PODCAST · history
Tracing The Path: The Connected 20th Century
by Dan R. Morris - 20th Century Historian
Tracing The Path is a 20th Century History podcast exploring how ordinary people, products, ideas, events, and places unexpectedly shaped the modern world.Every episode begins with something familiar—a word, a company, a song, an invention, a historical event, or a cultural phenomenon—and follows the surprising chain of connections that made it matter.Why did a grocery store change the course of the Cold War?How did a simple greeting become part of everyday life?What do advertising agencies, world leaders, musicians, inventors, and soft drink companies have in common?More than you might think.Hosted by award-winning storyteller Dan R. Morris, Tracing The Path connects familiar people, products, events, and places you never knew were linked, bringing together the forgotten figures, unexpected decisions, remarkable coincidences, and cultural turning points that shaped the 20th Century—and continue to influence our lives today.Inspired by the storytelling traditions of Paul Harvey, Charle
Episodes
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Episode 86: The Popeye Ripple Effect
The best selling video game of all time didn't come about by accident. There's an entire history that starts with playing cards and tattoos and corn cob pipes. The story crosses paths with the Ultrahand, Dennis the Menace, Thimble Theatre, Olive Oyl, Nintendo, Popeye, Fleischer Studios, William...
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Episode 85: The Conversation: 1/2 Cup of American History
We're looking at some of the wow moments from the last episode, and in discussing it we got a chance to connect Fannie Farmer, the 1896 Boston Cooking School Cookbook's definition of a Cup, Peavey, Junior League Cookbooks, Boone & Erickson Morning Show on WCCO Radio, the East Bank & West Bank at...
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Episode 84: 1/2 Cup of American History
What can a recipe tell us about American history? A lot more than what’s for dinner. In this episode of Tracing the Path, we follow the American recipe from handwritten collections and community cookbooks to corporate test kitchens, radio programs, recipe contests, and the cards tucked inside...
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Episode 83: The Conversation: Pepsi Cracked the Iron Curtain
Today we're looking at some of the wow! moments from the Pepsi episode. Specifically we're going deeper on the Pepsi Refresh Superbowl campaign, Pepsi's Navy, the Marriott Loan and the time capsule that is a Pepsi Can Collection.
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Episode 82: When Pepsi Cracked the Iron Curtain
The Cold War wasn't fought only with missiles. It was also fought with supermarkets, television cameras, vodka, and a simple paper cup filled with Pepsi. This month, Tracing The Path follows the surprising chain of events that led an American soft drink behind the Iron Curtain—and a Russian vodka...
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Episode 81: The Hero at the Edge of the Map
No matter what hero story you read or hear, the location it takes place will be in total alignment with the era it was written. And it has changed over time because society always pushes the hero to face the unknown at the edge of the map. In today's episode we cross paths with Homer, Daniel...
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Episode 80: One Step Leads to Another
Today's episode is Part 3 of our Origin Story Series about the start of Tracing The Path. Today's story touches on Russia's Yuri Andropov, Mark Twain, Bram Stoker, Nicolae Ceaușescu the Austro Hungarian Empire, the University of Nebraska, Auschwitz, the Sound of Music and the concept of...
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Episode 79: The Conversation: Yeltsin's Grocery Revolution
In today's episode we discussion the evolution of grocery stores, as discussed in Episode 78. Life in Romania, automatic sliding doors, Walgreens lighting, Rachel's dads inventions and the plight of A&P.
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Episode 78: Yeltsin's Grocery Revolution
When Boris Yeltsin came to the United States in 1989 to speak, visit with the President and see the Statue of Liberty, his entire outlook on the world changed in one :20 minute moment. But it wasn't NYC or Miami or President Bush. It was Randall's Grocery Store in Webster Texas. This is the story...
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Episode 77: The Conversation: World's Best Music
Are those really the world's most famous tunes? Rachel and I discuss the "easter eggs" of the show, whether they are songs and more ludicrousness. Foreigner, Twinkle Twinkle, Happy Birthday . . . what do you think?
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Episode 76: The World's Most Famous Music
Can you believe the world's most famous music is 3,000 years old? Not necessarily from the first note written, but from the idea that created it. In this episode we cross paths with Thomas Edison, Stanley Kubrick, Walt Disney, The Lone Ranger, Richard Strauss, Johannes Brahms, Charles Darwin, The...
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Episode 75: The Conversation: The Real Forrest Gump
We're taking "the cutting room floor" to a new level. Rachel and I go over all the stories we couldn't fit into "The Real Forrest Gump" story. Enjoy this new series and a full conversation, including Josh Norton: The Emperor of the United States.
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Episode 74: The Real Life Forrest Gump
Before there was a movie, there was a man who lived it. We all know the story of the accidental hero who wandered through history, rubbing elbows with presidents and changing the world by mistake. But what if that story wasn't fiction? In this episode, we trace the impossible footsteps of a…
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Episode 73: The Gilded Age: First March on Washington D.C.
