The Road to Now

History podcast about where we are today and how we got here
All Episodes
from The Road to Now
- The Road to Now
- Dec 5, 2019
- 3:47 am UTC
For many, the Christian liturgical calendar is often a bit mysterious or just plain strange. Bob and Chris dig into the start of the year, the four weeks leading up to Christmas known as Advent, with theologian and arts pastor David Taylor of Fuller Seminary. David wears many hats, and in our interview we discuss…
- The Road to Now
- Dec 2, 2019
- 12:00 am UTC
In 1848, New England ships crossed the Bering Strait in pursuit of the bowhead whales that provided their income. In the years since, the activity of outsiders- from hunters, to government bureaucrats, to consumers of energy who never set foot in the region- has had a deep impact on the region, but the environment of…
- The Road to Now
- Nov 28, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
Bob and Chris sit down with baker and writer Kendall Vanderslice for a special Thanksgiving episode of RTN Theology centered on food, faith, and a movement of church communities built around the table. Vanderslice’s 2019 book, We Will Feast (Eerdman’s) is a veritable buffet in its own right: part journalism, part food studies, part memoir,…
- The Road to Now
- Nov 25, 2019
- 2:20 am UTC
In this episode, recorded live from the 2019 convention of the Association of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) in San Francisco, Ben chairs a panel featuring scholars who are working on new, exciting and very important digital humanities projects that bring together scholars from different fields, and connect those inside the university to…
- The Road to Now
- Nov 18, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
Pete Souza (photographer for Barack Obama/Ronald Reagan) and Erin Welsh (epidemiologist/cohost of This Podcast Will Kill You) joined Bob and Ben for a live episode in Chicago to discuss history, photography, politics, and what their fields have to teach each other. The images that we discussed in this episode are available on our episode page-…
- The Road to Now
- Nov 11, 2019
- 12:00 am UTC
It’s our sesquicentennial episode, so Bob and Ben thought it was time to catch up and talk about all the great things that have been happening in the last few months. The conversation covers The Avett Brothers’ new album, the books they’ve been reading, and the questions about history that have kept them going. They…
- The Road to Now
- Nov 4, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
The protests that swept through the streets of Hong Kong beginning in the summer of 2019 highlighted the tension that exists between the residents of the region and China’s political leadership. The politics of the region have also made their way into American popular culture through public disputes within the NBA, controversy over Blizzard’s decision…
- The Road to Now
- Oct 31, 2019
- 12:00 am UTC
Bob and Chris talk with Megan and Isaac Wardell, who shepherd a Christian music collaborative out of Charlottesville, VA made up of dozens of musicians, theologians, pastors, and faith leaders from many places and traditions. In 2017 they released the project’s debut album, Work Songs, about vocation. Last week came the follow-up Neighbor Songs. This…
- The Road to Now
- Oct 28, 2019
- 12:00 am UTC
Death is something that everyone has in common, yet most of us spend our lives trying not to think about it. Even as we buy our decorations and costumes for Halloween, we rarely consider that witches, skeleton and other symbols associated with the holiday have their own histories. In this episode, Caitlin Doughty takes Ben,…
- The Road to Now
- Oct 24, 2019
- 12:00 am UTC
Bob and Chris sit down with Richella Parham to talk about her debut book, Mythical Me: Finding Freedom from Constant Comparison. Richella talks about the trap of comparing ourselves to others and the way that a distorted picture of ourselves and others creates a distorted picture of God, and vice versa. Richella’s writing is as…
- The Road to Now
- Oct 21, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
In 2015, the New Orleans City Council voted to remove four Confederate monuments from the city. Immediately following that vote, the monuments’ defenders sought to use the courts to prevent their removal. In the end, the city prevailed, and the last of the monuments came down in May of 2017. In this episode, Ben and…
- The Road to Now
- Oct 14, 2019
- 12:00 am UTC
With the current impeachment inquiry underway, there has been a lot of talk about government information, where it is stored, and who has the right to access these records. In this episode, Ben speaks with archive and information policy expert Stacy Woods, to get the answers to a lot of the questions surrounding impeachment past…
- The Road to Now
- Oct 10, 2019
- 12:00 am UTC
RTN Theology #14 remembers as collaborative music project from 2012 birthed out of a North Carolina church community. Bob and Chris talk with producer Jeff Crawford about the making of Hymns from the Gathering Church at Arbor Ridge Studios. This record features old hymns reimagined by artists such as Phil Cook, Mandolin Orange, Skylar Gudasz,…
- The Road to Now
- Oct 7, 2019
- 12:00 am UTC
Right now an average of one person dies about every 11 minutes from an opioid overdose in the United States. The staggering number of lives ruined by opioid addiction has finally gotten public attention in recent years, but the origins of the crisis goes back to 1996, when Purdue Pharma began selling Oxycontin through a…
- The Road to Now
- Sep 30, 2019
- 12:00 am UTC
This is a rebroadcast of RTN #34 with an update on Tom’s work since we spoke with him in December of 2016. Tom Shadyac has probably made you laugh. He was the youngest ever staff joke writer for Bob Hope and he directed some of the biggest comedy films in recent memory, including Ace Ventura:…
- The Road to Now
- Sep 26, 2019
- 12:00 am UTC
RTN Theology 13 is a conversation with Dr. Jennifer Allen Craft in Durham, NC as she participates in the Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts’ 10th anniversary symposium. Dr. Craft wrote Placemaking and the Arts: Cultivating the Christian Life: a beautiful vision for investing in real places and loving real people, while we cultivate…
