Callings

Elon Musk has claimed that AI is humanity’s “biggest existential threat.” Paradoxically, Musk is also working to create artificial intelligence. Why? Jill Lepore tours through a century of imagined robot rebellions, and argues that these stories are never only about robots. So wh ...  Show more

In 2022, Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, and renamed it X. When asked why he wanted to own the social media network, Musk talked a lot about something he called the “woke mind virus.” Where does the idea of a mind virus come from? Jill Lepore looks to Cold War science f ...  Show more

On this episode of Our American Stories, Jackson McQuigg of the Atlanta History Center tells the story of the principle pursuit locomotive of the Great Railroad Chase...but the story goes much deeper than just that. Bill Bryk tells the story of America's first practical politicia ...  Show more

This show, performed live at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, covers a brief overview of USO history, and then delves into Bob Hope's involvement with the organization, which started in the early 1940s and continued for 50 years.  Learn more about your ad-choic ...  Show more

Alice and Matt speak to Colin Mackenzie, the tenacious reporter who managed to track down train robber, Ronnie Biggs, after he escaped prison. A Fleet Street veteran, he takes us back to a golden era in British journalism, and into the whirlwind 48 hours he spent with Biggs in ...

On this episode of the Our American Stories podcast, Randall Haley reminisces about the yearly Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi; also, Dr. Adam Carrington of Hillsdale College tells the story of The Alien and Sedition Acts, some one of America's most controversial l ...  Show more