History That Doesn't Suck – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

History That Doesn't Suck

Prof. Greg Jackson

History

Education

Frequency: 1 episode/14d. Total Eps: 230

HTDS is a bi-weekly podcast, delivering a legit, seriously researched, hard-hitting survey of American history through entertaining stories. To keep up with History That Doesn’t Suck news, check us out htdspodcast.com or follow on Facebook and Instagram: @historythatdoesntsuck. Become a premium member to support our work, receive ad-free episodes and bonus episodes.Pre-order Prof. Jackson's new book Been There Done That: How Our History Shows What We Can Overcome

Read moreCollapse

Site

RSS

Spotify

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

No recent rankings available

Spotify

🇺🇸 USA - history
22/08/2026
#11
↘
🇺🇸 USA - trending
22/08/2026
#181
↘
🇺🇸 USA - history
21/08/2026
#10
↘

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.

See all

https://www.htdspodcast.com/bibliography
225 shares
https://www.htdspodcast.com/book-recommendations
224 shares
https://www.htdspodcast.com/newsletters-1
222 shares

https://www.facebook.com/groups/257926761619618/
225 shares

RSS feed quality and score

Technical evaluation of the podcast's RSS feed quality and structure.

See all

RSS feed quality

To improve

Score global : 42%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

Recent episodes with titles, durations, and descriptions.

See all

206: American Propaganda: Cap’s Debut, Frank Capra’s War Docs, and Casablanca

Friday, May 22, 2026 • Duration 01:03:02

“Will young, freewheeling American boys take the iron discipline of wartime? … In my judgment the answer is Yes! ... if the answers they get are worth fighting and dying for.”

This is the story of propaganda on the home front.

The word “propaganda” has some messy connotations, but it’s fundamentally about pushing a narrative, which can be good or evil. Leaders on all sides of the war thought about how to spur the populace to join in the war effort, and in America, it fell to entertainers and artists to really rally the nation to war.

They utilized every form imaginable: films, comics, cartoons, posters, anything. Movie and comedy stars put on road shows for soldiers. Animation studios enlisted beloved cartoon figures like Donald Duck and Bugs Bunny to sell war bonds, and even invented the hilariously inept Private Snafu to teach soldiers what NOT to do. Captain America, on the other hand, was born ready to punch Hitler’s lights out. We’ll also cover that unassailable masterpiece, Casablanca, as well as some propaganda aimed at US soldiers from the other side: the siren known as “Tokyo Rose.”

____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

preorder Prof. Jackson’s new book
go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations
join discussions in our Facebook community
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette
come see a live show
get HTDS merch
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

HTDS is part of Audacy media network. Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contact Audacyinc.com.

Read moreCollapse

198: The Pacific Tide Turns at Coral Sea & Midway

Monday, February 2, 2026 • Duration 59:08

“It was almost unbelievable, but I was seeing it. Almost simultaneously, three [Japanese] carriers were wiped out. I knew what it meant. By golly, we did it!”

This is the story of a battle that changed how wars are fought at sea—and of the thin margin between disaster and destiny. In the spring of 1942, Japanese forces surge across the Pacific, confident their next move will finish what Pearl Harbor began. But beneath the surface, American codebreakers are listening, watching, and waiting.

Fresh from the hard-fought Battle of the Coral Sea, the U.S. Navy limps forward with damaged carriers, exhausted pilots, and an untested commander named Chester Nimitz. Across the ocean, Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku sets an intricate trap meant to lure America’s carriers into annihilation near a tiny atoll called Midway.

What follows is not a clash of battleships, but a duel fought primarily in the air—where minutes matter, mistakes are fatal, and pilots will dive straight into fire with no idea if they’re already too late.

By the morning of June 4, 1942, both sides believe victory is within reach. Only one is right.

____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations
join discussions in our Facebook community
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette
come see a live show
get HTDS merch

112: A Square Deal (pt. 1): Corp. Regulation—a coal strike, a trust, & Teddy’s Frenemy J.P. Morgan

Monday, May 23, 2022 • Duration 58:47

“If we have done anything wrong, send your man to my man and they can fix it up.”

This is the first story of President Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal: “corporate regulation.”

J. Pierpont Morgan hates economic volatility. He’s determined to eliminate that plaguing element from some of his railroad lines by making the competing Union Pacific a friend. He’ll do so by creating a stockholding company called “Northern Securities.” But is this an illegal trust? Or just good business? Teddy and his Attorney General are determined to make the courts figure it out.

At the same time, a massive coal strike in Pennsylvania threatens to plunge the nation into a deadly fuel shortage this winter. Protests and riots are sure to come if this isn’t resolved. In an ironic twist, Teddy finds there’s only one man who can help him solve the situation … the very man his administration is taking to court, J.P. Morgan. Can these two powerful New Yorkers push past the lawsuit to solve a national crisis? We shall see.

____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations
join discussions in our Facebook community
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette
come see a live show
get HTDS merch

111: The Assassination of Will McKinley & The Strenuous Life of Theodore Roosevelt

Monday, May 9, 2022 • Duration 52:44

“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.”

This is the story of (another) presidential assassination and the life of the man it brings to the White House: Theodore Roosevelt.

Though a sickly and asthmatic child, “Teedie,” as his family calls the child, works hard to build his physical strength. To take on the bullies who pick on him. Teddy grows up to become a rowing, boxing, and mountaineering athlete with an equally inquisitive mind.