- The Road to Now
- Sep 23, 2019
- 7:34 am UTC
The recent drone strike on Saudi oil fields has implications for the entire world, but we remain uncertain who is responsible for the attack. Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility, but Trump claims it was actually Iran. There’s a lot at stake here, so Ben sat down with his MTSU colleague Sean Foley to learn…
- The Road to Now
- Sep 16, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
Bob and Ben talk about some of the incredible resources that are now available electronically and how they have opened up new opportunities for historians. Bob talks about how his research on Monsanto, which he’s conducting for his US business history seminar, is adding to his greater project on the history of the Research Triangle…
- The Road to Now
- Sep 9, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
Brian Rosenwald joins Ben and Bob to discuss his new book Talk Radio’s America: How an Industry Took Over A Party That Took Over the United States, which traces the emergence of talk radio as a major powerhouse in shaping the Republican Party. Brian explains how conservative talk radio and hosts such as Rush Limbaugh…
- The Road to Now
- Sep 1, 2019
- 11:00 pm UTC
The Netflix series The Last Czars and HBO’s Chernobyl have (in very different ways) brought Russian & Soviet history to televisions across the world. In this episode, Ben sits down with fellow Russian historians Philippa Hetherington and Jonathan Waterlow to discuss their opinions on the two series, what they think they got right, and ways…
- The Road to Now
- Aug 29, 2019
- 9:46 am UTC
What can happen when folks stay in a place, learn that place, and grow to love the people in a place over a long period of time? This episode of RTN Theology explores the power of conversation, creativity, and working in generative ways across difference and division. Chris has a conversation about conversation with C.…
- The Road to Now
- Aug 26, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
Coca-Cola is one of the most well-known products on planet earth, but did you ever wonder how a brown fizzy drink fueled the rise of a corporate juggernaut? The answer, says Ohio State historian Bartow Elmore, has everything to do with its business structure. In this episode, Bart offers his take on how Coke went…
- The Road to Now
- Aug 19, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
Technology is transforming the production & availability of knowledge. Many experts predict AI & nanotechnology will soon bring about a fundamental change in the ways we work, relate to one another, and are known, while skeptics point to the industrial revolution to dismiss these concerns. In this episode Ben speaks with Roy Wyman, who specializes…
- The Road to Now
- Aug 12, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
We make sense of our place in the world through stories. Our history as individuals & communities is always present, but the parts of the story we emphasize, as well as those we forget, are crucial in understanding the world today and in shaping the decisions we make going forward. In this episode, Bob, Ben…
- The Road to Now
- Jul 29, 2019
- 7:58 am UTC
RTN Theology #11 features “America’s Best Theologian” (according to Time Magazine), Stanley Hauerwas. Chris Breslin brings an intimate conversation from Dr. Hauerwas’ office at Duke Divinity School that touches on the recent passing of his friend, Jean Vanier, the life of the church in the era of Trump, and what it means to become people…
- The Road to Now
- Jul 22, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
Creating games that are both fun and educational takes a lot of work, but Digimill’s Ben Sawyer has been doing it successfully for more than two decades. In this episode we speak with Ben about the art of creating serious games and his work on the American Revolution-based game “Revolutionary Choices.” Just to clarify: Yes,…
- The Road to Now
- Jul 15, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
When the city of Apex, NC was founded in 1873, it was little more than a railroad stop with a tiny rural population. In the last half-century, however, the development of the Research Triangle Park has thrust the town into the 21st century with tremendous force, with the population increasing more than tenfold in the…
- The Road to Now
- Jul 15, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
When the city of Apex, NC was founded in 1873, it was little more than a railroad stop with a tiny rural population. In the last half-century, however, the development of the Research Triangle Park has thrust the town into the 21st century with tremendous force, with the population increasing more than tenfold in the…
- The Road to Now
- Jul 15, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
When the city of Apex, NC was founded in 1873, it was little more than a railroad stop with a tiny rural population. In the last half-century, however, the development of the Research Triangle Park has thrust the town into the 21st century with tremendous force, with the population increasing more than tenfold in the…
- The Road to Now
- Jul 8, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
Robert E. Lee’s surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865 marked the end of the American Civil War, but it was just one of many times that officers and soldiers faced the reality of surrender. In fact, throughout the four years of the war, approximately one in four soldiers surrendered to the…
- The Road to Now
- Jul 1, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
Is the United States an empire? US citizens have struggled with this question for a long time. Though our historical narrative traces our origins to the war for independence against the British Empire, we often forget that the US has presided over territories since the very beginning. Today about 4 million people in the territories…
- The Road to Now
- Jun 24, 2019
- 6:16 am UTC
This episode of RTN Theology centers on the life, thought, and legacy of German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bob Crawford talks with professor Stephen Haynes, author of The Battle for Bonhoeffer about how Bonhoeffer has become a cultural Rorschach test, often coopted and reflecting his interpreters, but also how his life and work can be relevant…
