Category Archives: Writers

S10E7 Podcast: The Extraordinary Life of Lillian Smith

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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.

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

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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.

S9E16 Podcast: The Last Adieu: Lafayette’s Triumphant Return

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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.

S9E7 Podcast: Storyteller: The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson

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Stan’s guest this week is author Leo Damrosch of Harvard University, discussing Storyteller: The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson (Yale University Press), his new biography of the author of Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Kidnapped. Stevenson’s short but adventurous life matched the magic of his writing. Damrosch discusses how Stevenson in his 44 years wrote 11 novels and hundreds of essays and poems, while creating some of the most memorable characters in literature: Long John Silver, Jim Hawkins, Dr. Livesay, Squire Trelawny, Billy Bones, Ben Gunn, David Balfour, Alan Stewart, Henry Jekyll, Edward Hyde, and scores of others.

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S9E6 Podcast: Tom Johnson: From LBJ to CNN

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Stan’s guest this week is Georgia native and journalist Tom Johnson, whose remarkable career took him from Macon, where he worked for legendary newspaperman Peyton Anderson, to UGA’s Grady College of Journalism, to White House Fellow during President Lyndon Johnson’s administration, to publisher of the Los Angeles Times, and finally as president of CNN during the crucial years of the 1990s during the invasion of Kuwait and the fall of the Soviet Union. Tom talks about his new memoir, Driven: A Life in Public Service and Journalism from LBJ to CNN, published this month by the University of Georgia Press.

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