{"podcast":{"title":"Breaking History","slug":"breaking-history-7169277","podcast_index_feed_id":7169277,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/RUNMED1049146638","website_url":null,"image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/fc45207a-cc97-11ef-9841-8bd73a0be712/image/c49635d185aa38c7dcae7201e60493ef.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"The Free Press","episode_count":55,"summary":"Sometimes the news moves so fast, you have to look closely to know if you’ve seen it before. And that’s what this show is about. Breaking History breaks down the news, by breaking down history. We cover everything from LBJ and the Roman Republic to Donald Trump and the chaos at Columbia. This twice a month show from The Free Press delivers the best historians, authors, and reporters by mining the archives of human experience to figure out the present. George Santayana wrote, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Tune in to Breaking History to resist the repetition.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-23T18:18:43.811453+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/breaking-history-7169277"},"episode":{"title":"From the Archives: Why Jews Wrote Your Favorite Christmas Songs","slug":"from-the-archives-why-jews-wrote-your-favorite-christmas-songs","published_at":"2025-12-10T10:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/breaking-history-7169277/from-the-archives-why-jews-wrote-your-favorite-christmas-songs","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/breaking-history-7169277","url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/VOdNgcECFk0maZgOJbmx/traffic.megaphone.fm/CBS6738915871.mp3?updated=1765316218","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/VOdNgcECFk0maZgOJbmx/traffic.megaphone.fm/CBS6738915871.mp3?updated=1765316218","summary":"Did you know the soundtrack of Americans’ Christmas was written largely by . . . Jews? Most of the composers behind the holiday canon were the children of immigrants who fled pogroms and conscription in Russia and Eastern Europe between 1880 and 1920. Sammy Cahn, Frank Sinatra’s go-to lyricist, gave us “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” Mel Tormé, son of a Belarusian refugee, wrote “The Christmas Song”) (a.k.a. “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”). Frank Loesser—whose family escaped the Kaiser’s draft—penned the mischievous “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” And Johnny Marks, responsible for “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “A Holly Jolly Christmas,” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” was also one of the chosen few. Towering above them all is Irving Berlin, whose “White Christmas” remains one of the biggest-selling singles in American history. Berlin’s own childhood began with a pogrom and escape from Siberia before landing in New York in 1893. In a replay of this classic Breaking History episode, Eli Lake digs into how a generation of Jewish immigrants ended up shaping the very sound of America’s most beloved holiday. CREDITS Producer Greg Collard Executive Producer Alex Miller Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices","meta_description":"Did you know the soundtrack of Americans’ Christmas was written largely by . . . Jews? Most of the composers behind the holiday canon were the children of…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2394,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/breaking-history-7169277/episodes/from-the-archives-why-jews-wrote-your-favorite-christmas-songs/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/breaking-history-7169277/from-the-archives-why-jews-wrote-your-favorite-christmas-songs.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}