Throughline

Throughline is NPR's answer to the question "how did we get here?" and it's one of the most creatively produced history podcasts out there. Hosted by Peabody Award-winning journalists Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei, each episode works like a time machine, tracing a modern issue back through its historical roots. The sound design is genuinely immersive -- layered audio, archival tape, expert interviews woven together in ways that feel more like a documentary film than a standard podcast. Since 2019, Abdelfatah and Arablouei have built up 443 episodes covering everything from the history of American policing to the Iranian Revolution to how immigration detention became what it is today. They pull a 4.6 rating from nearly 16,000 reviewers, which puts them in elite company for the history genre. Episodes run 40 to 50 minutes and drop twice a week. The real strength here is how the hosts connect past and present without being heavy-handed about it. They'll start with a headline from this week's news, then spend the episode peeling back layers of history you probably didn't know about. The research is rigorous -- this is NPR, after all -- but the storytelling keeps it from feeling academic. Abdelfatah and Arablouei have genuine chemistry, and their curiosity comes through in every episode. It's the kind of show that makes you smarter about the world without ever feeling like homework.