The World's Jeb Sharp

Each week, The World’s Jeb Sharp looks at the history behind the headlines on the How We Got Here podcast.

 

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How We Got Here


Pew Study: The Great Era of Mexican Immigration is Over

Tougher enforcement of laws is one factor in the reduction of illegal immigration. (Photo: Gerald L. Nino/US Customs and Border Patrol)

The largest and most sustained immigration trend in US history is over. That’s according to a new analysis of migration between Mexico and the United States that as many Mexicans are leaving the United States as entering, and maybe even more. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Jeff Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center.

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Afghanistan: How Britain’s First Intervention Ended in Disaster

"The Last Stand of the 44th Regiment at Gundamuck, 1842" by William Barnes Wollen (1898) - (Photo: Wiki Commons)

The most disastrous exit by foreign forces from Afghanistan was by the British during the First Anglo-Afghan War, 170 years ago. More than 16,000 people retreated from Kabul, and only one single Briton reached safety. A new book re-tells the story of that war, and readers can make their own parallels to today. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with author, Diana Preston.

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Revealed: Guilty Secrets of the End of British Empire

British flag (Photo: Garry Knight)

The British Empire once stretched around the world, and in the far-flung outposts of Britannia there were many diplomatic files of a sensitive nature. Now some of those files have been made public.

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Titantic’s Morse Code Messages Brought to Life by Audio Artist

RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912. (Photo: Wiki Commons)

The only surviving real-time record of the sinking of the Titanic 100 years ago this weekend are the transcriptions of Morse Code messages sent to and from the ship via Marconi Wireless–the most advanced long-distance communication of its time. On the 100th anniversary of the disaster, an audio artist has used voice synthesis software to bring those messages to life.

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Myanmar Elections: A Changing Country and its Exiled Opponents

NCGUB Prime Minster Sein Win poses with a picture of his uncle Aung San, the leader of Burma's independence movement; and a bust of Aung San's daughter, Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. (Photo: Bruce Wallace)

What Sunday’s elections in Myanmar (Burma), and the broader changes happening there, mean for the country’s exiled opponents.

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The Vietnam Anti-War Movement Legacy for Today’s Returning Veterans

Anit-Vietnam War protester spits on soldier in G.I. Joe cartoon. (Cartoon: G.I. Joe)

There’s a powerful image of anti-Vietnam war protesters spitting on returning soldiers. But one author says it’s largely a myth. Still, that image has played a part in stigmatizing the anti-war movement for the next generation of returning vets. Arun Rath of PBS FRONTLINE takes a look.

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Grappling With a Post-Soviet Identity

Soviet and post Soviet reality in Kiev, Ukraine. (Photo: Brigid McCarthy)

Host of a Russian history program says his series, titled Kto my? (Who Are We?), is about Russians understanding themselves.

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American Activists and the Birth of Bangladesh

Bangladesh Flag (Photo: Flickr)

Looking back 40 years to a civil war in Pakistan and a group of American peace activists whose weapons blockade helped end the war and aided the independence of Bangladesh.

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Nostalgia for the Soviet Union

Andrei Bilzho and the interior of his Soviet restaurant. (Photo: Brigid McCarthy)

The Soviet Union dissolved 20 years ago this Sunday. More than half of all Russians now regret that demise, according to a recent poll. Brigid McCarthy visited a restaurant in Moscow that lets nostalgic customers pretend they’re back in the USSR.

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The End of the USSR

Mikhail Gorbachev's televised resignation speech, Dec. 25, 1991 (Photo: Russia TV)

Twenty years ago on Christmas Day, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Brigid McCarthy takes a look back at why the USSR came crashing down.

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Saving Bletchley Park

Original equipment still present in the listening post known as 'Station X' at Bletchley Park (Photo: Wikipedia Commons / Alison Wheeler)

Marco Werman talks with Sue Black, who has waged a campaign to save Bletchley Park. The British site was the location of an important message decoding center during World War II, and also played an important role in the development of modern computers.

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British Army Museum Exhibit Features War Horses

Cavalrymen resting in a shell hole, c1916/7 Western Front, First World War. (Copyright National Army Museum)

A new exhibition at the British Army museum highlights the hidden heroes of war – the 100′s of thousands of horses who were sent to the frontlines.

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20 Years After the Soviet Collapse

Red Square in Moscow, from the Saint Basil's Cathedral. (Photo: Wiki Commons)

Twenty years ago, residents of Moscow awoke to the sound of tanks in the streets. There was a coup in the USSR.

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Looking Back on Holbrooke’s Legacy

Special Representative Holbrooke Meets Pakistani Army Brigadier Mehmood and Karachi's Consul General Martin (Photo: US State Department)

Richard Holbrooke was the Obama administration’s pointman for the civilian side of the Afghanistan war. He died suddenly in December 2010, leaving some successes that are sometimes overlooked, and they have to do with Pakistan.

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Women in Afghanistan 10 Years After US Invasion

US Army Maj. Bobbie Mayes, a women's empowerment coordinator with the Kentucky Agribusiness Development Team, hands over supplies to a graduate of a two-day beekeeping course at the compound of the director of agriculture, livestock and irrigation in Kapisa province, Afghanistan, Jan. 2011. (Photo: US Army)

Kabul resident Sultana Parvanta discusses the changing situation of women in Afghanistan 10 years after the US invasion.

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