After FDR was paralyzed by polio in 1921, Eleanor Roosevelt became active in politics and supported his political ambitions

Explore Eleanor Roosevelt's marriage to FDR, their partnership, and her work after his death

Eleanor Roosevelt revolutionized the role of first lady by holding regular press conferences and hosting a radio show. This podcast features her discussions about their relationship, how she handled policy disagreements with FDR, and her role in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the UN.

The FBI surveilled Roosevelt for decades, suspicious of her civil rights and political work

J. Edgar Hoover's FBI maintained a large file on Eleanor Roosevelt, monitoring her involvement with civil rights groups, connections to progressive causes, and vocal opposition to McCarthyism. Although a formal investigation was never initiated, Hoover regarded her as a person of interest for most of her adult life.

Roosevelt joined the NAACP and campaigned for anti-lynching laws—even receiving a $25K bounty from the KKK

Eleanor Roosevelt joined the NAACP board, lobbied for a federal anti-lynching law, and pushed to integrate the Army Nurse Corps—often going beyond the support her husband was willing to give to racial justice efforts. Her advocacy made her a target: The Ku Klux Klan placed a $25,000 bounty on her head.

FDR greatly expanded the authority and size of the executive branch

FDR expanded presidential power through the New Deal, World War II leadership, and direct communication with the public. He redefined the executive branch as an active policymaking force and established expectations for strong, interventionist presidential leadership.

Eleanor Roosevelt was orphaned by age 10

Roosevelt's mother died when Eleanor was 8, and her father died two years later. Orphaned before she turned 10, Eleanor moved in with her maternal grandmother in New York and was raised by the emotionally distant woman.

Roosevelt's 4 elections were driven by 2 major crises

Franklin D. Roosevelt won third and fourth terms in 1940 and 1944 as Americans emerged from the Great Depression and sought continuity during World War II. Voters prioritized stability, keeping Roosevelt in office until his death in 1945.

Franklin D. Roosevelt used radio to connect directly with Americans through his 'Fireside Chats'

Beginning in 1933, FDR harnessed the new medium of radio to explain policies and reassure the public during the Great Depression and World War II. His conversational fireside chats revolutionized presidential communication.

President Theodore Roosevelt walked Eleanor Roosevelt down the aisle at her wedding to Franklin D. Roosevelt

Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt, her fifth cousin once removed, were married on St. Patrick's Day in 1905. Because both of her parents had died, her uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt, accompanied her down the aisle. The wedding was a notable social event among NYC elites.

FDR stayed composed as he absorbed the news of Pearl Harbor

This video reconstructs Roosevelt’s steady, methodical response on Dec. 7, 1941, from his first briefing to drafting his speech to Congress. It demonstrates how FDR maintained composure and moved rapidly to prepare the nation for war.

Eleanor Roosevelt's 1941 flight with a Black pilot helped legitimize the Tuskegee Airmen program

During a 1941 visit to the Tuskegee Institute, Roosevelt ignored protests from her Secret Service detail and flew for an hour over Alabama with chief instructor Charles Alfred Anderson. Photos of the flight were shared nationwide and helped advance the case for Black pilots in combat.

Take a virtual tour of Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt's home and retreat

Two miles from the Roosevelt family estate in upstate New York, Val-Kill was built as a furniture factory that Eleanor Roosevelt helped create to employ rural workers and craftspeople. It later became her private home and political hub. World leaders and civil rights activists visited her there, and she called it the place where she "became an individual in her own right."

Roosevelt wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column 6 days a week for 27 years

Roosevelt's My Day column was launched in late 1935 and ran nearly every day until shortly before her death in 1962. It began as an account of her daily life but grew into one of the most widely read opinion columns in the country, with 4 million readers at its peak.

Paralysis from polio occurs in under 1% of infections

About 1 in 200 cases of infection causes paralysis. For paralysis to occur, the virus travels from the throat, intestines, and gut to infect specific cells within the spinal cord and brain stem that control movements. Within hours of invading the nervous system, paralysis can occur. The virus can be present in bodily secretions and stool for multiple weeks post-infection.

