The Road to Now

Ben & Bob took a trip to the home of Andrew Jackson, so they took the opportunity to record an episode on their impressions of the Hermitage and why Bob doubts they'll ever have a copy of America's Founding Son in the bookstore. They also talk about Cuba's place in American history and other current events.   Make sure to check out the upcoming AVTT/PTTN tour dates and plan to catch a show if you can!   This episode was recorded in Ben's pickup truck. It was 'edited' by Ben Sawyer and produced by the bumpy roads of Middle Tennessee.

Did you know that the Boston Tea Party was sparked by a corporate tax cut? Or that during the explosive post-WWII economic boom, the highest tax bracket in the US was about 90%? Or that the more democratic a country is, the more taxes its citizens tend to pay? In this episode, Vanessa S. Williamson joins us for a conversation about her new book, The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History (Basic Books, 2025), the misunderstandings that shape both liberal and conservative attitudes toward tax policy, and the reasons she thinks that taxation and democracy are inseparable in US history. Dr. Vanessa S. Williamson is Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institute and Senior Fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Directors Erik Ewers & Christopher Loren Ewers join us to discuss their new film, Ken Burns Presents: Henry David Thoreau. Erik & Christopher talk about their rediscovery of Thoreau's place in American history, their process for capturing his story, and why Thoreau's views of his own time might resonate with those seeking to make sense of the modern world. The two-part series premieres on PBS March 30-31, so make sure to check your local listings and tune in!   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Martin Van Buren served just one term as President from 1837 to 1841, but as the architect behind the founding of the Democratic Party, his legacy lives on in the US today. In this episode, we speak with James M. Bradley, author of the new book Martin Van Buren: America's First Politician, to learn how Van Buren helped reshape politics in the 19th century and laid the groundwork for America's two-party system. You can learn more about the work being done to preserve the papers of Martin Van Buren at VanBurenPapers.org.  Love history and want to go on a cruise? Join Ben and History That Doesn't Suck's Greg Jackson for a 5-day/4-night cruise of the Caribbean that runs from May 18-22! Visit htdscruise.com for details and enter promo code RTN at checkout for $100 off a cabin!   And don't forget that Bob's new book America's Founding Son: John Quincy Adams from President to Political Maverickis now available! Click here to get your copy!     This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher and originally aired as episode 324 in January 2025. 

Ben & Bob speak with Hans Zeiger, President of the Jack Miller Center for Teaching America's Founding Principles & History. We discuss the work that the JMC is doing to promote teaching the founding principles and civics to Americas young people from kindergarten through college. The JMC will be hosting a National Summit on Civil Education in Philadelphia, May 18-19. Click here for details.   Love history and want to go on a cruise? Join Ben and History That Doesn't Suck's Greg Jackson for a 5-day/4-night cruise of the Caribbean that runs from May 18-22! Visit htdscruise.com for details and enter promo code RTN at checkout for $100 off a cabin! And don't forget that Bob's new book America's Founding Son: John Quincy Adams from President to Political Maverickis now available! Click here to get your copy! This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Bob Crawford's first book has arrived! America's Founding Son: John Quincy Adams from President to Political Maverick launches March 10 via Zando Press and we're celebrating with an episode dedicated to the book. Bob will be speaking about his new at bookstores across the country. Click here for dates & locations! This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher    

The Oscars hold a special place in popular culture, but the first Academy Awards ceremony, held in 1929, bore little resemblance to the spectacle most of us know today. In this episode, media expert Monica Sandler takes us from that first award ceremony – when both Los Angeles and the films made there struggled for respectability – to the modern extravaganza that draws tens of millions of viewers worldwide. Monica also breaks down the way voting has changed over time, the evolution of categories, and what she thinks was the greatest snub of all time. Dr. Monica Sandler is a film and media historian at Ball State University, specializing in the history of entertainment prizes and their influence on Hollywood. You can find out more about her at her website: MonicaSandlerPhD.com. Come find Ben & Bob on the road this summer! -Bob will be speaking about his new book, America's Founding Son (out March 10) at bookstores across the country. Click here for dates & locations! -Ben will be joining his friend Greg Jackson of History That Doesn't Suck for a history cruise on the Caribbean from May 18-22, featuring a live recording of The Road to Now! Click here to find out more about a History Cruise That Doesn't Suck and use promo code RTN for $100 off a cabin!   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Since opening in 2019, the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame (FARHOF) has worked to preserve and share the rich heritage of American music with the people of Boston and the world. In this episode Ben & Bob speak with FARHOF founder, Joe Spaulding, and J. Casey Soward, President of the Boch Center, which hosts FARHOF in Boston's Wang Theater.   To learn more about FARHOF, make sure to visit their website: FARHOF.org.   And if you enjoyed this episode, make sure to check out our interview with Deana McCloud on the Woody Guthrie Center in episode 94.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

The Stone Pony and its hometown of Asbury Park, New Jersey are iconic settings in the story of some of America's greatest rock musicians, including Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt, and Southside Johnny Lyon. The Pony's path from high-risk passion project to iconic venue was, however, anything but direct; from its founding in 1974, the club was caught in the greater forces at work in late-20th century America.   So how did the Stone Pony thrive when so many other venues closed? And what set Asbury Park apart from so many other American towns? In this episode, The New York Times' Nick Corasaniti joins us to talk about his new book I Don't Want To Go Home: The Oral History of the Stone Pony (Harpers, 2024) and what he learned from interviewing Bruce Springsteen and dozens of other musicians and industry professionals who helped make the club into what it is today.   If you enjoy this episode, make sure to check out our episodes on The Kinks with Mark Doyle and The Allman Brothers' At Fillmore East with Bob Beatty.   Bob's new book, America's Founding Son: John Quincy Adams, from President to Political Maverick, which drops on March 10! Make sure to check out the book page at the Zando  site and preorder your copy!   This episode originally aired as episode 310 on July 29, 2024. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Having recently been hit with winter storms, Ben & Bob catch up to talk about the literal and figurative slippery roads all around us. The conversation covers talking politics when we don't agree, the Epstein files and more. We also talk about one of the more exciting events on the horizon: Bob's new book, America's Founding Son: John Quincy Adams, from President to Political Maverick, which drops on March 10! Make sure to check out the book page at the Zando  site and preorder your copy!   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Most Americans are aware of Colombia's role in the international drug trade, but we know less about the role that Americans' played in the story as consumers, smuggling pioneers, and practitioners of a foreign policy that facilitated the rise of Colombian drug production.   In this episode, journalist and historian Lina Britto shares the fascinating story of how Colombia emerged as a major supplier of drugs to American consumers and how this relationship affected people in both countries. She also explains the origins of the "War on Drugs" in the US and tells the story of how Americans hippies in search of marijuana laid the groundwork for the distribution techniques later used by Pablo Escobar's cocaine cartel.   Dr. Lina Britto is Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University where she specializes in Colombian history and the history of the international drug trade. She is the author of Marijuana Boom: The Rise and Fall of Colombia's First Drug Paradise (University of California Press, 2020)   This is a rebroadcast of RTN #318, which originally aired on November 4, 2024. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer. 

In just five years, the story of the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US capitol has already seen more bad faith reinterpretations than most events get over the course of generations. Fortunately, Mary Clare Jalonick has brought a diverse set of voices together in her new book, Storm at the Capitol: An Oral History of January 6th (PublicAffairs, 2026). In this episode, Mary joins us to talk about her experience as a journalist who was on the ground that day covering Congress for the Associated Press, what she learned from talking to others about their experiences, and the core facts about the insurrection that should underpin any serious discussion of that day.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.  

The Trump administration's decision to depose Nicolas Maduro and take control of Venezuela's natural resources may have been rash, but to those familiar with the history of US-Latin American relations, it looks familiar. In this episode, Naval War College Associate Professor of Strategy & Policy, Michelle Paranzino, joins us to break dow n the greater history of US foreign policy in Latin America and how that can inform good policy moving forward. The views expressed by Dr. Paranzino are her own and do not reflect the views of her employer or any other part of the US Government. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.  

The Monroe Doctrine has provided Presidents and foreign policy leaders with the rhetorical justification for their actions going back as far as James K. Polk, but the symbolic power attributed to the doctrine is far more substantial than the impact it had when it was published in 1823. In this episode, historian Jay Sexton walks us through the evolution of the Monroe Doctrine in political rhetoric, its implications for modern US foreign policy and why he claims that, in its original form, it amounted to a "nothingburger." Dr. Jay Sexton is the Rich and Nancy Kinder Chair of Constitutional Democracy, Professor of History and Director of the Kinder Institute at the University of Missouri. He has published extensively on the Monroe Doctrine, including The Monroe Doctrine: Empire and Nation in Nineteenth-Century America (Hill and Wang, 2011) and "The Monroe Doctrine in an Age of Global History" (Diplomatic History, 2023). This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer

Worried about money in American politics? We are too, and Jeff Clements is offering up a solution. Jeff is CEO of American Promise, a non-partisan organization dedicated to passing the For Our Freedom amendment to the Constitution, which would differentiate between people and corporations, and allow states to pass their own campaign finance laws. In this episode, he breaks down the history of campaign finance laws, key moments, such as the Citizens United Case, that have brought us to where we are now, and the steps his team have already taken to help add another amendment to the US Constitution.   If you want to sign the Citizen Pledge or just learn more about American Promise, make sure to check out AmericanPromise.net.   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.    

  Anita McBride is one of the foremost experts on the legacy of American first ladies. Colleen Shogan served as the 11thArchivist of the United States. Together, they're bringing forward a new project called In Pursuit, which offers up a series of essays on Presidents and First Ladies by some of today's most accomplished historians and political leaders. In this episode, Anita and Colleen join Ben and Bob for a discussion about how the project came together, the exciting (and surprising) list of authors and subjects they've assembled, and why the format they envision holds a lot of promise for public engagement.   In Pursuit's first essay- a piece on George Washington written by George W. Bush – will launch on substack on February 16, 2026. Make sure to sign up by clicking here! This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

John Adams' single term as President has long been cast as a low point in his political career, but Lindsay Chervinsky sees it differently. "George Washington created the Presidency," she writes in her new book Making the Presidency, "but John Adams defined it."   In this episode, Lindsay joins us to share why she sees Adams as a crucial figure in transforming an office that had been established for, and created by, George Washington, into a position with the customs and practices that could be passed down through generations. Along the way, Lindsay explains why she thinks we've gotten Adams so wrong (hint: both Jefferson and Hamilton disliked his politics), the crucial role he played in establishing a peaceful transition of power, and how the January 6th insurrection might help us all have a greater appreciation for President John Adams.   Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky is the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library and author of the new book Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic, which is out September 5th, 2024 from Oxford University Press. You can find out more about her work at her website: lindsaychervinsky.com   If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to check out Lindsay Chervinsky's  previous RTN appearances on The Road to Now:   ·      #184: The President's Cabinet ·      #263: Mourning the Presidents ·      #296: The Election of 1824 (Part 1 in our Third Party Elections Series)   This episode originally aired as RTN #313 on Sept. 2, 2024. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer  

What is Americana music? Is it a genre? A community? A refuge? Twenty four years after the founding of the Americana Music Association and thirteen years since the first Grammy was awarded for Best Americana Album, defining "Americana" remains tricky. In our experience, the most common answer has been "you know it when you hear it."   However you define it, however, there is one thing everyone agrees on: Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell are Americana legends.   In this episode, recorded in front of a live audience in Nashville, TN, Emmylou and Rodney discuss their musical careers, how they became associated with Americana music, and what Americana means to them. Bob too shares his musical journey both before and after joining the Avett Brothers and the ways that genre (Americana and otherwise) has been part of that story.   This episode originally aired as RTN #284 on Sept. 25, 2023. This episode was originally edited by Gary Fletcher. Live audio recording and mixing by Adam Botner. This reair was edited by Ben Sawyer.

A decade after Ken Burns decided it was time to take on the American Revolution, the film is finished and premieres on your local PBS station on Sunday, November 16! In this episode, we talk with Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, who directed the six-part series alongside Burns, to find out more about the stories and process that they used to construct this remarkable look at one of history's most fascinating and consequential events.   Click here to find out more about The American Revolution: A Film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein & David Schmidt at PBS.com and make sure to tune in for the premiere on Sunday, November 16!   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Wakara was a Ute leader whose power stretched across western North America long before the US claimed the land on which he lived. In this episode, Max Perry Mueller joins us to discuss his new book, Wakara's America: The Life & Legacy of a Native Founder of the American West, and how a story of the west that excludes Native peoples leaves us with an incomplete and often dishonest account of US history.   Dr. Max Perry Mueller is Associate Professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. You can find out more about Max and his work at his website, MaxPerryMueller.com.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

America's bookstores have always been about more than just books, but the role they play in American society has changed over the years. In this episode, Evan Friss joins us for a conversation about his New York Times Bestseller, The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore (Viking, 2023), and the unique place that bookstores – and those who operate them – have held in American society from the colonial era to our own. Dr. Evan Friss is Professor of History at James Madison University and the author of multiple books, including On Bicycles: A 200 Year History of Cycling in New York City (Columbia University Press, 2019). You can find out more about his work at his website, EvanFriss.com. A special thanks to our friend, Dane Honeycutt, for recommending that we invite Evan on the show to discuss The Bookshop. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

National Constitution Center President & CEO Jeffrey Rosen returns to the show to discuss his new book The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America, and the ways that the contrasting visions of the founders live on in our political debates today.   Make sure to check out the National Constitution Center's website for links to the Interactive Constitution and the many excellent resources they offer for free.   If you enjoyed this episode, you can hear more from Jeffery Rosen in episode 295 (The Pursuit of Happiness) and episode 211 (The Constitution).   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Teaching history to a middle schooler is a very different task than teaching a university student, but those doing the teaching have a lot in common (and could probably learn a lot from each other). In this episode, recorded as part of a live event sponsored by the Tennessee Council for History Education, Ben is joined by his MTSU colleague (and friend of the show) Andy Polk, 6th grade teacher Rupa Charles, and high school teacher Brandon Eldridge, for a conversation about what it's like to teach history in 2025, the highs and lows of the profession, and what we wish those in our communities knew about the work we do to better our students' lives.   A special thanks to Kira Duke at TNCHE for organizing this event and to Will Ackerman at Metro Nashville Public Schools for handling the a/v.   If you enjoy this episode, make sure to check out our conversation with Andy Polk about his book, Faith in Freedom: Propaganda, Presidential Politics, and the Making of an American Religion in RTN episode number 216.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

The War on Terror that followed the 9/11 attacks took place on battlefields across the globe, but it also took place in our legal system. In this episode, CNN's Jake Tapper joins us to discuss his new book, Race Against Terror: Chasing an Al Qaeda Killer at the Dawn of the Forever War, and how dedicated public servants saved countless lives by bringing a terrorist to justice.   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

The American Civil War and the end of slavery in the US may seem like one and the same from our modern perspective, but for those living through the conflict, the abolition of human bondage was anything but certain. Even into the last days of the war, slave traders in Confederate-held cities continued to auction off human beings, realizing handsome profits as they imposed violence and family separation on their subjects.   In his new book, An Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South, Robert K.D. Colby brings together a wide variety of sources to offer up a never-before seen look into the slave trade during the American Civil War. In this episode, he joins Ben and guest co-host Tim Talbott to explain how the slave trade evolved, why slave traders remained confident in the future of slavery even during the Civil War, and how the combined trauma of slavery and war impacted enslaved Americans long after their freedom had been secured.   Robert K.D. Colby is Assistant Professor of History at Ole Miss who specializes in the Civil War and the history of slavery. His newest book, An Unholy Traffic was published by Oxford University Press in April 2024 and is available in both print and audiobook.   Tim Talbott is the Chief Administrative Officer for the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust in Fredericksburg, Virginia and founding member and President of the Battle of New Market Heights Memorial and Education Association. Tim holds a MA in Public History from Appalachian State University, where Ben had the great fortune to study alongside him.   Relevant Links: ·      The Smithsonian Digital Volunteers Transcription Center website ·      RTN Episode 270: Women & American Slavery w/ Stephanie E. Jones Rogers ·      RTN Episode 117: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism w/ Edward Baptist   This is a rebroadcast of RTN #308, which originally aired on June 17, 2024. Edited by Ben Sawyer.     

Guerilla violence in the American Civil War was once considered a fringe topic of study, but the scale of the violence and its impact on society had a tremendous impact on the US during and after the conflict. In this episode, we speak with historian Andrew Fialka and illustrator Anderson Carmen about their new book, Hope Never to See It: A Graphic History of Guerilla Violence during the American Civil War (University of Georgia Press), how new approaches to the Civil War allow us to reimagine one of the most consequential moments in American history.   Andrew Fialka is Associate Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University.   Anderson Carman is an Atlanta-based illustrator. You can see his illustrations from Hope Never to See It and other projects by following him on Instagram at @andersoncarman and subscribing to his Substack, Drawing Conclusions.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Chinese immigrants helped establish America's foothold on the western coast, yet few of us know what life looked like for those Chinese people who came to live in the US. In this episode, Beth Lew-Williams joins us to discuss her new book, John Doe Chinaman: A Forgotten History of Chinese Life Under American Racial Law, which blends extensive archival research with new technologies to illuminate stories that have long been buried in our history. Beth Lew-Williams is Professor of History at Princeton University and a recipient of the 2025 Dan David Prize. If you enjoy this episode make sure to check out our conversations with previous Dan David Prize winners: Women and American Slavery w/ Stephanie E. Jones Rogers (#270) and The Archaeology of Dust w/ Anita Radini (#269). This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer. 

