The Last Archive

The Last Archive

Pushkin Industries

The Last Archive​ is a show about the history of truth, and the historical context for our current fake news, post-truth moment. It’s a show about how we know what we know, and why it seems, these days, as if we don’t know anything at all anymore. The show is written & hosted by Ben Naddaff-Hafrey, and was created by the historian Jill Lepore. iHeartMedia is the exclusive podcast partner of Pushkin Industries.

Pushkin Loves Love Songs: Babyface, Broken Hearts, and the Best Genre for Love

Pushkin Loves Love Songs: Babyface, Broken Hearts, and the Best Genre for Love

Nothing says romance like a perfect playlist—except, maybe, a special network-wide episode about love songs. In this Valentine’s Day special, Broken Record hosts Justin Richmond and Leah Rose make their cases: is R&B the undisputed sound of love? Are sad songs more romantic? Can country win the day? Plus, the legendary songwriter Babyface talks about how young love shaped his most enduring ballads, Malcolm Gladwell breaks down the perfect break up song, and Ben Naddaff-Hafrey writes a love song

Feb 14, • 36:07

Get Happier, Help Others: Some Good Ideas About Giving

Get Happier, Help Others: Some Good Ideas About Giving

It's the season of giving: colorful paper and shiny bows, sure, and charitable giving, too. In this special episode, Jacob Goldstein, the host of What's Your Problem, gets smart about donating. Did you know that spending money on others makes you happier than spending money on yourself? Or that altruistic nerds have discovered four of the most impactful charities in the world (per dollar spent)? Have you ever wondered how poker players think about giving? Dr. Laurie Santos from The Happiness Lab

Dec 2, 2024 • 51:09

John Birch vs. the PTA

John Birch vs. the PTA

In the 1960s, a right-wing organization led by a former candy tycoon rose to fame in America for their anti-communist campaigns. They called themselves the John Birch Society. Then, they tried to take over the Parent-Teacher Association. This week, what the battle between the two organizations tells us about the fate of American politics, and the history of your Halloween candy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oct 31, 2024 • 33:08

Leon Neyfakh on the Bush v. Gore Fiasco

Leon Neyfakh on the Bush v. Gore Fiasco

Today on the show, Leon Neyfakh, co-creator of the hit podcasts Slow Burn and Fiasco, discusses his season on the aftermath of the 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush. You can listen to the full season of Fiasco now.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oct 24, 2024 • 42:38

Part 2: Long Jump, Tall Tale

Part 2: Long Jump, Tall Tale

Jesse Owens spent the rest of his life retelling the story of the 1936 games and his encounter with Luz Long. We trace the evolution of a tall tale, discovering the hidden life of one of America’s iconic sports heroes. This is part two of a two-part crossover from Revisionist History’s ‘Hitler’s Olympics’ series. To listen to the whole series, head over to the Revisionist History show page.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oct 10, 2024 • 45:02

Part 1: The Jiggle & the Giddy Up

Part 1: The Jiggle & the Giddy Up

The most famous athlete in 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany was the American sprinter Jesse Owens, and one of the most famous stories from those Games was the unexpected, heartwarming encounter Owens had with the German long jumper Luz Long. The friendship between the two athletes would serve as a symbol of how sports can overcome national antagonisms. We wonder: What really happened at the long jump pit that day?  This is part one of a two-part crossover from Revisionist History’s ‘Hitler’s Olympi

Oct 10, 2024 • 39:55

Pushkin Goes to the Olympics

Pushkin Goes to the Olympics

Legends are made at the Olympics and this summer shows across the Pushkin network are bringing their unique takes to Olympic stories. This special episode includes excerpts from a few: a Cautionary Tale about underestimating female marathoners, a Jesse Owens story from Revisionist History’s series on Hitler’s Olympics, and—from What’s Your Problem—the new technology that’s helping Olympic athletes get stronger. Check out other show feeds as well, the Happiness Lab and A Slight Change of Plans ar

Jul 26, 2024 • 38:40

70 Years of Brown v. Board of Education

70 Years of Brown v. Board of Education

Jill Lepore returns to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education with a special episode of The Last Archive. She and Ben Naddaff-Hafrey explore the amazing new AI-powered recreation of the Brown v. Board cases over at the Oyez project. Then, Kenneth W. Mack, the Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law at Harvard University, stops by to discuss the enduring significance of the case.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 17, 2024 • 34:06

Man in the Box - 'The Deadline'

Man in the Box - 'The Deadline'

Today, we’re ending our Deadline mini-series with an essay about one of our favorite TV shows: Dr. Who. Afterwards, Jill and Ben talk about the greatness of genre fiction and Jill’s love-hate relationship with postmodernism. We hope you’ve enjoyed this special series of essays from The Deadline. You can purchase the full collection at https://www.pushkin.fm/audiobooks/the-deadline-essays. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 2, 2024 • 50:35

