The Preamble

Sharon McMahon

The world feels complicated. The Preamble is where it starts to make sense. Hosted by Sharon McMahon — known for making sense of complex issues — she and her guests dive deep into the stories and ideas driving our future, bringing clarity and honesty to every headline. If you want real insight, bold conversation, and answers that matter, this podcast is your must-listen. Hit play, and join the movement that will shape history.

An Audacy Podcast.

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29 episodes
weekly
Avg 34 min
English

Episodes 29

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Monday · 41 min
The Vigilantes: Episode 2
It should have been a leisurely Saturday off work for 13-year-old Mary Phagan, who was looking forward to celebrating the Confederate Memorial Day holiday. But Mary Phagan would never make it to the parade. And manager Leo Frank? Why couldn't the police get in touch with him? What happened in the basement of the pencil factory at that grisly crime scene?
September 23 · 2 min
Platypus Economics
From world events to everyday decisions, economics explains it all. Platypus Economics makes it clear, useful, and actually fun. Available now: link.pscrb.fm/f0281/PE_PRE
September 21 · 31 min
The Vigilantes: Episode 1
A shocking murder. A scene so brutal that the first people to find the victim couldn’t even tell what their skin color was. And a case that forever changed both the city, and the state’s legal system.
September 14 · 29 min
How Women Won WWII: A New Era Unfolds
Let's talk about what happened next. It was the question on everyone’s mind in the summer of 1945. The Axis Powers had been defeated, soldiers were on their way home, and the destruction from the war had devastated countless cities across Europe. In America, citizens wondered, “What happens now?”
September 7 · 28 min
How Women Won WWII: With a Flash and a Rumble
For 3 years, scientists in secret cities around the U.S. had been in a race against time to complete the world’s first atomic weapon. And in July of 1945, the very first plutonium bomb was ready.
August 31 · 33 min
How Women Won WWII: Caught By the Enemy
Learn about WWII's most decorated spy: a woman whose spirit and determination in the face of danger is unparalleled. Born in France, Odette Sansom joined Britain's SOE and used her unassuming, motherly demeanor to successfully grow the resistance network throughout the French countryside.
August 24 · 1 hr 3 min
How Women Won WWII: The Confidante, Anna Rosenberg
Hear from author Christopher Gorham, whose new book, The Confidante, is the first-ever biography written about one of the United State's most powerful women: Anna Rosenberg. Join us as Christopher and Sharon share about Anna's life and contributions to the modern shaping of our American Government.
August 17 · 33 min
How Women Won WWII: AABBA and the Art of Codebreaking
Let's break some secret wartime codes. Shakespeare and Al Capone. What could possibly be a link between these two men who were born centuries apart? A master codebreaker named Elizebeth Smith Friedman.
August 10 · 30 min
How Women Won WWII: Sabotage and a Jewish Spymaster
During World War II, Churchill understood that boots on the ground were only one piece of the puzzle. In order to sabotage German operations across Europe, he knew Britain needed an army of secret agents. And one of its most successful leaders was a Romanian-born Jewish woman named Vera Atkins.
August 3 · 31 min
How Women Won WWII: The Booming Work of Women Scientists
Previously we had a conversation about the combined efforts of the Allied science community to beat Germany in the race to understand and build atomic weapons. It was a team effort, we barely scratched the surface. Peek into the minds of some of the greatest women scientists during World War II.
July 27 · 29 min
How Women Won WWII: British Wrens at War
Let’s head to Great Britain and learn about a military organization that recruited women into the war effort all across the country. Women volunteered in great numbers and, throughout the war, thousands of women participated. You might even call them…a flock.
July 20 · 34 min
How Women Won WWII: By the Glow of Radium
Let's talk about how the United States successfully produced and detonated the first atomic bomb. That success happened through a combination of random events and intricately planned schemes that fed into the speeding train that was atomic technology.
July 13 · 31 min
How Women Won WWII: A Starlette Spies for France with Josephine Baker
Let’s talk about a person–a larger than life woman–who utilized her fame and charm to secretly gather intel for the Allies during World War II. She put herself in danger, fought for freedom, saved countless lives… and she did it all while she shimmied her way across Europe in tiny sequined costumes.
July 6 · 31 min
How Women Won WWII: The Women of the Secret Cities
Learn about The Manhattan Project. The top-secret program ran for three war-filled years and employed over 120 thousand people. Most of those people had no idea that they were working on one of the most powerful projects of all time: creating nuclear weapons.
June 29 · 31 min
How Women Won WWII: Rosie the Riveter Was Just the Beginning
Explore the incredibly varied and complex roles women stepped into during World War II. No, they weren’t GIs. They didn’t land at the beach on Normandy on D-Day, or face military combat, but without a doubt, the roles they performed shaped the way the war was both fought and won.
June 22 · 34 min
Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 12
It was supposed to be a picturesque and luxurious sightseeing tour over Antarctica. One filled with wonder and awe, in a tour that had cultivated a reputation for giving passengers the “trip of a lifetime.”
June 15 · 38 min
Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 11
“You are now leaving Iranian airspace!” It was a moment that dozens of hostages and their loved ones longed for with bated breath, for 444 days. Freedom. To be released and returned home. The Iranian hostage crisis captured the attention of the world, but how did we get there?
June 8 · 43 min
Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 10
A religious leader with a raging drug addiction who led his following to a tragic end. A President with the hope of finding peace between Israel and Egypt. And a politician who was pivotal to the early LGBTQ+ rights movement, and lost his life in the process.
June 1 · 41 min
Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 9
Did you know that Star Wars almost started a war in real life, over a sand crawler model? Would the film have been so wildly successful if someone else had been cast in the role of Han Solo, such as – let’s say – Christopher Walken?
May 25 · 41 min
Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 8
A happenstance introduction to Charles Manson. Assassination attempts against President Ford, a man who was never elected to the vice presidency or presidency. And the kidnapping of a college student and newspaper heiress, 19-year-old Patty Hearst, that rocked the nation.

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