78. McCarthyism: The Fall of Joseph McCarthy (Ep 5)

Journey Through Time

Goalhanger

History

4.3 • 595 Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2026

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What happened when Joseph McCarthy turned his communist-catching energy on the army? What film, directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando, is viewed as an allegory for the McCarthy hearings? In what ways did the ‘Lavender scare’ subtext influence the investigations into Roy Cohn? What famous line brought down the reputation of this ‘red-scare’ fuelling demagogue? Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga look at the Army-McCarthy hearings and the spectacularly public downfall of Joseph McCarthy. 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	What I've dedicated my life to is revenge.
0:04.0	A brand new drama based on the best-selling novel.
0:07.0	They think they're better than us.
0:08.0	Who do you think you are?
0:10.0	I'm going to prove to them that they're wrong.
0:12.0	She's punishing me.
0:13.0	You destroyed my family.
0:14.0	I will not rest until I've destroyed yours.
0:17.0	A Woman of Substance on Channel 4 starts tonight at 9.
0:20.0	... A woman of substance on Channel 4 starts tonight at 9.
0:29.6	Hello and welcome to Journey Through Time.
0:30.6	I'm David Aldoushago.
0:31.6	And I'm Sarah Churchill.
0:39.4	And this is the fifth in our series on the Red Scare of the 1930s, 40s and 50 50s, the infamous House Committee on American Activities and the extraordinary career of one infamous Senator Joseph McCarthy.
0:46.1	That's right. And today we are going to be telling the story of the Army McCarthy hearings,
0:53.2	which actually bring down Joseph McCarthy. But before we do that,
0:57.7	we want to tell one more story. We were talking last time about the ways in which some of the
1:02.4	greatest writers in Hollywood and Broadway responded to the Red Scare, and they responded with
1:08.2	a great deal of moral courage and some outrage.
1:11.9	Now we're in January 1954, and McCarthy has announced that he's investigating the army.
1:19.0	He's decided that he's going to treat the army at the entire U.S. Army as his next target,
1:25.8	as the place that is harboring subversives because of its
	...

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