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Slate History

Slate History

Slate Podcasts 10 Episodes May 13, 2026

Slate History is a feed that curates the best history coverage from Slate's diverse podcast lineup. It includes narrative shows like Slow Burn, One Year, and Decoder Ring, as well as timely analysis from ICYMI and What Next. Listeners get fascinating stories and essential context to understand the past and its relevance to the present and future.

Episodes

Announcing Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Gorsuch
Announcing Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Gorsuch May 13, 2026 10:32 In the 11th season of Slow Burn, host Susan Matthews traces the rise of Neil Gorsuch, from his formative years as a young conservative through his nomination to a “stolen seat” on the U.S. Supreme Court. Through interviews, legal analysis, and archival research, this mild-mannered Westerner emerges as the court’s most unpredictable—and most important—sitting justice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com
9: How Did American Slavery End?
9: How Did American Slavery End? Feb 1, 2020 1:00:55 This episode was originally released in 2015.In Episode 9, the finale episode of the History of American Slavery, hosts Rebecca Onion and Jamelle Bouie discuss emancipation. They examine how emancipation was more a process than an overnight change, and they compare the different ways it was enacted in the South and throughout the United States. They also discuss how people sought to rebuild their
8: Runaway Railroad
8: Runaway Railroad Feb 1, 2020 56:53 This episode was originally released in 2015.In Episode 8 of the History of American Slavery, hosts Rebecca Onion and Jamelle Bouie discuss the small minority of people who escaped slavery during the 1850s and 1860s and the people who helped them along the way. They examine our evolving and sometimes selective historical memory of the Underground Railroad. They also explore the legal environment t
7: To Do No Harm?
7: To Do No Harm? Feb 1, 2020 52:00 This episode was originally released in 2015.In Episode 7 of the History of American Slavery, hosts Rebecca Onion and Jamelle Bouie explore how science and medicine interacted with slavery in antebellum America. They discuss how doctors such as J. Marion Sims used human experimentation on enslaved subjects to help advance the practice of medicine. And they explore how scientific racism, as practic
6: When Cotton Became King
6: When Cotton Became King Feb 1, 2020 45:55 This episode was originally released in 2015.In Episode 6 of the History of American Slavery, hosts Rebecca Onion and Jamelle Bouie explore the rise of the antebellum cotton economy in the early decades of the 19th century. They discuss how the growth of the cotton industry transformed the American system of slavery and the lives of enslaved people. And they discuss slavery’s relationship with the
5: What Happened When Slaves Rebelled
5: What Happened When Slaves Rebelled Feb 1, 2020 48:57 This episode was originally released in 2015.In Episode 5 of the History of American Slavery, hosts Rebecca Onion and Jamelle Bouie explore the slave rebellions—both real and imagined—that unfolded during the settlement of the 19th-century American frontier. They discuss the largest slave insurgency in American history, Louisiana’s 1811 German Coast rebellion. And then they explore an imagined sla
4: The Family Life of Enslaved People
4: The Family Life of Enslaved People Feb 1, 2020 57:03 This episode was originally released in 2015.In Episode 4 of the History of American Slavery, hosts Rebecca Onion and Jamelle Bouie explore the shape of family life on the slave plantations of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They make a case study of one famous plantation, Monticello, the Virginia estate owned by Thomas Jefferson. Then they take a closer look at how slavery tore families a
3: The Hypocrisy of America’s Revolution
3: The Hypocrisy of America’s Revolution Feb 1, 2020 49:08 This episode was originally released in 2015.In Episode 3 of the History of American Slavery, hosts Rebecca Onion and Jamelle Bouie explore the shape of slavery during America’s Revolutionary War. They discuss how the enlightenment ideas that helped found our government both inhibited and encouraged the spread of American slavery. They also talk about the divergent ways the early Northern and Sout
2: Inside the Slave Ship
2: Inside the Slave Ship Feb 1, 2020 47:58 This episode was originally released in 2015.In episode 2 of the History of American Slavery, hosts Rebecca Onion and Jamelle Bouie explore the shape of slavery during the late 18th century. They talk about the heyday of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the birth of the British abolitionist movement. They begin their discussion by remembering the remarkable life of Olaudah Equiano, 1745?–1797.Se
1: The Terrible Transformation
1: The Terrible Transformation Feb 1, 2020 42:16 This episode was originally released in 2015.Slavery in America started out pretty bad in the 17th century. White colonists made it way, way worse in the 18th. What made this “terrible transformation” possible? In Episode 1 of the History of American Slavery, hosts Rebecca Onion and Jamelle Bouie explore how hereditary, race-based slavery took shape in colonial America. They begin their discussion

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