Yalta Conference and the Post-War [Deep Dive] - February 4th, 2026

[00:00] Claire Donovan: Hi there, I'm Claire Donovan. [00:02] Daniel Brooks: And I'm Daniel Brooks. [00:04] Daniel Brooks: Today on Deep Dive, we're looking back at a date that really changed the map of the world and the way we connect with one another. [00:12] Claire Donovan: It's a heavy day in the history of international relations, Daniel. [00:17] Claire Donovan: On February 4th, 1945, [00:20] Claire Donovan: The Yalta Conference began. [00:23] Claire Donovan: This was where the big three, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin met in Crimea at the Lovatia Palace to decide what a post-World War II Europe would actually look like. [00:37] Daniel Brooks: The stakes were incredibly high, Claire. [00:40] Daniel Brooks: While the Allies were winning the war, you know, the unity between the Western powers and the Soviet Union was already showing some serious cracks. [00:49] Daniel Brooks: At Yalta, they were hashing out the occupation zones of Germany and the future of Poland. [00:54] Daniel Brooks: It was essentially the opening act of the Cold War, despite the outward appearance of cooperation between the leaders. [01:02] Claire Donovan: Exactly. [01:03] Claire Donovan: Stalin wanted a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe for security, while Roosevelt and Churchill were pushing for democratic elections. [01:12] Claire Donovan: That tension over Poland's sovereignty specifically really foreshadowed the decades of standoff that followed the fall of Berlin. [01:21] Claire Donovan: It's a reminder of how quickly alliances can shift when a common enemy starts to fade. [01:28] Daniel Brooks: Right. [01:29] Daniel Brooks: Moving from the global stage to individual legacies, today is also the birthday of one of the most significant figures in the American Civil Rights Movement. [01:40] Daniel Brooks: Rosa Parks was born on this day in 1913. [01:44] Claire Donovan: Her legacy is so often simplified to just one moment on a bus in Montgomery back in 1955, [01:51] Claire Donovan: but she was a lifelong activist, Daniel. [01:54] Claire Donovan: She worked as a secretary for the local NAACP and was deeply involved in labor and workplace protections long before the boycott ever began. [02:04] Claire Donovan: Her refusal to give up her seat wasn't a random act of exhaustion. [02:07] Claire Donovan: It was a calculated, courageous stand against a segregated system. [02:12] Daniel Brooks: That's remarkable to compare her quiet, firm resolve with another birthday today. [02:18] Daniel Brooks: Charles Lindbergh, born in 1902. [02:21] Daniel Brooks: He was a massive global celebrity for his 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic in the spirit of St. Louis. [02:28] Daniel Brooks: From an urban planning perspective, his flight helped prove the feasibility of commercial aviation, [02:35] Daniel Brooks: which would eventually transform how we build our cities and transit hubs. [02:39] Claire Donovan: True, though Lindbergh is such a complicated figure, Daniel. [02:42] Claire Donovan: While his contributions to aviation are undeniable, he later faced immense criticism for his isolationist views [02:49] Claire Donovan: and his opposition to U.S. involvement in World War II. [02:53] Claire Donovan: He really illustrates how the heroes of one era can become the controversies of the next, [02:59] Claire Donovan: depending on the lens of history. [03:00] Daniel Brooks: That shift in public perception is something we see a lot in modern history, [03:05] Daniel Brooks: especially with the rise of the digital age. [03:08] Daniel Brooks: Speaking of which, our fact of the day takes us to February 4, 2004, [03:13] Daniel Brooks: the day Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his dorm at Harvard. [03:16] Claire Donovan: It's hard to believe it has been over 20 years since then. [03:20] Claire Donovan: What started as the Facebook, a simple directory for college students, has ballooned into a platform with over 3 billion users. [03:31] Claire Donovan: It fundamentally changed how we communicate, how we consume news, and even how political campaigns are run across the globe. [03:41] Daniel Brooks: And before we wrap up, we have to mention a very different kind of cultural pioneer born today in 1948. [03:48] Daniel Brooks: Alice Cooper. He basically invented the theatrical shock rock genre. [03:54] Daniel Brooks: While Lindbergh was conquering the skies and Parks was changing the law, [03:58] Daniel Brooks: Cooper was redefining what a rock performance could be with his macabre stage shows [04:03] Daniel Brooks: and hits like Schools Out. [04:06] Claire Donovan: He really did set the stage for generations of performers who wanted to push the boundaries of pop culture. [04:14] Claire Donovan: It is a fascinating mix of events for one day, from the high-stakes diplomacy of Yalta to the birth of social media and the evolution of rock and roll. [04:25] Claire Donovan: I'm Claire Donovan. [04:26] Daniel Brooks: And I'm Daniel Brooks. [04:28] Daniel Brooks: Thank you for joining us. [04:30] Daniel Brooks: You can find more historical dives at deepdive.neuralnewscast.com. [04:36] Daniel Brooks: Deep dive is AI-assisted, human-reviewed. [04:39] Daniel Brooks: Explore history every day on Neural Newscast.