Stan’s guest this week is historian Glenn McNair, talking about his life and career in law enforcement—as a Savannah police officer, Secret Service agent, with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms—his 25 years as teacher and historian at Kenyon College, and his 16-year tenure as editor of the Georgia Historical Quarterly, the scholarly journal of the Georgia Historical Society.
As part of GHS’s ongoing commemoration of the US250, Stan’s guest this week is author and historian Ryan L. Cole, discussing his new book, The Last Adieu: Lafayette’s Triumphant Return, the Echoes of Revolution, and the Gratitude of the Republic (Harper Horizon, 2025). The Marquis de Lafayette arrived in America in 1777 to fight in Washington’s army, becoming a major general at age 19. In 1824, the “Hero of Two Worlds” returned on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the American Revolution, one of the last living links to that momentous event. Lafayette traveled more than 6,000 miles across all 24 states, reminding Americans of their Revolutionary heritage just in time for the country’s Golden Jubilee.
Stan’s guest this week is Larry Thompson, former Deputy Attorney General of the United States during the administration of President George W. Bush, and author of a recently published memoir, Quiet Counsel: Looking Back on a Life of Service to the Law (Disruption Books, 2024). Larry—who also serves on the GHS Board of Curators—discusses his childhood in segregated Missouri, his remarkable parents, attending law school at the University of Michigan, his service as United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, his work at the Justice Department, his memories of 9/11, and the importance of the rule of law as we approach the US250.
As part of GHS’s ongoing US250 commemoration, Stan’s guest this week is author and historian Andrew Burstein, talking about his new book, Being Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History (Bloomsbury, 2026). Burstein is a nationally recognized authority on Jefferson, the author of ten books, co-author of two others, recently retired as Charles P. Manship Professor of History at LSU. He advised and served as on-air commentator on Ken Burns’ acclaimed 1997 film, Thomas Jefferson. His new book is “the deepest dive yet into the heart and soul, secret affairs, unexplored alliances, and bitter feuds of this generally worshipped, intermittently reviled American icon.” Perhaps no founding father is as mysterious as Thomas Jefferson. What did it feel like to be Thomas Jefferson?
Stan’s guest this week is Marci Pelzer, Dan Pelzer’s daughter, who talks about her father, his reading habits, and what it was like growing up with the man whose now-famous reading list of 3,599 books has inspired a whole new generation of readers across the world.
