The Road to Now

RTN Productions

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Bob Crawford (The Avett Brothers) & Dr. Ben Sawyer (MTSU History) share conversations with great thinkers from a variety of backgrounds – historians, artists, legal scholars, political figures and more –who help us uncover the many roads that run between past and present. For more information, visit TheRoadToNow.com If you'd like to support our work, join us on Patreon: Patreon.com/TheRoadToNow

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Miss America's Secret Past w/ Amy Argetsinger

The Miss America pageant has always had its critics, but the stories of the organization and those who participated in it are far more dynamic than most people recognize. In this episode, Bob & Ben speak with Amy Argetsinger whose new book There She Was: The Secret History of Miss America explains Miss America’s origins, how the pageant both shaped and was shaped by American society, and why it might be okay that the pageant’s significance in American culture has faded. Bonus: Bob calls Miss USA “the confederacy of beauty pageants.” Listen to find out why that makes sense! Amy Argetsinger is an editor for The Washington Post’s acclaimed Style section, where she has overseen coverage of media, popular culture, politics and society. Her new book There She Was: The Secret History of Miss America was published by Atria//One Signal Publishers in September of 2021. You can follow Amy on twitter at @AmyArgetsinger. This is a rebroadcast of episode 210, which originally aired in October 2021. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

1 h 3 min
18 NOV

James Armistead Lafayette w/ Stephen Seals

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.

55 min
11 NOV

Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn w/ Christopher Cox

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

51 min
4 NOV

Colombia, the US and the War on Drugs w/ Lina Britto

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.

1 h 25 min
28 OTT

US Immigration Policy w/ Yael Schacher

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.

1 h 26 min
21 OTT

The Epidemic Episode

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.

56 min
14 OTT

The Electoral College w/ Edward Foley

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.

53 min
7 OTT

The Women Who Shaped the White House in the 20th Century w/ Melissa Estes Blair

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.

52 min

Elenco completo (380)

Bob Crawford (The Avett Brothers) & Dr. Ben Sawyer (MTSU History) share conversations with great thinkers from a variety of backgrounds – historians, artists, legal scholars, political figures and more –who help us uncover the many roads that run between past and present. For more information, visit TheRoadToNow.com If you'd like to support our work, join us on Patreon: Patreon.com/TheRoadToNow