Grating the Nutmeg

Connecticut Explored Magazine

Connecticut is a small state with big stories. GTN episodes include top-flight historians, compelling first-person stories and new voices in Connecticut history. Executive Producers Mary Donohue, Walt Woodward, and Natalie Belanger look at the people and places that have made a difference in CT history. New episodes every two weeks. A joint production of Connecticut Explored magazine and the CT State Historian Emeritus.

  1. HACE 6 DÍAS

    Sports Heaven: The Birth of ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut

    If you are driving in Bristol, Connecticut-maybe you're going to Lake Compounce Amusement Park - and suddenly you spy a cluster of huge satellite dishes, you might wonder if space aliens had really landed. But what you've discovered is the home base of ESPN - originally entitled the Entertainment & Sports Programming Network - shortened to ESPN in 1985.   Every year tens of millions of fans watch ESPN but 47 years ago, a 24-hour sports television cable network was considered a wild and impossible idea. Our guests on this episode are the authors of the new audiobook SPORTS HEAVEN: The Birth of ESPN  published by Hachette Audio on April 7, 2026.   Historian Mike Soltys was hired in the summer of 1980 as a college intern by ESPN's founder, Bill Rasmussen, and served 43 years in ESPN's corporate communications department, the last 20 as a vice president. He returned to ESPN in 2024 as a part-time Historian.  Mike is serving as producer of a documentary Sports Heaven: The Birth of ESPN and co-author of  the  accompanying book.   Garrett Sutton is an attorney and best-selling author of business and entrepreneurial books. He is co-author with Mike of Sports Heaven and is also the Executive Producer of the documentary film.   ------------------------------------- Don't forget to subscribe to Connecticut Explored magazine today-our summer issue is full of fun ideas for daytrips and staycations! And set up your monthly donation to Grating the Nutmeg at ctexplored.org This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at www.highwattagemedia.com/   Follow GTN on our socials-Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky. Follow host and executive producer on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!

    30 min
  2. 227. Pioneering Woman Sculptor Evelyn Beatrice Longman

    1 ABR

    227. Pioneering Woman Sculptor Evelyn Beatrice Longman

    I've got a story about an artist that I've been obsessed with for years. In this episode, Patricia Hoerth Batchelder talks about her new biography of Evelyn Beatrice Longman, The Woman Who Sculpted Golden Boy, Thomas Edison, and Other Monuments. Poor, motherless at five, and uneducated after elementary school, Longman made the highly ambitious claim at nineteen that she could create monumental sculpture. The book tells the story of how she created beauty, moved into upper class society, and succeeded in a field of art that was overwhelmingly dominated by men. Ms. Batchelder has worked for The Washington Star and written for The Tulsa Tribune before co-writing her father's memoir. She is married to Nathaniel Horton Batchelder III, the grandson of sculptor Evelyn Beatrice Longman Batchelder. Look for Evelyn Beatrice Longman, The Woman Who Sculpted Golden Boy, Thomas Edison, and Other Monuments by Patricia Batchelder and published in 2025 on Amazon or at your favorite bookstore. It's also available at the publisher's website, Bloomsbury.com. There are two places I'd encourage you to visit when the weather warms up. The first is the Spanish-American War Memorial in Hartford's Bushnell Park. It's on the south side on Elm Street-if you go at lunch time, there might be food trucks. The second is Chesterwood, sculptor Daniel Chester French's summer estate in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It's only a smidge over the Connecticut border in the Berkshires and is run as a museum property by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Here's the website: chesterwood.org/   -------------------------------------------- Don't forget to subscribe to Connecticut Explored magazine today-our summer issue is full of fun ideas for daytrips and staycations! Remember, you can help us celebrate our 10th anniversary and keep the podcast alive by pledging $10 dollars a month. It's easy to set up a monthly donation on our website at ctexplored.org/ Connecticut history matters - be part of it! This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at highwattagemedia.com/   Follow GTN on our socials-Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky. Follow executive producer Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!

