About this episode

This episode explores the true origins and implications of the Scopes Monkey Trial, revealing it as a publicity stunt rather than a straightforward battle between science and faith.

The 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial" is remembered as a clean fight between science and faith, but it began as a publicity stunt to save a dying Tennessee town, and the schoolbook at its center preached eugenics, the legend later erased. This episode holds the harder story: a teacher who agreed to be arrested, a progressive icon wrong about biology yet right about the danger in the book, and a myth that outlasted the truth. What survived was the version easiest to tell, not the one that happened in the room.

People in this episode

Host: Richard G Backus

Topics covered

• Scopes Monkey Trial
• science vs faith
• publicity stunt
• Tennessee history
• education
• myth vs truth

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: eugenics

Places: Tennessee

More episodes of The Daily History Chronicle

• Citizenship By Force - July 20. 1868 · July 20, 2026 · 17 min
• Rome Burns, Christians Die - July 19, 64 AD · July 19, 2026 · 17 min
• The Bridge That Ended a Kennedy Presidency - July 18, 1969 · July 18, 2026 · 16 min
• The Mutiny That Wasn't - July 17, 1944 · July 17, 2026 · 18 min
• One Man Split Christianity Forever - July 16, 1054 · July 16, 2026 · 19 min
• The Coup That Broke Cyprus - July 15, 1974 · July 15, 2026 · 18 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Daily History Chronicle podcast page.