Washington Post Global Economics Correspondent David J. Lynch joins Ben & Bob for a discussion about his new book The World's Worst Bet: How the Globalization Gamble Went Wrong (and What Would Make it Right) (Public Affairs, 2025). David has a unique perspective on globalization; first as a journalist who has spent the last four decades covering the global economy for some of America's most influential media outlets, and now as an analyst of how the optimism of the 1990s turned to the pessimism of today. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to check our conversation with Joe Lockhart in episode #344. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

It's Labor Day, so we're sharing one of our favorite conversations on the history of labor in the US- our 2018 conversation with Louis Hyman on his book Temp: The Real Story of What Happened to Your Salary, Benefits & Job Security. We hope you have a great holiday!   This episode originally aired as episode 103 on August 18, 2018. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Joe Lockhart served as White House Press Secretary for President Bill Clinton from 1998-2000, and played central roles in Presidential campaigns from Walter Mondale to John Kerry. In this episode, Joe joins us to recap how the political landscape has changed since the 1980s and the paths that Democrats might pursue in their efforts to escape the political wilderness.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher

A Presidency is defined by the decisions that a person makes while serving as Executive, but a Presidential legacy is about much more than that. In Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture, (UVA Press, 2023)Lindsay Chervinsky and Matthew Costello have brought together a collection of chapters that explore the ways that mourning ceremonies, causes of death, and moments of passing impact the way that we remember a President at the time they die, and how new research and a more inclusive understanding of US history have reshaped Presidential legacies in the years that follow. In this episode, Lindsay joins Ben and Bob for a conversation about some of the fascinating stories crafted by the book's contributing authors and how Presidential legacies might tell us more about ourselves than the individuals who have served in the Oval Office. Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky is a historian of the American Presidency who is currently a fellow at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. Her first book, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution (Belknap Press, 2020) won multiple awards and was the topic of our conversation for her first appearance on The Road to Now in episode 184. You can learn more about Lindsay and her work at her website: LindsayChervinsky.com If you enjoyed this episode, you'll probably also like our conversation with Jeffrey Engle on the history of Presidential impeachment (RTN episode 109). This episode originally aired as episode 263 on February 20, 2023. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

The war between the US Army and the Native American confederation during the war of 1812 is a buried story in an often-overlooked event, yet its impact on the history of North America is profound. The leading figures on both sides of the war, Shawnee Chief Tecumseh and US Army General William Henry Harrison, had come of age in the struggles over what is today called the Midwest United States, and both understood that losing the war would mean losing the future they imagined for their people. In this episode, Ben & Bob do a deep dive on the story behind that war with Peter Stark, author of the incredibly accessible book, Gallop Toward The Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison's Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation (Random House, 2023).   Peter Stark is an adventure and exploration writer and historian who was previously a correspondent for Outsidemagazine. His previous book, Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America's Founding Father, was named a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize in 2019. You can follow him on Instagram at @peterstark_adventure_historian.   This is a rebroadcast of episode #383, which originally aired on August 28, 2023. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

The affordable housing shortage in many American cities is making urban life more difficult for all of us. But the problem of housing is not a new one, and history has some valuable lessons for those looking for solutions. In this episode, historian Tom Hanchett joins us to talk about his new book, Affordable Housing in Charlotte: What One City's History Tells Us About America's Pressing Problem and the truths, myths, and ironies of government subsidized housing in the United States.   If you enjoy this episode, check out Tom's previous appearances on our show in episode 159 and episode 4.   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

In the late 18th century, tens of millions of buffalo lived in North America. By the mid-1880s, they were on the brink of extinction. For the white settlers who sought to "conquer" the American west, and the Native people whose way of life depended on them, the plight of the American Buffalo was more than a story of one species of animal. As Dayton Duncan writes in the prologue of his new book Blood Memory,  the buffalo has "emerged as an embodiment of the nation's contradictory relationship with the natural world: venerated and mercilessly destroyed, a symbol of both a romanticized frontier and the callous conquest of a continent." In this episode, Dayton joins us for a conversation about the Buffalo (aka American Bison) and how the story of one animal can tell us so much about American history.   Dayton Duncan is an Emmy award-winning writer whose most recent collaborations with filmmaker Ken Burns are the book Blood Memory: The Tragic Decline and Improbable Resurrection of the American Buffalo (Alfred A. Knopf, 2023)and the new documentary The American Buffalo (2023) which is available right now at pbs.org.   If you enjoyed this episode, check out our previous conversation with Dayton Duncan in RTN #229 on Benjamin Franklin.   This episode originally aired as episode 285 on October 2, 2023. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.    

Jon Grinspan has done something remarkable: in his new book, Wide Awake, he tells a thoroughly researched and brilliantly crafted story that may change your understanding of the origins of the American Civil War. In this episode, Jon joins us for a conversation about the Wide Awakes, the anti-slavery youth movement that played an instrumental role in electing Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and took part in some of the first acts of violence between pro and anti-slavery Americans in 1861. Jon also discusses the ways that the past and present interact in powerful ways, and how politics can evolve, step-by-step, into violence.   To quote Jon's recent article in The Smithsonian: "The most consequential political organization in American history….began when a few working-class kids designed a costume, which grew into a movement and ultimately an army. And it ended with a civil war."   Dr. Jon Grinspan is a curator of political and military history at the National Museum of American History. His book Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force that Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War was released on May 14, 2024 from Bloomsbury Press. Click here to order your copy!   You can hear Jon's previous appearance on The Road to Now in episode #220 Processing the Past w/ John Grinspan.   This is a rebroadcast of RTN #306, which originally aired on May 13, 2024. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.  

For half a century, the US-Soviet rivalry pitted the two most powerful nations in human history against one another other in a conflict that had the potential to end civilization. The fact that the Cold War ended without the doomsday scenarios so many had predicted is testament to the power of good diplomacy, and good diplomacy only happens when you have good diplomats.   In this episode we speak with Jack Matlock, a diplomat whose 35 years in the State Department culminated in his selection by Ronald Reagan to serve as US Ambassador to the Soviet Union in the final years of the Cold War, where he played a key role in transforming US-Soviet relations.   Last week, the Trump Administration cut over 1,350 positions in the US State Department, many of them held by dedicated, knowledgeable and experienced foreign service experts who have sacrificed a great deal to serve our country abroad. We hope that by sharing our conversation with Ambassador Matlock, you'll better appreciate the crucial work done by our diplomatic corp and why we'd all be better off if the Trump administration reconsidered its drastic cuts to the state department.   This is an abridged version of RTN episode #50, which was recorded live at Middle Tennessee State University and originally aired on March 28, 2017. An unabridged video version of this episode is available on our YouTube page by clicking here. This reair was edited by Ben Sawyer.    

FBI agent Robert Hanssen was one of the most damaging spies in US history. From 1979 to 2001, Hanssen delivered some of the United States governments' most sensitive secrets to Soviet and Russian agents, who used them to not only undermine US national security, but to identify and execute individuals who were working with the FBI. And despite an awareness of spies working within the FBI, Hanssen managed to operate for more than two decades before finally getting caught. In this episode we speak with CBS News' Major Garrett, whose new podcast Agent of Betrayal: The Double Life of Robert Hanssen, explores Hanssen's decision to spy on the US and how he managed to operate for so long without being caught. A thoroughly researched history with all the turns of a great true crime podcast, we think you'll enjoy Agent of Betrayal, available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts. This episode originally aired as episode 287 on October 16, 2023. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer. 

Hannah Arendt witnessed the rise of Nazism in Germany and her groundbreaking works, including The Origins of Totalitarianism, sought to understand how regular people could be seduced by horrendous ideologies such as antisemitism and fascism. In this episode, Ben speaks with documentarian Jeff Bieber, whose new film Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny, documents Adendt's life as an intellectual, refugee and, eventually, an American citizen whose concerns about power remain as relevant today as they were half a century ago.   Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny premiered on PBS on June 27 and is available to watch on pbs.org by clicking here.   For more on Jeff Bieber's work, check out his website: JeffBieberProductions.org.   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Kathleen DuVal joins Ben & Bob for a discussion of her Pulitzer Prize-winning book Native Nations: A Millennium in North America (Random House, 2024) and how understanding North American history from both Native and non-Native perspectives helps us better understand our shared story. We also discuss her work with Ken Burns on his upcoming documentary on the American Revolution.   Dr. Kathleen DuVal is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.   Previous episodes mentioned in this conversation:  -#183 The History of the Lumbee Indians w/ Malinda Maynor Lowery (also available here on YouTube) -#5 Tara Houska & Joe Genetin Pilawa on Native American Culture & History   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer

Bob speaks with UNC-Chapel Hill historian Molly Worthen about her new book Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Trump. Gary Fletcher edited this episode.

Ben tells the story of Marion Zioncheck, inventor of the Zioncheck Zipper* and the only sitting member of congress to escape from an insane asylum.   This is the second part of our live show featuring guests Major Garrett (CBS News), Margaret Talev (Syracuse University/Axios) & Doug Heye (too many to list). Check out the first part in episode #338 Murder & Mayhem in the Capital City.   Special thanks to Rivers Langley of The Goods from The Woods for recommending the Zioncheck story to Ben. If you enjoy this trivia round, make sure to check out Perfect Timing, the comedy game show that Ben hosts monthly at The Lab at Zanies Nashville! You can follow us on instagram at @PTgameshow The conversation was recorded on May 29, 2025 at The Hamilton Live in Washington, DC. Thanks to Matt Burton and the crew at The Hamilton for hosting us and to everyone who came out to the show!   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.   * 2oz rye 3/4oz honey syrup 6-8 mint leaves Muddle mint, stir, serve in a double old fashioned glass with crushed ice and a mint sprig for garnish  

Major Garrett (CBS News), Margaret Talev (Syracuse University/Axios) & Doug Heye (too many to list) join Bob & Ben for a conversation about Washington, DC's long history of scandals and how media has shaped public perceptions of what is/isn't acceptable in American politics.   The conversation was recorded on May 29, 2025 at The Hamilton Live in Washington, DC. A special thanks to Matt Burton and the crew at The Hamilton for hosting us and to everyone who came out to the show!   If you enjoy this episode, make sure to check out part 2 of our live recording in episode 339 (air date 6/11/25).   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.  

Few American Christians in the 21st Century question the compatibility of their faith with a capitalist economic system. Two hundred years ago, however, the social and economic changes that came with the rise of a capitalism posed fundamental challenges to Christian practices and beliefs. In this episode, Joseph Slaughter joins us to discuss his book Faith in Markets: Christian Capitalism in the Early American Republic and how Christian responses to the rise of capitalism in the 19th Century laid the foundation for how we understand our modern economy.   Dr. Joseph P. Slaughter is Assistant Professor of History and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Guns and Society at Wesleyan College.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Ben & Bob sit down with friend and community builder Will Acuff for a conversation about how to find the good in life. Will founded the non-profit Corner to Corner, which "co-creates economic participation with underestimated Nashvillians," alongside his wife Tiffany, and recently published his first book No Elevator to Everest: Shift from Survive to Thrive through Spirit-led Self Awareness.     This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

The Good Friday Agreements of 1998 marked a turning point in Irish history, bringing an end to three decades known as The Troubles and laying a course for a better future for the people of Ireland. In this historian Mark Doyle and Friends of Sinn Féin Executive Director Greg O'Loughlin join us for a conversation about Irish history, the status of Irish unification, and how peace is possible even in the hardest of times.   Dr. Mark Doyle is Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University where he specializes in the history of Ireland and Great Britain. He previously joined us to discuss his books on The Kinks (Episode 169) and John Cale's Paris 1919 (episode 333).   Greg O'Loughlin is Executive Director of The Friends of Sinn Féin and is currently spearheading a listening tour across the United States to learn about Irish-Americans' views on Irish independence. Dates and more information are available at friendsofsinnfein.com.   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

A lot of Americans only know Eurovision via Will Farrell's film, "Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga," which capture some of Eurovision's over-the-top aspects,  but the history of the annual event actually shines light on some of the biggest cultural, social and political developments in post-World War II European history. In this episode, Paul Jordan, aka Dr. Eurovision, joins Ben and special guest cohost/his wife Kelly Kolar for a conversation about Eurovision's origins, how it's been shaped by geopolitics, and, of course, who their favorites are in this year's contest, which airs live on May 17 at 3pm est.   Dr. Paul Jordan is an expert and media commentator on the Eurovision song contest and the author of The Modern Fairy Tale: Nation Branding, national identity and the Eurovision Song Contest in Estonia. From 2015 to 2018 he served on Eurovision's communication team. You can learn more about him at DrEurovision.com.   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

With our live show in Washington, DC coming up on May 29, we thought it'd be fun to share one of our previous live recordings from Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC w/ guests Molly Worthen, Doug Heye & Rufus Edmisten!   Dr. Molly Worthen (Department of History at UNC-Chapel Hill), Doug Heye (CNN/former RNC Communication Director) & Rufus Edmisten (Deputy Chief Council, Senate Watergate Committee/ former NC Secretary of State & Attorney General) join Bob & Ben for a conversation about charisma in American politics and society. Recorded live at the legendary Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC on January 25, 2020.   Join us for our next live recording on May 29, 2025 at The Hamilton Live in Washington, DC. Click here for tickets!   Click here to check out upcoming Avett Brothers shows   Click here for Ben's comedy dates   This is a rebroadcast of episode #158 which originally aired on January 27, 2020. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.  

John Cale is probably best known as a founding member of Velvet underground, but the four years he spent alongside Lou Reed represent a small fraction of the influence Cale has had on modern music. In this episode, recorded live at MTSU's Center for Popular Music, Ben talks to his friend and colleague Mark Doyle about his new book in the 33 1/3 series, which explores John Cale's 1973 album Paris 1919 and where it (may) fit within the greater context of his career, the evolution of rock music, and world history. Mark Doyle is a Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University and previously joined us to discuss his book on The Kinks in episode 169. His new book is John Cale's Paris 1919 and you can get your copy here. A special thanks to Greg Reish & Martin Fisher at the Center for Popular Music for hosting, recording and allowing us to share this conversation. Join us for a live recording of the Road to Now in Washington, DC on May 29 at The Hamilton Live ft. guests Major Garett, Margaret Talev & Doug Heye. The theme is murder & mayhem in the capital city- get your tickets here! This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

The American Historical Association was chartered by Congress in 1884 and has played an essential role in helping foster and spread great historical research. AHA incoming Executive Director Sarah Weicksel and pioneering public historian Ed Ayers join us for a discussion of AHA's history, its current projects and the damage that recent government policy has done to historians' ability to create and share an honest history of the United States. Learn more by visiting the American Historical Association's website at historians.org. The report discussed in this episode is "American Lesson Plan: Teaching US History in Secondary Schools." Dr. Sarah Jones Weicksel is Director of Research and Publications and incoming Executive Director at the AHA and Research Associate at the Smithsonian's National Museum of History. Dr. Ed Ayers is Tucker-Boatwright Professor of the Humanities and President Emeritus at the University of Richmond. His book In the Presence of Mine Enemies: War in the heart of America, 1859-1863 won the Bancroft Prize and Beveridge Award in 2004 and in 2013 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal. Join us for a live recording of the Road to Now in Washington, DC on May 29 at The Hamilton Live ft. guests Major Garett, Margaret Talev & Doug Heye. The theme is murder & mayhem in the capital city- get your tickets here!   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

America's role in the world is 'changing' and as much as things look new, we've seen a lot of this before. Economic Historian Jari Eloranta joins us to put NATO military spending, the looming trade war and other recent global developments in historical context. As always, there's a lot that history can teach us when we pay attention to those who know it best.   Dr. Jari Eloranta is a Professor of History at the University of Helsinki where he specializes in Economic History. He has published extensively on the history of military spending and trade. Before moving back to his home country of Finland, Jari was a Professor of History at Appalachian State where he was crucial in inspiring Ben's fascination with economic history.   Come see the Road to Now Live at the Hamilton in Washington, DC on May 29 for a night of stories of murder and mayhem in the capital city w/ guests Margaret Talev, Major Garrett & Doug Heye. You can get tickets at RTNpod.me/liveindc.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Last week the Trump Administration announced it would be cutting more than a thousand grants to the National Endowment for the Humanities, including grants for every state humanities council. In a letter the administration stated that the NEH would be "repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of President Trump's agenda." One major organization suffering from these cuts is National History Day, a brilliant program that has inspired young Americans for decades. To remind folks what we stand to lose, we're sharing our 2024 conversation on National History Day with Executive Director Cathy Gorman and podcaster Don Wildman, along with a new introduction in which Ben gives an overview of the cuts and the widespread consequences they'll have across the country.   Can learning the skills required to do good history serve as an antidote to conspiracy theory? Cathy Gorn & Don Wildman think so, and in this episode they join us to discuss their work to teach those skills in the 6th-12th grade classroom through National History Day, a program that reaches more than half a million students and tens of thousands of teachers each year. We agree with them and think National History Day is an American treasure, so we hope you enjoy this conversation about what goes into creating good history, how we can better teach that to the public, and how your kids can get involved in National History Day.   Click here to learn more about National History Day programs for students & teachers.   Dr. Cathy Gorn has spent more than four decades working with National History Day and currently serves as NHD's Executive Director.   Don Wildman is a podcast & documentary host whose projects include Mysteries at the Museum (Travel Channel) & the podcast American History Hit. He currently serves as Co-Chair of National History Day's Development Committee.   Sources:   "Cuts to NEH and Humanities Councils: What Southern States Will Lose," statehumanities.org, Federation of State Humanities Councils, April 3, 2025.   Mia Maldonado, "Trump administration's latest federal cuts hit humanities funding in Idaho," Idaho Capital Sun, April 4, 2025.   Jennifer Schuessler, "Trump Administration Moves to Cut Humanities Endowment," New York Times, April 3, 2025.   Sarah D. White, "States Scramble after Trump's 'devastating' cuts to humanities grants," USA Today, April 5, 2025.         This is a rebroadcast of #330 which originally aired on April 22, 2024, along with a new introduction. The original episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

RTN is coming to Washington DC on May 29! Join us for a night of stories of murder and mayhem with guests Major Garrett, Margaret Talev, and Doug Heye at the Hamilton Live! You can get tickets and details at RTNpod.me/liveindc – hope to see you there!   The "Amazon economy" seems like something new, but it rests on the physical and intellectual infrastructure built by those who came long before the age of the internet and leaves many of the same marks on the environment. Prominent in this story are five companies- Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, Walmart, Bank of America, and FexEx-  all of which have global reach and southern roots. In this episode, Bart Elmore joins us to talk about his new book Country Capitalism: How Corporations from the American South Remade our Economy and the Planet (UNC Press, 2023), and how understanding the history of American business can help us address the environmental challenges that are undeniably facing humanity today.   Dr. Bartow Elmore is Associate Professor of History and a core faculty member of the Sustainability Institute at The Ohio State University. In addition to Country Capitalism, he is also the author of  Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism (W. W. Norton, 2015) and Seed Money: Monsanto's Past and Our Food Future (W. W. Norton, 2021). You can hear his discuss these books in RTN episode 140 and episode 208 respectively. Bart is also a 2022 winner of the Dan David Prize.   This episode originally aired as episode #272 on May 15, 2023. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.  

With tariffs, the Enemy Alien Act, and politically driven calls for judicial impeachment in the headlines, Ben & Bob decided to sit down and put these developments in historic context. We've never been so disappointed to have such a great reason to discuss the history we love!   Some recommended readings: The US Constitution Scott Bomboy, "A Brief History of the Constitution and Tariffs," National Constitution Center, Feb. 07, 2025 Lindsay Chervinsky, "Why the Last Supreme Court Impeachment was The Last (So Far)," The Bulwark, Sept. 02, 2022. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Libertarianism has had a tremendous influence on American politics, but according to Andrew Koppelman, its most prominent adherents have stripped libertarian philosophy of its more humane intentions. In this episode, Andrew joins Bob and Ben for a discussion about his book, Burning Down the House: How Libertarian Philosophy Was Corrupted by Delusion and Greed (St. Martin's Press, 2022) and why he contends that libertarian philosophers such as Friedrich Hayek have been stripped of their original intent by those who have ulterior motives.   Dr. Andrew Koppelman is John Paul Stevens Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University. You can learn more about his work at AndrewKoppelman.com   This is a rebroadcast of RTN #249 which originally aired on October 10, 2022. This version was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Come see us May 29th at the Hamilton Live in DC! Click here for tickets.   Kathryn Olivarius joins Bob & Ben to explain the powerful role that Yellow Fever played in shaping all aspects of life in New Orleans during the 19th century. Kathryn is Associate Professor of History at Stanford University and the authorNecropolis: Disease, Power & Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom, (Harvard University Press, 2022).   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Our next live show is in Washington, DC on May 29! Click here for tickets.   Anne Tindall is Special Council at the non-partisan group Protect Democracy, where she works to ensure that elections are free and fair, to prevent political violence, and to secure accountability for abuses of power at the federal and state level. In this episode she joins us to talk about the still unsettled results of North Carolina's Supreme Court election from November, and Republican Jefferson Griffin's attempt to convince the courts to throw out sixty thousand ballots in a race where his challenger, incumbent Allison Riggs, won by just 734 votes. Anne explains what makes this case unique in the history of American elections and why it may set a dangerous precedent that could weaken voting rights for citizens across the country regardless of political party.   Click here to read the Electoral Integrity Project data that Anna discussed in this episode.   This conversation was recorded on February 27, 2025. Gary Fletcher edited this episode.

