14. Tennessee v. Scopes: The Trial of the Century - Part 1 episode artwork

EPISODE · Mar 20, 2026 · 55 MIN

14. Tennessee v. Scopes: The Trial of the Century - Part 1

from Science: A Peculiar History · host Joe Bath

In the summer 1925, the run-down Appalachian town of Dayton, Tennessee, played host to one of the most famous trials in history, pitting the former Secretary of State and 3-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan against the notorious criminal defence lawyer Clarence Darrow over the question of whether a local schoolteacher would have to pay a fine.  But how did they get to this point? This episode focuses on the rise of anti-evolution sentiment in the Early-20th-Century USA, that led to the passage of the Butler Act in Tennessee, banning public schools from teaching that humans evolved from apes.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Mar 20, 2026

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14. Tennessee v. Scopes: The Trial of the Century - Part 1

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