Experts believe Peggy Shippen played a larger role than originally thought in her husband Benedict Arnold's treasonous plot.

Peggy Shippen, Benedict Arnold's wife, was the highest-paid spy of the Revolution

Few names conjure up the idea of betrayal more than Benedict Arnold, the notorious American military officer who was caught attempting to hand over West Point to the British during the Revolutionary War. This podcast episode dives into the key role his wife, wealthy spy Peggy Shippen, played in the plot.

Abigail Adams was a shrewd and largely self-taught financial investor

While John was away during the Revolution and his diplomatic career, Adams managed the family's finances and investments skillfully. When John urged her to buy farmland in 1783, she refused—investing instead in government bonds and earning up to 25% annually, compared to his farmland's 1%.

Adams was so involved as first lady that some nicknamed her 'Mrs. President'

As first lady, Adams took an active role in her husband's presidency—advising on appointments, critiquing his speeches, and corresponding extensively with politicians. She supported the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts and pressed for war with France during the XYZ Affair.

Abigail Adams sailed to Europe to join John during his diplomatic posting in Paris in 1784

This podcast chronicles Abigail's voyage across the Atlantic to join John in Paris during his diplomatic service, then follows the couple's return to America and their rise to the White House.

Abigail and John Adams married in 1764 and maintained a decades-long partnership

Abigail Smith married John Adams on Oct. 25, 1764, beginning a partnership that would last for more than five decades. Despite long separations during the Revolution and John's diplomatic career, the two maintained a deep intellectual and personal bond throughout their lives.

Hamilton publicly admitted to an affair to rebut corruption charges

In 1797, Alexander Hamilton published the Reynolds Pamphlet, confessing to an extramarital affair and blackmail payments to disprove accusations of financial corruption—clearing his name legally but ruining his reputation.

More than 1,100 letters between Abigail and John Adams have survived

Their correspondence is a rich collection of American history. The letters provide a personal glimpse into the Revolution, the early republic, and the dynamics of one of America's most significant marriages.

Abigail Adams received no formal schooling, but educated herself through reading

Despite receiving no formal education—standard for women of her era—Adams became well-read, largely through self-directed reading and extensive correspondence with leading political thinkers of her time, such as Thomas Jefferson and Mercy Otis Warren.

Adams' famous 1776 letter urged the Founders to 'remember the ladies'

In a March 1776 letter to John, Adams urged the Founders not to grant husbands unchecked power over their wives. Historians note it was not a demand for suffrage but a challenge to coverture—the legal doctrine that denied a married woman an independent identity.

Laura Linney played Abigail Adams in HBO's acclaimed 2008 miniseries 'John Adams'

HBO's 2008 miniseries "John Adams" cast Laura Linney as Abigail, depicting her as the moral and intellectual force behind her husband's career. This podcast revisits the series, covering the Boston Massacre, the Continental Congress, and Abigail's important role in the Revolution.

How Audrey Hepburn became a spy during the Nazi occupation

Despite her status as one of Hollywood’s most beloved actresses, Audrey Hepburn experienced a war-torn childhood in Europe that few people know about. During her upbringing in the Netherlands, the Nazi occupation caused Hepburn to quit her life as a ballerina and made her family go hungry. In the face of adversity, Hepburn bravely carried messages for the Dutch resistance. Learn more about the star’s compelling life before finding fame.

Aaron Burr introduced James Madison to his future wife, Dolley

This trivia celebrating James Madison's birthday notes that Aaron Burr—later vice president and Alexander Hamilton's dueling rival—introduced Madison to Dolley Madison in 1794. It also highlights that Madison arrived 11 days early to the Constitutional Convention to prepare.

Adams had a deep contempt for Alexander Hamilton

Adams regarded him as dangerously ambitious and untrustworthy. Her letters are among the most vivid contemporary assessments of Hamilton, providing a portrait of one of the founding era's most contentious figures.

Hear Abigail Adams' 1786 letters—reporting from London on politics and society

This podcast brings to life a letter Abigail wrote to her son John Quincy in February 1786, reporting from London on dinners with wealthy South Carolinians and the relationships of her daughter Nabby—with commentary from a Massachusetts Historical Society scholar.

Both Abigail and John Adams had complicated relationships with Thomas Jefferson.

Sir Thomas Overbury's poem "A Wife" inspired its subject to poison him

Overbury wrote the critical poem to suggest that the ex-wife of his friend Robert Carr, Frances Howard, had failed in her marital duties. Its contents enraged her, leading her to craft a conspiracy that left Overbury dead from poisoning.

Washington's military acumen and political judgment were crucial to the Continental Army's success

In this podcast, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Rick Atkinson argues that Washington's endurance, strategic communication, political judgment, and ability to elevate capable subordinates proved decisive, in sharp contrast to the failures of British leadership during the war.

Where the world's most wanted pirate hid in the 1600s

Metal detectorists who discovered 500-year-old silver coins have helped support the theory that notorious 16th-century pirate Henry Every hid out in several American colonies.

