
Was 1953 A Coup? Reinterpreting U.S. Interventions in Iran
09/1/2026 | 1 h 4 min
Has Iran experienced more foreign interventions than other countries? What really happened to Iran in 1953? And why are Iranians reinterpreting its history now?🚩Analyzing American Revolution - a new podcast series by History Behind News Program. 🚩About My Guest Scholar:Dr. Vali Nasr is a professor and former dean of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, where he is now the co-director of the SAIS Rethinking Iran Initiative. Dr. Nasr has advised world leaders, business leaders, and senior American policymakers, including the U.S. President, Secretary of State, senior members of Congress, and presidential campaigns. 🚩My Recommendations: ►Iran alone - 400 years without allies! A discussion of Dr. Nasr's "Iran's Grand Strategy" ►2003 and Iran-US Failed Diplomacy: a discussion of Dr. Nasr's "The Dispensable Nation - American Foreign Policy in Retreat" ►How U.S. Sanctions On Iran Backfired On America: a discussion of Dr. Nasr's "How Sanctions Work: Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare" 🚩Adel Aalihost & producer☑️Where to find my program:Home:https://historybehindnews.com Spotify:🎧https://bit.ly/HbN-Podcast-Spotify Apple:🎧https://bit.ly/HbN-Podcast-Apple YouTube:▶️https://bit.ly/HbN-YT-Sub Adel on Facebook and X.com🚩Support My Program: Click here and join our other supporters of the History Behind News podcast. Thank you. 🎵 attribution, links and license for thetheme music in this podcast: The Success by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Scholars in Your Inbox? More than 230 scholar interviews and counting!

Christmas, Christianity, Controversy & Commercialization | S5Bonus Christmas
19/12/2025 | 1 h 3 min
Why Dec. 25? Why so much Christmas conflict & controversy in Christianity's history? Why is Christmas so important to Christianity? And to America? In this episode, I ask my guest, Dr. Carey Roberts, the following questions: ►Why is Christmas such a grand celebration? What does this tell us about Christianity? ►Did it take a while for Christmas to take a central role in Christianity►What's the difference between recognition and celebration of Christmas►Did Christmas piggyback on existing Roman pagan traditions? ►How did Christmas enter America's culture? If not the Puritans, then which immigrant group introduced Christmas to America? ►Were there any regional differences in the celebration of Christmas?►When did U.S. businesses begin to capitalize on Christmas? ►Would President Grant have witnessed a similar Christmas celebration in Boston and Savannah? ►Would George Washington recognize our Christmas? How about Andrew Jackson? Abraham Lincoln? Teddy Roosevelt? ►What happened to Christmas after WWII? ►Is it a bad thing that non-Christians and/or non-practicing Christians celebrate Christmas? 🚩About My Guest: Dr. Roberts is a Professor of History and Online Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Liberty University. His research interests include early American intellectual and economic history. He has lectured and published widely in the fields of the American Founding, monetary and banking history, American intellectual life, and Southern literature. He has been a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church of America and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Here is his academic homepage. This is a replay of my 2023 interview with him. Also, watch my interview with Dr. David Silverman about the real history of Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoy these interviews about the history behind our news. Adel Aali, host & producerHistory Behind News podcast & on YouTubeScholars Unravel Middle East: An in-depth history and analysis of the Middle East available on Spotify, Apple, Castbox, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music or Radio Public. SUPPORT: Click here and join our other supporters in the news peeler community. Thank you.🎵 attribution, links and license for the theme music in this podcast: The Success by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon. Musicpromoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Scholars in Your Inbox? 198 scholars and counting! So don't miss HbN guest scholars’ weekly takes on the history behind our news.

From Shoguns to a Female Prime Minister - Japanese Women in the Modern Era | S5E54
05/12/2025 | 1 h 7 min
Will Prime Minister Takaichi be a champion for women's rights? 🚩Analyzing American Revolution - a new podcast series by History Behind News Program. 🚩In this interview: ►Women's Nudity in 19th-century Japan►Victorian Europe's Perception of Women ►What is significant about the year 1868? ►Japan's sudden rush to modernize itself ►Uneven Modernization for Women Across Japan►Women’s Education in Modern Japan ►The American Occupation of Japan►Coeducation and Confusion In Society ►Japanese Women Writers: Successful Careers, Personal Anguish ►Did Coeducation Change Women’s Traditional Roles?►Japan Job Ads: "No Women Wanted"! ►The 1966 Sumitomo Case ►Second-wave Feminism in Japan ►Comparing Japanese and American Feminism►PM Takaichi's Parents and Political Rise ►Will PM Takaichi Champion Japanese Women's rights? 🚩About My 198th Guest Scholar:Dr. Julia Bullock is a professor of Japanese Language and Literature and the Director of the Institute for Global Research and Learning at Emory University. Dr. Bullock has published extensively on Japanese women and feminism in the modern period. Her books include: "The Other Women’s Lib: Gender and Body in Japanese Women’s Fiction""Coeds Ru-ining the Nation: Women, Education, and Social Change in Postwar Japanese Media", and Her forthcoming book is tentatively titled "Beauvoir in Japan: Postwar Japanese Feminism and The Second Sex", which has a dedicated website with interactive maps of Japan and some really striking images from the 1960s.🚩Adel Aalihost & producer☑️Where to find my program:Home:https://historybehindnews.com Spotify:🎧https://bit.ly/HbN-Podcast-Spotify Apple:🎧https://bit.ly/HbN-Podcast-Apple YouTube:▶️https://bit.ly/HbN-YT-Sub Adel on Facebook and X.com🚩Support My Program: Click here and join our other supporters of the History Behind News podcast. Thank you. 🎵 attribution, links and license for thetheme music in this podcast: The Success by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Scholars in Your Inbox? More than 230 scholar interviews and counting!

