PAST, PRESENT, PUSHBACK

Most of us were raised to believe marriage is about love. For most of history, that was not the main reason. XO, AZ, and CDA go through where arranged marriage came from: property, family alliances, royal deals, and caste. Why love marriage took over in so many places, including Japan, where arranged marriages fell from about 70 percent in the early 1940s to under 10 percent by 1998. What the research says about whether arranged marriages work, and why the numbers are fought over. The hard line

Clocks fall back this Sunday, November 1. XO, AZ, and CDA ask who actually came up with this and why we still do it. Ben Franklin's joke that people took seriously. The railroad time zones of 1883. Germany in 1916. America's first try in 1918, the repeal, and the veto fight. The 1942 war time. The 1966 law that ended the chaos. The 1974 year-round experiment that people hated in ten months. Whether the farmers really did it (they did not). What business, golf, retail, and candy have to do with i

verybody has heard 'three strikes and you're out.' Almost nobody knows where it came from. XO, AZ, and CDA go through it. The old roots in repeat-offender laws. Washington State in 1993, the first modern three strikes law. Then California: a father who lost his 18-year-old daughter Kimber, a 12-year-old named Polly Klaas, and a ballot vote that passed with almost 72 percent. The 1994 federal crime bill. The cases: $153 in videotapes, three golf clubs, a slice of pizza. The race numbers. What the

When the Constitution took effect in 1789, only about 6% of the population could vote. XO, AZ, and CDA go through how that changed: property rules, Black men losing the vote in the North, the 15th Amendment, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, women, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Selma, and the Voting Rights Act. Then they ask the big questions. Why does voting matter? Who does it affect most? And what do you need to know before the 2026 midterms, including the April 2026 Louisiana v. Callais ruling,

When the Constitution took effect in 1789, only about 6% of the population could vote. XO, AZ, and CDA go through how that changed: property rules, Black men losing the vote in the North, the 15th Amendment, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, women, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Selma, and the Voting Rights Act. Then they ask the big questions. Why does voting matter? Who does it affect most? And what do you need to know before the 2026 midterms, including the April 2026 Louisiana v. Callais ruling,

Nobody invented Halloween. It was built over about 1,500 years by monks, immigrants, pranksters, toy makers, candy companies, and a cartoon duck. XO, AZ, and CDA fact-check the Samhain story that everybody repeats, trace All Saints Day, souling, and guising, follow the Irish to America, and show how trick-or-treating got a push from candy ads and Disney. Then the money: $13.5 billion in 2026, how candy and costumes became big business, and how Spirit Halloween took over empty stores. Then the fe

EPISODE DESCRIPTION: People say 'martial law' all the time. Most don't know what it means. In this episode, XO, AZ, and CDA go through the real history and fact-check everything. Part 1: What martial law is, where the idea came from, and how it is different from the Insurrection Act, the National Guard, a curfew, and a state of emergency. Part 2: How it has been used in America. Andrew Jackson in New Orleans in 1815. Lincoln and the Supreme Court. Reconstruction, when the military protected Blac

Columbus Day is this Monday, October 12. Most of us were taught one story in school. In this episode, XO, AZ, and CDA go through what the record actually shows -- and we fact-check both sides. Part 1: Where the holiday really came from. In 1891, a mob in New Orleans killed eleven Italian men. Italy pulled its ambassador. Within a year, a U.S. president declared a Columbus celebration. We trace how a political and immigrant-pride moment turned into a national holiday, and how the heroic Columbus

Only 230 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults in America are ever reported to police. Of those, 46 lead to an arrest. Of those, 9 get referred to prosecutors. Of those, 5 lead to a felony conviction. 5 out of 1,000. In this episode -- the most important Past Present Pushback has ever produced -- XO, AZ, and CDA go through three cases that expose everything wrong with how this country handles sexual violence. Current: LSU student Kendall Francis says a football player raped her on October 18, 2025.

The Book of Revelation is the most debated, most misunderstood, and most relevant book in the Bible right now. Written around 95 AD by John while exiled on the island of Patmos, Revelation describes a sequence of end-time events that billions of people believe are unfolding before our eyes -- the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the Mark of the Beast, the number 666, the rise of the Antichrist, wars and rumors of wars, a one-world economic system that controls who can buy and sell, and the secon

EPISODE DESCRIPTION - Ready to publishSports fans are living through the rarest kind of chaos right now - NFL Week 3 shocks, WNBA playoff upsets, MLB October heating up, and NBA Media Day all hitting at once. Mexo and CDA break down the biggest wins, the wildest injuries, and the matchups that could swing everything this week.The conversation starts with the kind of NFL slate that makes every fan feel something - the Falcons stunning the Packers, the Commanders taking down the Seahawks, the Stee

It is the last episode of September and Past Present Pushback is doing something different. We are looking back at everything covered this month -- the origin of police, traditional vs. modern gender roles, the trucker strike rumor, why food keeps getting recalled, and the full history of Labor Day. XO hits AZ and CDA with multiple choice Q&A questions from each episode -- they pick their answer and tell you exactly why. Then we get personal -- XO asks each host about the soundtrack to their lif