No, We Cannot - ‘The Deadline’

No, We Cannot - ‘The Deadline’

This episode features an essay from Jill Lepore’s ‘The Deadline.’ Why are there so many stories about the end of the world these days? Jill’s essay “No, We Cannot,” elaborates a political theory of dystopian fiction. And then, after the essay, Jill and Ben talk about the use and misuse of the genre.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apr 25, 2024 • 37:04

The Disruption Machine - ‘The Deadline’

The Disruption Machine - ‘The Deadline’

This episode features an essay from Jill Lepore’s ‘The Deadline.’ Today on the show, Jill and Ben travel back in time to the disrupt-or-die 2010s to revisit Jill’s essay about the gospel of disruption. And afterwards, they talk about the consequences and challenges taking on controversial subjects, Ben’s time as a media disruptor, and Jill’s time as a temp worker.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apr 18, 2024 • 56:22

It’s Still Alive - ‘The Deadline’

It’s Still Alive - ‘The Deadline’

This episode features an essay from Jill Lepore’s ‘The Deadline.’ Why do we insist on misreading ‘Frankenstein?’ Hardly a day goes by without someone comparing some new technology to Frankenstein’s monster. But there’s a much richer set of lessons to draw from Mary Shelley’s book. Today on the show, Jill reads her essay “It’s Still Alive.” And then afterwards, Jill and Ben talk about the meaning of the story, the biography of its author, and how what you read shapes who you are.See omnystudio.co

Apr 11, 2024 • 34:09

The Valley of the Dolls - ‘The Deadline’

The Valley of the Dolls - ‘The Deadline’

This episode features an essay from Jill Lepore’s ‘The Deadline.’ Jill reads her essay on the tangled history of Barbie. And then, after, Ben and Jill talk about how the film fits in with the core concerns of the essay — the tangled web of intellectual property, IP theft, and the relationship between corporations and feminism.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apr 4, 2024 • 39:49

The Iceman - ‘The Deadline’

The Iceman - ‘The Deadline’

In our first installment of essays from The Deadline, we’re bringing you ‘The Ice Man,’ a story about the history of cryogenic freezing, and the perils of being unable to let go.  After the essay, Jill and Ben talk about where the essay began and the moral challenges of writing about a living person. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mar 28, 2024 • 51:27

Coming Soon: Jill Lepore’s The Deadline

Coming Soon: Jill Lepore’s The Deadline

Last year, Jill Lepore published a book called The Deadline. It’s a compilation of years worth of beautiful essays Jill has written on everything from the history of cryogenics to the Silicon Valley gospel of disruption. For the next six weeks, we’re going to be bringing you one of those essays each week. And then, at the end of each essay, Ben Naddaff-Hafrey will interview Jill about her craft and the themes of her essays.  Remember when DVDs had special features? This would be the best of the

Mar 21, 2024 • 1:25

From Decoder Ring: “The Curious Case of Columbo's Message to Romania Part 1”

From Decoder Ring: “The Curious Case of Columbo's Message to Romania Part 1”

We’re bringing you an episode of Decoder Ring from our friends at Slate. This episode dives into a strange historical urban legend: Did Peter Falk of Columbo fame really help quell a Romanian communist revolt during the Cold War? Host Willa Paskin investigates. Listen to “The Curious Case of Columbo’s Message to Romania Part 2” on Decoder Ring’s feed and follow to never miss an episode: https://slate.com/podcasts/decoder-ring. This podcast was written by Willa Paskin, who produces Decoder Ring w

Mar 14, 2024 • 41:32

The Returns: A Conversation with Jill Lepore

The Returns: A Conversation with Jill Lepore

In a special, all-new episode of ‘The Returns,’ host emerita Jill Lepore returns to talk about the post-truth moment we find ourselves in and what it means for the 2024 election.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mar 7, 2024 • 1:01:58

The Returns: Epiphany

The Returns: Epiphany

Each week on ‘The Returns,’ we pull a different episode from our own archive to help put our present politics into historical context. This episode, Epiphany, first ran in 2021, as the finale to Season 2, which was all about lies, fakes, frauds, and hoaxes. In this episode, Jill Lepore takes listeners down the winding path from the little-known Iron Mountain hoax of the late 1960s to the Capitol insurrection on January 6th, 2021.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Feb 29, 2024 • 46:37

The Returns: Hush Rush

The Returns: Hush Rush

Each week on ‘The Returns,’ we pull a different episode from our archive to help put our present politics into historical context.  In the 1980s, Rush Limbaugh transformed talk radio. In the process, he radicalized his listeners and the conservative movement. Limbaugh’s talk radio style became a staple of the modern right. Then, the left joined the fray. This week: partisan loudmouth versus partisan loudmouth, and the shifting media landscape that helped create modern political warfare. This epi

