Malcolm Gladwell on Reconstruction’s Unfinished Questions

Malcolm Gladwell on Reconstruction’s Unfinished Questions

Author: The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios June 15, 2026 Duration: 35:29
June 15, 1865. German-American statesman Carl Schurz is traveling to Washington to meet with President Andrew Johnson when he stops at a friend’s home in Philadelphia. That night, during a séance, a teenage medium claims to summon the spirit of Abraham Lincoln… and delivers Schurz a mysterious command from beyond the grave.Soon, Johnson sends Schurz on a fact-finding mission through the defeated South. What he discovers will help shape the course of Reconstruction and expose the violence threatening America’s fragile new democracy.Today, Sally speaks with bestselling author and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell about Reconstruction’s forgotten history, the battle over how it has been remembered, and why the questions it raised remain unfinished today.Listen to Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise now on Audible, or anywhere you get your podcasts, starting June 18th. Link: https://lnk.to/reconstructionHWGet in touch: historythisweek@history.com Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcastFollow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com

This week, something big happened. You might have never heard of it, but this moment changed the course of history. A HISTORY Channel original podcast, HISTORY This Week gives you insight into the people—both famous and unknown—whose decisions reshaped the world we live in today. Through interviews with experts and eyewitnesses, each episode will give you a new perspective on how history is written. Stay up-to-date at historythisweekpodcast.com and to get in touch, email us at historythisweek@history.com.HISTORY This Week is a production of Back Pocket Studios in partnership with the History Channel.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

HISTORY This Week
Podcast Episodes
Blindspot: The Road to 9/11 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:45:30
On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, we're bringing you Blindspot: The Road to 9/11 – a collaboration between the History Channel and WNYC Studios. This was adapted from the complete nine-part series, which you can find by s…
9/11: Rescue on the Water [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:36
September 11, 2001. On a clear and sunny day, Captain Richard Thornton is piloting his ferry boat back and forth between New Jersey and New York City. But when he hears an airplane flying too low to the ground, he knows…
The Radium Girls Fight Back [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:33
September 12, 1922. Twenty-four-year-old Mollie Maggia has a toothache. In less than a year, this otherwise healthy young woman will be dead. Others like her will soon follow. They’d all shared what seemed to be a dream…
Did Homer Write the Odyssey? (Was He Even Real?) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:01
August, sometime in the 500s BCE. In Athens, the Great Panathenaia is in full swing: chariot races, boat races, a hundred cattle slaughtered for the feast. And at the center of it, a competition in which performers recit…
The Wire That Connected the World [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:55
August 17, 1858. New York City wakes to a hundred-gun salute. Church bells ring, flags fly from public buildings, and by nightfall, fireworks light up the sky. The city is celebrating a telegram from Queen Victoria to Pr…
The French Monarchy Falls in a Day [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:21
August 10, 1792. At midnight, a single church bell begins to ring in Paris. Then another. And another. It's not a call to mass… it's a call to arms. For three years, King Louis XVI and his family have been living as pris…
Arsenic, Adultery, and an American on Trial [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:09
August 7, 1889. In Liverpool's St. George's Hall, an American woman named Florence Maybrick stands behind iron bars, dressed in mourning black… for the husband she's accused of murdering. The evidence against her is thin…
Fall Out (Finale) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:18
Listen to all 20 episodes of World War II with Tom Hanks wherever you get your podcasts!The war is over, and the Allies are triumphant. The United States and the Soviet Union initially work together to establish a new wo…
Washington: Hero of the Revolution, from The Rest is History [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:11:53
Sharing an episode of a show we really love, called The Rest is History. Hosted by historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, the show brings the past to life through gripping storytelling, sharp analysis and a huge s…