- The Road to Now
- Jun 21, 2019
- 10:05 am UTC
This is a rebroadcast of episode #6, which originally aired in January of 2016. In this episode of The Road to Now, we speak with Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper about his new memoir The Opposite of Woe: My Life in Beer and Politics and the ways that his peculiar & fascinating life interact with the greater history of…
- The Road to Now
- Jun 16, 2019
- 2:19 pm UTC
In 2002, Ashley Capps took a gamble- he rented hundreds of acres in rural Tennessee and put on a music festival. Coming on the heels of the infamous Lollapalooza ’99 and an unsuccessful festival at the same site two years earlier, few thought Ashley could pull it off. As you (and the 80,000 people who…
- The Road to Now
- Jun 10, 2019
- 1:30 am UTC
On August 15, 1824, the Marquis de Lafayette arrived in the United States to say farewell to the country whose independence he helped secure more than four decades earlier. Over the next 15 months, Lafayette visited all 24 states, meeting with old friends and attending celebrations hosted by Americans who flocked to see the last-living…
- The Road to Now
- Jun 3, 2019
- 6:03 am UTC
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 Road to Now
- May 28, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
Bob speaks with The Washington Post’s Robert Costa about the methods used by reporters covering the White House and Capitol Hill. Costa talks about how journalists build and maintain trust with confidential sources inside of the White House, how an article is constructed when multiple reporters share a byline, and everything else that goes into…
- The Road to Now
- May 28, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
Bob speaks with The Washington Post’s Robert Costa about the methods used by reporters covering the White House and Capitol Hill. Costa talks about how journalists build and maintain trust with confidential sources inside of the White House, how an article is constructed when multiple reporters share a byline, and everything else that goes into…
- The Road to Now
- May 20, 2019
- 11:54 am UTC
On May 18 2016, Ben and Bob launched the first three episodes of their new podcast called The Road To Now. One of the guests in those episodes was a young journalist named Matt Negrin, who Bob met during a visit to the set of Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect. In the three years since, Matt…
- The Road to Now
- May 6, 2019
- 1:30 am UTC
In 1776, the US declared independence. Eleven years later, in 1787, delegates from 12 states (we’re looking at YOU Rhode Island) got together in Philadelphia and wrote the Constitution. In between those triumphant moments, there was the Articles of Confederation, that “firm league of friendship” that most Americans probably know primarily as something they had…
- The Road to Now
- Apr 29, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
In this episode of RTN Theology, Bob talks with Christian social ethicist-activist, author, and Professor at Iliff School of Theology, Dr. Miguel De La Torre. Bob and Miguel discuss liberation theology and the connection between the theology shared by slaveholders during the antebellum and Civil War periods with the theology professed by many prominent evangelical leaders…
- The Road to Now
- Apr 22, 2019
- 12:00 am UTC
The data collection practices of companies such as facebook, google and amazon have led many Americans to wonder if privacy is dead. Though these companies are relatively new, this is far from the first time that Americans have felt their privacy to be under attack. In this episode, we speak with Vanderbilt University’s Sarah Igo…
- The Road to Now
- Apr 8, 2019
- 12:30 am UTC
Hidetaka Hirota joins Bob and Ben for a conversation about the history of immigration law in the United States and the ways that government officials have decided who could and could not enter the United States. Hidetaka discusses the creation of Federal immigration law and the ways that looking at state immigration policies in the…
- The Road to Now
- Apr 1, 2019
- 12:00 am UTC
Rufus Allan Sevier was born on December 7, 1916 in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. More than a century later Rufus is in incredible health and is one of the few people alive today who vividly remembers life before the Great Depression. His personal story, however, diverges in significant ways from the historical narrative most…
- The Road to Now
- Apr 1, 2019
- 12:00 am UTC
This episode launched April 1, 2019. It’s an April Fools trick, but we hope you enjoy it anyway! Rufus Allan Sevier was born on December 7, 1916 in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. More than a century later Rufus is in incredible health and is one of the few people alive today who vividly remembers…
- The Road to Now
- Mar 25, 2019
- 5:56 am UTC
Bob speaks with Arizona State University Associate Professor of History Catherine O’Donnell about the prejudice Catholics endured in the years leading up to the American Revolution and how they gained the respect of George Washington as he sought French assistance in the cause. Catherine also discusses her recent work Elizabeth Seton: American Saint (Cornell University…
- The Road to Now
- Mar 18, 2019
- 2:30 am UTC
In 1866, the Fenian Brotherhood, comprised primarily of Irish Civil War veterans, led a series of attacks on Canadian provinces just across the border from the United States. Their goal: seize Canadian territory and exchange it for Irish independence. In this episode, Bob & Ben speak with Christopher Klein about his new book When the…
- The Road to Now
- Mar 11, 2019
- 2:30 am UTC
Amy Walter has been covering Congress and Congressional races since the early 1990s. In this episode, Amy joins Bob to talk about the political issues and strategies that took us from the era of Bill Clinton & Newt Gingrich to today, the reasons that modern politics is so divisive, and the potential coalitions that could…
- The Road to Now
- Mar 4, 2019
- 2:30 am UTC
Ben sits down with Vox Familia’s Jakob Lewis to talk about what makes a good story.