    36 min
  3. 226. Abby (and Julia) Smith and Their Cows

    15 MAR

    226. Abby (and Julia) Smith and Their Cows

    Last year, in Episode 217, listeners were introduced to Hannah Smith. Born in 1767, Hannah was the matriarch of the non-conformist Smith Family of Glastonbury. In the 2020s, her diaries inspired Leonard Raybon, a music professor at Tulane, to compose an original mini-musical based on her writings. You can view the debut performance of "Hannah and Her Daughters"  here.    This episode focuses on the next generation of the Smith family. Hannah Hickock married Zephaniah Smith of Glastonbury in 1786, and their marriage produced five daughters. Two of the daughters became nationally famous in the 1870s, around the time of the Bicentennial, for their stance in favor of women's suffrage. Natalie Belanger is joined by Diane Hoover, Education Director of the Glastonbury Historical Society, who told her about the Smith sisters' upbringing, their many talents, and how the two youngest became involved in the suffrage fight – in a protest that centered around their pet cows. You'll also hear about Julia Smith's achievements as a Biblical scholar, and how a romantic entanglement at the age of 87 provides a rather sad end to her remarkable life.   Image: Portrait of Abby and Julia Smith, c. 1877, Library of Congress   -------------------------------- Like Grating the Nutmeg? Want to support it? Make a donation! 100% of the funds from your donation go directly to the production and promotion of the show. Go to ctexplored.org to send your donation now.   This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at highwattagemedia.com/   Follow GTN on our socials-Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky.   Follow executive producer Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!

    24 min
  4. 225. On Trial: Alfred Marder and Catherine Roraback - A Communist's Arrest in 1950's McCarthy-era New Haven (10th Anniversary Encore Release)

    15 FEB

    225. On Trial: Alfred Marder and Catherine Roraback - A Communist's Arrest in 1950's McCarthy-era New Haven (10th Anniversary Encore Release)

    Grating the Nutmeg is 10 years old! In celebration of our 10th anniversary, we are bringing you a remastered and re-edited edition of an episode we recorded in 2016 at the New Haven Museum with Alfred Marder, Judge Andrew Roraback and his father Charles Roraback. This compelling first-person interview with Alfred Marder shares his experiences as a defendant in New Haven's Smith trial. Mr. Marder died in 2023 at the age of 101. He was defended by civil rights attorney Catherine Roraback, an inductee in the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame. In 1954, 32-year-old Alfred Marder was arrested in New Haven along with several others under the Smith Act for allegedly working to overthrow the US government. After a lengthy trial, during which he was defended by the celebrated civil rights lawyer Catherine Roraback, he was acquitted. Hear Mr. Marder tell in his own words what he was fighting for and what it feels like when the full power of the state, federal, and local government is aimed at you. This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at highwattagemedia.com/   Follow GTN on our socials-Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky. Follow executive producer Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!

    56 min
  5. Scholar, Activist, Trailblazer: The Enduring Legacy of Dr. Lorenzo Greene

    30 ENE

    Scholar, Activist, Trailblazer: The Enduring Legacy of Dr. Lorenzo Greene

    Connecticut is a small state that has had a huge national impact. In this episode, we celebrate someone that we are proud to say was born in Connecticut and went on to be a pioneering historian in Black history. Dr. Lorenzo Johnston Greene received his BA in from Howard University in 1924, his MA from Columbia University in 1926 and his Ph.D. in 1942. He was born in Ansonia, Connecticut. We can learn more about his family from the 1900 federal census record. His father Willie was born in 1858 in Virginia before the end of slavery, and his mother was born in West Virginia in 1870. Both came to Connecticut and by the time Lorenzo was born in 1899, he had five older brothers and sisters. The census states that both of his parents can read and write and their children are in school.  By the time of the 1920 census, Lorenz has two older brothers who work in a brass mill.   What made Lorenzo want to go to college and become a historian? When did he work with Dr. Carter Woodson, the "Father of Black History" and what were Greene's own lasting contributions to the study of Black history?   Our guest is Dr. Stacey Close, Associate Vice Provost and Vice President of Equity and Diversity at Eastern Connecticut State University. Dr. Close is a co-author of African American Connecticut Explored, published by Wesleyan University Press, and a noted authority on Hartford and the Great Migration.  You can learn more about that in GTN episode: #181. Hartford and the Great Migration, 1914-1950.   One last thing about Dr. Greene. In the 1930 federal census, he is 31 years old and working for Dr. Woodson as a field representative and research assistant. Greene lists his job as "Historical Investigating Officer" - he had such a strong sense of his mission even as a young man during the depths of the Great Depression. Thank you to Dr. Close. And thank you for listening! We'll be back in two weeks with another episode of Grating the Nutmeg. History matters - be part of it. --------------------------------------- This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at highwattagemedia.com/   Follow GTN on our socials - Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky.   Follow executive producer Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!

