Others cover the news.
We uncover the history behind it.
We do this in weekly podcast conversations with eminent scholars and historians who explain and analyze the history behind current events. And we call this peeling the history behind our news.
Why is this important? Because news in America lacks sufficient perspective.
With more than 150 conversations hosted by Adel Aali, HbN is now in its 4th season with new episodes every other Wednesday at 5 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time.
Also, please check out our sister program, Scholars Unravel Middle East.
Japan's Modern Politics & Economics
After LDP's huge election defeat, we examine how Japan's powerful bureaucracy and its political establishment shaped its economic growth.
Dr. Steven Vogel
U.C. Berkeley
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- Super PACs, U.S. Elections & Corruption-
This episode aired this morning. You can listen to it at S4E23 on your favorite podcast.
My guest, Dr. David Silverman, describes the first Thanksgiving: an accidental feast between frenemies that was never repeated.
How much is our Thanksgiving tradition based on real events that transpired sometime in the fall of 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts? And why does it matter anyway?
Don't all nations have feel-good traditions that are partly based on facts, but mostly predicated on myths?
Dr. Silverman answers these questions and more. For example, he shares with us that Europeans had been in contact with the Wampanoag Native Americans, who are the "Indians" of our Thanksgiving tradition, since at least 1524. And that the Pilgrims were guided to Plymouth by at least one crew member who touted its advantage - hint: all its native inhabitants had died of disease, leaving houses and fields empty and available for the would-be English settlers. And while the turkey was certainly on the menu, so was eel! In this episode, Professor Silvermans explains the aftermath of that first Thanksgiving. And by way of follow-up, I ask him to explain why it is that some Native Americans observe a Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving.
🚩About my guest:
Dr. Silverman is the author of This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving, a 2019 book. Click this link for this book's Amazon page. Professor Silverman has written several other books about the history of Native Americans, which are listed on his academic homepage is along with his other publications, projects and honors.
A message for Middle Eastern Americans: Don't let U.S. news media or Hollywood tell your story. And don't follow people who read a few books and are suddenly experts. In this program, I bring you the sources of Middle East analysis and history - 150 scholars (and counting) who distill their decades of research into an hour conversation with me to unravel the misperceptions that divide East and West and to clarify our common misconceptions about the Middle East - from its ancient empires to modern nations.
Visit our Middle East page for details, including publishing schedule.
Our more than 150 podcast guests who have helped us interpret news and current events through the perspective of history are scholars from these and many other prestigious institutions:
Oxford, Yale, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Hoover Institution, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Princeton University, the Atlantic Council, Duke, Northwestern Law, Vanderbilt University, US Naval War College, Air Command and Staff College, Marine Corp University, UVA, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, NYU, Rice, Vanderbilt University, University of Chicago, Colgate University, UC Berkeley, UCSF, USC, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Israel Democracy Institute, University of Aberdeen, University of Navarra, University of Seville, Helsinki University, Diego Portales University (Chile), Lund University (Sweden), Near East University (Turkey), the Free University of Berlin, The Wall Street Journal, and many others.
Our guests include Pulitzer Prize winners, current and former senior reporters at The Wall Street Journal, former White House advisors and other high-ranking government officials. Many have testified in Congressional hearings and others frequently contribute to major media outlets and widely read publications, ranging from the BBC, NPR, PBS and CNN to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Hey there Newspeelers,
This is Adel Aali, founder of the History Behind News program.
First and foremost, thank you for visiting our site. I hope you enjoy our program, and we look forward to hearing from you and learning from you. Please don't hesitate to message me below at Contact HbN.
I started HbN to provide a better understanding of news through history. And I am committed to making history that is researched and written by scholars accessible and enjoyable for everyone. Before podcasting, I practiced patent law and later dove deep into entrepreneurship and founded a startup based on my patented medical inventions.
I now have the privilege to produce and host HbN. Preparing for conversations with scholars and producing this program are lots of fun and also challenging - learning a new subject every week! It's tough but exhilarating.
For each and every one of them, my two objectives are constant:
Nah, I don't mean digging into the news. We already have many news outlets who do that for us. I am rather referring to the winding and, at times, unnavigable road behind that brought us to the current moment, to the developing news at hand.
So, what was it like to travel on that road? What were the exigencies that forced our predecessors' decisions back then?
While hindsight is 20/20, many of our past decisions were made in the context of those times and without much knowledge of the curves and cliffs ahead. Needless to say, many of our ancestors veered us to the off-beaten paths. And that's how we got here!
About above image: I took this sunset shot of Jackson Lake in June 2022. The Grand Tetons is my and my family's favorite national park. It's simply breathtaking. And if you are there on a Monday night, be sure to spend it at the hootenanny in the town of Moose. We loved it! Hint: go there hungry and thirsty.
What do I mean by this?
HbN is not a history program. Meaning, we don’t discuss history for its own sake. Rather, we discuss history only as it informs current news.
But sometimes even this history behind news can be overwhelming.
Believe me, I know! So what I think about when I ask questions from my distinguished guests, who can surely talk authoritatively about their subjects for hours on end, is whether or not the history being discussed is still helping us better understand the news, i.e., the stuff behind the news.
The challenge here is similar to the adage of not seeing the forest for the trees. But we don't need to be history buffs to appreciate history's impact on our lives. In fact, many history buffs are so focused on every detailed pixel of history that they lose sight of the big picture.
So, HbN is not a narrative history program. Instead, we strive to suck out the marrow of our past to nourish the present bones of our intellects.
About above image: I took this picture of the Palace of Westminster in June 2023 (photos are restricted in certain areas). My family and I got the rare treat of watching the UK's Members of Parliament debate legislation (it was on animal rights - reconciling UK and EU laws after Brexit). London is a must-visit. We just loved it. Although I wouldn't really call it a vacation. It was more like sightseeing on steroids and information overload. We were out and about from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. - every day!
History Behind News is an independent program. This means that Adel Aali and his team are not employed by anyone for all the work they put into producing HbN's podcast, posts, and upcoming features and products.
Basically, we rely on your support to continue our work in bringing you the history behind our news.
So thank you. Thank you for being a valuable part of our program.
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