- The Road to Now
- Feb 25, 2019
- 2:30 am UTC
When most of us think of the earth, we imagine going “north” as going “up.” Modern maps, however, obscure many geographic realities, including the existence of an Arctic world, which unites the US, Canada, Russia, Norway, Greenland and other countries into a distinct geographic sphere. In this episode, Bob and Ben are joined by historians…
- The Road to Now
- Feb 18, 2019
- 2:00 am UTC
In this episode of RTN Theology hosts Bob Crawford and Keith Larson share personal reflections on the life of North Carolina 3rd District Congressman Walter B. Jones who passed away on February 10th, 2019.
- The Road to Now
- Feb 11, 2019
- 2:00 am UTC
Bob and Ben talk with Lisa Fine about the ways that viewing history through the lens of gender can help us understand the past. Lisa explains the origins of women’s history, the impact that gender theory had on the field of history, and why it’s important to think about both masculinity and femininity when considering…
- The Road to Now
- Feb 4, 2019
- 1:30 am UTC
The influenza strain that hit the world in 1918 killed between 50 and 100 million people. It was not the first flu to have such an impact on humanity, and it also may not be the last. In this episode we talk with John Barry about his research on the history of influenza, the current…
- The Road to Now
- Jan 28, 2019
- 5:30 am UTC
Bob and Ben talk about how Karl Marx viewed history, what we can learn from it, and the ways Marx’s theory has both contributed to, and limited, historical research. This is part of an ongoing conversation between Bob and Ben on history and methodology that began on our Patreon page. To support us and get…
- The Road to Now
- Jan 21, 2019
- 1:00 am UTC
Louis Woods joins us to explain how federal policies in 20th century, and particularly the GI Bill, excluded Black Americans from some of the most important sources of wealth acquisition in American history. We also talk about how the legacy of racism lives on in the economy, society, and even in the way we teach…
- The Road to Now
- Jan 14, 2019
- 2:00 am UTC
Bob and Ben speak with Cornell University’s Edward Baptist about slavery’s origins, its evolution, and how enslaved people’s work laid the foundation for modern capitalism. He also shares stories of the people who suffered under- and those who profited from- the inhumane system of American slavery.
- The Road to Now
- Jan 7, 2019
- 1:30 am UTC
Most Americans identify themselves as middle class. But what does that mean? Bob & Ben talk with The Bell Policy Center’s Scott Wasserman to talk about the challenges facing American workers, the difference between “middle class” and “working class,” and the differences between the economy today and that of the 20th century.
