Orson Welles and the Night “War of the Worlds” Terrified America
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2026
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1938, radio was the voice Americans trusted. News from Europe was growing more serious, and listeners relied on those broadcasts to understand what was happening in the world. When regular programming was interrupted, people paid attention and assumed what they were hearing was real.
So when urgent bulletins broke in with reports of an alien attack on American soil, many believed it. There were no extraterrestrial invasions, only an intricately crafted radio drama directed and narrated by the then-unknown Orson Welles, based on The War of the Worlds. The broadcast and the panic that followed changed the way news and media could be presented.
A. Brad Schwartz, author of Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News, shares the story.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.3 | Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. |
| 0:07.7 | Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand |
| 0:11.8 | new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. |
| 0:15.5 | Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the |
| 0:20.3 | biology of taunons and wampas |
| 0:22.2 | on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. |
| 0:28.3 | Listen to Stuff to Bo Your Mind on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your |
| 0:33.5 | podcasts. |
| 0:44.3 | Music your podcasts. And we continue with our American stories. |
| 0:48.2 | Before Orson Wells became the critically praised actor and director known for |
| 0:52.4 | Citizen Kane, he cut his teeth in broadcast radio. |
| 0:56.6 | Most Americans didn't know of the young man from Kenosha, Wisconsin, |
| 1:00.4 | but that would all change on Halloween in 1938. |
| 1:04.6 | Here to tell the story of the War of the World's first broadcast |
| 1:07.5 | is A. Brad Schwartz, author of broadcast hysteria. Take it away, Brad. |
| 1:13.4 | Ladies and gentlemen, the director of the Mercury Theater and star of these broadcasts, |
| 1:18.0 | Wilson Well. We know now that in the early years of the 20th century, this world was being |
| 1:24.0 | watched closely by intelligences greater than man's. |
| 1:28.3 | The creatures are trying to play. |
| 1:32.3 | The creatures in the rocket cylinder at Grover's Mill. |
... |
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