Feb 22, 2024 • 50:54

The Returns: Project X

The Returns: Project X

Each week on ‘The Returns,’ we pull a different episode from our archive to put our present politics into historical context. The election of 1952 brought all kinds of new technology into the political sphere. The Eisenhower campaign experimented with the first television ads to feature an American presidential candidate. And on election night, CBS News premiered the first computer to predict an American election — the UNIVAC. Safe to say, that part didn’t go according to plan. But election nigh

Feb 15, 2024 • 45:27

The Returns: An Election Mini-Series from The Last Archive

The Returns: An Election Mini-Series from The Last Archive

Election Year 2024 is upon us. And it promises to be a bit of a mess. But where did all this mess come from? In a 4-episode mini-series drawing from our own archive, Jill Lepore and Ben Naddaff-Hafrey investigate, situate, and contextualize our present moment in the history that brought us here. This series contains episodes from our original seasons alongside new material. Coming next week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Feb 8, 2024 • 1:42

The Unmarked Graveyard from Radio Diaries

The Unmarked Graveyard from Radio Diaries

This is the first episode in Radio Diaries’ new series The Unmarked Graveyard, untangling mysteries from America’s largest public cemetery. Each week, they’re bringing you stories of how people ended up on New York City's Hart Island, the lives they lived, and the people they left behind. This debut episode goes back to a few years ago, when a young man who called himself Stephen became a fixture in Manhattan’s Riverside Park. Locals started noticing him sitting on the same park bench day after

Nov 20, 2023 • 23:45

Jill Lepore’s The Deadline

Jill Lepore’s The Deadline

Today we’re bringing back Jill Lepore with a chapter from her latest book The Deadline. The astonishing collection is the art of the essay at its best. Enjoy this chapter and purchase the audiobook here or wherever you get your audiobooks.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oct 24, 2023 • 24:05

Back In the U.S.S.R. from McCartney: A Life in Lyrics

Back In the U.S.S.R. from McCartney: A Life in Lyrics

What’s Paul McCartney, a Liverpudlian, doing writing about the Soviet Union in 1968? Turns out McCartney was doing a little Chuck Berry, a bit of The Beach Boys, some pastiche and a lot of subversion. Opening “The White Album”, “Back in the U.S.S.R.” raised some eyebrows. And because of The Beatles’ evolving position within the former Eastern Bloc the song has over the years taken on a life of its own, following the trajectory of the West’s often fraught relationship with the region. Enjoy this

Oct 4, 2023 • 18:33

The Sudden Celebrity of Sir John Knight from Revisionist History

The Sudden Celebrity of Sir John Knight from Revisionist History

In the battles over gun rights, a shadowy English nobleman from the 17th century has unexpectedly taken center stage. Who was he? What did he do that has — 300 years later — endeared him to a generation of legal scholars? Revisionist History explores the cult of personality around the mysterious Sir John Knight. Enjoy this episode from Revisionist History, another Pushkin Industries podcast.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aug 31, 2023 • 46:45

The Krononauts

The Krononauts

In our season finale, we travel through time.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 27, 2023 • 48:04

Callings

Callings

In the 1940s, a freelance wiretapper named Big Jim Vaus got mixed up with the cops, the mob, and the most famous evangelist in America. This week on The Last Archive: The ballad of Big Jim and what the intersections of telephone history and American spirituality reveal about how we understand the phone. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 20, 2023 • 43:12

Acting Out

Acting Out

In the 1930s, at a women's reformatory in upstate New York, an upstart social scientist made a study that launched the field of social network analysis. It was revolutionary, but missed something happening at the same time at the same school, something we know now in part from the story of the school's most famous inmate: Ella Fitzgerald.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 13, 2023 • 49:18

Parakeet Panic

Parakeet Panic

When invasive parakeets began to spread in New York City in the 1970s, the government decided it needed to kill them all. Today: The offbeat panic about wild parrots, and a history of anxieties about population growth.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 6, 2023 • 40:25

The Word For Man Is Ishi

The Word For Man Is Ishi

In 1911, a Native American man, the only member of his community to survive a genocide, encountered the new Anthropology department at The University of California, Berkeley. What happened next helped to define the ethical quandaries of the field and, in a strange turn, the history of science fiction. This episode: That story and the moral stakes of imagining the past and the future.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jun 29, 2023 • 49:18

Player Piano

Player Piano

This week on The Last Archive, the story of the composer Raymond Scott’s lifelong quest to build an automatic songwriting machine, and what it means for our own AI-addled, ChatGPT world.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jun 22, 2023 • 53:09