Just announced: The next Road to Now Live is May 29 at The Hamilton Live in Washington, DC! Click here to get your tickets!   Between 1933 and 1942, the Civilian Conservation Corps enlisted more than three million young men in a project that planted two billion trees, slowed soil erosion on forty million acres of farmland, and enjoyed support across political and geographic divides. In this episode we talk with Neil Maher, author of Nature's New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement (Oxford University Press, 2008) about how the CCC helped solidify FDR's New Deal and spread the seeds of environmental activism for generations to come.   Dr. Neil Maher is a Professor of History and Master Teacher in the Federated History Department at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University-Newark. He is also the author of Apollo in the Age of Aquarius (Harvard University Press, 2017). You can find out more about his work at NeilMaher.com.     This is a rebroadcast of episode #274 which aired as The Original Green New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps with Neil Mahr on May 29, 2023. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers' is a historian whose work has shed new light on the roles that women played in American slavery. In this episode, she joins Ben and Bob to share some of the significant findings of her work, the sources she's used to learn more about enslaved people and female slaveowners, and her new project, which reorients our understanding of the British Atlantic slave trade by centering the story on the lives of both free and captive women. Dr. Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers is Associate Professor of History at the University California, Berkeley and the author of the award-winning book They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South (Yale University Press, 2019). She is also one of the recipients of the 2023 Dan David Prize, which recognizes outstanding scholarship that illuminates the past and seeks to anchor public discourse in a deeper understanding of history.   This episode was originally aired as episode #270 on April 24, 2023. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer. 

What does it mean to be different? This is the question Bob explores with author and President of the Word of South book and music festival, Mark Mustian, as they discuss his new historical-fiction novel, "The Boy with Wings." Set against the backdrop of a traveling freak show in the American South during the 1930s, the narrative follows the poignant journey of Johnny Cruel, a young man born with a distinctive birthmark that renders him an outcast. Historical fiction is a rarity on The Road to Now, so this is a truly special episode that you do not want to miss. Bob and Mark also discuss the Word of South book and music festival held every April in Tallahassee, Florida.   Boy with Wings is out on March 15 from Köehler Books- click here for links to (pre)order your copy.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

This week, we're revisiting one of our favorite conversations! During a past trip to Denver, Bob and Ben had the privilege of sitting down with journalist and historian Dick Kreck at the historic Brown Palace Hotel to discuss the fascinating history of Denver and its development in the 19th and early 20th centuries. With more than four decades of experience as a reporter for The San Francisco Examiner, The LA Times, and The Denver Post, Kreck has also published numerous books on the history of Colorado and the American West. In this episode, he shares his incredible insights on western migration, the construction of the transcontinental railroad, and how the Denver of today reflects its storied past. We are reairing this episode in memory of Dick Kreck, who passed away on December 4, 2024. You can read his obituary here.    

This week, we welcome back to the program the Director of the Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at Winthrop University, Dr. Scott Huffmon. We usually have Dr. Huffmon on to discuss the prestigious Winthrop Poll, known as the most reliable and comprehensive poll regarding issues and politics in South Carolina. Today, however, Dr. Huffmon joins us to discuss a fascinating class he teaches: Politics and Society in Middle Earth: The Lord of the Rings. What can Tolkien's epic fantasy trilogy, with its themes of alliances and rivalries between individuals from different races, teach us about society and politics in our own time? Let's find out. You can follow Dr. Huffmon on X at @HuffmonPolitics.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. 

Partisanship. What is it good for? Most people these days would say, "Absolutely nothing." Julian Zelizer might reply, "Not so fast." This week on the Road to Now we welcome backt to the show the Malcom Stevenson Forbes Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University, and CNN Political Analyst, Julian Zelizer to discuss his new book, In Defense of Partisanship. Zelizer argues that partisanship is not inherently detrimental to democracy. Instead, he contends that a healthy and vibrant political system requires robust and principled parties that clearly articulate their policy positions and engage in spirited debate. Through historical examples and contemporary analysis, Zelizer illustrates how partisanship has historically facilitated significant political and social advancements. Zelizer posits that today we are dealing with the negative effects of hyper partisanship, and that rather than seeking to eliminate partisanship altogether, efforts should be made to foster a political environment where constructive partisanship thrives. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

The Nazi regime that came to power in Germany in 1933 unleashed the most brutal and comprehensive war that humanity has ever seen. The horrors of the Nazis and the destruction they left behind is something most of us learned about in history class, but for Gerd Schroth it is the story of his childhood. Born in Germany in 1938, Gerd came of age on the scorched earth left behind by the German war machine. Gerd's father had joined the Nazi party because he thought Hitler could restore Germany's greatness, but he bequeathed to his children a world in ruins. More than seven decades after the end of World War II, Gerd is still writing the story of his life. He is now an American citizen, and his children were born in the United States. Gerd has moved on from the tragedy of his youth, but he has never forgotten it. He has thought a lot about how his parents' generation and why they embraced the horrifying ideology of Nazism. He has found value in past traditions while abhorring the actions of his ancestors. And in doing this, he has built a much stronger legacy for future generations. In this episode of The Road to Now, we share Gerd Schroth's personal story of his life as a Citizen of Nazi Germany, refugee, immigrant, and now, American Citizen. We are reairing this episode in honor of Mr. Schroth, who passed away in January of 2025. This episode originally aired on September 18, 2017 and was edited and produced by Bob Crawford and Pete Schroth.

Martin Van Buren served just one term as President from 1837 to 1841, but as the architect behind the founding of the Democratic Party, his legacy lives on in the US today. In this episode, we speak with James M. Bradley, author of the new book Martin Van Buren: America's First Politician, to learn how Van Buren helped reshape politics in the 19th century and laid the groundwork for America's two-party system.   You can learn more about the work being done to preserve the papers of Martin Van Buren at VanBurenPapers.org.     This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.   

Ben & Bob recap 2024, what they learned this year and what might be in store for 2025. Happy New Year!   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

It's Christmas time and this week we're resharing the original RTN Christmas Classic! Christmas expert James Cooper joins Bob and Ben to explain how Santa Claus, Christmas trees, and other Christmas traditions made their way into popular culture. He also shares stories of lesser known traditions, such as setting fire to the giant Swedish straw goat known as the Gävlebocken! You can find out more about the history of Santa Claus and Christmas at James Cooper's website WhyChristmas.com This is a rebroadcast of RTN #82, which originally aired on December 18, 2017. This reair was edited by Ben Sawyer. 

Dr. Eric Smoodin, film historian at the University of California- Davis and author of Regarding Frank Capra: Audience, Celebrity and American Film Studies, 1930-1960, joins Bob and Ben for the history of the people, the industry, and law that made Frank Capra's 1946 film It's A Wonderful Life into one of America's quintessential Christmas films.     This is a rebroadcast of episode 292 which originally aired on December 11, 2023. This reair was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Journalist Michael Tackett joins Ben & Bob to discuss his new book The Price of Power: How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America and Lost his Party (Simon & Schuster, 2024). Tackett, who wrote the biography with McConnell's consent, was granted unprecedented access to McConnell's vast personal archives, his staff, and even the Senator himself, who sat for about 50 hours of interviews. If you've ever wondered how Mitch McConnell rose to power, how he's stayed there despite challenges from both parties, or what makes the man tick, this conversation has the answers.   Michael Tackett covers national politics for The New York Times. His work has earned him multiple awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and the Edgar A. Poe Award for National Reporting.   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Mark McKinnon is former chief media advisor to George W. Bush & John McCain, cocreator of Showtime's The Circus, and current writer at Vanity Fair. In this episode, he joins Ben & Bob to recap the 2024 election and what they think might come next.   Click here to read Mark's "An Open Letter to My Daughter," published November 6, 2024 in Vanity Fair.   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

James Armistead Lafayette lived a remarkable life. After being granted permission by his enslaver to enlist in the cause, James joined up with the Marquis de Lafayette and served as one of the most important spies in the Revolutionary war. After many years of petitioning for his freedom, James eventually gained his freedom and officially changed his last name to Lafayette after the Frenchman with which he served and who later petitioned Congress for James' freedom.   In this episode, we learn more about the fascinating life of James Armistead Lafayette from Stephen Seals, the historical interpreter who has played James at Colonial Williamsburg for more than a decade.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Did you know that Woodrow Wilson didn't have a regular job until he was 28 years old? Or that he didn't complete all the requirements for a PhD? After retiring from politics in 2009, former Congressman and Securities & Exchange Commission Chair Christopher Cox decided to turn to history. The result is his new book, Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn, which gives special attention to Wilson's views on race and women's rights, presenting the 28thPresident as "a man superbly unsuited to the moment when he ascended to the Presidency." In this episode, Chris joins us to share the path that led him to Woodrow Wilson, the reasons he came to such an unfavorable opinion of him, and what his work adds to our understanding of a Presidency that has rapidly gone from reverence to rebuke.   Find out more about the book at thelightwithdrawn.com.   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer

Most Americans are aware of Colombia's role in the international drug trade, but we know less about the role that Americans played in the story as consumers, smuggling pioneers, and practitioners of a foreign policy that facilitated the rise of Colombian drug production.   In this episode, journalist and historian Lina Britto shares the fascinating story of how Colombia emerged as a major supplier of drugs to American consumers and how this relationship affected people in both countries. She also explains the origins of the "War on Drugs" in the US and tells the story of how Americans hippies in search of marijuana laid the groundwork for the distribution techniques later used by Pablo Escobar's cocaine cartel.   Dr. Lina Britto is Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University where she specializes in Colombian history and the history of the international drug trade. She is the author of Marijuana Boom: The Rise and Fall of Colombia's First Drug Paradise (University of California Press, 2020)   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

US immigration policy has become one of the most contentious issues in American politics, but there is one point on which most of us agree: our immigration policy is broken. And while the sheer number of interests involved mean that an easy fix is unlikely, the best place to start is with a sound understanding of how we got the immigration system we have today. As a historian of immigration who currently serves as Director for the Americas and Europe at Refugees International, Yael Schacher has a particularly well informed perspective on this issue. In this episode, Yael walks us through the history of immigration policy in the US and shares what she sees as the major challenges that stand in the way of reforming our current immigration system. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

It's flu season, so this week on the show, we're bringing you something seasonal: a history of epidemics in two parts. In part 1, we talk about the 1918 influenza outbreak with John Barry, author of the NY Times Best-seller Seller The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History (Penguin, 2005). And in part 2 we dig into the history of infectious disease with epidemiologist Erin Welsh, co-host of This Podcast Will Kill You. This episode is a supercut of #120 The History of Influenza w/ John Barry and #151 Live in Chicago w/ Pete Souza & Erin Welsh, both of which originally aired in 2019. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

The Constitution empowers the electoral college to select the President, but the process for counting electors' votes remains in the hands of Congress. In this episode, Constitutional Law Professor Edward Foley explains the origins of the electoral college, how and why the 12th Amendment changed the process for electing Presidents, and the concerns that led Congress to codify the procedure for counting electors' votes in 1887. Edward also offers some specific ways that updating the Electoral Count Act of 1887 might help us avoid some of the potential problems that might arise in upcoming elections.   Edward Foley holds the Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law at The Ohio State University, where he also directs its election law program. He is a regular contributor to The Washington Post and the author of multiple books, including Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Presidential Elections and Majority Rule (Oxford University Press, 2020). You can follow him on twitter at @NedFoley.   This is a rebroadcast of RTN #224 which originally aired on February 21, 2022. This version has been updated and abridged by Ben Sawyer. The original episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Most accounts of women in mid-20th century American politics highlight trailblazers such as Frances Perkins or the handful of women elected to Congress in those years. But women's participation in politics- both as voters and as party activists- was far more significant than most Americans realize, elevating a group of white middle-class women into positions of influence over Presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Dwight Eisenhower.   Melissa Blair joins Ben & Bob to talk about how and why these women became cornerstones of party politics in these years and why they've largely been forgotten in our national memory. Melissa's book, Bringing Home the White House: The Hidden History of Women Who Shaped the Presidency in the Twentieth Century, chronicles the lives of five influential women whose work was critical in helping their party's candidate win the White House in this era.   Melissa Estes Blair is a Professor of History at Auburn University whose research focuses on women and politics in the United States in the twentieth century.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

On the surface, the election of 1872 might seem insignificant in US history; Ulysses Grant easily won reelection to the White House and his Republican Party maintained their dominance in both houses of Congress. In the south, however, the violence that followed the election at the state and local level was an ominous sign that the era of Reconstruction might soon be over. And, according to Dana Bash and her co-author David Fischer, nowhere saw more violence than Louisiana. In this episode, Dana joins Ben & Bob to discuss her new book America's Deadliest Election: The Cautionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History, and how the violence that followed the 1872 election in Louisiana – including the slaughter of 150 unarmed black Americans in the small town of Colfax – laid the foundation for the restoration of white supremacy in the south. Dana Bash is chief political correspondent at CNN, where she also anchors Inside Politics and co-anchors State of the Union alongside Jake Tapper. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

In 2021, Neil King Jr. threw a few basic items into a backpack and walked from his home in Washington, DC to New York City. Over the next 26 days/330 miles, he met new people, uncovered forgotten moments of history, and spent many days thinking about America. In this episode, Neil joins Ben and Bob to discuss his book, American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal, and the lessons he learned along the way. Before walking from his house in DC to New York City, Neil King Jr. worked as a journalist for outlets across the globe, including The Tampa Tribune, The Prague Post, and The Wall Street Journal. On Sept 17, 2024, Neil King Jr.. passed away at age 65 from complications caused by esophageal cancer. We are reairing this episode to celebrate the excellence of his work and as a reminder that we are surrounded by beauty. We hope that this conversation – which is just one tiny line in Neil's legacy- will help you to see the common ground we all share and the adventures that surround us if we just take the time to look. This episode originally aired as RTN #271 on May 1, 2023. The original episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. This reair was edited by Ben Sawyer.

For a long time, it seemed like not much happened in the 1970s. Today it seems like so much of what's happening can be traced back to those same years. The 1970s was a pivotal decade in American history. In a ten-year span, the United States admitted defeat in Vietnam, saw a President (and Vice President) resign in shame, and came face to face with its leaders' abuse of power at home and abroad. At the same time, American citizens directly experienced a score of problems, including "stagflation," an energy crisis, and the consequences of environmental devastation. Yet in this era of deconstruction and disappointment, the political coalitions than defined the US from the 1980s until (today/recently?) were forged. In this episode, Jefferson Cowie joins us to talk about his book Stayin Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working and what happened in the decade in which everything now seems to have happened. Dr. Jefferson Cowie is James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University and the author of multiple award-winning books, including Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2023. You can hear him discuss Freedom's Dominion in episode #255, and check out his multiple appearances on the show by searching You can find out more about Jefferson Cowie and his work at his website by clicking here. This is a rebroadcast of episode #115, which originally aired on December 18, 2017. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

The debates over school curricula, banned books, and what educators can teach in their classes have become increasingly polarizing in recent years, but they are nothing new in the US. For those who researched, wrote and taught about the Soviet Union under Stalin during the Cold War, following the evidence to a conclusion that challenged America's established narrative could lead to denunciations and accusations of disloyalty. Despite this challenge, a generation of scholars dedicated their professional life to the study of Soviet history, generating far more in-depth and humane accounts of the past than the black and white narratives offered up by most political scientists and others who presented Soviet society as atomized and powerless. As one of the most prolific Russian historians of his generation, Lewis Siegelbaum knows this story well. In this episode, he joins us to discuss his new book, Reflections on Stalinism, in which he, co-editor Arch Getty and ten of their peers share their own reflections on how they came to study Soviet history, how the political environment affected their own work, and what they got right (and wrong) in their career. Lewis also shares his story of witnessing the unexpected collapse of the USSR, what we learned when Soviet archives opened in the 1990s, and how current events remain haunted by the simplistic view of Russian history to which many Americans still adhere. Dr. Lewis Siegelbaum is Jack and Margaret Sweet Professor Emeritus of History at Michigan State University where he taught from 1983 until 2018. He has authored multiple award-winning books on Soviet history, including Cars for Comrades: The Life of the Soviet Automobile, and served as doctoral advisor to many aspiring scholars, including Ben Sawyer. If you're interested in learning more about Soviet history, we recommend that you check out the website Seventeen Moments in Soviet History, which Lewis cofounded and is the most widely-used online source for teaching and learning about Soviet history.    This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

John Adams' single term as President has long been cast as a low point in his political career, but Lindsay Chervinsky sees it differently. "George Washington created the Presidency," she writes in her new book Making the Presidency, "but John Adams defined it." In this episode, Lindsay joins us to share why she sees Adams as a crucial figure in transforming an office that had been established for, and created by, George Washington, into a position with the customs and practices that could be passed down through generations. Along the way, Lindsay explains why she thinks we've gotten Adams so wrong (hint: both Jefferson and Hamilton disliked his politics), the crucial role he played in establishing a peaceful transition of power, and how the January 6th insurrection might help us all have a greater appreciation for President John Adams. Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky is the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library and author of the new book Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic, which is out September 5th, 2024 from Oxford University Press. You can find out more about her work at her website: lindsaychervinsky.com If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to check out Lindsay Chervinsky's  previous RTN appearances on The Road to Now: ·      #184: The President's Cabinet ·      #263: Mourning the Presidents ·      #296: The Election of 1824 (Part 1 in our Third Party Elections Series)   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher

The 2024 Presidential election is in full swing and so is the parade of personal attacks, appeals to emotion and (most important for us) grandiose and unsubstantiated claims about history. And of the many statements that fall in that last category, one stands out as both exceptionally ridiculous and a perfect setup to connect today's politics to the past: Donald Trump's claim that Kamala Harris is "considered the worst Vice President in history."   Much like Trump himself, who followed by saying "I don't know who the hell did that, if they do polls…" we couldn't find any valid ranking of all 49 Vice Presidents, let alone one that ranked Harris in last place. So we decided to take the issue on ourselves and ask you to help us elect the candidate that you think deserves the title of "America's Worst Vice President."   To help you make your choice, Vanderbilt historian and This Day in Esoteric Political History co-host Nicole Hemmer joins Ben to explain the power and responsibilities allocated to the Vice President under the Constitution, the history of the office itself, and the changes brought about by the 12th and 25th Amendments. Most importantly, however, Ben and Niki make their pitches for who they think is the worst Vice President and reach consensus on the VPs who should be in the Final Four. The rest is up to you- you just have to vote:   Click here to vote in the Final Four (Voting Closes Sunday, Sept 1st at 3pm edt)*   *We're using the polling function on our Patreon page, but you do not need to be a patron to vote in this poll- it just makes it easier for us to centralize the votes in one place!   The Finals will open at 8pm on Monday, Sept 2nd and run until Sunday, Sept 8th. Click here to follow us on socials for links to vote when they become available.   This episode was recorded in the podcast studio at Vanderbilt University's Curb Center. A special thanks to the Curb Center's David Wilson and Gina Yu for their help in arranging this recording.   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.  

