American History Tellers

Description: August 19, 1991. A group of Communist Party hardliners attempt to save the collapsing Soviet Union by staging a coup against party leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. This episode originally aired...

September 2nd 1666: the Great Fire of London begins in a bakery on Pudding Lane, before quickly spreading and reducing one third of London to ashes. This episode originally aired in 2022. Support the...

In 1757, 26-year-old Martha Dandridge Custis was the wealthiest widow in Virginia when she caught the eye of George Washington, a young military hero and landowner. Their marriage thrust Martha into a...

In 1842, Mary Todd married Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois after a stormy romance. Despite their many differences, the couple bonded over a shared passion for politics. Less than two decades ...

In 1905, Eleanor Roosevelt married her distant cousin Franklin, beginning a remarkable and complicated union. During her husband’s years as President, from 1933 to 1945, Eleanor became the longest-ser...

In 1974, Betty Ford was thrust onto the world stage when Richard Nixon resigned and her husband, Gerald, rose from VP to become the 38th President of the United States. As First Lady, Betty became kno...

In the summer of 1989, Michelle Robinson was an up and coming lawyer at a Chicago law firm when she met a charming associate named Barack Obama. The two would soon marry, and despite her distaste for ...

There’s no job description for the role of First Lady of the United States. Betty Ford described it as being “much more than a 24-hour job.” First Ladies move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue along with ...

July 22, 1942. The Nazis begin the evacuation of the Warsaw Ghetto, transporting hundreds of thousands of Jews to their deaths at the Treblinka Extermination Camp. You can listen ad-free in the Wonde...

August 5, 1969. Police in Atlanta, Georgia raid a screening of Andy Warhol’s underground film Lonesome Cowboys, triggering a wave of protests that sparks the gay rights movement in the Deep South. Thi...