Coming Soon: Season 4

Coming Soon: Season 4

This upcoming season on The Last Archive: early artificial intelligence, the forgotten origins of social network theory, invasive species panics, freelance wiretappers, time travelers, and science fiction family histories. How do we know what we know? Why does it feel like sometimes it’s impossible to know anything at all? Host emeritus Jill Lepore passes the torch to producer Ben Naddaff-Hafrey for six gripping stories about the history of truth. The Last Archive Season 4 launches on June 22nd

Jun 8, 2023 • 2:06

Is Shakespeare American? From Where There’s a Will

Is Shakespeare American? From Where There’s a Will

We’re bringing you an episode of a new Pushkin podcast we’re enjoying and think you will, too. Where There’s a Will: Finding Shakespeare searches for the surprising places Shakespeare shows up outside the theater. Host Barry Edelstein, artistic director at one of the country’s leading Shakespeare theaters, and co-host writer and director Em Weinstein, ask what is it about Shakespeare that’s given him a continuous afterlife in all sorts of unexpected ways? You’ll hear Shakespeare doing rehabilita

Dec 22, 2022 • 11:23

The Last Archivist Introduces: Click Here

The Last Archivist Introduces: Click Here

From Click Here, a podcast about the world of cyber and intelligence.  As Vladimir Putin attempts to redraw the Iron Curtain, we take a trip back to 1985 to tell the story of four American musicians who smuggled messages in and out of the former Soviet Union — with music. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/click-here/id1225077306See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dec 21, 2022 • 21:15

The Lost Archive

The Lost Archive

Jill Lepore goes back to her first archive — the public library in the town where she grew up. In this season finale, old books, hot dogs, and a town hidden beneath a lake.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dec 8, 2022 • 38:14

The Weather Vane

The Weather Vane

The story of weather forecasting is the story of how humans came to think they could predict the future. In this episode, Jill Lepore looks at the history of meteorology, and the story of a revolutionary cloud scientist who tried to control the weather.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dec 1, 2022 • 44:24

Good Boy

Good Boy

In 1920, a young writer named Hugh Lofting published the first Dr. Dolittle story. A century years later, Jill Lepore goes in search of the new Dr. Dolittles changing the world of animal science. Specifically, dog science.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nov 22, 2022 • 53:32

The Farming Game

The Farming Game

During the 1970s farm crisis, a young family nearly lost everything as family farms and agricultural folk knowledge began to vanish. Then, they invented a board game.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nov 17, 2022 • 49:21

The Tree Branch

The Tree Branch

This episode, an alternate history: imagining what the world might be like if, fifty years ago, in 1972, Americans had an amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting not only protection–but representation–to the natural world.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nov 10, 2022 • 40:24

Trial by Teenager, Part 2

Trial by Teenager, Part 2

The fact-checking experiment gets scaled up with 40 students in two states. The Super Bowl of fact-checking, and a final test of an idea that might help save American democracy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nov 3, 2022 • 38:01

Trial by Teenager, Part 1

Trial by Teenager, Part 1

What if there were a way to stop politicians from lying on social media? Jill Lepore heads to a local high school to test out a crazy idea: Should juries of high school history students decide whether each and every political ad is true enough to be posted to social media?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oct 27, 2022 • 41:20

Information, Please!

Information, Please!

What if one book could contain the sum of human knowledge? Jill Lepore looks at the history of an improbable Enlightenment idea, tracing it from Encyclopedia Britannica to Wikipedia and beyond.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oct 27, 2022 • 49:37

Coming Soon: Season Three

Coming Soon: Season Three

Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore returns with the third season of her Pushkin Industries podcast The Last Archive. Across two seasons, Lepore has unspooled a history of the United States's post-truth crisis — of how we know what we know and why it seems lately as if we can't agree on anything at all. In her third and final season, Lepore tells eight stories about common knowledge. From high school juries ruling on the truthfulness of political ads to profiles of cutting-

Oct 13, 2022 • 2:04

Introducing: The Last Archivist

Introducing: The Last Archivist

PROGRAMMING NOTE: The third season of The Last Archive is coming this fall! It will remain free and available everywhere. In the meantime, we are launching a new, subscription-only series as part of the Pushkin+ offering. It’s called The Last Archivist, a series of conversations between historian Jill Lepore and collectors, curators, librarians, and keepers of history. This first episode is available for free, but if you want to listen to the rest of the series, subscribe in Apple Podcasts, or a

Aug 4, 2022 • 18:13

Relax and Win from Legacy of Speed

Relax and Win from Legacy of Speed

Sharing a new Pushkin show, Legacy of Speed. When two Black sprinters raised their fists in protest at the 1968 Olympic Games, it shook the world. More than 50 years later, the ripple effects of their activism are still felt. Host Malcolm Gladwel tells the stories of the runners who took a stand, and the coaches and mentors who helped make them fast enough — and brave enough — to change the world. In this episode, we hear how coach Bud Winter took what he learned from working with fighter pilot

