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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503 episodes
Updated Today

Episodes503

Newest first

Today · 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.
May 20 · 3 min
Introducing Family Lore
Family Lore is a weekly narrative podcast that celebrates and investigates ancestral mystique. Each episode begins with a guest sharing a fascinating family legend, followed by a historical deep-dive to uncover the truth and meaning behind the tale. Available now. https://link.pscrb.fm/f0281/FLFD
May 18 · 46 min
Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 7
Draft dodging. When did the draft lottery begin for the war in Vietnam, and who among America’s youth was hit the hardest? It was an unwinnable war, and thousands of high school graduates and college students refused to comply. What sparked these explosive protests nationwide?
May 11 · 32 min
Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 6
A cover up that cost Nixon's presidency, a pardon that cost Gerald R. Ford his election, and a friendship dating back to the 1940s. It was the first time a President had been impeached, and the only time in U.S. history that a President resigned from office.
May 4 · 40 min
Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 5
The right to privacy, a 22-year-old who went by the pseudonym “Jane Roe,” and one of the most famous court cases in United States history. We learn what happened leading up to Roe v. Wade, the fate of Norma McCorvey following the Supreme Court’s ruling, & how this piece of history echoes today.
April 27 · 34 min
Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 4
Deep Throat, Operation Gemstone, two valiant reporters, and a secret 30 years in the making. Watergate was not a single scandal, but rather an avalanche of events and co-conspirators, all engaged in corruption to keep President Nixon in office.
April 20 · 31 min
Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 3
“The week that changed the world.” Was it a chance encounter at the World Tennis Championship in 1971, “Panda diplomacy” between the U.S. and Communist China, or a break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters by a team of 5 burglars, that drastically altered the trajectory of world history?
April 13 · 41 min
Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 2
Secret Police, CIA operatives, The Pentagon Papers, and The Most Dangerous Man in America. There was a time in the not-so-distant past, when the nightly news changed the game in how Americans felt about the war in Vietnam, the first “television war.”
April 6 · 44 min
Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 1
Over the next few weeks, we’ll take a journey through the Decade of Defiance, with all its scandals and secrets. As the decade devolved, Apollo 13 flew high above Earth with the hope of landing safely on the surface of the moon.
March 30 · 36 min
Growing Hope: What Depression-Era Gardens and Rainn Wilson Teach Us About Hard Times
Rainn Wilson joins Sharon for a conversation about loneliness, cynicism, and why the antidote to a broken world might already be growing in your backyard.