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The French nation has a reputation for being willing to surrender in battle, but is that a fair assessment? This question came from an audience member, and we love getting these from you all. So leave a comment below if you have question you'd like Joe and Jon to answer!

Henry Ford paid his workers more than anyone thought reasonable, then beat them when they tried to organize. He put ordinary Americans on the open road and gave Nazi Germany a hero to admire. This week, we're sitting with the uncomfortable reality that both things are equally, undeniably true. What do you think? Can a legacy be great and monstrous at the same time, or does one eventually cancel the other out? Drop your thoughts in the comments. Join us every Monday for episodes and discussions, and Thursdays for pop quizzes and Sketches in History. We love hearing from you, so leave a comment below!

Welcome back to Sketches in History! This segment, just for kids, shows that history isn't just a story, it's an adventure. Join Lottie Archer as she dives into her extraordinary notebook, where sketches from history come to life! In this episode, Lottie finds a telegram on her grandfather's desk, its edges yellowed and its paper thin and crinkly, printed in faded capital letters with a single sentence: the most powerful company in American history has just been ordered to stop existing. In this episode, your kids will discover what it looks like when one person controls nearly all of an industry, why the people who build enormous things aren't always the ones who carry the cost, and whether giving away a fortune can balance out how it was made. Listen and subscribe to the 15-Minute History podcast to hear Sketches in History every other Thursday. Got a favorite historical moment? Share it with us at [email protected], and it might just make its way into the notebook!

Henry Ford didn't just build a car. He built the world we drive through, the suburb we live in, and the weekend we take for granted. He paid his workers more than anyone thought reasonable, and beat them when they tried to organize. He gave ordinary Americans freedom of movement and gave Nazi Germany a hero to admire. In this episode, we sit with one of the most consequential and troubling Americans who ever lived, and ask what it means that both things are equally true. Join us every Monday for episodes and discussions, and Thursdays for pop quizzes and Sketches in History. We love hearing from you, so leave a comment below!

Let's step into a time machine and tell the American Founding Fathers what they should have done as they were writing the Constitution! Join us every Thursday for Pop Quizzes and Sketches in History, and be sure to tune in on Mondays for our episodes and discussions. We love to hear from you as well, so post your comments below!

Join us as we talk about the era of industrial titans. In this discussion, we trace the Gilded Age from Carnegie's steel mills and Rockefeller's stranglehold on oil to the garages and server farms of Amazon, Google, and Apple. Join us every Monday for episodes and discussions, and Thursdays for pop quizzes and Sketches in History. We love hearing from you, so leave a comment below!

On Halloween night in 1938, a radio drama shocked the American people by describing a Martian invasion. This event demonstrated the power of the spoken word delivered electronically as much as FDR's "fireside chats." Joe is a big fan of the show, so Jon asked him about it (while also getting the date wrong--so please shame him in the comments below).

Every era has its titans. Men who look at the rules of commerce, find the gaps, and build empires inside them, until society catches up and writes new rules to contain what they created. In this episode, we trace the Gilded Age from Carnegie's steel mills and Rockefeller's stranglehold on oil to the garages and server farms of Amazon, Google, and Apple. The methods changed. The underlying logic did not. Join us every Monday for episodes and discussions, and Thursdays for pop quizzes and Sketches in History. We love hearing from you, so leave a comment below!

Welcome back to Sketches in History! This segment, just for kids, shows that history isn't just a story, it's an adventure. Join Lottie Archer as she dives into her extraordinary notebook, where sketches from history come to life. In this episode, Lottie finds an old chrome microphone on her grandfather's shelf, with a handwritten card tucked beneath it: This Sunday. Ten o'clock. The President speaks. In this episode, your kids will discover what persuasion looks like, why the way a message is delivered can matter just as much as the message itself, and how the tools a leader uses to reach people can shape what those people believe. Listen and subscribe to the 15-Minute History podcast to hear Sketches in History every other Thursday. Got a favorite historical moment? Share it with us at [email protected], and it might just make its way into the notebook!

Join Jon and Joe as they discuss how presidents have used, and sometimes botched, major communication mediums from radio to social media, and what it tells us about leadership in modern America.

Welcome back to Sketches in History! This segment, just for kids, shows that history isn't just a story, it's an adventure. Join Lottie Archer as she dives into her extraordinary notebook, where sketches from history come to life. In this episode, Lottie finds a mysterious bottle of oil and a folded newspaper and follows. The notebook takes her to the Wyoming plains of 1922, where a powerful government official is making a very secret deal beside a rock that looks just like a teapot. But secrets like this can't stay hidden forever. What happens when they are discovered? In this episode, your kids will discover what it means to hold public trust, why integrity matters most when no one seems to be watching, and how honest people doing unglamorous work can hold powerful people accountable. Listen and subscribe to the 15-Minute History podcast to hear Sketches in History every other Thursday. Got a favorite historical moment? Share it with us at [email protected], and it might just make its way into the notebook!

Every president wants to speak directly to the American people. This has looked different in every era, with the technology helping to shape the man, and most importantly, the perception of the man. In this episode, we trace how the microphone, the television camera, and everything that followed didn't just deliver the president's words. These mediums rewrote the rules for who could lead and who could not. Join us every Monday for episodes and discussions, and Thursdays for pop quizzes and Sketches in History. We love hearing from you, so leave a comment below!

Remember the California Wildfires? Most of us watched the footage, maybe donated to the cause, and moved on. But what happened after the cameras left? Are the homes rebuilt? Why are permits nearly impossible to get? And where did the FireAid concert money go? The people who lost everything are still waiting for answers. It may feel like yesterday, but this is already history, and it's exactly the kind of history we can't afford to forget. Join us on Thursdays for pop quizzes and Sketches in History and on Mondays for episodes and discussions. Send us your thoughts in the comments below.

The modern presidency's power is beyond anything our founders could have dreamed. Its limits often seem ill-defined, as are efforts to hold elected officials accountable for their actions. So what can be done? Join us every Monday for episodes and discussions, and check out our Thursday pop quizzes and Sketches in History episodes!

What happens when a powerful nation attacks a long-standing rival? No, we aren't talking about the United States and Iran (though that conversation is coming). What would happen if China tried to retake the island of Taiwan as it as long planned to do so. What are the historical forces in play? And how would America and the world respond to this kind of aggression? Join us on Thursdays for pop quizzes and Sketches in History and on Mondays for episodes and discussions. Send us your thoughts in the comments below.