Assemblyman. Cowboy. Police Commissioner. Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Vice President! Not to mention devastating losses, deep loves, and war. TR’s life is a full one–a “strenuous” one. But nothing in his 42 years could prepare him for what an assassin’s bullet brings in September 1901.

____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations
join discussions in our Facebook community
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette
come see a live show
get HTDS merch
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

110: Epilogue to the Age of Imperialism

Monday, April 25, 2022 • Duration 43:10

Greg, Zach, and Kelsi sit down for a chat about America’s surprisingly compact burst of turn-of-the-century overseas expansion (Age of Imperialism). They talk through an overarching overview of the era; highlight some of the things that, while in previous episodes, might have been less obvious (coaling stations, anyone?); and wax eloquent on historical research while sharing a small behind-the-scenes comedy of errors that went down amid the research for an episode.

Hope you enjoy it.

____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations
join discussions in our Facebook community
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette
come see a live show
get HTDS merch
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

Read moreCollapse

109: The Election of 1900 & the Rise of Anti-Imperialism

Monday, April 11, 2022 • Duration 01:01:34

“Only dead men can tell the truth in this world. It can be published after I am dead.”

This is the story of imperialism and presidential politics: the election of 1900.

US President William McKinley is looking for reelection. The economy is strong, the nation is powerful, and it's expanding overseas. For many Americans, that all sounds and looks rather good. But for others, this overseas imperial expansion is a betrayal of American values. With famous names like Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie behind a new Anti-Imperialist League, the Democrats seize on this energy as they nominate William Jennings Bryan to take (again) on Will McKinley in the contest for the White House.

But can the charismatic, silver-tongued Silverite–WJB–compete with the Republican’s own dynamic, energetic candidate? No, no, not William McKinley, but his new VP running mate: the veteran Rough Rider and Governor of New York Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt.

____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations
join discussions in our Facebook community
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette
come see a live show
get HTDS merch
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

108: G.O. 100, “The Water Cure,” & The Law of War in the Early-20th Century with Professor Ryan Vogel

Monday, March 28, 2022 • Duration 55:20

The ugliest aspects of the Philippine-American War raised questions of legitimate warfare. Specifically, they required the US to think through a military code of conduct from the Civil War: General Order 100, or the “Lieber Code.”

But what is the Lieber Code? How did it seek to rein in the worst of war atrocities, and where did it fail to do so in the Philippines? While we’re at it … what even was the status of the “Law of War” at the turn of the century, and how did it compare to the warfare of yesteryear, or help lay the groundwork for the development of the Law of War in the twentieth century?

Greg sits down with his UVU colleague–former Department of Defense Senior Policy Advisor-turned-UVU Professor and Director of the Center for National Security Studies Ryan Vogel (yeah, big titles, and basically the real-life “Jack Ryan”) to tackle these questions.

____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations
join discussions in our Facebook community
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette
come see a live show
get HTDS merch
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

107: The Philippine-American War

Monday, March 14, 2022 • Duration 54:14

“Co … wards! Assassins!”

This is the story of the Philippine-American War.

Having bested the Spanish in war, the United States now lays claim to holding sovereignty over the Philippines. President William McKinley asserts that the US is enacting “benevolent assimilation” on the islands. William Taft says the US is going to help its “little brown brothers.” But nationalist Emilio Aguinaldo rejects these claims. He says the Philippines should be independent; that US rule is no better than Spanish rule. War follows.

Murder among the nationalists … the birth of the “water cure” … the rise of new figures who will dominate US politics for years to come … welcome to the Philippine-American War.

____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations
join discussions in our Facebook community
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette
come see a live show
get HTDS merch
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

Read moreCollapse

106: The US Annexation of the Hawaiian Kingdom

Monday, February 28, 2022 • Duration 47:51

“You have my love, and with sorrow I dismiss you.”

This is the story of the Hawaiian Kingdom’s end.

Queen Liliuokalani hates the Constitution of 1887–or “Bayonet” Constitution, as it’s known, since her predecessor and brother King Kalakaua signed it under duress. Under this constitution, wealth rather than citizenship determines who votes. This means a lot of wealthy sugar-planting foreigners of American and European origin control the legislature while few native Hawaiians are enfranchised.

Liliu is determined to change this. But can she beat back these sugar planters? Or will they dethrone her? The battlelines are drawn …

____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations
join discussions in our Facebook community
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette
come see a live show
get HTDS merch
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

Read moreCollapse

105: “A Splendid Little War:” The Spanish-American War and Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders

Monday, February 14, 2022 • Duration 46:48

“Sergeant, the Spanish bullet isn’t made that will kill me.”

This is the story of the Spanish-American War.

George Dewey’s squadron is in Manila Bay. Henry Glass is bombarding Guam’s Apra Harbor. Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders are charging up Kettle Hill in Cuba’s San Juan Heights. One American victory follows another as the US fights against the Spanish for the sake of Cuba.

Or is it for the sake of Cuba? As the US and Spain work out a peace treaty in Paris, we’ll see one empire fall and another one rise …

____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations
join discussions in our Facebook community
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette
come see a live show
get HTDS merch
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

Read moreCollapse

History That Doesn't Suck – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

History That Doesn't Suck – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other51

Facebook1

Amazon15

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other51

Facebook1

Amazon15

Apple Podcasts

Spotify