With a sitting VP running for President for the first time since Al Gore's failed bid for the White House in 2000, there's been a lot of talk about the role the VP plays in government, the impact a VP pick has on a Presidential campaign, and just how much Kamala Harris' record as VP/relationship to President Joe Biden can show us about her own agenda, should she win the White House. So today we begin a three-episode ­run focused on the Vice Presidency and those who have held the office with a conversation on Lyndon B. Johnson. Lyndon B. Johnson's Presidency is bookended by the tragedies of JFK's assassination and the escalation of the Vietnam war, but his career in politics and the policies he championed transcend his time in the Oval Office. In this episode, two of the foremost experts on LBJ, Mark Updegrove and Mark A. Lawrence, join Bob & Ben to discuss Johnson's life and legacy. Mark Updegrove is the President & CEO of the LBJ Foundation in Austin, TX, the presidential historian for ABC News, and the author of multiple books on Presidential History, including Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency. Dr. Mark Atwood Lawrence  is Director of the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum and Associate Professor of History at UT-Austin. He is the author of multiple books on US history including The Vietnam War:  A Concise International History. This is a rebroadcast of RTN #256, which originally aired on December 12, 2022. This reair was edited by Ben Sawyer.  

On August 15th, 1824, the Marquis de Lafayette returned to the United States for a grand farewell tour. It was his first visit since leaving the US in the late 1780s. The tour was a unifying moment for a deeply divided country.  In the wake of a crippling economic downturn, and a fracturing over the Missouri question and the issue of slavery, the nation was in the midst of a bitter Presidential election. The first without a political or military hero of the American Revolution on the ballot. Lafayette's visit, if only for a moment, reminded the nation of the Spirit of 76 and their beloved adopted French son.   Thanks to the organization, American Friends of Lafayette, for the next thirteen months, Lafayette 200 celebrations will retrace the steps of the Marquee de Lafayette's historic tour.   On this episode of the Road to Now we welcome Historical Interpreter, Mark Schneider. Mark has embodied Lafayette for over 25 years. Along the way he has educated students of history young and old about Lafayette's life and the role he played in the American Revolution.   If you enjoy this episode, make sure to check out our episode on The Lafayette Trail w/ Julian Ischer on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Journalist David Menconi has documented the people and sounds of North Carolina's music scene for almost three decades. In this episode, Ben and guest co-host Dolph Ramseur speak with David about his book Step It Up and Go: The Story of North Carolina Popular Music, from Blind Boy Fuller and Doc Watson to Nina Simone and Superchunk, and how the music of "The Old North State" is both reflected in, and a reflection of, its people. David Menconi spent 28 years writing for the Raleigh News & Observer and was Piedmont Laureate in 2019. His other works include Ryan Adams: Losering, A Story of Whiskeytown" (University of Texas Press, 2012); "Comin' Right at Ya: How a Jewish Yankee Hippie Went Country, or, the Often Outrageous History of Asleep at the Wheel. (co-written with Ray Benson, University of Texas Press, 2015). You can follow him on twitter at @NCDavidMenconi. Guest co-host Dolph Ramseur is the founder of Ramseur Records and a member of the North Carolina Hall of Fame. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to check out David's second appearance on our show in episode #286 Rounder Records and the Transformation of American Roots Music.  If you're enjoying The Road to Now, please consider joining us on Patreon, giving us a 5 star rating/review on Apple podcasts and sharing this episode with a friend who might also enjoy it. Thank you! This is a rebroadcast of RTN #182, which originally aired on October 19, 2020. This reair was edited by Ben Sawyer.   

The Stone Pony and its hometown of Asbury Park, New Jersey are iconic settings in the story of some of America's greatest rock musicians, including Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt, and Southside Johnny Lyon. The Pony's path from high-risk passion project to iconic venue was, however, anything but direct; from its founding in 1974, the club was caught in the greater forces at work in late-20th century America.   So how did the Stone Pony thrive when so many other venues closed? And what set Asbury Park apart from so many other American towns? In this episode, The New York Times' Nick Corasaniti joins us to talk about his new book I Don't Want To Go Home: The Oral History of the Stone Pony (Harpers, 2024) and what he learned from interviewing Bruce Springsteen and dozens of other musicians and industry professionals who helped make the club into what it is today.   If you enjoy this episode, make sure to check out our episodes on The Kinks with Mark Doyle and The Allman Brothers' At Fillmore East with Bob Beatty.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Joe Biden has decided to decline the Democratic nomination for the Presidency in 2024 so today we take a look back at Biden's path to seek the nomination in 2020 and Ben shares his thoughts on why July 21, 2024 might be the day that secures Biden's legacy in American history.   Our conversation with Robert Costa on his book Peril, which he co-authored with Robert Woodward, originally aired as RTN episode 213 on November 15, 2021. This episode includes an edited version of that conversation with a new introduction by Ben. The original episode description is below: The 2020 Presidential election was one of the most tumultuous in American history, and while Joe Biden's victory over Donald Trump is settled, Trump's refusal to accept defeat has had implications that transcend his time in the oval office. In this episode, Bob and Ben speak with Robert Costa, whose new book Peril draws on his and co-author Bob Woodward's extensive investigation of the Biden and Trump campaigns and Trump's handling of executive power during his time in office. Robert explains how he finds and vets sources, his method of "deep background" interviews, and how he maintains journalistic disinterest in the face of intense partisan conflict. He also discusses what he learned about Trump and Biden as candidates and individuals and why he believes that the peril that characterized the Trump-Biden transition remains a source of concern more than a year after the 2020 election.   Robert Costa is the chief election & campaign correspondent for CBS News, where he covers national politics and American democracy. You can follow him on twitter at @CostaReports.   If you enjoyed this conversation, check out our previous conversation with Robert in RTN #130 Sources, Methods & Music w/ Robert Costa.   "I think you've always been fair." -Donald Trump to Robert Woodward Full Audio of Trump's phone call with Bob Woodward about the publication of Fear, August 14, 2018.   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

When the Erie Canal opened in the 1820s, it brought with it an industrial system that radically transformed the daily lives of the American farmers who lived in the region. Out of this disruption came some of America's earliest labor actions, the rise of new Christian sects, and America's first daredevil, Sam Patch, who dazzled the masses and offended the powers that be simply by jumping off higher and higher things into water.   Why did Sam Patch become a national figure whose actions drew acclaim across the country? Why did those in power denounce Patch's exhibitions as "irrational fun" and seek to stop him from performing? And how does Patch's life tell the greater story of the Jacksonian Era and catch the attention of Jackson himself? The answers to all that and more are right here in Rivers Langley's expertly crafted story, as told to Ben and Narado Moore.   Rivers Langley is a Los Angeles-based comic, host of The Goods from the Woods podcast, and a scriptwriter for The Dollop. Links to Ben's appearances on TGFTW below.   Narado Moore is a Birmingham-based standup comic, host of the Uncle Rod's Story Corner podcast and co-host of Roy's Job Fair with Roy Wood Jr.   The story of Sam Patch, as told to Ben and Narado Moore was recorded in December, 2021 and originally aired as part of Goods From the Woods #310 "Sam Patch: America's First Daredevil w/ Ben Sawyer & Narado Moore. This episode includes a new introduction/conversation with Rivers Langley about Patch's place in history and how we can see his story in American life today. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.   Links:   "Confederate Submarine HL Hunley: A Terrible Idea w/ Ben Sawyer" from Goods From the Woods #203.   "The Destruction of the Georgia Guidestones w/ Ben Sawyer" clip from GFTW #337   "A Tour Guide's History of Los Angeles w/ Rivers Langley" RTN #202 – Spotify - Apple

Patricia O'Toole's The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made (Simon & Schuster, 2018) examines the life of a President whose policy was guided by his personal sense of morality. From today's perspective, Woodrow Wilson's time in the White House (1913-1921) seems full of contradictions. He supported a constitutional amendment to ensure women's suffrage, but oversaw the re-segregation of America's civil service. He championed national self-determination for the people of Europe, but readily deployed US soldiers to intervene in Latin America. And he won re-election with the slogan "He Kept Us Out Of War," yet called for America's entry into World War I just a little over a month after his second inauguration. In spite this, O'Toole says that a close examination of Wilson's thought and policy reveals a consistent world view that binds these seemingly contradictory actions together.   Patricia O'Toole is the author of five books, including The Five of Hearts: An Intimate Portrait of Henry Adams (Simon & Schuster, 2006), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She previously taught in the School of the Arts at Columbia University was a fellow of the Society of American Historians.   This is a rebroadcast of RTN #93 which originally aired on April 30, 2018. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

On July 4th, we celebrate American Independence. But, as Ben argues in his new intro to this episode, the real gift of the founding generation was more than that: it's the inheritance of the revolution.   George Washington is one of the most revered figures in American history. As Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, Washington led his troops to one of the most unlikely and world-shaking victories in modern history, and his selection as President of both the Constitutional Convention and the new government designed that summer in Philadelphia, demonstrate the unmatched faith that the founders had in General Washington. Today, however, we tend to remember Washington more for the jobs he held than for the personal qualities that made him a remarkable member of the founding generation, but the wisdom left to us by our first President in his farewell address is perhaps more relevant today than ever before. In this episode of The Road to Now we explain why in our discussion with Daily Beast editor-in-chief John Avlon about his book Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations.    Our conversation with John Avlon originally aired as RTN #48 which originally aired on March 13, 2017. This episode includes an updated intro reflecting on the American Revolution by Ben Sawyer, recorded July 1, 2024. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

In 1866, the Fenian Brotherhood, comprised primarily of Irish Civil War veterans, led a series of attacks on Canadian provinces just across the border from the United States. Their goal: seize Canadian territory and exchange it for Irish independence. Similar raids continued until 1871, and although they were ultimately unsuccessful, they are part of a greater story of the American Civil War, Irish Independence, and trans-Atlantic immigration to the United States in the mid-19th Century. In this episode, Bob & Ben speak with Christopher Klein about his book When the Irish Invaded America: The Incredible True Story of the Civil War Veterans Who Fought for Ireland's Freedom (Doubleday, 2019). Christopher Klein is an author and freelance writer specializing in history. He writes stories about the past that inform us about the present and guide us to the future. He is the author of four books, including Strong Boy: The Life and Times of John L. Sullivan, America's First Sports Hero, and a frequent contributor to history.com and many other media outlets. This is a rebroadcast of RTN #125, which originally aired on March 18, 2019. This version was completely reedited using Adobe's Enhanced Speech software by Ben Sawyer.

The American Civil War and the end of slavery in the US may seem like one and the same from our modern perspective, but for those living through the conflict, the abolition of human bondage was anything but certain. Even into the last days of the war, slave traders in Confederate-held cities continued to auction off human beings, realizing handsome profits as they imposed violence and family separation on their subjects. In his new book, An Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South, Robert K.D. Colby brings together a wide variety of sources to offer up a never-before seen look into the slave trade during the American Civil War. In this episode, he joins Ben and guest co-host Tim Talbott to explain how the slave trade evolved, why slave traders remained confident in the future of slavery even during the Civil War, and how the combined trauma of slavery and war impacted enslaved Americans long after their freedom had been secured. Robert K.D. Colby is Assistant Professor of History at Ole Miss who specializes in the Civil War and the history of slavery. His newest book, An Unholy Traffic was published by Oxford University Press in April 2024 and is available in both print and audiobook. Tim Talbott is the Chief Administrative Officer for the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust in Fredericksburg, Virginia and founding member and President of the Battle of New Market Heights Memorial and Education Association. Tim holds a MA in Public History from Appalachian State University, where Ben had the great fortune to study alongside him. Relevant Links: ·      The Smithsonian Digital Volunteers Transcription Center website ·      RTN Episode 270: Women & American Slavery w/ Stephanie E. Jones Rogers ·      RTN Episode 117: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism w/ Edward Baptist   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

In 2002, Ashley Capps took a gamble- he rented hundreds of acres in rural Tennessee and put on a music festival. Coming on the heels of the infamous Lollapalooza '99 and an unsuccessful festival at the same site two years earlier, few thought Ashley could pull it off. As you (and the 80,000 people who attended the festival this year) know, Ashley and his partners proved the doubters wrong and created one of the most iconic festivals in modern America. Bob and Ben caught up with Ashley Capps back stage at Bonnaroo to talk about the history of the Bonnaroo Music Festival, how Ashley selected Manchester, TN, and the changes in the live music industry that have happened since he began working in live music decades ago. He also shares his insight on building the relationships that make a major festival sustainable. Bob also shares his experiences playing Bonnaroo with the Avett Brothers from the small stage in 2006 to the main stage in 2019. This episode was recorded live at Bonnaroo on Friday, June 14, 2019 and originally aired as episode #133. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

In this episode, music writer Michaelangelo Matos joins Bob and Ben to discuss why 1984 was a pivotal year in music history. Michaelangelo also shares why he loves books about a single year.   Michaelangelos' book, Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year (Hachette Books) was selected as a Rolling Stone-Kirkus Best Music Book of 2020. You can follow him on substack at @michaelangelomatos.   Love a good trivia night? Want to support The Road to Now? You can do both at the same time by joining us for RTN Patreon Trivia! The next round will be in the last full week of June so let us know your availability by Fri. June 7 and then look for the schedule on our Patreon page on Monday, June 10. We look forward to seeing you there!   This episode is a rebroadcast of RTN #230, which originally aired on April 11, 2022. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.    

We guarantee you will feel better after listening to the Road to Now this week. We are joined by world-renowned soprano and arts/health advocate Renée Fleming and neuroscientist, cognitive psychologist and the best sell author of This is Your Brain on Music, Dan Levitin. We are discussing Renée's new book Music and Mind about how to harness the arts to improve health and wellness. The book is a collection of essays from leading Doctors, scientists, researchers, as well as artists Yo-Yo-Ma, Rhiannon Giddens, and Rosanne Cash. Renée and Dan join Bob to discuss the history of the study of what happens to our brains when we are listening to or even thinking about music. Our guests also discuss how music and art are being used in therapy for certain illnesses and conditions and how they might effective treatments for other conditions. This is an episode you don't want to miss!   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

This fall, the musical Swept Away, which is based on the music of Bob Crawford's band The Avett Brothers is coming to broadway, and to celebrate, we're re-sharing our conversation with writer, John Logan, and lead actor, John Gallagher Jr.   This conversation was recorded just after Swept Away premiered at the Berkeley Repertory Theater in Berkeley, CA in January 2022, and when you hear the passion from the folks who brought the musical to life, you'll understand why the show has been such a great success (and why you should go see it).   John Logan is Swept Away's writer whose previous credits include Any Given Sunday, Skyfall, & Red.    John Gallagher Jr. is Swept Away's lead actor who previously starred in American Idiot & The Newsroom.   Learn more about the musical at sweptawaymusical.com and by following @sweptawaymusical on Instagram.    Click here to hear John Gallagher Jr. performing "The Once and Future Carpenter" from Swept Away.   This episode originally aired as RTN #219 on January 17, 2022. Original editing by Gary Fletcher. Rebroadcast editing by Ben Sawyer.

Jon Grinspan has done something remarkable: in his new book, Wide Awake, he tells a thoroughly researched and brilliantly crafted story that may change your understanding of the origins of the American Civil War. In this episode, Jon joins us for a conversation about the Wide Awakes, the anti-slavery youth movement that played an instrumental role in electing Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and took part in some of the first acts of violence between pro and anti-slavery Americans in 1861. Jon also discusses the ways that the past and present interact in powerful ways, and how politics can evolve, step-by-step, into violence.   To quote Jon's recent article in The Smithsonian: "The most consequential political organization in American history….began when a few working-class kids designed a costume, which grew into a movement and ultimately an army. And it ended with a civil war."   Dr. Jon Grinspan is a curator of political and military history at the National Museum of American History. His book Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force that Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War is out May 14, 2024 from Bloomsbury Press. Click here to order your copy!   You can hear Jon's previous appearance on The Road to Now in episode #220 Processing the Past w/ John Grinspan.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

You might know Bushwick Bill as a member of the iconic Houston rap group The Geto Boys, but his contributions to rap music, his role in the debates over free speech in the 1990s, and his overall influence are far more substantial than you probably realize. In this episode, we welcome Charles Hughes back to the show to discuss his new book Why Bushwick Bill Matters (Univ. of Texas Press) and to get a better understanding of the challenges and triumphs that shaped one of rap history's most influential artists.   Dr. Charles Hughes is the Director of the Lynne and Henry Turley Memphis Center at Rhodes College. His previous books include  Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South which Rolling Stone named one of the Best Music Books of 2015. You can hear our previous conversation with Charles in episode #25 The History of Country and Soul Music in the American South w/ Charles Hughes. You can follow Charles on twitter at @CharlesLHughes2.   This episode is a rebroadcast of RTN #242, which originally aired on July 25, 2022. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Jonah Goldberg is one of America's most well-known conservative intellectuals, with a resume that includes more than two decades at The National Review, twelve years as a commentator on Fox News, and two New York Times Bestsellers. In recent years, however, the changing definition of "conservative" in American politics has put Jonah at odds with the party that they once called home. In this episode, recorded live at Word of South Festival in Tallahassee, Florida, Jonah joins Ben & Bob for a discussion that ranges from the history and politics of the Supreme Court, to the Constitutional Convention, to the reasons that Jonah thinks that journalists should avoid becoming friends with politicians. We also discuss Jonah's reasons for leaving Fox News after more than a decade as a Fox contributor, as well as his decisions to co-found The Dispatch and join the team at CNN.   To hear more from Jonah Goldberg, check out his podcast, The Remnant, or pick up a copy of Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy. You can also find out more about his work and speaking engagements at his website, JonahGoldberg.com.   This episode was recorded live at Word of South Festival on April 27, 2024. Ben & Bob would like to give special thanks to WOS founder Mark Mustian and the other WOS organizers for the invitation, to Rick & Linda Hyson for the hospitality during our stay in Tallahassee, and to Florida State University for sponsoring the event! An extended version of this conversation, which includes more than 20 minutes of additional conversation is available to our supporters on Patreon. Click here to listen to the extended episode! Thanks to our Patrons for keeping the show going! This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Can learning the skills required to do good history serve as an antidote to conspiracy theory? Cathy Gorn & Don Wildman think so, and in this episode they join us to discuss their work to teach those skills in the 6th-12th grade classroom through National History Day, a program that reaches more than half a million students and tens of thousands of teachers each year. We agree with them and think National History Day is an American treasure, so we hope you enjoy this conversation about what goes into creating good history, how we can better teach that to the public, and how your kids can get involved in National History Day.   Click here to learn more about National History Day programs for students & teachers.   Dr. Cathy Gorn has spent more than four decades working with National History Day and currently serves as NHD's Executive Director.   Don Wildman is a podcast & documentary host whose projects include Mysteries at the Museum (Travel Channel) & the podcast American History Hit. He currently serves as Co-Chair of National History Day's Development Committee.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Ben and Bob are heading to Tallahassee on April 27 for a live recording at Word of South Festival and the show is free! Click here for details. The Harlem Globetrotters are one of those great parts of American culture that almost everyone knows and loves. For most of us today, the Globetrotters are outstanding entertainers. But did you know that in the mid-20th century the Globetrotters were probably the single best basketball team on the planet? Did you know that they did travel the globe as agents of the US Department of State during the Cold War, but that they are not, in fact, from Harlem? If you want to know how all of this happened (and how the Globetrotters saved the NBA), you're going to love this interview with historian Ben Green on the History of the Harlem Globetrotters. Ben Green is the author of Spinning the Globe: The Rise, Fall and Return to Greatness of the Harlem Globetrotters. This is a rebroadcast of RTN #56, which originally aired on May 1, 2017. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

The election of 2016 was a lot of things. It was a showdown between two candidates who had been household names for decades. It was the second time in five elections where the winning candidate lost the popular vote. And, most relevant here, it was eight years ago and one of the candidates in that election is running again in 2024, so we've still got a long time before we can see the full impact it had on US history. For now though, we can say that the narrow margin by which Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton has already cast third parties- both candidates and outside actors- as central characters in the narrative of 2016. Did Jill Stein's Green Party run hand the election to Donald Trump, as some Clinton supporters claim? Is it true that Russia "hacked the election?" Or did the Democratic National Committee's advocacy for Hillary Clinton deny the party a winning candidate. Let's try to find out.   Welcome to the final installment of The Road to Now's Third Party Series. Today: the election of 2016 and ever after w/ John Heilemann.   John Heileman is a journalist and national affairs analyst for NBC News & MSNBC. You can hear him weekly on his podcast Hell & High Water w/ John Heilemann.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Hear the extended version of this episode by supporting The Road to Now on Patreon! Click here to join.   On December 13, 2000, Democratic Candidate Al Gore conceded that year's Presidential Election to Republican George W. Bush. Gore's concession speech marked a dramatic conclusion to an election that had been contested for more than a month, with partisans from both major parties flocking to Florida to recount ballots in hopes that the few hundred votes that separated the candidates would fall in their favor. Ultimately, however, the final decision on the election came from the Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 to stop the recount, handing Florida's 25 electoral votes, and thus the Presidency, to George W. Bush who carried the state with just 537 more votes than Gore.   The election of 2000 was unusual in several ways. It was the first time an election was decided by a Supreme Court ruling. It was the first election since 1888 in which the winner of the popular vote lost the election. And despite the dramatic scenes that came out of those days between the election and Gore's concession, and the many passionate criticisms leveled by Democrats- that the electoral college was undemocratic, that the Supreme Court had usurped the election, that voters for Ralph Nader and other third party candidates had handed the election to Bush- few critics pointed to the fact that only 50.3% of eligible voters showed up to the polls- the second lowest turnout in American history.   Why was the election of 2000 so uninteresting to so many voters? Why did the Supreme Court decide to intervene in the election, and was it a case of judicial overreach, as so many critics claimed? And in the end, is it fair to say that those who voted for Nader and other third party candidates were the deciding factor in the election? Let's find out.   Welcome to the Road to Now's Third Party Election Series. Today, part 7: The election of 2000 w/ Doug Heye.   Doug Heye is a political commentator who previously served as Communications Director for the Republican National Committee and Deputy Chief of Staff for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. You can follow him on twitter at @DougHeye.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.    

