This, Again

<p>This week on This, Again, we look at three figures from the 1600s whose stories became cleaner, simpler, and easier to pass down over time:</p> Galileo Galilei Pocahontas Isaac Newton <p>Galileo becomes the ultimate...

<p>What would it take to be labeled insane?</p> <p>In 1887, Nellie Bly checked herself into a New York asylum to find out. She got in with surprising ease. Getting out was something else entirely.</p> <p>Nearly a...

<p>In 1962, a group of schoolgirls in Tanganyika began laughing and could not stop. The episode spread to multiple schools, eventually forcing closures and affecting hundreds of students.</p> <p>More than four centuries...

<p>In May 1536, Anne Boleyn was still Queen of England.</p> <p>Seventeen days later, she was executed.</p> <p>This episode looks at how that kind of collapse is even possible.</p> <p>Anne’s rise wasn’t just personal...

<p>In the second episode of this two-part series on cults, we look at what happens when cult psychology collides with the digital world.</p> <p>The online relationship movement known as Twin Flames Universe promised...

<p>In this episode of This, Again, we trace the evolution of cults from the obvious monsters of the 1960s and 70s, the Manson Family, Jonestown, and Heaven’s Gate, to the respectable reinventions of the 1980s and 90s...

<p>In the early 20th century, hundreds of women were employed to paint luminous watch dials using radium-based paint. Despite early warnings from medical experts, companies continued to insist the work was safe. This...

<p>How do you justify rebellion when you are fighting for freedom, and then justify suppressing it once freedom is yours?</p> <p>In this episode of This, Again, we rewind to the years immediately after American...

<p>In this episode of This, Again, we look at three familiar figures from late medieval and early modern Europe and ask a different kind of historical question.</p> <p>Not whether they were heroes or villains.<br> But...

<p>Coups are often remembered as sudden explosions of force. Tanks in the streets. Jets overhead. Governments collapsing overnight. But history tells a quieter, more unsettling story.</p> <p>In this episode of This...

<p>The lights got brighter. The cameras got closer. But the system never changed.</p> <p>In Part 2, we pick up where we left off and trace the next wave of child stardom, from the 1980s to today. We revisit the sitcom...

<p>Hollywood has been cashing in on cute kids for over a century, and the kids usually pay the price. In Part 1 of The Child Star Problem, we trace the origins of child exploitation in the entertainment industry...

<p>What do 19th century weavers and 21st century tech workers have in common? More than you might think. In this episode, we unpack the real story behind the Luddites, skilled artisans who weren’t afraid of machines but...

<p>In 1949, the royal vaults of Baroda were supposed to be sealed, transferred to the new Indian state as part of a complex and delicate independence process. But when an audit revealed that hundreds of crown jewels had...

<p>When the world is burning, the most powerful people often have one job: show up. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it’s too little, too late. And sometimes, they don’t bother at all.</p> <p>In this episode of This...