    28 min
  6. The 'Great Temperance Times' in Nineteenth-Century Black Connecticut

    14 ENE

    The 'Great Temperance Times' in Nineteenth-Century Black Connecticut

    At first glance, alcohol and racial equality might seem unrelated—but for Black activists, the temperance movement was a powerful vehicle for social change. In this episode of Grating the Nutmeg, Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Museum chats with Mackenzie Tor about her research into Black temperance activism in 1830s and 1840s Connecticut. Mackenzie talks about how people like Maria Stewart, James Pennington, and the Beman family used temperance as a strategy for civic inclusion. Through their words and organizing efforts, from newspaper columns to church halls, abstaining from the bottle became a radical tool for political belonging in the hands of Connecticut's Black communities. She also discusses the flip side of this – how accusations of intemperance could be wielded to bring down successful Black men, like New Haven's William Lanson, when their business and civic ventures threatened the power of white elites.     Mackenzie, a PhD Candidate in History at the University of Missouri, did research for this project at the Connecticut Museum as part of the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium. Learn more about the Consortium and the support it provides for scholars here:  masshist.org/fellowships/nerfc    To find out how William Lanson changed the face of New Haven, see this CT Explored article by Stacey Close: ctexplored.org/william-lanson-an-artisan-who-built-beyond-structures/    You can read more about Stewart, Pennington, and the Bemans here: ctexplored.org/site-lines-black-abolitionists-speak/    Finally, here's a link to watch Mackenzie Tor give a more detailed look at the research she did at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History's Waterman Research Center on this topic: youtube.com/watch?v=bYi9JAqouTE&t=2510s    Caption image #1: The Colored American newspaper, 1841. Caption Image #2: The Tree of Temperance, Currier and Ives, 1872, Library of Congress.    ----------------------------------------   Like Grating the Nutmeg? Want to support it? Make a donation! 100% of the funds from your donation go directly to the production and promotion of the show. Go to ctexplored.org to send your donation now.   This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at highwattagemedia.com/   Follow GTN on our socials-Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky.   Follow executive producer Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!

