The Preamble

Podcast

The Preamble

Sharon McMahon

514 episodesen-us
The world feels complicated. The Preamble is where it starts to make sense. Hosted by Sharon McMahon — known for making sense of complex issues — she and her guests dive deep into the stories and ideas driving our future, bringing clarity and honesty to every headline. If you want real insight, bold conversation, and answers that matter, this podcast is your must-listen. Hit play, and join the movement that will shape history.An Audacy Podcast.

Episodes

The Vigilantes: Episode 4

The heat in the Atlanta courtroom was sweltering and unbearable, as the trial against Leo Frank began. A Black man was testifying against a white man, which was nearly unheard of in the Jim Crow south...
Oct 12, 202645m

The Vigilantes: Episode 3

It’s been 48 hours since Mary Phagan was last seen alive. It’s a media frenzy, and police are feeling the pressure to find the killer. There’s a new, sudden interest in the murder notes. Did the kill...
Oct 5, 202645m

The Vigilantes: Episode 2

It should have been a leisurely Saturday off work for 13-year-old Mary Phagan, who was looking forward to celebrating the Confederate Memorial Day holiday. It should have been an easy day for Leo Fran...
Sep 28, 202641m

Platypus Economics

From world events to everyday decisions, economics explains it all. Platypus Economics makes it clear, useful, and actually fun. Available now: link.pscrb.fm/f0281/PE_PRE
Sep 23, 20262m

The Vigilantes: Episode 1

A shocking murder. A scene so brutal that the first people to find the victim couldn’t even tell what their skin color was. And a case that forever changed both the city, and the state’s legal system....
Sep 21, 202631m

How Women Won WWII: A New Era Unfolds

Before we wrap up our series on how Women Won World War II, we need to talk about what happened next. It was the question on everyone’s mind in the summer of 1945. The Axis Powers had been defeated, s...
Sep 14, 202629m

How Women Won WWII: With a Flash and a Rumble

For 3 years, scientists in secret cities around the U.S. had been in a race against time to complete the world’s first atomic weapon. And in July of 1945, the very first plutonium bomb was ready. Cons...
Sep 7, 202628m

How Women Won WWII: Caught By the Enemy

She was WWII's most decorated spy: a woman whose spirit and determination in the face of danger is unparalleled. Born in France, Odette Sansom joined Britain's SOE and used her unassuming, motherly de...
Aug 31, 202633m

How Women Won WWII: The Confidante, Anna Rosenberg

Together, let's hear from author Christopher Gorham, whose new book, The Confidante, is the first-ever biography written about one of the United State's most powerful women: Anna Rosenberg. Join us as...
Aug 24, 20261h 3m

How Women Won WWII: AABBA and the Art of Codebreaking

Shakespeare and Al Capone. What could possibly be a link between these two men who were born centuries apart? A master codebreaker named Elizebeth Smith Friedman. If her name doesn’t sound familiar, t...
Aug 17, 202633m

How Women Won WWII: Sabotage and a Jewish Spymaster

It's time to return to the art of espionage. During World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill understood that boots on the ground were only one piece of the puzzle to drive out the enemy. In orde...
Aug 10, 202630m

How Women Won WWII: The Booming Work of Women Scientists

In a previous episode of our series, we had a conversation about the combined efforts of the Allied science community to beat Germany in the race to understand and build atomic weapons. It was a team ...
Aug 3, 202631m

How Women Won WWII: British Wrens at War

Let’s head to Great Britain and learn about a military organization that recruited women into the war effort all across the country. Women volunteered in great numbers and, throughout the war, thousan...
Jul 27, 202629m

How Women Won WWII: By the Glow of Radium

How did the United States successfully produce and detonate the first atomic bomb? That success happened through a combination of random events and intricately planned schemes that fed into the speedi...
Jul 20, 202634m

How Women Won WWII: A Starlette Spies for France with Josephine Baker

She was a larger than life woman who utilized her fame and charm to secretly gather intel for the Allies during World War II. She put herself in danger, fought for freedom, saved countless lives… and ...
Jul 13, 202631m

How Women Won WWII: The Women of the Secret Cities

The Manhattan Project. It was a top-secret program ran for three war-filled years and employed over 120 thousand people. Most of those people had no idea that they were working on one of the most powe...
Jul 6, 202631m

How Women Won WWII: Rosie the Riveter Was Just the Beginning

Over the next few weeks, we’ll explore the incredibly varied and complex roles women stepped into during World War II. No, they weren’t GIs. They didn’t land at the beach on Normandy on D-Day, or face...
Jun 29, 202631m

Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 12

It was supposed to be a picturesque and luxurious sightseeing tour over Antarctica. One filled with wonder and awe, in a tour that had cultivated a reputation for giving passengers the “trip of a life...
Jun 22, 202634m

Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 11

“You are now leaving Iranian airspace!” It was a moment that dozens of hostages and their loved ones longed for with bated breath, for 444 days. Freedom. To be released, and returned home. The Iranian...
Jun 15, 202638m

Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 10

A religious leader with a raging drug addiction who led his following to a tragic end. A President with the hope of finding peace between Israel and Egypt. And a politician who was pivotal to the earl...
Jun 8, 202643m