- The Road to Now
- Dec 17, 2018
- 2:00 am UTC
The 1970s was a pivotal decade in American history. In a ten-year span, the United States admitted defeat in Vietnam, saw a President resign in shame, and came face to face with many of the atrocities it had committed abroad. American citizens also faced a score of economic problems, including “stagflation,” an energy crisis, and…
- The Road to Now
- Dec 10, 2018
- 1:00 am UTC
In this episode, Bob and Ben speak with National Security Archives’ Senior Analyst Peter Kornbluh about the National Security Archive and how he and others have used the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to the records of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other formerly classified US operations abroad. Peter explains the impact…
- The Road to Now
- Dec 3, 2018
- 1:00 am UTC
Bob and Ben sit down to talk about the current events and historical questions that have been on their mind lately. They cover the GI bill delays that student veterans are currently facing, the one war that Teddy Roosevelt didn’t win, the tragedy of the 1970s and why Ronald Reagan is the Godfather of punk…
- The Road to Now
- Nov 19, 2018
- 4:30 am UTC
At the beginning of the 20th century, most of the territory that we call the Middle East- including Syria, Iraq, Israel and Turkey- were part of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman alliance w/ Germany and Austria-Hungary during World War I provided Britain and France w/ the opportunity to divide the once-great empire into many states…
- The Road to Now
- Nov 12, 2018
- 1:00 am UTC
On November 6, 2018, the people of Florida voted to amend their state’s constitution to restore voting rights to an estimated one and a half million citizens who had lost this right due to a prior felony conviction. In recognition of this significant restoration of rights, we’re re-airing our interview w/ [Pippa Holloway][1] on the…
- The Road to Now
- Nov 5, 2018
- 2:00 am UTC
What does it mean to be American? This isn’t just a question for us in 2018 — it was an unanswered question for the country in the late 19th century when it came to musical identity. And of all the people to try to answer it, it may have been the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak…
- The Road to Now
- Oct 29, 2018
- 2:00 am UTC
Gerry Adams has dedicated most of his life to finding an end to the conflict that has engulfed Northern Ireland since his youth. As the President of Sinn Féin, he played a crucial role in facilitating the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which brought about an end to a three decade-long period of violence known…
- The Road to Now
- Oct 22, 2018
- 2:00 am UTC
Discussing the relationship between faith and the public sphere has been a part of America’s story since its beginning. Over the past decade, the presence of Christian faith in public policy and politics has been questioned and challenged in new and unique ways. How are citizens, Christian and non-Christian alike, to respond to issues of…
- The Road to Now
- Oct 15, 2018
- 1:00 am UTC
Bob and Ben speak withSouthern Methodist University’s Dr. Jeffrey Engel about the history of Presidential impeachment and how understanding the past can inform the debates surrounding the impeachment of current and future Presidents. Jeff’s new book Impeachment: An American History, which he co-authored w/ Peter Baker, Jon Meacham, and Timothy Naftali is out from Modern…
- The Road to Now
- Oct 8, 2018
- 3:00 am UTC
Henry & Rupert Stansall (aka The Ruen Brothers) began their musical careers playing in the Working Men’s clubs of Scunthorpe in Northern England at a time in life when most of us were only beginning to discover music. In the almost two decades since, their road has led them to London, Los Angeles, and finally…
- The Road to Now
- Oct 1, 2018
- 1:00 am UTC
Bob and Ben speak with Jon Waterlow about his new book It’s Only a Joke Comrade! Humor, Trust and Everyday Life Under Stalin and the role humor plays in helping humans make sense of the world in even the darkest times. Jon also shares his take on humor’s role in politics under Stalin and today,…
- The Road to Now
- Sep 24, 2018
- 2:30 am UTC
National Voter Registration Day is Tuesday, September 25th, and Bob and Ben are doing their part to get the word out. In this episode we speak with HeadCount Executive Director Andy Bernstein to talk about the work HeadCount has been doing to get people registered to vote, the importance of staying on top of local…
- The Road to Now
- Sep 17, 2018
- 2:00 am UTC
This week Bob and Pastor Chris Breslin of Oak Church in Durham, NC sit down with Duke University, Thomas A. Langford Distinguished Professor of Theology Jeremy Begbie for a discussion about how we can see God’s presence in our own creative expression. Begbie uses music to try and explain hard to grasp theological concepts like…
- The Road to Now
- Sep 10, 2018
- 3:00 am UTC
This week we take a deep dive into the upcoming Midterm Elections with Editor and Publisher of The Cook Political Report, and NBC News political analyst, Charlie Cook. Since 1984 Charlie has been the preeminent election forecaster for politicians, pundits, and political junkies alike. This week Charlie joins Bob for a one on one interview…
- The Road to Now
- Aug 22, 2018
- 3:30 am UTC
Veteran journalists Bill Plante & Olivier Knox join Bob & Ben for a conversation about the press and how journalism has changed in recent years. Bill Plante covered politics for CBS News from 1964 until 2016, and had a front row seat to some of the most significant events in the last half century, including…
- The Road to Now
- Aug 20, 2018
- 2:30 am UTC
“Make American Great Again” is not a precise slogan, but it did capture the sense of anxiety many Americans feel about work in the 21st century. The “gig economy,” in which more and more American workers rely on multiple jobs, is certainly different from the job market just three generations ago, when employers offered the…