In 1894 Jacob Coxey decided to take thousands of unemployed and March on Washington. Well, that was just the prequel to 1964 March for Civil Rights. But it's how A. Philip Randolph was indoctrinated to the idea. And crazily this store involves both Mark Twain and Jack London, in addition to…
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Episode 72: The Invention of Hello
The word Hello showed up just as the world was changing . . . in the absolute biggest ways ever. Nothing was the same after "Hello". In this episode we cross paths with Michigan J Frog, Tin Pan Alley, the Phonograph, Western Union, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Alexander Graham Bell, Scott Joplin, the...
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Episode 71: The Amana Utopia and Patriot Missile
Can you imagine a group running on perfect communism, flourishing in the capitalist market and then eventually spawning the Patriot Missile - to fight actual Communists. And it happened twice. In this episode we cross paths with Quaker Oatmeal, microwave popcorn, Vennevar Bush, the Amana…
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Episode 70: Who Knows The Truth? Does A.I.?
Somewhere along the way, we lost the truth. The questions we ask about the truth haven't been the same since Orson Welles' War of the World's Broadcast in 1938, but that doesn't mean we haven't stopped trying. In this episode we cross paths with William Moulton Marston, Alice Guy-Blache, Frye Vs...
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Episode 69: Status Symbol for Rent
In today’s episode we’re discussing three of the history's most amazing "status symbol" stories. The story involves the Silk Road, Sulieman the Magnificent, Tulipomania, Carolus Clusius, Chuck Berry, Christopher Columbus, Henry Ford, James Dole, Madame C.J. Walker, and Mahalia Jackson.
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Episode 68: Hello Darkness My New Friend - The Story of The Family Who Created Sonar and Braille
In this episode we explore Simon & Garfunkel, Louis Braille, Charles Barbier, Valentin Haüy and René-Jus Haüy, Marvel Comics, Popular Science Magazine, Plato and even George Washington. How the world has fought Darkness has been pretty amazing . . . and crazily it's all because of one family
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Episode 67: How a Coffee Shop Changed the World: The Origin Story of Lloyds of London
This is the story of Edward Lloyd and his London Coffee Shop . . . and how they were able to change the world. Amazingly this story touches on the New York Stock Exchange, Bruce Springsteen, George Lucas, Lorenzo de Tonti, the Origin of the Tontine, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lloyds of London and…
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Episode 66: The America of Tarzan and Buck vs Bell
The 1890 closing of the Frontier by the US Census Bureau is a major milestone in the history of the United States. The outcome of that change affected the mindset of the Americans. . . and from that comes some of our most loved fiction. But on the flip side, also the darkest stain on the United...
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Episode 65: When Osama Bin Laden Wrinkled FDR's Plans: The 100 Year Fight Against Polio
This is the story of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Henrietta Lacks, Jonas Salk, the March of Dimes, the Tuskegee Institute and their collective effort to eradicate polio from the earth. But the story also touches on Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Lewis Adams, the Hampton School…
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Episode 64: How did Bob Hope's USO become a thing? And who performed?
In today's episode we look at all the people and plans it took to create the United Service Organization (USO). While there was enormous planning and smart people, it wouldn't be what it is without a trumpet player from Chicago. We cross paths with General Pershing, Glenn Miller, m&ms, Thomas...
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Episode 63: Classified: How the Library Built the FBI and How did J. Edgar Hoover Get Involved?
It all started in the 1500s with Sir Francis Bacon, and then in the 1700s with Carl Linnaeus. And along the way we run into Thomas Jefferson, President McKinley, Melvil Dewey, Elihu Root, Napoleon Bonaparte, Al Capone, Teddy Roosevelt, the Library of Congress, Ainsworth Rand Spofford and J. Edgar...
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Episode 62: The Cheesy Results of WW II: Plus the Story of How Nachos Came to Be
One of the greatest products of World War II was "cheesy". And it's all Wisconsin's fault. In fact it's possible that without WW2 three of the greatest things in your daily life just wouldn't be there. In today's episode we cross paths with FDR, Ricos Nachos, Jean Nicolet, Cheetos, Fritos, Kraft,...
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Episode 61: Every Episode Has 4
This is episode 61, the end of the first era and beginning of the second. In fielding your hundreds of ideas for shows, we decided to go over the 4 actual requirement that every story must have before becoming an episode of Tracing The Path. We look at old episodes and how they meet the...