Jun 14, 2022 • 4:15

The Sanchez Problem from Against the Rules

The Sanchez Problem from Against the Rules

We’re hard at work on Season 3 of the show, but in the meantime, we wanted to share an episode from another Pushkin podcast, Against the Rules. It’s hosted by  best-selling author Michael Lewis. This season, Lewis is talking about expertise: why Americans are pretty good at creating experts, but really terrible at listening to them. And this particular episode takes on a subject many of you might be familiar with, especially if you’re longtime listeners of The Last Archive: Expert witnesses. Bac

May 3, 2022 • 40:02

Revisiting Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis

Revisiting Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis

This week, we're sharing an excerpt of Michael Lewis' new audiobook. Michael published his first book, "Liar's Poker," in 1989. It’s about his time as a bond salesman on Wall Street — and it was a runaway best seller. For the first time, Pushkin is releasing an unabridged audiobook edition, read by Michael himself. Incorporating Pushkin’s signature sound design, scoring, archival tape and Michael’s incredible insight – this new edition of Liar’s Poker perfectly captures an era of greed, gluttony

Feb 8, 2022 • 15:32

Call The Last Archive

Call The Last Archive

Our first two seasons were all about problems, or, mainly, about one problem: Why does it seem so hard, lately, to know anything at all? How did it come to be that people can’t agree on basic matters of fact? In our new season, we’re all about answers. But: We need your help! So we’re asking for your ideas. Tell us about a breakthrough you’ve had. Or a fix you’ve heard about. What works? What helps? What’s the way out of this pickle? Call us. Leave a message on the answering machine we’ve got h

Feb 3, 2022 • 1:10

Miracle And Wonder: Conversations With Paul Simon

Miracle And Wonder: Conversations With Paul Simon

Presenting: An Excerpt from Miracle And Wonder: Conversations With Paul Simon by Malcolm Gladwell and Bruce Headlam. Download the audiobook today at miracleaudibook.com and receive an exclusive listener's guide pdf featuring additional commentary from Bruce, the producers and editors of Miracle and Wonder. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dec 8, 2021 • 32:50

The Evening Rocket: Robin Hood

The Evening Rocket: Robin Hood

At the start of 2021, Elon Musk briefly became the richest man in the world. The global pandemic was a boom time for American billionaires, many of whom saw their wealth rise even as much of the world was locked down. As Musk, Bezos, Gates and others jockeyed for first place in the world’s richest-man contest, the rise of cryptocurrencies was generating headlines about the fictive quality of money. “All forms of currency are acts of imagination”, says Jill Lepore: they require communal belief in

Nov 29, 2021 • 28:12

The Evening Rocket: Baby X

The Evening Rocket: Baby X

The science fiction that Silicon Valley techno-billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel adore often concerns gleaming futures in which fantastically powerful and often immensely rich men colonize other planets. In this episode, Jill Lepore takes a look at the science fiction that’s usually left out of this vision. New Wave, feminist, post-colonial science fiction. Including the story of Baby X, a story from the 1970s about a child - like Musk’s youngest son - named X. Learn more

Nov 22, 2021 • 27:54

The Evening Rocket: Iron Man

The Evening Rocket: Iron Man

How Silicon Valley capitalism is as much about narrative as the bottom line. In 2008 when Tesla Motors launched their first car, the completely electric Roadster, Tesla was a great story. Something genuinely new. An engineering marvel. Elon Musk as CEO was an even better story. He had already disrupted banking and aerospace. Now the automobile industry. That same year, the superhero film Iron Man was released. Its creators turned to Musk to help shape this version of the character of Tony Stark,

Nov 15, 2021 • 28:26

The Evening Rocket: Planet B

The Evening Rocket: Planet B

Why does Elon Musk believe he can save the world by colonizing Mars? When PayPal was bought for $1.5 billion, Elon Musk and other company founders made huge personal fortunes. Musk used his to start the rocket company, SpaceX. He also began talking about very big plans for the future of humanity. He wanted humans to become ‘a multi-planetary species’ and said he was accumulating resources to 'extend the light of consciousness to the stars’. Soon he was talking about humans moving permanently to

Nov 8, 2021 • 28:39

The Evening Rocket: Dimension X

The Evening Rocket: Dimension X

Jill Lepore untangles the strange sci-fi roots of Silicon Valley's extreme capitalism - with its extravagant, existential and extra-terrestrial plans to save humanity. In this world, stock prices can be driven partly by fantasies found in blockbuster superhero movies, but that come from science fiction, some of it a century old. If anyone personifies this phenomenon, it's Elon Musk, the richest or second-richest person in the world on any given day. "The bare facts of Musk’s life, the way they’r