In 1992, President George Bush's bid for a second term did not go well. Despite taking 79% of the electoral vote in 1988, holding office during the collapse of communism in Europe, and serving as commander-in-chief during the US victory in the first Iraq War, Bush found himself flanked by a smooth talking former Arkansas governor and a Texas businessman armed with a personal fortune and a lot of charts. When it was all over, Bush had garnered about ten million fewer votes than he had four years earlier and a 12-year run of Republican Presidents was over.   How did Bill Clinton manage to beat an incumbent President by so much? Was third-party contender Ross Perot responsible for Bush's catastrophic loss in 1992, or was it really, as Clinton's people claimed, "the economy, stupid?" And why did Perot, who at one point looked to be a viable contender, decide to drop out of the race, only to rejoin a few weeks before the election? Let's find out.   Welcome to the Road to Now's Third Party Election Series. Today: The election of 1992 with Julian Zelizer.   Julian Zelizer is Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs, Princeton School of Public & International Affairs at Princeton University. He is the award-winning author and editor of 25 books including The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society, the winner of the D.B. Hardeman Prize for the Best Book on Congress and Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974, co-authored and Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, The Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.  

On November 4, 1980, California Republican Ronald Reagan trounced Jimmy Carter at the polls, beating the incumbent by almost 10 percentage points in the popular election and winning 489 of 538 electors. That type of victory combined with Reagan's larger than life place in modern political history might lead you to believe the 1980 campaign was never in doubt. But it was. And in early 1980, both men faced viable challengers within their own party, as well as a third party candidate whose 5.7 million popular votes could have changed the outcome of a closer election. The Presidential election of 1980 was not just a turning point- it was, in fact, far more interesting than most people give it credit for.   Why did Ted Kennedy decide to challenge the sitting President in the Democratic Primary? How did George Bush win 3 of the first seven GOP primaries against the presumed nominee? And why, as his party's fortunes looked the best they had in years, did Republican hopeful John B. Anderson of Illinois decide to leave the GOP to run a third party campaign? Let's find out.   Welcome to The Road to Now's Third Party Elections Series. Today: The election of 1980 with Rick Perlstein.   Rick Perlstein is the author of multiple award-winning books, including Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (2009) and Reaganland: America's Right Turn, 1976-1980 (2021). You can hear Rick discussing Reaganland in his previous appearance on The Road to Now in episode #199   You can get an extended version of this conversation, extra episodes and more by supporting us on Patreon! Click here for the extended episode!   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

The famous image of a victorious Harry Truman holding up a newspaper headlined "Dewey defeats Truman" is clear evidence that the 1948 Presidential election did not turn out the way many people had expected. That April, Truman's approval rating had sunk to 37%, causing even many in his party to consider dumping him from the ballot. That summer, a rebellion by southern Democrats led by South Carolina segregationist Strom Thurmond promised to deny Truman electoral votes that his Democratic predecessors could have counted on for a century. Yet, despite all this, Truman didn't just win, he won big- finishing 4.5 points and 114 electoral votes ahead of Dewey.   How did Truman manage to turn it all around in six months? Who was Thomas E. Dewey and why couldn't he deliver a win with the wind blowing so hard at his back? And what did southern democrats hope they'd get by giving 39 electoral votes to Strom Thurmond even when he had no chance of winning the national election? Let's find out.   In the fourth installment of our Third Party Elections Series, we talk the election of 1948 w/ Jefferson Cowie.   Dr. Jefferson Cowie is James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. His most recent book, Freedom's Dominion, A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books) was awarded the 20203 Pulitzer Prize in History. You can hear Jeff discussing Freedom's Dominion in RTN #255 and his other episodes on the 1970s (#115) and The New Deal and its Legacy (#24).     This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

The Presidential election of 1912 was an unusual moment in American history. It featured an embattled incumbent President facing criticism from his former allies. It offered voters a choice between the sitting President and his predecessor. And when it was all done, the two men who had previously won the Presidency found themselves bested by a college professor with just a few years of experience in politics.   So why did the predecessor, Teddy Roosevelt, become so critical of the incumbent, William Howard Taft, that he decided to break away from the Republican party to run against him? Why did the Democrats pick relative newcomer Woodrow Wilson to be their Presidential Candidate ? And is 1912 an example of how a third-party candidate can spoil an election? Let's find out.   Welcome to The Road To Now's Third Party Elections Series. Today: Part 3- The Election of 1912 with Michael Cullinane.   Dr. Michael Patrick Cullinane is Lowman Walton Chair of Theodore Roosevelt Studies at Dickinson State University and the author of multiple books, including Theodore Roosevelt's Ghost: The History and Memory of an American Icon (LSU Press, 2017). You can also hear him on his bi-weekly podcast The Gilded Age and Progressive Era, available anywhere you get The Road to Now.   If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to check out our previous episodes in this series: -#1 The Election of 1824 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky -#2 The Election of 1860 w/ Michael Green   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

The Presidential election of 1860 is one we Americans know well. That election sent  Abraham Lincoln to the White House, southern enslavers to the exit door, and the United States into a bloody Civil War. Lincoln's leadership in those years and his tragic assassination in the last days of the war propelled the railsplitter into the pantheon of American Presidents. But sometimes we forget that just a few months before the election, Lincoln looked like a long shot. His experience at the federal level amounted to one term in the House of Representatives. His Republican Party, founded in 1854, was only running its second Presidential campaign. And even in victory, Lincoln's share of the popular vote fell just short of 40%. How did Abraham Lincoln win a resounding victory in the electoral college with a minority of the popular vote? Why did the Democratic Party, which had dominated politics in the previous decade, lose to an upstart rival? And why, in the midst of a fierce battle over American slavery that ultimately broke the country apart, did John Bell – a third party candidate that you've probably never heard of – have a reasonable chance of winning the  Presidency by skirting the issue all together? Let's find out. Welcome to The Road To Now's Third Party Elections Series. Today: Part 2- The Election of 1860 with Michael Green. Dr. Michael Green is Associate Professor of History at UNLV and the author of multiple  books on the politics of mid 19th century America, including Lincoln and the Election of 1860 (Southern Illinois University Press, 2011). This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

The Election of 1824 was a turning point in American history. Long before the fall of 1824, Americans understood that the winner would be the first in America's second generation to hold the Presidency. When the election began, all four viable candidates were technically from the same party. By the time it was over, the election had generated the rivalries and passions that formed the groundwork for a new national party system.   How did Andrew Jackson win the most votes in the electoral college and still lose the election? How did John Quincy Adams win the Presidency but ultimately lose the country? And was it all due to a "corrupt bargain" as some critics alleged, or is there more to the story? Let's find out.   Welcome to The Road To Now's Third Party Elections Series. Today: Part 1- The Election of 1824 with Lindsay Chervinsky.   Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky is author of The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution (Harvard University Press, 2020). Check out her previous appearances on The Road to Now discussing the President's Cabinet (#184) and how Americans have mourned Presidents throughout history (#263).   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

The inalienable right to "the pursuit of happiness" is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, but what exactly does that phrase mean? While Americans today may associate it with the right to own land, opulence or some other act of acquisition, many prominent founders understood it to mean something quite different. In this episode National Constitution Center President & CEO Jeffrey Rosen returns to the show to give us the full story and discuss his new book The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America.  The Pursuit of Happiness will be available on February 13 via all major publishers. Click here to pre-order your copy, find out more about the book, and see Jeffrey Rosen's upcoming speaking engagements. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to check out Jeffrey's previous appearance on our show in The Road to Now #211, The Constitution w/ Jeffrey Rosen.   Highlighted Resources from the National Constitution Center –The Interactive Constitution (also available as an app in the apple and android app stores) –We The People with Jeffrey Rosen podcast (available anywhere you get The Road to Now) –Educational Video Series If you're in Philadelphia, you can visit the National Constitution Center, which is located just steps from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Click here to plan your visit! This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.  

One episode. Two historians/podcasters. Four stories from American history that you've probably never heard. And an unknown number of listeners that we hope will find these stories as fascinating and surprising as we do.   Greg Jackson is the creator of History That Doesn't Suck and a Professor at Utah Valley University. Ben Sawyer hosts this podcast and has been teaching history at the university level for over a decade and a half. You might think that at this point they've heard it all, but when you keep digging into history, it just keeps surprising you. In this episode, Greg and Ben each share two stories that they discovered in the last year that they found to be the most fascinating. Enjoy!   This is a rebroadcast of The Road to Now #239, which originally aired on June 27, 2022. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

The FBI has been the subject of criticism and concern since it was founded in 1908, but it has nevertheless become one of the most powerful, stable, and mythologized branches of the Executive Branch of the US government. In this episode, Steve Underhill joins us to discuss the origins of the FBI, the role J. Edgar Hoover played in making the modern Brueau, and how that greater history of the FBI can help us understand how they've approached their seizure of documents from Mar-a-Lago and the subsequent attack from Donald Trump. Dr. Stephen M. Underhill is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Studies at Marshall University, where he studies the rhetoric of law enforcement. His book The Manufacture of Consent: J. Edgar Hoover and the Rhetorical Rise of the FBI was published in 2020. This is a rebroadcast of RTN #247, which originally aired on September 19, 2022. The original episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. This reair was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Stephen Foster was America's first great published musician. He wrote some of America's great folk songs, including "Oh, Suzanna," "Camptown Races" and "Hard Times Come Again No More," and his music was the inspiration for Paul Green's play "The Stephen Foster Story," which is performed every summer in Bardstown, Kentucky. In this episode we speak with two of the artists involved in that play- Donna Phillips and Johnny Warren- as well as My Kentucky Old Kentucky Home State Park Mansion Supervisor, Richard Blanton, to learn more about Foster's life, their work in preserving his memory, and how it all can help us understand our past.   If you're traveling through Kentucky, make sure to check out dates for "The Stephen Foster Story" and visit My Old Kentucky Home Mansion!   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Ben & Bob kick off the new year with a conversation over some current events, including the history of New Year's Resolutions (and why Bob doesn't make them) and the 14th Amendment, and Ben shares what he learned about North Carolina history during his holiday road trip from Nashville, TN to Concord, NC to visit his family. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.   Relevant links: -"Swept Away w/ John Logan & John Gallagher Jr." The Road to Now #219       -on Apple podcasts       -on Spotify -John Pierce, "The Reasons for Secession: A Documentary Study," from American Battlefield Trust (Battlefields.org), Updated October 3, 2023. -"The Disqualification Clause," What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law, episode 78, December 12, 2023. -Robert Harrell (the Fort Fisher Hermit) at Wikipedia.org.

Dr. Eric Smoodin, film historian at the University of California- Davis and author of Regarding Frank Capra: Audience, Celebrity and American Film Studies, 1930-1960, joins Bob and Ben for the history of the people, the industry, and law that made Frank Capra's 1946 film It's A Wonderful Life into one of America's quintessential Christmas films. Ben & Bob are taking a few weeks off for the holidays- we'll be back with all new episodes on January 8! This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

The suburbs have long been a symbol of American prosperity in the post-WWII era. Yet the contrast between suburban wealth and "inner city" poverty overlooks the stories of those living in suburbia who were unable to reach "the good life." In this episode Ben & Bob talk with Tim Keogh, whose new book In Levittown's Shadow: Poverty in America's Wealthiest Suburb (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2023), explores the history of suburbanization in Long Island, New York, and argues that post-WWII prosperity relied on those impoverished suburbanites who we've since forgotten.   Dr. Tim Keogh is assistant professor of history at Queensborough Community College, part of the City University of New York.   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

As the person responsible for documenting the Obama Administration, Pete Souza spent more time with Barack Obama than almost anyone else, which left him with some deep in sights on Obama and the office of the Presidency. In this episode, Pete joins Bob for a conversation about his work as Chief Official White House Photographer, the state of American politics, and the power of photography. Pete's most recent book, Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents (Little, Brown, & Co, 2018) uses photography to contrast the stark differences between the Presidency of Barack Obama and that of Donald Trump.   If you enjoy this conversation, make sure to check out Pete's other appearances on the show in episodes #251 & #151.   This is a rebroadcast of RTN #131, which originally aired on June 3, 2019. The original episode was edited by Gary Fletcher and Bob Crawford; this rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.    

Faith has played an important role in American history, but not always in the ways we'd expect. In this episode, Andy Polk joins Bob and Ben to explain how politicians, advertising executives and public relations experts bypassed America's religious leaders, ignored theological debates, and dismissed historical evidence to fabricate and sell a story of America's religious origins that served their own political needs. That story remains with us today so, to quote the title of Andy's op-ed in The Tennessean: "When you hear 'In God We Trust', pay attention to what comes next."   Dr. Andrew R. Polk is Associate Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University and the author of the new book, Faith In Freedom: Propaganda, Presidential Politics, and the Making of an American Religion (Cornell University Press, December 2021).   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.   This is a rebroadcast of RTN #216, which originally aired on December 13, 2021. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.    

Bob welcomes Mark McKinnon for an exit interview about his work as co-producer and co-host of The Circus. Showtime announced last week that after eight seasons and 130 episodes this would be the final season of the political docuseries.   Mark reflects on chronicling American political history as it happened from 2016 to 2023, during a turbulent period in American history that includes the rise of Donald Trump's MAGA movement, a once in a century pandemic, and the largest war in Europe since WWII.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Monsanto's Past, Our Future w/ Bart Elmore   The Monsanto Company officially ceased to exist when it was acquired by Bayer in 2018, but its legacy lives on in courtrooms, factory towns and farms across the globe. Today the company's name is most associated with the herbicide Roundup and genetically modified seeds, but Monsanto also served as a leading producer of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, an essential supplier of caffeine and saccharin to Coca-Cola in Coke's early years, and the sole US producer of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs). In short, Monsanto's history is one that will continue to shape the US well into the future.   In this episode, Bart Elmore joins Bob and Ben to talk about his new book Seed Money: Monsanto's Past and Our Future (W.W. Norton, 2021), and how a small midwestern company founded in 1901 became an agricultural powerhouse by selling solutions to the problems it helped to create.    Dr. Bartow Elmore is Associate Professor of History at The Ohio State University where he specializes in Global Environmental History and the History of Capitalism. He is also the author of the award-winning book Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism (W. W. Norton, 2015). You can follow him on twitter at @BartElmore.   You can hear Bart's other appearances on The Road To Now in episode #140:  Citizen Coke: The History of Coca-Cola w/ Bartow Elmore and #277: Country Capitalism w/ Bartow Elmore.   This is a fully re-edited and audio-enhanced rebroadcast of RTN Episode 208, which originally aired on September 27, 2021. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Two things you probably don't know: 1) your favorite museum probably holds human remains and 2) it's completely legal to sell human bones on the internet. Not surprisingly, those two things have caused a lot of controversy. In this episode, Tanya Marsh joins Ben for a conversation about recent developments in the legal-social-political nexus of dead bodies; the controversy surrounding the acquisition and treatment of human remains in American museums and what we'll simply call "the Harvard morgue case."   Tanya Marsh is Professor of Law at Wake Forest University, where she specializes in the law of human remains. She is the author of The Law of Human Remains (2015) and co-author (with Daniel Gibson) of Cemetery Law: The Common Law of Burying Grounds in the United States (2015).   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.   Articles mentioned in this episode: Zachary Small, "Facing Scrutiny, a Museum That Holds 12,000 Human Remains Changes Course," New York Times, Oct. 15, 2023.   Alyssa Shotwell, "Activists Took Over Museum After Victims' Bodies of the 1985 Philadelphia Bombing Found," The Mary Sue, Sept. 15, 2023.   Abby Patkin, "Group indicted for allegedly stealing and selling body parts from Harvard morgue," Boston.com, June 15, 2023.   Tanya Marsh, "Is it Illegal to Sell Human Remains," The Conversation, June 30, 2023.      

When Vladimir Putin ordered Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, he and many others assumed that Russia's "special operation" would end in a quick victory. Eighteen months later, an independent Ukraine stands strong, while Russia's position has grown so weak that Putin has begun working to develop closer ties with North Korea's Kim Jong Un. Why has Ukraine been so resilient, and why has Putin remained committed to a war that has done so much damage to Russia? The answer has everything to do with the ways those on both sides of the conflict understand history.   In this episode, historian Serhy Yekelchyk joins Ben to discuss the history of Russia and Ukraine, and how understanding the war on the battlefield requires understanding the conflicting historical narratives embraced by those on both sides.   Dr. Serhy Yekelchyk is Professor of History and Slavic Studies at the University of Victoria. A native of Kiev, Serhy has published extensively on Ukranian history, including The Conflict in Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 2020) and Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation (Oxford University Press, 2007).   We'd like to give a special thanks to the Strickland family for establishing the Strickland Distinguished Lecture Series at Middle Tennessee State University, which brought Dr. Yekelchyk to MTSU's campus, and to Emily Baran and Lynn Nelson for their help in arranging this recording.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.  

