UnTextbooked | A history podcast for the future
UnTextbooked is brought to you by teen change-makers who are looking for answers to big questions. Have you ever wondered if protests really can save lives, why assimilation required Native American kids to attend boarding schools, how Black-led organizations for mutual aid began, how the fear of communism led the United States to plan the overthrows of many leaders in Latin America, or why Brazilian cars run on sugar? Or maybe you've questioned when Asian Americans will stop being seen as "perpetual foreigners," how African heritage influences Black activism, or what resilience looks like for Iranian women? Your textbooks probably didn't teach you how American Jews were an integral part of the Civil Rights Movement, if history’s greatest leaders were generalists or specialists, how a Black teenager and his young lawyer changed America’s criminal justice system, or if either the US or the USSR won the Cold War. Did you know some of the forgotten BIPOC women of history were spying in aid of the French Resistance, that there's more to being a leader than going down with your battleship, or that there is a long history of gender expression in Native American cultures that goes beyond the male/female binary? Listen in as we interview famous authors and historians who have the answers. Context is the key to understanding topics like British imperialism, segregation, racism, criminal justice, identifying as non-binary and so much more. These intergenerational conversations bring the full power of history to you with the depth and vividness that most textbooks lack. Real history, to help you find answers to your big questions. UnTextbooked makes history unboring forever.
Episodes
March 7, 2024 • 18 mins
In honor of Women’s History Month, we are sharing a special bonus episode featuring Chicana activist and artist Irma Lerma Barbosa. Her legacy will be preserved for years to come in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History Collections.
Irma attended college at a time when the Chicano movement was just gaining momentum – and she jumped right into fighting for her community. Picture this – a legacy that includes being w...
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February 29, 2024 • 35 mins
In honor of Black History Month, Untextbooked is sharing a favorite episode from our archive.
Women of color have been at the forefront of many movements, yet are often neglected, demonized, or ignored. Your history class probably didn’t teach you about Josephine Baker, who was not only a famous Black dancer and entertainer, but also a spy aiding in the French Resistance. You likely didn’t learn about Claudette Colvin either. She...
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February 22, 2024 • 19 mins
In honor of Black History Month, UnTextbooked is sharing a favorite episode from our archive.
UnTextbooked producer Sydne Clarke thinks that African American history is often oversimplified or overlooked. Often that history is taught as things that happened to African Americans. We don’t often hear about the ways in which African Americans fought for and took care of themselves.
Dr. Leslie Alexander studies Black resistance mov...
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February 15, 2024 • 23 mins
In 2008, Anonymous posted a video declaring war against Scientology. Some people flocked to join the hacker collective while corporations started re-evaluating their security protocols. This week on Untextbooked, producer Caroline Somers dives into the history of the hacker collective and asks what can we learn about internet activism.
Gabriella Coleman is the author of “Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anony...
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February 8, 2024 • 18 mins
In 1963, Betty Friedan’s book The Feminine Mystique was a galvanizing force for the Feminist movement. Now, nearly six decades later, feminist discourse has gone through several evolutions, Betty Friedan is no longer a household name, and her radical ideas don’t sound so radical anymore. This week, Producer Gavin Scott sits down with Rachel Shteir, author of “Betty Friedan: Magnificent Disrupter”, to talk about the legacy and contr...
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February 1, 2024 • 41 mins
What does it mean to belong in the American imagination? That’s one question we explore on this week’s episode of UnTextbooked. In another installment of “UnTextbooking the Museum Collections”, we dive into the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History exhibit named “Mirror Mirror: Disney theme parks and American stories”. Producer Victor Ye speaks with original Disney Imagineer Bob Gurr about working with Walt Disney, desi...
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January 25, 2024 • 42 mins
UnTextbooked is back with a new episode in our series, “UnTextbooking the Museum Collections.” We're sharing the untold story of Irma Lerma Barbosa, a Chicana activist and artist whose work will be preserved for years to come in the National Museum of American History's Collections. Curator Veronica Mendez tells us how this acquisition came to be and why it’s historically significant in telling the long history of the Latina/o Civi...
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January 18, 2024 • 30 mins
In this new miniseries we’re calling “UnTextbooking the Museum Collections,” we dive into the vast collections of the Smithsonian, the world’s largest museum complex, made up of 21 museums and the National Zoological Park, as well as research facilities. This week, producer Jenny Fan talks with curator Katherine Ott, PhD, about curating medical history at the National Museum of American History. They talk about skin – the cultural...
