Backlash [Audible Original]

The American story is a story of progress. We’re taught that as time moves forward–and movements for civil rights come and go–America gets better, and better, and better.

But the story isn’t that straightforward. Because often, on the heels of what looks like progress, comes backlash. People in power find ways to return things to the way they were before. These moments prove that progress isn’t linear or inevitable. Our standard narratives about American progress aren’t quite true.

Backlash offers a new narrative. This show unpacks six different backlashes in American history–and uses these stories to come to new understandings of what progress actually is.

Over the course of six episodes, you’ll hear from people who experienced these backlashes firsthand–and still fought to make progress happen. There’s the Black Panthers who were targeted by Ronald Regan’s gun-control bill and forced to stop carrying arms. The activists who are still fighting school segregation in Boston–50 years after the city was overwhelmed by riots against integration. And many more.

In an era where it seems like change is always right around the corner but never quite here, Backlash uses stories from our past to help us understand how to navigate our complicated present.