Bonnaroo: The Story Behind the Festival w/ co-founder Ashley Capps
The Road to Now
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 attended the festival this year) know, Ashley and his partners proved the doubters wrong and created one of the most iconic festivals in modern America. Bob and Ben caught up with Ashley Capps back stage at Bonnaroo to talk about the history of the , how Ashley selected Manchester, TN, and the...
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1984: The Year that Changed Music Forever w/ Michaelangelo Matos
The Road to Now
In this episode, music writer Michaelangelo Matos joins Bob and Ben to discuss why 1984 was a pivotal year in music history. Michaelangelo also shares why he loves books about a single year. Michaelangelos’ book, was selected as a Rolling Stone-Kirkus Best Music Book of 2020. You can Love a good trivia night? Want to support The Road to Now? You can do both at the same time by joining us for RTN Patreon Trivia! The next round will be in the last full week of June so and then look for the schedule on We look forward to seeing you there! This episode is a rebroadcast...
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#307 Music and Mind with Renée Fleming and Dan Levitin
The Road to Now
We guarantee you will feel better after listening to the Road to Now this week. We are joined by world-renowned soprano and arts/health advocate Renée Fleming and neuroscientist, cognitive psychologist and the best sell author of This is Your Brain on Music, Dan Levitin. We are discussing Renée’s new book Music and Mind about how to harness the arts to improve health and wellness. The book is a collection of essays from leading Doctors, scientists, researchers, as well as artists Yo-Yo-Ma, Rhiannon Giddens, and Rosanne Cash. Renée and Dan join Bob to discuss the history of the study of...
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Swept Away w/ John Logan and John Gallagher
The Road to Now
This fall, the musical Swept Away, which is based on the music of Bob Crawford’s band The Avett Brothers is coming to broadway, and to celebrate, we’re re-sharing our conversation with writer, John Logan, and lead actor, John Gallagher Jr. This conversation was recorded just after Swept Away premiered at the Berkeley Repertory Theater in Berkeley, CA in January 2022, and when you hear the passion from the folks who brought the musical to life, you’ll understand why the show has been such a great success (and why you should go see it). is Swept Away’s writer whose...
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#306 The Wide Awakes: The Forgotten Force that Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War w/ Jon Grinspan
The Road to Now
Jon Grinspan has done something remarkable: in his new book, , he tells a thoroughly researched and brilliantly crafted story that may change your understanding of the origins of the American Civil War. In this episode, Jon joins us for a conversation about the Wide Awakes, the anti-slavery youth movement that played an instrumental role in electing Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and took part in some of the first acts of violence between pro and anti-slavery Americans in 1861. Jon also discusses the ways that the past and present interact in powerful ways, and how politics can evolve, step-by-step,...
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Why Bushwick Bill Matters w/ Charles Hughes
The Road to Now
You might know Bushwick Bill as a member of the iconic Houston rap group The Geto Boys, but his contributions to rap music, his role in the debates over free speech in the 1990s, and his overall influence are far more substantial than you probably realize. In this episode, we welcome Charles Hughes back to the show to discuss his new book and to get a better understanding of the challenges and triumphs that shaped one of rap history’s most influential artists. is the Director of the Lynne and Henry Turley Memphis Center at Rhodes College. His previous books include Country...
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#305 A Conversation w/ Jonah Goldberg – Recorded Live at Word of South Festival 2024
The Road to Now
Jonah Goldberg is one of America’s most well-known conservative intellectuals, with a resume that includes more than two decades at The National Review, twelve years as a commentator on Fox News, and two New York Times Bestsellers. In recent years, however, the changing definition of “conservative” in American politics has put Jonah at odds with the party that they once called home. In this episode, recorded live at Word of South Festival in Tallahassee, Florida, Jonah joins Ben & Bob for a discussion that ranges from the history and politics of the Supreme Court, to the...
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#304 National History Day w/ Cathy Gorn & Don Wildman
The Road to Now
Can learning the skills required to do good history serve as an antidote to conspiracy theory? & Don Wildman think so, and in this episode they join us to discuss their work to teach those skills in the 6th-12th grade classroom through National History Day, a program that reaches more than half a million students and tens of thousands of teachers each year. We agree with them and think National History Day is an American treasure, so we hope you enjoy this conversation about what goes into creating good history, how we can better teach that to the public, and how your kids can get...
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The Harlem Globetrotters w/ Ben Green
The Road to Now
Ben and Bob are heading to Tallahassee on April 27 for a live recording at Word of South Festival and the show is free! The Harlem Globetrotters are one of those great parts of American culture that almost everyone knows and loves. For most of us today, the Globetrotters are outstanding entertainers. But did you know that in the mid-20th century the Globetrotters were probably the single best basketball team on the planet? Did you know that they did travel the globe as agents of the US Department of State during the Cold War, but that they are not, in fact, from Harlem? If you want to know...
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#303 The Election of 2016 (and Ever After) w/ John Heilemann (Third Party Series #8)
The Road to Now
The election of 2016 was a lot of things. It was a showdown between two candidates who had been household names for decades. It was the second time in five elections where the winning candidate lost the popular vote. And, most relevant here, it was eight years ago and one of the candidates in that election is running again in 2024, so we’ve still got a long time before we can see the full impact it had on US history. For now though, we can say that the narrow margin by which Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton has already cast third parties- both candidates and outside actors- as central...
info_outlineBen & Bob kick off the new year with a conversation over some current events, including the history of New Year’s Resolutions (and why Bob doesn’t make them) and the 14th Amendment, and Ben shares what he learned about North Carolina history during his holiday road trip from Nashville, TN to Concord, NC to visit his family.
This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.
Relevant links:
-“Swept Away w/ John Logan & John Gallagher Jr.” The Road to Now #219
-on Apple podcasts
-on Spotify