Best American Endowment Foundation Podcasts (2025)

1
The Great Wealth Transfer 22:05

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14h ago22:05

22:05

Ron Ransom and Christine Gaze from Purpose Consulting Group, focus on the misperceptions of the Great Wealth Transfer. What demographics are most heavily impacted? How many trillions of dollars are really changing hands? Ron and Christine dive deep and share the raw numbers.By Let's Talk DAFs

1
The Present and Future State of DAFs 24:24

21d ago24:24

24:24

Ron is joined by Chris Mone and Sara Barba to discuss the current trends in DAF growth and adoption, regulatory changes, tech innovations in the philanthropy space, and more.By Let's Talk DAFs

1
Slavery in the South(west) 1:03:22

1y ago1:03:22

1:03:22

It’s often said that slavery is America’s original sin. But the kind of slavery most of us learn about in history class—the brutal, dehumanizing enslavement of Black people in the Southern states—wasn’t the only or even the first kind of bondage in the Americas. On this episode of Lost Highways, we look at a far-less institutionalized form of force…

1
How Do You Solve A Problem Like Columbus 1:06:21

1y ago1:06:21

1:06:21

A monument to Christopher Columbus, sitting in the middle of Pueblo, Colorado has been dividing the town for years. To the large population of Italian-Americans whose ancestors came to Pueblo around the turn of the twentieth Century, it has long been a point of pride and a symbol of cultural belonging. But for the Indigenous and Chicano communities…

1
Set in Stone 44:32

1+ y ago44:32

44:32

Since the racial justice protests of 2020, when most people think of monuments being torn down, they think of confederate statues in the south being toppled from their pedestals. But a Civil War monument to Union soldiers that stood in front of the Colorado capital for more than a hundred years was also pushed over during the protests that followed…

1
The Unfairer Sex 1:05:16

1+ y ago1:05:16

1:05:16

On this episode of Lost Highways, we’ll take a look back at how Title IX’s passage in 1972 inadvertently codified the separation of sports by sex. And while the law opened the door to equal opportunity in sports and education for women, it also placed sex at the center of how we define fairness without fully addressing issues of equality where gend…

1
Unforgetting Los Seis 55:59

1+ y ago55:59

55:59

On a sleepy summer evening in Boulder, Colorado, in 1974, three young Chicano activists sat in a car at Chautauqua Park at the base of the iconic Flatirons—the giant red sandstone rock formations that sit above the foothills. Then, at approximately 9:50 p.m., the car exploded. Two days later, another car in downtown Boulder exploded, killing three …

1
Oral Histories of the Sand Creek Massacre from the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Located in Oklahoma 45:52

1+ y ago45:52

45:52

The Sand Creek Massacre was the deadliest day in Colorado history, and it changed Cheyenne and Arapaho people forever. On the morning of November 29, 1864, US troops under the command of Colonel John M. Chivington attacked a peaceful camp of Cheyenne and Arapaho people made up mostly of women, children, and elders along the Big Sandy Creek in South…

1
American Gothic 54:59

1+ y ago54:59

54:59

In 1881, white residents in the mining town of Gothic, Colorado lynched a Chinese man. Or did they? As the latest episode of Lost Highways investigates this reported act of anti-Chinese racial violence from Colorado’s past, we consider what it means to belong in the places we call home, and how such acts of violence continue to echo into the presen…

1
When History Burns 1:03:11

1+ y ago1:03:11

1:03:11

With the new reality of megafires in the West, we take a look at what happens when history itself is destroyed and how we hold on to who and what we are when we lose the artifacts and records that tell our stories. We’ll take you from the Waldo Canyon Fire of 2012 near the town of Manitou Springs to the Denver suburbs of Louisville and Superior, Co…

1
From Sefarad to the San Luis Valley: Crypto-Judaism in the Southwest 58:32

1+ y ago58:32

58:32

Colorado's San Luis Valley is the last place you might expect to find a centuries old lineage of Sephardic Jews. But a rare form of breast cancer and a host of odd traditions, artifacts, and rituals led researchers to discover an enclave of Crypto-Jews that fled Europe for the New World in the 16th Century to hide out in one of the most remote area…

1
Mesa Verde of the Mysteries 54:44

2y ago54:44

54:44

For nearly a century-and-a-half, archaeologists have been studying Mesa Verde in hopes of deciphering what happened to the Ancestral Puebloan people who lived and thrived there for so long. For many, it remains one of the great mysteries in the history of North America. On this episode of Lost Highways, we’ll explore the way that historians and arc…

1
A Wild Horse Isn't Just A Horse, Of Course 52:39

2+ y ago52:39

52:39

On this episode of Lost Highways, we look at the mustang, the wild horse of American myth and legend. Though they’re widely revered as symbols of untameable American freedom in the West, the reality of the wild horse in the 21st Century is far less romantic. From the long history of the horse's evolution in North America to the helicopter roundups …