- The Road to Now
- Aug 13, 2018
- 2:30 am UTC
Ben talks with Sociologist Pat Reilly, whose research examines the organization and economics of stand up comedy in Los Angeles. Pat explains what makes stand up a unique form of entertainment, the ways stand up has changed since it began, and how comics deal with issues such as joke theft. Ben and Pat also talk…
- The Road to Now
- Jul 30, 2018
- 2:30 am UTC
Bob & Ben speak with Syracuse University’s Dr. David Bennett to learn more about the history of nativism in the United States. Dr. Bennett discusses his book The Party of Fear: From Nativist Movements to the New Right in American History (Penguin, 1995, 2nd ed.), and how that book might look if a new edition…
- The Road to Now
- Jul 23, 2018
- 2:30 am UTC
Bob and Ben reflect on the first one hundred episodes of The Road to Now, the state of politics, and what they’ve learned since the first episode launched in May 2016. Bob explains what he thinks most people get wrong about history and the way that hosting RTN and beginning graduate studies have changed his…
- The Road to Now
- Jul 16, 2018
- 2:30 am UTC
In this episode of RTN Theology, Bob talks to Fuller Theological Seminary Assistant Professor Kutter Callaway about his new book, Breaking the Marriage Idol: Reconstructing Our Cultural and Spiritual Norms (InterVarsity Press, 2018) and the need to change the existing perceptions of single life and marriage in the church. They also discuss theology, the arts,…
- The Road to Now
- Jul 9, 2018
- 12:29 pm UTC
Bob and Ben join friend & fellow podcaster Bruce Carlson to talk about Elvis Presley and his impact on American society. (Originally aired on My History Can Beat Up Your Politics)
- The Road to Now
- Jun 18, 2018
- 2:00 am UTC
The 2018 FIFA World Cup is underway in Russia, so Ben sat down with soccer historian Alex Galarza and RTN favorite Matt Negrin to talk about the history of the World Cup. We discuss the corruption that has plagued FIFA, the controversy surrounding FIFA’s decision to award the World Cup to Qatar, and what factors…
- The Road to Now
- Jun 11, 2018
- 2:30 am UTC
There’s a good chance you don’t appreciate how engrained professional wrestling is in American history and culture, and this episode is about to change that. We didn’t know all this either until wrestling legend Jim Cornette was kind enough to spend an hour taking Ben and guest co-host Jon Burr from wrestling’s origins in the…
- The Road to Now
- Jun 4, 2018
- 2:00 am UTC
The world we live in today has Dwight Eisenhower’s fingerprints all over it. When Dwight Eisenhower gave his farewell address on January 17, 1960, he warned the American people of the growing influence of a “military-industrial complex.” What few people remember is that it was Eisenhower who oversaw the transformation of the American military into…
- The Road to Now
- May 28, 2018
- 2:00 am UTC
In this episode of The Road to Now, recorded live at Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service, Governor Martin O’Malley join Bob & Ben for a conversation about history, music and politics. We discuss the history of immigration, how Gov. O’Malley’s Catholic faith influenced his political views, and Gov. O’Malley shares (and plays)…
- The Road to Now
- May 21, 2018
- 2:30 am UTC
For the third installment of our Music May series, Ben caught up with Tyler Mahan Coe whose podcast Cocaine & Rhinestones dives into some of the most famous stories in the history of country music. Tyler talks about the calling that drove him to make Cocaine & Rhinestones, the methodology he developed to cover the…
- The Road to Now
- May 14, 2018
- 2:30 am UTC
We talk with Phish lyricist Tom Marshall to learn about the history of Phish and the life experiences that inspired the lyrics for some of the band’s most well-known songs. We also set the record straight about Tom’s life, discuss his podcast Under the Scales and talk about Bob & Ben’s collaboration w/ Tom through…
- The Road to Now
- May 7, 2018
- 3:01 am UTC
Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” is one of the well-known tunes in modern American society, but the song, and the man who wrote it, are far more complex and fascinating than most folks realize. In this episode Bob & Ben speak with Woody Guthrie Center Executive Director Deana McCloud to learn more about…
- The Road to Now
- Apr 30, 2018
- 2:00 am UTC
On The Road to Now, we talk a lot about how understanding history is essential to making informed political decisions. In today’s episode, Patricia O’Toole joins us to talk about her new biography of Woodrow Wilson, The Moralist, and what happened when a historian got control of the White House.
- The Road to Now
- Apr 27, 2018
- 3:00 am UTC
Dr. Sean Foley (Episode 53) returns to catch us up on the Syrian Civil War, where Isis, Assad and other players currently stand, and the implications of Donald Trump’s sudden reversal on American intervention in the conflict.
- The Road to Now
- Apr 23, 2018
- 2:00 am UTC
In this episode of The Road to Now we speak with Ronald Grigor Suny, who is one of the world’s foremost experts on the history of the Armenian genocide. Ron explains the process that led the Ottoman government to turn on its Armenian subjects and the methods it used to carry out this atrocity. He…
- The Road to Now
- Apr 23, 2018
- 2:00 am UTC
The Armenian genocide was one of the most tragic events in the 20th century. The Ottoman government’s deliberate attempt to purge Armenians during World War I led to the elimination of approximately 1.5 million of the 2 million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire just a few years earlier. While some families were able to…
- The Road to Now
- Apr 16, 2018
- 4:10 am UTC
In this episode of The Road to Now, Richard Samuel West joins Bob and Ben for a conversation on the history of political cartoons in the United States.
