The Last Archive is a show about the history of truth, and the historical context for our current fake news, post-truth moment. It’s a show about how we know what we know, and why it seems, these days, as if we don’t know anything at all anymore. The show is written & hosted by Ben Naddaff-Hafrey, and was created by the historian Jill Lepore. iHeartMedia is the exclusive podcast partner of Pushkin Industries.
Latest episodes
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42 min
Sneak Preview: The Other Side of Change by Maya Shankar
Maya Shankar, host of Pushkin's A Slight Change of Plans podcast, just released a new book, "The Other Side of Change". To celebrate, we're sharing an exclusive excerpt with the Pu…
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40 min
Twas the Night Before Christmas from Revisionist History
For nearly 200 years, we have credited the most famous poem of the Christmas season to Clement Clarke Moore. But what if we got the wrong man? This holiday season: A centuries old…
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48 min
How to Experience the Joy of Giving Right Now: A Giving Tuesday Special from The Happiness Lab
According to the science, it really is better to give than receive. Donating a dollar; sharing a kind word or lending someone a hand changes lives, but can also hugely boost your h…
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33 min
From Revisionist History: The Alabama Murders
Here's a preview of a podcast we think you'll enjoy. It's from the new season of Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast, The Alabama Murders. Florence, Alabama. 1988. A pre…
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44 min
From College Matters: Mr. Varsity Blues Claps Back
We're sharing a preview of College Matters from The Chronicle, a podcast from The Chronicle of Higher Education. After 16 months in a federal prison camp, William (Rick) Singer has…
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45 min
People Are the Problem | Preview Douglas Adams: The Ends of the Earth
We’re sharing a preview of a new audiobook, Douglas Adams: The Ends of the Earth, which celebrates the wit and wisdom of the legendary science fiction author of The Hitchhiker’s Gu…
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36 min
A Muffin Showdown
In Revisionist History's season finale, senior producer Ben teams up with the Culinary Institute of America to reverse engineer the secret recipe for Thomas’s English Muffins.See o…
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32 min
Nooks & Crannies
Only seven people in the world knew the secret behind the soft, delicious goodness of Thomas' English Muffins. When one of them tried to leave the company...all hell broke loose. R…
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33 min
Let’s Face It
An exploration of how this one thing – facial recognition – colors so many of our perceptions about ourselves and each other. For better or worse. Revisionist History producer Luci…
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33 min
We Forgot About the Raccoons
You may be familiar with the phrase “lab rat.” Much of what we know about human beings and the way they behave are based upon the things we know about rats and the way they behave.…
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46 min
The Siren Myth
You might think unbelievably loud, shrill sirens on ambulances and fire trucks are just a fact of life. But what if we got the facts all wrong? In this special episode of Revisioni…
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41 min
Representation for the Natural World (An Earth Month Episode)
With Earth Day coming up, we wanted to share a classic TLA episode about the climate crisis. Jill Lepore proposes an alternate reality in which Americans ratified an environmental…
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28 min
The Terminator from X Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story
Elon Musk has claimed that AI is humanity’s “biggest existential threat.” Paradoxically, Musk is also working to create artificial intelligence. Why? Jill Lepore tours through a ce…
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27 min
Body Snatchers from X Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story
In 2022, Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, and renamed it X. When asked why he wanted to own the social media network, Musk talked a lot about something he called the “woke…
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28 min
Baby X from X Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story
The science fiction that Silicon Valley techno-billionaires like Elon Musk adore concerns gleaming futures in which fantastically powerful, immensely rich men colonize other planet…
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28 min
The Dogefather from X Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story
In 2021, Elon Musk started calling himself The Dogefather to signal his support for Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency based on a joke meme about a dog. That dog is now wagging the tail of…
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28 min
Iron Man from X Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story
In 2008 Tesla Motors launched its first car, the completely electric Roadster. Tesla was a great story — something genuinely new, an engineering marvel. Musk became a media darling…
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28 min
Planet B from X Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story
Elon Musk is a rocket man. He wants humans to become ‘a multi-planetary species’ and talks about establishing human settlements on Mars. As President Trump talks up the Mars progra…
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28 min
Dimension X from X Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story
Elon Musk is reinventing himself as a kingmaker for the United States and the world. He wants to shape the future. But in this episode, Jill Lepore goes back to his past — to his c…
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28 min
The Dark Knight from X Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story
Elon Musk’s origin story keeps changing. First, he was Tony Stark, or Iron Man. Not too long ago, he compared himself to Batman. Arguments started online over whether or not Musk i…