Thanksgiving - The Real Story! From 1524 to 1621. And what happened in 1622? | Bonus
21/11/2025 | 1 h 3 min
Prof. Silverman describes the first Thanksgiving: an accidental feast between frenemies that was never repeated. How much is our Thanksgiving tradition based on real events that transpired sometime in the fall of 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts? And why does it matter anyway?Don't all nations have feel-good traditions that are partly based on facts, but mostly predicated on myths? Professor David Silverman answers these questions and more. For example, he shares with us that Europeans had been in contact with the Wampanoag Native Americans, who are the "Indians" of our Thanksgiving tradition, since at least 1524. And that the Pilgrims were guided to Plymouth by at least one crew member who touted its advantage - hint: all its native inhabitants had died of disease, leaving houses and fields empty and available for the would-be English settlers. And while the turkey was certainly on the menu, so was eel! In this episode, Professor Silvermans explains the aftermath of that first Thanksgiving. And by way of follow-up, I ask him to explain why it is that some Native Americans observe a Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving. Professor Silverman is the author of This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving, a 2019 book. Click this link for this book's Amazon page. Professor Silverman has written several other books about the history of Native Americans, which are listed on his academic homepage is along with his other publications, projects and honors. Here is the direct link to Professor Silverman's academic homepage: https://history.columbian.gwu.edu/david-silverman History of Christmas: In this interview, Dr. Carey Roberts tells us the real story behind America's celebration of Christmas. I hope you enjoy this episode. Adel, host & producerHistory Behind News podcast & on YouTube►SUPPORT: Click here and join our other supporters in the news peeler community. Thank you.🎵 attribution, links and license for the theme music in this podcast: The Success by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon. Musicpromoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Scholars in Your Inbox? 125 scholars and counting! So don't miss HbN guest scholars’ weekly takes on the history behind our news.

Gerrymandering: History & Current Political Analysis | S5E53
07/11/2025 | 1 h 5 min
How Gerrymandering has backfired on its proponents. 🚩Support My Program🚩About My 197th Guest Scholar:Dr. Shawn Donahue is a professor of Political Science at the University of Buffalo, where a primary part of his research focuses on redistricting, representation, partisan and racial gerrymandering as well as voting rights and campaign finance. In addition to his research, Dr. Donahue has had a decade of experience as a lawyer, including eight years as a prosecutor. Relevant to the subject of our interview, he submitted an amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in an important 2019 case that dealt with issues of partisan gerrymandering in Wisconsin. He also contributed to a report that helped lead to a ruling that the Virginia U.S. House map was a racial gerrymander in 2016. And here is his personal website. ►The New York Times report mentioned in this interview. ►Image Description: The bizarre cartoonish creature in this podcast's thumbnail image was printed in March 1812, representing state senate election district of South Essex created by the Massachusetts legislature to favor the Democratic-Republican Party. The word is a combination of Gov. Elbridge Gerry's last name and a monster-like salamander - hence, Gerrymander. Attribution: By Elkanah Tisdale (1771-1835) (often falsely attributed to Gilbert Stuart)[1] - Originally published in the Boston Centinel, 1812., Public Domain. 🚩Adel Aalihost & producer☑️Where to find my program:Home:https://historybehindnews.com Spotify:🎧https://bit.ly/HbN-Podcast-Spotify Apple:🎧https://bit.ly/HbN-Podcast-Apple YouTube:▶️https://bit.ly/HbN-YT-Sub Adel on Facebook and X.com🚩Support My Program: Click here and join our other supporters of the History Behind News podcast. Thank you. 🎵 attribution, links and license for thetheme music in this podcast: The Success by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Scholars in Your Inbox? More than 225 scholar interviews and counting!



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