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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

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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50:08

The Rise and Fall of the American Suburbs w/ Kyle...

The Road to Now ·

2023/07/10

In the years after World War II, Americans moved to the suburbs in search of the peace and safety that many came to equate with the “American Dream.” By the end of the 1970s, however, suburbanites had come sense that their privileged was under siege from satanic cults, drug dealers and kidnappers. In this episode, Bob and Ben talk w/ Kyle Riismandel whose new book Neighborhood of Fear examines how Americans responded to the real and perceived threats of suburban life and in doing so, shaped American

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51:34

Benjamin Franklin w/ Dayton Duncan & David Schmidt

The Road to Now ·

2023/07/03

It’s difficult to fathom how Benjamin Franklin accomplished so much in a single lifetime. It’s equally difficult to imagine how to take such an incredible life and consolidate it into four hours of documentary film. In this episode, we cover both feats with writer Dayton Duncan and producer David Schmidt, two of the great minds behind Ken Burns' documentary on Benjamin Franklin. Dayton and David discuss Franklin’s life, the work that goes into creating a historical documentary film, and their

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52:35

#277 The Allman Brothers’ Journey to Fillmore East w/...

The Road to Now ·

2023/06/26

The Allman Brothers’ 1971 album At Fillmore East features one of the era’s great rock bands at its prime, selling over a million copies despite not producing a single “hit” song. It is also the last album produced by the Allman Brothers prior to the death of the band’s founder, Duane Allman. In this episode we speak with Bob Beatty, whose new book Play All Night!: Duane Allman and the Journey to Fillmore East, tells the story behind the creation of the album and how the Allman Brothers pioneered a

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49:55

#276 Christianity and American Politics in the 21st...

The Road to Now ·

2023/06/19

John Fea is taking on the history of Christianity and American politics in the 21st century. In three volumes. In this (single) episode, we talk about this tremendous task that John is undertaking and also get his thoughts on why the political Christian right came to feel disappointed in the Bush administration, why they later rallied around Donald Trump, and what this might mean for American politics moving forward. Dr. John Fea is Professor of History at Messiah University & author of multiple

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52:00

Juneteenth w/ Annette Gordon-Reed

The Road to Now ·

2023/06/12

Juneteenth, which celebrates the emancipation of enslaved Americans at the end of the Civil War, has gone from a local holiday in Texas to a national day of celebration for many Americans. In this episode we speak with legal scholar and Pulitzer Prize winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed about her new book On Juneteenth and the ways that the holiday, her personal story and the history of the US can help us better understand the world today. Annette Gordon-Reed is Charles Warren Professor of

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53:46

#275 No Labels w/ Mark McKinnon

The Road to Now ·

2023/06/05

Mark McKinnon is a political advisor, reform advocate, and host of Showtime’s The Circus. In this episode he joins Ben & Bob to talk about his work to found the non-partisan group No Labels, which advocates for independent candidates in presidential elections, and what a third-party might mean for the elections of 2024 and beyond. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

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51:01

#274 The Original Green New Deal: The Civilian...

The Road to Now ·

2023/05/29

In the last few years, many on the left have been calling for a “Green New Deal,” but we might have already had that. Between 1933 and 1942, the Civilian Conservation Corps enlisted more than three million young men in a project that planted two billion trees, slowed soil erosion on forty million acres of farmland, and enjoyed support across political and geographic divides. In this episode we talk with Neil Maher, author of Nature’s New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the

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51:21

#273 Seven Years of RTN w/ Doug Heye & Margaret Talev

The Road to Now ·

2023/05/22

It’s been seven years since Ben & Bob launched the first episode of The Road to Now, so we invited two of our early guests – Doug Heye & Margaret Talev – to join us for a conversation about how things have changed since 2016 and the events of the preceding years that now appear to be most pivotal in creating those changes. Our conversation covers campaign finance reform, social media and the impact ai is already having on American politics. Doug Heye is a political commentator who previously served

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50:21

#272 Country Capitalism w/ Bartow Elmore

The Road to Now ·

2023/05/15

The “Amazon economy” seems like something new, but it rests on the physical and intellectual infrastructure built by those who came long before the age of the internet and leaves many of the same marks on the environment. Prominent in this story are five companies- Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, Walmart, Bank of America, and FexEx- all of which have global reach and southern roots. In this episode, Bart Elmore joins us to talk about his new book Country Capitalism: How Corporations from the American

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56:09

Reaganland w/ Richard Perlstein

The Road to Now ·

2023/05/08

Today's Republican party looks a lot different than it did just a few decades ago, but it rests on many of the same organizations and ideologies that formed the modern conservative movement in the 1970s. In this episode, Rick Perlstein joins us for a conversation about his newest book Reaganland: America’s Right Turn, 1976-1980 and how Ronald Reagan, Orrin Hatch and other prominent Republicans were able to harness the social and political forces of the 1970s to form the modern GOP. Rick Perlstein

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53:26

#271 American Ramble w/ Neil King Jr.