1
How the Western Won 48:18

2+ y ago48:18

48:18

Westerns often reveal more about the period when they were produced than the era they portray, but the genre won't die. On this episode of Lost Highways, History Colorado's Dustin Hodge traces the rise of The Western in American pop culture, the significance of landscape in film, and the moral guidelines that set the boundaries for US films produce…

1
The Ship Inside the Mountain: A Hidden History of NORAD and North America's Nuclear Defense 1:03:07

2+ y ago1:03:07

1:03:07

On this episode of Lost Highways, we take you inside the history of NORAD, or North American Aerospace Defense Command. AND we’ll take you inside The Cheyenne Mountain Complex, the base that has stoked the pop cultural imagination of generations with movies and shows from Dr. Strangelove to Stargate to Interstellar. As the war in Ukraine and Chines…

1
You Don't Know Barney Ford 47:32

2+ y ago47:32

47:32

Barney Ford was one of the most successful and resilient Black businessmen in the early American West. He came in search of gold, owned and operated hotels and restaurants, lost them in fires, rebuilt them, and enjoyed a reputation as a King of hospitality in early Denver, Breckenridge, and Cheyenne, Wyoming. Much of his legend was built upon a 196…

1
Cathay Williams/William Cathay: Buffalo Soldier 52:15

2+ y ago52:15

52:15

Cathay Williams was an African American Woman who was conscripted to work as General Philip Sheridan's cook during the Civil War. When the war was over, she wanted to join one of the all-Black Army Regiments that later became known as the “Buffalo Soldiers." But women weren't allowed to serve at that time. So she put on men's clothes, changed her n…

1
The Man Who Regretted His Millions 1:01:42

2+ y ago1:01:42

1:01:42

If you work hard enough, or get lucky enough, the distinctly American myth goes, anyone can become rich. And once you’re rich, of course, you’ll be happy … right? In the nineteenth century, no one embodied that American myth of the rugged individual than Winfield Scott Stratton, the first millionaire of the Cripple Creek Gold boom in 1893. He'd spe…

1
Busted: The Case of the Denver Police Department 52:45

3+ y ago52:45

52:45

Two years after the murder of George Floyd, we look back at the origins of policing in America through the lens of the Denver Police Department, how their role in communities has transitioned over time, what happens when they abuse their power, and the long struggle for change.

1
Colorado's Gulag Archipelago 1:00:24

3+ y ago1:00:24

1:00:24

Less than an hour south of Colorado Springs, Fremont County is home to more than a dozen prisons, including the Colorado State Penitentiary and ADX, or Supermax, aka "The Alcatraz of the Rockies." On this episode of Lost Highways, we look into the history of the architecture of those prisons to see what they reveal about our belief in the power of …

1
The Mother of All Strikes 1:04:41

3+ y ago1:04:41

1:04:41

On this episode of Lost Highways, we look back at Mother Jones, one of the fiercest labor organizers in American history, and her role in the United Mine Workers of America's massive strike in the southern Colorado coalfields that led to the Ludlow Massacre on April 20, 1914.

1
Spirits of Place: The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and Its Legacy 59:52

3+ y ago59:52

59:52

In November of 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) into law. Now, more than 30 years later, we look back at both the letter and spirit of the law, which aims to return tens of thousands of stolen Indigenous remains and funerary artifacts to their tribes.…

1
Beyond the Valley of a Doubt 48:54

3+ y ago48:54

48:54

In 1863, two brothers from Colorado's San Luis Valley allegedly went on one of the most infamous killing sprees in the history of the American West. But the story's sensationalized lore has been entwined with the deeply contentious and unresolved history of land rights in the Borderlands of Southern Colorado for centuries. In this episode, we work …

1
The Original BlacKkKlansman 53:45

3+ y ago53:45

53:45

In 2019, Spike Lee's 2018 film "BlacKkKlansman" won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film brought national attention to the story of Ron Stallworth, the first Black Detective to work in the Colorado Springs Police Department, who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. But what many people don't know is that Colorado has been h…

1
A Lynching in Limon 58:45

3+ y ago58:45

58:45

Content Warning: Racial Violence People don't often think of Colorado when they hear the word "lynching." But in 1900, one of the most horrifying racial terror lynchings in US history took place in the small town of Limon on the Eastern Plains. Hundreds of spectators looked on as fifteen-year-old Preston Porter, Jr., was burned alive. More than a c…

1
Flesh for Fantasy 51:38

3+ y ago51:38

51:38

In the winter of 1874, Alfred Packer led a group of prospectors into the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. After returning alone, he confessed to eating the remains of his travel companions, and was convicted of murder despite claiming self-defense. The conviction sealed his place in history as the "Colorado Cannibal." After almost 150 years, Noel an…

1
Lost Highways Presents: The Order of Death 37:48

4+ y ago37:48

37:48

As we get to work making Season 3 of Lost Highways, we wanted to share a podcast we think our listeners would love as much as we do. This is Episode 2 of a 4 part series called "The Order of Death" by JoshMattison and Shannon Geis. It's an in-depth look at the neo Nazis who assassinated Denver radio host Alan Berg, who was the subject of the S1 Los…

1
The Miseducation of Freddie Freak 1:05:37

4+ y ago1:05:37

1:05:37

Juan Federico Miguel Arguello Trujillo lost his name, his language, and his culture at a Catholic school in Trinidad, Colorado in the 1940s. When he found them again he found himself at the center of some of the most important moments of 20th Century Chicano history.

