When Pearl Harbor shattered the nation, thousands of Japanese‑Americans were forced from their homes into horse stalls, fairgrounds, and hastily built camps surrounded by barbed wire. This episode follows families as they pack in hours, children say goodbye to pets, and communities try to build schools, gardens, and daily life amid fences and guard towers.

Through archival headlines, the shocking language of Executive Order 9066, the infamous loyalty questionnaire, and the courage of soldiers who fought abroad while their relatives were imprisoned, we trace how fear and racism overrode constitutional rights. From protest and tragedy at Manzanar to the resilience of the 100th/442nd Regiment, personal stories bring the human stakes into sharp relief.

Decades later, an official apology and reparations could not fully heal the losses—but the memory of these camps remains a warning: democracy can unravel when panic replaces principle. Listen as we unpack law, politics, resistance, and the long fight for justice that still echoes today.

Imagine its 3:45 a.m. in late November: a freezing parking lot, a lukewarm to-go coffee, and a line that snakes around the building. Hundreds of people wait for one sliding door to open and a chance at a discounted TV. That familiar chaos—camped-out shoppers, terrifying crowds, and fevered deals—was once tied to financial panic, presidential calendars, and annoyed police officers. In this episode of Timetellers, we trace the odd, surprising life of Black Friday: from a 19th-century Wall Street crash to Franklin Roosevelts Thanksgiving shuffle, from Philadelphia cops dubbing the day "Black" to retailers spinning it into a profit-making holiday, and finally to the internet-fueled, global discount season it is today.

Along the way, we meet retail workers who give up family dinners, communities protesting consumerism, and the grim realities behind viral stampedes. We weave together personal stories, media spectacle, and economic forces into a vivid narrative that shows how a phrase born in crisis became one of the worlds biggest shopping rituals. Whether youre standing in line at dawn or clicking deals in your pajamas, this episode reveals the strange history—and human cost—behind the modern Black Friday.

Pull up a chair as Time Tellers serves a short, spicy history of how global dishes were translated, watered down, and gloriously reinvented on American tables—from chicken tikka masala’s Glasgow epiphany to the gyro, fries, and pad thai that became something new on this side of the world.

Through lively anecdotes, immigrant voices, and kitchen confessions, this episode reveals the human stories behind every adaptation and asks: what do we lose — and gain — when food crosses borders?

It was the start of a new decade. America, still reeling from the 1929 crash, passed a single law meant to save its farmers and manufacturers — and instead helped plunge the world into deeper economic ruin. In this episode of Time Tellers, Renee and Dan trace the rise of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act: from a farm-focused bill to a 20,000-item tariff behemoth, the political fights that carried it into law, and the swift global retaliation that collapsed trade and devastated communities.

Through first-hand readings, lively banter, and expert context, the hosts take you behind the scenes of a legislative feeding frenzy, the economists who warned of disaster, and the international fallout that reshaped trade diplomacy for generations. By following the people caught in the policy — farmers, industrialists, presidents, and foreign leaders — the episode reveals how short-term protectionism can become long-term calamity, and how those choices still echo in today’s trade debates.

Step into the steeple and listen: this episode peels back the gleam to reveal the Liberty Bell's real life — a noisy workbell, a flawed casting, and a slow-creeping crack that history remade into meaning. From humble laborers and Quaker ideals to abolitionists, suffragists, and touring crowds, the bell's fracture becomes a story of contested liberty and hopeful reinvention.

We follow the bell from London foundries to Philadelphia crowds, myth-making tales of July 4th, and the abolitionists who christened it the "Liberty Bell." Join Renee and Dan as they stitch together invention, protest, and preservation into a compact, human story about how an object becomes a voice for a nation's promises — and its contradictions.

It’s late, you’re tired, and the glowing drive‑thru menu promises salvation: melty, greasy, perfect. In this episode we follow that first bite back through time — from Hamburg steak to county fair tinkering, from a kid named Lionel’s bold slice of cheese to the diner counters of Erie where Greek sauce rules — and uncover the messy, delicious arguments over who really invented the cheeseburger.

Along the way we trace how immigrants, entrepreneurs, and the fast‑food machine turned a simple idea into a global obsession: meat, melted dairy, and a bun as an American symbol. We meet claimants, chains, gourmet excess, and a small Pennsylvania town that keeps a regional tradition alive, using storytelling, flavor, and a little scandal to show how food maps identity and change.

Listen as Time Tellers unspools the cheeseburger’s contested pedigree, its rise from practical street food to cultural icon, and the personal stories that stick to the bun. This podcast is a work of historical interpretation while we strive for accuracy some aspects of history are open to interpretation and debate thank you for listening.

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It’s not just silence — it’s something older than sound. Stand on the rim of a mile-deep canyon as sunlight crawls across stone that remembers a time before life had legs, and climb into cliff rooms where hands shaped a life that still speaks. In this final episode of our series, Renee and Dan follow rivers through red rock, explore Mesa Verde’s ancient masonry, and listen to the people who’ve lived these places long before they were parks.

From Theodore Roosevelt’s proclamations to dam battles, from the removal and slow return of the Havasupai to the modern fights over Bears Ears and Grand Staircase, this episode traces how beauty and politics collide in the Southwest. It’s a story about scale — geological, spiritual, historical — and about who gets to tell the land’s story. Tune in to Time Tellers for a journey through cliffs, controversy, and the echoes that bind past and future.