Slow Burn

In Slow Burn’s 10th season, host Josh Levin takes you back to a crucial inflection point in American

Episodes

Total: 186

Thirty years ago, a new kind of soda arrived in select stores. Instead of crowing about how spectacu

Hosted by Christina Cauterucci. Coming in May 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphon

The eerie similarity of coffee shops all over the world was so confounding to Kyle Chayka that it le

Before 1990, there had never been a documented case of a patient getting HIV from a health care work

Robert Mapplethorpe was one of the most famous photographers in the world—and one of the most contro

In March 1990, a story broke that shocked the nation: George H.W. Bush had banned broccoli from Air

A middle-aged single dad in Chicago was outraged by all the cigarette billboards popping up in Black

Pizza Hut’s adventure in the Soviet Union was unlike any restaurant opening before or since. It invo

In 1992, a Minnesota-based software company known for its educational hit The Oregon Trail released

From the moment it was released in 1995, The Rules was controversial.. Some people loved it—and swor

We receive a lot of fantastic show ideas from our listeners—and we’re grateful for each and every on

In the mid-1990s, the prime time drama Melrose Place became a home to hundreds of pieces of contempo

Judging from teen dramas on Netflix, the slow dance seems to be alive and well. But when you talk to

Ten years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, 25 women who’d been disfigured by the blast came to

Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine transformed America and the world in ways that seemed unimaginable. But i

When Alaskans wanted their own mental-health facility, a rumor took hold all over America. This week

In the early days of television, women struggled to find their place. In 1955, they got it: forecast

In 1955, the frontiersman Davy Crockett became the most famous man in America, more than a century a

The Cannon Street All-Stars dreamed of playing in the 1955 Little League World Series. Their biggest

Once you start listening for catchphrases in everyday life—you can’t stop hearing them. From the rad