74. McCarthyism: How The Red Scare Gripped America (Ep 1)

Journey Through Time

Goalhanger

History

4.3 • 595 Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What was the second Red Scare where government employees, creatives, and intellectuals were prosecuted for holding ‘un-American’ views? What are the 19th century origins of Trump’s catch phrase, ‘America First’? Who was Martin Dies, the man responsible for setting up the ‘House of Unamerican Activities Committee’? Join Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga for the first part of their series looking at the McCarthyism purges that gripped America in the 20th century. Email: journeythroughtime@goalhanger.com X: @ThroughTimePod Blue Sky: @ThroughTimePod Instagram: @JourneyThroughTimePod Social Producer: Emma Jackson Assistant Producers: Alfie Rowe, Alfie Norris Producer: Alice Horrell Head of History: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	McCarthyism is the story of American power turning a witch hunt onto its own citizens.
0:12.0	But before there was Joseph McCarthy who gave the story its name, there was actually a ritual that predates him.
0:19.0	It was a way of turning suspicion into power,
0:22.0	of accusation into proof, and it turned fear into policy. So this is the story of how America
0:27.1	learned to hunt the enemy within, how loyalty tests became law, how dissent became danger,
0:32.5	how a congressional committee learned it could destroy lives without ever proving a crime. But first, a quick ad break.
0:43.6	Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? That is one of the most
0:50.2	notorious, one of the most chilling, one of the most famous questions of the 20th century,
0:54.4	and it is the question of the center of the story that we're about to tell. Welcome to Journey
0:59.8	Through Time. I'm David Ullushogger. And I'm Sarah Churchill. And that's right, this is the first
1:04.8	of our new six-part series on what became known in America as McCarthyism and and also known as the second Red Scare.
1:12.4	It actually has a couple of names. Sometimes people just call it the Red Scare, but as we'll
1:15.6	discuss. There was another. There were others. Some call it the actually, well, anyway, we could
1:20.3	talk about different Red Scare's. But the story of this Red Scare, the story of McCarthyism,
1:25.5	is an incredibly consequential and important story for American history, but it's also an incredibly dramatic story. It is a story with lies and accusations and betrayal. It's got one of the best courtroom dramas in 20th century American history. And it also stars some of the most famous iconic names in 20th century America.
1:45.0	Yeah, we have presidents, we have senators, we have Hollywood stars.
1:51.0	I mean, this is quite a cast list.
1:52.0	It's a great cast list.
1:54.0	And also some of the great writers of the 20th century are caught up in this story too.
1:58.0	So yeah, so we're just going to hear a roll call of famous names throughout
2:00.9	this story, but they're all actively involved as well. These are not bystanders. These people
2:05.1	are right at the center. It's a story of friends turning on friends and they were, for the most part,
	...

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