Nov 1, 2021 • 30:01

The Last Archive Presents: The Evening Rocket

The Last Archive Presents: The Evening Rocket

Last Spring, Jill Lepore made a radio show with the BBC’s Radio 4 called The Evening Rocket, and now Pushkin Industries is releasing that show stateside for the first time. The Evening Rocket is all about Elon Musk, and his strange new kind of capitalism — call it Muskism, extravagant extreme capitalism, extraterrestrial capitalism, where stock prices are driven by earnings, and also by fantasies. The series explores Silicon Valley’s futurism, and how, in Musk’s life, those visions of the future

Oct 20, 2021 • 1:56

Revisionist History Takes Down The Little Mermaid

Revisionist History Takes Down The Little Mermaid

This week, we're presenting something fun from Malcolm Gladwell, co-founder of Pushkin. In a special series from his podcast, Revisionist History, Malcolm is launching a massive frontal assault on The Little Mermaid. You might wonder, "what's Malcolm doing? It's a children's classic!" But according to Malcolm, it's not a classic... It's a cinematic dumpster fire. And Revisionist History is devoting no fewer than three episodes to explain why. In the finale, Malcolm enlists an all-star cast to ma

Aug 2, 2021 • 4:53

HISTORY This Week: The Fairness Doctrine

HISTORY This Week: The Fairness Doctrine

Presenting an episode from another podcast we think you’ll like, called HISTORY This Week. Each Monday, it brings you a story about the people, places, and moments that shaped history that week. In this episode, they delve into the history of the Fairness Doctrine, the rule that told broadcasters they had to present more than one side of an issue. In that same spirit, you'll hear from people who fought for and against the doctrine. You might remember from 'The Last Archive' Season 2 Episode 8, t

Jul 1, 2021 • 28:11

Epiphany

Epiphany

This season has chronicled a long, dark century of lies, fakes, frauds, and hoaxes. In the season 2 finale, Jill Lepore draws that history all the way down to the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. This week: the winding path from the little-known Iron Mountain hoax of the late-1960s to the Capitol insurrection on January 6th, 2021. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jun 24, 2021 • 45:01

Hush Rush

Hush Rush

In the 1980s, Rush Limbaugh transformed talk radio. In the process, he radicalized his listeners and the conservative movement. Limbaugh’s talk radio style became a staple of the modern right. Then, the left joined the fray. This week: partisan loudmouth versus partisan loudmouth, and the shifting media landscape that helped create modern political warfare. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jun 17, 2021 • 48:09

Children of Zorin

Children of Zorin

In the 1970s, a Soviet journalist named Valentin Zorin made a series of documentary films about the United States. At a time when few Russian journalists came to the U.S., Zorin traveled all across the country, and gained access few American journalists had. The Cold War was a battle of ideas, and Zorin saw himself on the frontlines. He was on a quest to unmask the United States by spreading doubt, conspiracy theories, and a strange cocktail of truth and misinformation. Learn more about your ad

Jun 10, 2021 • 48:32

It Came From Outer Space

It Came From Outer Space

A fake moon landing. Astronauts carrying space pathogens back to earth. Michael Crichton’s Andromeda Strain. HIV manufactured in a government laboratory. COVID-19 vaccines killing millions. In this episode, Jill Lepore follows a trail of disease stories and conspiracies from Apollo 11 to COVID-19. In part two of our series about the moon landing: Apollo’s splashdown, and the tidal wave of doubt it set off. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.co

Jun 3, 2021 • 47:02

Remote Control

Remote Control

In 1961, President Kennedy announced that the United States would go to the moon. Eight years later, the Apollo 11 astronauts set foot upon its surface. Millions of Americans watched live on their televisions as it happened, but somehow the pinnacle of man’s achievement became a wellspring of conspiracy theories. In this first episode of a two-part series on the moon landing, Jill Lepore traces the explosion of conspiratorial thinking that began with Apollo 11’s lift off — a path winding from aw

May 27, 2021 • 47:45

Repeat After Me

Repeat After Me

One night in 1952, a Coloradan businessman hypnotized a local housewife. Under his spell, she began to recount her past life as a 19th-century Irish woman. He caught it on tape. The story of her reincarnation tore out of their Colorado town and across the world. It spawned major motion pictures, an international bestselling book, and a national hypnosis craze. But beneath all the uproar lay a set of questions that revealed a deep worry about the nature of self in the 1950s, the decade’s strange

