A Wild Ride on the Pony Express

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III has spent a lifetime thinking about how history gets told. Before becoming the head of the Smithsonian, he was a curator, someone whose job is deciding which stories, people, and objects help us make sense of ourselves. So as America appr ...  Show more

A screw. A stuffed possum. A shoe-sizing device. What could any of these objects possibly tell us about the history of the United States?When we think of historic artifacts, we tend to picture the extraordinary: Abraham Lincoln's pocket watch, the original Kermit the Frog, Martin ...  Show more

For as long a shadow as it casts across the history of the Old West, the Pony Express was a failed business venture, doomed from the start, that only lasted 18 months. But since the last rider headed out with his bag of mail, its legend has only grown. Learn all about it in this ...  Show more

The Tennessee Walking Horse has a natural gait that's famously smooth. And, if trained in a certain way, it can perform a walk that's even more spectacular, called the Big Lick. But, there's a secret behind how, exactly, these horses are trained to do the crowd-pleasing step they ...  Show more

Courntey Maum is not only a talented writer, but an experienced Horse Girl. Today she shares some of the important life lessons she’s learned from riding horses. Her latest book is all about her relationship with horses and is called The Year Of The Horses. This is an excerpt of ...  Show more

This is a preview episode. Get the full episode, and many more, ad free, on our supporter's feed: https://getsleepy.com/support. The Sleepy History of the Pony Express Tonight, we go back in time once again for another Sleepy History story. This time, we'll trace the short, yet ...  Show more