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Episode 60: The Secret World of Roald Dahl (A Real Chocolate Spy)
The fact that our most beloved children's author was a spy for the British isn't the twist. The twist comes when his greatest enemy becomes an important advisor. Along the way we run into Ian Fleming, FDR, Cadbury, Quaker Oats, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Beatrix Potter, the Sopwith…
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Episode 59: The True Story of Candy Canes and How They Became a Christmas Tradition
Did you know that if it weren't for the Mexicans and the Swedes, our Christmas would look substantially different? Yep, today we trace the world of Peppermint back to Santa Anna, Bob, Amalia Erickson, William Wrigley, the American Chicle Company, the Erie Canal, some French cellophane and maybe...
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Episode 58: The Cultural Impact of Don McLean's "American Pie" (and the part Roberta Flack played)
The "American Dream" was first coined in 1931. In 1971 two things happened on exactly the same day . . . the world's biggest song was released lamenting the end of the American Dream. And the world's biggest dreamer opened the most amazing American institution. In today's episode we cross paths...
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Episode 57: 1848: The Year Halloween Began and How it Started
Have you ever heard the origin of Halloween? Perhaps you've heard about the Irish holiday Samhain, but there's more. And all of it converges on one year, 1848. In this episode learn about Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, Washington Irving, Edgar Allen Poe, Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, the most...
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Episode 56: The Amazing Story of Van Diemen's Land and the U.S. Presidential Resolute Desk
The Resolute Desk was a gift to the President as the movie National Treasure says. But did you know it involved Tasmania, Van Diemen's Land, Explorer John Franklin, Maritime Salvage Laws, Senator Lawrence S Foster, Abel Tasman, Anthony Van Diemen, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the HMS…
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Episode 55: The Story of Grant Wood's American Gothic and How Crayola Was the Inspiration
When the Industrial Revolution came to town, it inspired an opposite movement that may have changed the world. It certainly inspired a construction style and a whole bunch more. Today we rub elbow's with Teddy Roosevelt, David Sedaris, Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, Georgia O'Keefe, the…
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Episode 54: America's Westward Expansion and CBS TV's Rural Purge
The Louisiana Purchase kicked off Westward Expansion in the United States. Then came the transcontinental railroad, Homesteading and factory towns. Even the Industrial Revolution aided rural communities with new farming technology and access to bigger markets. But one day in 1971, Rural America…
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Episode 53: Robert Smalls & the Death of Lincoln: A Civil War Story
Robert Smalls was the defiant slave who decided freedom was a better choice. That is when his and President Abraham Lincoln's lives would be intertwined, from the Civil War all the way through death. In this episode we discover Lydia Polite, Harriet Buss, Henry Ward Beecher, Harriet Beecher…
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Episode 52: The Cannon Shot Rule: How Maritime Law Conquered the Sky
Did you know the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, the Chinese Spy Balloon and the International Space Station all have one thing in common? A law written in Roman Times. Let us tell you about NASA and Captain Skip Strong, the Stamp Act, H.G. Wells, Edward Bulwer Lytton, the Woods...
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Episode 51: Connected Origins of the Bloody Mary & Moscow Mule
French Lick, Indiana was once the top resort town in the U.S. Famous people like Bing Crosby, Al Capone, Ronald Reagan, and Larry Bird all went there. But it's known for much more than that and what starts in there, changes the world. This week's episode features Tod Sloan, FDR, West Baden…
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Episode 50: How Many Times Has Coca-Cola Changed Their Secret Recipe?
Everyone knows they changed it in 1985 to New Coke. But how many know of the other four times? And one of those might be considered a public duping. To get the answer today's story covers Thomas Edison, Cocaine, Kola Nut, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Robert Gozuieta, Fanta, Tab, Diet Rite…
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Episode 49: The 20th Century Trivia Window: Jeopardy & Trivial Pursuit
The 20th Century presented the perfect moment for the rise is Trivia, and the games that go with it. Maybe that window is beginning to close. In today's episode we explore the Han Dynasty, WW2, Merv Griffin, Charles Van Doren, NBC, College Bowl, Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy, Alex Trebek, Radio Quiz...
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Episode 48: The Whole It's A Wonderful Life Movie Story
Did you know "It's A Wonderful Life" started out as a dream? And then as a Christmas card? How did it beat the odds to become an American classic? The story starts back in 1876 and involves Amadeo Giannini, Philip Van Doren Stern, Frank Capra, Jimmy Stewart, World War II, the Council on Books in...
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Episode 47: Was Dickens the World's First Influencer?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, an influencer is someone who made it big online. We disagree. Could there have been an influencer before the internet? Charles Dickens did have millions of fans, he did influence people, companies, governments and society. He was much more than an…
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Episode 46: How East Texas Wildcatters Won World War II
Winston Churchill said it best "whomever controls the oil will win the war". Luckily, the United States had Wilcatters with true tenacity who would find oil no matter where it hid. In today's episode we explore the Big Inch and Little Big Inch piplines, Columbus Joiner, Spindletop, Cushing...