The Road to Now ·

2023/05/01

In 2021, Neil King Jr. threw a few basic items into a backpack and walked from his home in Washington, DC to New York City. Along the way he met new people, uncovered forgotten moments of history, and spent many days thinking about America. In this episode, Neil joins Ben and Bob to discuss his new book, American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal, and the lessons he learned along the way. Before walking from his house in DC to New York City, Neil King Jr. worked as a journalist for outlets across

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50:37

#270 Women & American Slavery w/ Stephanie E....

The Road to Now ·

2023/04/24

Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers’ is a historian whose work has shed new light on the roles that women played in American slavery. In this episode, she joins Ben and Bob to share some of the significant findings of her work, the sources she’s used to learn more about enslaved people and female slaveowners, and her new project, which reorients our understanding of the British Atlantic slave trade by centering the story on the lives of both free and captive women. Dr. Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers is Associate

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53:19

#269 The Archaeology of Dust w/ Anita Radini

The Road to Now ·

2023/04/17

For most of us, dust is a surface-level annoyance. For Anita Radini, it is a fountain of information about the past. In this episode, Anita joins us to share the fascinating new details about the lives of Medieval women that she discovered in the tiny remains of dust that collected in their dental plaque, and how her interdisciplinary work in archaeological science and paleoecology is reshaping the way we understand human history. Dr. Anita Radini is an Assistant Professor at the School of

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56:26

#268 John Quincy Adams: Founding Son

The Road to Now ·

2023/04/10

On Thursday, April 13th, the first episode of Bob’s new audio documentary Founding Son: John Quincy’s America premieres (on all podcast platforms), so Ben & Bob decided to celebrate the occasion by talking Adams’ life, his place in American history, and inspiration behind Bob’s decision to create the series. Subscribe to Founding Son: Apple Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Or anywhere else you get your podcasts This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer

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50:34

#267 Benghazi w/ Ethan Chorin

The Road to Now ·

2023/04/03

On September 11, 2012, al-Qaeda-affiliated militants attacked a US mission in Benghazi, Libya and killed four Americans. That tragic loss of life abroad turned into a political fiasco at home, as the story of the attack became interpreted within the context of a Presidential election and a widening ideological gap between America’s two major political parties. In this episode, we speak with Ethan Chorin, who has years of experience on the ground in Libya, was in Benghazi the day of the attack, and

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01:02:21

A Conversation w/ Ken Burns (#191 Rebroadcast)

The Road to Now ·

2023/03/27

Ken Burns joins Bob and Ben for a conversation about American history and the themes he sees playing out in the US today. Ken shares his process for selecting subjects for his films and explains how his new 3-part film Hemingway (co-directed w/ Lynn Novick) highlights Ernest Hemingway’s individual genius while also revealing the universal aspects of life that we all share. We also discuss how our time and place influence the way we view the past, the importance of acknowledging both the light and

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47:55

#266 College Basketball: The Story of March Madness...

The Road to Now ·

2023/03/20

The Athletic's Dana O'Neil joins Bob & Ben for a conversation about the history of the NCAA tournament, how college basketball built the fan base it has today, and how rule changes have changed the sport from the 3-point line to the more recent Name, Image & License (NIL) contracts that allow college athletes to receive compensation for playing. Dana O'Neil is a Senior Writer for The Athletic, and one of the country's foremost experts on college basketball. You can hear the uncut version of this

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46:21

#265 The Legacy of Jimmy Carter’s Foreign Policy w/...

The Road to Now ·

2023/03/06

Jimmy Carter only served four years as President (1977-1981) but his approach to foreign policy produced big results, including the return of the Panama Canal to Panama, a strategic nuclear arms treaty with the Soviet Union (SALT-II), and US formal recognition of the People’s Republic of China. In this episode we welcome Nancy Mitchell back to the show to discuss the key moments in Carter’s Presidency and how his administration’s decisions look from the perspective of 2023. Dr. Nancy Mitchell is

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437 results

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