FBI agent Robert Hanssen was one of the most damaging spies in US history. From 1979 to 2001, Hanssen delivered some of the United States governments' most sensitive secrets to Soviet and Russian agents, who used them to not only undermine US national security, but to identify and execute individuals who were working with the FBI. And despite an awareness of spies working within the FBI, Hanssen managed to operate for more than two decades before finally getting caught.   In this episode we speak with CBS News' Major Garrett, whose new podcast Agent of Betrayal: The Double Life of Robert Hanssen, explores Hanssen's decision to spy on the US and how he managed to operate for so long without being caught. A thoroughly researched history with all the turns of a great true crime podcast, we think you'll enjoy Agent of Betrayal, available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

From its founding in 1970, Rounder Records was different. What started as the passion project for three New England music lovers who wanted to preserve and proselytize folk and roots music, eventually grew into a record label with an eclectic catalogue featuring long-forgotten bands, promising musicians such as George Thorogood and Allison Krauss, and even an album just called "Hollerin'" (which is exactly what it says it is). Along the way, Rounder Records became indispensable in transforming American folk music. In this episode, we learn more about the history of Rounder Records from music historian David Menconi, author of the new book Oh, Didn't They Ramble: Rounder Records and the Transformation of American Roots Music (UNC Press, 2023).   You can hear David Menconi's playlist of key tracks from the Rounder catalogue on Spotify by clicking here.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

In the late 18th century, tens of millions of buffalo lived in North America. By the mid-1880s, they were on the brink of extinction. For the white settlers who sought to "conquer" the American west, and the Native people whose way of life depended on them, the plight of the American Buffalo was more than a story of one species of animal. As Dayton Duncan writes in the prologue of his new book Blood Memory,  the buffalo has "emerged as an embodiment of the nation's contradictory relationship with the natural world: venerated and mercilessly destroyed, a symbol of both a romanticized frontier and the callous conquest of a continent." In this episode, Dayton joins us for a conversation about the Buffalo (aka American Bison) and how the story of one animal can tell us so much about American history.   Dayton Duncan is an Emmy award-winning writer whose most recent collaborations with filmmaker Ken Burns are the book Blood Memory: The Tragic Decline and Improbable Resurrection of the American Buffalo (Alfred A. Knopf, 2023) and the new documentary The American Buffalo, which premieres on your local PBS station on Monday, October 16, 2023 (check your local listings).   If you enjoyed this episode, check out our previous conversation with Dayton Duncan in RTN #229 on Benjamin Franklin.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

What is Americana music? Is it a genre? A community? A refuge? Twenty four years after the founding of the Americana Music Association and thirteen years since the first Grammy was awarded for Best Americana Album, defining "Americana" remains tricky. In our experience, the most common answer has been "you know it when you hear it."   However you define it, however, there is one thing everyone agrees on: Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell are Americana legends.   In this episode, recorded in front of a live audience in Nashville, TN, Emmylou and Rodney discuss their musical careers, how they became associated with Americana music, and what Americana means to them. Bob too shares his musical journey both before and after joining the Avett Brothers and the ways that genre (Americana and otherwise) has been part of that story.   Bob, Gary and I would like to thank Paul Lohr at New Frontier Touring for helping us get such incredible guests for the show, Adam Botner at Riverside Revival for making both the live show and the audio on this episode sound so good, Austin Sawyer of Drumming Bird & Annie DiRusso for opening the show with their incredible talent, and everyone who came out to make this such a special night.   We'd also like to give a special thanks to Jefferson Cowie for helping us prepare for the show.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. Live audio recording and mixing by Adam Botner.  

Although he passed away a decade ago, Levon Helm is still the voice of Americana music. Always will be, in my opinion. Levon was drummer for The Band, collaborator with Bob Dylan, actor, husband, father, and friend. In his new book, Levon Helm: Rock, Roll, Ramble, author John Barry gives a first-hand account of Levon's struggles with cancer and financial ruin that led to the legendary Midnight Rambles concerts at his home in Woodstock, New York. On this episode of the Road to Now, Bob celebrates the life of Levon Helm with John, and musician and producer Larry Campbell who has worked with Levon, as well as Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow, K.D. Lang, and Willie Nelson..­ This is a rebroadcast of RTN #250, which originally aired on October 22, 2022. This rebroadcast was edited by Otto Schroth.

Jason Thomas Gordon spent nearly a decade interviewing some of the greatest vocalists in modern music to find out about their earliest experiences singing, the voices that influenced them growing up, and how they learned to find their own unique voice. In his new book, The Singers Talk: The Greatest Singers of Our Time Discuss the One Thing They're Never Asked About: Their Voices, Jason shares some of the insights from his conversations with more than seventy artists from diverse genres, including Emmylou Harris, Chuck D, Lionel Ritchie, and Ozzy Osbourne, and where they fit within their generation and in the greater history of music. Jason also shares with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which was founded by his grandfather, Danny Thomas. 100% of the royalties from The Singers Talk will go to Music Gives to St. Jude Kids, an organization that Jason created to support St. Jude. Click here to buy the book! This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

The Kinks are one of the great rock bands of the 20th century and, like all artists, they reflect the times and places they've inhabited. In this episode, we speak with Mark Doyle about his excellent book  The Kinks: Songs of the Semi-Detached (Reaktion Books, 2020) and how the band, their origins, and Ray Davies' lyrics reveal a lot about both the real and imagined spaces of mid-20th Century England. Dr. Mark Doyle is Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University, where he specializes in the history of the British Empire. His research and teaching have won him numerous awards including the Stansky Book Prize (co-winner, 2017) and MTSU's Outstanding Teacher Award (2014-15). Ben once described him as "the Patton Oswalt of academic twitter," so we recommend you follow him there at @DrMarkDoyle.   We're excited to announce that Ben & Bob will be recording a live episode of RTN on the history of Americana music in Nashville on September 18, 2023 w/ guests Emmy Lou Harris, Rodney Crowell and Jefferson Cowie! Click here for tickets. Hope to see you there! This is a rebroadcast of the Road to Now #169, which originally aired on April 27, 2020. This version was fully re-cut and edited by Ben Sawyer.

The war between the US Army and the Native American confederation during the war of 1812 is a buried story in an often-overlooked event, yet its impact on the history of North America is profound. The leading figures on both sides of the war, Shawnee Chief Tecumseh and US Army General William Henry Harrison, had come of age in the struggles over what is today called the Midwest United States, and both understood that losing the war would mean losing the future they imagined for their people. In this episode, Ben & Bob do a deep dive on the story behind that war with Peter Stark, author of the incredibly accessible new book, Gallop Toward The Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison's Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation (Random House, 2023). Peter Stark is an adventure and exploration writer and historian who was previously a correspondent for Outside magazine. His previous book, Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America's Founding Father, was named a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize in 2019. You can follow him on Instagram at @peterstark_adventure_historian. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. We're excited to announce that Ben & Bob will be recording a live episode of RTN on the history of Americana music in Nashville on September 18, 2023 w/ guests Emmy Lou Harris, Rodney Crowell and Jefferson Cowie! Click here for tickets. Hope to see you there!

Washington D.C. in the 1850s was a tale of two cities. It was the Capitol city of a rapidly expanding new nation while at the same time ground zero for a politically fractured and divided nation hurtling toward disunion. Standing in the middle of it all was Montgomery C. Meigs, a military engineer who led the construction of two massive public works projects at the same time: the expansion of the Capitol building and an aqueduct to provide water to the residents growing city. Meigs would go on to serve as Quartermaster for the Union Army under Abraham Lincoln. Meigs was an innovator, public servant, and one of the most important patriots of the nineteenth century. This week Bob welcomes author and journalist Robert O'Harrow Jr. to discuss his 2016 book, The Quartermaster: Montgomery C. Meigs, Lincoln's General, Master Builder of the Union Army. For thirty years Robert O'Harrow Jr. was an investigative journalist and contributing writer at The Washington Post and was among the first national journalists to cover cybersecurity. In 2017, he part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of notorious Alabama political Roy Moore. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

The recent changes to Florida's education system have gotten nationwide attention, with similar stories playing out across the US. In this episode, Ben & Bob investigate the nature of these reforms, who is behind them, and how they may impact the students and teachers whose daily lives are directly affected by these changes. They are joined by Ana Goñi-Lessan, a Tallahassee-based journalist who covers the Florida legislature for USA Today and Dr. Andrew Polk, a history professor and former high school teacher who directs the history and social studies education initiatives for the Department of History at Middle Tennessee State University.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher

Ben & Bob have been on the road for most of the summer, so in this episode they catch up to talk about the 100th anniversary of the death of Warren G. Harding, the feedback they got from their conversation on ai, chat gpt and the future of tech w/ Roger McNamee, and their responses to the recent Congressional hearings on UAP (formerly known as UFO) sightings. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. Warren G. Harding Sources: Jordyn Phelps, "Ex-President Warren Harding's Love Child Confirmed Through DNA Testing," ABCNews.com, August 13, 2015. "President Warren Harding's Love Letters Open to the Public," News from the Library of Congress, July 29, 2014. Megan Gambino, "Warren Harding's Love Letters Finally Give Us Something to Remember Him For," Smithsonian.com, August 29, 2014. Daniel McCarthy, "Warren Harding's Read Scandal was his Conservatism," New York Post, August 1, 2023. Bryan Pietsch, "Exhume the Body of Warren G. Harding? A Judge Says that Won't be Necessary," New York Times, Dec. 1, 2020. Jordan Michael Smith, "The Letters that Warren G. Harding's Family Didn't Want You to See," New York Times Magazine, July 7, 2014.

Slavery was an integral part of the American republic from the moment of independence until the abolition of the so-called "peculiar institution" with the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. The social and economic impact of the slave system, however, are much larger in terms of both time and geography. In this episode, Bob and Ben speak with Edward Baptist about slavery's origins, its evolution, and how enslaved people's work laid the foundation for modern capitalism. He also shares stories of the people who suffered under- and those who profited from- the inhumane system of American slavery. Dr. Edward E. Baptist is Professor of History at Cornell University and author of The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism (Basic Books, 2014), which won the 2015 Avery O. Craven Prize from the Organization of American Historians and the 2015 Sidney Hillman Prize. This is an enhanced rebroadcast of RTN #117, which originally aired on January 14, 2019. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

George Carlin had a comedy career that spanned half a century, and his take on the US remains relevant more than a decade after his death in 2008. The new HBO documentary George Carlin's American Dream tells Carlin's story as he evolved from a clean-cut comic in the 1950s into the edgy critic who remains one of the most influential comedians of all time. In this episode, Michael Bonfiglio, who directed the film (along with Judd Apatow) and Kliph Nesteroff, a historian of comedy who is featured in the film, join Bob & Ben for a conversation about the life and times of George Carlin. If you enjoy this episode, check out our previous conversation w/ Michael Bonfiglio in RTN #174 Direction w/ Michael Bonfiglio. This is a rebroadcast of RTN #237. This rebroadcast was edited by Bob Crawford. 

Roger McNamee has spent decades helping American tech companies secure financing. In the last few years, however, he's become well-known for helping American citizens secure themselves against tech companies. After helping convince Mark Zuckerberg to retain control over Facebook, Roger documented social media's role in amplifying social division in his 2019 New York Times Best Seller Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe. Recently he's turned his attention to AI, and he has a warning for us: don't believe the hype. In this conversation Roger joins Bob and Ben to discuss Artificial Intelligence, why he says it's far from the disruptor its proponents have claimed it to be, and how our current assessment of AI actually causes many of the problems that will likely come from this new technology. Roger also shares his solution to better tech regulation, why he's more hopeful about the future of the US than he has been in decades, and his second career in his band Moonalice (click here for music and tour dates).  If you enjoy this conversation, you can hear our uncut conversation, which includes almost 30 minutes of additional audio, but joining us on Patreon at Patreon.com/TheRoadToNow. Already a Patron? Click here to listen to the uncut episode! You can hear our previous conversation w/ Roger in RTN #178 "The Facebook Catastrophe w/ Roger McNamee."  This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

In the years after World War II, Americans moved to the suburbs in search of the peace and safety that many came to equate with the "American Dream." By the end of the 1970s, however, suburbanites had come sense that their privileged was under siege from satanic cults, drug dealers and kidnappers. In this episode, Bob and Ben talk w/ Kyle Riismandel whose new book Neighborhood of Fear examines how Americans responded to the real and perceived threats of suburban life and in doing so, shaped American society and politics in the late-20th Century and beyond. Dr. Kyle Riismandel is Senior University Lecturer and Interim Director of the Law, Technology, and Culture Program in the Federated Department of History at the New Jersey Institute of Technology/Rutgers-Newark and Director of the Graduate Program in American Studies. His book Neighborhood of Fear: The Suburban Crisis in American Culture, 1975-2001 was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2020. This is a rebroadcast of RTN #194, which originally aired on April 12, 2021. This episode was oroginally edited by Gary Fletcher. This reair was edited by Ben Sawyer.  

It's difficult to fathom how Benjamin Franklin accomplished so much in a single lifetime. It's equally difficult to imagine how to take such an incredible life and consolidate it into four hours of documentary film. In this episode, we cover both feats with writer Dayton Duncan and producer David Schmidt, two of the great minds behind Ken Burns' documentary on Benjamin Franklin. Dayton and David discuss Franklin's life, the work that goes into creating a historical documentary film, and their process for deciding the best way to tell an American icon's story in a pair of two-hour episodes. If you enjoy this episode, check out Ben and Bob's conversation with Ken Burns in episode #191. If you want to learn more about American indepenence and the July 4th holiday, check out Ben's curated list on Hark audio! If you want to catch Bob or Ben live, check out The Avett Brothers tour dates here and Ben's standup comedy schedule here! This is a rebroadcast of RTN #229, which originally aired on April 4, 2022. 

The Allman Brothers' 1971 album At Fillmore East features one of the era's great rock bands at its prime, selling over a million copies despite not producing a single "hit" song. It is also the last album produced by the Allman Brothers prior to the death of the band's founder, Duane Allman. In this episode we speak with Bob Beatty, whose new book Play All Night!: Duane Allman and the Journey to Fillmore East, tells the story behind the creation of the album and how the Allman Brothers pioneered a style that continues to influence rock music today. Dr. Bob Beatty is a historian and musician who has worked in museums and nonprofits for more than 25 years. You can follow him on twitter and Instagram at @longlivetheabb. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

John Fea is taking on the history of Christianity and American politics in the 21st century. In three volumes. In this (single) episode, we talk about this tremendous task that John is undertaking and also get his thoughts on why the political Christian right came to feel disappointed in the Bush administration, why they later rallied around Donald Trump, and what this might mean for American politics moving forward. Dr. John Fea is Professor of History at Messiah University & author of multiple books including Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?: A Historical Introduction (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011). He posts regularly on American history, religion, politics, and academic life at his blog, The Way of Improvement Leads Home and hosts the podcast of the same name on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all podcast players. You can also hear him discuss his book Was America Founded as a Christian Nation in episode #222 and Why the 1776 Report Still Matters in episode #188.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Juneteenth, which celebrates the emancipation of enslaved Americans at the end of the Civil War, has gone from a local holiday in Texas to a national day of celebration for many Americans. In this episode we speak with legal scholar and Pulitzer Prize winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed about her new book On Juneteenth and the ways that the holiday, her personal story and the history of the US can help us better understand the world today. Annette Gordon-Reed is Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard University, where she is also the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and a professor of history in the university's Faculty of Arts & Sciences. You can follow her on twitter at @Agordonreed. Update: Since we recorded this episode on June 3, 2021, awareness and celebration of Juneteenth has spread across the country. On June 17th, 2021, President Joe Biden signed legislation that made Juneteenth a federal holiday, and, since 2021, 23 additional states have made Juneteenth an official permanent holiday, bringing the total to 28. This is a rebroadcast of RTN #198, which originally aired on June 7, 2021. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Mark McKinnon is a political advisor, reform advocate, and host of Showtime's The Circus. In this episode he joins Ben & Bob to talk about his work to found the non-partisan group No Labels, which advocates for independent candidates in presidential elections, and what a third-party might mean for the elections of 2024 and beyond.   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

In the last few years, many on the left have been calling for a "Green New Deal," but we might have already had that. Between 1933 and 1942, the Civilian Conservation Corps enlisted more than three million young men in a project that planted two billion trees, slowed soil erosion on forty million acres of farmland, and enjoyed support across political and geographic divides. In this episode we talk with Neil Maher, author of Nature's New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement (Oxford University Press, 2008) about how the CCC helped solidify FDR's New Deal and spread the seeds of environmental activism for generations to come. Dr. Neil Maher is a Professor of History and Master Teacher in the Federated History Department at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University-Newark. He is also the author of Apollo in the Age of Aquarius (Harvard University Press, 2017). You can find out more about his work at NeilMaher.com.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher

It's been seven years since Ben & Bob launched the first episode of The Road to Now, so we invited two of our early guests – Doug Heye & Margaret Talev – to join us for a conversation about how things have changed since 2016 and the events of the preceding years that now appear to be most pivotal in creating those changes. Our conversation covers campaign finance reform, social media and the impact ai is already having on American politics. Doug Heye is a political commentator who previously served as Communications Director for the Republican National Committee and Deputy Chief of Staff for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. You can follow him on twitter at @DougHeye. Margaret Talev is Director of Syracuse University's Institute for Democracy, Journalism & Citizenship and Senior Contributor at Axios. You can follow her on twitter at @MargaretTalev. Enjoy this episode? Join us on Patreon to get the full unedited conversation from this episode and many others. Find out more at Patreon.com/TheRoadToNow. To our Patrons: thank you! This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

The "Amazon economy" seems like something new, but it rests on the physical and intellectual infrastructure built by those who came long before the age of the internet and leaves many of the same marks on the environment. Prominent in this story are five companies- Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, Walmart, Bank of America, and FexEx-  all of which have global reach and southern roots. In this episode, Bart Elmore joins us to talk about his new book Country Capitalism: How Corporations from the American South Remade our Economy and the Planet (UNC Press, 2023), and how understanding the history of American business can help us address the environmental challenges that are undeniably facing humanity today. Dr. Bartow Elmore is Associate Professor of History and a core faculty member of the Sustainability Institute at The Ohio State University. In addition to Country Capitalism, he is also the author of  Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism (W. W. Norton, 2015) and Seed Money: Monsanto's Past and Our Food Future (W. W. Norton, 2021). You can hear his discuss these books in RTN episode 140 and episode 208 respectively. Bart is also a 2022 winner of the Dan David Prize. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.  

Today's Republican party looks a lot different than it did just a few decades ago, but it rests on many of the same organizations and ideologies that formed the modern conservative movement in the 1970s. In this episode, Rick Perlstein joins us for a conversation about his newest book Reaganland: America's Right Turn, 1976-1980 and how Ronald Reagan, Orrin Hatch and other prominent Republicans were able to harness the social and political forces of the 1970s to form the modern GOP. Rick Perlstein is the award-winning author of multiple New York Times bestsellers, including Reaganland (Simon & Schuster, 2020), Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (Scribner, 2009) and Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (Bold Type Books, 2009), as well as a board member at InTheseTimes.com. You can follow him on twitter at @RickPerlstein. In this conversation we also discussed Rick's recent article "This Is Us: Why the Trump Era Ended in Violence," The New Republic, January 20, 2021. This is an edited rebroadcast of RTN #199, which originally aired on June 14, 2021. Both the original episode and this rebroadcast were edited by Gary Fletcher.