May 20, 2021 • 47:22

The Inner Front

The Inner Front

During World War II, Nazi radio broadcast the voice of an American woman who came to be known as Axis Sally. She spoke, via shortwave radio, to American women, attempting to turn them against their country and the American war effort. She was waging a battle on what came to be called the Inner Front, the war of public opinion. Propaganda-by-radio was new then; so was psychological warfare. Writers, poets, psychologists, propagandists, and broadcasters all took to the airwaves in the 1930s and 19

May 13, 2021 • 40:53

Believe It

Believe It

Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! was one of the most popular radio shows of the 1930s, and for good reason: Early radio, not unlike the Internet of nearly a century later, was obsessed with doubt about belief. On this episode of The Last Archive, Jill Lepore spins the dial and takes a tour of 1930s radio — from Robert Ripley to Charlie Chan, from Mexican broadcaster Pedro González to the shows of Orson Welles: the full spectrum of true and false on the air. Learn more about your ad-choices at https:

May 6, 2021 • 45:51

Monkey Business

Monkey Business

In 1925, John Scopes, a high school teacher from Dayton, Tennessee, was put on trial for teaching evolution. It came to be called the "monkey trial," a landmark in the history of doubt. All over the country, Americans tuned in on their radios as science and faith battled in the courtroom. But the nation also witnessed something else: the beginnings of a culture war that’s been waged ever since. This episode on The Last Archive, a skeptical chronicle of an early battle in that war. Learn more ab

Apr 29, 2021 • 46:56

Coming Soon: Season Two

Coming Soon: Season Two

Coming Soon: the second season of The Last Archive, a podcast about the history of truth and the shadow of doubt written and hosted by New Yorker writer and celebrated historian Jill Lepore. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apr 15, 2021 • 1:57

Presenting: The Bomber Mafia from Malcolm Gladwell

Presenting: The Bomber Mafia from Malcolm Gladwell

We’re excited for you to join us for our new season later this spring. Until then, we wanted to share a new audiobook from our good friend, Malcolm Gladwell. The Bomber Mafia looks at what happens when technology and morality collide during one of the greatest moments of the Second World War. It’s a riveting tale of persistence, obsession, innovation, and the incalculable wages of war. You’ll hear the voices of generals, the sound of aircrafts and bombs crashing. It is history brought to life th

Mar 30, 2021 • 11:12

Presenting: Lost Hills

Presenting: Lost Hills

Season 2 of The Last Archive is coming later this spring. But in the meantime, here's an episode of Lost Hills: A new show from Pushkin and Jill Lepore's fellow New Yorker writer Dana Goodyear. Dana is a great reporter who in 2018 started investigating the case of a young father shot in the head while camping with his young daughters in Malibu Creek State Park. She’s been tracking it ever since: The drifter accused of committing the murder, the cops who may have something to hide, and the dark t

Mar 23, 2021 • 12:50

Election Special

Election Special

We're back with a special, election-themed episode of The Last Archive! While reporting Episode 5: Project X, Jill spoke to Bob Schieffer, famed TV newsman of CBS, about how computers and the Internet changed the way we report on elections, and even the way they turn out. It's been sitting on the shelf here in the last archive for a little while now, but it feels eerily prescient. So, take a listen, take a deep breath, and good luck come November. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www

Oct 22, 2020 • 24:09

The Last Archive Presents: Brave New Planet

The Last Archive Presents: Brave New Planet

Introducing Brave New Planet, a seven-part series that delves deep into the powerful technologies changing our world. These technologies have amazing potential upsides, but if we’re not careful, some might leave us a lot worse off.  Brave New Planet is hosted Dr. Eric Lander, president and founding director of The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. To get the world we want, we’ll need to make wise choices. And, those decisions aren’t just up to scientists or politicians. We—all of us—are the st

Oct 12, 2020 • 0:00

The Last Archive Presents: Into the Zone

The Last Archive Presents: Into the Zone

The newest show from Pushkin Industries is Into the Zone, a podcast about opposites and how borders are never as clear as we think. In Episode 1, Hari’s visit to Stonehenge on the Solstice prompts an investigation into the gray zone between being a native and a migrant. He also tracks down an old friend, whose work with Harvard geneticist David Reich overturns centuries of nationalist thinking. Learn more about Into the Zone at https://pushkin.fm/into-the-zone. Learn more about your ad choices.