1
Going Back to Trinidad 1:04:34

4+ y ago1:04:34

1:04:34

On this episode, how Trinidad, Colorado -- an iconic Western mining town along the old Santa Fe trail on the New Mexico border -- became the unlikely location for two pioneers of gender confirmation surgery. Their work would earn Trinidad the now-dated nickname: "the sex change capital of the world."…

1
[Update] "Maybe They Should Call it the Kansas Flu" 32:15

5y ago32:15

32:15

As the Covid-19 Pandemic rages on, we update this episode about what we can learn from the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu outbreak in Colorado. In particular, we look at Gunnison, the mountain town that almost managed to avoid the outbreak altogether.

1
Tuned in Dropouts 58:35

5y ago58:35

58:35

In 1970, a man named Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche came to the US with the mission of teaching Tibetan Buddhism to Westerners. He enthralled hippies across the country and paved the way for a distinctly American Buddhism. But there was also a "shadow side" to his charisma. On this episode, Noel and Tyler explore the life and times of a beloved teacher w…

1
[UPDATE] Mascots, Mask Off 1:02:47

5y ago1:02:47

1:02:47

As people across the country celebrate Thanksgiving, we're re-broadcasting one of our more popular episodes from Season 1 in light of current events. Please stay tuned at the end for an update with two of our guests. On this episode of Lost Highways, we look at the history of American Indian mascots and the different ways that tribes, teams, govern…

1
A Tale of Two Communes 1:08:46

5y ago1:08:46

1:08:46

Noel and Tyler look back at intentional artist communities Drop City and Libre to understand why one thrived while the other died, and what these two communes might teach us about the balance between freedom and order. (Photo Credit: Dean and Linda's Dome by Roberta Price)

1
[ICYMI] Snake, Rattle, and Roll 53:29

5y ago53:29

53:29

This is a re-release of an episode we published early due to the COVID-19 quarantine. We're posting it again in case you missed it the first time, and in honor of the 95th anniversary of the day Kate Slaughterback became "Rattlesnake Kate." Musician Neyla Pekarek (formerly of the Lumineers), helps tell the legend of Rattlesnake Kate, an early 20th …

1
Back Alleys and Backpages 59:42

5y ago59:42

59:42

Noel and Tyler explore the complicated stories of sex workers in Denver in the late 1800s by hearing from contemporary sex workers about their own experiences.

1
[ICYMI] Ride or Die 52:26

5y ago52:26

52:26

This is a re-release of an episode that we published early due to the COVID-19 quarantine. We're posting it again in case you missed it the first time, and in honor of the 30th anniversary of the ADA. On July 5th, 1978, nineteen disability rights activists blocked multiple buses at one of Denver's busiest intersections, causing a 24-hour traffic ja…

1
A Line in the Sand 57:17

5y ago57:17

57:17

In 1936, Colorado Governor "Big Ed" Johnson declared martial law in an attempt to close the Colorado/New Mexico border. In this episode, we unravel the historical context of this one decision, touching on issues of race, labor, and immigration that speak to the United States' current political moment as well.…

1
Snake, Rattle, and Roll 53:27

5+ y ago53:27

53:27

Musician Neyla Pekarek (formerly of the Lumineers), helps tell the legend of Rattlesnake Kate, an early 20th century Western icon who refused to play by the rules. After surviving a rattlesnake attack, Kate earned herself a place in the pantheon of American tall tales. History Colorado wants to hear from you about how COVID-19 is changing your dail…

1
"Maybe They Should Call it the Kansas Flu" 30:13

5+ y ago30:13

30:13

Colorado had both the highest AND lowest death rates in the country when it came to Spanish Flu in 1918. What can Coloradans today learn from that? John Allnutt's memories about the 1918 flu can be heard in their entirety on COauthored, History Colorado's podcast featuring some of the most compelling oral histories from our collection. History Colo…

1
Ride or Die 52:14

5+ y ago52:14

52:14

On July 5th, 1978, nineteen disability rights activists blocked multiple buses at one of Denver's busiest intersections, causing a 24-hour traffic jam. Their actions would revolutionize the way we think about accessibility. _________________________________________________________________ History Colorado wants to hear from you about how COVID-19 i…

6y ago3:29

3:29

Lost Highways: Dispatches from the Shadows of the Rocky Mountains. Debuting September 18, 2019.