Harvard Professor John Stauffer joins us to discuss the history of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and its significance and meanings for American culture. He shows that it’s a song that unites and divides the country, and that it has been used by many different groups in American social and political life. It’s a fascinating interview that takes …

Please join us as talk history with Joe Coohill, Creator and Host of the popular podcast "Professor Buzzkill". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

American folk singers, Sparky and Rhonda Rucker, discuss their popular and historically significant “Glory Hallelujah Suite” as part of our Julia Ward Howe/Battle Hymn of the Republic week. Learn about “Say Brothers Will You Meet Us?” “John Brown’s Body,” “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and the “Marching Song of the First Arkansas Colored Regime…

Julia Ward Howe led one of the most significant lives in US history. She was a poet, feminist, political reformer, champion of international pacifism, and much more. Dr. Elaine Showalter joins us to discuss Julia Ward Howe’s life, and the various civil wars she witnessed and had to fight. From composing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” to writing …

We’re dedicating this week to shows about Julia Ward Howe and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” She wrote it in 1862 during America’s most serious crisis. As the 2024 Presidential Election looms, we’re facing another threat to our liberties and our future. We need something inspirational, something like Julia Ward Howe offered the nation during th…

Ned Kelly is Australia’s most famous outlaw. A mix of frontier bandit, murderer, and gang leader, Kelly has gone down in Australian lore as an anti-establishment hero. Dr. Lachlan Strahan tells the story of his great-great-grandfather, Anthony Strahan, who was one of the Australian policemen who helped hunt down Ned Kelly. Listen to this fascinatin…

Norman Holmes Pearson actually did what a great many professors dream about doing. He was an expert in his field, but he also worked as an Intelligence Officer for the US military during World War II and the Cold War. And he wasn’t a desk jockey, but an active spy. Despite a major physical disability, he parachuted into Europe during the height of …

Buzzkill Genius Dr. Philip Nash brings us a fabulous (and very relevant) show on the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. There's so much more to those events than the standard "eye-ball-to-eye-ball" story would have us believe. Among many other things, we learn why the Cold War was so cold. You'll understand so much more after listening. Encore Episode.…

All wars are bad. But why was World War II so extreme? Coming less than 20 years after World War I (the most extreme war up until that time), the Second World War’s death toll is _conservatively_ calculated at 60 million people. And some estimates are higher than that. Professor Phil Nash joins us to explain why the death and destruction were so se…

Professor Philip Nash continues his excellent analysis of the famous Battle of Stalingrad. The grim complications in the details of the history of this battle give us perfect insight into the nature of warfare during this period. Dr. Nash finishes up by explaining how the Battle of Stalingrad fits into the larger period of late 1943-1943, when the …

Stalingrad. Even just the name of the city conjures up images of a brutal, months-long battle that helped change the course of the war. Professor Nash discusses the background of the battle, Hitler’s intent in attacking that part of the Soviet Union, and how the Red Army defended the area and built up the resilience to counterattack. Part 1 is fasc…

Join us as we discuss cases of Mass Hysteria! Written by: Tim Scott Hosted by: Brandy Herrmann, Chuck Walters, Leanne Scott and Tim Scott Produced by: Leanne Scott Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

German soldiers were kept in the Soviet Union until the late 1950s. Professor Grunewald explains why the Soviets kept the POWs after the war, what they did with them, and why they were incarcerated for so long. Was it retribution for the millions of Soviet war dead? Were the German POWs used as a necessary labor force, helping to rebuild the Soviet…

This 2024 Presidential election has brought the question of “birthright citizenship” up again in the United States, because Donald Trump has questioned whether Kamala Harris is a citizen. Her parents were not born in the United States, and he thinks that disqualifies her to be President. This episode explains birthright citizenship and how it devel…

In this episode we take a look at the story of Valentina Vassilyeva who allegedly had 69 children. written by Tim Scott Hosted By Tim Scott, Brandy Hermann, Charles Walters and Leanne Scott Produced and edited by Leanne Scott Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did “image” play a role in the famous presidential debates of 1960? Did Richard Nixon appear sick and frail, compared to a hale and healthy John Kennedy? The standard story is that he did; and that it affected the way people perceived him, and how they voted. But how much of this is true, and how much in urban legend? We examine the whole thing, wi…

Slave trading continued in the south during the Civil War. Between Fort Sumter to Appomattox, Confederates bought and sold thousands of African-American men, women, and children. These transactions in humanity made the internal slave trade a cornerstone of Confederate society, a bulwark of the Rebel economy, and a central part of the experience of …

In this episode we take a look at the painful death of Thomas Jefferson. Written by Tim Scott Produced by Leanne Scott Hosted by Tim Scott, Chuck Walters, Brandy Hermann and Leanne Scott Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Professor Nash tells us about wives and lovers of leading Nazis, women who participated in Nazi crimes, and women who worked against the Nazi regime. We look at everyone from Eva Braun, Hitler’s partner, to Sophie Scholl, one of the leaders of the White Rose resistance to the Nazi state. This episode shows that German women as a whole were a repres…

The treatment and status of women under Hitler and the Nazis is fascinating, in all the wrong ways. If the Nazi reputation wasn’t bad enough, the detail presented in this episode shows that there’s no bottom to their depravity. Professor Philip Nash explains all in the first part of a major two-part series. These are among our best shows ever! Epis…