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Episode 45: How the Chinese Exclusion Act Created Bing Cherries and General Tso Chicken
The Chinese Exclusion Act is one of our most undiscussed tragedies. Despite the bad, Chinese immigrants pushed through to help shapes these United States. Today's episode crosses paths with Bruce Lee, Teddy Roosevelt, Chester A. Arthur, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Bing Cherry, the Valencia...
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Episode 44: The Complex History of Popcorn in the 20th Century Culture
To get a button on the microwave for popcorn, it first had to touch the hands of Winston Churchill, Cracker Jacks, the 1893 World's Fair, Major League Baseball, a #1 hit song, Superman, Betty Boop, Raytheon, McCann Erickson, and popcorn balls at the North Pole. Sit back and hear a tale you've not...
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Episode 43: Celebrity Edition: The Rest of the Story
Today we honor Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story" with this unbelievable tale. You'll never guess who it is about, but along the way the story touches Martin Luther King, Jr, Mbutu Sese Seko, Pearl Harbor, Goucher College, Rudolf Hess, Erwin Rommel, Apollo 13, the Israeli Air Force, Isaroku...
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Episode 42: The Murder That Created the Oxford English Dictionary
The path to creating the world's most important dictionary involved J.R.R. Tolkien, the constructed language of Esperanto, the Oxford English Dictionary, a murderer in an insane asylum, Alice in Wonderland and the Civil War in the United States. Today's story also featured Alfred Lord Tennyson,...
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Episode 41: Halley's Comet and the Scientist who Hijacked a NASA Satellite
Did you know a scientist once hijacked a satellite from NASA? And got a medal for it? Comets have been part of our world since the beginning, no matter what science fiction films tell you. Today we visit Einstein, Atilla the Hun, Isaac Newton, Robert Farquhar, Edmund Halley, NASA, Jimmy Carter,...
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Episode 40: The Evolution of Email and the Enron Corpus
The history of email is over 300 years in the making . . . and every step is fascinating, especially the Enron Corpus. Without the story of the typewriter, Emilie Baudot, Alan Turing, Donald Murray, and the U.S. Air Force, there likely wouldn't be email today. This story covers Ray Tomlinson,...
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Episode 39: 484 Year Documentary of Muscle Shoals
How could the smallest town in the furthest corner become the epicenter of music? Because it has been the silent epicenter of the US from the beginning. In today's episode we cross paths with King Ferdinand, Ponce De Leon, Beethoven, W.C. Handy, Sam Philips, Robert E Lee, Charles Dickens, Helen...
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Episode 38: Who Silenced Alfred Hitchcock?
Alfred Hitchcock is known as the Master of Suspense and greatest director of the 20th Century. What made him different? Today's episode is the Six Degrees of Hitchcock as we encounter Cary Grant, Salvador Dali, John Steinbeck, Thornton Wilder, Ingrid Bergman, James Stewart, Jerry Mathers, Charles...
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Episode 37: The Cropduster, The Military Plot & Lindbergh's 322 Bones
Charles Lindbergh is the connecting rod between Delta Air Lines and Pan Am. But how they came to be involves a military plot, some crop dusters, the Skull & Bones society, the Lusitania, a name change and a boll weevil. It's an amazing story when you hear it all together.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Tracing The Path is a 20th Century History podcast exploring how ordinary people, products, ideas, events, and places unexpectedly shaped the modern world.Every episode begins with something familiar—a word, a company, a song, an invention, a historical event, or a cultural phenomenon—and follows the surprising chain of connections that made it matter.Why did a grocery store change the course of the Cold War?How did a simple greeting become part of everyday life?What do advertising agencies, world leaders, musicians, inventors, and soft drink companies have in common?More than you might think.Hosted by award-winning storyteller Dan R. Morris, Tracing The Path connects familiar people, products, events, and places you never knew were linked, bringing together the forgotten figures, unexpected decisions, remarkable coincidences, and cultural turning points that shaped the 20th Century—and continue to influence our lives today.Inspired by the storytelling traditions of Paul Harvey, Charle
HOSTED BY
Dan R. Morris - 20th Century Historian
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Tracing The Path: The Connected 20th Century have?
Tracing The Path: The Connected 20th Century currently has 79 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Tracing The Path: The Connected 20th Century about?
Tracing The Path is a 20th Century History podcast exploring how ordinary people, products, ideas, events, and places unexpectedly shaped the modern world.Every episode begins with something familiar—a word, a company, a song, an invention, a historical event, or a cultural phenomenon—and follows...
How often does Tracing The Path: The Connected 20th Century release new episodes?
Tracing The Path: The Connected 20th Century has 79 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Tracing The Path: The Connected 20th Century?
You can listen to Tracing The Path: The Connected 20th Century on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Tracing The Path: The Connected 20th Century?
Tracing The Path: The Connected 20th Century is created and hosted by Dan R. Morris - 20th Century Historian.
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