About this episode

This episode discusses the creation and teaching of an unbreakable code developed by Navajo code talkers during World War II.

Chester Nez In 1942, 29 men were locked in a room and told to come up with a code the enemy couldn’t break. The result would be an unbeatable encryption that sounded to outside observers like a cross between gibberish and random noises. But now came the tricky part - teaching the code to hundreds of men who needed to commit it to memory.

People in this episode

Host: David Rookhuyzen

Topics covered

• code talkers
• Navajo history
• World War II
• military communication
• encryption
• cultural heritage

Keywords

• Chester Nez
• Navajo code talkers
• encryption
• World War II
• military history
• communication

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Navajo

More episodes of AZ: The History of Arizona podcast

• Episode 255: Right to Work · April 27, 2026 · 31 min
• Episode 254: The Card-Room Putsch · April 20, 2026 · 34 min
• Episode 253: I Was a Radical · April 13, 2026 · 33 min
• Episode 252: The Father of the GI Bill · March 30, 2026 · 33 min
• Episode 251: The Code Talkers, Part V: I Was a Radioman · March 23, 2026 · 32 min
• Episode 250: The Code Talkers, Part IV: Navajo, Not Japanese · March 16, 2026 · 33 min

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