Podcast Episodes

A Graphic History of the Civil War w/ Andrew Fialka & Anderson Carmen

Episode 347

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…

Published on 8 hours ago

A Forgotten History of Chinese Life in the United States w/ Beth Lew-Williams

Episode 346

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-Wi…

Published on 1 week ago

How the Globalization Gamble Went Wrong w/ David J. Lynch

Episode 345

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 …

Published on 2 weeks ago

How the American Dream Became Temporary w/ Louis Hyman

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…

Published on 3 weeks ago

The Last Forty Years of American Politics w/ Joe Lockhart

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, Jo…

Published on 4 weeks ago

Mourning the Presidents w/ Lindsay Chervinsky

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 America…

Published on 1 month ago

Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison’s Struggle for a Nation w/ Peter Stark

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. Th…

Published on 1 month, 1 week ago

Affordable Housing in Urban America w/ Tom Hanchett

Episode 343

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…

Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago

The American Buffalo w/ Dayton Duncan

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,…

Published on 1 month, 3 weeks ago

The Wide Awakes: The Forgotten Force that Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War w/ Jon Grinspan

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 Americ…

Published on 2 months ago