In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, police killed unarmed 17-year-old Bobby Hutton, and Aaron Dixon decided it was time to join the Black Panther Party.

The clothes we wear say a lot about how we express ourselves. But an investigation into how these clothes ended up in our closets reveals a complex history dating back 400 years ago at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Producer Ashley Kim sits down with Sofi Thanhauser, the author of Worn: A People’s History of Clothing to learn how clothing can teach us about economics, gender and imperialism.

In World War One, millions of soldiers saw industrial warfare unlike anything they’ve seen before: artillery shells, flame throwers, poison gas. Those who saw the war on the frontlines came home with psychological wounds the world had never quite seen before. At one military hospital in Scotland named Craiglockhart, early psychiatrists treat PTSD and soldiers turn to poetry and brotherhood to heal.

From banned books to freedom of speech in academic settings, censorship is a topic that affects the everyday lives of young people.

In 2020, the Supreme Court was on the verge of transformation. Seismic events like the death of former Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the appointment of conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett, and a polarizing presidential election laid the groundwork for major changes in decision-making seen today.

Is our democracy in danger? In the years after Trump’s presidency, it’s tempting to say “not anymore,” but nowadays threats to democracy are no longer as obvious as a military coup or revolution. Instead, a democracy in danger manifests in much more subtle ways including: the steady decline of longstanding political norms and weakening of essential institutions such as the United States press and its courts system, both of which are already in jeopardy.

Although the American Civil War ended many years ago, the fight for “a more perfect union” never quite did. A few months after the union army’s victory, confederate-style, white supremacist resistance emerged even stronger than before.

The Cold War was marked by a bitter rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. Although former WWII NATO allies, what emerged was an atmosphere of constant fear for national security and a dangerous nuclear arms race.

In the 1930s, six naval powers roamed the world’s oceans: Great Britain, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan. Each nation was subject to the Washington Naval Treaty, which granted 60% of the world’s battleships to the Royal and US Navy, 20% to Japan, and 20% to France and Italy. However by 1945, the United States Navy had expanded to a fleet larger than that of all the great powers. What exactly did that mean in the wake of WWII?

As human beings, our privacy is one of our most basic needs and most sacred rights. However, in the modern information age, these rights are constantly under attack. How does the American federal government collect our data and what happens when the institutions meant to protect our privacy opts to instead use that information for their gain?

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has roots in strong firearm regulation and gun safety policy, but over the years, it’s become a mantra for gun rights advocates.

Throughout the world, democratic progress has not only halted, but receded over the past few years and the United States has been one of the main perpetrators.

There’s a lot of evidence that America is more divided than ever. Our politics, media, and ideologies are so polarized that it puts a stress on our unity as a country. But Dr. Denis Lacorne says that, in spite of that tension, America’s strength comes from our nation’s commitment to tolerance. The trick is figuring out the balance of tolerating the intolerant.

The Founders of the United States envisioned the presidency as an office that would be minimal in reach. They didn’t want the USA to be a monarchy.

With a name like “The United States of America”, it can be easy to forget that this country’s borders extend well beyond the fifty states of the union. In fact, millions of American citizens live on US territory well outside those borders. It’s not just Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands, and the North Mariana Islands, but the many military bases we occupy across the globe too.

One morning in 1991, Senator Jesse Helms’ house was covered with a giant fake condom in an act of protest. Helms had been a vocal opponent of funding AIDS research and he had introduced an infamous and popular bill amendment that prevented federal money from being spent on AIDS research. There were few treatments available at the time, and with no help from the government, HIV was actively spreading across the country. In 1991 alone, nearly 30,000 American died of AIDS, and the numbers would keep rising until the late nineties.

As the ashes of the Third Reich settled, a divided Germany struggled to come to terms with what just occurred. Generations of German philosophers, politicians, academics, and common citizens slowly and collectively decided to confront the horrific actions of the Nazis. They called this process “Vergangenheitsaufarbeitung”, or “working off the past”, though it has several names. Step by step, through a feeling of collective guilt and moral responsibility, they were able to make amends with the world and build legal and societal safeguards against hatred and extremism.