HTDS is a bi-weekly podcast, delivering a legit, seriously researched, hard-hitting survey of American history through entertaining stories. To keep up with History That Doesn’t Suck news, check us out htdspodcast.com or follow on Facebook and Instagram: @Historythatdoesntsuck; on Twitter/X: @HTDSpod. Become a premium member to support our work, receive ad-free episodes and bonus episodes.

The next episode of HTDS drops Sept 22nd. Prof. Jackson will begin the story of World War II in the European Theater and see the United States’ reaction. We’ll witness the fall of France, see the Royal Air Force in action, and listen to Franklin Roosevelt’s Arsenal of Democracy speech–and more! But as the Prof. put the finishing touches on it…here's a fun preview of a new show from our network partner.  STAR TREK: KHAN, the scripted podcast series.



History remembers Khan Noonien Singh as a villain, the product of a failed attempt to perfect humanity through genetic engineering whose quest to avenge himself on Admiral James T. Kirk led to unimaginable tragedy and loss. But the truth has been buried for too long beneath the sands of Ceti Alpha V. How did Khan go from a beneficent tyrant and superhuman visionary with a new world at his fingertips to the monster we think we know so well? Recently unearthed, the rest of Khan’s story will finally be told in STAR TREK: KHAN.
 
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History That Doesn't Suck

Introducing Star Trek: Khan

“A great war can hardly be avoided any longer.”

This is the story of Nazi Germany’s aggressive territorial expansion and the start of WWII.  

The Treaty of Versailles has long been a thorn in Adolf Hitler’s side. Its troublesome limits on troops and technology pose challenges for a man bent on taking lebensraum and building a Grossdeuschland by any means necessary. So he starts quietly building planes and submarines. Then he starts publicly adding a few hundred thousand more soldiers. By 1936, he’s ready to move. He remilitarizes the Rhineland. When that goes well, he only grows bolder. He takes Austria. He takes Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland. 

Many European leaders—particularly those not named Winston Churchill—fail to grasp just how far the Fuhrer will go. They hope to “appease” him. But when Adolf strikes again, brazenly seizing the rest of Czechoslovakia, even British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain is ready to draw a line. That line is Poland.Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and


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187: From the Rhineland to Poland (1935–1939): Annexation, Appeasement, & the Start of World War II 

“Comrade Stalin, now that he is general secretary, has concentrated immense power in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will always be capable of exercising this power with sufficient caution.”

This is the story of Joseph Stalin’s path to becoming the dictator of the USSR. 

Ioseb (Joseph) Jughashvili, or little “Soso,” is a good student. A choir boy, in fact. But that changes as the Orthodox Georgian increasingly puts his faith in the Bolshevik branch of Russia’s Social Democrats. Under Vladimir Lenin’s leadership, Soso, now going by Joseph Stalin, becomes a true revolutionary. One who embraces violence and murder as an acceptable means to an end amid Russia’s shift from revolution to civil war.

With Lenin’s passing in 1924, it’s clear that someone has to step into his shoes, and Stalin deftly outmaneuvers Leon Trotsky to be that someone. But he won’t just lead it. Stalin will remake the Soviet Union in his own image, industrializing and consolidating his power at all costs. Millions will die. Millions more disappear into the gulags, never to be seen again. This is the rise and reign of Joseph “the Man of Steel” Stalin.

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Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and


  
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or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.




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186: From Czardom to Stalinism: Building the USSR & the Ascent of Joseph Stalin

“Being a Jew is not a crime, I am not a dog.”

This is the story of the start of the Holocaust. 

Serving as the scapegoat for everything from a disappearing child to the Black Plague, European Jews are used to “anti-Jewry.” But as the nation state rises in the modern world, it brings the so-called “Jewish Question” to the fore: can one be a faithful Jew and modern citizen? As modern antisemitism rises and European Jews face pogroms and the Dreyfus Affair, some begin to think they need a nation of their own. Jewish nationalism, or “Zionism,” is born.

Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the Great War, Adolf Hitler’s Nazism is leaning into the continent’s centuries-old anti-Jewry and antisemitic ideas to claim that the Jews are responsible for Germany’s postwar woes. Once in power, he begins systematically removing rights from the Reich’s Jewish population. This includes taking their citizenship through the Nuremberg Race Laws in 1935, and an unfathomable, deadly, destructive pogrom in 1938: Kristallnacht. 

Stateless and persecuted, European Jews try to flee Nazism—can they find safety in America? We’ll see how that goes as we follow the St. Louis to America’s shores, and as the German American Bund gathers in Madison Square Garden…

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Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and


  
go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations



  
join discussions in our Facebook community



  
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 



  
come see a live show



  
get HTDS merch



  
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.




HTDS is part of Audacy media network.

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185: The Early Holocaust: From the “Jewish Question” to Kristallnacht

Professor Greg Jackson is touring the country with a live version of the podcast telling the story of The Unlikely Union of American states. Starting Sep 19, 2025 through July 4, 2026, you can hear the Professor history-tell in person, with video and live musicians. 

It’s not recorded for the podcast so get your tickets now at ⁠HTDSpodcast.com/live-shows

In 100 minutes Professor Jackson will take audiences on a remarkable 100-year journey that begins when thirteen distinct, disparate British colonies set aside differences to unite as something greater. Then, in less than a century of this young nation's existence, the durability of its union and commitment to its founding ideals are put to the test in a bloody civil war. 

In 2026, America will turn 250 years old, remarkably— because it nearly died a thousand deaths in just its first 100. This live stage show celebrates America’s semiquincentennial (250th birthday) by not only returning to its bold Declaration of Independence, but revisiting key events in its first centennial that gave this nation, as Abraham Lincoln spoke, “a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

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Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and


  
go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations



  
join discussions in our Facebook community



  
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 



  
come see a live show



  
get HTDS merch



  
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.




HTDS is part of Audacy media network.

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The Unlikely Union: New Tour Dates

“There will be no more mercy now; anyone who stands in our way will be butchered.”



This is the story of Adolf Hitler and the collapse of the Weimar Republic. 



A dropout. A failed applicant to Vienna’s prestigious Academy of Fine Arts. A decorated but low-ranking soldier who attempts to overthrow the state and is convicted of treason. But only a decade or so later, he’s the nation’s leader. Not just the Chancellor, not even a “mere” president. He’s Germany’s dictator. The “Führer.” 

How on earth does such an underwhelming man rise to such an overwhelming position of power? With virulent nationalism, rabid antisemitism, fearmongering, and violence in an economically panicked, democracy-doubting, and defeated Germany. This is the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Reich. 

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Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and


  
go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations



  
join discussions in our Facebook community



  
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 



  
come see a live show



  
get HTDS merch



  
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.




HTDS is part of Audacy media network.

Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contact Audacyinc.com
 
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
  
 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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