Before Emancipation: Reconstruction Starts on the South Carolina Coast with Rich Condon
Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly
In this episode, Jake and Molly are joined by public historian Rich Condon for a deep dive into one of the most consequential and overlooked stories of the Civil War era: the Port Royal Experiment. Long before Appomattox, long before the Emancipation Proclamation, Reconstruction was already unfolding along the Sea Islands of South Carolina. After Union forces seized Port Royal Sound in late 1861, tens of thousands of enslaved people were suddenly free without a plan, without precedent, and without clear answers from Washington. What followed was an extraordinary experiment in freedom: paid...
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Emergency Pod - Removing History in Philadelphia and the History Happening in Minneapolis
Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly
In this "emergency" episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly, Jake and Molly step away from their planned programming to confront a moment happening right. This was recorded on Monday, January 26. The conversation begins in Philadelphia, where interpretive panels about slavery at the President’s House - steps from Independence Hall - were quietly removed ahead of America’s 250th anniversary. It doesn’t end there. Jake and Molly unpack why removing interpretation is fundamentally different from removing monuments, and why telling the stories of the enslaved people who...
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The Pottsville Maroons and the Stolen 1925 NFL Championship with David Fleming
Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly
In this episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly, Jake hosts a conversation with sportswriter and author David Fleming about one of the most remarkable - and unjust - stories in American sports history: the rise and fall of the Pottsville Maroons. Drawing from Fleming’s book Breaker Boys, recently re-released in a special 100th anniversary edition, the conversation traces how a football team from a small coal town in Pennsylvania’s anthracite region took the fledgling NFL by storm in 1925 - only to have its championship stripped away. Jake and David dig into the world that...
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The Patriot: When the American Revolution Became a Summer Blockbuster
Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly
In this episode, Jake finally watches The Patriot - yes, the Mel Gibson blockbuster that a whole generation absorbed as Revolutionary War “history” in the summer of 2000. Joined by Justin and Molly, the conversation turns into a lively (and occasionally horrified) public history breakdown of what the film gets right, what it invents wholesale, and what it reveals about the era that made it as much as the era it claims to depict. The trio digs into the Southern Campaign, the myth of “we won because we hid behind trees,” and the film’s habit of sanding down the Revolution’s hardest...
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Green and Blue - Irish Americans in the American Civil War with Damian Shiels
Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly
In this episode, Jake Wynn is joined by historian, archaeologist, and podcaster Damian Shiels for a wide-ranging conversation about Irish immigrants in the Civil War-era United States Army and the long road to Damian’s new book, Green and Blue: Irish Americans in the Union Military, 1861–1865. Jake and Damian dig into the pension files, soldiers’ letters, and overlooked working-class experiences that form the backbone of the book. Along the way, they talk about Irish service beyond the famous “green flag” units, the economic realities that shaped Irish enlistment, and why...
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The 1880s battle over Gettysburg's first Confederate monument with Codie Eash
Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly
In this episode, Jake and Justin are joined by public historian Codie Eash of the Seminary Ridge Museum for a deep dive into one of the most contentious and misunderstood chapters in Gettysburg’s postwar history: the fight over Confederate monuments on the battlefield. What feels like a modern debate turns out to be anything but - Union and Confederate veterans arguing bitterly about memory, treason, and reconciliation as early as the 1880s. The conversation centers on the first Confederate monument erected at Gettysburg, why it appeared when it did, and why Union veterans immediately pushed...
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Rewatching It’s a Wonderful Life in 2025
Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly
In this special holiday episode, Jake, Justin, and Molly gather to talk about It’s a Wonderful Life - not just as a Christmas classic, but as a deeply historical film shaped by war, economic depression, and the unsettled, unstable world of 1946. What starts as a cozy movie night quickly turns into a wide-ranging conversation about community, capitalism, trauma, and why Frank Capra’s vision of America still hits a nerve nearly eighty years later. The trio digs into the film’s historical moment, Jimmy Stewart’s wartime experience, and why Bedford Falls feels both comforting and painfully...
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"Destination Freedom" with Public Historian EJ Murphy
Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly
In this episode, Jake sits down with public historian EJ Murphy of the Destination Freedom Project at the Waverly Community House to talk about abolition, the Underground Railroad, and the way slavery’s political shockwaves reached even the smallest Northern communities before the Civil War. Jake and EJ dig into how Waverly became a key stop on a regional freedom network connecting places like Wilkes-Barre, Montrose, and the Southern Tier of New York. They also talk about the challenges of telling these stories with limited sources, what the Fugitive Slave Act changed on the ground, and why...
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Peshtigo - The Forgotten Story of America's Deadliest Wildfire
Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly
On the night of October 8, 1871, a wall of fire roared out of the Wisconsin woods and erased the town of Peshtigo in a matter of minutes. More than 1,200 people were killed, making it the deadliest wildfire in U.S. history - yet its story was overshadowed almost immediately by the Great Chicago Fire burning the same night. In this episode, Jake takes listeners into the story of the disaster and its surprising legacy. This episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly explores: • Jake’s role as “Mr. Sadman” — and why grim stories matter • Civil War veterans who...
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Previewing America 250
Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly
In this episode, we look ahead to America’s 250th anniversary and ask what this milestone should mean in 2026 and beyond. The conversation ranges from the messy, decade-long road to revolution to the very local ways towns like Frederick, Maryland, are already marking the moment with traditions like Repudiation Day. Along the way, the crew wrestles with how we remember the founding, who gets included in that story, and what it means to celebrate a past that was never as simple as the textbooks made it seem. Jake Wynn, Justin Voithofer, and Molly Keilty dig into the Revolution as a civil war,...
info_outlineIn this episode of Public History with Jake and Justin, we review one of our favorite movies about Sputnik, rocketry, coal mining, and West Virginia - the 1999 film "October Sky."
This year marks 25 years since the film came out and we thought it would be the perfect time to talk about this film. It tells the story of Homer Hickam, a teenager from a mining town in West Virginia who becomes interested in science and rockets after watching the Soviet satellite Sputnik fly over his hometown of Coalwood, West Virginia.
The film stars a young Jake Gyllenhaal in his first leading role, as well as Chris Cooper and Laura Dern.
In this episode we discuss:
The history behind the film October Sky
Our continued obsession with West Virginia and space
Why we both love this film from our childhood
How this film properly tells the story of mining communities and people who live there
And our Postscripts this week:
Justin - Kyle Larson attempts the double
Jake - Why the Indy 500 is one of the greatest sporting events in the world