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PODCAST

The Road to Now

RTN Productions

Bob Crawford (The Avett Brothers) & Dr. Ben Sawyer (MTSU History) share conversations with great thinkers from a variety of backgrounds – historians, artists, legal scholars, political figures and more –who help us uncover the many roads that run between past and present. For more information, visit TheRoadToNow.com If you"d like to support our work, join us on Patreon: Patreon.com/TheRoadToNow

history

All Episodes

40:55

Photographing the President w/ Pete Souza

The Road to Now ·

2023/11/27

As the person responsible for documenting the Obama Administration, Pete Souza spent more time with Barack Obama than almost anyone else, which left him with some deep in sights on Obama and the office of the Presidency. In this episode, Pete joins Bob for a conversation about his work as Chief Official White House Photographer, the state of American politics, and the power of photography. Pete’s most recent book, Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents (Little, Brown, & Co, 2018) uses photography to

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55:59

Faith in Freedom w/ Andrew Polk

The Road to Now ·

2023/11/20

Faith has played an important role in American history, but not always in the ways we’d expect. In this episode, Andy Polk joins Bob and Ben to explain how politicians, advertising executives and public relations experts bypassed America’s religious leaders, ignored theological debates, and dismissed historical evidence to fabricate and sell a story of America’s religious origins that served their own political needs. That story remains with us today so, to quote the title of Andy’s op-ed in The

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51:18

#290 The Circus: An Exit Interview w/ Mark McKinnon

The Road to Now ·

2023/11/13

Bob welcomes Mark McKinnon for an exit interview about his work as co-producer and co-host of The Circus. Showtime announced last week that after eight seasons and 130 episodes this would be the final season of the political docuseries. Mark reflects on chronicling American political history as it happened from 2016 to 2023, during a turbulent period in American history that includes the rise of Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, a once in a century pandemic, and the largest war in Europe since WWII

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01:06:00

Monsanto’s Past, Our Future w/ Bart Elmore

The Road to Now ·

2023/11/06

Monsanto’s Past, Our Future w/ Bart Elmore The Monsanto Company officially ceased to exist when it was acquired by Bayer in 2018, but its legacy lives on in courtrooms, factory towns and farms across the globe. Today the company’s name is most associated with the herbicide Roundup and genetically modified seeds, but Monsanto also served as a leading producer of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, an essential supplier of caffeine and saccharin to Coca-Cola in Coke’s early years, and the sole US

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49:39

#289 The Dead Bodies in Your Favorite Museum w/ Tanya...

The Road to Now ·

2023/10/30

Two things you probably don’t know: 1) your favorite museum probably holds human remains and 2) it’s completely legal to sell human bones on the internet. Not surprisingly, those two things have caused a lot of controversy. In this episode, Tanya Marsh joins Ben for a conversation about recent developments in the legal-social-political nexus of dead bodies; the controversy surrounding the acquisition and treatment of human remains in American museums and what we’ll simply call “the Harvard morgue

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50:46

#288 Ukraine and Russia: The History Behind the War...

The Road to Now ·

2023/10/23

When Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, he and many others assumed that Russia’s “special operation” would end in a quick victory. Eighteen months later, an independent Ukraine stands strong, while Russia’s position has grown so weak that Putin has begun working to develop closer ties with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Why has Ukraine been so resilient, and why has Putin remained committed to a war that has done so much damage to Russia? The answer has everything

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50:52

#287 Robert Hanssen: The FBI’s Most Damaging Spy w/...

The Road to Now ·

2023/10/16

FBI agent Robert Hanssen was one of the most damaging spies in US history. From 1979 to 2001, Hanssen delivered some of the United States governments’ most sensitive secrets to Soviet and Russian agents, who used them to not only undermine US national security, but to identify and execute individuals who were working with the FBI. And despite an awareness of spies working within the FBI, Hanssen managed to operate for more than two decades before finally getting caught. In this episode we speak

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45:14

#286 Rounder Records and the Transformation of...

The Road to Now ·

2023/10/09

From its founding in 1970, Rounder Records was different. What started as the passion project for three New England music lovers who wanted to preserve and proselytize folk and roots music, eventually grew into a record label with an eclectic catalogue featuring long-forgotten bands, promising musicians such as George Thorogood and Allison Krauss, and even an album just called “Hollerin’” (which is exactly what it says it is). Along the way, Rounder Records became indispensable in transforming

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51:03

#285 The American Buffalo w/ Dayton Duncan

The Road to Now ·

2023/10/02

In the late 18th century, tens of millions of buffalo lived in North America. By the mid-1880s, they were on the brink of extinction. For the white settlers who sought to “conquer” the American west, and the Native people whose way of life depended on them, the plight of the American Buffalo was more than a story of one species of animal. As Dayton Duncan writes in the prologue of his new book Blood Memory, the buffalo has “emerged as an embodiment of the nation’s contradictory relationship with

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52:18

# 284 Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell on Americana Music

The Road to Now ·

2023/09/25

What is Americana music? Is it a genre? A community? A refuge? Twenty four years after the founding of the Americana Music Association and thirteen years since the first Grammy was awarded for Best Americana Album, defining “Americana” remains tricky. In our experience, the most common answer has been “you know it when you hear it.” However you define it, however, there is one thing everyone agrees on: Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell are Americana legends. In this episode, recorded in front of