    42 min

  7. 01/12/2025

    Cabbage Patch Kids and West Hartford's Toymaker Coleco

    During this holiday season, it seems like the perfect time to bring you the story of one of the bestselling toys ever - Cabbage Patch Kids! Inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame in 2023, Cabbage Patch Kids set every toy industry sales record for three years running from 1983-86, and has become one of the longest-running doll franchises in the United States. How did a Connecticut company produce the hottest toy of the 1980s - and then go broke? The license to produce Cabbage Patch Kids has gone through a record 7 toy companies. This episode is on the Coleco years - the toymaker with their headquarters in West Hartford.  Host Mary Donohue will share her experience buying the dolls and  Natalie Belanger, Grating the Nutmeg producer from the Connecticut Museum of Culture & History, her own childhood experience playing with the Cabbage Patch Kids. It's hard to believe after such a successful toy, but Coleco Industries were bankrupt by 1989.  The Hartford Courant published numerous full-page stories about what had gone wrong. The Courant reported that "With its revenues dropping and its debt mounting, Coleco faced some critical decisions. Toy industry analysts said the company should have  slowed its spending, cut expenses and waited for sales to improve. Instead, Coleco chose to borrow more and spend more, trying to develop a product to rival Cabbage Patch Kids. But the new toys it introduced-Rambo action figures, Furskins stuffed bears, a talking Cabbage Patch doll and Starcom space toys for boys sold only moderately well." Find out more in this episode!   ------------------------------------------ To subscribe to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, visit simplecirc.com/subscribe/connecticut-explored To watch Connecticut's Hidden Gems on YouTube, visit ctpublic.org/watch/local-programming/connecticut-hidden-gems We did it! Thanks to our listeners, Grating the Nutmeg is celebrating our 10th anniversary. With over 200,000 streams, over 200 episodes and heard in over 50 countries, Grating the Nutmeg brings CT's big stories to listeners around the world! We're planning our 2026 calendar now and need your support. Help us celebrate our 10th anniversary milestone by pledging $10 a month or making a $100 donation now on our website at ctexplored.org. History matters-be part of it! This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/   Follow GTN on our socials-Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky. Follow executive producer Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!

    22 min

  8. 14/11/2025

    New Haven's Lt. Augusto Rodríguez, First Civil War Soldier from Puerto Rico

    More than twenty thousand Hispanic Americans served in the Civil War. When Cuban-born Loreta Velázquez's husband would not allow her to join him on the battlefield, she assumed the role of First Lieutenant Harry T. Buford to be near him. Philip Bazaar, born in Chile, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his courageous exploits during the assault of Fort Fisher. The spying efforts of Floridian Maria Dolores Sánchez and her two sisters led to a Union defeat at the Battle of Horse Landing.    Delving into the lives of these individuals, historian A.J. Schenkman, author of Hispanic Americans of the Civil War, published by the History Press in 2025, uncovers this often-overlooked aspect of Civil War history. Hispanic soldiers came from different countries. Mexico had declared its independence from Spain in 1821 and later abolished slavery in 1837. Some soldiers and sailors traced their families to Cuba and Puerto Rico, which were still part of Spain. Or from Spain itself or its other colonies.    In this episode, Schenkman uncovers a bombshell story about New Haven's Augusto Rodríguez, the first known Civil War soldier from Puerto Rico. When this story was published in the Summer 2025 issue of Connecticut Explored magazine, the phone started to ring off the hook. Television news channels and newspapers quickly picked up this remarkable story.  Grating the Nutmeg has covered the courageous Puerto Rican men of the 65th regiment founded in 1899 when Puerto Rico became a United States territory in episode #184 but not someone this early in our military history.   A. J. Schenkman is a New York-based writer. He is a social studies teacher in Ulster County, New York, and a former municipal historian. Schenkman is also author of several books about local, regional, and national history. He currently writes for Litchfield and Dutchess Magazines, as well as the Shawangunk Journal.   To contact A.J. Schenkman, visit his website at https://www.ajschenkman.com/   To subscribe to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, visit https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/connecticut-explored   To watch Connecticut's Hidden Gems on YouTube, visit https://www.ctpublic.org/watch/local-programming/connecticut-hidden-gems   ------------------------------------- This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at highwattagemedia.com/   Follow GTN on our socials-Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky.   Follow executive producer Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!

    25 min
Ver todo (236)

4.8
de 5
53 calificaciones

Acerca de

Connecticut is a small state with big stories. GTN episodes include top-flight historians, compelling first-person stories and new voices in Connecticut history. Executive Producers Mary Donohue, Walt Woodward, and Natalie Belanger look at the people and places that have made a difference in CT history. New episodes every two weeks. A joint production of Connecticut Explored magazine and the CT State Historian Emeritus.

Información

  • Creador
    Connecticut Explored Magazine
  • Años de actividad
    2015 - 2026
  • Episodios
    236
  • Clasificación
    Apto
  • Mostrar sitio web
    Grating the Nutmeg

También te podría interesar