With the December 1941 surprise attack on the US naval base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, our story has officially come to the United States’ entry into the Second World War. Professor Jackson told that ...
“This year very few Hanukkah candles were lit.” / “This is a strange Christmas Eve.” This is the story of 1941’s wartime holiday season. It’s difficult to conjure up a more miserable pictur...
“Man your battle stations! This is no sh*t!” This is the story of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It’s 7:55 on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. 183 Japanese aircraft descend on the Un...
“To be perfectly frank, the ways you and I look at the Chinese are fundamentally different. You seem to think of them as human, but I see them as pigs.” This is the origin story of the Empire of t...
Professor Greg Jackson sits down with legendary documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and his co-producer Sarah Botstein to discuss their newest film series, The American Revolution plus a conversation a...
Today Professor Jackson tells the story of Eleanor Roosevelt’s “Over Our Coffee Cups” weekly radio show. Starting in the fall of 1941, the First Lady took to the airwaves with this cafe-style progr...
“No more defenses. Our army is wiped out—artillery, air force, everything wiped out.” This is the story of the invasion of New Jersey. “The War of the Worlds” is a 1938 radio adaptation of an 189...
Professor Jackson takes a step back to review themes from episodes 187 through 189 (War in Europe and America’s Response), specifically the slow turn from isolationism to aid via Lend-Lease, and ev...
"At long last, Mr. President.”—Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill This is the story of the second year of WWII and the United States’ response. As the war enters its second full year, thi...
Professor Greg Jackson shares a personal message about our politically divided times and announces more tour dates for his live show: The Unlikely Union. This show is not recorded for the po...
“I have said not once but many times that I have seen war and that I hate war. … I hope the United States will keep out of this war. I believe that it will.” This is the story of the first year ...
“A great war can hardly be avoided any longer.” This is the story of Nazi Germany’s aggressive territorial expansion and the start of WWII. The Treaty of Versailles has long been a th...
“Comrade Stalin, now that he is general secretary, has concentrated immense power in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will always be capable of exercising this power with sufficient caution....
“Being a Jew is not a crime, I am not a dog.” This is the story of the start of the Holocaust. Serving as the scapegoat for everything from a disappearing child to the Black Plague, Europea...
Professor Greg Jackson is touring the country with a live version of the podcast telling the story of The Unlikely Union of American states. Starting Sep 19, 2025 through July 4, 2026, you can hear...
“There will be no more mercy now; anyone who stands in our way will be butchered.” This is the story of Adolf Hitler and the collapse of the Weimar Republic. A dropout. A failed applica...
“Italy, Gentlemen, wants peace, wants quiet, wants work, wants calm; we will give it with love, if that be possible, or with strength, if that be necessary.” This is the story of Italy’s Benito Mu...
This is the story of interwar preparation–not that the United States realized it was preparing for World War II, new technologies, innovation, and a constant pushing of the limits in the 1930s did ...
“If he is lost it will be the most universally regretted single loss we ever had. But that kid ain’t going to fail.” This is the story of the high-fliers in early twentieth-century American aviati...
“If this is to be a skyscraper… why not make it scrape the sky.” This is the story of the race for the tallest building in New York City—in the world. Erstwhile partners-turned-bitter...
