Tag Archives: podcast

S10E7 Podcast: The Extraordinary Life of Lillian Smith

Stan’s guest this week is author and historian Keri Leigh Merritt, discussing her new book, An Inconvenient Woman: The Extraordinary Life of Lillian Smith, the Southerner Who Defied Jim Crow America (St. Martin’s Press, 2026). Smith, born in 1897, was a white Southern woman living in the Jim Crow South who defied all stereotypes: she passionately championed racial equality and integration while living openly with her partner, Paula, at their home atop Old Screamer Mountain in Clayton, Georgia. Best known as the author of Strange Fruit (1944) and Killers of the Dream (1949), she continued to fight for both civil and human rights—all while receiving death threats—until her death in 1966.

S10E6 Podcast: A New History of Lewis & Clark

Stan’s guest this week is historian Craig Fehrman, author of This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis & Clark (Avid Reader Press, 2026), an exciting new history of the Corps of Discovery. Thirty years after Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage, Fehrman offers a fresh and more accurate account of one of the most important episodes in American history, humanizing forgotten figures and shattering long-held myths.

S10E5 Podcast: Out of the Ballpark: How to Think About Baseball

Stan welcomes back to the podcast historian David Henkin of the University of California, Berkeley, to talk about his latest book, Out of the Ballpark: How to Think About Baseball (Oxford University Press, 2026). Henkin strips away the mythology that has accumulated around baseball in the United States and rejects the notion that understanding the game requires focusing solely on what happens on the diamond, choosing instead to explore the game’s history, it’s obsession with rulebooks and statistics, the game’s “clubs” and “leagues,” mass media, and the international appeal of this wonderful and enduring pastime.

S10E4 Podcast: Contested Continent: The Oxford History of the United States

Stan’s guest this week is distinguished historian Peter Mancall of the University of Southern California, author of Contested Continent: The Struggle for North America, c.1000 – 1680, the new and first volume in the renowned Oxford History of the United States series. Contested Continent recounts the origins of “America” and how it came to birth the United States, from the Viking expeditions to the end of the 17th century. The Oxford History of the United States is the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, two New York Times bestsellers, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. Mancall recounts how North America was forged from the experiences of millions of Indigenous, European, and African women and men, from the Arctic to the West Indies.

S10E3 Podcast: Whitfield Remembrance Project

Stan’s guests this week are three members of the Whitfield Remembrance Project, a community remembrance initiative in Dalton, Georgia, inspired by the Equal Justice Initiative. Their mission is to honor victims of racial injustice in Whitfield County, beginning with efforts to memorialize the last known lynching in Whitfield. Their current project focuses on honoring Juliette Derricotte, a gifted speaker, educator, and peacemaker who died in 1931 after a car accident near Dalton, when segregation prevented her from being taken to a whites-only hospital.