In 2021, Neil King Jr. threw a few basic items into a backpack and walked from his home in Washington, DC to New York City. Along the way he met new people, uncovered forgotten moments of history, and spent many days thinking about America. In this episode, Neil joins Ben and Bob to discuss his new book, American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal, and the lessons he learned along the way. Before walking from his house in DC to New York City, Neil King Jr. worked as a journalist for outlets across the globe, including The Tampa Tribune, The Prague Post, and The Wall Street Journal. American Ramble is his first book, but we hope there are many more to come. You can follow Neil on twitter at @NKingofDC. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers' is a historian whose work has shed new light on the roles that women played in American slavery. In this episode, she joins Ben and Bob to share some of the significant findings of her work, the sources she's used to learn more about enslaved people and female slaveowners, and her new project, which reorients our understanding of the British Atlantic slave trade by centering the story on the lives of both free and captive women.  Dr. Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers is Associate Professor of History at the University California, Berkeley and the author of the award-winning book They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South (Yale University Press, 2019). She is also one of the recipients of the 2023 Dan Davis Prize, which recognizes outstanding scholarship that illuminates the past and seeks to anchor public discourse in a deeper understanding of history.  This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

For most of us, dust is a surface-level annoyance. For Anita Radini, it is a fountain of information about the past. In this episode, Anita joins us to share the fascinating new details about the lives of Medieval women that she discovered in the tiny remains of dust that collected in their dental plaque, and how her interdisciplinary work in archaeological science and paleoecology is reshaping the way we understand human history. Dr. Anita Radini is an Assistant Professor at the School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, and a recipient of the 2023 Dan David Prize. The Dan David Prize recognizes outstanding scholarship that illuminates the past and seeks to anchor public discourse in a deeper understanding of history. For more on the prize and the research its funding, visit dandavidprize.org. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

On Thursday, April 13th, the first episode of Bob's new audio documentary Founding Son: John Quincy's America premieres (on all podcast platforms), so Ben & Bob decided to celebrate the occasion by talking Adams' life, his place in American history, and inspiration behind Bob's decision to create the series. Subscribe to Founding Son: Apple Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Or anywhere else you get your podcasts   This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer

On September 11, 2012, al-Qaeda-affiliated militants attacked a US mission in Benghazi, Libya and killed four Americans. That tragic loss of life abroad turned into a political fiasco at home, as the story of the attack became interpreted within the context of a Presidential election and a widening ideological gap between America's two major political parties. In this episode, we speak with Ethan Chorin, who has years of experience on the ground in Libya, was in Benghazi the day of the attack, and whose new book, Benghazi! A New History of the Political Fiasco the Pushed American and its World to the Brink, examines the Benghazi attack and what we might learn from it. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Ken Burns joins Bob and Ben for a conversation about American history and the themes he sees playing out in the US today. Ken shares his process for selecting subjects for his films and explains how his new 3-part film Hemingway (co-directed w/ Lynn Novick) highlights Ernest Hemingway's individual genius while also revealing the universal aspects of life that we all share. We also discuss how our time and place influence the way we view the past, the importance of acknowledging both the light and dark in American history, and why Ken argues that much of life's meaning comes from the struggle. Ken Burns' new film Hemingway, which he co-directed with Lynn Novick, premieres April 5-7 on PBS. For more on the series visit https://kenburns.com/hemingway/ UNUM is a new site by Ken Burns and PBS that allows users "a new way to explore American history through select scenes from across our over 40 films" with the goal of "providing historical context for the conversations we are having today." You can visit UNUM at: https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/unum You can follow Ken Burns on twitter at @KenBurns This episode is a rebroadcast of RTN #191, which originally aired on February 15, 2021. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. We're happy to share a clip from our friends at Southern Songs and Stories! This episode of The Road to Now features a clip from Southern Songs and Stories, a podcast hosted by our friend Joe Kendrick at WNCW. Listen after the credits to hear a portion of "The Shelton Laurel Massacre, Part One: The Past That Would not Die." You can hear the full episode on Apple Music, Spotify, or on any podcast player where you get The Road to Now.     

The Athletic's Dana O'Neil joins Bob & Ben for a conversation about the history of the NCAA tournament, how college basketball built the fan base it has today, and how rule changes have changed the sport from the 3-point line to the more recent Name, Image & License (NIL) contracts that allow college athletes to receive compensation for playing. Dana O'Neil is a Senior Writer for The Athletic, and one of the country's foremost experts on college basketball. You can hear the uncut version of this conversation and many more by supporting us on Patreon. Click here for more info! This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. 

Jimmy Carter only served four years as President (1977-1981) but his approach to foreign policy produced big results, including the return of the Panama Canal to Panama, a strategic nuclear arms treaty with the Soviet Union (SALT-II), and US formal recognition of the People's Republic of China. In this episode we welcome Nancy Mitchell back to the show to discuss the key moments in Carter's Presidency and how his administration's decisions look from the perspective of 2023. Dr. Nancy Mitchell is Professor of History at North Carolina State University, where she specializes in the history of US foreign policy. Her most recent book, Jimmy Carter in Africa: Race and the Cold War (Stanford University Press, 2016) won the Douglas Dillon Award in 2016 and the Robert H. Ferrell Book Prize in 2017. You can hear our previous conversation w/ Nancy in episode #35 "Reassessing Jimmy Carter" (Dec. 2016). This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Andrew Young was already an iconic civil rights leader and sitting Congressman from Georgia's 5th District when a dark horse candidate named Jimmy Carter asked for his support in the 1976 Presidential election. Young found Carter to be an honest man and spoke highly of him. Carter, in turn, appointed Young as the US Ambassador to the United Nations and tasked him with reshaping American foreign policy. In this episode, Andrew Young joins Bob for a conversation about his work in the Carter administration, the shared vision of US foreign policy in Africa that strengthened their relationship, and the mutual trust that developed from their time working together.  This conversation was recorded on May 11, 2021 as part of the audio docu-series Concerts of Change: The Soundtrack of Human Rights, which Bob produced with SiriusXM in 2022. You can hear that series on the SiriusXM app and learn more about it in RTN #228. This episode was edited by Bob Crawford and Ben Sawyer.

A Presidency is defined by the decisions that a person makes while serving as Executive, but a Presidential legacy is about much more than that. In the new book, Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture, (UVA Press, 2023) Lindsay Chervinsky and Matthew Costello have brought together a collection of chapters that explore the ways that mourning ceremonies, causes of death, and moments of passing impact the way that we remember a President at the time they die, and how new research and a more inclusive understanding of US history have reshaped Presidential legacies in the years that follow. In this episode, Lindsay joins Ben and Bob for a conversation about some of the fascinating stories crafted by the book's contributing authors and how the legacies of George Washington, FDR, Ronald Reagan, and other former commanders-in-chief, might tell us more about ourselves than the individuals who have served as President. Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky is a historian of the American Presidency who is currently a fellow at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. Her first book, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution (Belknap Press, 2020) won multiple awards and was the topic of our conversation for her first appearance on The Road to Now in episode 184. You can learn more about Lindsay and her work at her website: LindsayChervinsky.com If you enjoyed this episode, you'll probably also like our conversation with Jeffrey Engle on the history of Presidential impeachment (RTN episode 109). This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

In the 20th Century, leaders in Atlanta and Charlotte championed a "New South" vision that they hoped would attract the investment needed to transform their regional trading hubs into world-class urban centers. The success in both cases was undeniable, but it was also not equal. Despite Charlotte's success as a banking hub, it has lagged far behind Atlanta in terms of its economy and its place in American culture. And one possible reason for this gap may be in the way the two cities treated their gay and lesbian communities. In this episode, historian La Shonda Mims joins Ben for a discussion about the history of lesbian communities in Atlanta and Charlotte, the ways they shaped and reflected the cities they inhabited, and how tracing the development of lesbian spaces can help us better understand urban history. La Shonda also explains how lesbians' stories in urban spaces can reveal the greater social and economic realities that women have experienced throughout US history. Dr. La Shonda Mims is Assistant Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University. She is author of Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists: Queer Women in the Urban South (UNC Press, 2022) and recently published a piece entitled "LGBTQ Pride in the South has been Marked by Resistance and Resilience" in The Washington Post's Made By History. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Jordan Gross played 11 seasons as an Offensive Tackle for the Carolina Panthers. In his rookie season, he was a starting member of the Panthers team that made it to Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004. In his final season (2011) he was selected for his third Pro Bowl. Today he is a farmer in Idaho and one of the happiest people we've ever met. Jordan joins Bob & Ben for a conversation about his career, the way the NFL has changed over the last few decades, what it's like to play in the Super Bowl, and how his early life in Idaho led him to the NFL and then back again. Jordan also discusses why he decided to walk away from professional football when he was still an All-Pro-quality player, the importance of mentoring and coaching young people, and why continuing to learn is fundamental to a happy life. You can hear Jordan alongside former teammate Jake Delhomme on their podcast Jordan and Jake, which is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast apps where you get The Road to Now. Patrons! You can hear the extended cut of our conversation with Jordan by clicking here. If you'd like to join us just go to Patreon.com/TheRoadToNow for details! This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

January 20th was the official halfway mark of the Biden Administration's first term. That might seem like a an odd time to discuss Presidential transitions, but with the justice department still prosecuting participants in the January 6th insurrection it's never too soon to ask ourselves what lay ahead for 2024. Our guest in this episode, David Marchick is Dean of the Kogod School of Business at American University, but until recently he was director of the Partnership for Public Service's Center for Presidential Transition and the host of its Transition Lab podcast. He is also the co-author of a fascinating new book The Peaceful Transfer of Power: An Oral History of America's Presidential Transitions (UVA Press, 2022). Whether it was the worst transition in our nation's history—Buchanan to Abraham Lincoln or arguably the smoothest—The Bush 43 to Obama administrations—Marchick breaks down the good, the bad, and the ugly of Presidential transitions. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

At the end of World War II, the United States had few laws protecting the environment. Just 30 years later, the Environmental Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act had been enacted, representing the urgency of, and widespread support for, environmental protections in those years. Douglas Brinkley, author of Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening (Harper Collins, 2022) joins Bob & Ben to discuss the story of environmentalism in the US from Kennedy to Nixon, and how ecologists and great thinkers such as Rachel Carson were able to channel public concern over the environment into policies that continue to benefit us today. Dr. Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, a CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. You can hear our previous conversations with Doug in RTN episode 52 and episode 87. You can hear our full unedited conversation w/ Douglas Brinkley by joining us on Patreon! Just click here or go to Patreon.com/TheRoadToNow to join! This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher and Ben Sawyer.

This is part two of our conversation w/ Maximillian Potter & Richard Stayskal. For part 1, check out RTN episode # 257. Since 1950, the Feres Doctrine has prevented active-duty members of the US Armed Forces from suing the government for wrongful injury or death that occurred outside of combat. In this episode we speak with journalist Maximillian Potter and decorated Green Beret Richard Stayskal to learn about the injustice many service members have endured, the reasoning behind the decision, and what can be done to help bring justice to those wrongfully injured while serving in the US Armed Forces. Links to more information relevant to this episode: Maximillian Potter, "Incident to Service, Vanity Fair, Dec. '22/Jan. '23. Khawam Law (the firm that is helping Richard Stayskal and other veterans fight for justice in Congress): https://www.khawamlaw.com/ This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher, Bob Crawford & Ben Sawyer.

Since 1950, the Feres Doctrine has prevented active-duty members of the US Armed Forces from suing the government for wrongful injury or death that occurred outside of combat. In this episode we speak with journalist Maximillian Potter and decorated Green Beret Richard Stayskal to learn about the injustice many service members have endured, the reasoning behind the decision, and what can be done to help bring justice to those wrongfully injured while serving in the US Armed Forces.   Links to more information relevant to this episode: Maximillian Potter, "Incident to Service, Vanity Fair, Dec. '22/Jan. '23. Khawam Law (the firm that is helping Richard Stayskal and other veterans fight for justice in Congress): https://www.khawamlaw.com/ This is the first in a two-part series on the Feres Doctrine featuring Max Potter & Richard Stayskal. Part II aired as Road to Now #258 on Monday, January 8, 2023. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher & Ben Sawyer.

In 1848, New England ships crossed the Bering Strait in pursuit of the bowhead whales that provided their income. In the years since, the activity of outsiders- from hunters, to government bureaucrats from the US and Russia / Soviet Union, to consumers of energy who never set foot in the region- has had a deep impact on the region, but the environment of Beringia has made the place itself an active participant in this process. About a century and a half after New England whalers crossed the Bering Strait, Bathsheba Demuth graduated High School in Iowa and moved north of the Arctic Circle in the Yukon. She later earned a PhD in history, and is currently Associate Professor of History at Brown University. In this episode, Bathsheba joins Ben for a conversation about her research, how her fascination with the arctic led her to dedicate much of her life to understanding Beringia, and the ways that an environmental perspective allows us to better understand our place in the world and that of others. Bathsheba's new book, Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait was published by W.W. Norton & Co in 2019. It is a masterpiece. For more on Dr. Bathsheba Demuth, visit her website- www.brdemuth.com- and follow her on instagram at @brdemuth. This is a reair of RTN Episode #153, which originally aired on December 2, 2019. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Bob & Ben speak w/ historian Carson Hudson, whose program "Uncivil Christmas" tells of life in Williamsburg, Virginia during the years of the Civil War. Carson explains the politics and culture of the era, the major role that music played in uniting (and dividing) Americans during the war, the challenges of understanding how people in the past experienced war, and the ways that the Civil War still looms large in American culture today. Carson Hudson is Educational Program Developer at Colonial Williamsburg and a specialist in the history of war and music history. He is the author of multiple books on Williamsburg history, including Hidden History of Civil War Williamsburg (The History Press, 2019). To attend one of Carson's site tours, visit www.Colonial Williamsburg.com. This is a rebroadcast of episode #155, which originally aired on December 23, 2019. The original episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. This reair was edited by Ben Sawyer.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Lyndon B. Johnson's Presidency is bookended by the tragedies of JFK's assassination and the escalation of the Vietnam war, but his career in politics and the policies he championed transcend his time in the Oval Office. In this episode, two of the foremost experts on LBJ, Mark Updegrove and Mark A. Lawrence, join Bob & Ben to discuss Johnson's life and legacy. Mark Updegrove is the President & CEO of the LBJ Foundation in Austin, TX, the presidential historian for ABC News, and the author of multiple books on Presidential History, including Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency. Dr. Mark Atwood Lawrence  is Director of the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum and Associate Professor of History at UT-Austin. He is the author of multiple books on US history including The Vietnam War:  A Concise International History. If you enjoy The Road to Now, make sure to check out their podcast, With the Bark Off, which offers a critical examination of the 45 men who have served as President of the United States and is available on your favorite podcast player. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

On July 4, 1964, Alabama Governor George Wallace decried the passing of " [a] law that is going to destroy individual freedom and liberty in this country." That law was the Civil Rights act of 1964, which struck down many of the Jim Crow laws that relegated black Americans to second-class citizens. How could Wallace and so many like him throughout American history see no irony in decrying the federal government for taking away their freedom to deny freedom to others? In this episode, we take that question up with Jefferson Cowie whose new book, Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022), explores the meaning of freedom as understood by the white residents of one county in southern Alabama in the 19th and 20th centuries. Dr. Jefferson Cowie is James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, where he teaches social and political history. You can hear our previous conversations with Jeff in episode #24 The Great Exception: The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order and in episode #115 The 1970s. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

On February 4, 1962, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital opened its doors in Memphis, TN with a promise to help victims of childhood cancer regardless of race, religion, or national origin. Since then the hospital has treated thousands of children from all over the world, and has played a vital role in increasing the survival rate of children diagnosed with cancer to more than 80%. And in more than five decades of operation, St. Jude has provided its services to children and their families for free. As the CEO of St. Jude's fundraising arm (ALSAC) and the son of one of its founders, Richard Shadyac knows a thing or two about the past and present of St. Jude Hospital. In our conversation he explains the positive impact that St. Jude Hospital has had across the world and how actor Danny Thomas' promise to the patron saint of lost causes became a reality. This is a rebroadcast of RTN #31, which originally aired on November 23, 2016. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

This week on the Road to Now, Bob welcomes leadership consultant, author, and speaker Dov Baron. Inc. Magazine has named Dov one of the top 100 leadership speakers in the country and his Curiosity Bites podcast the number one leadership podcast. For over two decades Dov has advised business leaders, politicians, entertainers, scientists, and musicians, about how to discover their emotional source code. In this episode we get to meet Dov and hear him work his magic with his newest client: America. You don't want to miss this unique episode of The Road to Now. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

The Netflix series The Last Czars and HBO's Chernobyl have (in very different ways) brought Russian & Soviet history to televisions across the world. In this episode, Ben sits down with fellow Russian historians Dr. Philippa Hetherington and Dr. Jonathan Waterlow to discuss their opinions on the two series, what they think they got right, and ways that producers and scholars might benefit most from collaboration on future projects. Philippa, who is a featured scholar in The Last Czars, shares her experience being interviewed, her impression of the show after seeing it, and her work to correct historical errors that viewers identified after release. This episode is a rebroadcast of RTN #141, which originally aired on Sept. 2, 2019. Tragically, Philippa Heatherington passed away on November 5, 2022 after a long fight with cancer. She was a brilliant scholar, an advocate for those living with cancer, and a genuinely delightful human being. You can learn more about her work at PhilippaHeatherington.com. This reair was edited by Ben Sawyer.  

