Clarissa Explains

In April 1775, Royal Governor Lord Dunmore secretly removed gunpowder from Williamsburg’s magazine in the dead of night. The backlash was immediate: armed militias mobilized, angry crowds gathered at the Governor’s Palace, and Dunmore threatened to free enslaved Virginians and burn Williamsburg to the ground. This episode of Clarissa Explains explores the Gunpowder Incident, the collapse of Britis...

This episode of Clarissa Explains explores how a tavern became a cradle of revolution in colonial Virginia. Focusing on the Raleigh Tavern, host Clarissa Sanders examines how taverns functioned as vital community hubs where news, ideas, and political resistance spread. The episode traces the tavern’s evolution from a modest 18th-century structure to a central meeting place for influential figures...

Season 2 is here, and we are exploring historic sites in Virginia and their ties to the American Revolution.

In this episode of Clarissa Explains, host Clarissa Sanders examines the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina, 20 years after the storm ravaged the Gulf Coast. With an estimated 1,800 lives lost and entire communities uprooted, the hurricane remains one of the deadliest and costliest disasters in U.S. history. But beyond the headlines, Katrina exposed deep systemic failures, particularly for pe...

On April 27, 1979, a 9-year-old girl named Suzanne should have been blowing out birthday candles. Instead, she was holding a protest sign at the Niagara Falls Convention Center, standing up against a silent poison leaking into her home and community: the Love Canal. In this episode of Clarissa Explains, host Clarissa Sanders dives into the haunting legacy of the Love Canal disaster—America’s first...

In this episode of Clarissa Explains, host Clarissa Sanders dives into two deadly steamboat disasters in American history: the wreck of the Home in 1837 and the explosion of the Pulaski in 1838. These maritime tragedies shocked the nation, claimed over 200 lives, and exposed the dangers of unregulated steam travel. Through survivor accounts, newspaper reactions, and historical analysis, Clarissa u...

Welcome to Clarissa Explains, a history podcast that explores historical events and why they matter. Join host Clarissa Sanders this season as we take a deep dive into the history of disasters in the United States and how they have left an impact on communities, places, and laws. This is history with context. This is history with meaning. This is: explaining history, one story at a time. ”Felicity...