Category Archives: Podcast

S9E13 Podcast: The American Revolution as a Global Conflict

As part of GHS’s ongoing US250 commemoration, Stan’s guest this week is historian and British native Richard Bell, talking about his new book, The American Revolution and the Fate of the World (Penguin/Riverhead, 2025), which offers a global perspective on the American independence movement. Bell puts the Revolution at the center of an international web, and his narrative ranges from Canada to the Caribbean, from India to Central America, and from West Florida to Australia. As his lens widens, the War of Independence becomes a sprawling struggle that upended the lives of millions of people on every continent and fundamentally transformed the way the world works, disrupting trade, restructuring penal systems, stirring famine, and creating the first global refugee crisis.

S9E12 Podcast: Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters

As part of GHS’s ongoing commemoration of the US250, Stan’s guest this week is author and historian Edward J. Larson, discussing his new book, Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters (WW Norton, 2026). At the beginning of 1776, virtually no one in the American colonies advocated for independence: Americans based their grievances against Parliament on their rights as British subjects. By the mid-point of 1776, the United States was an independent republic. How did it happen, why did they choose a republic and not another king, and what does it mean for us now, 250 years later?

S9E11 Podcast: The US 250

Stan’s guest this week is GHS President and CEO Dr. Todd Groce, talking about the 250th anniversary of the United States, upcoming this year on July 4, 2026. What does this anniversary mean for our country and its people, especially given the divisive times in which we live? We’ll discuss the ongoing legacy of the Revolution and what GHS is doing to commemorate this important anniversary.

S9E10 Podcast: The 2025 Reading Year in Review

This week Stan kicks off the new year by reviewing his reading in 2025: how many books and pages, fiction and non-fiction, as well as the other ways he works reading into his life: audiobooks, podcasts, blogs, newspapers, and magazines. He also revisits and offers tips on age-old reading problems, including: setting reading goals (or not), how to get more reading into your life, reading in a distracted age, suffering from reading guilt and how to conquer it, and more.

S9E9 Podcast: What Dan Read, Part 2: A Conversation with Dan’s Daughter Marci Pelzer

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.