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50:17

Celebrating Levon Helm w/ John Barry & Larry Campbell

The Road to Now ·

2023/09/18

Although he passed away a decade ago, Levon Helm is still the voice of Americana music. Always will be, in my opinion. Levon was drummer for The Band, collaborator with Bob Dylan, actor, husband, father, and friend. In his new book, Levon Helm: Rock, Roll, Ramble, author John Barry gives a first-hand account of Levon’s struggles with cancer and financial ruin that led to the legendary Midnight Rambles concerts at his home in Woodstock, New York. On this episode of the Road to Now, Bob celebrates the

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51:48

#283 The Singers Talk w/ Jason Thomas Gordon

The Road to Now ·

2023/09/11

Jason Thomas Gordon spent nearly a decade interviewing some of the greatest vocalists in modern music to find out about their earliest experiences singing, the voices that influenced them growing up, and how they learned to find their own unique voice. In his new book, The Singers Talk: The Greatest Singers of Our Time Discuss the One Thing They're Never Asked About: Their Voices, Jason shares some of the insights from his conversations with more than seventy artists from diverse genres, including

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47:59

The Kinks w/ Mark Doyle

The Road to Now ·

2023/09/04

The Kinks are one of the great rock bands of the 20th century and, like all artists, they reflect the times and places they’ve inhabited. In this episode, we speak with Mark Doyle about his excellent book The Kinks: Songs of the Semi-Detached (Reaktion Books, 2020) and how the band, their origins, and Ray Davies’ lyrics reveal a lot about both the real and imagined spaces of mid-20th Century England. Dr. Mark Doyle is Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University, where he specializes

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52:05

#282 Tecumseh & William Henry Harrison’s Struggle for...

The Road to Now ·

2023/08/28

The war between the US Army and the Native American confederation during the war of 1812 is a buried story in an often-overlooked event, yet its impact on the history of North America is profound. The leading figures on both sides of the war, Shawnee Chief Tecumseh and US Army General William Henry Harrison, had come of age in the struggles over what is today called the Midwest United States, and both understood that losing the war would mean losing the future they imagined for their people. In this

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50:51

#281 Montgomery C. Meigs: Master Builder of the Union...

The Road to Now ·

2023/08/21

Washington D.C. in the 1850s was a tale of two cities. It was the Capitol city of a rapidly expanding new nation while at the same time ground zero for a politically fractured and divided nation hurtling toward disunion. Standing in the middle of it all was Montgomery C. Meigs, a military engineer who led the construction of two massive public works projects at the same time: the expansion of the Capitol building and an aqueduct to provide water to the residents growing city. Meigs would go on to

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48:40

#280 Standard Deviations: The politics of education...

The Road to Now ·

2023/08/14

The recent changes to Florida’s education system have gotten nationwide attention, with similar stories playing out across the US. In this episode, Ben & Bob investigate the nature of these reforms, who is behind them, and how they may impact the students and teachers whose daily lives are directly affected by these changes. They are joined by Ana Goñi-Lessan, a Tallahassee-based journalist who covers the Florida legislature for USA Today and Dr. Andrew Polk, a history professor and former high

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50:13

#279 Warren G. Harding and Other Affairs w/ Ben & Bob

The Road to Now ·

2023/08/07

Ben & Bob have been on the road for most of the summer, so in this episode they catch up to talk about the 100th anniversary of the death of Warren G. Harding, the feedback they got from their conversation on ai, chat gpt and the future of tech w/ Roger McNamee, and their responses to the recent Congressional hearings on UAP (formerly known as UFO) sightings. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. Warren G. Harding Sources: Jordyn Phelps, “Ex-President Warren Harding’s Love Child Confirmed

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51:37

Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism w/...

The Road to Now ·

2023/07/31

Slavery was an integral part of the American republic from the moment of independence until the abolition of the so-called “peculiar institution” with the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. The social and economic impact of the slave system, however, are much larger in terms of both time and geography. In this episode, Bob and Ben speak with Edward Baptist about slavery’s origins, its evolution, and how enslaved people’s work laid the foundation for modern capitalism. He also shares stories

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51:02

George Carlin's American Dream w/ Michael Bonfiglio &...

The Road to Now ·

2023/07/24

George Carlin had a comedy career that spanned half a century, and his take on the US remains relevant more than a decade after his death in 2008. The new HBO documentary George Carlin’s American Dream tells Carlin’s story as he evolved from a clean-cut comic in the 1950s into the edgy critic who remains one of the most influential comedians of all time. In this episode, Michael Bonfiglio, who directed the film (along with Judd Apatow) and Kliph Nesteroff, a historian of comedy who is featured in

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50:49

#278 Artificial Intelligence w/ Roger McNamee

The Road to Now ·

2023/07/17

Roger McNamee has spent decades helping American tech companies secure financing. In the last few years, however, he’s become well-known for helping American citizens secure themselves against tech companies. After helping convince Mark Zuckerberg to retain control over Facebook, Roger documented social media’s role in amplifying social division in his 2019 New York Times Best Seller Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe. Recently he’s turned his attention to AI, and he has a warning for

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435 results

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