Skipped History with Ben Tumin

Historical satirist Ben Tumin takes a look at the overlooked ideas, people and events that still shape the US today.

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• 
  Jun 9, 2023
  

  The "Surreal" SCOTUS Case on Indian Adoptions

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  A conversation with Professor Matthew L.M. Fletcher about the Indian Child Welfare Act and "centuries of precedents that don't seem to matter to the justices."

  

• 
  May 26, 2023
  

  150 Years of "Zero-Sum Thinking" on Immigration

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  "Since the 1870s, we’ve had a restrictionist, gatekeeping system, but it’s possible to widen access if we want to. The thing preventing us, as it’s always been, is racism."

  

• 
  May 12, 2023
  

  Slowing Our Roll on Silicon Valley

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  Silicon Valley's story isn't heroic visionary entrepreneurship. It's a long tale of dispossession, discrimination, and failing forward in California, according to Malcolm Harris.

  

• 
  Apr 28, 2023
  

  Why Government Secrets Keep Bursting into the Open

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  A conversation with Professor Matthew Connelly about the "hyperinflation" of secrets and the white guys entrusted to guard them.

  

• 
  Apr 14, 2023
  

  “The Prison of Gender” with Professor Lillian Faderman

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  A troubling and encouraging historical arc that "could be described as two steps forward and one step back."

  

• 
  Apr 7, 2023
  

  The "Always Unfinished" Professionalization of the Police

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  An interview with filmmaker Sierra Pettengill and Professor Stuart Schrader about the history of police training.

  

• 
  Mar 31, 2023
  

  The Still Vengeful Texas Counter-Revolution of 1836

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  A conversation with Professor Gerald Horne about Texas, fascism, and "one of the largest uncompensated expropriations in world history."

  

• 
  Mar 3, 2023
  

  The "Singular and Emblematic" History of Tuskegee with Dr. Brian Jones

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  A conversation about student protest culture at the Tuskegee Institute and beyond

  

• 
  Feb 22, 2023
  

  “The beginning of the culture wars” with Professor Ed Larson

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  A conversation about the Scopes trial's lasting influence

  

• 
  Feb 6, 2023
  

  Professor Michael Kazin on the Turbulent History of American Socialism

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  “Socialists have to take power seriously in this country.”

  

• 
  Jan 22, 2023
  

  Lesley M.M. Blume on Hiroshima and Nuclear War

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  "What are we capable of when we’ve dehumanized another race or country on a big scale?"

  

• 
  Jan 5, 2023
  

  Professor Marcia Chatelain on McDonald's and MLK

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  "When we abdicate the responsibility of the public good to corporations... then more McDonald’s is what we get."

  

• 
  Dec 18, 2022
  

  Professor Stephen Nissenbaum on Santa Claus’ Elitist Origins

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  An exploration of Christmas traditions over the last 500 years, and why they transformed in the early 1800s

  

• 
  Nov 21, 2022
  

  Professor David J. Silverman on the Thanksgiving Myth

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  "Celebrating a shared meal misses the point—deliberately."

  

• 
  Nov 7, 2022
  

  Professor Adam Winkler on Limitless Political Spending

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  "We're still in the world that Mark Hanna created."

  

• 
  Oct 24, 2022
  

  Professor Kevin M. Kruse on "Suburban Secession"

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  As the Atlanta suburbs shape up to be the critical battleground of Georgia's senate race, Skipped History catches up with Kevin Kruse to talk about the history of suburban politics and how Americans got stuck in their cars. 

  

• 
  Oct 11, 2022
  

  Professor Kellie Carter Jackson with Lessons from Black Abolitionists

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  "Violence... is an engine."

  

• 
  Sep 26, 2022
  

  Dr. Karen L. Cox on Confederate Monuments

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  “They see it as a tool of power.”

  

• 
  Jul 13, 2022
  

  Abortion and Birth Control Have Always Been Linked

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  I spoke to Dr. Kelly O'Donnell and Professor Lauren MacIvor Thompson, two experts on reproductive history, to learn how the Dobbs v. Jackson decision could affect birth control access and about birth control history in general.

  

• 
  Jul 1, 2022
  

  Dr. Gillian Frank on the Decimation of Roe v. Wade

  by Skipped History with Ben Tumin

  An interview about the history of anti-abortion laws.