What Exit? The New Jersey History Podcast

What Exit? The New Jersey History Podcast
  • 4.8 (20)
  • HISTORY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

What Exit? is the original New Jersey history podcast that uniquely weaves original, author-written historical fiction directly into rigorous historical research, using narrative storytelling to explore battles, politics, industry, immigration, folklore, foodways, and the state’s many legends and hauntings. The show examines New Jersey’s past through the roads, conflicts, and choices that shaped it. As part of an eight-year partnership with Revolution NJ, the organization overseeing the United States’ 250th birthday in New Jersey, the podcast places special emphasis on New Jersey’s role as the crossroads of the American Revolution. Email us with questions, suggestions, and collaboration ideas: njhistorypodcast@gmail.com

  1. The Jersey Girl in the Blue and White Box: Mrs. Entenmann

    2D AGO

    The Jersey Girl in the Blue and White Box: Mrs. Entenmann

    You've opened that white box with blue script lettering a thousand times. The coffee crumb cake. The chocolate fudge-iced cake. The glazed donuts that disappeared before the guests even sat down. But did you ever stop to wonder who put it there? This week on the New Jersey History Podcast, we're telling the story of Martha Schneider — born 1906 on Jefferson Street in Hoboken, New Jersey, the daughter of a German immigrant baker from Jersey City. She left Hudson County at 19, married into the Entenmann family on Long Island, and when her husband William Entenmann Jr. died in 1951, she took over the company and changed American food culture forever. She embraced the see-through cellophane window on the box. She brought Entenmann's factories and outlet stores back to New Jersey — Little Falls, Edison, Blackwood. And when the company went public in 1976, her face was on the stock certificate. Oh — and Frank Sinatra? Also from Hoboken. Standing weekly order for the crumb coffee cake—every single week. This is a story about immigrant families, Hudson County tenements, female entrepreneurship before anyone called it that, and the little white box that sat on every New Jersey kitchen table when company came over.

    18 min
  2. "The Mecca of the Show World": The Latin Casino

    4D AGO

    "The Mecca of the Show World": The Latin Casino

    Before Atlantic City. Before the mega-arenas. There was a room on Route 70 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey where Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sammy Davis Jr. took the stage. The Latin Casino was a 2,000-seat dinner theater that became one of the most celebrated entertainment venues in America — and most people outside of South Jersey have never heard of it. In this episode, we tell the full story. How it started in Philadelphia. What a night there actually looked like. Who played it, what it cost, and what happened when Atlantic City changed everything. Plus — how the same room that hosted Sinatra became Emerald City Disco, and the rock club where The Cure played their first American show. This is South Jersey history. This is American entertainment history. And it all happened on a highway in Cherry Hill.

    23 min
  3. Italian American Roots — Episode 2: Macaroni Made Well: Sartori, Bonaparte & Jefferson

    FEB 12

    Italian American Roots — Episode 2: Macaroni Made Well: Sartori, Bonaparte & Jefferson

    This episode opens with a short fictional vignette set at the edge of order and wilderness, then turns to the historical record. At its center is Giovanni Battista Sartori, an Italian pasta maker operating a commercial works in Trenton in the early 1800s—supplying elite households, including Thomas Jefferson, navigating Atlantic trade during the Embargo Act, and remaining prominent when Joseph Bonaparte, former King of Naples, arrived in New Jersey in exile. Food becomes the through-line: a way to trace power, foreignness, faith, and continuity in a young state already plugged into global networks. The Jersey Devil appears not as a legend to be explained, but as a witness to a world in transition. Email me: njhistorypodcast@gmail.com #NewJerseyHistory #ItalianAmericanHistory #Foodways Selected Sources: United States House of Representatives. Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, 10th Cong., 2nd sess.November 25, 1808. Thomas Jefferson. Memorandum of Payments. November 29, 1809.Monticello, Thomas Jefferson Foundation.(Records payment to John B. Sartori of Trenton for two boxes of macaroni, 25 lbs each.) ———. Correspondence referencing supply from “Sartori’s works at Trenton.” 1809.Monticello, Thomas Jefferson Foundation.