Sep 3, 2020 • 50:48

The Last Archive Presents: The Chronicles of Now

The Last Archive Presents: The Chronicles of Now

The Last Archive presents: The Chronicles of Now. Three billion birds have gone missing in North America over the past 50 years. Or is that fake news? J. Courtney Sullivan, the New York Times bestselling author of five novels, including her most recent, Friends and Strangers, tells the stories of two sisters forever connected by birds and forever divided by politics. Narrated by Cindy Katz. Hosted by Ashley C. Ford.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jul 23, 2020 • 16:50

Tomorrowland

Tomorrowland

For ten episodes, we’ve been asking a big question: Who killed truth? The answer has to do with a change in the elemental unit of knowledge: the fall of the fact, and the rise of data. So, for the last chapter in our investigation, we rented a cherry red convertible, and went to the place all the data goes: Silicon Valley. In our season finale, we reckon with a weird foreshortening of history, the fussiness of old punch cards, the unreality of simulation, and the difficulty of recording audio wi

Jul 16, 2020 • 48:59

For the Birds

For the Birds

In the spring of 1958, when the winter snow melted and the warm sun returned, the birds did not. Birdwatchers, ordinary people, everyone wondered where the birds had gone. Rachel Carson, a journalist and early environmentalist, figured it out — they’d been poisoned by DDT, a pesticide that towns all over the country had been spraying. Carson wrote a book about it, Silent Spring. It succeeded in stopping DDT, and it launched the modern environmental movement. But now, more than 60 years later, bi

Jul 9, 2020 • 46:52

She Said, She Said

She Said, She Said

In 1969, radical feminists known as the Redstockings gathered in a church in Greenwich Village, and spoke about their experiences with abortion. They called this ‘consciousness-raising’ or ‘speaking bitterness,’ and it changed the history of women’s rights, all the way down to the 1977 National Women’s Convention and, really, down to the present day. The idea of ‘speaking bitterness’ came from a Maoist practice, and is a foundation to both the #MeToo movement and the conservative Victim’s Rights

Jul 2, 2020 • 41:58

The Computermen

The Computermen

In 1966, just as the foundations of the Internet were being imagined, the federal government considered building a National Data Center. It would be a centralized federal facility to hold computer records from each federal agency, in the same way that the Library of Congress holds books and the National Archives holds manuscripts. Proponents argued that it would help regulate and compile the vast quantities of data the government was collecting. Quickly, though, fears about privacy, government c

Jun 25, 2020 • 41:42

Cell Strain

Cell Strain

In the 1950s, polio spread throughout the United States. Heartbreakingly, it affected mainly children. Thousands died. Thousands more were paralyzed. Many ended up surviving only in iron lungs, a machine that breathed for polio victims, sometimes for years. Scientists raced to find a vaccine. After a few hard years of widespread quarantine and isolation, the scientists succeeded. The discovery of the polio vaccine was one of the brightest moments in public health history. But a vaccine required

Jun 18, 2020 • 45:39

Project X

Project X

The election of 1952 brought all kinds of new technology into the political sphere. The Eisenhower campaign experimented with the first television ads to feature an American presidential candidate. And on election night, CBS News premiered the first computer to predict an American election — the UNIVAC. Safe to say, that part didn’t go according to plan. But election night 1952 is ground zero for our current, political post-truth moment. If a computer and a targeted advertisement can both use he

Jun 11, 2020 • 42:05

Unheard

Unheard

In 1945, Ralph Ellison went to a barn in Vermont and began to write Invisible Man. He wrote it in the voice of a black man from the south, a voice that changed American literature. Invisible Man is a novel made up of black voices that had been excluded from the historical record until, decades earlier, he’d helped record them with the WPA’s Federal Writers Project. What is the evidence of a voice? How can we truly know history without everyone’s voices? This episode traces those questions — from

Jun 4, 2020 • 39:18

The Invisible Lady

The Invisible Lady

In 1804, an Invisible Lady arrived in New York City.She went on to become the most popular attraction in the country. But why? And who was she? In this episode, we chase her through time, finding invisible women everywhere, wondering: What is the relationship between keeping women invisible and the histories of privacy, and of knowledge? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 28, 2020 • 37:15

Detection of Deception

Detection of Deception

When James Frye, a young black man, is charged with murder under unusual circumstances in 1922, he trusts his fate to a strange new machine: the lie detector. Why did the lie detector’s inventor, William Moulton Marston, a psychology professor and lawyer, think a machine could tell if a human being is lying better than a jury? And what does it all have to do with Wonder Woman? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informa

May 21, 2020 • 46:21

The Clue of the Blue Bottle

The Clue of the Blue Bottle

On a spring day in 1919, a woman’s body was found bound, gagged, and strangled in a garden in Barre, Vermont. Who was she? Who killed her? In this episode, we try to solve a cold case - reopening a century-old murder investigation - as a way to uncover the history of evidence itself. What is a clue? What is a fact? What is a mystery? We put the pieces of the puzzle together: photographs, newspaper articles, a private eye’s notebook, the trial record and, last but not least, a trip to the scene o

May 14, 2020 • 42:33

Introducing The Last Archive

Introducing The Last Archive

The Last Archive​:​ a new podcast about the history of evidence written and hosted by New Yorker writer, author, and celebrated historian Jill Lepore. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apr 30, 2020 • 3:08

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