Adams was a vocal opponent of slavery during the Revolutionary era

In letters written during the Revolution, Adams clearly opposed slavery—calling it an unjust scheme and highlighting the contradiction of fighting for freedom while enslaving others. Read it in her own words here in a letter to John Adams.

Abraham Lincoln's missing bodyguard

The night President Abraham Lincoln was shot, his bodyguard John Frederick Parker was late for his shift—and reportedly left his post to drink at the bar. Infamous assassin John Wilkes Booth entered the booth at Ford's Theater where the president sat while Parker was absent, leading to one of the United States' greatest political tragedies. Read more about the troubled history of Parker here.

O’Connor shared lengthy, intimate letters with Betty Hester, a recluse

When O’Connor’s private letters were released in “The Habit of Being,” readers wondered about the identity of “A,” who had an intimate (possibly romantic) relationship with the writer. Decades later, “A” was revealed to be Betty Hester, a reclusive file clerk. Scholars still debate whether the two were romantically involved.

Grace Hopper was inspired to join the armed forces after the attack on Pearl Harbor

Despite being too old to enlist and weighing below the required minimum to serve, Hopper was granted an exemption and assigned to work on the first electromechanical computer produced in the US. She and her team spent three months using the device to solve equations needed to design the implosion mechanism for the atomic bomb.

Abraham Lincoln had to sneak into Washington, DC, in disguise for his 1861 inauguration after a detective uncovered a plot to assassinate him in Baltimore.

Hamilton opposed slavery in principle but participated in the institution

Alexander Hamilton spoke against slavery, helped found the New York Manumission Society, and supported gradual emancipation while also participating in transactions involving enslaved people through his in-laws—and possibly within his own household, though historians debate this.

John Adams served as a lawyer for the British troops involved in the Boston Massacre, believing they deserved a fair trial.

Listen to the details of Henry Ford's widely speculated affair and secret child.

One of Hamilton's first published works was an anonymous pamphlet

While on a scholarship at King's College, Alexander Hamilton anonymously published a series of political pamphlets defending the Continental Congress, engaging in a sustained, sharply argued back-and-forth with loyalist writer Samuel Seabury that drew wide attention.

The wife of Nixon's attorney general was forcibly held to silence her Watergate revelations

While vacationing in June 1972, Martha Mitchell was held captive, sedated, and physically abused by operatives connected to Nixon, intent on keeping her from speaking to reporters.

Hundreds of women secretly joined the Union and Confederate armies during the war

Hear the story of women who disguised themselves as men to enlist in both Union and Confederate armies—serving as soldiers, medics, and spies.

Charles Dickens legally separated from his wife, then tried to have her committed to a mental asylum.

Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton founded New York City's first private orphanage

Schuyler Hamilton, Alexander's wife for 24 years, continued telling his story after his death. She devoted decades to her own work—cofounding New York's first private orphanage, leading charitable fundraising, and becoming a prominent advocate for education and social welfare in the early republic.

Thomas and Anne Rogers were famous counterfeiters in 17th-century England

The pair used a practice called “coin clipping,” shaving the edges off silver coins to decrease their weight before sending them back into circulation. When banknotes rather than coins gained popularity, counterfeiting methods evolved—in the 1700s, an early banknote counterfeiter named Mary Butterworth created counterfeit paper money using starched cloth and a hot iron to transfer the pattern of a banknote onto paper.

Jacqueline Jenkins-Nye—Bill Nye's mother—worked as a code-breaker in World War II

While in the Navy, she was recruited to work on Enigma to help decode messages from the German military. Historians estimate that the efforts of code-breakers may have collectively shortened the war by as much as two years.

Colonial America imported brides for their beer brewing skills

Life in the New World's English colonies was hard, so it's easy to see how these colonizers might've wanted to reach for a cold one more often than not. This article explains how beer brewing became one of the most critical skills expected in imported English wives.

In the 1870s, a woman from Boston ran a Ponzi scheme disguised as a bank by women, for women that promised 8% interest.

Poet Robert Lowell was once convinced communists were invading an artist colony

In 1949, the Pulitzer winner accused Elizabeth Ames, director of the Yaddo artist colony in Saratoga Springs, New York, of colluding with Agnes Smedley, a journalist who'd been staying on the property for years and who was working on a project sympathetic to communist causes.

A detective foiled an assassination plot against Lincoln before his inauguration

In February 1861, detective Allan Pinkerton uncovered a plot to kill Abraham Lincoln en route to his inauguration. Lincoln secretly altered his travel plans and sneaked into Washington DC to take the oath of office. Pinkerton later founded the well-known Pinkerton's National Detective Agency.

Debunking the myth of Dickinson's antisocial seclusion

It's true that the poet largely kept to herself in her late-30s, spending nearly all her time at her father's house, and when she did venture out into the world, she'd wear white, facts that led American history to label her a strange, antisocial recluse. But, as this essay shows, that image is not entirely true, evident in the many relationships she maintained through her letters.