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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.   

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.