- The Road to Now
- Apr 9, 2018
- 3:00 am UTC
We speak with John Sedgwick about new book, Blood Moon: An American Epic of War and Splendor in the Cherokee Nation (Simon & Schuster, 2018), and how the rivalry between two Cherokee leaders shaped the history of the Tribe and the United States as a whole. Note: We are aware of the controversy surrounding this…
- The Road to Now
- Apr 2, 2018
- 2:30 am UTC
April 4, 2018 marks 50 years since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In honor or Dr. King’s legacy, this week we are re-airing our interview w/ Dr. Clayborne Carson, Martin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Professor of History and Ronnie Lott Founding Director of the Martin Luther King Research and Education Institute at…
- The Road to Now
- Mar 26, 2018
- 2:30 am UTC
Chris Breslin recently invited Bob to be part of a live conversation with Kate Bowler to talk about the history of Christianity, their faith, and how the crisis of cancer has affected their relationships with God. Kate Bowler is Assistant Professor of the History of Christianity in North America at Duke Divinity School and author…
- The Road to Now
- Mar 19, 2018
- 2:30 am UTC
In this episode, we speak with the Manhattan Institute’s Brian Riedl to get his perspective on taxation and its role in the economy since the 20th Century. Riedl explains the evidence that led him to advocate for small government, and breaks down why the 2017 tax reform is not quite as conservative as some commentators…
- The Road to Now
- Mar 12, 2018
- 2:30 am UTC
Bob and Ben speak with Robert McElvaine, an expert on the history of the Great Depression, to get his take on what the past can teach us about tax policy and the economy. McElvaine explains why he thinks that history has disproven the Republican principle of supply side economics, and why he sees the recent…
- The Road to Now
- Mar 5, 2018
- 1:00 am UTC
During a recent tour with The Avett Brothers, Bob caught up with historian Douglas Brinkley to talk about history and the state of American politics. Brinkley shared his thoughts on the current state of Donald Trump’s Presidency, its parallels with Nixon, and what he thinks it would take for the GOP to turn on the…
- The Road to Now
- Feb 26, 2018
- 1:30 am UTC
In the second installment of RTN Theology, Bob speaks with Messiah College’s John Fea about Christianity in Early America and the ways that the founders viewed the relationship between faith and politics. Fea outlines the “5 Cs” of history, the importance of approaching history with an open mind, and explains why he thinks the title…
- The Road to Now
- Feb 19, 2018
- 1:00 am UTC
The Republican Party has changed a lot since a few former Whigs started the party in the 1850s. Today, the party’s legacy is usually defined in terms of well-known figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, but author Robert Merry thinks William McKinley deserves a lot more credit than historians and modern…
- The Road to Now
- Feb 5, 2018
- 2:00 am UTC
The Road to Now was lucky enough to be part of The Avett Brothers at the Beach music festival, so we invited our friend Bruce Carlson of My History Can Beat Up Your Politics to join us for a discussion of some key moments in the relationship between the United States and Mexico. We cover…
- The Road to Now
- Jan 22, 2018
- 12:30 am UTC
The War of 1812 isn’t an event most of us get excited about. The conflict between the US and Great Britain lasted almost 3 years, but like a lot of sequels, it didn’t live up to the original. When the war was over, little had changed for either country’s place in the world, and most…
- The Road to Now
- Jan 8, 2018
- 1:30 am UTC
There is no question that Donald Trump’s approach to foreign affairs is nothing we’ve seen from the Presidents who preceded him. In a recent New York Times Op-Ed, Mark Landler argued that the Trump Administration has broken a 70-year tradition in America’s foreign policy. Whether this is an abrogation of America’s responsibility to the globe…
- The Road to Now
- Dec 18, 2017
- 3:00 am UTC
Christmas is just a week away, so Ben and Bob caught up with Christmas expert James Cooper to find out the origins of Santa Claus, Christmas trees, and all the other parts of Christmas that most of us take for granted. James explains how Santa Claus and Christmas traditions evolved around the world, and how…
- The Road to Now
- Dec 11, 2017
- 4:57 am UTC
Americans love coffee. According to recent statistics, more than 60% of Americans drink at least one cup of coffee every day, and the market research firm Mintel predicts that coffee shops will take in more than $23 billion dollars in 2017. Our love for coffee ties us to people and countries around the world, and…
- The Road to Now
- Dec 7, 2017
- 12:30 am UTC
In the premier episode of our theology subseries, RTN Theology we welcome Christian philosopher James K.A. Smith to discuss the intersection of Christianity and culture in the United States. We also chat about his illuminating Op-Ed that appeared in the Thanksgiving edition of the Washington Post, which looks at ‘love of country’ from a religious…
- The Road to Now
- Nov 30, 2017
- 2:13 pm UTC
A few days ago, President Donald Trump welcomed the Navajo Code Talkers to the White House. Instead of focusing solely on the veterans’ contributions during World War II, he used the event to take shots at Senator Elizabeth Warren, who he mocked as “Pocahontas” for her alleged unsubstantiated claims of Native American ancestry. He also…
- The Road to Now
- Nov 22, 2017
- 9:47 pm UTC