Death is something that we all have in common, but what happens to our remains can vary. In this episode, RTN favorite Tanya Marsh breaks down the origins, legal peculiarities and cultural specificities of the American death care system, and how recent developments in the industry are leading many of us to reimagine the afterlife of our physical remains.   Tanya Marsh is Professor of Law at Wake Forest University and one of the foremost experts on Mortuary Law and the history of cemeteries in the United States. She has published three books in her field of expertise, including The Law of Human Remains (2015) & Cemetery Law: The Common Law of Burying Grounds in the United States (Co-authored w/ Daniel Gibson, 2015). You can follow her on twitter at @TMAR22. If you enjoyed this episode, check our first conversation w/ Tanya in episode #76 and Tanya's special guest host appearance in episode 148 The Bizarre Life of American Death w/ Caitlin Doughty. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Pete Souza has spent more time inside the 'Presidential bubble' than almost anyone. The more than thirteen years he spent photographing Ronald Reagan (1983-1989) and Barack Obama (2009-2017) gave him a singular view into the executive branch that he has captured and shared with the public through his photography. In this episode, Pete joins Bob & Ben to discuss his new book The West Wing & Beyond: What I Saw Inside the Presidency, which looks beyond the Presidents themselves and to the people and spaces that define the office of the US President. You can learn more about Pete Souza's work at his website, petesouza.com, and by following him on twitter and Instagram at @petesouza. You can also check out the documentary film The Way I See It (Focus Features, 2020) which tells the story of Pete's work inside the White House (and features a brief cameo by Bob & Ben).   If you enjoy this episode, check out Pete's previous appearances on The Road to Now in episode #131 and episode #151.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Although he passed away a decade ago, Levon Helm is still the voice of Americana music. Always will be, in my opinion. Levon was drummer for The Band, collaborator with Bob Dylan, actor, husband, father, and friend. In his new book, Levon Helm: Rock, Roll, Ramble, author John Barry gives a first-hand account of Levon's struggles with cancer and financial ruin that led to the legendary Midnight Rambles concerts at his home in Woodstock, New York. In this episode of the Road to Now, Bob celebrates the life of Levon Helm with John, and musician and producer Larry Campbell who has worked with Levon, as well as Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow, K.D. Lang, and Willie Nelson. This is an episode you don't want to miss.­ This episode was edited by Bob Crawford & Gary Fletcher

Libertarianism has had a tremendous influence on American politics, but according to Andrew Koppelman, its most prominent adherents have stripped libertarian philosophy of its more humane intentions. In this episode, Andrew joins Bob and Ben for a discussion about his new book, Burning Down the House: How Libertarian Philosophy Was Corrupted by Delusion and Greed (St. Martin's Press, 2022) and why he contends that libertarian philosophers such as Friedrich Hayek have been stripped of their original intent by those who have ulterior motives. Dr. Andrew Koppelman is John Paul Stevens Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University. You can learn more about his work at AndrewKoppelman.com and follow him on twitter at @AndrewKoppelman. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Bill Plante was a remarkable reporter. He spent four tours as a CBS correspondent in Vietnam, he interviewed Martin Luther King Jr in 1965, and he served as CBS' White House Correspondent from 1976 until his retirement in 2016. On September 28, 2022, Bill Plante passed away. To honor him and his work, we are reairing our 2018 conversation w/ Bill and The Washington Post's Olivier Knox. You can read Bill's CBS News obituary here and his Washington Post obituary by Emily Langer here. You can watch the video of this conversation on our YouTube channel here. This episode originally aired as episode #104 on August 22, 2018. This reair was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Armenia and Azerbaijan were once fellow Republics within the USSR, but in the Soviet Union's last days tension between them led to bloodshed and animosity that continues today. For decades, Russia played the role of peacekeeper in the region, but Putin's invasion of Ukraine has opened the door for a new wave of Azerbaijani attacks on Armenia and both sides say the other is to blame. Laurence Broers has spent the last twenty years working as a scholar and peacemaker in the region, and has built relationships with leaders in both countries. In this episode, Laurence joins Ben for a conversation about the history of the conflict, the state of affairs today, and the impact that the international community has (and can) have on the people and politics of the region. Dr. Laurence Broers is Associate Fellow at the Russia-Eurasia Program at Chatham House, and the author of the book Armenia and Azerbaijan: Anatomy of a Rivalry. You can follow him on twitter at @LaurenceBroers. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

The FBI has been the subject of criticism and concern since it was founded in 1908, but it has nevertheless become one of the most powerful, stable, and mythologized branches of the Executive Branch of the US government. In this episode, Steve Underhill joins us to discuss the origins of the FBI, the role J. Edgar Hoover played in making the modern Brueau, and how that greater history of the FBI can help us understand how they've approached their seizure of documents from Mar-a-Lago and the subsequent attack from Donald Trump.   Dr. Stephen M. Underhill is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Studies at Marshall University, where he studies the rhetoric of law enforcement. His book The Manufacture of Consent: J. Edgar Hoover and the Rhetorical Rise of the FBI was published in 2020. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. Looking for a new shirt that fits well, looks good, and feels fantastic? Go to Criquetshirts.com and use promo code RoadToNow for 20% off your first order from Criquet. Ben and Bob both love these shirts!  

The New Deal policies of the 1930s never brought an end to the Great Depression, but by establishing Social Security, ending child labor, and establishing a federal minimum wage, Franklin Roosevelt's administration and their allies in Congress laid the framework for the widespread prosperity of the post-World War II-era. As the gap between the richest and poorest Americans continues to widen at remarkable speed, politicians on the left have called for a return to the New Deal. But it might be better to look elsewhere. In this episode we speak with Jefferson Cowie about his books Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy-Year Quest for Cheap Labor, (Cornell University Press, 1999) & The Great Exception: The New Deal & The Limits of American Politics, (Princeton University Press, 2016). Dr. Jefferson Cowie is James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. You can learn more about him and his work at his website, jeffersoncowie.info. This episode originally aired on October 17, 2016 as RTN #24 The New Deal and It's Legacy w/ Jefferson Cowie. This reair was edited by Ben Sawyer.

On August 4, 1789, the National Assembly of France adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which asserted the Enlightenment ideals of universal rights and democracy. Though the French Declaration shared a common ideological lineage with the American Declaration of Independence, the French Revolution took a very different path: fifteen years after their founding revolutionary documents, the US had George Washington and France had Napoleon. In this episode of The Road to Now we talk to Dr. Peter McPhee, an expert on the history of the French Revolution at the University of Melbourne (Australia) to learn how geography, religion, and the French effort to fundamentally redefine society, shaped the complex course of the French Revolution. Peter explains how the French Revolution changed the world and left a legacy that is all around us today. (And for all you Hamilton fans- if you ever wondered what happened to the Marquis de Lafayette after Hamilton died, Dr. McPhee has the answer!) This is a rebroadcast of episode 78, which originally aired on November 9, 2017. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Could the structure of elections in the US be feeding the polarization in modern politics? Currently only about twenty percent of voters show up to the polls for what are often closed primaries, meaning that the general election is often a showdown between candidates who have appealed to the most extreme elements of their party's base. This is far from an optimal outcome in a country where few voters identify with political extremes. Most voting experts believe that the way to reduce the influence of the most extreme voices in our political system would be through open primaries in which voters can choose any candidate regardless of party affiliation. This system would favor candidates who speak to a broader swath of the American public and give voters a more representative general election ballot. In this episode, Bob welcomes back to the show his former Political Statistics Professor, Dr. Scott Huffmon, to discuss Rank choice voting and the 2022 election primaries. Dr. Huffmon is a professor of political science as well as the founder and director of the Center for Public Opinion & Policy Research (CPOPR) at Winthrop. Dr. Huffmon also directs the Winthrop Poll initiative, which is the most important poll focusing on the south. You can follow him on twitter at @HuffmonPolitics. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.  

When Bitcoin launched in January 2009, few people took it seriously and even fewer had the means to mine, buy or spend it. By the end of 2021, the Pew Research Center reported that 16% of Americans had held cryptocurrency and 86% had heard of it. Despite all of this, many of us remain perplexed by the topic, so Ben and Bob invited Yahoo! Finance's David Hollerith to join us for a conversation about the origins and potential of crypto. We hope this helps! David Hollerith is a senior reporter at Yahoo! Finance who covers cryptocurrency. To keep up on his reporting, make sure to follow him on twitter at @DsHollers. You can check out his suggested reading on the topic at the episode page on our website. If you enjoy this episode, check out #192 The History of Financial Bubbles w/ William Quinn. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Political rhetoric has become increasingly divisive in the 21st century, but many of the themes and rhetorical strategies we see today have deep roots in American history. In this episode, Ben and Bruce Carlson (My History Can Beat Up Your Politics) discuss the impact that technology, society and other factors have had on Presidential rhetoric from the 1932 contest between Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt to the election of 2020. A lot has changed since the Great Depression, but the similarities between then and now might surprise you. Bruce Carlson is the host of My History Can Beat Up Your Politics. For more on his podcast, follow @myhist on twitter, check out his website here and subscribe to MHCBUYP anywhere you get The Road to Now. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Partisanship in politics has become increasingly tense in the 21st century, and while many Americans lament this polarization, few seem convinced that a rapprochement is possible. Yet history is full of proclaimed enemies striking mutually beneficial deals even in the toughest conditions. In this episode, NCSL Director Curt Stedron explains how a deep examination of the Christmas truce struck between Entente and Allied powers during World War I can reveal some core lessons for finding common ground in even the most horrific conditions. Curt Stedron is Director on the Legislative Training Institute at the National Conference of State Legislatures, a non-partisan organization whose mission is "to advance the effectiveness, independence and integrity of legislatures and to foster interstate cooperation." He is a graduate of West Point and previously served as an Officer in the US Army. This conversation grew out of his talk "Lessons in Trust: The Christmas Truce of 1914," which he delivered at the 2022 NCSL Legislative Summit and can be viewed via NCSL's linkedIn page here. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

At the beginning of the 20th century, most of the territory that we call the Middle East- including Syria, Iraq, Israel and Turkey- were part of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman alliance w/ Germany and Austria-Hungary during World War I provided Britain and France w/ the opportunity to divide the once-great empire into many states based on European imperial ambitions. In this episode Bob and Ben speak w/ Eugene Rogan to learn more about why the Ottoman Empire was divided, how that process shaped the Middle East, and how this history helps us understand the world today. Dr. Eugene Rogan is a Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at St Antony's College, University of Oxford. He is author of The Arabs: A History (Penguin, 2009, 3rd edition 2018), which has been translated in 18 languages and was named one of the best books of 2009 by The Economist, The Financial Times, and The Atlantic Monthly. His new book, The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East, 1914-1920, was published in February 2015. This is a rebroadcast of episode 112 which originally aired on November 19th, 2018. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

You might know Bushwick Bill as a member of the iconic Houston rap group The Geto Boys, but his contributions to rap music, his role in the debates over free speech in the 1990s, and his overall influence are far more substantial than you probably realize. In this episode, we welcome Charles Hughes back to the show to discuss his new book Why Bushwick Bill Matters (Univ. of Texas Press) and to get a better understanding of the challenges and triumphs that shaped one of rap history's most influential artists. Dr. Charles Hughes is the Director of the Lynne and Henry Turley Memphis Center at Rhodes College. His previous books include  Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South which Rolling Stone named one of the Best Music Books of 2015. You can hear our previous conversation with Charles in episode #25 The History of Country and Soul Music in the American South w/ Charles Hughes. You can follow Charles on twitter at @CharlesLHughes2. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Ben tells Bob how Thai food became so prominent in the US and shares the story of the bizarre origins and sudden demolition of the Georgia Guidestones. Ben also gives an update on Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn's (of 1776 Commission fame) recent comments that teachers come from "the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country" and that he wants to "demonstrate that you don't have to be an expert educate a child because basically anybody can do it" (all of which he said as Tennessee Governor Bill Lee sat quietly next to him.) Sources and Relevant Material Phil Williams, "REVEALED: Teachers come from 'dumbest parts of dumbest colleges,'' Tenn. Governor's education advisor tells him." News Channel 5 Nashville, June 30, 2022. The Goods from the Woods podcast #337 "Zagnut Factory w/ Ben Sawyer" (July 13, 2022). This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Robert E. Lee's surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865 marked the end of the American Civil War, but it was just one of many times that officers and soldiers faced the reality of surrender. Throughout the four years of the war, approximately one in four soldiers surrendered to the opposing army. In this episode, David Silkenat explains how looking at surrender as both an experience and a set of codes offers a new and insightful perspective on the Civil War and those who lived through it. Dr. David Silkenat is Senior Lecturer in American History at the University of Edinburgh and author of four books, including Waving the White Flag: How Surrender Defined the American Civil War (UNC Press, 2019). He is also the cohost of The Whiskey Rebellion podcast alongside Frank Cogliano. You can follow David on twitter at @davidsilkenat. This episode is a rebroadcast of RTN #135, which originally aired on July 8th 2019. This episode was originally edited by Gary Fletcher. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Jenna Spinelle joins Ben & Bob for a discussion about her new podcast, When the People Decide, which traces the origins of ballot initiatives in the United States and their impact on American politics in recent years. Jenna Spinelle is the Communications Specialist for the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State, where she also teaches classes in the college of communications. You can follow her on twitter at @JennaSpinelle. To learn more about the differences between initiatives and popular referenda and which states allow citizens to directly propose laws, visit The National Conference of State Legislatures' guide to the Initiative and Referendum Processes. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

One episode. Two historians/podcasters. Four stories from American history that you've probably never heard. And an unknown number of listeners that we hope will find these stories as fascinating and surprising as we do. Greg Jackson is the creator of History That Doesn't Suck and a Professor at Utah Valley University. Ben Sawyer hosts this podcast and has been teaching history at the university level for over a decade and a half. You might think that at this point they've heard it all, but when you keep digging into history, it just keeps surprising you. In this episode, Greg and Ben each share two stories that they discovered in the last year that they found to be the most fascinating. Enjoy! This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Since 1995, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame located in Cleveland, Ohio has worked to engage, inspire and teach people about the power of Rock music and the musicians. During a recent Avett Brothers tour stop in Cleveland, Bob dropped by the RRHF and spoke with Rock Hall director of guest experience John Goehrke about the history of hall and the broad definition of the term "Rock and Roll" the hall uses in the induction process. If you enjoy this episode, check out our patron-only bonus episode!: Bob and Avett Brother's tour manager, Dane Honeycutt, get a tour of the Hall of Fame's vault from Joe Wickens, Rock Hall's collections and exhibits manager. Get the episode (and more) while supporting our work at Patreon.com/TheRoadToNow. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

George Carlin had a comedy career that spanned half a century, and his take on the US remains relevant more than a decade after his death in 2008. The new HBO documentary George Carlin's American Dream tells Carlin's story as he evolved from a clean-cut comic in the 1950s into the edgy critic who remains one of the most influential comedians of all time. In this episode, Michael Bonfiglio, who directed the film (along with Judd Apatow) and Kliph Nesteroff, a historian of comedy who is featured in the film, join Bob & Ben for a conversation about the life and times of George Carlin. If you enjoy this episode, check out our previous conversation w/ Michael in episode #174 Direction w/ Michael Bonfiglio. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Long-time friend of RTN Doug Heye returns to share his take on the state of politics in the US. Doug has served as communications director for the Republican National Committee, chief-of-staff to House majority leader Eric Cantor and has been active in national politics since the 1990s. Our conversation covers the recent primary elections, the prospects for the midterm elections this fall and, in a transition that's increasingly easy to make, professional wrestling. You can follow Doug on twitter at @DougHeye. This is Doug's fifth appearance on RTN, and if you haven't heard our episode w/ Doug, Rufus Edmiston & Molly Worthen recorded live at Cat's Cradle in January 2022 (RTN #158), we highly recommend you check that one out! This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

On August 15, 1824, the Marquis de Lafayette arrived in the United States to say farewell to the country whose independence he helped secure more than four decades earlier. Over the next 15 months, Lafayette visited all 24 states, meeting with old friends and attending celebrations hosted by Americans who flocked to see the last-living Major General of the Revolutionary War whose close friendships with George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson shaped both the American and French Revolutions. Since 2017, Julien Icher has been working to document the 5,000 mile journey that Lafayette took during his farewell visit. Icher, himself a Frenchman, has a remarkable skill set that combines the best of primary source-based research with the technical knowledge required for digital mapping. The result is The Lafayette Trail– a publicly accessible map that allows users to see Lafayette's physical route, as well as the people, places and events he encountered along the way. In this episode, Julien joins Ben to talk about Lafayette's contribution to American Independence, his life after returning to France, and the farewell tour that inspired Julien to create The Lafayette Trail. We also speak about the history of Franco-American friendship and why both countries are better when we work together. For more on The Lafayette Trail, check out their YouTube channel. Since April 2021, Julien has been posting episodes of his travels in the series "Follow the Frenchman." You can also follow the project on twitter at @LafayetteTrail. This is a rebroadcast of RTN #132, which originally aired on June 9, 2019. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Heather Cox Richardson returns to the show to talk history, politics, and life in general. Heather shares her thoughts on what history has to teach us about navigating division and finding unity, the sources she thinks are critical in following US policy, and why she remains optimistic despite increasing polarization in American society. She also discusses what she's learned from her public engagement work on facebook and from "Letters From an American," where she has published her thoughts daily for over two years now. Dr. Heather Cox Richardson is Professor of History at Boston College and co-host of the Now & Then podcast (w/ Joanne Freeman). She is also the author of multiple books including West From Appomattox: The Reconstruction of America after the Civil War (Yale Univ. Press, 2008) and, most recently, How the South Won the Civil War (Oxford University Press, 2000). You can follow her on twitter at @HC_Richardson. If you enjoy this episode, check out our previous conversations w/ Heather Cox Richardson in RTN episode #177 How the South Won the Civil War and #38 The History of the Republican Party. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Brian Rosenwald joins Bob and Ben to talk about the state of American political media, its impact on the divide between Democrats & Republicans, and how the party primary election process in most states exacerbates the problem. Brian also discusses his book Talk Radio's America: How an Industry Took over a Political Party that Took Over the United States, (Harvard University Press, 2019) and how his conclusions are holding up three years after publication. Dr. Brian Rosenwald is scholar in Residence at the Partnership for Effective Public Media Administration and Leadership Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania and senior editor of Made By History, a Washington Post history section. You can follow him on twitter at @brianros1. If you enjoy this episode, check out Brian's previous appearances on the Road to Now in episodes #30 The Origins of Conservative Talk Radio and #142 How Talk Radio Took Over the Republican Party. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.    

Hidetaka Hirota joins Bob and Ben for a conversation about the history of immigration law in the United States and the ways that government officials have decided who could and could not enter the United States. Hidetaka discusses the creation of Federal immigration law and the ways that looking at state immigration policies in the early to mid-19th century can help us understand the Immigration and Chinese Exclusion Acts of 1882. Dr. Hidetaka Hirota is Associate Professor of History at the University of California Berkeley who specializes in the history of US immigration. His book Expelling the Poor: Atlantic Seaboard States and the Nineteenth-Century Origins of American Immigration Policy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017) has won multiple awards. Want to support The Road to Now and get extra episodes and other content? Join us on Patreon! This is a rebroadcast of RTN #126 which originally aired on April 8, 2019. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

The Road to Now just celebrated its 6 year anniversary, so we invited our old friend (and all-time record holder for most RTN appearances) Matt Negrin to join us for a conversation about what's happening in the world and how to deal with it. Along the way, our Associate Producer, Gary Fletcher drops in for an update, and our friend (and long-time Patron) Fig White gets surprisingly brought into the conversation as well. Click here to watch the video of this episode on YouTube. Like a lot of anniversaries, this episode went to some surprising and unplanned places, but we'll be back to business as usual next week! This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Bob and Ben catch up to talk about Jonathan Haidt's recent article in the May issue of The Atlantic, "Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid," and their take on the problems of social media and the solutions posed by Haidt and others. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer

The first amendment right to the freedom of speech is a cornerstone of American liberty, but this broad principle becomes a bit narrower when put into practice. Why, for example, is burning an American flag in protest protected by the first amendment but burning your draft card is not? Lynn Greenky, whose new book When Freedom Speaks: The Boundaries and Boundlessness of our First Amendment Rights joins Ben and Bob to answer these questions and others in a master session on the freedom of speech. Lynn Greenky is a former lawyer and current teaching professor in Syracuse University's Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, where she teaches a course on the First Amendment. Her book, When Freedom Speaks, will be available on May 15th from Brandeis University Press and can be pre-ordered from her website, LynnGreenky.com. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Ron Suny joins Ben for a conversation about the Armenian Genocide. Ron, one of the world's foremost experts on the history of the Armenian genocide, explains why the Ottoman government tunred on its Armenian subjects during World War I and the methods it used to carry out this atrocity. He also explains why, in spite of the evidence, recognizing this as genocide remains a political hotspot both internationally and within modern Turkey, and why it is important to remember tragedies even when doing so makes us uncomfortable. Dr. Ronald Grigor Suny is the William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Michigan and Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History at the University of Chicago. He is the author of numerous books, including "They Can Live in the Desert But Nowhere Else:" A History of the Armenian Genocide (Princeton University Press, 2015). This is a rebroadcast of RTN #92, which originally aired on April 23, 2018. In 2019, the both houses of US Congress recognized the Armenian Genocide. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

In this episode, music writer Michaelangelo Matos joins Bob and Ben to break down why he thinks 1984 was a crucial year for the music industry. Michaelangelo also shares why he loves books about a single year. Check out Michaelangelo Matos' book Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year here.