Frances Perkins was the first woman in the US to hold a cabinet position

President Franklin D. Roosevelt named her the United States Secretary of Labor in 1933. In her cabinet seat, she not only helped establish the first federal minimum wage in the US, but also the Social Security Act.

The board game Candyland was invented for children quarantined in polio wards.

James Garfield's 79-day decline hooked America on news updates

After he was shot while departing Washington, DC, in 1881, the president was treated for his wounds and cared for at the White House. Since 1861, telegraphs had spanned the continent, and the Associated Press pooled sources to share telegraph news. The public, seeking updates on the president's condition, was able to receive them regularly for the first time due to this network, laying the foundation for the continuous news cycle.

Will Rogers' political humor was an early predecessor to stand-up

Rogers got his start spinning ropes for circus shows and broke through his association with Florence Zeigfeld's Follies and Frolic. It was his humorous political commentary, though, that would solidify his celebrity status. His goodhearted ribbing of society's "big men" predated the common notion of stand-up comedians as truth-telling jesters.

Teddy Roosevelt’s intervention helped save a brutal early version of football

In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt pressured college leaders to reform football amid public outrage over 18 player deaths. His push led to rule changes—like the forward pass—that reduced violence and ensured the sport’s survival.

Presidents have temporarily transferred power under the 25th Amendment during medical procedures

Section 3 of the 25th Amendment lets presidents temporarily transfer authority—without permanently giving up the office. Reagan, George W. Bush, and Biden each invoked it during medical procedures, briefly making their vice presidents acting president.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to a health condition

Gehrig's diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that now bears his name, forced him to retire early. Weeks later, he spoke with gratitude and stated, "For the past two weeks, you have been reading about a bad break. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." Gehrig died at the age of 37, about two years later.

Winston Churchill said he was comforted by 'Pride and Prejudice' during World War II

The prime minister was bedridden in a hospital with pneumonia in 1943. In his memoirs, Churchill recalls how Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" comforted him, especially because its characters remained calm amid the political turbulence of the time.

The iron lung—a simple mechanical ventilator—was first used to treat polio

These breathing devices, developed in the late 1920s at Harvard, were used to treat polio patients with breathing difficulties. Watch this video describing how these negative pressure devices work.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Berenson's frailty led her to basketball

When Senda Berenson tried to study piano at school, she realized she was too frail. In 1890, she dropped piano and enrolled in the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics to increase her strength, which led her to a career in physical education.

Many politicians join private equity firms after leaving Washington

Both Democrats and Republicans have a history of leaving politics to work in private equity, raising concerns about the government's protection of private equity firms.

Parton is famously apolitical

Unlike some of her contemporaries, Parton refrains from expressing her political opinions publicly or endorsing political candidates. President Donald Trump offered her the Presidential Medal of Freedom twice, but she declined both times. After Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) used Parton's song “9 to 5” at a campaign event, Parton’s team requested that Warren stop using it.

The concept of phantom limbs, the perception that amputated limbs are still present, dates back to a French military surgeon in the 16th century.

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Ebola infects and disables immune cells, triggering a cascade of events that leads to small blood clots throughout the body, weakening blood vessels and interrupting blood flow to key organs.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Doctors differentiate between a phobia and fear by asking patients whether their fear interferes with their day-to-day activities.

US intelligence allegedly pursued more than 600 schemes to assassinate Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.

During the French Revolution, a botanist's letter asking about "dear Rhus" (poison ivy) was intercepted, leading authorities to suspect he was conspiring with the Russians.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

Planarian flatworms are small, aquatic worms with exceptional regenerative capabilities. When cut, the worms can regenerate multiple bodies in a matter of weeks.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) generated controversy, raised concerns about ethics in photography, and eventually led to the photographer's death.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.