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January 12, 2024 • 32 mins
This week, we are revisiting an important question: Is our democracy in danger? In the years after Trump’s presidency, it’s tempting to say “not anymore,” but nowadays threats to democracy are no longer as obvious as a military coup or revolution. Instead, a democracy in danger manifests in much more subtle ways including: the steady decline of longstanding political norms and weakening of essential institutions such as the United ...
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December 21, 2023 • 30 mins
In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, police killed unarmed 17-year-old Bobby Hutton, and Aaron Dixon decided it was time to join the Black Panther Party.
Aaron Dixon was co-founder and Captain of the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party. As a college student at the University of Washington, Dixon played a key role in the formation of the Black Student Union (BSU) and the Seattle Chapter of the Student Nonviolent...
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December 14, 2023 • 30 mins
Thousands of protestors joined Indigenous activists at Standing Rock to fight for clean drinking water. At its core, this fight echoes the legacy of broken treaties and settler industrialization. Producer Lily Sones talks with Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes) about how industrialization halted traditional indigenous food ways and how extractive industries cause health effects across today’s indigenous communities....
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December 7, 2023 • 25 mins
The clothes we wear say a lot about how we express ourselves. But an investigation into how these clothes ended up in our closets reveals a complex history dating back 400 years ago at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Producer Ashley Kim sits down with Sofi Thanhauser, the author of “Worn: A People’s History of Clothing” to learn how clothing can teach us about economics, gender and imperialism.
Sofi Thanhauser teaches in t...
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November 30, 2023 • 25 mins
Spoken word poetry is an oral tradition dating back centuries. So why is this form of poetry not always taken seriously? Producer Sydne Clarke sits down with Dr. Joshua Bennett, the author of "Spoken Word: A Cultural History". His nonfiction debut is a personal investigation into the history of spoken word, specifically the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. This is a cultural hub that started in the Lower East Side living room of Miguel Algari...
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November 16, 2023 • 21 mins
In World War One, millions of soldiers saw industrial warfare unlike anything they’ve seen before: artillery shells, flame throwers, poison gas. Those who saw the war on the frontlines came home with psychological wounds the world had never quite seen before. At one military hospital in Scotland named Craiglockhart, early psychiatrists treat PTSD and soldiers turn to poetry and brotherhood to heal.
UnTextbooked producer Faith Sta...
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November 9, 2023 • 26 mins
Entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and products like Chat GPT have been fueled by Venture Capital. In fact, some argue that Venture Capital has shaped our modern technology more than any other entity. But what is Venture Capital and what makes it unique?
This week, UnTextbooked producer and college student Oliver Wang talks to author Sebastian Mallaby to learn about the shadow history of venture capital. What once started as a way to l...
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November 2, 2023 • 27 mins
J. Edgar Hoover was a man of contradictions. As the Director of the FBI from 1924 to 1972, he spearheaded homophobic, racist, and anti-communist policies – which arguably shaped half a century of the United States. But he also had an intimate personal relationship with a man and he believed in the role of government to support social conservatism.
Beverly Gage is the author of “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the America...
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October 26, 2023 • 29 mins
Women including Ida B. Wells and Nellie Bly were on the front edge of investigative journalism in the 1800s. But even with these historical trailblazers, why were women excluded from reporting hard news until recent history?
Producer Jordan Pettiford sits down with author, journalist and professor Brooke Kroeger to find out. Brooke has authored six books and her most recent book is “Undaunted: How Women Changed American Journalis...
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October 19, 2023 • 1 min
This season, we talk to an original member of the Black Panther Party. We explore the extremely contradictory life of longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. We talk to Smithsonian curators about the historical connection of Disneyland to American identity. Plus, we cover topics including censorship, fast fashion, women in journalism, PTSD, Internet hackers, and more.
History is full of gems to discover and pitfalls to avoid. But ...
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October 19, 2023 • 28 mins
From banned books to freedom of speech in academic settings, censorship is a topic that affects the everyday lives of young people.
This week, UnTextbooked producer and college student Karly Shepherd talks to Eric Berkowitz, human rights lawyer, journalist and author. His latest book “Dangerous Ideas: A Brief History of Censorship from the Ancients to Fake News” covers about 2,000 years of censorship history. Censorship has exist...
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September 21, 2023 • 39 mins
UnTextbooked heads to sunny San Diego, California, for the ASU+GSV Summit and we brought our microphones with us! Host Gabe Hostin and founding producer Victor Ye talked to innovative EdTech leaders, teachers and social entrepreneurs to discuss how we can collaboratively write a new chapter in the history of education. Plus, they ask the question, what else do we need to unlearn?
This week’s guests:
Steven Hernandez, ESQ, Execu...
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