HeyJaredBahr's History Hits
Bahr's History Hits is where the past and present collide--thorugh the lens of books, events, and ideas that shape our world. Hosted by Michael Bahr, this podcast explores how the past shapes the present through powerful ideas and pivitol books.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 8
- Latest publication
- Sep 24, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 3, 2026
Latest episodes
Twelve Days in April (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Five days after the Civil War effectively ended, the president who had guided the Union through it was gone. This episode, we dig into Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard to relive Abraham Lincoln’s final days, the conspiracy that unfolded across Washington, his assassination at Ford’s Theatre, and the twelve-day manhunt for John Wilkes Booth that followed. It’s a story of victory turning to tragedy—and of one violent night that changed who would lead America into Reconstruction.
The General Who Wouldn’t Let it Break (opens the original)
Read excerpt
The Civil War ended in 1865. But just eleven years later, the country came within a hair's breadth of a second one — not on a battlefield, but over a presidential election so contested that newspapers openly speculated about renewed conflict. This episode, we dig into Bret Baier's To Rescue the Republic to uncover how Ulysses S. Grant — the general who saved the Union with an army — was forced to save it again as president, brokering a peace that held the nation together at a painful cost. It's
A Beautiful Day to Die: A Conversation with Senator Jeff Taylor" (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Season Two starts with a story unlike any we've told before — and this time, it comes straight from the person who lived it. Iowa State Senator Jeff Taylor grew up believing a family story about something that happened to him at just four years old, on a drive to a Sioux City hospital. For most of his life, he thought he knew the whole truth. He didn't. In this special interview episode, Senator Taylor joins me to talk about his book A Beautiful Day to Die — the real story behind that childhood
Eighteen Minutes: The Fire that Changed America (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Eighteen minutes. That's all it took for a locked door and a pile of fabric scraps to become one of the deadliest workplace disasters in American history. In 1911, 146 garment workers — mostly young immigrant women — died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, trapped behind exits their bosses had locked to stop them from stealing thread. This episode, we dig into David von Drehle's Triangle: The Fire That Changed America to uncover how a single tragedy exposed a system built on greed — and ho
The Man Who Silenced History (opens the original)
Read excerpt
On live television, a nightclub owner named Jack Ruby did the unthinkable — he gunned down Lee Harvey Oswald, the only man who could answer America's biggest question about November 22, 1963. What followed was one of the strangest trials in American history: a flamboyant celebrity lawyer, an untested insanity defense built on epilepsy, and a Texas prosecutor who wasn't buying any of it. This week, we dig into Kennedy's Avenger by Dan Abrams and David Fisher to unpack the forgotten trial that tur
Publishing over time
Last 90 days. Choose a month to open its work.
Recurring subjects
Named in the text we hold. One piece can cover several.
Not enough subject data for this period yet.
Audience
No verified audience measurement yet.
About this data
Counts cover the work we have indexed. Tone needs enough text and a confident classification. Excerpts and episode notes are not full articles or transcripts.
Identity or attribution wrong? Suggest a correction.