History

Books

Author Talks About The History Of Black Equestrian Erasure

5:02pm July 26, 2021

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Katherine Mooney, author of the book Race Horse Men: How Slavery and Freedom Were Made at the Racetrack, about the erasure of African-Americans in the equestrian world.

Sports

Despite Debt Risks, Cities Still Put In Bids To Host The Olympic Games

5:38am July 26, 2021

by Ramtin Arablouei

The eyes of the world are on Tokyo for the Summer Games. NPR's history podcast, Throughline, examines whether the cities that host the Games end up winning or losing.

National

In Texas, A Struggle To Preserve Historic Duranguito Neighborhood

5:09pm July 24, 2021

The U.S. has thousands of National Historic Landmarks, but few commemorate Latino heritage. The Duranguito neighborhood of El Paso, known as the "Ellis Island" of the South, is looking to change that.

Health & Safety

The Ubiquitous, Confounding, Misunderstood 5 Stages Of Grief

4:27pm July 23, 2021

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Radiolab producer Rachael Cusick about her search for Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, the psychiatrist behind the five stages of grief.

Archaeologist Ferudun Ozgumus stands in what is believed to be a Byzantine-era substructure in Istanbul.

World News

Beneath Istanbul, Archaeologists Explore An Ancient City's Byzantine Basements

4:27pm July 23, 2021

by Durrie Bouscaren

Below the surface of the sprawling, modern metropolis is a different world. Archaeologists are gaining insights into the city's ancient past by examining the basements of ordinary buildings.

Tourists dressed up as People's Liberation Army soldiers pose in Liangjiahe village, where a teenage Xi Jinping spent seven years doing hard labor. Today the village is a popular red tourism site. The sign displays a quote from Xi: "Liangjiahe is where my

World News

Chinese Tourists Throng 'Red Tourism' Sites To Mark Communist Party Centennial

4:28pm July 21, 2021

by Emily Feng

The officially designated Communist Party historical sites venerate Mao Zedong and, increasingly, the country's current leader, Xi Jinping. Tourists sometimes do manual labor and dress up as soldiers.

World News

How China's Communist Party Schools Are Keeping Its Revolutionary Spirit Alive

5:14pm July 20, 2021

by Emily Feng

More than 70 years after winning a revolution, China's ruling Communist Party is trying to keep its revolutionary spirit alive. How? Training its cadres at Party history boot camp.

Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine, by Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley

Echoes Across Centuries Are Reminders That The Next Quarantine Is A Matter Of When

8:31am July 20, 2021

by Annalisa Quinn

There's something that feels impossible about leaving behind the place in which we slunk our way through the last year plus. Until Proven Safe takes us to the places others lingered through time.

James F. Holmes, the first-ever person of color to oversee the U.S. head count, stands inside his office at the Census Bureau's former headquarters in Suitland, Md., in 1998, when Holmes served as acting director for about nine months.

U.S. Census Directors Were All White Until James F. Holmes Stepped In

7:57pm July 18, 2021

by Hansi Lo Wang

For more than 200 years, the census was overseen by white leaders. Holmes' 1998 stint as acting director blazed a trail for Biden's pick, who may become the count's first permanent director of color.

Firefighters rescue people from under a collapsed walkway in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Mo., on July 17, 1981. The collapse killed 114 people and injured more than 200.

One Of The Deadliest U.S. Accidental Structural Collapses Happened 40 Years Ago Today

4:26pm July 17, 2021

by Joe Hernandez

The condo building failure in Surfside, Fla., is reminiscent of the July 17, 1981, collapse of two elevated walkways at the Kansas City, Mo., Hyatt Regency that killed 114 people and injured over 200.