," writes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen. This week on Throughline, we want to pause the news cycle to think about not just how war is experienced or consumed, but how it's remembered. A refugee from the Vietnam War, Nguyen calls himself a scholar of memory — someone who studies how we remember events of the past, both as people and as nations. As the world watches the war in Ukraine — and with the U.S. departure from Afghanistan still fresh — we speak with Nguyen about national memory, selective forgetting, and the refugee stories that might ultimately help us move forward.

All Wars Are Fought Twice

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How 'shock therapy' created Russian oligarchs and paved the path for Putin

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in a meeting with Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich (on the left, in the center) in 2010. Alexei Nikolsky/AP hide caption

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Alexei Nikolsky/AP

Planet Money

How 'shock therapy' created Russian oligarchs and paved the path for Putin

March 22, 2022 • In the 1990s, reformers adopted a radical economic program in Russia. It devastated ordinary Russians and created a new class of oligarchs. And it explains the rise of Putin and the leader he is today

Guantánamo prosecutors are exploring plea deals in 9/11 case after years of setbacks

After 20 years of setbacks, the U.S. military court in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is exploring the idea of settlement talks for the 9/11 detainees. If that happens, the defendants could plead guilty, serve life in prison and avoid the death penalty. Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images

Investigations

Guantánamo prosecutors are exploring plea deals in 9/11 case after years of setbacks

March 21, 2022 • After 20 years of failure, the U.S. military court in Guantánamo is admitting a 9/11 trial may never happen. Instead, the defendants may plead guilty, serve life in prison and avoid the death penalty.

Guantánamo prosecutors are exploring plea deals in 9/11 case after years of setbacks

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Zelenskyy's plea to Congress recalls Churchill and others who fought for democracy

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of Congress in Washington on Dec. 26, 1941. Behind him on the Senate rostrum sit Rep. William P. Cole Jr., speaker pro-tem, left, and Vice President Henry A. Wallace. At lower left is Senate Majority Leader Alben W. Barkley. AP file photo hide caption

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AP file photo

Zelenskyy's plea to Congress recalls Churchill and others who fought for democracy

March 19, 2022 • Other addresses to Congress by foreign leaders have paled compared to Winston Churchill welding with his words the alliance that overcame Adolph Hitler, until Volodymyr Zelenskyy's this week.

Yuri Kochiyama speaks at an anti-war demonstration in New York City's Central Park around 1968. Courtesy of the Kochiyama family/UCLA Asian American Studies Center hide caption

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Courtesy of the Kochiyama family/UCLA Asian American Studies Center

Throughline

Our Own People (2021)

March 17, 2022 • A Japanese American activist whose early political awakenings came while incarcerated in the concentration camps of World War II America, Kochiyama dedicated her life to social justice and liberation movements. One year after the spa shootings that killed eight people in Atlanta, Georgia — including six women of Asian descent — Throughline reflects on Kochiyama's ideas around the Asian American struggle, and what solidarity and intersectionality can mean for all struggles.

Our Own People (2021)

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Gonzaga is coming in hot to March Madness. But what's behind the name?

Gonzaga players celebrate after defeating Saint Mary's in an NCAA college basketball championship game at the West Coast Conference tournament on March 8 in Las Vegas. John Locher/AP hide caption

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John Locher/AP