    39 min
  4. Italian American Roots- Episode One: Before the Neighborhood

    FEB 9

    Italian American Roots- Episode One: Before the Neighborhood

    Before Italian neighborhoods, parishes, and pizza on the boardwalk, there was a quieter beginning. This episode explores the story of Giovanni Battista Sartori, widely regarded as the first Italian immigrant to settle in New Jersey around 1800. Arriving alone in Trenton, Sartori entered a place with no Italian community, no Catholic church, and no established space for what he brought with him. Through history and a brief fictional vignette, this episode examines how arrival shapes perception—how food, faith, and enterprise functioned as early infrastructure long before Italian American life became visible in neighborhoods across the state. It sets the lens for the series that follows. Email: njhistorypodcast@gmail.com #ItalianAmericanHistory #NewJerseyHistory #ImmigrationHistory #Foodways #RootsSeries Diocese of Trenton. History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Trenton. Trenton, NJ: Diocese of Trenton, n.d. Jefferson, Thomas. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Edited by Julian P. Boyd et al. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1950–. San Felese Society of New Jersey. “Early Italian Presence in Trenton.”

    24 min
  5. Before the Devil Had Wings Episode 7: Rito di Confine (Boundary Ritual)

    JAN 31

    Before the Devil Had Wings Episode 7: Rito di Confine (Boundary Ritual)

    This episode brings us into the Pines during Prohibition, when the Barrens are again sought to be used as a corridor. A visitor from Chicago works with a widow from North Jersey to contain the presence to stop it from growing and attracting unwanted visitors to the Pines. Eastern State Penitentiary, The Royal Pines Hotel, Lucy the Elephant, and bootleg booze all make an appearance. #folklore #prohibition #newjersey #pinebarrens #jerseydevil njhistorypodcast@gmail.com

    29 min
  6. New Jersey Foodways: Pork Roll vs. Taylor Ham

    JAN 29

    New Jersey Foodways: Pork Roll vs. Taylor Ham

    Is it pork roll or Taylor Ham—and why does anyone care this much? In this episode, we dig into New Jersey’s most stubborn breakfast argument, tracing the history of the product, the law behind its name, and the cultural muscle memory that keeps the fight alive. **The episode art features a "Fat Jovo," from Jovo's Deli in Brick, NJ. Email me: njhistorypodcast@gmail.com #PorkRoll #TaylorHam #NewJerseyHistory #FoodHistory #NJFoodCulture

    12 min
  7. Ya Sista's Ass: A Study in Emergency Language

    JAN 26

    Ya Sista's Ass: A Study in Emergency Language

    This episode explores how “ya sista’s ass” functions as a multipurpose interjection whose meaning depends entirely on tone, timing, and shared cultural understanding. We look at pronunciation, regional accent, in-group language, and why phrases like this rarely appear in dictionaries or archives—despite being used daily for generations. Drawing on family oral history, the episode traces the phrase’s likely mid-20th-century roots and examines how language is passed down not through books, but through kitchens, cars, and everyday life. Email me: njhistorypodcast@gmail.com #NewJerseyHistory #RegionalLanguage #OralHistory #NortheastCulture #LanguageAndMemory

    10 min
  8. New Jersey Foodways: The Diner

    JAN 25

    New Jersey Foodways: The Diner

    This is part of our ongoing "New Jersey Foodways" series, where we explore New Jersey's rich food culture. Many of the diners we think of as “local” were never built on site. In this episode, we explore New Jersey’s role as the center of prefabricated diner manufacturing, the companies that built them, and the Greek immigrant families who gave them permanence. From O’Mahony, Silk City, and Kullman diners to real, still-operating examples across New Jersey, this episode looks at diners not just as restaurants, but as manufactured buildings designed to move.

    38 min
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About

What Exit? is the original New Jersey history podcast that uniquely weaves original, author-written historical fiction directly into rigorous historical research, using narrative storytelling to explore battles, politics, industry, immigration, folklore, foodways, and the state’s many legends and hauntings. The show examines New Jersey’s past through the roads, conflicts, and choices that shaped it. As part of an eight-year partnership with Revolution NJ, the organization overseeing the United States’ 250th birthday in New Jersey, the podcast places special emphasis on New Jersey’s role as the crossroads of the American Revolution. Email us with questions, suggestions, and collaboration ideas: njhistorypodcast@gmail.com

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