Are faith and reason compatible? How do people of faith reconcile themselves to a secular world? These are difficult and complex questions that have shaped America long before the founding of the United States. On this episode of The Road to Now, we sit down with Molly Worthen to talk about the development of Christianity…
- The Road to Now
- Nov 16, 2017
- 4:00 am UTC
The Russian Revolution that began with the fall of Tsar Nicholas II in February of 1917 and continued into a second revolution the following October, is unquestionably one of the most significant events in modern history. The October Revolution brought Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Party from relative obscurity to the leaders of the first…
- The Road to Now
- Nov 9, 2017
- 8:00 am UTC
On August 4, 1789, the National Assembly of France adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which asserted the Enlightenment ideals of universal rights and democracy. Though the French Declaration shared a common ideological lineage with the American Declaration of Independence, the French Revolution took a very different path: fifteen…
- The Road to Now
- Oct 30, 2017
- 1:30 am UTC
On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther delivered his 95 Theses to the Catholic Church. We don’t know for sure if Luther actually nailed them to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church, but we do know that his work changed the world. In recognition of the five-hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther’s Theses, Bob and Ben…
- The Road to Now
- Oct 23, 2017
- 1:30 am UTC
Death is something that all humans have in common. How we dealt with death is not. The cemeteries that occupy prominent places in the American landscape, as well as the twenty-one thousand funeral homes in operation across the country, are products of the time and place in which they emerged. In this episode, we speak…
- The Road to Now
- Oct 16, 2017
- 2:30 am UTC
On the corner of 4th Avenue and Commerce Street in Nashville, there’s a historical marker that reads: “William Walker; Grey-eyed Man of Destiny; Born May 8, 1824, Walker moved to this site from 6th Ave. N. in 1840. In early life he was doctor, lawyer & journalist. He invaded Mexico in 1853 with 46 men…
- The Road to Now
- Oct 9, 2017
- 4:00 am UTC
On Tuesday, October 3rd, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Gill v. Whitford, which challenged the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s political redistricting following the 2010 US Census. Americans have been crying foul over Gerrymandering since the term was coined for Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry in 1812, but this is the first time in American history…
- The Road to Now
- Oct 2, 2017
- 2:00 am UTC
Bob, Ben, and Ian sit down to discuss what they’ve been reading, what they’ve learned so far from making The Road To Now, and what aspects of history they’ve found to be most interesting in light of recent events. They also follow up on a few points they discussed in their conversation with Jefferson Cowie (Episode…
- The Road to Now
- Sep 25, 2017
- 1:30 am UTC
In this episode of The Road to Now, we sit down for coffee and conversation with Bob’s bandmates in The Avett Brothers for a discussion about art, technology, and challenges of creativity. We cover the historic relationship between genius and madness, the ways one’s self is reflected in what we create, and the how they’ve…
- The Road to Now
- Sep 18, 2017
- 1:30 am UTC
The Nazi regime that came to power in Germany in 1933 unleashed the most brutal and comprehensive war that humanity has ever seen. The horrors of the Nazis and the destruction they left behind is something most of us learned about in history class, but for Gerd Schroth it is the story of his childhood.…
- The Road to Now
- Sep 11, 2017
- 1:30 am UTC
The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 marked a turning point in history. But did the attacks fundamentally change the United States, or simply serve as a catalyst for developments that were already in place before the war on terror? In this episode of The Road to Now, Jefferson Cowie joins Bob and Ben for…
- The Road to Now
- Sep 4, 2017
- 1:30 am UTC
Lance Armstrong is one of the most recognized names in modern American sports. He’s also one of the most divisive. He’s a man who helped raise almost half a billion dollars to help people suffering from cancer. He’s also a man who aggressively went after those who accused him of using performance-enhancing drugs. In this…
- The Road to Now
- Aug 28, 2017
- 12:30 am UTC
In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was the first major legislative act in American history to restrict immigration. In this episode we talk with historian Andrew Gyory about the reasons that immigration became such a powerful political issue in the late 19th century, and how studying this period of history can help…
- The Road to Now
- Aug 18, 2017
- 12:30 am UTC
The great eclipse of 2017 is has captured Americans’ imagination, and millions of Americans are planning to travel to catch a glimpse of this rare event. This got us thinking- how have Americans’ responded to similar events in the past? Fortunately, we were able to speak with historian Steve Ruskin, who has been researching this…
- The Road to Now
- Aug 14, 2017
- 12:30 am UTC
Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species is one of the most controversial books ever written. For most Americans, Darwin’s theories are associated with the 1925 Scopes trial and the near century-long “evolution vs creation” debate has that emerged as a dominant theme in American society in the years since the trial. In this episode of The…